Kate Boothby was not as patient a woman as she appeared. She quietly stared at her manuscript and massaged her temples. Despite her best attempts to isolate herself, Kate found it impossible to get farther on the manuscript.

'It's already a week late,' she thought mournfully as she stared at the last paragraph. Just as she poised her fingers over the keyboard, a voice floated through the closet door.

"Honey, the cat threw up again."

Kate sighed, "Then clean it up, Derek."

"Right." There was a pause. "How do I do that?"

She put down the laptop, annoyed. "I'll show you where everything is."

Her husband now armed with paper towels and the vacuum cleaner, Kate returned to her closet sanctuary. 'If I didn't love him to death, I'm certain I'd have killed him.'

She settled back in at her laptop, briefly scanned the last paragraph, and started typing again. Soon, she was on a roll as scene after scene filled the screen.

A knock on the closet door ripped her from the intense scene she was typing. "Mommy, Colin stole Mr. Pig again!"

"Did not!" Her son's voice sounded like it was coming from the bedroom door.

"Colin, give Mr. Pig back to Lily." She could hear the muffled sounds of the older boy teasing his sister as he returned the cherished toy. "Now, tell your sister you're sorry and let Mommy work."

As she heard them walk away, she thought, 'I wonder if other writers have it this rough.'

Kate refocused her attention on the laptop screen. She quickly found her rhythm and started flying through the manuscript.

As she finished writing the climax, she heard her stomach rumbling. Heading to the kitchen for the box of shortbread cookies she kept hidden, she took one step into the battlefield that had been a hall earlier that morning. The living room was in a similar state of disarray. Kate looked around in frustration. 'There's no way I can work on this story and clean all of this up!'

Her anger and helplessness manifested as silent tears she tried to blink away. She grabbed the cookies and started back to the closet.

"What's wrong?" Derek noticed her quick pace through the living room.

She looked around the room, "I just can't handle this." Without waiting for a response, she retreated to the closet.

Kate was nearly finished with both the story and the cookies when she heard a very soft knock on the closet door. It slowly creaked opened, and Lily shyly poked her head in.

"Daddy says it's almost lunchtime."

She smiled, "Tell him I'll be there shortly." The door closed, and Kate started typing again. As she finished the last sentence, a louder knock startled her, and Colin burst in to the closet.

"Mom, come on!" The boy grabbed her hand and dragged her through the now clean house to the kitchen. As she sat down to a pizza lunch, she thought, 'I can handle this.'