Her eyes refocus and she is still in the fridge, the bottle is empty and she hears the baby shrieking in the other room. She pours cold water into the bottle, downs it quickly, closes the fridge and pops the empty bottle into the recycling bin before rushing into the other room. The baby is in her sister's arms and rather unhappy about it while her sister says "oh my baby...rock baby...you my baby" happily.
The baby looks up at the woman, begging to be saved and she releases her from the toddler's hold. "Baby wah wah" the tot explains. The woman kisses the top of her head and thanks her for her help. She looks up at the television and realizes the show the little girl was watching has long since finished. She shuts of the tv despite the little girl's wails at the injustice and says "let's play happyland", the toddler's face goes from grimace to a smile that could melt an iceberg in a hot second and soon she is running to the staircase with the woman being pulled along.
They climb the stairs and the little girls pulls out all the toys the woman had tidied up earlier. 'Pointless' she thinks to herself. She plops the baby down and hands her a plastic dog. "No, my ozzy " exclaims the little girl, snatching it from her grip. "We do not snatch" says the woman. "What can baby play with?" She asks. The toddler goes to hand her a piece of paper from the bin but she notices the look in the woman's eyes and thinks better of it. She finds a Martian and hands it to the baby. "Thank you" the woman says "thank you" the child echoes, and this brings a smile to the woman's face.
The world disappears and they are on an adventure in a far off land, just the three of them. She stops to nurse the infant and watches the little girl play on. Her golden locks catching the light from the window to give the impression of of a halo. She thinks it funny as toddlers could not be further from angels and that tiny horns would be more appropriate and she lets out a laugh. This distracts the child and she looks up, squints her eyes the way she does and reaches out. "My mommy" she says "best mommy world" and the woman understands what she means. She feels the heart swell and allows the child to sit on her lap and hug her though it makes nursing the infant an awkward task. She closes her eyes and let's herself warm, so full of love for these little girls.
Her wristband vibrates and she shoots up stalk straight. She is not holding the girls, she is in the garden removing laundry from the line. She looks at the airplane walker, but the baby is not their. She drops the clothes and runs inside and up the stairs. The happyland play sets lay abandoned on the floor and the child is gone, the baby is also not here. Her chest tightens, she feels faint and pictures flash through her mind. She's not sure if they are memories, they move so fast. She leans against the bunk but quickly pushed off and heads to the older child's room but it is still locked. The bathroom is locked but she opens it anyway and looks inside, empty. She slams it shut and locks it runs back to the room and does the same to both of them when she hears a faint grumble.
She takes a deep breath in, 10, 9, 8, 7, blinks, 6, 5, steps forward, 4, 3, 2, 1 and walks into her open bedroom. Sitting up in her cot and rubbing her eyes is the baby. She scoops her up and kisses her repeatedly. The baby smiles sleepily and the collapses onto her shoulder. The woman remembers the silent alarm of her wristband, shuts and locks her room and rushes downstairs calling out for the small child with the terror returning to her chest.
She runs into the kitchen, hears "silly mom" and sees the toddler sat at the breakfast table colouring. She exhales sharply and then gasps in relief. The child smiles and the baby is still asleep on her shoulder. "Shoes" she says and the little girl goes off. She puts the baby in the pushchair, retrieves the clothes she'd dropped and puts them on the sofa. She locks the back door, tugs on her own shoes and puts the toddler in the back seat of the pushchair. They rush to the school and the little girls jumps out of the buggy and runs to the pirate ship when they arrive. The doors open to her sister's class and children spill out. She spots the achingly beautiful girl with shoes on the wrong feet, dragging a collection of cardigans she has no doubt left behind on days past.
The stunning child rushes up to her and shouts "I've been star of the day" and the woman feels proud. How this gorgeous, smart, caring, wonder could possibly have come from her she does not know. She kneels down and hugs her. "Well done you clever thing" she says "can I have my yoyo" responds the child, and the woman fishes the treat from her coat pocket while the girls dumps her collection to cardigans and bag on the pushchair. "It will cost you a kiss" the woman says, bending forward as the child jumps up, grabs her face and kisses her on the mouth, too young to be embarrassed or phased. She takes her treat and rushes to find her scooter. The woman calls to the pirate captain who is now forcing others down the slide, undoubtedly her plank, and the little one flaps her arms in protest. "Yoyo" shouts the woman and the child pushes someone out of the way to propel herself to the treat as quickly as possible.
The woman settles her into the buggy with her prize, finds the dark beauty by the school gate and they set off back to the house. She wonders where the time went from her first alarm to the silent one of this afternoon and isn't sure. She rarely is. She pushes on and stares at the swish of shiny brown hair bobbing along on the scooter in front of her.
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