"James! Get back here!" Sure, it wasn't award-winning poetry but the message got through clearly enough. Her four-year-old son stopped running around the room like a mad child, brandishing his arms like a plane, and quietly joined her to go out of the building. Sophia ducked down, and hugged him as he started to cry, wiping the tears from his little face. James was a fairly spoilt child, no thanks to his father, and hated getting told off. Once he had asked his mother if she loved him any more, after she'd yelled at him for running away from her. She couldn't take that, and although she was stern with him she was also kind.

Holding the sobbing child in her arms she tried to manouver her way to the doorway, pushing the door with her foot to try and get out. Why had she worn heels this morning? It wasn't like the City Hall was any great place to be, and now her fancy shoes prevented her from getting out. She couldn't put James down, her beautiful little child, and she couldn't break her heels either. Oh, what to do?

Then she spooted Margie, and breathed a sigh of relief. The woman looked very stressed out, and breathed shallowly. It looked like she was thinking furiously, tugging along two children by the hands. Smiling, Soph carried James to where Margie was. Since Margie had children, they could relate. A busy mom with whining children; get it seemed her James was more tame than Margie's. But that was only first impressions, right?

"Heya Margie. Whatt're ya here in City Hall for?" Sophia asked, hitching James higher up on her torso. She certaintly had beautiful children, did Margie. James began to cry again with lack of attention, so Soph turned to him and made comforting noises as she looked into his big, chocolatey brown eyes, so like his fathers. And then there was his button nose and feminine mouth, and curly brown hair. He was slightly feminine, was James, and Soph did everything to make him that way. At the worst of times he was loud, disobedient and annoying, but at the best he was quiet, intelligent and did everything she said.

Sophia smiled slightly at Margie's obvious love of children; hardly anyone else in this neightbourhood would even think of being nice to a child, especially Sophia's. It was like James had rabies or something, and was going to infect their own perfect children. But in that instance when Margie let go of her own little son's hand Soph could see why she had grabbed it so quickly earlier. Bobby had run off, to the greivance of his mother and to the astonishment of Sophia.

"Oh Lordie, I'm so sorry!" Soph exclaimed, taking the blame although it wasn't entirely her fault. It was really no one's in particular, but Margie was one of the souls in Winchester that Sophia liked and she wasn't going to spoil that friendship with a snobbing over her children.

"James, luvie, stay right here and don't move a muscle," Soph said, staring sternly at her boy then looking at MArgie to see if she could be of any assistance.