Laughter and tears

Sometime in the early dawn hours, as the sun was just beginning to throw light over our corner of the world, I heard my son laugh in his sleep. I had been laying there thinking horrible thoughts about life and death, and he laughed out from somewhere in his dreams. It was a sweet uninhibited sound that washed warmth over me and made me smile...and then turn over in my bed and weep quietly for all the laughter I will never hear.