If you fork by way of magical open the kids can print their messages and you can read them on the filehandle:

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;

my %kids = ();
my @msgs = ();

$SIG{CHLD} = q/IGNORE/;

for ( 'a', 'b', 3) {
    my ( $pid, $fh);
    defined($pid = open $fh, "-|") or warn $! and last;
    if ($pid) {
        # be parental
        $kids{$pid} = $fh;
        next;
    }
    else {
        kid_code($_);
    }
}

push @msgs, <$_> for values %kids;

print @msgs;

sub kid_code {
    # do childish things, then (goes to $fh in parent)
    print "$_[0]. Your Message Here$/";
    exit(0);
}
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IO:Select would improve this. You might also look at Parallel::ForkManager.

After Compline,
Zaxo