A Simple Game

1. Baby Sam

Baby Sam was crying again.

That's all he seemed to do ever since he got back from the hospital. Harvey was saving up to buy a pair of ear defenders, but he was still a long way off. The noise right now was deafening.

At the moment, Harvey knew that their mum was outside having a cigarette, a habit she'd fallen back on after being loaded with the stress of having to raise another child. She wouldn't be able to hear Sam's wails, so there was no one to calm him down. Harvey wanted Sam to shut up.

The boy put the pencil he was using to do his maths homework down and got up from his desk. Opening the door of his bedroom, the sound of baby Sam's shrieks were like tidal waves crashing down into his ears, so loud he felt as though his head was going to explode.

Baby Sam was a mistake.

Harvey knew this because he'd heard his mum telling auntie Carol about the baby she was going to have several months ago. They thought he was in bed when they had this conversation. His mum had told auntie Carol that she didn't want another child, that the dad was a one night stand from the club. She'd mentioned the word abortion.

Harvey's dad had left five years, three months and twelve days ago, but Harvey didn't blame him. He didn't like his mum much either.

Baby Sam was still wailing at the top of his lungs.

Harvey found himself turning the door knob to his brother's room and walking in. The room was quite small, and painted a light grey. A couple of his old, faded baby toys were littered around the floor. The only sign of life was the crying baby.

Marching over to his brother's crib, Harvey looked into baby Sam's eyes. The young child let out a couple of choked sobs, squinting its eyes up to see if it was his mother come to feed him. He started wailing again when he saw it wasn't.

Harvey, upon seeing that the baby was not going to stop crying, tentatively reached down and placed his hands around his brother's neck. If baby Sam was a mistake then his mum wouldn't mind being rid of him. She would be relieved. Harvey squeezed, hard.

Several minutes later, he left his brother's bedroom and went back to his maths homework.

Several minutes after that he heard his mum's panicked screams.