David devised a name for Meg and Daph.  He decided to call them puppets because they didn’t seem to have minds of their own; they seemed to be manipulated by strings.  Whenever Sarah asked them any questions they were always referring back to their male team manager Jack Emberton.

            Sarah wanted to know who had called the conference.  Meg told her it was Ellen.  Sarah commented that that couldn’t be the case because Ellen had told her that there was no need to take it any further.  Meg said she’d check with Embie to make sure she’d got it right. She reported back that it was in fact the fire chief who had ordered the conference.  Sarah made it clear that she didn’t believe that either since there wasn’t even a fire representative at the conference.  Meg had no answer to that.

            Sarah asked the social worker if her kids were registered just on the strength of the fire or was it because of all the referrals and the so-called ‘burn’.  The puppets at first told her that it wasn’t just because of the fire.  Yet after a consultation with their boss, Sarah learned that they were registered because of the fire only. 

            Greg was still carrying atrocious tales to them about her allowing David and Anna to go out and about on their own and get up to all sorts of delinquent activities and about her leaving the kids alone whilst she went shopping and drinking.  To cover her tracks she asked them what the guidelines were for kids of their age.  Meg told her that because of the fire it was unsafe to leave them in the house even for five minutes whilst she nipped to the corner shop but that it was ok for them to play alone in her back yard for an hour or so.  Sarah asked if it would be ok to leave the outer back door open for them to shelter in case it rained or in case they needed to use the loo, as long as the inner door to the house remained locked.  It was.  The clowns didn’t seem to grasp the point that David and Anna were far safer inside her house though than in her yard because of all the neighbourhood bullies. 

            Sarah was told on one day that it was acceptable for David and Anna to visit the pool alone for about an hour or play in the local park for an hour or so but on another day, after a referral to Jack Emberton, Meg changed her mind and decided that an hour was too long and that they should be restricted to half an hour.  When Sarah asked for this information in writing, to cover her own back, the social workers had to check with Embie first.  She later learned that such information could not be put on paper and in the next breath she was warned that if her children were alone in her yard and they came to any harm, for example a dog came down the drive and attacked them, or any of the street kids beat up on them, she’d be prosecuted for negligence.

            “Jesus, I can’t win, can I? You lot cover your backs, but we the underdogs, are not allowed to cover ours.  That’s really rich, isn’t it?” she growled.  “Anyway, what about you people doing something about the vandals and the little terrorists in this area and why doesn’t the council remove stray dogs and prosecute irresponsible dog owners?  And why is it that every time I attempt to make my way to any shop around here I am on an obstacle course where my gaze is fixed doggedly downwards lest I should tread in a large dollop of plop?”

            Sarah passed a comment that maybe she needed to take parenting lessons from the mothers who left their kids to bring themselves up while they got rat-arsed in the pub with a different boyfriend every night.  Maybe then social services would leave her alone.  Or perhaps she should purchase a gun or stanley knife and do some serious threatening of her own.  Maybe that might do the trick and send the social services gangsters packing.

            Her remarks were conveniently ignored though.  The antagonists just wanted to rabbit on about such things as removing all combustibles from within David’s grasp.  When she asked if the list included items like batteries and wire wool, which her kids enjoyed using in their science ‘lessons’, there came a stony silence from the puppets. 

            They twittered on about Sarah’s support systems, stressing that she must have outlets and friends in order to stay healthy.

            She boomed, “I have many friends, squash partners and sports colleagues and I would dearly love to spend time with them rather than sit here for hours on end wittering away to the likes of you two tiresome time-wasters.  I’d much rather be socialising and getting fit and healthy with real people who have moral values rather than sitting in useless meetings for hours on end watching unethical, countless council stooges pushing their parker pens around and discussing worthless GARBAGE.   You wouldn’t know the meaning of what’s right and proper it is came at you and walloped you in the mouth.  I’m telling you, you lot will still be coming here to bug me even when I’ve turned into a stone cold corpse from some stress-related, frustration-induced, premature, injustice-connected death.  Don’t you realise that an injustice is like a strain-sanctioned, silently spreading cancer?  You two just don’t care about the intolerable burden that we and innumerable other victims are under, the real issues and risks that we face.  Such as the plight of Greg’s ex-wife Cara and the fact that my older children are tormented with the worry of going into ‘care’ and of facing the invasion of psychiatrists, mental health social workers and all the rest of it.”

            Well Meg jumped on that didn’t she.  “Would you like us to take your children off you for a few days or so; to give you a bit of a break?  I know it is very hard looking after four children on your own.”

            “You’re just not listening, are you?” she erupted.  “I can manage perfectly well the upbringing of all my kids if you jokers would just slither off and leave me alone to get on with it.  Better still why don’t you go out there and find some real problematic families to pester.  You’d be making a good start if you targeted some of that zeal at my despicable ex, your bosses and your cloth-eared conference colleagues and challenged them instead of barging around here bothering me.  Or if you really want to be helpful, you could throw me a few quid instead of boring me to death.  And in any case I wouldn’t trust you ladies with my kids, not even if you paid me the crown jewels for them.  Why can’t you see the corruption that’s going on right at the end of your noses and join me to help fight it?” 

It was no use though.  Either she had just zoomed in from another planet or they had.  They seemed so cosily ignorant of reality.

            “I’m sorry, social services cannot give money but they can lend you some from the social fund if you are struggling.  We do provide a respite service for harassed mums though.  You only have to ask.  We’re here to try and help you.  Please try to understand that.  We have to be sure that your children are safe and well.  We are only concerned about them,” blabbed nice but dim Daphne.

            “Why do you insist on trying to convince me that you are concerned about my children?  You might be under that delusion but I’m most certainly not.  You must think that I have the intelligence of a pair of two short planks.  NO ONE gives a brass monkey about my kids except for ME.  You interfering busy bodies and council cronies would like nothing more than to see my kids displaced and shoved into the council’s clutches.  Why can’t you at least afford me a bit of honesty for once?”

At another meeting Sarah had to suffer the intrusion of a mental health social worker.  She was asked if her doctor has prescribed anti-depressants or anything to help calm her down.

            “A bottle of pills won’t cure an injustice,” spewed Sarah.  “What would you like me to do, become hooked on valium and give you all the more reason to snatch my kids from me?  I cope [somehow] by jogging my anger and frustration away, by writing down my intense agonizing thoughts and by making my kids aware of the darker side of life.  And I also search.... everywhere and anywhere for a solution; a way to confront this unjustness and unlawfulness.”

                        David and Anna were subjected to hours of questioning by the social workers.  David told his mum afterwards that all he wanted to do was answer “bananas” to all their questions in the hope that they’d just give up and go away. 

            “I was itching to ask them if they wanted me to pull their strings for them,” he giggled.

            Sarah shrieked, alarm bells ringing, “For heavens sakes, don’t be tempted to be rude to them.  That’s what they expect you to be. Don’t give the bastards the satisfaction.  Rise above it and make them feel small as they surely will when they realise how polite, intelligent and mature you are.”

            After one boring session for David and Anna, the puppets left some questionnaires and a family tree for them to fill in before their next appointment the following week.  They were also asked to draw pictures and write captions about how they were feeling.  David drew a gun, cocked and pointing in the direction of a picture of Meg’s face.   Anna didn’t bother to draw or write anything on her papers and instead made a collection of paper aeroplanes out of them. 

            During further charades with the CoCo clowns, Sarah was asked to describe her children’s personalities and even the temperaments of Jason [aged two] and Jessie [just one.]  Despite the fact David and Anna were considered by the social workers as being “mature beyond their years,” the wearisome duo tried desperately hard to get Sarah to describe her kids as “demanding” and “difficult” and they even wanted to label them as “bed wetters.” 

            David whispered to his mum that because the women could find nothing wrong, they were determined to make him and his sister neurotic, in which case they could turn around and announce that they’d found something that needed attention.

            Sarah refused to play the social workers’ game.  They had descended into tactics of trickery and attempted mind muddling.  It was all about subterfuge and trying to catch battle-weary and beleaguered Sarah out; social workers merrily poking and digging around for anything that would do; anything that would suffice to hang her with. 

            Dopey Daphne questioned Sarah about the violence that she and her kids had endured from greasy Greg Potter.  She and naive Meg were horrified to hear that her children had witnessed Greg threatening to kill her.  They were shocked when she described some of the things that he did during his drunken temper tantrums: such as when he broke ornaments, telephones, photo frames, bottles, glasses etc [sometimes smashing items on her] and didn’t care who was nearby or who got hurt.  Or when he ripped up her clothes and chucked them and household items outside, in blind fury.

  Or when he punched and slapped and half-strangled her and the kids or locked family members out etc etc etc.  Hells bells!  What did they think Domestic Violence was?

Meanwhile the core group mob were hounding her about their ‘concerns’ relating to such trivia as David’s ‘fine motor skills’ when he was five!  They seemed to be oblivious to the fact that since David had been removed from the slave labour of state schooling he was doing the same maths and science of children two years older than himself, and enjoying it to boot. 

The group banged on about all the socialisation that Sarah’s kids were missing out on by learning at home.

            “Yeah, like learning to be mean spirited, mindless thugs, or closed-minded brain-possessed morons,” Sarah spat. “My kids have no problems socialising with anyone of any age as long as those people are half-decent, civil human beings.”

            The health visitor, Alice Pryce, wanted to refer Jason to a specialist because he wasn’t saying his expected ten words yet or talking appropriately for a child his age.  For cryin’ out loud, what were they going to do - force him to talk?

            Sarah explained that she didn’t believe in parrot-fashion, drill-type learning and didn’t point to and label objects for her son.  Nor did she try to get him to play boring games such as pointing to and labelling body parts so that she could boast about him being clever when he had achieved her targets.  She believed in natural learning and explained that there was more going on inside Jason’s brain than anyone had any right to try and stifle. 

            According to the health visitor, Jason was ‘slow’ because he wouldn’t succumb to her rules. When Alice expected him to get excited about the pictures in her book, he took it off her, made a bridge out of it to roll his cars down and then used it as a tent for his action man.  He was told to pick up a spoon to prove that he knew what one was but when he promptly did the most natural thing and shoved it into his mouth, he was told off.  The health visitor didn’t seem to grasp the idea that Sarah wasn’t raising a performing seal.

As the unsupervised sessions with their father progressed, Jason and Jess became more disturbed and their behaviour more distressing.  Jason’s bedtime head and body banging worsened.  Both Jason and Jessica sucked ferociously on their fingers and he bit his nails until his fingers bled, both held back and cried when their father called for them and both were beside themselves with uncontrollable rage when they were returned.  It was not unusual to see Jason pick up a chair and sling it across the kitchen floor or he’d pick up a handful of cars and hurl them across the room.  He’d snatch Jessie’s toys from her and he’d hit her, punch her and try to bite her.  She would scramble under the table and scream blue murder.  Sarah just had to cope as best she could.  She hugged them, rocked them, soothed them and cried with them until eventually they calmed down.... until the next contact session.

            Somehow Sarah copped the blame for all of that too.  Satan’s child [Gregory] insisted that Sarah screamed and swore at him at changeovers, which he said led to emotional, damaging effects for the babies.  He also maintained that Jason and Jessie didn’t wish to return to their mother and therefore they played up when it was home time.  However all the child welfare experts, church members and her neighbours were witnesses to the fact that Greg was lying.  Sarah didn’t dare raise her voice to him - she’d have been slapped.  Also everyone had seen how urgently the babies wanted to come back.  Yet despite all this, all the welfare officer could report was that upsets at changeovers were de-stabling for the babies; again implying that both parties were to blame.  Typically, Sarah was questioned when social workers received a letter from the NSPCC [from an unidentified person] referring to her alleged outbursts in front of the children which were [it was stated] causing them harm.  She raged at the core group:

            “When are the men of law going to be held accountable for forcing children to spend time with a person of bad influence who violates them, hurts them, lies to them and deceives them and causes them hardship?  And when are you people going to stand up for mothers like me and protest against it?  All it takes for evil to flourish is for good people to do nothing. You say you are here for health monitoring.  How can it be healthy when the only word a small child knows is “bitch”, when kids self-mutilate, bite others, body-rock, head bang, have toileting problems, night-time anxieties and tears of frustration, confusion and powerlessness?  All of this started when contact with THEIR FATHER began.  How can you condone it?  The first seven years are the most crucial of a child’s life; why aren’t children shielded from malign influence? 

            Whilst the underworld and evil rule, children and the helpless will continue to suffer.  People who stand by and allow wrongdoing are no different than the perpetrators of evil.  They should ask themselves who their master is - God or Satan?  If they want to serve God they should turn on their Satanic bosses.  Women especially should rise up against the murkiness of mankind.  Those hoarding money should get rid of it - it is a corrupting tool - a road to ruin.  The royals and other lovers of luxury and privilege should use their power and position to change the world from greedy, sinful, self-centred rule to Godly, righteous rule.  If they don’t, they will be toppled eventually as there will be massive worldwide uprisings and those at the top will see their support systems sinking.  If they had any sense they’d get rid of their titles and symbols of greed.  There are no classes, no barriers and no borders in God’s world.” 

            The group weren’t listening to her tho and they didn’t believe her about the street yobs, or about all the dubious police/council dealings.  Their only worry was that the registration was serious and that their job was to find out why and how the fire was started.

            Sarah snapped:

            “While we have an undemocratic, deceitful government, corrupt incompetent police force, judicial system that supports the criminal and social workers who shy away from trouble we haven’t got a ghost of a chance against the power of darkness.  There will never be peace and goodwill on Earth and well-adjusted individuals.  Shame on people like you and your superiors.  All you want to do is talk; stupid, irrelevant, unproductive chit chat.  And then you want to shuffle silly insignificant papers and forms about and you spend your days happily going to meeting after meeting after meeting whilst all the while you’re PRETENDING.  You pretend to care but the reality is you are living in a world of make believe and in the doing you are SPREADING.... the ugly, dirty, disgusting ROT.” 

            She might as well have grown an extra head, ten arms and fifty feet for the disbelieving, perplexing way all the puppets stared at her.

Within days the silly social workers were on her doorstep again waving yet another NSPCC report in her face demanding to discuss it with her to determine if any action needs to be taken against her.  Again they said it was a referral from an unnamed man.  The report stated that her children were likely to experience negative effects due to being without guidance, comfort, attention and affection from their mother.  It said that her children are at risk of immediate physical harm due to dangerous situations I e playing with fire, having access to a busy main road and being in an environment that is full of alcohol and glass.  It stated that the mother is reported to be under the influence of alcohol whilst caring for her children.  This could potentially be hazardous for them all especially the two babies.  It also says that the mother swears and yells constantly which is not a healthy atmosphere for any of the children to be in and that the mother is violent towards her children and other children. It recommends that an assessment is needed to consider the risk she poses.  It stressed that the family is in need of significant intervention as the children are at an immediate risk of significant harm as well as the long term damaging effects.

The NSPCC advised the caller to notify police immediately should he again become aware that the children are home alone again.

            “What are you trying to do?  Send me to cloud cuckoo land?  Destroy me, and my kids?  That man is my psychopathic, maliciously minded ex-partner.  What will it take for you blockheads to see the light, understand what he is doing and accuse him?  You should find out that creep’s identity and then you should charge him with slander.  Oh, but I forgot, laws only apply to those whom you loyal disciples choose to apply them to.  Isn’t that the truth?  My ex cannot have me or my possessions anymore so now he wants my sanity and my spirit.  He wants to see me enslaved and suffering and you are giving him the green light.”

            But still they insisted that although the caller was unknown, the call was genuine and the man was sincerely concerned.  It beggared belief.

The day of the appeal loomed closer but Sarah’s solicitor was not available to support her.  He was always in court, in a meeting, on the telephone…. For three weeks she tried to contact him but he did not return her calls, nor was he taking any appointments. So once again she had to face her adversaries single-handedly.  Her enlightened little kid had been right all along.  Jimmy Oliver was working for the opposition.

            She knew she was on a losing wicket even before she got inside the devil’s bowl. Just walking into the room felt like she’d stepped into the roaring fires of hell.  Three toffee-nosed twits sat opposite her.  The pillack in the middle was the chair - North Wales Police Chief Dirk Looper.  He sat tall and smart with his bryl-cream hairstyle and his immaculate uniform sporting an impressive array of freshly polished medallions.  The three were so-called independent, impartial adjudicators.  Snakey sat to her left, singing the council’s tune. 

            With a warrior’s discipline Sarah steadfastly remained calm and dignified as she explained that it was an unfair decision to register her kids because it had been done on the strength of only one small fire which nobody was responsible for.  Showing photos, she pointed out the odd way the soap powder box had only burned on the side where the kettle had touched it which suggested that the kettle was somehow the source.  But she was given short shrift.  Trying to get them to afford her a bit of fair play and less heavy handedness was like trying to swim through porridge.  They were only prepared to accept Snakey’s opinionated argument of the fire being set deliberately in the curtains, probably by David because of his talk of evil, demons, and ghouls. 

            The decision was unanimous, of course.  The sadistic self-righteous planks decided that they’d had a fire, they were at risk from that fire and they remained at risk.  Therefore they were to remain registered whilst all necessary social and psychiatric reports were completed.  There was no way she was ever going to win against the high and mighty conceited council.  Not in a million years.  What did she expect though when dealing with Devils?  It wouldn’t’ve mattered if she could’ve shown them a film proving what actually happened, they were never going to back down.  The dark forces were truly impenetrable.

            Out of curiosity Sarah asked what it would take to have the kids removed immediately from the register and halt all officialdom intervention.  She was informed by the smug gathering in synchro [as if they’d already planned such an answer] that an admission from David and an apology and explanation would be fine.

            “Well I cannot give you that assurance because he simply isn’t guilty,” asserted Sarah.  “You want us to lie, do you?  I think you have an appalling attitude.  I think you have some explaining to do to those people who pay your wages.  Fourteen of you highly qualified, highly paid professional people making such a big deal of one tiny fire.  Talk about misdirected energies and resources.”

            “You are entitled to another appeal Ms Hawthorne,” said the insincere Chair.

            “Don’t waste my time.  You might not have a conscience about frittering away other people’s money, but I do.  I have a duty to do whatever it takes to expose you fakes.  You have the power to right this terrible wrong, yet you stubbornly refuse to do so.  Come on kids we’re getting out of here.”  And with that she sprang to her feet, gathered up her belongings and her brood and made a getaway.

Sarah popped her head back in to find the four ashen-faced phoneys with their jaws agape.

            “Start doing the right thing for once,” she snorted.  “You people should humble yourselves.  Try and get to know God.  Learn about what’s right and what’s wrong.  Read up some of Mother Theresa’s books.  She says:

            ‘Lord make me a channel of thy peace that where there is wrong I may bring forgiveness, that where there is error I may bring truth, that where there are shadows I may bring light....’.”

            “Mother Theresa also says:

            ‘The message is brought in demonstration of the spirit, that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.  All the goods of this world including gifts of mind and body, advantages of birth and education are free gifts of God.  No one has a right to a superfluity of wealth while others are dying of starvation and suffering from every kind of want’.”

Once outside the chamber of Satan’s children, Sarah giggled to her kids:

            “It’s funny but I felt as if I was being ordered to try and guide them along God’s path.  You know, teach them the error of their ways.  It was as if God was giving me a boot up the backside, telling me what to say and how to say it.”

            “He probably was,” remarked David.

            “There really is no other way but to have unmoveable faith in God,” said Sarah.  “Without him we are left in the impossible situation of trying to build something on the shifting sands of man’s fickle ways.  It’s true that God really does empower his people so that they don’t give up.  We, his faithful servants are made mighty with power through his spirit.”

            “Exactly,” grinned David.

            “All we have to do now is get this message through to the masses,” she continued.  “People need to have faith in God and believe that they do have the power to make changes.”