Islands of Sunset Valley – Chapter 1 – New Arrivals
My brother Chris came by early this morning and dropped off a book Diana ‘accidently’ left at his house yesterday. She is always forgetting things at the houses of her aunts and uncles.
She thinks I don’t know that she does this on purpose so Chris or Jamie or Gunter or Cornelia will call in and return them. If she hasn’t purposely ‘forgotten’ something, one of them will drop by with a new book they bought at the consignment store or something they’d like me to fix or to get some perfect produce for a special meal.
Most nights, one of them will phone me. None of them are subtle, but I know they mean well.
Despite Chris’s grouchiness sometimes, he has been my rock since Agnes passed. He is busy with his own family especially their new twins, Mitchell and Shelly.
Even though his promotion to an astronaut gives him a lot of time off, he never seems to begrudge spending some of it with me. I’m glad he’s mostly stopped telling me to move on, because I can’t and I won’t give up.
I looked at the clock. Since Diana likes to try every new recipe I learn, especially the international ones, I’d probably have just enough time to make a serving of crepes then it will be time to get Diana up for breakfast and send her to school. Things are just a bit haywire these days. For some inexplicable reason the school bus doesn’t arrive to collect her but this just makes it harder for me to send her to school and out of my sight.
I received the notice yesterday that the school had scheduled a field trip to the Mausoleum today and Diana is annoyed with me because I wouldn’t let her go. It’s immaterial to me that all her cousins were going, but I’m still not taking that chance. I take a chance everyday just letting her go to school. I wanted to home school her but, the reality is, I sleep while she’s at school. That’s my new night-time.
I spend my nights talking to or reading to Agnes. I don’t know why everybody finds this behaviour strange. Most married men spend their nights with their wives. Mine is simply dead. I can’t understand why her ghost doesn’t appear though, but someday I hope she will and eat the ambrosia I put out for her every night. Surely Agnes knows how much I miss her and want her to come back.
Cornelia tells me that if Agnes was going to appear, she would have done so by now. Cornelia lives on a lot full of tombstones and tells me there are many nights when no ghosts appear and frequently nights when only one will appear.
I checked out the website mum and dad talked about but no one seems to have difficulty with recalcitrant ghosts. I must be doing something wrong. I may have to find out if there is a way I can force Agnes’s ghost to appear so I can ask her to eat the Ambrosia.
Cornelia thinks I use Agnes as an excuse not to socialise but that’s not true. I never had been drawn to the party crowd. Diana and I show up for all the family birthdays. Initially Cornelia tried to invite me to parties with lots of single women. I went once to be polite and resented losing that precious time I should be spending with Diana, not some flirty friend of hers who thinks a widower needs female company. Luckily for me Cornelia is now too busy with her daughter Lexi and her new career as a Private Investigator.
I have all the companionship I need. Diana and I talk every day, over breakfast and dinner, playing chess and watching our special program on TV. As a green thumb I can also talk to plants. That’s enough for me. At least the plants never tell me to move on. I did get rid of the bees though. I didn’t want Diana to get stung. When I need honey for a recipe I harvest the bees at the elixir store.
The crepes are perfect, light and fluffy. Watching Cookin’ Cable has other benefits than great quality time with Diana. But whenever I have a bad night, so does she, and Diana will be late if she sleeps in any longer.
Even though I thought we had resolved this argument last night, Diana is still upset with me this morning and had to have one last try to change my mind while we ate breakfast.
“Daddy it’s so unfair,” she moped, “Everyone else gets to go to the Mausoleum, and I have an extra history class instead of the field trip. Morty phoned me last night and said he and Lexi would keep an eye on me the whole time. You know how protective he is about his sister. He said he’d be doubly sure I was okay. Please daddy, can I go?”
“Kitten, I just can’t take the chance.” I said, “If it was the Bistro or the Theatre or the Police Station, you know I’d let you go, but the Mausoleum is dangerous. Sims can die in there.”
“Daddy, it’s a school trip! Morty said the Principal has prepared a thorough risk assessment on the excursion. It’s safe or the School Board wouldn’t allow it to happen. Everyone else is going.” She pouted and begged with her eyes.
When she looks up at me with her mother’s eyes, I have to really fight myself to be firm. “Honey, you’re all I have. Please understand I can’t lose you too. It’s time to leave. Do you want me to drive you to school - it’s on my way to the Market?”
“No daddy, it’s not raining and I like my bike.” Despite still being cross with me, Diana hugs me and kisses my cheek, “Love you daddy. Sleep tight.” My heart aches as she disappears out the door.
I clear the dishes and plan something special for dinner this evening, trying to make it up to Diana for missing the school trip. I know Morty phoned Diana last night. Despite seeing each other at school every day, the cousins phone each other most nights. Chris told me this morning that Joshua volunteered to hold Diana’s hand every second, if it helped. That only made me feel worse.
The other person Diana is closest to is Chris’s son, Joshua. They have a very special bond and not just because they’re cousins. They talk on the phone every night, even those nights when Diana has already spent the afternoon at Chris’s house. This worries Chris and Jamie too because Joshua says he’s going to marry Diana when they grow up.
It was amusing at first but less so as time has cemented their relationship. Jamie says Joshua and Diana can’t ever marry because Chris and I are biologically identical. While first cousins can usually marry, they can’t if they are the children of identical twins. Biologically it would be like Diana marrying her half brother and the law won’t allow it.
Chris worries a lot about Joshua and Diana. He says Diana is too much like me and has co-dependency issues. But I’m careful not to point out that every second sentence Joshua speaks is about Diana or how he can’t wait for his birthday and hopes the school holds off his prom until Diana ages so they can go to the prom together.
Joshua often asks Diana to show off her ballet moves. Joshua said when they’re older, they’ll win King and Queen of the dance on Love Day. Poor Joshua, he’s not the only cousin Diana has wrapped around her little finger. Morty does just about anything she asks too. Luckily for me, he’s too wrapped up in Bella Bachelor to notice his little cousin that way because there would be no impediment to them marrying when they grow up.
All this talk of Diana marrying is moot. She’s not even a teen yet and God forbid, how am I ever going to survive raising a teenage daughter alone. I have to find another way to resurrect Agnes’s ghost. I never got the ‘Oh My Ghost’ opportunity which everyone said I should have. But life has never been easy for me and I don’t expect that to change any time soon.
There just has to be another way. The ambrosia method that dad told us about all those years ago doesn’t appear to be working for me. I hadn’t progressed any further with the Alchemy either so there may be a supernatural method I don’t know about. Learning Alchemy reminds me too much of why I missed saving Agnes from drowning. I did, however, learn the alchemy recipe for Invigorating Elixir which is very useful given my gruelling schedule. But Cornelia did say there was a level 10 Alchemist in Sunset Valley and I need to pursue this option.
After selling my produce at the Market, I made a quick trip to Aliester’s Elixirs and Sundrys to speak to the clerk to find out who the Alchemist is. The clerk there is helpful with any information about alchemy but not about disclosing the identity of any of the alchemists who placed consignments.
He told me most alchemists guarded their secrets and would be very reluctant to discuss recipes.
He was a talkative chap and said that he’s not aware of any elixir that can resurrect a ghost. He suggested I research the supernatural at the Vault of Antiquity but he warned me it would take hours. I browsed around the store but was really too tired to concentrate on the odd paraphernalia that abounded in this curious place. Just as I was about to leave a young teen fairy wearing a black tux strode into the store.
He had the most gloriously bright green wings. He dropped off a consignment of elixirs to the clerk and hurried out. Thinking he may lead me to the level 10 Alchemist, I tried to introduce myself to the teen but he was obviously in a hurry. I did notice that he drove off in an expensive black car. He was sure an odd character, dressed in a black tux, long straggly black hair and driving a black car. Was he a goth fairy? I guess not or his wings would be black.
Also a Bwan Speedster YL was not the average car around town especially for a teen. To my knowledge only Thornton Wolff and Agnes ever drove them. Someone had to know where I could find him.
I was too tired to drive around town hoping to locate his house so decided to try to meet him after school. I went to bed and set the alarm early. I arrived at the school just before 2:00 p.m. but he didn’t come out. Maybe he had an extracurricular activity. In that case, I was wasting my time. Then I remembered the excursion. I decided to wait until 3:00 p.m. for Diana to finish school. When Diana walked through the door and saw me waiting, her smile was all I needed to lift my spirits.
Diana enveloped me in a hug and together we went over to the festival at the park and had a bit of fun with a water-balloon-fight, some roller skating and a soccer shootout before going home to homework and a late dinner.
Over dinner that evening, I asked Diana, “Have you seen a teenage fairy who wears a black tux?”
Diana said, “Oh yeah! The whole school was talking about the Kalamia’s. The two older brothers go to my school. The oldest is Julian. He’s got all the girls’ attention which upsets Morty because Bella likes him. He drives a black sports car. The middle boy is Keith. He is my age and he also wears a black tux to school. There’s something wrong with Keith. I think he must be really sick. He has to wear dark glasses even inside the classroom and his skin is almost grey. His voice is really strange too. They don’t talk much.”
Diana paused to eat a bite, “And you’d never guess what, they didn’t go on the school excursion today either, so I got to see them up close and personal for the first time. Julian spent recess and the lunch break tossing a ball with his brother. You’d like him daddy, he has such beautiful manners. Julian really looks after Keith and it is no wonder that Bella really likes him. Morty is my cousin and I love him but he can be so grumpy sometimes.”
“That was the best risotto ever, daddy.” Diane said when she finished her dinner but she continued with the conversation, “Keith is really freaky smart. He must be a genius. I think he could be at level 10 in Logic already. All the girls in my class vie for his attention, but he doesn’t talk at all unless the teacher asks a question.”
“Have you seen their parents?” I asked casually.
Diane shook her head and grinned gleefully, “No and nobody has. It’s all a deep dark mystery.”
“Do you know where they live? Maybe we could invite them over for dinner sometime” I asked trying to sound casual.
“Well good luck with that. Apparently they don’t ‘do’ invitations and you don’t ‘do’ dinner parties, so what gives?” Diana asked disbelievingly.
I sighed; Diana sometimes had a way of seeing right through me. “Okay to be truthful, I know nothing about the supernatural and researching the supernatural takes hours I don’t have to spare, so I thought maybe a fairy could tell me if there was another way to make your mother’s ghost appear.”
Diana shrugged, “I guess it can’t hurt to ask. Bella said they live in that new house built on the vacant lot on Summer Hill Court.”
“The dynasty lot! Are they a dynasty? When did a house get built there?” I asked.
“I don’t know daddy! I’m just a kid!” Diana retorted and hugged me. “Thanks daddy, I had a nice time this afternoon. Why don’t you ask Uncle Gunther about the Kalamias?”
“Good idea, honey, do you want help with anything?” I asked as she raced into the hall.
“Nope. I just want to tell Joshua about the Kalamia’s” she replied, “Call me when our show on Cookin’ Cable starts.” I don’t know how she heard a word of her phone call because the upstairs rocked to her favourite kids’ band at maximum decibels. Heaven help me when she becomes a teenager.
Since Gunther Goth changed careers and went into politics, he’s probably the best person to ask about newcomers in Sunset Valley. After stacking the dishwasher I rang Gunther and asked him about the Kalamias. Gunther told me the old dynasty lot was bought three days ago. As far as he knew there was only a Mrs Kalamia and her children in the house.
I thanked him and he asked how we were doing. I said we were fine. I told him to tell Morty that Diana and I spent the afternoon at the festival and she’d forgiven me for not letting her go on the school trip. Then Gunther surprised me by telling me that Cornelia and he were expecting again. Clearly Cornelia and he had put their marriage back together and I assumed that Cornelia would age up any day since Lexi was born. Maybe this nooboo is one of those change-of-life babies.
Next I rang an ex-arch enemy, if there’s anyone with their finger on the pulse in this town it’s Vita Alto. And she lived on Summer Hill Court too. Now that Vita is a good Sim, she’s revitalised the social events in this town and is actually quite a useful friend, especially if one overlooks her persistent matchmaking efforts among the townies, me included.
Vita cheerfully said, “The Kalamia’s are filthy rich and in mourning. It appears Mr Elias Kalamia passed away only very recently.” Well that explained the boys wearing black tuxes. I wonder how long they were expected to be in mourning.
Vita was full of information about the pretty young Mrs Kalamia who was clearly not as Greek as her name suggests. “Her name is Faith. She is a redhead and a fairy. I swear I have my work cut out trying to keep Nick from going over there every second of the day just to see if poor Mrs Kalamia needs anything but he brings back such juicy gossip.”
“The Kalamia’s have a big children’s playground, lots of vegetable gardens, a good size fishing pond, and a large barn with a horse trough. We have not seen any pets though. They also have a big entertainment patio but so far they have not had any parties that we know about.”
Vita asked, “Have you read the article in the paper that Holly’s husband died?”
“Uh... no,” I replied, “I don’t read the newspapers anymore but Cornelia told me about his death. I rang Holly to offer my condolences.”
Vita said, “I’d be happy to mind Diana if you wanted to take Holly out to dinner some time?”
“Thank you Vita but no.” I responded, “I saw Holly at the pool only the day before yesterday and we talked. Holly and I are friends, Vita, good friends and that was all we’ll ever be.”
“Well as long as you’re single, I still have hopes for you two.” I wanted to correct Vita that I was not single but she waffled on for a time about her latest campaign before she eventually said goodbye.
I told Diana when I read her to sleep that I will contact the Kalamias if I could. She wished me luck.
As I did my evening chores, I resolved to meet the elusive Mrs Kalamia, not because she was young and pretty but because she was a fairy and an alchemist. But if the Kalamia’s only moved to Sunset Valley three days ago, who was the level 10 alchemist that Cornelia bought the elixirs from that changed VJ Alvi and Vita Alto into being good Sims.
There was someone else in this valley who may be able to help me but as they say, ‘a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush’. At least now I knew where I could find one skilled alchemist...
