The Name's Oliver - Ben Oliver. Ch. 159: Duty vs Ethics, Pt. II

[Schipperke]

In the Valley of Dragons, Part VII

Diary Entry

The blonde woman looked shocked when she realized I wasn't Lady Olive.  "Wh- who are you?" she blurted out.



"My name's Oliver - Ben Oliver," I told her.   She didn't want to tell me her name, but I finally got it out of her - Fenella Farrell.

"So, Fenella Farrell," I said to her, "Why have you been blackmailing Lady Olive and her husband all these years?"

"He deserved it!" she snarled.  "After the way he treated my mother, leaving her for that woman, just when my mother needed him!"



I looked questioningly at her and she continued, "My mother was pregnant.  She was alone with no money.  As soon as he found out about the baby, Fforbes started backing off.  My mother had no money and no social position.  The high-and-mighty Bensons don't marry people like us!"

"And the baby - would that have been you?" I asked.

"Yes, it was me," she said.  "My mother managed to get a bit of money out of him but we never had quite enough to live on.  She struggled to pay the bills, and sometimes we went hungry.  Meantime, Fforbes and that woman were living in luxury!"



"So when you got older you started demanding money from him," I said.

"He owed it to us!" she said emphatically.  "It's not as if they had any children of their own to leave their millions to - snooty Lady Olive probably didn't want to be bothered with kids."

Fenella was wrong about that. I remembered Lady Olive's sadness when she had spoken of her childless marriage.  I asked Fenella what her mother thought about the blackmail.



"... she never knew," Fenella said sadly.  "My mother was sick - she was never very strong.  I used the money to help look after her before she died.  Was it wrong for me to want my mother to have a comfortable bed and decent food to eat when she was ill?"

I wasn't going to debate that issue with her.  I said gently, "But you continued to blackmail him after your mother died?"

"Why shouldn't he pay!" she burst out.  "He was so ashamed of us that he would do anything to keep people from knowing about us.  He was my father.  And he was willing to pay to keep people from knowing that."



"And now that he's dead, what now?" I asked her.

"Now I'll take that suitcase of money and be on my way!  It doesn't matter if Lady Olive knows who I am - she'll never go to the police, she's just as determined as he was to keep it a secret."

"You're right that Lady Olive won't go to the police," I agreed.  "But you're forgetting something - I know who you are.  You've admitted to me that you've been committing blackmail for many years.  Blackmail is a felony.  Maybe Lady Olive won't go to the police, but I will."



She was furious.  She yelled at me, threatened me, insulted me.  I waited for her to finally wind down and said, "Fenella, look at it this way - you've received the child support you and your mother were owed.  I don't approve of what you've done, but I do understand why you did it.  Lady Olive is old and alone.  She's not guilty of anything except being rich and marrying the man your mother loved.  If you promise to leave her alone, I won't report you to the police.  Come now - do you really want to spend the rest of your life as a criminal?  I've known many criminals - it's not a pleasant life.  Always looking over your shoulder, wondering when you'll get caught.  And eventually Lady Olive would decide she had nothing to lose by going to the police.  After all, she came to me, you know.  So how about it - why don't you quit while you're ahead and get on with making your own life?"



She was silent for some time.  Finally she said quietly, "I just wanted a father, you know?"

I nodded.

"But you're right," she said.  "This was kind of fun at first, but it isn't any more.  I need to make a new life for myself, but I don't know how.  I don't have any friends here in Dragon Valley.  What do you think I should do?"

I told her I had a friend named Ronnie who was planning to move to Island Paradise, and suggested she talk to him.  "There are bound to be lots of jobs opening up at the resorts there," I told her.  Nice climate, deep-sea diving - if you're ready for a move, why not try it?"  I wrote down Ronnie's phone number and handed it to her.





"I will!" she said, with a big smile that transformed her face.

We parted, if not friends, at least not enemies, and I thought Fenella might just be able to be able to make a success of her fresh start in Island Paradise.

I returned the suitcase of money to Lady Olive and told her that I didn't think the blackmailer would be bothering her any more.  She was full of questions, but I just repeated that I had taken care of things.

"Well, if you don't want to tell me any more about it, I guess I can't make you," she said.  "Thank you for helping me.  Please accept this small gift as a token of my appreciation."



I thanked Lady Olive for the gift, tucked it in my backpack, and bade goodbye to her and Dragon Valley.

[Audren]

While Fenella certainly made some questionable decisions, I can sort of sympathize with her. Hopefully she keeps her nose out of trouble, and Ben won't have to talk to her about this again. Where will Ben go after Dragon Valley, I wonder?

[Swirl-Girl]

Poor Fenella. Oh well, Obviously the present has great significance to the story later.

[ladybug53]

I to can sympathize with Fenella but it still wasn't right . Ben might just bump into her again on his travels , one never knows where he'll end up . Great chapter ! 

[Schipperke]

In the Valley of Dragons, Part VIII

Diary Entry

Back home in Monte Vista, I went up to my room and opened the package Lady Olive had given me.  It contained several large, dark, leathery-looking objects.  I pulled out one of them and put it on the floor.



These were the most peculiar-looking eggs I had ever seen.  Lady Olive had told me I should talk to them, but I had never before tried to converse with an egg.  What did one say to an egg?

"Hello, egg.  My name is Ben Oliver," I said tentatively.

The egg said nothing.

"Uh ... what's your view on Eggs Machiavellian?" I asked, trying to find some common interest with the object.  The egg said nothing, but I sensed a certain disapproval and I realized it probably hadn't been very tactful of me to imply that I might be interested in eating it.  I hastily apologized, while briefly wondering what sort of dish I might be able to create with these odd-looking eggs.  Probably that would be something I'd rather not find out. 

Back to the task at hand.  What else could I discuss with the egg?  Hobbies, maybe?  I remembered Humpty Dumpty sitting on a wall.  Ok, ol' Humpty came to a bad end, but surely he must have had some reason for getting up on the wall in the first place. "By any chance, are you interested in wall climbing?"



The egg said nothing.  Was it my imagination, or did the thing seem to be interested?  Feeling a bit desperate and extremely silly,  I proceeded to discuss the intricacies and challenges of wall climbing with it.  I had pretty much exhausted that topic of conversation and was casting about for something else to talk about when suddenly the egg began to crack open.



A tiny creature emerged, blinking and looking at me. 



A pet!  I had always wanted a pet, but I wasn't home enough to have a dog.  Lady Olive had told me that baby dragons required very little care and could be carried in one's inventory.   

The little fellow allowed me to pick him up.  I scratched his tummy, telling him "You and I are going to have wonderful adventures together, little buddy!"



Lady Olive had been very emphatic in telling me, "You have to give the dragon a name.  That will bind him to you and keep other Sims from taking him."  A name for my little buddy.  A good dragon name.  I offered him a treat and told him, "I christen thee 'Fluffy'".  Fluffy took his treat.



Playtime with Fluffy was cut short by the ringing of my telephone.  De Luca.  As soon as I answered, she said, "Oliver!  What are you doing?  Never mind, whatever it is, drop it!  You need to get over to Barnacle Bay immediately!  There's trouble at the prison over there!  Well, why are you still here, Oliver?  I said NOW, recruit!"



And so I set out on my next mission.

[Swirl-Girl]

Ha! I love his topics of conversation. I wonder what's happening at the prison?

[ladybug53]

A funny chapter , I quite enjoyed it  ! Barnacle Bay , I'm sure there are a few ruff looking pirates over there . I wonder what Ben will encounter . Great chapter ! 

[RainBeau]

Wow. You are certainly putting all of those towns you have to use! Poor Ben never gets a break, does he? But I love reading his adventures. I love his little red dragon Fluffy.
Why does the name 'Ronnie' sound so familiar?

[Schipperke]

Wow. You are certainly putting all of those towns you have to use! Poor Ben never gets a break, does he? But I love reading his adventures. I love his little red dragon Fluffy.
Why does the name 'Ronnie' sound so familiar?

Ronnie was the orderly at the Garden Sanatorium.  He told Ben that he was planning to move to Island Paradise, get a houseboat, and become a surfer dude. 

And you're right about the towns!  That's one of the things I'm most enjoying about this story and game - getting to use all the towns I have.  In fact, just yesterday evening I was making a mental list of the towns I still haven't used.  There are quite a few left!  Ben is becoming quite a well-travelled Sim, and it's getting me out of my old habit of always playing in Sunset Valley.

Thanks for the comments! 

[Audren]

Ooh, a prison! Maybe good ol' Fluffy will come in handy in Barnacle Bay! Sure, they might have pirates, but Team Oliver has dragons!

[Louise56]

I love his conversation with the egg. Can't wait for the next adventure!

[InvenTeck]

Fluffy, I'm sure that just hearing the name will make Ben's foes tremble.

[Schipperke]

Fluffy, I'm sure that just hearing the name will make Ben's foes tremble.

Yes, it's definitely a name to strike fear into the hearts of evildoers.  After they finish laughing their heads off, probably.   

The name came down to a choice between Fluffy and Snowball.  For reasons I couldn't begin to explain, Fluffy won the final cut.

What can I say, other than to repeat that I am badly name-challenged.

Thank you very much for the comments!  I'm putting the finishing touches on the prison and hope to have the first chapter of that episode up soon.

[Schipperke]

Blood Island, Part I

Diary Entry

On the road again.  If SimAir gave frequent flyer points, I would have been able to spend the rest of my life on an airplane for free.  When I checked in at the airport, there was a folder from De Luca waiting for me with information on the prison.  I found my seat on the plane and started reading.



The Blood Island Penitentiary was a maximum-security institution, used to incarcerate Sims convicted of the most serious crimes.  The folder included an aerial photograph of the facility.



Reading on, I learned that the little island had previously been home to one of Barnacle Bay's most illustrious and wealthy citizens.  When she died leaving no heirs, the property sat vacant for some time, falling into disrepair.  The city purchased the house and razed it to the ground, putting up the prison in its place.  Apparently the island was also renamed at that time, but the information I had been given didn't say what the previous name had been.

The prison was initially run by the city, who later turned over the management and running of the facility to a private contractor.  Since then, the city management had very little to do with the institution.  The city paid the contractor, and they relied on the private contractor to submit regular reports.  These reports were always on time.  No problems of any sort had ever been reported.  Until now.  I wondered what the issue was at the facility.  By this time the plane had landed in Appaloosa Plains and was taking on new passengers.  I looked up as someone sat down beside me.



Reading could wait!  It was only right that I should be polite and introduce myself to my new travelling companion, help her to feel comfortable.



She said this was her first flight, and she was quite nervous about flying.  I knew how to help her with that.





The rest of the flight passed very quickly.  All too soon the plane was taxiing down the Barnacle Bay runway.  My new friend was very grateful for my help in dealing with her fear of flying.



Duty called.  I walked out of the terminal and caught the first cab in line, instructing him to take me to the Blood Island Penitentiary.



Diary Entry Ends.

Dear readers:  Did you notice that Ben has a new kilt in this chapter?  It came with Dragon Valley and I wanted to try it out.  It's a little longer than the original store kilt, which I like, but I'm not sure about the style.  What do you think - should he stay with his original kilt or change to this one?

[cndneh]

I think for me to make a proper decision we need Ben to model his new kilt a bit better than just sitting.  Perhaps a fashion show?  (I'm thinking of the movie Miss Congeniality... Ben could play the Sandra Bullock part!)

Love how Ben "helped" with the lady's fear of flying.  haha!