Visiting Ari

 

The stars were out in force the other night when I took my daughter for a stroll down the street. 

We arrived at Ari Morris’ house at a quarter to nine.

“Wow.  Didn’t expect to see you here.  Thought you’d forgotten about the ‘little people.’”

“Well, when I heard you’d moved to Pinochle Point I decided to pay you a visit.  My house is right up the road.”

When I walked inside, I had to admit the place was exquisite.  Obviously Ari’s husband was fairly well off. 

“Been teaching Athena to walk.  Sometimes I wonder.”

“So, what you been up to.”

“Babies, babies, and more babies.  My oldest two – the ones I adopted from Egypt – are soon to become young adults, and my oldest son is a teenager now too.”

“Oh wow.  Well you know I married Rick Morris… and I had a daughter, and I got on at the Times.”

“You did?  You told me you were going to get on there.”

She offered me a meal and I whispered in her ear that I had something I wanted to tell her.

“My husband died of old age a couple of simdays ago,” she said over stu surprise, some of the best stu surprise I’d had in quite awhile. 

“Wow, I’m really sorry to hear that.”

A part of me wondered why the heck she married that old guy in the first place, but I bit my tongue, thinking better of it.  She’s known enough sorrow in her life as it is.  Her parents died in a house fire before she turned teen and she went to live with a family friend, after which she’d moved to Sunset Valley.

“How are you holding up?” I asked. 

“It’s been hard, raising Athena alone.  But I’m glad you’re still around.  At least some things are the same.”

I let out a deep breath.  If she only knew. 

Then I asked about the house.

“I saw it in this magazine of celebrity homes, belonged to my favorite romance novelist Annabelle Smith –“

Trash books, I thought. 

“And I contacted an architect in town who built me a replica.  Figured it was perfect for Athena and me, plus an extra bedroom for sleepovers and room to grow.”

“You mean you want more children?”  I asked.  “You can have some of mine.”

That managed to get a chuckle out of Ari.  “I can’t believe you’ve got five kids now.  And with the guy you couldn’t stand in high school.  I still remember you sneaking off to the park on that one fishing trip with him.”

“Hey.  I didn’t go to the park.  Especially not with him.”

“Yes you did!  I saw you there.  You tried to lie to me and say you didn’t like him.  I knew you did, all along.  Girl it was love at first blush. You’re married to him now.  You cannot lie to me, Savannah.”

Noelle

 

The phone rang the morning after the birthday party.  It was Neil’s girlfriend Noelle.  She said she wanted some fresh-picked veggies for a meal she was cooking. 

I have to say I was stunned by her call.  Not just because she’s actually making overtures to our family.

I can’t say I’m comfortable with their relationship.  After all, at one point Noelle briefly dated my brother, Sebastian, but I suspect now that he only dated her to make Daisy Ramsey jealous, that he didn’t have any real feelings for Noelle.  And now, as soon as they leave high school, not only does Noelle start dating Neil, but she moves into the Alto mansion and is now pregnant, with Neil’s child.  I have to admit that aspect of this whole situation makes me a bit uneasy. 

Noelle was at the park, where her pregnancy was plainly evident.  I can’t say I’m entirely comfortable with the prospect of my nephew becoming a dad and I’m even less comfortable with the likelihood of becoming a great-aunt, so when I saw her, all I could muster was, “Here are the veggies you asked for.”

“Oh, thank you so much,” she gushed, reaching for me.

I grabbed her by her upper arm.  “Are you all right?” I asked.  “Need anything else?”

“No, Savannah, I’m fine.”

“How’s Neil doing?”

Noelle took a deep breath.  “Not well.  I love him but I worry about him.  Ever since his mom died and his dad got sick…”  Her voice trailed off. 

“You have to understand, Neil is in no way, shape, or form ready to be a father.”

“He’s been through a lot.  He talks about you all the time.  He talks about you more than he talks about his parents, honestly.”

“You do realize that the two of you are going to have to grow up, very quickly.  Raising kids is a very adult thing.  You’re just a couple of kids playing house.”

“It just happened, really.  We -- we didn’t plan it.  I mean, I’m reading all kinds of pregnancy books, and I’m trying to watch my diet and stuff, and make sure I get my regular massages, and keep having good moodlets so the child can be born with good traits.”

“I just, I’m worried, that’s all.  You two, you’re just kids.  You have no idea what is coming.”

“What do you mean?”

“You can read all the pregnancy books you want to, you can get your regular massages and have good moodlets to make sure your kids have good traits, but you never can fully prepare for parenthood.”

Sage’s slumber party

 

This may well be my last post for awhile.  Taking a break while I decide the future of this blog. 

Hey it’s Savannah here, with a quickie little update.

I got wind of what happened to Sage at her recital last week through Satis, because Sage herself wouldn’t breathe a word of it to me.  I had to explain to her that not everyone was going to want to be her friend – in fact that there were some kids who weren’t going to like her and who were going to be jealous of her. 

Anyway, Sage decided to have a couple of her friends from ballet class over to the house for a slumber party.  They arrived at eight thirty in the evening.

The girl on the left is Natalie Rutherford and the girl on the right is Malika Williams. 

Satis was such a trooper.  She was a bit bemused by the whole thing, but she decided to entertain them with ghost stories and games anyway. 

Even Toya was being a sport and reading to the other little girl, Wanda Purnell, who actually showed up but wouldn’t socialize with the other girls. 

I heard Natalie (the girl with the blue sleeping bag) whisper good night to the other two girls… who were well dozing even though Sierra was stirring in the crib. 

Finally the lights went out for real…and the girls fell asleep. 

The show must go on

 

Meet our new therapist, Ms. Rebecca Howe.  Apparently she’s a licensed social worker trained in dealing with children and teenagers. 

My father is still a grade A+ charmer.  Those warm blue eyes (the same blue eyes he gave to my brother and both my daughters) seem to allow women to melt.  But Ms. Howe was not having any of it. 

Just while we were in the foyer my father whipped out his photo album with pictures of us.  “Look, here’s my family,” I heard him say, “I’m so proud of them.”

“They’re nice, Mr. Plumb,” she said dismissively, “but I’m here to talk about you.”

“Please, Mr. Plumb, have a seat.”

I stood at the door listening to their conversation.  I could hear just about every word. 

“So.  Why are we here?”

I heard dad sigh.  “Because my wife and daughter called you.”

“Why did they call?”

Dad sighed again.  “Because I did some stupid, stupid things.”

Hearing that from dad was pretty jarring.  I mean, when I was younger, I thought he could do no wrong. 

“Tell me about them.”

When my father gets into reverie he can’t stop himself. 

“I was the result of a one night stand between farmer Nigel Plumb and trauma surgeon Jamie Jolina.  My parents, I’m told, couldn’t agree on anything, including what to name me.  They finally settled on Nathan.

I still remember my mother tucking me in my crib while she was on call at the hospital. 

I split my time between my mother’s house and my father’s farm.  The contrast between my parents couldn’t be more stark.  While my father preferred spending time among his plants…

…my mother was supremely extraverted and loved spending time among her friends. 

But in my mother’s spare moments she occupied herself with music.  Sometimes I used to stand by the door and listen.  My mother loved music.  She knew the classics like she knew the back of her hand.  She knew all the great composers just as much as she knew the medical terms. 

Then, just before I turned teen, my dad died.  I watched it happen. 

“How’d you feel watching your father die?”  I heard Ms. Howe ask. 

“That’s just it.  I didn’t really feel anything.  It was more of a curiosity than anything, seeing him turn to that ghost state.  I know I was supposed to grieve but I couldn’t do it.  I remember asking my mother all kinds of questions about ghosts and the Grim Reaper.  I also remember her not having the answers I sought.  It’s funny, I wasn’t like most kids.  I wasn’t afraid of the Grim Reaper. 

My older half-sister Maggie actually tried to give me some direction after my dad died.  But she was also launching her writing career at the time, so the attention she paid to me was somewhat limited. 

I hit my teens and I was completely unruly.  My mother did not have a clue how to deal with me.  My teacher had actually told my mother that either I was going to be in prison or I was going to win the Simbel Prize. 

At this point I was going to school perhaps, maybe, once a week.  My mother used to ask me what I was reading, and I’d tell her it was books on music and musical theory. 

One day I’d gotten a notice from school.  I’d rewritten the school’s alma mater in study hall, adding in a few guitar riffs between stanzas.  My mother was waiting for me in her hospital uniform and she was not happy. 

Come to think of it, my mother hadn’t been happy since my dad died. 

“I was only jazzing up the alma mater.  It sounds a lot better with the guitar riffs added.”

“Nathan,” she shouted, “you need to get your head out of those clouds and into your schoolbooks.  How are you going to ever make something of yourself?”

“Nathan James Plumb, come back here!” she shouted.

I left my mother’s house and didn’t return.

Instead I moved in with a friend of my mother’s, Holly Alto.  I stayed there until my young adult birthday.

I had a small birthday party with my girlfriend at the time, Erin Frio, with my sister Maggie, and my childhood friend Sharon Ursine, and Holly Alto along with my mother. 

But soon after I blew out those candles, my mother passed away. 

When the Grim Reaper arrived to harvest her soul, I decided to whip out her old guitar, that she’d given me when I became a teenager, and play one of my original compositions.  He seemed to like it as he stayed to listen to me.” 

At the time I was dating a young lady named Erin Frio.  Her father, Jared, didn’t like me very much and we argued constantly.  She looked between both of us and tried to get us to calm down. 

I went back to my mom’s place where, after a concert, Erin and I had woohoo in my old bedroom. 

For a time things were going great between Erin and me, and we were even going house hunting because she had wanted to start a family.

But as I was wont to do, I screwed that up majorly. 

Holly and I were at my mother’s funeral dinner, and we got to dancing and we got to talking.  The next thing I knew, I’d slept with her. 

The next day, Holly summoned me back to the mansion.  I got there at about a quarter to six. 

There, Holly uttered the three words that would change my life… ‘Nathan, I’m pregnant.’

She was calm.  I was the one who was hyperventilating.  “It’s going to be fine, you’ll see,” she’d told me. 

Then the next night, Erin came by and told me SHE was pregnant, too.

Ms. Howe interrupted again.  “So, you got two women pregnant in a short period of time.”

I didn’t hear my dad say anything.  He just sighed. 

“How were you feeling?  You were still very young.”

“I wasn’t sure how to feel.  And I certainly was not prepared to be a father.”

“Because you never had a father yourself.”

Dad sighed again.  It seemed as though he’d been sighing all day. 

“Your father died when you were young, and not only had you not had that male role model… but it doesn’t sound like you had any kind of stability or discipline.  So you went out looking for it.”

-- to be continued --

Sage’s recital

 

Hey it’s me, Satis. 

Well, mom told you guys that Sage was taking ballet classes at the school on Tuesday and Thursday evenings.  Her ballet teacher, Miss Manoir, used to dance for the Bridgeport Ballet. 

The day of her recital, mom got Sage ready and dressed up in her costume and she ran across the street to the school to go dance.

She was nearly run over by this one girl on her bicycle. 

After the recital I took Sage aside and she told me everything.  She was able to block it out pretty good to dance okay, but I could tell it was still bothering her.  “It’s Wanda Purnell,” she said.

I realized she was Michael’s kid sister. 

Apparently Wanda used to be in the ballet class with Sage before getting kicked out for being mean to the other girls.  Especially Sage. 

“I dunno why Wanda doesn’t like me,” Sage cried.  “I tried to be her friend.”

I had to explain to Sage that not everyone was going to want to be her friend. 

When we walked back in the house, Sety was playing with Sierra, who had just eaten and was in one of her rare good moods. 

She was able to relax a bit and play princess for awhile before going to bed.