Nathan hooked up the VP and turned on the sixty-inch flat-screen TV and the VP to ensure they worked.
Next, he put up the smoke/carbon monoxide detectors in the upstairs and downstairs hallways and in all four bedrooms as well, the fourth being the guest room. Then he set up the wireless digital video baby monitor.
Two days later, an installer from Cernix Home Security came to the house and set up the security system and cameras throughout the property.
“Now, bear in mind,” the security installer said to Nathan and Josslyn, as he used some hand and arm gestures while he spoke, “when the alarm goes off and you receive a call from the Cernix Home Security Center, someone will ask for the password. You choose the password. Okay?”
Nathan nodded and turned to Josslyn and reiterated to her what had been said. Nathan could hear a bit better than Josslyn and had the habit of checking that Josslyn understood as well.
“Yes,” Josslyn signed with a smart-alecky smile. “I got it the first time.”
After the installer left, Nathan signed, “What password would you like to use?”
“I thought of ‘safe,’ but it’s too common. How about ‘deaf’?” Josslyn signed.
“Perfect!”
Nathan looked online for a licensed home inspector with outstanding credentials and found one. He placed a call via VP and scheduled an appointment to have someone come out to do a thorough inspection.
“Everything checks out,” the inspector said to Nathan and Josslyn a few days later after he had completed the inspection. He gave them an “okay” with his thumb and forefinger, then handed Nathan his written report, which showed no discrepancies.
Thus far, Nathan and Josslyn were content with how everything had come together.
Early one afternoon, sometime before lunch, Josslyn gave Maddie a bath in the kitchen sink. As she rinsed off the soap, her eyes were drawn to the LED lights on the digital baby monitor as they blinked. Curious, she looked at the monitor in which she could see that the camera’s eye focused on Maddie’s crib in the master bedroom.
Well, there’s no one there, Josslyn thought. Wonder what could be making the lights blink? Maybe it’s some ambient noise like static or the wind blowing in through the window.
The crib was empty, yet she noticed a transparent and formless shadow in a vertical stance as it moved from right to left across the screen on the monitor.
Josslyn pressed her face near the monitor for closer inspection and better clarity. Whatever it was, it didn't appear again.
The lights blinked again, which made her flinch. She dried her hands on a dish towel, then placed one hand on the baby monitor's speaker. Her palm sensed soft, dull vibrations as sound filtered through the speaker. She realized it wasn’t a sound; it was more like someone speaking in rhythmic low tones, which said the same thing over and over with a quick brief pause between utterances.
Josslyn dried Maddie, picked her up, and scampered upstairs to check the master bedroom. It baffled her when she did not see anyone in the room. She looked at one wall and fear filled her when she saw a scrawled inscription above Maddie's crib:
RUB-A-DUB-DUB, DEAD BABY IN A TUB
That's when she realized those were the words which the low tones through the baby monitor's speaker was saying over and over. It matched the cadence of the words on the wall.