By Elizabeth Harper

The child screams next door.

What are they doing to that child?

Whenever I see them out in the hallway, he's so quiet, so sweet. That angelic face, those cherubic curls, the way he looks at you and says "hi" and "thank you." It could break your heart—he's so adorable. What are they doing to that child? He screams in the morning. He screams at night. And all the livelong day. What are they doing to that child? What is he doing to them that enrages them so? That mother. She must drink to get through the day with that screaming, screaming child. He wakes us up with that screaming. What in the world is the matter? Is it his temperament? Does she lack parenting skills? What are they doing to that child? We don't have enough information to intervene, as if that would do any good anyway. Some children are just more difficult. Maybe he's sick. I just don't know what they are doing to that child.