Chapter 86 - Rush of Energy My elder pieces were completed within the day, with help from a Moodlet Manager or two, and the door appeared moments after my mother placed the portrait in my room--the room I've never seen, until now.
The eerie face in the mirror spoke. "Right now I'm less worried about your eventual retirement, and more concerned with what is happening right now. I might even bring in external help, to . . . control the situation."
"
What do you mean, 'control the situation?' Everything is fine! We all know what we need to do, and we're making excellent progress. Have you seen how well Mikayla is doing? She already has handiness maxed, and she wants to join the military!"
"You might be dedicated, but you're also sims. Free will is a dangerous thing, even for the most virtuous sim. You can't be trusted with it. Already, Serena has somehow learned charisma, making it unavailable for any other generation!"
"
But . . . if you take away our free will, we won't make Hall of Fame! And if we don't make Hall of Fame, I won't be with Bubba after the dynasty is completed. Our future in Lunar Lakes as genies, everything you've promised . . . it will all be gone!"
"Relax, relax, I won't take away free will. I'm just giving one of my other 'projects' the chance to oversee your progress. I've already proposed a deal to her--if she takes over Sunset Valley, this dynasty is her business. She's busy trying to wrangle the criminal underground in Sunlit Tides into shape at the moment, so I'd say it'll be . . . when Mikayla's pretty high up in the military, just to give you a fighting chance."
"
What? No! You can't--"
I finally left the room and, leaving the door hanging open behind me, walked slowly down the hall, coming to a stop in front of a wall dedicated entirely to . . . Bubba. All thoughts of my encounter with the Watcher flew out of my brain. Bubba . . . there is one picture slot left for us as elders, I think. But even so, there is so much here. I love him so much.
Instead of hurrying around the corner, I paused again, this time at Bianca's wall. I'm surprised to see myself here in one picture. Of course, these were all from after she married Mother--the photographs of them in younger days are in Mother's room.
And, again, at Grandfather Brandon's wall. He was my best friend when I was very young, and he passed away so quickly. To me, it always seemed that he had popped out of the ground wrinkled and elderly, with laughing purple eyes and a mind crammed with wisdom. But now I see that he was young once . . . he was Mother's dad, and Grandmother Bree's husband before he was ever my grandfather.
As I sat down to eat the ambrosia, the heady aroma lifting from the dish made me feel lightheaded. Of course, the proper thing to do when feeling dizzy would be to lie down or place your head between your knees, but instead I sat and began to eat. The flurry of senses that overwhelmed me . . .
Grandfather Brandon's hand on my shoulder as he pretended to be Jimmy Sprocket, his fingers rubbing his chin as he contemplated my questions as a child, Mother praising how clever I was while I did my homework, my glowing pride turning to jealously when Bianca showed up and Mother abandoned my schoolwork for her . . .
. . . the loneliness of long nights alone in my laboratory, having no one to compliment me on my achievement of Prom Queen, the tingling of my hands as a genie lamp vibrated and sparked, the tingling that was nothing compared to the rush of energy when I stepped up and kissed Bubba for the first time, his arm across my shoulders as we kissed on the park bench for hours, and the sand up to my ankles and cool wind brushing my skin as he knelt on the beach and asked me to marry him.
The computer keys against my fingers as I typed night after night, being promoted so quickly that my hours changed from day to day, and Bubba chasing after me every morning for a kiss, the rush of joy when my pregnancy was confirmed, and my husband's hand on my stomach as he felt for a kick . . . the sparkles that enveloped me when my sweet little Mikayla came into the world. Her soft-baby weight as she fell into me on her first attempt at walking, my hand on her shoulder as I mimicked Grandfather's Jimmy Sprocket voice, and the water spraying me as she and Bubba giggled during the water balloon fight.
And, finally, my pride when she turned into such a beautiful and imaginative young woman . . . and the rush of jubilation I felt when my coworkers applauded me for becoming the youngest World-Renowned Surgeon in Sunset Valley history, several weeks before my elder birthday.
I was such a happy, oblivious kid. Back then, I was sure that people only valued being smart and I was the smartest person in the entire world--I was the center of my family's world, certainly. Then I grew up and I knew better. At school the teachers loved me, but the other children called me "Four-Eyes" and "Teacher's Pet" and "Ugly Franken-einsten," and at home Bianca seemed to be usurping my time with Mother. My only escape was imagining what my life would be like if my idol, Rosetta Classic, was truly a part of it.
Without a doubt, my teenage years were . . . lonely, to say the least. I disliked the way I looked and spent all of my time holed up in my little "laboratory," knocking out skill challenges and eschewing life in general--at least until my mothers brought me on vacation to Egypt, and I finally connected with them. And then, as a young adult, I jumped into my dream job, met Bubba, and something happened that I never thought possible--I fell in love. The most beautiful day of my life was the day I married him.
I stepped closer to the wall and peered at a greeting card taken at the winter festival, and couldn't help but smile. I could remember that carefree day at the end of my teenhood--Aunt Rosa had just become a TV actress, and Mother was close to her elder birthday just after her second marriage.
If being a young adult was exciting, adulthood was calm. My husband never showed the slightest inclination towards flirtiness, and a sweet, bubbly little butterfly named Mikayla entered our family and lives. I reached the top of my career and achieved my lifetime wish. And, as an elder, with my husband just about to celebrate his elder birthday upstairs and my daughter being sent to bed by my mother, I couldn't be happier.
Iris Bianca Elysi, The Fifth Immortal.
