Sarah walked into the babies’ room to be met with a rapturous welcome. It was as if someone had told them that their mummy had died and had just been brought back to life.  Jessie [only four months old] lay on her back in her cot riding an imaginary bicycle.  Her face lit up like a beacon and she shrieked in glee.  Jason, at nineteen months, went through his aerobics routine in the adjoining cot.  Neither noticed her odd multi-coloured face.  It was mummy standing in their room and that was all that mattered.  Sarah felt so overwhelmed and honoured by their unconditional and uninhibited love that she felt a lump in her throat and her eyes beginning to water.  Her children were her life and she knew she just could not cope if she lost any of them or they got hurt or, God forbid, the unthinkable happened.  She began to think about the huge responsibility and demands attached to childrearing and wished that the role of a mere mother carried more status in society; after all there were disastrous consequences all round if mothers got it wrong.  She felt that parenting was one of the most important professions and that it should be recognised as such for everyone’s benefit, not least of all because families form the foundations of every community. 

            At mid-morning Sarah sat with Jessie sucking on her nipple and Jason manipulated his beakers at her feet.  She loved being with her happy, contented babies and observing their little ways.  She marvelled at their spontaneity and the fact that little children don’t lie and she yearned for the day when all children would live in homes full of love, security and happiness - that being their God-given right.

            Jess fixed her gorgeous green eyes on her mother’s funny coloured face while her tiny hand rested upon her mum’s full breast.  She sucked with such intensity that Sarah could clearly hear the pleasurable sound of her baby’s rhythmic breathing and gulping and the little noises signifying her fulfilment.  Sarah loved Jessie’s distinctive baby smell and the feel of her warm little body snuggled close to hers.  The cradling action was comforting to both her and her baby and she smiled as Jess, struggling hard to keep awake, slowly succumbed to slumber.

            Sarah tenderly kissed her baby’s forehead and reluctantly pondered Greg’s ominous threats of winning custody and denying her the children, of not allowing her to move on in her life, of making sure that the Authorities cause her problems and of generally making her so utterly miserable that she’d wished she’d never left him.  Then she reasoned that people would see Gregory Potter for the truly appalling, lying creature that he was - arrogant, shabby, sly, vindictive, cruel, cowardly and a bully.  She decided that commonsense would prevail and that there was not a cat in hell’s chance of losing her beloved babies to him.  Moreover he simply wouldn’t be able to prevent her getting a life and doing what she wanted to; after all, she told herself, he wasn’t powerful or important in any way - it wasn’t as if he was a prince or prominent politician or anyone of stature.

            Jason busied himself stacking his beakers with minute precision only to demonstrate his karate chop skills by immediately sending the obelisk flying in all directions.  This was followed by a swift performance of his spinning top routine conducted in the middle of the living room floor which did not end until he got so dizzy that he toppled over in a heap of hysteria.  Once recovered, he repeated the whole procedure a few more times until he got tired of the whole thing and began the repetitive business of bimbling up to his mother, pointing to his baby sister and affirming, “bebe.... bebe.”  That really melted his mother.  Sarah wondered if anyone could be so in love with their children as she was.