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. 

Update #1

 

AJ has been talking lately, about what happened to him at Fort Starch. 

"Sety and I were escorted to our dorms. Sety and I were placed in separate regiments so we actually hardly saw each other after arriving."

"The commandant there was Capt. Derek Downey, who, coincidentally, was Zachary's father. Zachary was the boy whose house I hit with eggs and firebombs. He didn't like me much. He seemed to have it in for me and was harder on me than he was on the rest of the boys in the regiment."

"I spent most of my days running around campus. building my endurance.  I hated being there, up in the mountains.  It was cold, lonely, and miserable."

"Commandant Downey worked my ass off, had pretty much singled me out, just because of what had happened between me and his kid," AJ said. "I felt like it just wasn't fair. Other kids were pickin' on him too. He looked like a freak. I felt like he was punishing me for what had happened to his boy."

"You know, son, maybe you should write something about what happened to you at Fort Starch. You know, like a cautionary tale, so other kids could learn from what happened to you."

"I dunno, mom," AJ mumbled through his sandwich. "It's still, you know, it's still too raw right now."
"Do you want to talk to someone about it? I mean, I can give you the number of Sage's counselor –"

"I don't want to speak to no d**n counselor!" he thundered angrily.
"You know," I tried to reason, "I just think it might help. It seems to have helped your sister."

I was referring, of course, to Sage’s visit to Dr. Bill.  She has to go back this week, but I have to say she has made tremendous progress.

She’s even made a new friend, who happens to be as horse-crazy as she is.  They like riding through the woods together and hanging out at the horse park. 

I actually think the animals have helped her.  I swear, that girl has a way with the four-legged set. 

And she’s apparently one heck of a diarist.  Dr. Bill had suggested she keep one, and from what I’m told, she’s taken off running with it. 

I’m really worried about AJ.  Ever since he got back, he’s been pretty angry and withdrawn.  I want him to talk to Sage’s counselor, and it just seems like, you know, he’s blaming me for his issues.  He’s so angry with me. And I can’t blame him.  If I was him, I’d be angry with me too.  I failed that boy, badly. 

When he was born I failed to connect with him.  I couldn’t believe that this was actually my son. 

I was holding and feeding him one week on, but I still failed to develop any kind of connection with him. 

I wish I could say it was easier with the other kids, but it wasn’t.  While they were infants, I failed to develop the kind of maternal instincts that I should have, even though they came out of me.  Heck, it was easier for me to bond with Satis than it was either of my biological children. 

Pathetic. 

More Sage observations

 

(School photo)

The fact sheet

Full name:  Sage-blossom Margaret Plumb Cheesman

Favorites:  Food – autumn salad  Music – Chinese  Color – white

Second of four biological children of Andrew Cheesman and Savannah Plumb Cheesman

Middle name, Margaret, is from Savannah’s beloved aunt, who died when Savannah was a teenager

Sometimes I look at Sage-blossom and wonder, how on earth could she possibly be my daughter? 

It’s not because she’s been rebellious, or because she’s been out of control.  Quite the contrary.  And that’s why I wonder how on earth this child could possibly have come out of me. 

She is the complete opposite of what I was as a teen. 

She’s a middle aged woman trapped inside the body of a fifteen year old girl.

She loves the outdoors, like her dad, and she loves animals, especially dogs and horses.  She has asked to grow a veggie garden.  We keep saying no because we’re renting our house in Hidden Springs.  Sometimes I think she should have been a 60s flower child.  Sometimes I think she might have been a nun in her former life. 

I’ve also discovered that she is a vegetarian.  I didn’t find this out from her, but from Max, our butler, who’s been cooking a lot of tofu meals.  I’m not entirely happy with this but it’s her life and her decision not to eat meat.  I try to keep hands off of my children, to let them develop as they may, but this is hard for me because I am, admittedly, a bit of a control freak.

She is also very much an environmentalist, and she’s been this way since she was tiny.   When she was little she had to do a science project to collect insects.  She was all too happy to do it, but she was so upset that she couldn’t find this rare water beetle that she cried for a couple of days about it.  Days.  It took Andy and me forever to calm her down.  She ended up doing a school report (on her own) about the extinction of the water beetle. 

A couple of nights Sage even sneaked out and actually slept in her treehouse.  She loved playing in it.  We built the same kind of treehouse for Sierra and, quite honestly, Andy and I have spent more time in it than she has. 

It’s how we got Skylar.

But I digress. 

Sage is much the same way now, but instead of going to the treehouse, she is taking long nature walks into the woods (taking nature photos along the way and, apparently, still collecting insects), going fishing, and riding her horse.  When I look back, she was this way at seven, eight years old.  She is still my little Sage-blossom, just taller. She has not changed.

She always had this ‘old soul’ quality about her.  It almost seems like she’s been here before. 

Indeed, I worry that she seems to prefer animals to people.  She’d rather ride her horse than drive a car.  Her closest companions are her dog, Bitsy, and her horse Traveller. 

She’s tickled pink that AJ is back, though.  The other day they did a karaoke duet in the backyard.

I wish I could say she and Sierra get along as well.  Sure, they tolerate each other, and both have blond hair and blue eyes, but that’s about where the similarities end.  They are night and day different, with very little in common. Sierra is much more like I was growing up, very rambunctious and a bit on the rebellious side.  In addition, she is very athletic and sporty.  Sage is on the artistic/creative side of the spectrum. 

This was the backdrop of a nearly four-hour conversation the other morning at the breakfast table.  Just Sage and me, no one else around. 

Apparently she’d been through the private museum, the room in my parents’ house I’m most proud of. 

"Mom?"
"Yeah, baby?"
"All those old bowls and stuff?"
"Huh?"
"Where'd they come from?"
I hesitated, taking lots of pauses and deep breaths. I knew my kids were going to ask me about my adventuring life at some point. 
"Before you were born, baby, I told you, I used to live quite a different life from the one I lead now."
"What kind of different life?"
"Oh, I used to do a lot of traveling, different countries. I used to do paid archaeology work and there's a part of me that still wants to do that. That urge doesn't go away. At times it was dangerous work. Disarming traps, walking through fire, exploring tombs, fighting mummies –"
I saw Sage’s eyes popped open.
"I've had enough electricity shot through me to power an entire town for a year."
"How did you get the stuff? Some of those vases in there have to be really really old."
"They are really really old, baby. They date back thousands and thousands of simyears."
"Some of those vases are really beautiful. Can I bring one to school?"
I smiled. "Sure, as long as you bring it back."

Home Is Where The Heart Is Part 2

 

So, as you guys know, my family and I are back home – Sunset Valley, that is.  We’re here because my father is receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award, and a new arts facility, the Nathan J. and Shandra B. Plumb Performing Arts Center, has opened.  The facility was so named to honor my parents’ substantial contributions to the arts in Sunset Valley. 

They even let Sety out of Fort Starch on furlough so he could participate in the festivities.  AJ has been out for some time. 

AJ was shook up by Fort Starch, but Sety wasn’t fazed at all.  At least, as far as I could tell.  It’s quite possible that I have no idea what Sety went through in Egypt.  Satis tried to tell me but the words were even hard for her.  The abuse they went through at the hands of that crazed madman known as their biological father was just inconceivable to my affluent, Anglo-Saxon, Western ears.  And I think Satis has basically blocked it out while Sety has had more problems dealing with it.  Maybe I should have them talk to Sage’s counselor. 

After the Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak was overthrown, their biological father, Samir Amin, who was apparently running a covert operation in the guise of a computer business, was thrown in jail too. 

Which is why I was so against Satis going to Egypt. 

Oh and I found out something else about Sety.  He is dyslexic. 

Returning to Sunset Valley is fraught with emotion.  I was born and raised here, my father was born and raised here, my grandmother established her practice here.  We have deep roots in this town.  Of course, the emotional part of me wants to come back here permanently, but the sensible part of me knows that it’s not really possible, especially with my new job as Hidden Springs’ minister of culture.  Also, with my children growing up, it would be selfish of me to uproot them again, after I’ve done it before.  Sage still hasn’t recovered from the last move. 

The Nathan J. and Shandra B. Plumb Performing Arts Center is a HUGE facility right by Summer Hill.  When I say this place is big, I mean it. There is a big stage right near the front along with an entrance. 

The first act we got to perform there was a magician, Azzie the Magnificent.  (Click the picture to see the Facebook album we made of the event)  Sage is apparently a big fan of his, and Bassy even got an autographed poster for her after his performance was done. 

Stay Tuned for Home is Where the Heart Is Part 3 – Getting Madison Avenue to come to NJP. 

Mag Interview #3

Savannah Plumb Cheesman's stunning interview
Her most candid yet, the author, adventurer, minister of culture and full time mom spills on a wide range of topics.




Savannah Plumb Cheesman has always been a 'shoot from the hip' kind of girl. 'Say it' or 'do it' now, think later, should have been her motto. It's an impulsiveness she inherited from her movie-composer father, Nathan, who famously wrote more than three hundred musical compositions, several of which were used in hit films. But leavening the impulsivity is a practical streak inherited from her mother, Shandra, the first female conductor of the Sunset Valley orchestra.
When she returned recently (along with her expansive brood) to the friendly confines of Sunset Valley for the dedication of the Nathan J. Plumb Arts Center, she sat down with our Jeni Conzonire -- and what she revealed to us was stunning.
Everyone reading this knows Mrs. Cheesman's background already. She was born to Sunset Valley royalty, the king and queen of the town's arts scene. Her mother, a gifted polymath and classical pianist, met her father, the brash, flashy young upstart musician, in the orchestra. They hit it off and eventually, married.
Celebrity: Savannah, you grew up around music, your parents were involved in it, your brother Noah was involved in it, your other brother (Sebastian Plumb) seems to be coming around to it as well, how come you didn't follow that path?
Savannah Plumb Cheesman: Can I be frank with you?
Celebrity: Sure.
Savannah: I spent my whole life running away from being a Plumb.
Celebrity: Really? Explain.
Savannah: I think it -- I don't know -- I think it was a part of me that, you know, couldn't deal with it. I knew that at some level I was different. Though I liked playing guitar, you know, and taking the art lessons and stuff, I was much more interested in other things.
Celebrity: Such as?
Savannah: History, archaeology, adventure. That was it. I couldn't see myself living the staid proper life of a socialite.
Celebrity: Yet that's exactly what you're doing now.
Savannah: Funny how that works huh? I got sick while I was in China, then I got married and had my kids. I love my kids and I wouldn't trade them for the world, but, you know, sometimes I wonder, you know, what if...
Celebrity: Tell me about Andrew. Now, he's the soccer player you're married to, and he's the biological father of your four children.
Savannah: Andy and I met in high school.
Celebrity: Did you guys start dating in high school?
Savannah: No, we couldn't stand each other.
Celebrity: How, then, did you guys end up married? And he is the father of your four children?
Savannah: He was incredibly persistent.
Celebrity: What do you mean by that?
Savannah (laughs) He chased me down! When I went missing in Egypt he and my parents arranged a search party to find me. Then he told me this story about how he'd always loved me from the first time he saw me -- and I was gone. What convinced me more was when he went with me to the adoption proceedings when I adopted my children. I figured he had to really love me if he was going to take me on and my two children.
Celebrity: While you were in Egypt, you adopted your two oldest kids, Imsety and Satis. It was a controversial adoption because it was the first of its kind in Simland.
Savannah: It was a transatlantic adoption. I had to submit an adoption application and then petition the courts in Egypt and in Sunset Valley. A lot of people were skeptical that it could work, including my dad and my fiance. It was a very stressful period, but it was all worth it. I got two great kids.
Celebrity: You have written that adopting your kids completely changed your life. You still feel that way?
Savannah: Absolutely. Meeting them while on adventure in Egypt, that completely changed my life. I don't think I'd be sitting here if I hadn't.
Celebrity: Where do you think you'd be?
Savannah (sighs) I don't know, um, perhaps I would be out adventuring. I don't know.
Celebrity: Soon after your wedding to Andrew, you got pregnant.
Savannah: He was ecstatic. I was a little apprehensive. I wasn't sure how I'd do as a mom. I figured I wasn't mom material. I remember thinking, Ok I can chase down a mummy in Egypt, but how am I going to chase a toddler around in diapers? Then AJ was born, and I froze. I had no idea what to do. I had this screaming kid in my arms and I just stood there. Luckily Andy is a MUCH better parent than I ever could think to be.
Celebrity: Speaking of AJ, is he the one that was sentenced to boot camp?
Savannah: Yes, and it crushed me completely. Tore me up inside. Actually, though, it was him and his older brother --
Celebrity: Imsety, one of the two kids you adopted from Egypt.
Savannah: Completely tore me up. The whole situation. I didn't handle it well at all. I remember thinking at that moment that I'd completely failed as a parent.
Celebrity: But your other adopted daughter, Satis, turned out fine.
Savannah: She's been a complete blessing to me. She helps out with the younger kids --
Celebrity: Speaking of the younger kids, you had a daughter, Sage, who's a teenager now, and you've had your struggles with her too.
Savannah: Sage and I have had our issues. I've learned that she is a vegetarian, which I don't necessarily agree with, but my philosophy has always been to allow my children to develop their own interests and personalities, to not force them to conform to a mold. This is easier said than done, however, because I'm a bit of a control freak, so to take my feet off the gas, so to speak, and allow things to happen is not really a natural impulse of mine.
Celebrity: How did you feel when Sage wrote the letter to you and when she called Dr. Bill?
Savannah: I was stunned. Completely blindsided. I had no idea she felt this way. I was tempted to send her away just to not have her around anymore. But Andy and Dr. Bill convinced me that we needed to spend more time together, you know, just getting to know each other. Can I tell you a story?
Celebrity: Sure.
Savannah: When Sage was a child, she had this science project where she had to collect insects from around the community. She came home crying because she couldn't find this one water beetle, and, you know, it really frustrated her that she couldn't find this beetle, and she did a report on the extinction of the water beetle.
Celebrity: So she's an environmentalist.
Savannah: I'd say so. And my younger daughter, Sierra, completely scares me because she is exactly like I was when I was her age.
Celebrity: What do you mean by that?
Savannah: I was a tomboy! My mother was very frustrated by that. She'd, you know, put on these lovely little dresses and I'd come back with them dirty and ripped.

Home Is Where The Heart Is Part 1

 

Hello again, c’est moi, Savannah Plumb Cheesman, catching a break. 

Two days ago we arrived in Sunset Valley, my birthplace and hometown.  Why?  We’re here for the dedication of the Nathan J. Plumb Performing Arts Center, which was recently built. 

Even my kid brother, Bassy, is here, having emerged from his month-long seclusion.  I worry about him, seriously.  I can’t help it.  Ever since he was born, it’s always been my responsibility to protect him.  It’s what I do.  I haven’t done that and I feel bad about it.  I never wanted a little brother, but now that he’s here, I don’t know how I ever lived without him.

He did this once before, when he’d just turned teen, I’d gone to Egypt and he pretty much clammed up.  Shut himself off from the world.  Wouldn’t go anywhere, wouldn’t answer the door, just shut himself up in his room.  So I know something is up, I just haven’t figured out exactly what, yet. 

Meanwhile, he has been entertaining my kids with his renditions of dad’s guitar compositions.  Sage in particular loves him to death.  He gave her one of his golden retriever puppies. 

Back in Hidden Springs, just before we left for Sunset Valley, we were surprised by a personal visit from the Queen herself.  “What can I do for you?” Andy asked.

“I’d like to see your wife, if you don’t mind,” I heard the queen say in her haughtiest voice.

Of course I was in no condition to see anyone.  After all, Skylar had been running me (and all of us) completely ragged. 

In fact, Max, our new butler, almost quit because of Skylar.  She is a handful, far worse than any of my other kids combined. 

“Mrs. Cheesman,” she began, “I’ve left an invitation to my son’s wedding in your mailbox.  But that’s not why I came here.  I came to personally appoint you as minister of culture for Hidden Springs.”

I gulped.  “Minister of culture?  What’s that?”

“In layman’s terms, someone who arranges the community’s entertainment.  You would also oversee the art museums.”

I had to admit the position intrigued me.  After all I did grow up in show business and still have plenty of contacts in the industry.  Between Andy’s sports acquaintances and my Simmywood acquaintances, we pretty much have the bases covered.

The first act I booked in Subalpine Square was a magician, Azzie the Magnificent.  The kids loved him, especially Sage.  Sierra could care less, lol.

Next was a pop singer called Yours Truly.  Apparently Princess Anastasia (one of the Vanderburg twins) showed up wearing only her bathing suit in front of the guy, which my kids and I found hilarious. 

And the other day Andy took the kids to see Marcelo the Flexible perform his high-wire act in the Coliseum. 

So we leave for Sunset Valley, for this dedication ceremony.  I’m actually kind of dreading it.  I just know something is going to go wrong. 

Just Plumb -- Insanity?

My mother and I were talking on Simbook, and we concluded that a streak of insanity has to be a hidden trait in this family.
We arrived at this conclusion after my darling little brother posted on his Simbook that he has decided once again to pick up sticks and head to a new locale. This time, to Starlight Shores. I don't know why he is so untethered. I suppose in his own way he has a wanderer's spirit. He's had this amazing success as an actor, but I get the sense that he is restless, that he isn't satisfied, that it's not really what he wants. Then there were the rumors that he got his ex-girlfriend pregnant in Bridgeport. I warned him that if this was his child, he had to take care of his responsibility. I don't want him to be a deadbeat dad, if he is. I also reminded him that, even though he's a huge star, he is STILL my little brother. I won't ever let him forget that.
There is a streak of stubbornness, independence, and idealism running through the family, and I now see traces of it running through all three of my biological children and also in Satis, the child I raised. Sometimes I think Satis has been around me way too long. The fact that she defied me and hightailed it to Egypt when I warned her that a) it was too dangerous and b) she was going to be found out, recalls my own youthful impetuousness. I told AJ that when he got out of military school he would have to decide what he wanted to do with his life. AJ told me that he wants to go backpacking through China and Egypt. That's another one who's been around me way too long. lol As for my daughter, Sage, we suddenly can't keep her off her horse longer than five seconds. She'd rather ride a horse than drive a car. And my youngest daughter seems to be very athletically inclined, very much into sports.
One thing I've always encouraged in my children is individualism. I've pretty much taken my hands off the pedals and let them explore their own paths. The funny thing is, that's kind of hard for me to do because I'm a control freak. I like being in charge. It's the approach Dad took with Bassy and me. He never forced us into the music biz, although Bassy seems to be coming into it on his own, after 'dabbling' in acting (hard to imagine me saying a multiple acting award winner is dabbling in acting, but that's what I think anyway). I'm not sure his heart is in music either, but whatever. He's going to do what he's going to do, who am I to say anything about it.
I can't say I've really dealt with Sage's rant. I know it shocked us to our core, and to have it come from Sage of all people -- who pretty much hadn't said anything, was just kind of stunning. I just didn't understand -- and still don't, really -- understand why she is so angry with me. Why does she hate me?