Chapter 7 Portraits
Check out this handsome dude. Yeah, that's me, on my way to school.
Since I called this chapter "Portraits," I'm going to show the portraits and then move on to something else. Here's the one that Dad did of Grandma. It's a masterpiece, and it's going to be part of his museum collection.
He did one of Mom, too, but that's not in the museum. He hung it in their bedroom.
And this is the one that Grandma did of Dad. Now that the Supreme Queen has removed the bar, she's taken up painting. It's in the museum, too, but it won't count towards Dad's totals.
I was talking to Mom about my skills, and she informed me that handiness would have to be one of them. Even though we put in another bathroom upstairs for me and Uncle Risk, everything keeps breaking down.
So I'm repairing things.
But I'm also doing upgrades, like adding aromatherapy to our new hot tub.
For "fun," I'm working on logic. One way is by playing chess with my sister. All these years, I never knew she cheated until Uncle Risk filled me in. I beat her anyway. Hah!
And I'm also using the Observatory, which feels a little weird, now that I know what goes on in there.
Speaking of Uncle Risk, he ran into Aunt Nataly at the gym and discovered that indeed, she was pregnant.
She came over later that day and chatted for a while.
Then she went out to the garden and entered the Observatory. Everyone was afraid she might give birth in there, but she went home. We found out later that she had twin boys Carlton and Kelly.
Uncle Risk says that his romancing days are over. Besides Aunt Nataly, the only woman in town young enough to have a child is his daughter Shelly. He celebrated his elder birthday, and Mom sang for him. She sounds a lot better now than when she first started singing.
I guess this is as good a place as any to mention that Uncle Risk and I went to the park the other day where I met his daughter Marlene.
She and I hit it off pretty well, so I invited her over to the house for a date. We played chess and talked.
We flirted a bit, but whenever I tried to kiss her, she pushed me away, so I only got a bronze medal for the date. Towards the end, she did let me put my arm around her.
Grandma is ecstatic that Marlene and I are an item. (Note: I haven't even asked her to be my girlfriend yet.) She says she promised Grandfather Gavin and his friends that if they moved in, their descendants would become immortals, and if I marry Marlene, then she'll have made good on her promise. I guess I probably will marry her. I was going to suggest she join me in the hot tub during our date, but when I went outside, I discovered that it was full of green sludge, and I had to repair it.
Dad found a new fishing spot.
Frogs are there, too, so he brought me along on one of his trips. It's really pretty I think Marlene might like to see it sometime. One thing about Marlene she hates children. But Grandma says she'll be happy to take care of any babies we have.
Dad has become an elder now, which necessitated a lot of talk between him and Grandma. I'm probably not going to max handiness soon enough for him to get into the Forgotten Grotto so he can collect enough types of fish. They both said it wasn't my fault they should have been encouraging Uncle Risk to work on handiness. Anyway, his second aspiration is going to be Fabulously Wealthy, which he got already. He still has to max fishing and gardening, make 6 good friends and get promoted to level 10 of the Painting career, which should happen by the end of next week.
And once he's done all that, he'll be able to take ambrosia, like Grandma. I asked her how it tasted. "Indescribable," she said. And then she added that it's better when the angelfish is fresh.
One of Dad's new friends is our half-uncle, Cullen Goth. He came over the other day. Grandma said she might ask him to join our household but not until Marlene and I have gotten married.
And I almost forgot we finally got to see our maid, Gavin Brown. He keeps showing up when we're gone. I'm not sure how much cleaning he actually does, but he doesn't cost us anything. Dad was able to get his services for free.
