Perhaps More Clearly

The playground for our housing development includes a speaker-tube system, of the sort once kept on naval vessels, and Annalee recently decided that it merits some attention. She likes to stand with her ear to one of the funnel-ends, listen to Daddy's chatter, and then speak a little herself. "Mama" is generally the first word out of her mouth in this, and most, situations. Today she went through her litany, "Mama, Dada, Boo-Boo," and then she stood and breathed into her funnel. Twenty feet away, I heard the sound of my baby's existence as clearly, perhaps more clearly, than I ever have.