Northstar Vale after many miles

Easy laughed, startled by the woman's reasoning even if it made perfect sense.

"The first time around? Certainly," she replied, recalling her horror at the realities of motherhood. But she recalled the good times as well, and the love and the wonder and adoration she always felt when she looked at her children. At any age, but in those first several weeks most of all.

She cut a sideways glance to the woman.

"Not just the sucking. Cleaning them all the time. The birth, of course. There are parts of it that are quite unpleasant," she admitted. "But I got used to it, and on the whole, I've enjoyed motherhood."

But it wasn't for everyone. It hadn't been, in fact, for her own mother.

"I think it's nice to try at least once," she offered. "Maybe somewhere you have the support to pass them off to someone else once in a while. Once they get to be a bit older, they're just like you and I. Only less respectable, because you've cleaned their own sick off their faces — and plenty of other things besides."