Chapter 19 - A Replacement?
Colette did not, of course, want anyone to think her ungrateful. Sure, she was a bit miffed about how Iris got to be Immortal while the rest of them got to live out their normally-lengthed lives and die normal old aged deaths. She was perhaps a bit indignant about the fact that she and Norman were meant to stand by and 'help' them with their goals.
And when she learned that the immortality would be passed on to Rose, and then Gerald, but not Henry, she was initially highly disdainful of just how unfair these rules were.
But she was appreciative, nonetheless, that their life of 'helping' was better than their life of 'existing' and so she went on helping.
She drew the line, however, at being asked to go about recruiting other helpers. Antwan Paul was younger than she was, albeit not by much, and had excellent gardening skills. He would make an excellent helper, but she would not be the one to ask him to join their quest.
Despite Colette's unwillingness to perform the role of recruiter, the expedition to the Oasis Springs Park was a productive one. It had provided a much-needed change of scenery to the family that had been mostly home-bound for the last few weeks.
Not that the home-bound days had been wasted. It was just difficult with two young children to find time to get out and about. Gerald was turning into a bit of a handful and, to be honest, Colette worried about him. He seemed to have a self-confidence that she might have called dangerous, if it hadn't been her grandson. She wondered if the others had noticed it, too.
Henry, for his part, was a fairly contented child, and though Norman had spent little time with Gerald as an infant, he was warming up to parenting and much more confident with his younger son.
Sergio's spirit had finally begun making appearances. Colette had missed him more than she'd cared to confess. She had regretted keeping her distance from him in the first week she'd spent with the Morvens, and informed him thusly as soon as his spirit appeared.
The two of them wasted little time in making up for such missed opportunities.
Norman had admittedly been a pretty slow learner, but he finally maxed the writing skill. He was also slow at gaining promotions and for some reason, his work schedule seemed to be working against him when it came to days off. Sure, he was grateful for having lots of time to spend with his family, but Rose was leaps and bounds ahead of him in earning promotions, despite being pregnant for very nearly the entire time she'd been working, and his having the Entrepreneurial trait.
He was worried. While there had been a surprising market for
stories about Ducks, he wondered if the world of journalism would have quite the same demand for the adventures of aquatic birds.
Rose had explained to him that journalism involved writing about real people and real events.
"You have to be able to talk to people. You know, ask the right questions to get the right information," Rose had said, "I think it would be a good idea to spend some of those days off building up your…eloquence. Mom maxed charisma, maybe she can help you out."
"Oh ho, great idea Rose!" Norman exclaimed. A small room was set up in the basement, surrounded by all the fish Colette had mounted, and he started working away on building up his charismatic nature.
Rather than jumping into bed straight away after Henry was born, Rose and Norman had been distracted by their rather rambunctious elder child, work, skilling, and caring for the newborn. Though she would have happily accepted twins for pregnancies 1 or 2, she absolutely could not afford to have twins for baby number three, and had toyed with the idea of adopting her final child. But she really wanted another baby of her own, so with Henry's birthday just around the corner, they finally decided to go for baby number three.
This did mean, however, that they wanted another helper in the house. Someone older, who could maybe help with the fishing and gardening (both tasks which Iris still refused to take part in) as well as Sergio's old role.
Iris was keeping herself busy in the way Immortals usually did. Working on skills and spare aspirations, mentoring the grandchildren, feeding the family, those sorts of things. It was a far less stressful existence for sure, but already Iris was starting to grow a little bored. She chalked it up as being all part of the curse.
She loved it when Joaquin came around for a visit. Oh, it still wasn't like having him around in person, but it was always great to see him, and to catch him up on everything that had happened since his last visit.
Joaquin didn't talk much about what it was like being dead. He seemed to spend most of his visits just revisiting and reminiscing about some of the perks of being alive.
Iris had no complaints in that regard. She had even put a closet in her own room especially for his visits.
This brings us back, I suppose, to the visit to the park. Yes, a change of scenery had been good. A new fishing spot was most welcome, and though she only caught one angelfish to add to the fish tank, Colette did catch a fair few other fish that hadn't previously been in her collection.
Gerald called the first official gathering of the Rambunctious Rascals, the kids club he had formed with some of his classmates, with the intention of easily making 'friends' out of them.
Most of his classmates were, incidentally, the children of his mother's Uncle Sergio. They were disappointingly neither rambunctious nor rascals, and most of them opted instead to use the time to work on their homework.
Friends, he had decided, were boring, and had little utility. He much preferred making enemies out of other sims. He wasn't allowed to be mean to the other kids, but adults were fair game.
Truth be told, the visit to the park had come as a bit of a shock. He had thought he knew everything about the world. Home and school. But to discover that there was more world out there, and more people he needed to be able to control? He thought maybe he would need to reconsider his plans for a global takeover, as the globe seemed to be a bit bigger than he had initially thought.
While Colette had wanted nothing to do with the recruiting of new 'helpers', Antwan Paul did fit the bill for the placeholder slash pollinator they needed. Iris was easily able to talk him into joining the dynasty, promising he would be able to live out his golden years comfortably, communing with nature, fishing and gardening, and surrounded by beautiful women.
It was a pretty easy sell, all things considered, and so Antwan joined the leagues of the Morven Dynasty helpers.
Colette wasn't sure how she felt about this. It seemed to her like Sergio was being replaced, and far too soon for her liking. Were they all replaceable?
It seemed like they could have stayed at the park all night, and in way, that would have been preferred if more angelfish could have been caught. But when Gerald started falling off the monkey bars and blaming the other kids for it, Nana Iris decided to call it a night. She promised him they could come back later and keep playing.
But Gerald just mumbled something about how he would be 'the ruler' of the park one day. Iris and Colette exchanged bemused glances, wondering perhaps whether or not they should be worried about what that might mean.
Antwan had only met Colette and Iris, so upon returning to the house, he was introduced to Norman.
"I say," chided Antwan "this blackened bass is delightful. Are you quite sure you don't want to savour it slowly, young man?"
"Eeyup," mumbled Norman through another mouthful of fish.
Iris, meanwhile, went straight upstairs to the nursery. Henry would be aging up soon, and she wanted to get as many cuddles as she could.
She hoped little Henry wouldn't be quite as much work as Gerald.
But sure enough, not long after their cuddles, it was time for Henry to take on the big world as a big kid.
"Woah," he murmured. "I have legs! Big legs"
"And hands! Oh, this is going to be so cool!"
And here, dear readers, will I leave with a collage of the boys and their parents (because I'm miserable at trying to identify exactly how which looks like who. I think Henry looks more like Norman in terms of facial structure, but he still has the light skin).
