Julie swallowed hard as the minivan was loaded up and was unusually conscious of Sketchy's weight in her arms. She had never been so ambivalent in her life: part of her knowing that she had to give up the quads - they it was the best thing for both parties - and the other half screaming that no one could love her children like she did.
Then Saku was there beside her, carefully cradling Shalimar.
"I don't know about this," Julie said, anxiously looking down at the baby in her arms.
"Well, it's not too late to back out," Saku replied. "But to be honest, Julie, I think you'll be doing both yourself and the quads a disservice if you kept them."
Julie bit her bottom lip and hesitated. She loved her kids. Sure they were a handful now but that would change soon enough. Surely she could hang on just a little longer? She opened her mouth to respond.
"Sometime this year... probably in the next couple of months Saku's going to give you some good advice. It might not feel that way at the time, but trust me when I say you want to take it."
Saku gave Julie a curious look as she closed her mouth again to the memory of Corinne's advice. She had just had a vision, Julie remembered, Cliff was concerned because she had been in that vision longer than usual. Corinne didn't lightly tell people of what she saw concerning them, so whatever had prompted her must have been important.
"You... you may be right," Julie said finally, with much reluctance.
"It's not like you won't be able to see them. Okay, maybe not daily, but yeah."
"It won't be the same."
"At least they're not going to change their names."
Julie barked out a laugh.
It was with many tears that Julie reluctantly moved her quads to the minivan. She smothered them all with salty kisses and stood on the footpath, looking after them until the minivan disappeared from view.