Winter in Riverview: File Lost (Failed)

[Tilia]

So, Fish fell asleep on the flight and Mom and I had a long talk.  My mind is pretty blown.  She knows about Gloria, she knows about all the stuff that happened in Egypt with Maurella (or at least some of it), and she told me that Annabelle used to be part of her too.

"She will be with you until you have a girl baby, I'd wager," she said, touching my hair.  "You will miss her when she is gone, but you will also be glad when she is gone."

I personally can't imagine Annabelle ever being gone.  Her excitement when I paint and when I study is so much a part of who I am, that I don't think I'll ever lose her.  Mom wants to find out more about Maurella and the conspiracy, though, while we're in Egypt.  Honestly, I want to find out more too, so I'm excited about that.

So, while Mom is off doing her thing (again), Fish and I hang out at camp.  We play catch a lot.  A game in which he catches and I drop the ball.




He's such a jock.  He's finally started working on his Sim Fu, and we love to practice together.  He gives me a run for my money!  He's stronger and more athletic than me, but I'm a higher belt than him.



It's strange how close Fish and I are now.  Next to Gloria, he is my best friend.  I felt compelled to tell him that this morning and teased me something fierce and then pulled me into a really sweet hug.  Mom says Dad was sweet that way too.  We're going to be close for our whole lives.



When I'm not hanging out with Fish, I'm learning to snake charm!  How cool is that.



Fish is doing what Fish does:  putting the moves on every woman in Egypt:





Mom pushed on with her research and her visa work.  She confided to me that she really wants to buy a home in Egypt for us to have after she's gone.  I believe that Mom can do anything she puts her mind to.

[Tilia]

So, you'll never believe what happened last night.  Dad's ghost showed up!  Fish woke up to him napping next to him in bed!



We tried to tell Mom, but she wasn't having it.  She just kept badgering me about how I need to go ahead and decide on my lifetime wish now that I'm graduating tomorrow.  I have rolled every lifetime wish in the book.  This is so much pressure!



Mom also got AH-MAZING photos of some mummies while we were in Egypt.  Not museum Mummies, straight-up haunted, walking the earth Mummies that chased her in the tombs.  She sold most of the photos, but we kept a few for the house.




Fish wanted this really gorgeous photo of a sarcophagus and a pile of gold instead of a mummy, so it's above his bed now.



Anyway!  Mom's elder birthday rolled around and I got Fish to distract her.  He asked her for a driving lesson (works for him on multiple levels) and I busted my rear making a painting of her in her youth to go with dad's on the wall in the loft.




She celebrated on the road right after Fish accomplished his driving skill and I hung the paintings to surprise her when she gets home.




As planned, I graduated.  I got voted most likely to accomplish my lifetime wish!  Mom took a gorgeous photo of me in my robes and hung it in the hallway.



Fish spent a lot of time on the phone with various girls.



And Mom finally saw Dad.  Finally. 



And I learned that true love never dies.

[Tilia]

So I aged up nicely if I do say so myself.  I bought some really stylish clothes for myself and decided to loosen up my hairstyle a little.




I dream of being a doctor, but I'm devoting as much time as possible first to getting Gloria to reality.  That might seem like a pipe dream, but I am making serious progress!

The day I finally got the potion right, Fish had thrown this pool party down at the public pool.  I think it was his first public appearance.  The girls like him just as much as he likes them. 



He seems to have developed a special fondness for one of the Blount clan, though.  Her name is Darcy, and she has commitment issues.  She told him that right away.  Maybe he likes the challenge.

This is Darcy having the moves put on her:



When he finally got the courage up to kiss the poor girl, Mom came home at the worst possible moment and had to pry them apart.



He asked her to prom and she said yes, even if she won't commit fully.  She said something really bizarre about UFOs maybe abducting her beforehand.  I kind of like her, though, weirdness and all.  She has great taste in color!



Anyway, while he was up to his romantic hijinks, I gave Gloria the potion!



AND IT WORKED!




We cried like a bunch of saps.  Mom and Fisher were flabbergasted.  Gloria immediately went into town and signed up for three classes in a row!  She got a job in the restaurant.  Gloria loved to cook before and thinks she will again.

Mom's been acting a little odd in her golden years.  She went to work yesterday in her graduation robes.



But hey, at least she's working again.

[Tilia]

Fisher had quite a run in high school.  Not only was he prom king (and Darcy queen, of course), but he just graduated Valedictorian!  Mom wanted us to do a family dinner like we did after my graduation, but he acted really weird and said he had other plans.  We suspect Darcy is involved.  We went home and Mom hung his graduation photo next to mine in the hallway.



He grew up very handsome.  Anyway, you won't believe what he was up to after the ceremony!



Mom was pretty shocked.  She told him he'd better get a job first and make sure he can handle a family before the ceremony.  He's chosen to go into law enforcement.  I'm already a paramedic at the hospital.  I love love love it there.  I already am wearing scrubs to work, which makes me feel really official.



Mom, despite her misgivings, threw together a great backyard wedding set up in time for the ceremony.



Man the Blounts are weird.  Darcy's UFO talk is pretty charming, but her brothers are beyond ridiculous (Darcy is a triplet).  Mom looked on at her brother's pirate costume at the wedding with silent disapproval, but the other one looked so ridiculous in his space man costume that I'm pretty sure I openly laughed at him.  Yeah, I did.  Oops.




I looked great though.  Isn't my dress divine?



Anyway, Darcy isn't a Blount anymore.  She's a Winter now!



Mom and I decided to head to Egypt for a few days to bond and to pick out our first vacation home.  Gloria wanted to stay behind to work, as she's still getting the hang of modern cooking appliances.  And of course, the lovebirds wanted to be left alone.

[Tilia]

Mom and I said farewell to base camp.  She went on one last raid and I went back to my snake charming.




Anyway, here's the new place.  It's a modest little hut, but it's ours!



I called Fish to tell him before we came back so we wouldn't catch him in an awkward situation, and boy did he have news for us!  Looks like there will be one more Winter in the world very soon.  Unbelievable!

When I got back, he was already stressing out over the future of the unborn child (he wants a son, of course).



Darcy is having the world's most physically fit pregnancy




We had to force her to leave the public pool where she was swimming laps in her third trimester.  Woman even dreams about sports.  It should surprise no one that she is a professional athlete.

Anyway, when it happened, she had a brief moment of panicked pain then went totally zen while Fish flipped the heck out.




They had a baby boy named Lance.  He's a cute little button.  Let's hope he's more Winter than Blount.



They stayed on with us a few nights to rest up, but have since moved out into a really nice house.  I'm really going to miss Fish, but I'll be sure to visit lots.

[Tilia]

Let it never be said that the life of a Winter isn't action packed!  Mom has been spending a lot of time over at Fisher's, getting to know Baby Lance and teaching Fish to play chess.




They didn't have a toddler birthday for Lance because they are both just starting out and don't want to waste money, which we completely understand.  Anyway, he aged up as bald as the day he was born!



in the meantime, I've been busting my hump at work.  I'm a Resident now, which is pretty fancy if I do say so myself.  Work is pretty much my entire life.  I know that concerns mom, because she pulled me aside a few days ago for a "talk."  She used painting my portrait as the excuse to sit me down.  The woman can certainly multi-task.



"Rose," she said.  I know she's serious when she calls me Rose and not Rosie.  "You are so buried in your work that you're missing the entire life that's going on around you.  Have you even been over to visit Fish and Lance?"

Well, no, I hadn't. 

"How about Gloria?" Mom pried.  "You spent years trying to get her where she is, and you haven't had a conversation with her in a week!"

It was true.  In my shame and guilt I padded downstairs to apologize to Gloria, but stopped short when I saw that she was already deep in another conversation.



And whoa!  Suddenly I remembered.  Or Annabelle remembered.  I don't know.  I've never been clear on the logistics of my mental shared space.

Gloria loves women.  She had been in love with my sister, Maurella, a century ago.  Maurella had broken her heart (and mine too, if you want the truth).  I realized that because Gloria's second chance at life had been largely spent trapped in a plush toy, she might not realize that her affections are no longer taboo. 

I sneaked into her room that night, and knew I had been right.  The maid's name was Justine and that was the name Gloria was muttering in her sleep.  I prodded her awake and sat down to talk to her about it.



She was embarrassed, but then somewhat excited.  She seemed pretty certain that Justine returned the sentiment.  I encouraged her to invite Justine over for a simple day of fun tomorrow. 

They seemed to have a pretty good time!



Meanwhile, I was at work all the time and Mom was trying to teach Lance to talk.  I caught her loitering around outside every night.  I suspected what she was doing, but felt like it wasn't worth confronting her on it.  (Three nights further in, turns out I was 100% correct.  Mom wanted to show Lance to Dad and was waiting for him to show up.)



All in all, things are pretty great.  I spend a lot of time studying and meditating.  I've decided that as fun as romance looks, I'll have more time for it after I accomplish my lifetime wish of becoming a world renowned surgeon. 

[Tilia]

After a whirlwind few weeks of dating, Justine and Gloria sneaked off to the park one night and got secretly hitched.



Gloria is over the moon about it. I don't know that I've ever seen a couple having so much fun.



It has made me realize suddenly just how lonely I really am.  Everyone around me has fallen in love and my sole romantic experience was being rejected for a kiss by a boy at a teen party a hundred years ago.  Gloria has noticed how depressed I am and insists that I join the two of them on their honeymoon trip to France.

I was initially horrified by this suggestion, but I think France might do me good, and I will stay out of the way of those two while they're getting their newlywed on.



We invited Mom along, but she said she's done traveling for this lifetime.  She told us that she'd had a nice chat with Grim when he came for the neighbor woman, Malissa, and that she feels pretty good about wrapping up this lifetime.  I personally find that concerning, but when I see her strutting around and taking long bubble baths, it's hard to begrudge her that mindset.




France was a whirlwind.  The newlyweds went to the nectary for some tasting and canoodling while I hit the adventure board and decided to do some tomb raiding.  Let it never be said that I'm not my mother's daughter.




The more I tried to distract myself from failed romance, the more France made an effort to remind me about it.  The first major find I made was a heart-shaped keystone.  Seriously.



Fish called me to see how it was all going and I couldn't help but gush over how gorgeous it all was.



I promised to bring him home some pomegranate nectar.  I confided in him that there may be trouble in paradise, however.  I'd come home to hear the lovebirds having a hushed conversation about a woman named Yvette.  "What, are we just going to take her home with us?" Justine had snapped.

"I'd love to!" Gloria had shot back.  "I love her."

Well, that's concerning, but private.  Fish agrees I should stay out of it.

We were all completely exhausted by the time we got home.  Things went back to normal for a while and no one mentioned Yvette until one morning at breakfast, Justine announced that she was on her way over!



Well, I didn't know what to expect.  I braced myself for a huge blow out and Mom just looked puzzled.



Is that her?  Is she bringing us a picnic?  What in the name of the Watcher is going on?  Justine and Gloria were hugging and crying and suddenly the woman, without a word to any of us, deposited her picnic basket and ran out of our house like it was on fire.

Mom got with the program before the rest of us did, swooped in and reached into the basket.  Inside, special delivery from Champs de Sims, France, was little Yvette Winter, the newest member of our family.

[saltpastillen]

Not what I expected, but wonderful news nonetheless.

[Tilia]

Darcy came over with little Lance to meet Yvette.  The two got along really nicely.  I went to see Darcy afterward and she confided in me that she's really relieved Lance will have a playmate as there aren't many toddlers in Riverview these days.



The household has gone gaga for little Yvette.  Mommy Justine is adorable teaching her to walk.




Mommy Gloria just loves to cuddle.  She does everything toting little Yvette around on her hip.



While the household of women was swarming around pretty little Yvette, Lance aged up to a child!  He's a handsome little man, and Mom loves going over to torture him with the ol' grandma standby:  The cheek pinch.



And I, me, yes me, Rose Winter, met a boy.  His name is Liam and he's new in town.  He's ambitious like me and I love talking to him for hours.



Gloria heartily approves of him.  They joke around a lot and seem to share a pretty good sense of humor.



Yvette, ever the polite little girl, aged up in the privacy of the upstairs hallway.



Justine was pretty insistent that it was time to move out and find their own place before Yvette started school.  They found a place nearby and Justine the party animal had a housewarming party pretty much immediately.



The house felt so cold and empty after they went.  I called Liam and asked if I could crash at his place for the night.  I was nervous because we hadn't actually been out on a date or done anything other than flirt.  I decided the best bet was to assume I'd stay in the guest room.



We talked a bit, and I told him a little about the Annabelle craziness.  He seemed to think it was pretty cool.  Then I stood up and gave him a nice, long hug good night.  I just wanted the physical contact, if I'm honest. 



I sighed a little, enjoying the hug, trying not to have a PTSD flashback to that boy rejecting me back in high school, and then boom!  it happened.



Finally.

[Tilia]

I spent a lot of the next few weeks at Liam's.  It was less awkward than sharing the house with him and Mom.  He always made me breakfast and obviously it was wonderful to wake up next to him.



One morning, just a regular morning, I was doing my work ritual, brushing my pearly whites, and he barged into the bathroom, scaring me half to death. 



He spun me around and said he had to ask me something right this second.  I dropped my toothbrush, feigning dramatic preparation, but ... I probably should have actually prepared myself.




So ha!  I won't die the spinster aunt to Lance and Yvette after all.  I strutted all the way home.




Mom and I talked and talked about moving to a new place with new memories.  We packed up paintings and sold a bunch of relics to buy a really nice house in town.  Honestly, it seems vaguely familiar.  Maybe Annabelle knew it.

[Tilia]

Mom woke me up the day after the engagement was announced and dragged me out wedding shopping.  She arranged the party (just family!  I insisted.)

Anyway, I think she did an awesome job.  I barely recognize myself.



The wedding day was perfect.  The whole family turned out and a few of Liam's old roommates.  Unfortunately I think Justine and this guy, August, had some bad history.  They got into a screaming match on the porch.



Otherwise, though, it was perfect.  Fish and I joked and traded secrets to love.



And Lance decided he was king of the dining room (which seemed to concern my brother a little).



We held the ceremony outdoors in true Winter fashion.  While I believe I am pretty eloquent, this is a situation where I'm just going to let the photos speak for themselves:

[Tilia]

Liam and Mom are fast asleep.  The wedding tuckered everyone out.  Because I'm on the verge of starting a new family.  Because Mom is over 100 and will be lost to us any day now.  Because of everything - it just seemed like a good time to take a moment to write down just what I know about Annabelle - from Mom's research, my memories, and what Gloria has told me. 

One thing I'm sure of is that Annabelle is stronger in me than she was in Mom and I think that when I have a daughter she'll be stronger still.  That makes sense in light of what I've found out in the last few years.  Here goes.

My strongest memory of Annabelle is from her childhood.  She's running in calf-deep grass, fragrant and soft, playing tag with two other little girls.  They are all pink-faced and giddy with laughter.  I've come to realize that the other girls are Maurella and Gloria, and that at least in childhood, the three of us were the best of friends.  The feelings in my chest when I think about this memory are so bittersweet.  They are an absolute certainty that the three girls running in that field will love each other forever.

Maurella has pigtails and lies on her back after the game, her breaths coming softly.  I rest my head on her tummy and watch Gloria hop through the field on, one foot to the next, practicing her balance.  Maurella asks me to tell her the story about the princess and the prince again, resting her hand on my forehead.  She says she can't wait to fall in love.

Then something strange happens.  The air picks up a chill and a flurry of multi-colored leaves blows past us.  We giggle and shoot to our feet, running back to the manor house with our hands clasped, fingers twining around each other.  Gloria shouts joyously that autumn has come.  In my real life - my life as Rose, I've never experienced anything like the "autumn" in this dream.  The weather is still, the sun is constant, and there's never a chill in the air.  I must remember to ask Gloria about that.

The years between that enchanted childhood and the days in France are a blank for me.  Gloria says they were much of the same:  closeness and happiness and love.  But, something must have happened.  Something changed in all of us.

I do think that Gloria's affections for Maurella were tragically one-sided.  Maurella always loved rosy-cheeked golden boys who resembled the prince of our fairytale imaginings.  In fact, I imagine she would've been mad for Liam's boy-next-door looks.  As we got older, Gloria became more and more immersed in learning to become a world class chef, having left her dreams of romance behind with her childhood.  She moved to France to study and one day, late in our teens, our mother gave us permission to go visit her.  And that's where I met Him.

Like Mom, I can't remember Him very well.  I just know that Annabelle loved him more than life itself.  I know that she eloped with him immediately upon reaching young adulthood and I know that from there we began adventuring in Egypt with the intent of building a big mansion there and making it our second home.  But that's where things started to go wrong.  That's when Maurella changed.

I wish I knew what I did to wrong her.  I wish I knew why she joined up with MarcuCorp and got involved with the conspiracy to freeze us out.  I was deeply involved at that point with working against MarcuCorp and all they stood for, and Maurella had ended up on the other side.  We were sisters.  We belonged to each other.  And now we were enemies.

The final memory I have of Maurella is in a crypt late at night.  There's sandy dust settling and I'm clutching a burlap bag full of simoleans.  She is waiting in the dark.  Waiting for me and waiting for the money.  Her hand is resting on the slight curve of a developing pregnancy.  She looks at me and whispers something I can't remember, holding her hand out for the bag. 

And then I die.

[Tilia]

The other night, I was at the diner with some friends from work.  We were chatting about a new experimental drug that all of us had allowed to be tested on ourselves when I heard a panicked scream from outside.  We all dashed out and to my surprise and horror, the noise was coming from Justine!  However, it wasn't Justine in trouble, it was Gloria. 

She was doubled over clutching her stomach while Justine and (a now teenaged) Yvette panicked nearby.

I went into Super Doctor Mode and treated her with the equipment my colleague had in his inventory right on the spot!



Well!  When I got to work the next morning, did they have a surprise for me.  I was being promoted from my post as the hospital neurosurgeon to the Dean of Surgery!  I finally did it!  I am a world renowned surgeon. 



The first thing I did was fulfill a desire I had for my own hot tub.  I've earned it!



After my first soak, I called Gloria to tell her how her stomach bug had been instrumental in accomplishing my lifetime wish and she suggested she bring over some burgers and we have a barbecue to celebrate, so that's just what we did.  The whole family (and a couple of random strangers) showed up.

Here's Justine, Gloria, and Darcy hanging out in Mom's room.  (Fun Fact - Mom said this room was one of her first architecture assignments, and that while here, she was also sure Annabelle knew it!)



Justine appears to have put on some weight.  I've had Gloria's cooking, so I can't really blame her.



Fish and I did some sparring.  Boy, we're both out of practice. 



And Mom flirted with a random party-crashing vampire who (even in vampire years) is probably half her age.



That night, blissfully happy from the success of our little house party, I realized what it meant now that I'd fulfilled my LTW. 



Well, I mentioned it to Liam when he came to bed that night and suddenly, boom!



Do not be shocked if there is another Winter on the way soon! 

[Tilia]

My new hot tub is a roaring success.  My husband, for reasons unknown to me, has taken to skinny dipping in it in broad daylight.  I kind of love the "yeah, this is happening," look he shoots me every time I catch him at it.



I also got up for a glass of water a few nights ago and spotted someone else enjoying the hot bubbles.



That man is loving the afterlife.

Well, no big surprise here, but I'm expecting a nooboo!  I've gotten huge super fast, but Liam insists I'm beautiful.  He was so, so happy when I told him.  (You'll never guess where the nooboo was conceived.  It really was a great purchase.)



I'm glad, too, because I've been feeling a little self conscious about how much older I am than Liam.  For goodness sake, I'm having my elder birthday very soon.  At this rate, Mom and I will be elders together.  Maybe I should adapt her diet.  It also doesn't help that our very fetching maid clearly has the hots for him.



Obviously I can't blame her!  But he is taken.  And if anyone is going to hover in corners and leer while he works out (Have i mentioned that he's a professional athlete?  Yum.), it's me!

[Tilia]

I went into labor last night.  It hurt.



Liam rushed me to the hospital after calming himself down and a few hours later, we had the surprise of our lifetime.



This is Elise: the most delicate, pretty little girl in the world.  She's not the surprise though.



He is!  Baby #2 is named Simon.  We named the children for the first Winters in Riverview, and they are lovely names if I do say so.

Mom was waiting anxiously with Fish and Lance to hear about the birth, but I don't know if she ever got the news.




I rushed over as fast as I could, leaving the babies in Liam's capable hands.  Lance was inconsolable, but Fish and I knew that she was ready to go.



I forgot to ask, so I called him that night, after feeding the nooboos and settling into bed.  "Did she say anything ... before she went?"

Fish laughed a little.  "Yeah.  She said, 'Hunter!'"