Too Many Toddlers

A flash fiction scream

Photo by Tong Nguyen van on Unsplash

The shriek felt like a nail driven right through Mary’s skull.

If she could jump that high, she surely would have punched her head through the ceiling and maybe the ceiling of the floor above. But she’d never been that athletic, so she leaped skyward a mere two inches, turned, and promptly stepped on a scattering of toys: trucks and cars, dolls and tea sets, balls and…