Back to Dr. Bill

 

“Andrew and Savannah, two of my most frustrating – and frustrated – parents, are back.” 

“When we last spoke,” Dr. Bill began, “you were having issues with your daughter, Sage, who was having issues with adjusting to a new town and dealing with her brothers being sent off to boot camp.  How’s she doing now?”

“She’s doing great,” I replied.  “She’s on the honor roll, she rides horses, she trains her dog, she helps out with the new baby –”

“Since we last spoke, the two of you had your fourth child.”

“Yes.  Skylar Rose.”

“How is life with the new baby?”

“It’s – a challenge, to say the least.”

“I cannot believe the two of you.”

“What?”

Dr. Bill looked at us quizzically.  “The two of you brought a fourth child into this highly toxic situation.”

“What do you mean, Dr. Bill?”

“Savannah, this ain’t my first rodeo.  I’ve been around families like yours for a long time.  I’ve seen mothers like you for thirty years.  They look different, they talk different, they have different names, but I’ve seen you for thirty years.” 

“Now, the two of you are back, not just with your daughter, the one you initially contacted me about, who from your own report is doing reasonably well now, but you have with you one of your older sons, back from Fort Starch military academy.”

I nodded.  “I’m worried about him.”

“You know, Savannah, I’ve obtained your sons’ juvenile records from the Sunset Valley city hall.  Their criminal histories are extensive, and, you know, I absolutely see why they were remanded to Fort Starch.  Imsety -- breaking and entering, stealing tests from the classroom, stealing a computer, defacing school property, throwing eggs at someone's house, and this, this is the big one, he threw a party while the two of you were gone."

Andy piped in, "We were at a couple's retreat at the time."
"The cops came to that party, along with the paparazzi, didn't they?" asked Dr. Bill.
"When we came back, the house was a shambles, people all around,” I recalled.  “I walked in and the place reeked of alcohol.  I found my sons passed out drunk on the floor, it was awful.  Then the worst part was that the paps took a picture of my sons and it got out –"

"You blame him, Imsety, for influencing your other son, AJ, the one who’s here with you.  Who, by the way, has his own laundry list, and in some ways, his is even more egregious than his brother's.  Drinking, fighting at school, bullying -- one boy in particular, and you know I have zero tolerance for bullying because I know what scars it could leave – and then he was photographed drinking in a nightclub."
"That tore me up as much as anything, honestly.  The fact that he would show such blatant disregard for the rules –"

“You were concerned about your family’s reputation, right?”

I nodded my head in reluctant agreement.

“What was the last straw?”

“I think it was the picture of him sitting in a nightclub.  Andrew and I were just, you know, done at that point.  We couldn’t take anymore.”

A few minutes later, Dr. Bill escorted Andy and I out of the room and wanted to speak to AJ, alone.  I could only hear bits and pieces of the conversation.

“You’re AJ, correct?  How are you, son?  Have a seat.”

“I’m not sitting down!”

“Calm down, boy.”  After a few minutes they finally got him to settle down. 

“So, you like computers?  Video games?”

“Computers, mostly.  When I was at Fort Starch I took this computer programming course.”

“Is that something you’d like to pursue?”

I didn’t hear whether he said yes or no to that.

A few moments later I was back.

“Savannah, I had a lengthy chat with your son.  Like I told you and Andrew before, with Sage, y’all make gorgeous kids.  Your son is handsome, he’s, I think, incredibly bright – but he’s very troubled.  Do you agree that he’s troubled?”

“Absolutely.”

“That’s a lost young man, right there.  He’s going through life rudderless.  He has absolutely no direction whatsoever.  He’s actually, let me see how I can put this, he’s a geek who is pretending to be a tough guy.”

“What do you mean?”

“He spoke at length to me about his passion for computers and chess, and how he hid that at his old school to prevent from being bullied.  Now, that doesn’t excuse his actions in turn bullying someone else, but at least it goes a way toward some kind of explanation for his behavior.  You didn’t know this, Savannah, but he joined the chess club at Fort Starch.  He talked about his interest in aerospace technology and astronomy.  You mentioned that he is fluent in Arabic because of his brothers and his Egyptian nanny, and he talked about perhaps going to Egypt one day and going exploring in tombs.”

“I was going over his Fort Starch record, and it was revealed that he failed a basic vision test.  Savannah, your son is severely nearsighted.”

“Oh my Watcher!”  I was shocked, and in a way, I was also devastated.  He inherited his nearsightedness from me.  I had hoped he would inherit Andy’s 20/20 perfect vision, but it was not to be. 

“He needs glasses or some kind of corrective vision procedure, whether it’s surgery or it’s contacts or something else.  And I’m sure that’s part of the reason why he struggled so much in school.  He couldn’t see the chalkboard, and he was too pig-headed and too stubborn to ask for help.”

My son is more like me than I could have possibly imagined.  And in some ways that’s not a good thing. 

A Big Day

 

Hey, it’s me, Savannah, looking up from my novel to tell you about a HUGE day in the lives of the Plumbs. 

It began inauspiciously enough, with crying Sierra in the crib in our bedroom. 

The little tyrant disturbing my sleep really pissed me off.  It took me awhile to calm down, so I simply walked away. 

All Andy did was pick her up and she stopped crying.  Hate to say it but he is STILL way better at this parenthood thing than I am.  And yet he wants MORE children.  He has lied.

One of the neighbor kids, Michael Falcon, asked Satis to the prom.  Michael is kind of geeky, actually.  I’d rather her with a geek than a muscle bound guy who’s going to cheat on her. 

Meanwhile, Sety and AJ managed to chase each other around the house before finally taking it outside. 

And Andy, fresh from tending to Sierra, went outside to play hide and seek with Sage. 

It was time for AJ to blow out his candles.  Today he would become a teen. 

My little man all grown up *sniff*  and already he’s asking for a car and a driver’s license.  Sigh. 

Here he is after he got cleaned up.  Goodness he looks like his dad.  The brown hair is from my mom, shockingly enough.

After AJ blew out his candles, Sety and Satis sneaked out to go to their prom, also being held that evening. 

But AJ wasn’t the only person celebrating a birthday.

Yep yours truly.  Joining the ranks of the adults.

And who did I spy at my party?  Oh yes.  Bassy and then a lady in a bright pink vest.  Ugh.  Dad didn’t have to bring HER here.

Dena Hart.  As in, his new girlfriend.  Ugh.  Such a killjoy. 

Yep it’s me, with a few more age lines on my face.  I’m no longer a young adult.

 

I was tossing and turning in my bed when I heard Satis and Sety coming in from their prom.  They’d been named king and queen! 

They came in and ate PB & J sandwiches and went to bed.  By then we were ALL tired. 

Mishmash

AJ has a little bit of an entitlement complex.  He always has to be first, whether it’s getting breakfast in the morning or getting on the bus to go to school.  Imsety and Satis basically humor him.

Speaking of AJ, his teacher asked for a common relic from Egypt or China for the archaeology display.  He has to be the luckiest kid at school because of what his mom does for a living, eh? So I gave him one of my Egyptian fossilized apples to use. 

Today he had a play date at Sammy Kincaid’s house (Sammy is Maeve’s younger brother).  He’s like me in that he can be friendly but mostly prefers to do his own thing.  I’ve heard Sammy Kincaid is REALLY smart and makes straight A’s.  I’m secretly hoping Sammy rubs off on him, even though he has asked for a telescope.  I have promised AJ that I will get his telescope if he shows me an A report card.  Right now he has a B. 

“Last one in the house is a rotten egg!” I heard Michael Falcon, one of Sety’s school chums, say.  Poor Satis was bringing up the rear, struggling to keep up with the boys. 

Andy used his day off to help Sety with his Simlish literature homework.  I am beginning to suspect that he is dyslexic.

I brought my concerns about Sety to Andy at breakfast. 

“Have you talked to his teacher?” Andy asked. 
“Talking to the administration is like talking to a brick wall sometimes.”

Then he suggested that I get on the school board. 

“The school board?”  I said.  “When am I going to have time for it, between my job and my archaeological work?”

“It’s an at-large position, last I remember it.  My step-grandma was on the school board in her day.”

Andy had rarely mentioned his family to me, so this surprised me. 

Even though I am apolitical, the school board does make some sense.  It’s not a political position, but if I get on I won’t feel so damn powerless while my children are being abused by the people in charge just because they are different.  I mean, damn it, I was born and raised in Sunset Valley.  I grew up here.  My father, my aunt, and all my siblings were educated in this school system.  If anyone knows how things should work here, it’s me. 

I still am hesitating about doing it.  What I’m not hesitating about is getting Sety tested for dyslexia. 

Meanwhile, Toya has had most of the Sage duties, especially since we put the baby crib in her room so she wouldn’t wake us up at night.  Hey, if we’re paying her $1200 simoleans to live under our roof…

Meanwhile, she and Andy have been getting to know each other.  He is slowly warming up to the idea of a butler being in the house.  With his soccer games more and more often and with my situation being in flux all the time, though he misses Halima, he’s beginning to appreciate Toya being around.  I love being right. 

For a little bit of Sunset Valley gossip:  There’s a new stylist in town.  Francy is still the main coiffeur but she now has an assistant, Jhonnie.  I found out about him when I took Sety to get a haircut.  Fran says she has Jhonnie on board to handle mostly male styles since her clientele is growing by leaps and bounds. 

Last but not least, my brother Sebastian (Bassy) sent me this glossy he had taken.  Remember, he’s now an actor in Bridgeport.  I kinda knew he’d go into show business, just not the branch he chose.  Mom is still ticked off at him for leaving Sunset Valley, as she thinks he could have done the same thing here.  Now that I am a parent myself, I can say Mom is just being protective.  I actually can’t say I blame him for leaving.  Obviously from his letters he felt like he needed to branch out and figure out what he wanted out of life. 

Catching up

Most of you following this blog know a lot of my updates are being posted on my Facebook page. For those of you who are NOT regulars to my page, I’ll try to give a brief rundown of what’s been going on in Sunset Valley.

Mom got a new car! (Pastel pink of course) It’s one of those classic roadster type deals. Myself, I’ve been looking at another scooter to replace my trusty Kenspa, which I will give to Sety, who’s now a teen.

And she isn’t the only one with new wheels. This little ditty belongs to Bassy. He claims it has 140 horsepower, and Neil, he of the new dame on his shoulder, is the one he says souped it up.

I got new neighbors over on Pinochle. They moved here from Twinbrook and I have to say, they’re a bit … strange. I walked in to introduce myself (which, most of you reading this blog know, is tough for me to do!) and I must have caught her by surprise because she jumped. Apparently she had been doing some kind of upgrade or something because she had a wrench in her hand. We kinda looked at each other in suspicion.

Andy told me later she was Clare de Visser and she’d come to town with her parents and her girlfriend, Shana Jeffries. Shana was in the athletic track with him, that’s how he knew about it.

Andy went to the consignment store and picked up THIS little ditty. When he surprised me with it, he said it was a ‘metal box’ that I might be interested in. Oh Andy. Anybody with eyes could see it’s a time machine. Any man that buys his wife a time machine – knowing how crazy she is about history – is a keeper.

I hired Joyce Ann Ward, a famous photographer, to take pictures of my family, particularly my parents. I’m not sure how much time they have left so I’ll treasure them while they’re still around. She arrived ahead of schedule, catching my dad by surprise.

Dad was in the art room. “Who are you?” he asked with his sideways grin.

“I’m Ms. Ward,” began the redhead. “Your daughter hired me to come and take pictures.”

Dad laughed and shook his head.

Of course, this presented another problem. Since Ms. Ward arrived early, Bassy decided to make his presence known.

She asked if she could take a casual portrait of him in his bedroom, and he said yes, so he led her into his room. I asked him about this, and he swears up and down that nothing happened. Of course, this is my brother I’m talking about, so I don’t believe him for a second.

This is because he made his intentions plain the next day by openly flirting with her.

“I’d like to take a hot picture of you,” I overheard him telling her. Ugh. Seriously, Bassy, could you at least conceal your lasciviousness? I mean, I hired the woman to take pictures of the family. Talk about mixing business with pleasure. I still don’t know for certain if they slept together… but knowing my brother, I don’t doubt it.

The next day everyone gathered slowly in the courtyard for the family photo. Ms. Ward told all of us to find a place to stand.

Well this is all of us... except for Satis and AJ. Satis showed up 10 mins AFTER this was taken. I was pretty ticked.
Ok here's who's who. In the back row are Daisy Ramsey (Sebastian's GF), Bassy, my half-brother Noah, his wife Sadie, and their son Neil. In the next row are Dad, Mom, Andy and me. And that devil in the front is Imsety.
Of course, getting the pic taken was a major challenge, partly because it's hard getting everyone together with their schedules... and the other reason is because my brother made no secret about his affection for the photographer. Bassy could charm the pants off of a nun, seriously. It's crazy.