Paula disconnected the phone, dropped it in her lap and looked around her sunny kitchen. There was a pile of dishes to do but she had no inclination to drag herself from the chair. She had spent the last half an hour listening to her mother’s barrage of questions. There had hardly been a chance to reply to one question before the next was firing down the line. In a couple of weeks her mother and sister would be here. They were planning to stay for a week and, by the sound of it, her mother was bringing half the contents of Sydney’s baby shops with her.

Paula shook her head slowly and rested her hand on her stomach. Between her family and Rowena, this baby would want for nothing. A strange sensation fluttered inside her. She gasped and pushed her hand firmly on the spot. There it was again – a series of little ripples nudging at her. She looked down in awe and waited but nothing more happened. Had she imagined it? Two quick flutters prodded her gently from within.

“Hello, little one,” she whispered and wished Dan was beside her, instead of out on a tractor somewhere cutting hay.

A distant sound distracted her. It was quiet in the house. Tarzan was outside and the CD player had stopped while she had been on the phone. The noise had come from the direction of the laundry. Then she remembered the load of washing she’d put on before her mother’s call.

Paula hummed to herself. At last she had felt her baby move inside her. Not even her mother’s impending visit could spoil the moment. However, the sight of both laundry troughs brimming with water pulled her up quickly.

“Ohhh.” She gaped at the grey water. Surely she hadn’t put plugs in both sides? She’d caught herself out on several occasions doing odd things but a quick glance showed both plugs in the container above the troughs.

Just as she was about to reach in and feel for whatever was blocking the plughole, the trough nearest her bubbled and belched and the water level dropped a little. She eyed it suspiciously, then the other side did the same thing.

A similar noise came from beyond the laundry door. Paula went towards the sound cautiously. She looked through the door and listened. The gurgling noise was coming from the toilet. She pushed open the door and peered inside. Her hand went to her mouth and she groaned. Water trembled near the top of the pan and in it floated the remains of what had recently been flushed down. She pulled the door shut with a bang, leaned against it and gulped in some air.