Anticlimax

The wife cried distraughtly then shouted at the husband. He reacted by grabbing the fire poker. The baby had crawled to the door and the dog whimpered with its tail down. Outside they could still hear the cars diving past desperately.

At that moment the scene was ready, the play built to a climax.

Instead a bird flew to the windowsill. Perhaps it was a bat. With wings folded, it watched until the scene folded into itself and smoothed back to normalcy. The wife began to cry again, the husband threw down the poker, and the baby spoke in gibberish.