Meteor!Trottings and JottingsSaturday 9What people don’t seem to realise is that the actual surviving-the-disaster part of surviving a disaster is the easy bit. Everything seems to shift into slow motion and you just do what has to be done. It’s only later that you start replaying everything in your head obsessively. That’s the tough part.
I suddenly realised the night had got a little darker than normal at about the same time I registered the neighbours yelling.
I looked up and saw a large – something – blotting out the stars. Then Xanth bolted, warned by some equine sixth sense I wish I had. I stood there a moment longer, then Alan yelled, “Run!” and I did. By the time the meteor hit, I was safe inside the house. Dad was there, too. He’d whacked Zippy on the behind and the stupid horse had actually lived up to his name for once and taken off. (Honestly, he’s the laziest horse I’ve ever met. The name’s ironic.)
For a few seconds, everything was bright lights and noise.
Briefly, it went dark. Chokingly thick smoke was starting to drift into the house.
Then the fires started.
The media hailed our neighbours as heroes – and quite rightly, I think. Although they were all badly burned, Madison, Alan and Ayesha (who’d been visiting) rushed over with extinguishers.
Finally, I managed to come out of my shocked stupor and join in. After all, I’d always thought fire was a bit of fun, right?
Wrong. It’s horrible.
Between us, we managed to put the flames out. Just as well, since the fire brigade never bothered to show up. It was the night of their Annual Dance, apparently.
…And life went on. It has to. Doesn’t it?
Dad was storming around, calling the aliens all sorts of names I didn’t know he knew. His theory is that their ratings were falling and the director decided to spice things up a bit. Personally, I think it was just a random event.
Mum kept going on about how I was right underneath and could have been killed – to the point where I was quite bored with the whole thing. You wouldn’t believe how deeply I regret that now.
Our resident couples took it as a cue to advance their relationships. I hear that happens a lot. Wartime baby booms and all that. Miraj and Yvette got married quietly during the night and moved out with baby Yasmin.
Sam proposed to Sandi. (We think they're also expecting a baby.)
By dawn, Mum and Dad were still flapping in their different ways. Xav took off for the library and I decided to grab a few hours’ sleep in my flat at the ranch.
I wish now that I’d stayed.
I spent some time (okay, many hours) stalking wild horses at Summer Hill Springs. The one I had my eye on was way beyond skittish. Finally, just when I was giving up, Zulu agreed to let me adopt him: my third wild horse and tenth horse best friend.
Then my phone rang. It was the mayor, wanting to present me with the Key to the City. (City? What city? It’s a small town at best. Oh well. Let the politicians hang on to their delusions.) I rode Zulu over to the town hall. He’s a lot faster than Zippy.
I noticed Elizabeth Bunch was there. The last time I saw her she was a little girl. She’s growing up fast.
After chatting to what seemed like half the town, I rode over to the equestrian centre and sold Zulu. In another life, I’d like to breed horses seriously but there just isn’t space where we live. Xanthippe stays, of course, but all of the others get sold as soon as they’ve had some basic training…
…And for the second time, the sparkles hit me as I came out.
I rushed home to tell everyone that I was now two steps nearer to moving when the odd stillness struck me. Our house is always full of comings and goings, chatting adults, crying babies and beeping computers. Why was it so quiet suddenly? No Dad in his underwear upgrading the fixtures or making stupid forum posts. No Sam and Sandi, embarrassingly all over each other. No Mum, watching TV or clearing up…. No Mum.
Then I saw Xavier. Staring at a book he obviously wasn’t reading. It was upside-down, for a start. And I found out what had happened.
I’d thought Mum seemed haunted by the disaster, going on and on about what a narrow escape we’d all had – and me in particular. If I hadn’t barged out of the house and off to the ranch, would anything have been different?
Probably not – but it doesn’t help particularly.
Xav says that Mum went out onto the balcony to clear up the ash and see whether the windows would need replacing or could be rescued with some sandpaper and varnish. Then she looked out at the garden. From up here, the devastation is quite striking: the huge rocks everywhere, the charring, the enormous dent right where I’d been standing…
It must just have been too much. Grim came for her before she’d even started sweeping.
I’m ashamed of myself but I couldn’t stand it. I went over to see Tyrone instead. He’d just lost his mother, too – although in considerably less dramatic circumstances. We sat out in the garden, watching the stars and discussing life, death and love.
It probably helped that his mum had been in on this from the beginning and he knew all about the aliens and their peculiar demands. Plus, he was my oldest friend. I really felt I could relax with him, tell him all of my stupid guilts and regrets. I realised that he was someone I could envisage spending the rest of my life with.
One thing led to another and, before the night was over, I found myself down on one knee, proposing.
Next chapter
OK, sorry to panic everyone. (Well, I panicked myself, briefly.) This was by no means my first meteor strike and there was never any real danger of losing the Sims. I had my first meteor in my very first
Ambitions game. When my Twinbrook private eye wondered why the sky had gone dark, I didn’t know what he was on about. It was night-time! Of course it was dark! Fortunately, he was out jogging and was well clear when it hit and I found out what the problem was. For a while, I was expecting meteors in every game.
I don’t think it's mentioned in the summary, but I very nearly lost Grayling Wan-Goddard to a meteor when she was still a teenager. Since fishing isn’t the most interesting of supermaxes, I’d left her up at Pinochle Pond one weekend while I concentrated on the rest of the family. When I noticed the 'getting dark' pop-up, I had no idea how long it had been there. She escaped with a singeing, fortunately. Maybe I should take it as a good omen that that dynasty succeeded after nearly losing the gen 1 heir…
The part about Miraj and Tuatha’s Garden in the previous update was me being cross about the island having become easy to reach, by the way. I liked it being almost inaccessible. (Although I’d have got it as a freebie this time, anyway, given that Miraj arrived with level 7 martial arts.)
Yvette really did have the worst morning sickness I’ve seen in a Sim, effectively setting the average for this file back to normal. River had thrown up once and the others had had vomit-free pregnancies. Maybe it really was the dumpster-diving obsession. Whenever I took my eye off her, she’d be upside-down in a skip.
It was sad that Blair died so soon. According to the game, she was only 89, although she’d somehow picked up an extra day of adulthood (Cycl0n3 acquired two) and so was really 90. One of the worst things about playing with a large household is losing more Sims I care about.
