THE WORLD, ACCORDING TO CUSH....PART 3

It was a weary little family which finally found their way home to their downstairs flat in Parramatta Park.
They had spent the morning at Muddys' Playground on the Esplanade where Monsoon played to her heart's content so that now she was tired and grizzling.  Heather, too, was feeling bone weary, and just wanted to rest on the bed for a while.

Berry checked her mobile phone to see if there were any messages from Frank, her business partner at the Tattooist Parlour.  There were none.

Inside the flat,  Heather headed quickly for the bedroom.  "Can you unload Monsoon's backpack," she asked Berry, stifling a yawn as she did so.

Berry grabbed Monsoon's "Lil Monkey" backback and threw the contents on the kitchen table.  She stared in surprise as a very expensive looking mobile phone tumbled out with Monsoon's face washers, towel, SPF30, headless Barbie doll, soggy biscuits and much loved teddy.

"Where did you get this?" she asked Monsoon, holding up the mobile phone.

Monsoon stared and put her finger thoughtfully in her mouth. 

"Come on," urged Berry, her voice turning sharp.  "You tell me where you found this?"

Hearing the sudden change in the tone of Berry's voice, Heather returned to the kitchen.

Monsoon was staring at the floor, still with the finger in her mouth.  "She's thinking!" said Heather.

"I founded it!" said Monsoon at last.  "I founded it on the ground and pickeded it ups!"

"It's an expensive phone," said Berry.  "Now I'm going to have to take it down to the cop shop and hand it in.  Someone will be looking for it."

She turned on Heather.  "This sort of thing wouldn't happen, Heather if you watched Monsoon more closely.  God knows what she could have picked up and put in her knapsack without you noticing!"

Tired, her back aching, her swollen feet aching, Heather had enough!!

"It's always my fault, Berry!  It's always me.  You don't watch her as much as I do.  I wish you would take some more responsibility, I really do."  Heather screamed back, before bursting into a flood of tears and heading again for the bedroom.

"YOU LEAVE MINE MUMMY ALONE!" screamed Monsoon, rushing at Berry with her small fists raised.  "YOU LEAVE MUMMY ALONE!"

Berry staggered back against the kitchen table, falling unsteadily onto a chair.  How could this have happened?  How could the family dynamic have changed so, so, so dramatically so that her own daughter now saw her as an aggressor????

Berry's thought were scrambled.  She walked into the bedroom where Heather lay with Monsoon curled up beside her.

"Heather...it was like...she was like...so possessive like..." Berry stumbled.  "I was like, just standing there, and Monsoon was like she was going to attack me like. "

"I know," Heather sniffed.  "It was just so like, you know like...domestic violence like...".

"We've got problems!" Berry said.
Heather agreed, shaking her head.  "We do."

"We really really need the help and support of a group of other same sex parents," Berry said thoughtfully.  "I'm sure some of them would be experiencing the same things that we are, and you know, we all need to share and discuss all these issues."

"A same sex parental support group would be a really great idea," said Heather enthusiastically.  

The mobile phone which Berry had still be carrying in her hand, rang suddenly.  "Should I answer it?" Berry asked Heather, who nodded.

"Hello," Berry answered nervously, but had any other speech cut off by a young woman's voice which gushed away without stopping:

"Ohhh Cushy DARLING, you're not mad at me over what I said last night are you, abut those silly little flying foxes?  Oh darling, I didn't mean anything, that was the wines I had last night talking. Don't take any notice of me.  My photo shoot is finished and I'm flying home tomorrow night, so I'll see you then darling.  Oh and I have a big surprise for you.  A big surprise.  Well bye bye darling, see you then........."

The caller hung up and Berry was left staring in astonishment at the mobile phone.  "She just garbled on and on like," she told Heather.  "I didn't understand much of what she said at all!"

"You had better take it down the cop shop as soon as you can anyway," replied Heather, rolling on her side and preparing for her afternoon sleep.

"I will", answered Berry.  "And I'll do up some posters and leave them around town too, concerning our same sex parental support group."

                                            
To be continued................