Free Love Is a Secret by Sophie King Page B

kitchen table because she seemed to spend more time there than anywhere else. Waiting for it to boot up (so slow!), she listened to the birds outside the kitchen window. For a minute, she could almost pretend she was the old Susan. Perfect peace and quiet.
     
What Mums Know . Welcome! We’re a friendly site for you to meet other mums and get practical and emotional advice. Click he re for the chat l ink.
     
    Username: Rainbow.
    Amazing! There was a list of names who had logged in over the last few days, each with messages next to them. Some long, some short. Something from Earth Mother, who wanted to tell everyone about a fantastic non-biological nappy-cleaner she had discovered. A plea for help from a mum called Mimi, whose son pushed and kicked other kids in class – she knew about that , all right. Tabitha had had to be moved within the centre last year to stop her doing it. Her eye ran down the list. Something from ‘Expectent’ Mum, who clearly couldn’t spell. Susan felt a stab of jealousy. She’d give anything to be pregnant: she’d felt so envious of Lisa, browsing in the baby shop. If only she could have had Tabitha all over again, she’d do it so differently . . .
    Pg Dn.
    This could get addictive. Someone else was recommending a children’s TV programme. Another was selling a brand-new pram (why?). And someone called Part Time Mum (how could motherhood ever be part-time?) needed marital help: ‘Is it possible to rebuild your marriage after your husband has had an affair?’ Was it a serious question? Susan scanned the message. Poor woman! And they’d been married for how many years? At least nineteen, if the eldest was that old, providing it was the same marriage.
    Reply. This mouse was in a bad mood today.
     
From Rainbow to Part Time Mum: Sometimes things happen that you don’t expect. And you do things that you don’t expect yourself to do, if that makes sense. When my husband left me, I didn’t know how to go on, but I did. I personally don’t think you can forget something like infidelity or men who don’t take their family responsibilities seriously.
     
    Send.
    Susan watched the little arrow from her Send box flying across cyberspace to her new ‘friend’. Had she been a bit strong there?
    It had seemed so easy to give advice while her fingers were fumbling across the keyboard. But it had been Josh and his irresponsible attitude she’d been thinking about, which had made her angry with Part Time Mum’s errant husband.
    At least she knew where she was with Tabs. Life was a lot less complex without a man. Besides, who would want the two of them as a package?
    They spent the rest of the day in the sitting room. What had promised to be a bright summer day had turned grey and forbidding.
    No biscuits to relieve the boredom. Not with that picture on the tin. And no day centre. Not on a Friday since last year’s cuts.
    Thank God for jigsaws. One of the inexplicable things about Tabitha’s condition was that her brain was as sharp, if not sharper, than Susan’s own. Somehow, through sheer perseverance, her daughter always managed to piece a jigsaw together. It was the same with the computer. The centre had been given some rather nice ones by a local firm and had taught her to type, in her own clumsy way. As one of the helpers had pointed out, computers had revolutionised the lives of people stuck in wheelchairs.
    ‘Finfin, finfin!’ Tabitha looked up from the jigsaw on her tray, grinning.
    ‘Fantastic!’ Susan bent over to examine the scene of roses round a cottage door and children running down the lane in Victorian petticoats. ‘I don’t know how you do it, Tabs, I really don’t.’
    Her daughter’s smile widened. Positive praise always worked for her daughter. Susan handed Tabitha a plastic mug of unsweetened juice. ‘Clever girl!’ Until last year, she’d had to use a trainer cup but months of unstinting practice meant she could now drink through a straw. ‘Shall we do our