Chapter 28 – The Pancakes, S. Lees, Peter Lee, and the C. Goths
The first thing Bill did with Robert was to take him over to Child's Play to pick out a couple of toys. While they were there, Cassandra showed up. “Mom!” Robert greeted her enthusiastically.
Robert went from the toy store to the little park nearby to play on the spaceship. He spun the wheel with authority and decided that he was going to pilot a rocket ship someday.
Meanwhile, Bill and Cassandra were talking. “You know, you're welcome to come over any time,” Bill told her. “Robert would like that and so would I. And Gunther can come to.”
Cassandra showed up the next evening, to give Robert a cuddle before going to bed.
Meanwhile, Gunther wanted advice about which part-time job he should get. “I should probably leave manual labor for someone who wants to go into gardening, and I can't see myself doing baby-sitting...”
Bill recommended becoming a fry cook. “You learn cooking, which is always a useful skill, and you meet lots of people.” Gunther said he'd look into it.
The next day Bill started his job at the hospital. He was sorry to see that a couple of Olivia's children were there.
He brought one of them – Nancy – lunch and tried to put a smile on her face.
That evening Cassandra and Gunther came over again, along with Robert's new friend Arnold Medeiros. Robert and Arnold took a picture together before Robert settled down to doing his homework.
Gunther kept giving Robert wrong answers while Bill was trying to help him. Finally Gunther relented and told Robert that he should listen to his dad.
“It's great having the two of you here in the evening,” said Bill. “Getting married would be nice, but I know you're not keen on the idea...”
“I don't know,” said Cassandra. “Ask me again after Gunther graduates from high school.”
“I will,” said Bill. “But in the meantime, we're yibsims, right?”
“Right,” said Cassandra.
Stacy and Waldemar had to figure out how to schedule their jobs now that Stacy had joined the medical profession. Luckily, they didn't both work the same days. Waldemar was able to go to work and upgrade his Simray – although he had to repair the invention constructor first.
But once he took care of that, he was able to do something about the inedible eggs he'd been picking up in the lab's garden.
Stacy started her job the next morning. So far it wasn't very interesting – she talked to her co-workers, greeted patients, mopped up puddles, and made beds. Still, it meant she was finding her way around the hospital, which seemed huge. In the middle of the day, she took a break to get a snack. She liked the fountain outside the cafeteria.
At home that evening, Qimi got Waldemar to play another game of chess with her before settling down to do her homework.
And that night, Qatzi had fun working on the second of her five drawings. As a loner, her favorite time was when everyone else had gone to bed and she could have the house to herself.
Peter Lee was the third person to sign on as a doctor. Initially, he was not at all enthusiastic about it. He'd just discovered a new type of workout equipment.
He'd bought one for the store, which took almost all of his money, and he was hoping to recoup his investment.
But his sister reminded him that they all needed to pitch in and help with the plague victims, and added that there would be financial compensation for their efforts. Peter had to admit that his business could use a cash infusion.
Working at the hospital wasn't as bad as he'd expected. He did get some exercise from walking all over the building and also from mopping.
To his surprise, the medical reports he had to study were actually pretty interesting – especially the ones dealing with bones and muscles.
And he got a chance to chat with one of his customers, his bro friend Bria.
At the end of the day, one of the nurses told him he was the best of their new employees and suggested that he try taking someone's temperature. Peter felt pretty pleased with himself (and he couldn't wait to tell Stacy that he'd been called “the best”).
Gunther did go ahead and get a job as a fry cook, just as Bill had suggested. He wasn't having much fun yet, though. His life seemed to be all school, work, and homework.
Cassandra reminded him that at least he wasn't sick. She'd seen Stacy's little girl Qimi at the hospital on the day she'd worked there.
The poor kid had seemed really scared when she took her temperature, but Cassandra had calmed her down. The one thing Cassandra didn't like about her job was her uniform. Rather than normal scrubs, the Mustard Clinic wanted their personnel to dress in street clothes, to make their patients feel more at home. Cassandra didn't think ripped jeans and hats from the local burger joint looked at all professional.
Still, she could let all that go when she started playing the violin. It added a little class to her gallery, and the tips helped, too.
