House Renovations

Dad is still capable of completely blowing the lid off of everything. Still.

This morning at breakfast he announced that he wanted to completely renovate the house. Not only that, but he was hiring an outside architect to do it.

I nearly choked on my pancakes. I hated to say it, but the renovations are long overdue. The house has looked exactly the same since I was a little girl.

"I think we need to spread it out," I told dad. "If I adopt the kids, they're gonna need a place to play."

Dad agreed. Of course, as dad is, he has his own ideas on how the place should look. After all, he was the one who commissioned the place, but mom was the one who actually hired the architect. Hence, the house has a lot of her practical touches.

"Savannah, I'm letting you oversee the renovations."

"Me?" I asked.

"I think it's time," he said, with the familiar twinkle in his eye. "As the house is going to be yours soon, it's time for you to put your stamp on it."

If that weren't enough, I have my suspicions about Donovan, the maid who comes and cleans things -- at least, that's what we pay him to do.

When I walked into the bathroom that's attached to my parents' bedroom suite, I caught him trying to take off the attached silver faucet. "What are you doing?" I asked.

"Oh, I'm just cleaning off your faucet, miss."

"No you weren't. You were trying to take the faucet off!" I took a deep breath and fired him on the spot.

I later learned why I had to fire him. I discovered he's a kleptomaniac! Sheesh, I'm surprised other things haven't turned up missing.

Visiting Noah

I decided to pay a visit to Noah the next morning, which was a Saturday. It was the same day Bassy and dad had gone over to the stadium for a soccer game.

"Neil, did you take out the trash?"
"No, why?"
"Didn't I tell you to take out the trash?"
"I told you I wasn't doing it, mom. Besides, isn't that the maid's job?"

"Neil, it's time for you to start pulling your weight around here. You don't go to school. All you do is lay around playing video games. I'm sick of it."
"Well it's what I want to do."
"It's got to stop, Neil!"

"This is all the time," Noah bitterly complained.

I had never seen him like this. He looked like he hadn't slept in days.

"He -- he's totally out of control. I'm worried sick about him."

"What's going on?"

"Well, besides the arguments?" He managed a chuckle. "He's skipping school to stay home and play video games. He's drinking. He's a whiny little spoiled brat. I have no idea how it got this bad."

"What are you going to do?"

"Savannah -- he needs a reality check, and you're probably the only person who can give it to him. Maybe -- maybe -- if you could take him to Egypt or something -- he'll see that not everyone lives like he does."

I laughed. "Noah, he wouldn't last one day in Egypt. You know it, I know it, and he knows it."

"Just think about it, Savannah."

Just some stuff

Been pretty busy since I got back home this last time. Just yesterday I gave a speech at City Hall and today I've been asked to go to the school to perform. Never mind that I haven't touched my guitar in ages, but still it was pretty nice to do it again. Even if I'll probably never get as good as my parents.

While I was walking in the building, I saw Daisy (Bassy's girlfriend -- or one of them -- depending on who you talk to) and Neil leaving, and both of them were wearing explorer gear. I started to wonder what I had done to these kids.
"C'mon, Neil, the plane leaves for France any minute now."
"All right," Neil huffed while trudging down the steps, "I'm coming."
"Neil, stop your whining and let's go! We don't want to disappoint Bassy."

After leaving the school, I had an itch to go to the library, where I ran into Ari. "Hey, you read Lord of the Flies yet?" I asked her. She apparently was looking for a book.
"You would like that book, huh?" Ari laughed. "Just a bunch of boys on a tropical island."
"I think you should read it, you'd like it."
"I read it while I was in school in Riverview. I hated it."
Dang. I forgot she went to school in Riverview before coming here.

Then I went back home and helped Bassy with his geometry homework.

A Foray into Politics Part 2

I saw Lynn Sweeney, Andy's mother, walking in as I was. I wondered if she was going to tell him she saw me. I hoped I didn't have to go into hiding from him again.
In my speech I made the point that fish heaving was not only illegal but wrong for the fish and wrong for the environment.

An hour later, as I emerged from City Hall, I could see the sun beginning to disappear for the night and a canopy of stars taking its place.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw a newly brunette Bridgette Landgraab walking out of the building. While I was leaving I ran into Mr. Phillips, the councilman for the other side of Sunset Valley. I think he represents Andy's district. "You gave an excellent speech, Miss Plumb," he said in a rich baritone as he walked up to me.
Miss Plumb? How did he know my name?
"It's my job to know people's names around here," he laughed.

"You know," he began, "I could use a mouth like yours on my upcoming mayoral campaign."
I gulped. "Mayoral campaign?"
"Certainly. I'm running for mayor this upcoming term and I'm going to need some fresh new faces to help out. And you, Miss Plumb, are perfect."

I wasn't sure what to say. I can't see myself working on a political campaign, honestly. IMO politics is all the same. They say the same things, promise the same things, and yet nothing happens to make our lives better. So I told him, "I'll think about it, Mr. Phillips."
"Please," he said, "call me Harper. And you are Savannah, right?"

How did he know my name?

So, I went out to eat at the diner with Harper. I took the opportunity to bring up the child slavery ring I'd discovered while traveling in Egypt and my quest to adopt Satis and Imsety.
We got into an intriguing conversation about international adoptions. "Those types of adoptions can be tricky," he'd told me. "You have to abide by both your laws and theirs, and these laws vary from country to country, sometimes within countries. It's a fine line you're walking." He said he'd do what he could on his end to expedite the process.
I knew from talking to him that he was a genius, a schmoozer, and a workaholic. I found out before he arrived in Sunset Valley and got elected to the city council, he'd been a lawyer. "You're smart, you're passionate -- you can do absolutely anything you want to do," he'd told me.
"I'm an archaeologist," I reminded him. "That was the whole reason I first went to Egypt, then I ended up wanting to adopt these children."
"You know, archaeology has political ramifications, too, especially in your area of expertise, Egypt."
I didn't need Harper to remind me, I was now painfully aware of this. Although I like him and we're friends now, I can't see myself being a political wife, at all. Honestly, other than what I mentioned, I find him as dull as a dirty dishrag. During our dinner he spoke of nothing but politics and the mayoral campaign.

A Foray into Politics Part 1

The next morning, Bassy woke up and surprised us all with Belgian waffles for breakfast. And they were actually pretty good. Apparently, while we were in Egypt, he'd signed up for a cooking class and had bought a bunch of recipe books to learn dishes. I'm actually glad to learn of his interest in cooking, because it's actually HIS interest, not mom's interest FOR him.

And that's his new car, a VFN Kompensator. He says he wants a Volkswagen Bug next. Personally I wouldn't be caught dead in a Volkswagen, but that's him. He's quirky like that.



I got called to City Hall to replace the unnamed activistwho was going to speak on fish heaving, a practice that is pretty much outlawed in town. Personally I think this person simply chickened out.
My call to City Hall was surprising because my family is decidedly apolitical. We didn't speak much about politics when I was growing up -- we were more creatively inclined -- but I knew my parents were friends with the Landgraabs, at least the younger generation. I didn't know the extent of the Landgraabs' political reach, not yet.



You know you've made it when the paparazzi follow you to City Hall. I felt them on my tail but I didn't care. It was me and my scooter, total freedom.




I decided to use the back entrance in order to avoid the paps.

Bassy Plays Hardball

Bassy had joined me at the table after mom left. The two of us are a study in contrasts -- we literally have nothing in common except our last name and the names of our parents. I stole a glance at him. Goodness, I can't believe he's gotten so tall and handsome now. If we weren't related.... just kidding.
"Vanna," he began, clearing his throat. I knew it was coming. When he wants to tell me something he starts humming and hawing and he has these long pauses in between words.
"What is it, Bassy?" I looked up from the ratatouille to see his blue eyes boring into me. When he wants to get serious, he lets me know about it.
"This adoption business -- if I'm gonna be uncle to these children, I'd like to go to Egypt with you and meet them."
My mouth flew open. "You -- go to Egypt?"
"Is there anything wrong with me going?" he asked me. "I mean, I'm old enough to go now."
"Bassy!" I tried to remind him that he was still in school.
But he had already backed me into a corner. "From what you say on the blog, they sound pretty cool."
I let out a smile. "They're awesome, really."
"Who knows, maybe I could go inside a tomb or two."
There's something more than a little bit unsettling about tagging my kid brother along on tomb raids. What have I done to this poor little boy?

Mommie Dearest Part 3

My mother met me at dinner that evening. She'd gone to the salon and cut her hair, but I could still see the gray roots showing on her brown dyed hair.

For some reason I dreaded dinner with her, and I dreaded even more what she was going to say. She sat down and flashed the biggest grin I've seen from her in quite awhile.

"Savannah, I've taken care of everything," she began.

I dreaded what the word 'everything' meant. I saw her with Mr. Wasem and I had no idea what she told him.

I could barely touch my dinner tray. I mean, this woman is my mother. I came out of her. When I look in the mirror, I'm staring at her reflection as, other than my hair, skin color, and eye color, we are practically mirror images. If she had done or said anything, anything at all, that would damage my chances for adopting Satis and Imsety, if she deliberately ruined my one shot at true happiness, I don't think I can forgive her for that. At all.

As most of you reading this blog know, my mother and I have had a contentious relationship. The two of us have barely seen eye-to-eye, on anything, and it's been like this pretty much since I was born.

We never did the things that mothers and daughters do with each other. There were no mother-daughter shopping trips, no grooming days at the parlor, none of that stuff. Instead, it's been nonstop shouting matches. All because I'm not what she wanted or expected in a daughter.

"I -- I never told you about my mother, did I?"

Nope.

"Her name was Daniella. She came over from Germany after the great war. Soon after she came to America she met my father and they got married. I actually think she only got married so she could stay here."

This was really the first time I'd heard my mother talk about her childhood, or even her mother. It seemed she'd pretty much blocked it out.

"My mother was a short-order cook at the bistro where we lived, and she was not a very pleasant person to be around. She and my father would get into these huge fights, mostly about me. I would just lock myself in my room and not come out. My escape was my music. Mom put me in guitar and violin and singing classes when I was little because she wanted me to be graceful and elegant. "

"I was the oldest of four children. I had three younger siblings -- Theresa, Ursula, and Victor, but she chose to focus all of her rage on me. I would walk into the living room and she would shoo me away, for no reason at all. I wanted that little bit of time with her and she wasn't there. It was like -- she hated me."

At that point I felt a little bit sorry for my mother. She behaved the way she did because she really didn't know any better.

"Savannah, I talked to Mr. Wasem, and he wanted a few references for you as a parental figure. Your dad and I, we're getting up there in years, and even though we don't always say it, we appreciate how you've stepped up for Sebastian. You help him with homework, you make sure he eats, you're an ear for him when he needs it. And I told Mr. Wasem that."

I was speechless. I wasn't sure what to say. I wasn't sure what to make of her apparent about-face. She spent almost a week in Egypt giving me all kinds of reasons why I shouldn't adopt the children. Did she actually mean it? Or was this a ruse for something else? What was her motivation?