Pregnancy suited Bebe Populous just fine.  She was able to use her maternity leave to clean the house from top to bottom, repair a few broken items and work on her garden.  She was really enjoying the sensation of seeing new life grow from small simple seeds and the apples, tomatoes, grapes and lettuces she’d grown so far were incredibly tasty.  She had sourced a range of unusual seeds from around town as requested by the lab and they were deep in the soil, germinating.  She couldn’t wait to see the results.

As for the result of her pregnancy, Bebe gave birth to a healthy, happy baby girl called Annalise.  The doctors and midwives said they hadn’t seen a woman who took to pregnancy as well as Bebe for some time – she’d been radiant and healthy throughout; and the baby seemed really content.  Bebe couldn’t wait to get to know her daughter and to help teach her vital life skills.  Although she had insisted she could manage by herself, Cyclon3 had insisted on accompanying her to the hospital and witnessing his daughter’s arrival.  Bebe liked Cyclon3 and wasn’t averse to him getting to know his daughter, but she hoped he wouldn’t try to interfere in things too much.  She had too much to get on with to be dealing with the whims of lovesick men.

During the ride home, Bebe’s mobile phone rang.  It was her friend Connor Frio, who worked with Cyclon3 on the local paper.  He’d heard that she was growing vegetables at home and was wondering whether he could sample some to run a feature on them for the paper.  Bebe agreed, though was a little surprised to find him arrive at her place just after she came back from the hospital.  This guy was really keen!

She asked Cyclon3 to leave them in peace and Connor seemed rather delighted to be ushering his colleague out of the door.  Bebe handed over the vegetables, knowing this wasn’t really what Mr Frio had come for.

Bebe decided they should just cut to the chase – they were both adults, they both had needs (although what Connor imagined he was getting from the encounter was perhaps not the same thing Bebe was after).

The next day, Bebe held her precious daughter to her chest and whispered to her of all the dreams she had, of all she knew they could become.  Annalise was the firstfruit of Bebe’s dream… but there was much more Bebe wanted to achieve…

Bebe took Annalise to the park.  She wanted her children to be people who loved the outdoors, who loved life.  She wanted them to learn, to develop skills, to be sociable, self-sufficient, confident people, and she wanted Annalise to become accustomed to spending time in the park even at her young age.  Bebe enjoyed the opportunity to make some new friends…

…and the neighbours were only too happy to play with Annalise whilst Bebe played her own games.  Bebe was pleased.  Not only would the attention from the other people in town help her daughter’s socialisation, if the women of the town in particular were busy cooing over the baby, that left the men free for other pursuits…

Whilst she was at the park, she bumped into her paperboy, Asa.  Bebe was concerned that the lad wasn’t in school and so she took time off from her game of tiggy to ask him why he wasn’t there.  Asa shuffled nervously.  He apologised.  He knew he should be in school really, but he just found it so hard.  Bebe suspected that his home life was difficult, and that he had to work to help contribute to the family funds.  She suspected that running around in the park was his only way of letting off steam, his only fun in an average day, but though her heart went out to the little boy, she didn’t want to encourage him to truant.  Asa promised he’d make his afternoon lessons and Bebe watched him leave the park with a mixture of sympathy and sadness.

It was soon time to take Annalise home for her nap. Bebe hoped her daughter had enjoyed the day out as much as she had. She knew that these trips would become rarer soon, though, as another baby Populous was on the way. She only hoped she could find a way to give her second child some opportunities to explore the town, and that she herself would be able to get out of the house once she had two small infants to attend to.

Bebe was so wrapped up in thoughts of Annalise, the new baby and all that she wanted to accomplish here in Sunset Valley that she didn’t notice she was being watched… a small person was hiding in the bushes, and thinking about the nice lady who was new in town and how she’d shown him more attention in one day than anyone else had in a very long time. And he started developing a plan of his own…

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