The Secret Time Traveler

[Banana Bender]

This is a prequel, so Charity will end up divorce Myles to marry Elias.

Actually @Nimrod Mikkusu and @Cheezey,

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I'm sure it's the sequel to Islands of Sunset Valley (another Magz story) and obviously the backstory to Charity Kalamia and the Charity look-a-likes in the prologue.

I'm really amazed at the depth you're giving us for the backstory of the fairies sent by Grim.  I am curious how Gator Wolff plays into this?  Is he to be one of the lonely souls deserving happiness? He usually ends up married in my games.  I await you next installment with bated breath.

[Magz from Oz]

Banana Bender is almost right.  This is not a sequel of Islands of Sunset Valley.  It's more like a spin-off because I'm not using Brandon and Faith or their children as the main protagonists.

[Nimrod Mikkusu]

Yeah, it's a Backstory Spinoff.  And it's Charity's backstory before the stuff that happens to her in the Island of Sunset Valley, so it's more of a prequel.

[Magz from Oz]

Chapter 4 – Dog Day Afternoon

By the time I reached them the wedding was over.  Charity appeared to be saying her goodbyes to Faith who had to hurry off to work.  Then Charity saw us and came over to me.

“Thank you so much for being able to get here after all,” she said breathlessly looking puzzled at the toad Sim standing near me.  “Myles told me that you wouldn’t be able to make it to the wedding.”  That’s not surprising since I hadn’t been invited and didn’t know it was on.  But obviously Charity had been led to believe otherwise.  I let that one slide for now.

“Charity I need to talk to you alone.” I said urgently.

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“Not now old boy.  Bad form, do you know, to lure the bride away from the groom on their wedding day,” interrupted Myles in a British accent.  I don’t why Myles suddenly developed a plummy Etonian accent because his manner of speech to me last evening was entirely unremarkable except that almost his every word to me dripped sarcasm or rudeness.  I let that one slide too.

“Charity, I really need to speak with you,” I implored.

“No, you don’t Uncle Elias!” sneered Myles emphasising the last two words.  “And why have you brought that thing here with you?”  I didn’t want to take my eyes off Charity but I felt Gator stiffen behind me at the insult.  I was also dismayed.  Myles calling me ‘Uncle Elias’ can only mean that that was how Charity explained me to him.

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“Charity, the toad is Gator Wolff.  Myles turned him into a toad because he tried to intervene when he saw Myles slap Dahlia Goodfellow.”  Charity looked confused.

“What rot you do talk!” exclaimed Myles.  “A Wizard can’t turn a Supernatural into a toad!”  Myles’ fake Etonian accent slipped slightly as he became aggressive.  Charity looked more confused than ever.

“Charity, have I ever lied to you?” I asked softly.  I wanted to keep my voice quiet and reasonable to allow Myles to seem the one out of control and unreasonable.

“No,” Charity responded just as softly.  “But Myles is right.  A werewolf cannot be turned into a toad.”

“True, but one of the great Wizards could turn a Supernatural into anything,” I replied still holding Charity’s gaze.

“But Myles admitted to me that he’s not even a very good Wizard,” replied Charity clearly puzzled.

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“He’s not a good wizard.  He’s an evil Wizard and possibly an evil Great Wizard.” I said urgently.

“Rubbish,” snorted Myles losing his accent entirely.  Charity looked at him and I swear that I did see alarm in her eyes.

“Charity,” I said quickly taking her hand which returned her gaze to me.  “Myles used a love charm on you because you rejected him.  You are not in love with him.  You are under a spell.  Gator can verify everything I’ve said.  Stop this now.  Apply for an annulment before this goes any further.”

“You’ve said quiet enough!” shouted Myles, his fake accent completely gone.  He snatched Charity’s hand from mine and with a sizzle of electricity, they both disappeared.

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I turned around to Gator but he too was gone.  Instead, a dog stood where I’d assumed Gator had been standing.  I looked at the dog with its bright red collar:  a collar the same colour as the shirt that Gator had been wearing.

I leaned closer to the dog.  “Gator?” I asked tentatively.

The dog looked at me, woofed and ran off.  With no other option coming immediately to mind, I went home in the worst possible frame of mind.  That evening, I waited for Faith to return from work and went over to see her.  I asked her if she knew where Myles was staying as I needed to talk to Charity urgently.

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Faith said she didn’t know.  She told me that Charity and Myles were going on their honeymoon to England where Myles said he grew up.  I assured her that England was only a phone call away. 

I asked Faith to phone Charity because I was certain that any call from my cell phone number would be blocked.  Faith dialled the number.  But as soon she said the phone was ringing, I could hear a phone ringing from the back room.  We both ran into the room.  Charity wasn’t in there but her phone was.  Neither of us had any way to contact Charity.  I wondered if I would ever see her again.

“Faith, please listen to me.  Myles is not a nice Sim.  He’s evil.  When Charity contacts you, please find out where she is.  It’s very important.”

“He seemed so sweet,” Faith said obviously not quiet believing me.

“But he’s not,” I said.  “We need to find out where Charity is.”  I decided not to tell Faith about the love charm.  I’d got an uneasy feeling that the more Faith knew about how treacherous Myles was, the more danger I may be inadvertently putting her in.

I returned to my house to find the dog with the red collar waiting patiently for me at the gate.  “Well come on in Gator, if you are indeed Gator,” I said opening the gate for him.  He followed me into the house.

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Whether the dog was really Gator, or not, I had no real way of knowing.  I couldn’t talk to dogs and he couldn’t talk to me.  My mind lit on that thought.  If Gator was a dog, he could no longer verify anything I said about Myles.  I began to believe that the dog was Gator after all.  I wasn’t sure what breed the dog was but he did look vaguely like a brown wolf.  I called him Gator Wolfhound because I had to give him a name.  The dog followed me upstairs.  I said to the dog, “I’m too tired to deal with this tonight.  Let’s sleep on it and see if we can come up with a plan in the morning.”

Gator Wolfhound immediately jumped up on my bed preparatory to sleeping.

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“Very funny Gator, get off my bed.  Go to your own room.”  The dog jumped down from my bed and went into the other bedroom.  The dog could clearly understand every word I said even if I couldn’t understand him.  Lying in bed waiting for sleep to claim my exhausted brain, I decided I would train the dog Gator to hunt in the morning.  I still might need a ruby for that Potent Cure elixir and a dog could find it faster than me even with assistance of the Collection helper.

Again I think I slept, but woke quite early still with that headache and gritty eyes.  A shower didn’t refresh me.  I checked the fridge for leftovers but realised that Gator must have eaten them while I been out looking for gems yesterday.  Yesterday!

Oh my watcher, yesterday seemed like it was centuries ago yet I felt so raw.  For a moment I felt overwhelmed.  My heart ached for Charity.  I had no idea what Myles designs on her were.  I only knew that for now, she was his instrument.  Bound to him with a love she didn’t really feel.  It was then that I’d come to think that Charity was not strong enough to withstand mental or emotional mistreatment.  She’d been cosseted and pampered by her family who adored her.  I am also partly to blame.  I loved her but never pursued that.  I wanted her to fall in love with me.  Yet I did nothing to encourage that.  I just basked in her regard and affection, hoping that time and propinquity would do the rest.  Plus I always thought that I’d get sucked back to Sunset Valley at the most inopportune time.

Shelving my thoughts to stop them dragging my self esteem down further, I made a parfait for breakfast.  It tasted like cardboard.  I shopped online to get a bowl for Gator and prepared him some treats.  Once we’d eaten, I began training Gator.  Maybe he still had some of his werewolf hunting instincts because he got the hang of it in next to no time.

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He ran all over the place finding one item at a time which he brought back to my house.  By lunch time a huge collection of junk had been deposited in my backyard, including two enormous space rocks.  Seriously where on earth did he dig those up from?

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I gave him some positive feedback about his hunting skills and told him we particularly needed a ruby.  I said we would divide and conquer.  I’d check at all the rock spawning sites and he could try to sniff out a ruby.  Once again I found almost every gem except a ruby.  I did find a beautiful moonstone which will be lovely when I get it cut.  I could even sell the dust for a nice profit.  Fortunately, Gator finally came up with the goods.  We had the ruby we needed.  Immediately I went to Aleister’s with the ruby to get it cut into dust.  I made up a batch Potent Cure elixirs.

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Since I was there, I took the opportunity to make up some more Cure elixirs for the next full moon.  I hurried back to my house and I threw the first of the Potent Cure elixirs at the Gator.  He remained a dog.  I hung my head dejected.  I guess it was too easy to think a simple elixir could reverse that powerful a curse.

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Either that or the dog was just a dog.  He looked so thoroughly miserable.  I said to him, “Gator, I will do everything I can think of to cure you.  We’ll just have to keep trying.”  The dog woofed in agreement.  I went inside the house to get him a treat to cheer him up.  As usual he followed me inside.  I decided to bath him because he had gotten a bit smelly running around and digging holes.  At least he enjoyed the bath.

Downstairs, my doorbell rang.  Not expecting anyone I opened the door to see Fawn Goodfellow on my porch.  I invited her in.

“Hello Mr Stavros.  I’ve been calling on everybody in the neighbourhood.  I’m looking for Gator Wolff.  He has been missing for two days now.  The police don’t appear to be seriously looking so I’ve begun knocking on doors hoping someone has some information.  Have you seen him at all in the last two days?” she asked looking as dejected as I felt.

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I wasn’t sure whether to tell her the truth or how to say it.  Before I could even reply she saw the dog.  “Oh you have a new dog!” She exclaimed.  “Isn’t he just beautiful?”

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The dog responded to her wagging his tail.  She patted him and hugged him and he almost twisting himself inside out wagging his tail non stop.  “I love dogs,” she said looking up at me.  “What’s his name?”

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I still didn’t know what to say when she began to give him smoochies.  Amazingly the dog turned into the toad of the previous day. 

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Fawn shrieked in fright and ran out the door.  Immediately I threw the second of my three original Potent Cure elixirs at Gator who then turned into himself again.

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I hurriedly called Fawn back into the house and shut the door.  Gator hugged her assuring her he was alright now.  I went into the kitchen to give them privacy but they soon followed me in.  We sat to the dining table and Gator and I told her the story.  I realised it sounded like the plot of a B grade movie but it was unquestionably true. 

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We told her that an evil wizard had cursed Gator to become a toad and then re-transformed him into a dog to stop him from being able to tell people what happened.  I believed that Fawn in her affection for the dog had found the cure to the canine curse.  I told her that I’d used the Potent Cure elixir to achieve the rest.

“But Mr Stavros, Gator is a werewolf, a supernatural.  A Wizard can’t turn him into a toad.” 

“A Great Wizard can,” I said cautiously.  I still had trouble believing it myself.  But I knew no ordinary wizard could turn anybody into a dog.  “We’re not dealing with an ordinary wizard and possibly not even a normal Great Wizard.  I think we’ve stumbled across an evil Great Wizard.  We are all going to have to be careful.  This could be very dangerous so I’d advise you to keep what happened these past two days to yourselves.”

“But Mr Stavros,” Fawn protested, “Now that you’ve used a Potent Cure elixir on Gator, he’s a normal Sim.  Won’t he be even more vulnerable against a Great Wizard as a normal Sim?”

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“Well we know that being a Supernatural did not give him immunity from the curses of a Great Wizard.  Besides, Gator wanted to be a normal Sim.  But as a normal Sim, he’ll just have to take his chances with alien abductions.”  Fawn was instantly alarmed but Gator himself was unconcerned. 

“Mr Stavros, have you ever been abducted?” Gator asked.

“Yes, a few times over the years,” I replied.

“Have you ever given birth to an alien nooboo?” Fawn asked.

“No.”

“Well there you are then Fawn, I’ll take my chances, and if it happens we’ll deal with it then.  Fawn I really want to try life as a normal Sim.  If it doesn’t work out we can try something else,” Gator said placating Fawn.  I said goodbye to the pair of lovebirds and watched them drive away in Fawn’s little car.

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I looked across the road to the Kalamia house and saw movement through the front window.  I knew Faith should still be at work, so I went across and rang the doorbell.  It was Leonidas who answered the door.  He looked even more haggard than I remembered.  He told me that he didn’t want company.  His mother had passed away and he’d only just returned home.

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I offered my old friend my condolences and advised him that I needed to talk to him about some concerns when he felt ready to talk.  I went home and the house seemed inexplicably lonely now without Gator.  I ate a lonely dinner and tried to watch TV. 

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I couldn’t take my mind of the problem of the Great Wizards.  I just didn’t know enough about them.  I had always assumed they were fantasy.  The Warlock of Palladia by Matt Gross being the perfect example.  I needed to know more to find a way to thwart Myles should he ever return.  All of us were vulnerable and I didn’t like feeling like that.  I went to the library and read a number of books on the witch/warlock/wizard theme.  Some stated emphatically that Great Wizards were fantasy.  But not all.  One particular book, The Compendium of Curses, cited the Appendices from the Alchemy book found on Aleister’s Alchemy Station.  I remembered the elixir recipe book was also a great research reference.

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I ran downstairs to the Alchemy Station I knew to be down there and began to read through the Appendices.  I learned a lot more about Great Wizards, how they came to be and what they could do.  I couldn’t find any information on how to defeat them.

[Cheezey]

Yup, Myles needs a good dose of karma for his misdeeds. Glad to see Gator back to the self he wants to be.

[Banana Bender]

Agree with Cheezey.  Myles is a mega-dirtbag.  How is Gobias going to defeat him?  I'll be reading.

[Magz from Oz]

Chapter 5 – The Worst Day of My Life

I returned home in no better a frame of mind.  I wanted to work out in my own mind how to tell Leonidas about Myles.  I didn’t see any point in shielding him from the facts.  He had to know what we were dealing with.  We had to find a way to protect not only Charity but possibly Faith and perhaps even the rest of the townies too.

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Fortunately an opportunity presented first thing the next morning when I saw Leonidas in his greenhouse harvesting the plants.  I went over to see him.  I helped him harvest his plants as we talked.  He didn’t believe me about Myles.

“Look Elias,” said Leonidas.  “Faith has already told me that you think Myles is evil.  Faith and I both agree that you are about as biased as a Sim could be, when it comes to Charity falling in love with someone else.”  I conceded that he may have a point there.

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“I know this is tough for you,” he went on, “I think it’s perfectly natural that you feel that Charity wouldn’t fall in love with another Sim of her own accord.  Even if she had been enchanted with a love charm, she is still in love.  It’s up to her to make up her own mind.  Love and marriage is a lot of hard work.  It takes commitment from both partners to keep it going.  A love charm may help in the beginning but patience, compassion and compromise are required to maintain it.  If that’s missing from either partner, it will fade quickly and eventually fall apart without interference.  Only time will tell.  And I am beginning to think that you, my friend, have more time in this world than your life state suggests.  Just be patient and wait to see how it all pans out.”

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“As for Myles being a Great Wizard or an evil Great Wizard it’s immaterial.  There’s only one way to defeat the Great Wizards and there’s only one Sim who can do it.  And all of us are going to meet him one day.”

I thanked Leonidas for listening to me and left.  I was sure that Leonidas would feel as outraged as I did that Myles had used a love charm on Charity.  I was wrong.  More important, Leonidas knew that I loved his daughter and that I’d lived a longer life than any normal Sim would.  On the whole, it was more disconcerting that he knew I loved Charity.  But then I remembered Gator’s remark as we drove to the Fae Ray Gardens that time.  Gator said that everybody except Charity knew how I felt about her.  Maybe I should have done something earlier but I wanted her to love me for myself and not just because I loved her first.

Charity Kalamia was the most beautiful Sim I had ever met.  In truth I was years older than her father.  I acknowledged to myself that I’m not totally without charm.  I am a bit quirky but that’s not a bad thing surely?  Although I knew I was neither handsome nor young, that was my choice.  I can easily make the Fountain of Youth elixir.  I could get plastic surgery at any hospital.  I chose neither.  I guess I was vain enough to think that if I would be loved, I wanted it to be just as I am.

Fawn Goodfellow loved Gator even when he was an unattractive werewolf.  It takes more than simply handsome features to love someone but it often starts with appearance.  For Fawn and Gator, they would have met as children at school.  They knew each other before his monthly transformation into a werewolf each full moon.  They probably first acted on their attraction between full moons.  Perhaps it would have started with a love letter or a request for a date.

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I had done neither.  Even when I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that I loved Charity, I hadn’t made any move on her.  I never put myself out there for her to accept or reject.  But on the other hand, Charity had never written me a love letter.  She’d never called asking me for a date.  However given that she must have identified me as ‘Uncle Elias’ to Myles, it became blindingly obvious to me that she’d never viewed me as a potential love interest, but as an honorary uncle.  That hurt.

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I didn’t think I could feel any more depressed than I did after Charity’s wedding.  I was wrong.  I plumbed new depths of despair.  Every day was a torture.  Some days I never even got dressed unless I went out of my yard.  Fawn and Gator became frequent visitors and they tried to cheer me up.  I didn’t cheer up until I heard the news that Myles and Charity had returned to Moonlight Falls.  Faith told me of their arrival and that they’d bought the Modern Mansion at the ritzy end of the town.

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I went over to their house and even though I knew somebody was at home, nobody answered the doorbell.  The next time I went with Leonidas to visit his daughter.  Leonidas was welcomed inside but the door was shut in my face.  I was banned.  So I asked Faith to meet up with her sister at a community venue so I could at least talk to her.  Faith reluctantly agreed.  She told me emphatically not to mess this up as I may not get a second chance. 

Charity agreed to meet Faith in the garden behind the library where it was quieter and a lot less people.  I stayed in the adjacent Festival Park until Charity arrived, mercifully alone.  Then I approached her.  I was appalled at the changes in her.  She had visibly lost weight.

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“How are you?” I asked her.

“I’m fine,” she replied when clearly she was not.  Her eyes appeared lacklustre.  Her natural exuberance was nowhere to be found.

“Are you happy?”  She didn’t reply.  It was a stupid question.

“So how are you getting on having all those children you wanted?”  At that question I did see a spark of resentment in her eyes and pain momentarily flashed across her features before her face turned stiff again.  I said that deliberately to provoke her.  I wanted to see if anything of the old Charity still existed.  I was delighted to see that she hadn’t totally lost her inner fire.

At that moment I felt a frisson of electricity run through my body.  I turned to see Myles standing not too far away from me with his wand in his hand.  He had cast a spell on me.  He grinned hugely as he approached.  “I wonder dear chap, if you’d ever heard of Cassandra, because you now share her fate.”  His Etonian accent had returned.  Myles then laughed uproariously and taking Charity’s hand, he led her away.

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I didn’t know another Sim called Cassandra but my mind turned to possible curses I had read.  Cassandra’s curse was not a known Supernatural curse but one from Greek mythology.  Cassandra, a Trojan princess, was cursed to foretell prophecies that were true but she would never be believed.  As I’d never told a prophecy in my life, nor was I likely to, that particular curse hardly seemed a burden.  Perhaps I was being too literal.  Myles almost certainly would have given me a curse that would cause me no end of trouble.

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That evening I decided to test my theory when Gator called over to see me.  “Gator have I ever told you that my real name is Gobias Koffi.  I originally came from Sunset Valley.”  Then I told him some of the facts of my life to date.

“Mr Stavros, I think the strain of the last few months is getting to you.  Why don’t you see me at my office at the hospital tomorrow?  We have a visiting Psychoanalyst I would like to refer you to.”  Despite my efforts to get him to call me Elias, Gator still persisted with calling me Mr Stavros.

“You don’t believe me?”  I asked.

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“I think that you believe what you say,” he replied.  I knew then that Gator would make an excellent doctor.  He was diplomatic in delivering an adverse opinion.

“Never mind Gator, I was just testing a storyline I have been working on.”

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“Are you writing again?” he asked.  “That’s good.  You need an outlet for your feelings.  Well I won’t intrude on your time anymore tonight.  It’s good to see you’ve found something else to occupy your thoughts.  Fawn has been so worried about you.”

When he left, I began to think about how this impacted on me.  If nobody believed a word I said around town, I would soon be persona non grata to everybody – not just Charity or the Kalamias.  This was a calamity of epic proportions.  I stayed home.  I kept to myself.  I did some extensions to my home, mainly because I had nothing better to do with my time and money. 

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I thought a lot about Gator and Fawn.  I decided that I would give them this house when they were married.  I’d design myself something more suited to my needs.

I really liked architecture.  If I could have, I would have made it the career I would have happily stayed in my whole life.  If I’d told Gator that I’d helped designed the Mortuary Temple for the great pharaoh Amenhotep III, then I would have definitely understood why he didn’t believe that.  Perhaps I had a bit of Cassandra’s curse even back then.  If Amenhotep III had listened to me and not built the temple at the Theban Necropolis, more of it would still be intact today.  I knew the annual flooding of the Nile would damage the temple.  Oh well, my life had never been easy despite my best efforts to make it so.

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After a while I was bored on my own.  I decided that if I was never going to be believed that I could just avoid statements, turn every question into another question or simply not respond when I couldn’t do either.  I did manage to socialise within this limited capacity and over time, learned from Faith and Leonidas that Charity was deeply unhappy.  Faith told me that Myles had cheated on Charity on their honeymoon.  This did not surprise me.  Nor when I learned he disliked children or that his lifetime wish was to be a Heartbreaker.

From afar, I watched with an increasingly aching heart, the steady decline of the fun loving girl I cherished, falling into despair being married to that faithless swine.  Leonidas said that she forgave him affair after affair.  Finally I heard the news that I had been hoping for.  Leonidas told me that Myles had left town.  In my joy, forgetting my curse, I exclaimed, “That’s fantastic news!”

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“Yes it is,” replied Leonidas.  It took me a moment or two to realise that he agreed with me.  He believed me.  With Myles gone the curse appeared to be broken too.  Leonidas went on to say that he and Faith had asked Charity to come home but she’d declined.

Hoping that I was no longer banned from the house, I went to see Charity.  She did look sad when she opened the door to me.  As we talked it became clear to me that she believed that she was genuinely in love with him.  I wonder if Myles had cast that love spell on her repeatedly during their marriage or whether his initial love spell was a permanent one.  Either way it was clear to me that now was not the time for me to confess how I felt.  I know I’m a bit of a misfit but I’m not a monster.

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I went away buoyed by the thought that she was willing to see me from time to time and I found myself looking for various ways to cheer her up.  Books, butterflies and wildflowers were her favourites and I found myself constantly on the lookout for these.  I cut gems in ever increasingly complex shapes to give to her.  Both Leonidas and I tried Vials of Potent Bliss but their effects were short lived.  Her melancholy was too intense.

Since Charity had lost her previous job with the Symphony Orchestra, Faith got her a job at the restaurant where she worked, primarily so she could keep an eye on her but also because Charity was an excellent cook.  We all hoped that she would be cheered by the positive feedback she would receive from the clients.

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Then finally the disaster that I would have given my life to prevent, happened.  My beloved Charity died.  Faith told me that she thought that Charity took an elixir to forsake the Fae to become a normal Sim, then tried to repair a broken dishwasher.  Faith believed that she did it deliberately.  Leonidas refused to believe Charity could have done that, but Faith and I both speculated that dishwasher broke and instead of doing a fairy repair, Charity saw a different solution and chose death.”

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[Cheezey]

Oh, poor Charity! My heart broke for her reading this chapter. 

I can only imagine what Gobias must be feeling now.

[Magz from Oz]

Chapter 6 – Moving Forward

To this day I’m not sure how I managed to get through that time.  My whole world felt like it had been tilted on its axis and thrown out of its orbit.  I actually don’t remember much of the first few weeks but I do remember that my life fell into a deep black hole. 

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I sought solace in drowning my grief with sorrow annihilaters and other substances.  Year before I had begun making nectar with some of those plants I’d harvested.  They were mostly amazing nectars with flame and life fruits.  I drank a few just to get the nice moodlets but to no avail.  All nectars tasted the same to me.  Still I drank a fair chunk of my best vintages just for something to do.

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Sometime during that period, Leonidas Kalamia asked me to meet him at the beach.  It was his favourite part of town.  He told me that he decided to leave Moonlight Falls.  He was going to Lunar Lakes as he needed a complete change of scenery.  I understood that.  I wanted out too but I was stuck here.  I knew from previous experience that the time vortex would not allow me to move neighbourhoods. 

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Thankfully Faith opted to stay in Moonlight Falls although as time went by, I saw less and less of her.  Whenever her boss asked her to check out the opposition restaurants, she would often invite me out to dine with her.  I think she did that in an effort to keep an eye on me rather than for the scintillating dinner conversation about plants and seeds. 

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Eventually she found someone else to spend her evenings with.  Although I had no objection to her dating an alien, I know of several among the townsfolk who thought it unnatural.  Given that I’d thought the whole town was unnatural I thought they’d have more tolerance.  Sometime about then, Faith moved into Charity’s house across town.  I rarely saw her after that.  I did hear from the scandalised townie gossips that her alien boyfriend had moved in with her.

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My only reliable friends were Gator and Fawn who tried everything they could think of to lift my spirits.  I ended up giving them the house so I could move away from that part of town.  I moved into a little house near the beach and gradually cleaned up my act.  I lived quietly and mostly spent my time writing.

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Gator and Fawn were married in a simple private ceremony at the Fae Ray Gardens with only me and Fawn’s St Bernard there for witnesses.  Gator was doing very well with his medical career and Fawn was dedicated to her law enforcement career.  Fawn often came to see me for extra pointers on investigation methods and analysis.  In the end, her boss asked me to rejoin the thin blue line as a consultant to work cases when the MFPD needed the extra manpower.  Since I did worry whether Fawn was really cut out for the rough part of police work, I rejoined the force.

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Gator did get abducted by an alien but nothing happened.  Nevertheless that spooked Gator sufficiently that they both decided that they would become fairies.  I made them the elixirs they needed and I know for a fact that Dahlia Goodfellow was delighted with Gator’s luscious wings and Fawn’s little bumble bee wings.  I was happy for both of them.

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I read in the newspaper one day that Faith and her alien boyfriend Tepeq were married and not too long afterwards, I read the announcement of the birth of their son, Julian.  I sent the boy a quirky toy to remember his eccentric Uncle Elias.  Faith was not amused. 

When not involved with police work, I settled into writing an epic adventure based on my travels.

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It was around that time I heard the buzzing of the time vortex.  I was near the library.  I actually ran towards the sound.  I could have leapt with joy at the thought of finally going home.  But alas, it was not for me.  I saw another Sim clasping their hands over their ears then fall to the ground.  When the vortex mist evaporated, the Sim seemed to leave behind a body.  I was curious and touched the form.  It felt soft and insubstantial like bubbles but as I took my hand away, the form seemed to dissolve into mist.

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While I was extremely disappointed that the vortex wasn’t for me, the Sim who had been sucked through it was someone that I seen around town for a long time.  I thought he was one of the paparazzi.  He was an elder and had been in Moonlight Falls almost as long as I had.  Perhaps the Supernatural elements of Moonlight Falls interfered with the time vortex.  Maybe that’s why I appeared stuck.  As time went by, every now and then, I tried to see if I could move to another neighbourhood just to see if it was possible.  I figured that if it was, the time vortex had finished with me.  Every time I tried, I still couldn’t move neighbourhoods, so I remained trapped in Moonlight Falls. 

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Years passed and I decided to stop making myself Ambrosia.  I aged up to an elder.  Apart from the osteoarthritis which I seemed to develop overnight, the only drawback to being an elder seemed to be the lack of stylish clothes.  Obviously fashion designers didn’t bother catering to the elderly.

I had so few friends that it was really an astonishing miracle when I met Faith again at Zoe Durwood-Ivy’s daughter’s wedding.  Faith was now a widow and the mother of two children.  I’m not sure why she received such criticism from her so-called friends but she seemed so lonely and out of place at that gathering.  I’m not sure why she stayed for the wedding party but she did and I was grateful.  I danced almost every slow dance with Faith.

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We talked endlessly and I learned that she had become a Top Chef and had left her two young sons alone on the evenings she worked.  The following day, I went to see her at her house.  I met her two sons who were quiet and very well behaved.  Julian, a fairy with green wings was doing very well at Elementary School.  Keith, an alien like his father, was an adorable toddler.  As with Faith a long time ago, I became a mentor and friend to her sons.  They gave me a new lease on life. 

I guess it never occurred to me to want what I always knew I couldn’t have.  But at that time in my life, I thought I was stranded in Moonlight Falls forever.  I wanted to be in the boys’ lives more than I wanted anything else.  Keith in particular looked up to me and I have to admit, that I thought he was going to be an amazing young man.  To live long enough to see that happen, I began to make Ambrosia for myself again.

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When Faith seemed to be casting about for another husband so she could have more children, I asked her to marry me.  I confess it felt strange.  I was neither surprised nor hurt when Faith turned me down. 

Perhaps she simply couldn’t find better husband material but some time later, she asked me if I still wanted to marry her.  I said that I did.  We were married with only the boys present. 

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Faith wanted to keep her name of Kalamia.  I had no problem with that.  It’s not like Stavros had been my rightful name anyway.  I was amazed when Faith fell pregnant right away.  Our twins, Leon and Hope were born without complications.  Leon was a normal Sim and Hope was going to be the prettiest little fairy with beautiful pink wings so like her aunt’s.

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I adored my children.  Each day with them I was reminded that whatever the future held for me, they were my greatest achievements.  I enjoyed being married.  Faith was a wonderful wife and mother.  I did love her in my own way and I think she felt genuine affection for me too.  It wasn’t solely a marriage of convenience.  I believed it was a marriage of two Sims who truly cared a lot about each other and were grateful for the life they had.

I don’t think I ever recalled feeling more fulfilled or contented as during that time.  My work had become quite demanding as the Police Chief was pushing through on a police surge on crime.  Gator asked to see me about some problems at the hospital.  The previous Hospital Manager had been in league with the local criminal element to help fund the acquisition of certain permits.  The new Hospital Manager wished to pay off the debt to the criminals and sever those ties without being severed herself.  Gator had been tasked to act as a go between.  He told me that the criminals would cooperate if I would ‘look the other way’ at some of the criminal’s other activities.  If I agreed, the criminals would withdraw their people from the hospital and allow the new Hospital Manager to get on with the job of providing health care.

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Before I could consider that, I wanted to see for myself how much the criminal element has infiltrated the hospital’s administration as that might provide some insight to a few baffling cases on our books.  I had only been at the hospital a few minutes when I heard the buzzing of the time vortex.  I wasn’t sure if it was for me this time either but it was!  No!  I had things to do and places to be!  I was meant to be at Keith’s Scout Badging ceremony at 5:00 PM.  Dammit!  I had children!  I vehemently cursed the fickle finger of fate.

The headache that began was worse than it had ever been before.  I thought for sure that my brain must be bursting.  I began to wonder if this time, I might actually die.  As the pain intensified I blacked out before my legs turned to jelly.  I recalled as I was losing consciousness, that I’d actually prayed for Grim to take me because I was certain that I’d be left brain dead and in a vegetative state if I should survive this excruciating pain. 

I woke up feeling extremely sick in my house in Sunset Valley.  It took me quite a while to recover from the experience but once again, only five minutes had passed in Sunset Valley time despite the years and years I’d lived in Moonlight Falls.

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I looked around my bedroom and saw the persona of Gobias Koffi.  I hated that room; the pink walls, the mirrors, everything.  I think I hated Gobias Koffi too.  I didn’t want to be him anymore.  I looked out across the bay and saw a sailing boat.  I wanted to be on it... leaving this town for good.

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The first thing I did was phone the realtor to move neighbourhoods to Moonlight Falls.  I had children who needed me!  Well I needed them.  I didn’t bother with resetting my age or changing clothes as I was simply doing nothing else but going home to Moonlight Falls.  However, when I arrived there, Moonlight Falls was in full summer when I had left in the late autumn, only hours before. 

I went to the home I’d shared with Faith and the children only to find it was vacant.  Nobody lived there.  I went around to Fawn and Gator’s house that I’d bought and renovated years before to find the house vacant and untouched.  The extensions I’d made were gone.  Similarly, the Kalamia house was vacant, it’s huge greenhouse had been dismantled.  It was as if the entire town had been reset with one major exception.  The townies I knew were the ages they had been when I left. 

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Eventually I tracked down Gator and Fawn to Pappy Wolf’s old home.  They were both still fairies.  Although neither Gator nor Fawn would acknowledge that they knew me, I felt sure that they did.  I’d been reading people’s faces for centuries.  I knew something was very wrong.  Fawn couldn’t look at me.  I think she found it hard to snub me like that.  The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end.  I believed it could mean trouble for them if I pursued this, so I left. 

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Everywhere I went, the feeling of an undefined menacing evil followed me.  I checked with the land titles records at City Hall expecting to find the records doctored to show I’d never lived there, only to find the records completely missing.  Other records were mysteriously gone too; the Census data showing I’d lived in the town and employment records showing I’d worked with the MFPD had disappeared as well.  Finally I checked with the IRS.  They had no record of any Elias Stavros-Kalamia paying taxes in Moonlight Falls.  I had been systematically and thoroughly expunged from the town’s existence.

I didn’t particularly want to return to Sunset Valley but I did.  At least Sunset Valley was completely normal and I thought I should at least try to pick up the threads of my old life.  I decided against resetting my age with an elixir, although I did change my clothes.  I became Gobias Koffi again but I was uncomfortable with that.  I went to the Festival Park to look around for Sims I knew.  It was a beautiful day but the children would have been in school and most of the townies should have been at work. 

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One of the greatest difficulties with time travel is to pick up on the events in the lives of Sims I hadn’t seen for a very long time.  Things that would have happened yesterday in Sunset Valley happened so long ago for me that I’d forgotten more than I remembered.  I didn’t really know these Sims anymore and mostly I didn’t care enough about them to make the effort.  I’d decided that I really didn’t want this life anymore.  It was time I left Sunset Valley for good.  Enjoying the sunshine after all those years of the unusual light of Moonlight Falls, I sat at one of the park tables and opened my laptop to do some research.  I intended to head for Appaloosa Plains.  I had been born there.  My father, Gaylord used to own a cafe there.

As I closed my computer I looked across the road to the theatre and saw the most upsetting sight:  my lovely fairy wife, Faith Kalamia here in Sunset Valley, kissing my next door neighbour, Brandon Crumplebottom.  It became patently obvious from her ‘stride of pride’ just what had happened in the theatre.

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[Cheezey]

Great chapter! Wow. That had to mess with his head so badly! It's hard to imagine what it must be like to have one's whole life erased like that.

[Magz from Oz]

Chapter 7 –Faith (less)

Seeing Faith drive off in my police cruiser was just so unexpected that I laughed out loud.  Instead of going back to my house I went over to City Hall.  I found it quite disconcerting to be addressed again as Gobias Koffi.  The first Sim I saw was Gunther Goth.  I remembered just in time that he had been offered a career change to politics some years ago.  He’d jumped at the chance to make a difference in local politics.  Obviously the career move had paid off.  He was the current Governor and up for re-election some time fairly soon I think.  Gunther invited me into his office.  I asked Gunther about Faith Kalamia.  I explained that I knew her father who asked me to keep an eye on her.

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“Sure I’ve got her Development Application right here; residential application 2469G for 15 Summer Hill Court.” He read from the file in front of him.  “A seven bedroom three level dwelling with a basement, one 8x13 metre barn with a mezzanine level, a children’s play area and approval for a fishing pond and extensive vegetable gardens.  That sure is a big house,” he commented.

“She has four children,” I remarked conversationally, “They like to spread out.”

“They must do,” he replied.  “Her application for a permit to have horses is still being processed.  You might speak to Tori Sekemoto about that if you’re interested.”

I thanked him and left his office.  I needed to see Faith but I was unsure whether I should go as Elias or Gobias.  Before I could weigh up the pros and cons of either identity, Vita Alto saw me in the foyer and called out to me.  I readily recalled that Vita had been turned into a Good Sim by Cornelia Goth.  The trouble was that now she tended to turn her pent up energies into matchmaking with all the single townies.  I was no exception.  I tried to extricate myself from Vita’s chattiness, but without being rude, I couldn’t.  She did repeat lots of gossip about the various townies which I hadn’t remembered.  Looking back now with the benefit of hindsight, it was probably solely due to Vita’s innate chattiness that first day back, that I didn’t make too many blunders which allowed me to fit seamlessly back into Sunset Valley.

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When I did eventually get a word in edgeways, I said, “I’m sorry Vita, I have another appointment.  It’s been lovely catching up with you though.  Will you please excuse me?”  I departed before she could say another thing.

As I got in my car to drive to Summer Hill Court, I found myself in my old green big lemon with the gearbox that always crunched getting into third gear.  I missed my cruiser.  I had inadvertently left it in the driveway of our home on that last day in Moonlight Falls.  So now in addition to being minus one wife and four children, I was also minus one cruiser.

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When I arrived at Faith’s new house, Julian wearing a black tuxedo, answered the doorbell.  He did not appear to recognise me.  The only thing different about me were the clothes, the hair, and the name.  I still wore the same glasses.  I still sounded the same and still walked the same.  I had the same facial features: same nose, same eyes, same moustache, same mouth, and same chin.  How had I suddenly become unrecognisable to the boy I’d been a step-father to for nearly six years?  When Julian invited me inside, I saw that Nick Alto was also a visitor.

Well that certainly queered my pitch and limited what I could say to Faith.  It also curtailed the way I could act.  Even though I looked like Gobias Koffi on the outside, I felt like Elias Stavros-Kalamia inside.  I didn’t want to act like the obsequious Gobias.  I decided to be as much like Elias as I could without causing any issues which Nick Alto would pick up on.  He clearly didn’t like me being there.  I was cramping his style as much as he was inconveniencing me.  If he knew just how much his presence was a nuisance, then he’d double his efforts just to annoy me.  He was mean spirited enough to have enjoyed my predicament, if he knew.

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But Faith showed no recognition of me either.  Were Faith and Julian particularly unobservant or did both of them suffer from Prosopagnosia?  I saw a program recently on Face Blindness where a father could not recognise his son’s face or his own face for that matter.  If this was not face blindness, had something more sinister caused this?  When I had gone back to Moonlight Falls, I felt sure that when Sim after Sim said they hadn’t remembered me, that it had been a lie.  I believed then that they really did remember me but that it hadn’t been prudent to admit it.  Perhaps I was wrong.  Maybe that undefined malevolent presence I’d felt all the time I was there, was not just my imagination.  Could a force exist that could wipe out a Sim’s memories?

I didn’t see Keith or Leon or Hope that evening.  But the longer I stayed, the more certain I was, that neither Julian nor Faith were faking their lack of recognition.  Neither of them was that good at acting nor could they have sustained such a charade for so long without giving away small clues that I was particularly searching for.  I made comments and used phrases that were part of the Moonlight Falls linguistic vernacular.  Neither Faith nor Julian showed by any means that they found my words or me familiar.

Faith told Nick and me that she was a widow.  She believed her husband had been murdered by the criminal element in Moonlight Falls.  I guess it was possible that they could be blamed for my disappearance.  There must have been a lot of witnesses to the fact that I’d gone into the hospital but never came out.  The criminal element in Moonlight Falls had infiltrated the hospital’s administration.  Gator may have told her about my investigations into them as a member of MFPD.

Faith said she came to Sunset Valley after searching for her mother’s family in Simfield.  She had been misdirected to Sunset Valley but decided to stay here as her son preferred the vibe of the place.  Nick tried so hard to impress Faith.  Despite him not being flirty, he certainly behaved that way.  I recalled that he had hit on a fair number of female Sims in Sunset Valley much to the chagrin of their partners or fathers.  I did find his attempts to chat up Faith excessively irritating.  But his whole presence frustrated me.

When Faith asked me about Brandon Crumplebottom, I was hard pressed not to smirk.  I said that he was my next door neighbour and a widower who still grieved for his late wife.  I told her I admired Brandon and that he was devoted to his daughter, Diana.  Nick gave a more disparaging opinion of Brandon.  I expected nothing less.

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Julian was clearly acting as a chaperone for his mother.  At 10:00 PM, he politely shooed Nick and I out of the house.  I found that amusing.  I wondered if Julian knew what Faith had been up to earlier that day in the theatre with Brandon Crumplebottom.  If he didn’t know then, he’d know soon enough.  Sunset Valley has a gossip network second to none.

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As I tried to go to bed that evening, I lay awake thinking.  I got up and paced the floor, trying to make sense of it all.  I needed to work out how I really felt about Faith.  It’s true that I believed that I loved our children more than I loved her but I always thought that I did love her.  I found it peculiar that I felt no burning jealousy about her and Brandon Crumplebottom getting it on in the theatre.  I think I was saddened that she’d replaced me in her affections so quickly but Faith was a very determined Sim.  When she’d made up her mind to do something, she didn’t let the grass grow under her feet.  I’m pretty sure that she was the one who instigated what had happened in that theatre.

I recalled that even our marriage was eventually instigated by Faith.  She did have a very real need for companionship.  I think she may have some co-dependency issues.  Ever since Charity’s death, Faith has not liked being alone.  She had been casting around for husband number two before she settled on me.  Perhaps now she was set on finding husband number three.  Given that she genuinely believed that she was a widow, she obviously felt she was free to woo whomever she fancied.  Reluctantly I admitted to myself, that I didn’t mind her seducing Brandon as much as I should have.  What I really minded was not being with my children.

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The next morning I went over to Faith’s house.  From the front of the house I could see her talking with Brandon in the garden.  He was fully dressed but she was in her sleepwear.  I didn’t want to speculate on what was happening there.  I just wanted to see my children.  This time Keith opened the front door.  Keith, who was strangely intuitive about things and could feel the presence of people in his mind, looked strained but not shocked to see me.  Normally Keith would not answer the door to anyone, especially strangers.

“Good morning Keith.  How do you like Sunset Valley?”

“If you’re looking for my mother, she is in the vegetable garden,” he said not answering my question.

“I know.  I saw her as I came through the gate.  I really wanted to see you, and Leon and Hope.  I can see that you’re not surprised to see me here.”

He looked intently at me.  His black alien eyes were difficult to read but he couldn’t conceal the slight narrowing of his eyes behind those glasses and the tightening of his mouth.  As Keith stared at me I felt a prickling sensation along my scalp.  As goosebumps rose on my flesh, Keith went back inside and, without saying a word, shut the front door in my face.

If I hadn’t been so astonished, I’d have laughed.  I always believed that in addition to sensing people, Keith had a limited ability to read minds.  Now I wondered if he also had the ability to plant ideas in my mind.  Keith, solemn and quiet but with a profound sense of propriety was clearly telling me not to go down this path.  The words “you must not come here” came loud and clear into my thoughts.  For now, I decided to respect Keith’s sixth sense on this and I left without saying hello to Faith.  I had never figured out if Keith’s unique abilities had been because he was an Alien child born to a Supernatural Fairy or that he was simply born with his gifts irrespective of whoever his parents had been.

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I didn’t want to give up entirely on Leon and Hope so I went across to the Summer Hill Springs and fished for a while, hoping to catch a glimpse of them in the children’s playground that had been built at the front of the house.  What I did see was Brandon and Julian talking in the playground and later, Brandon falling asleep on the lounger. 

From having lived next door to Brandon and Diana Crumplebottom, I knew of Brandon’s nocturnal habits.  He routinely stayed awake all night in an effort to meet his late wife’s ghost.  He usually slept during the daytime while his daughter was at school.  Even though it was late in the summer, I wondered if I should warn him about the possibility of too much sun resulting in spontaneous combustion.  I decided to wait and see.  If I thought he was in any real danger, I would rescue him.

It was Faith who awakened him.  I saw Brandon stumble as he got to his feet and deduced that he probably had heat stroke.  I felt quiet warm myself having come out without a hat or umbrella.  Faith led Brandon into her house.  The front of the house remained closed and quiet.  As storm clouds were gathering over the ocean, it seemed unlikely that Leon and Hope would now play in that playground today.  I went home.  I needed to get indoors myself.

I tried to figure out what my next move should be.  I really did want to see my children.  I felt like one of those husbands who had been divorced.  I just wanted access to my children.  I knew I couldn’t get access legally.  I had been erased from Moonlight Fall’s records.  I could not prove that Elias Stavros had existed.  However, my life in Moonlight Falls had not been completely eradicated.  Residue in one form or another had remained.  Gator and Fawn had still been fairies which had been done with an elixir I’d made and my genes continued on as the father of Leon and Hope.

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Making myself a chai latte, I pondered my options.   Since I doubted that I could convince any court that I, Gobias Koffi, had been Faith Kalamia’s husband and father to her children, I wouldn’t have access to them legally.  Perhaps I could simply befriend them just as I had done with Julian and Keith.  Then I could see them fairly frequently.  I ended up convincing myself that this was my best possible option.  It might have worked too.  Except that Brandon Crumplebottom proposed to Faith that day and married her that evening.

I liked Brandon.  He was a nice guy and almost as quirky as me.  He would have a tough enough time uniting the two families without me giving him a conundrum to which there could be no answer.  I decided to wait a week or two before approaching him to work out an amiable solution.  Before I could do so, it became apparent that Faith was again pregnant.  I decided I should just leave well enough alone for now.

I knew Faith had wanted more children.  She’d spoken of wanting a full house when we were married.  I had thought that four children had been enough for us.  But Faith was clearly a Sim on a mission.  If Brandon hadn’t come along, I think she would have adopted to have the extra children she’d wanted.

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Over the next few years, I did meet my children frequently.  I actually saw them almost as often as I would have wanted if we’d been divorced.  I taught Leon to skate.  I collected festival eggs with Hope.  I played endless games of chess with both of them at the park.  I helped them with their homework and tutored them in various subjects.  Leon and I often fished together at Summer Hill Springs.  Without interfering with that family dynamic, I had access to my children.  I was content enough with that.

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I saw almost nothing of Keith.  He hated crowds and apart from school, rarely left the house.  I did see quite a lot of Julian, but mostly from my back deck.  Julian was dating Brandon’s teenage sister, Rosalie St Clair.  I saw them regularly at the beach, or the park or at the library.

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During this time my relationship with both Faith and Brandon remained cordial.  I could see clearly that Faith was undeniably in love with Brandon and he with her.  It was actually reassuring to see Faith and Brandon together.  I was sure that I was witnessing a love that would stand the test of time.  They seemed to fall more deeply in love with each other every time I saw them.  I wouldn’t dream of interfering in that marriage.

As Leon and Hope became teens, I saw less of them.  Their lives became busier and Leon was more interested in acquiring skills I hadn’t bothered with.  What I knew about Social Networking and Bot Building could have been written on a postage stamp.  Hope was more into the artistic pursuits and I saw her frequently around town with the camera I gave her for her birthday.

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As my children were growing older, so were the townies aging up.  Several of the elders had died of old age.  And therein was my dilemma.  When Nick Alto died of old age, everyone expected me to be next... and I don’t plan to be.  Notwithstanding the fact that I can make Ambrosia, I’m not ready.  I don’t want to go.¹

Therefore I must leave Sunset Valley.  My children would be fine without me.  They had wonderful parents.  Moreover, Hope had begun to come to my house more and more frequently.  While most of the townies assumed she was being kind to an old man, others were not.  I did not want to cause any malicious gossip for her so I needed to be the one to make the break.

I sent emails to Leon and Hope and Keith to say that I was leaving Sunset Valley and that I wished them all well for their futures.

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After that I headed over to the Elixir Store to make a Fountain of Youth elixir to age back to a young adult.  I wondered if I should also make an Age of Instant elixir to get me back to middle aged.  I do prefer that age.  It creates fewer expectations and is far less trouble.  Middle age is the age of acceptance. 

But in the end I decided why bother with middle age, I lost most of my youth being sucked through that dratted time vortex.  Maybe I can do better this time around.  I could always buy a birthday cake from any grocery store if I felt differently later on.

Ever since that mad dash all over Moonlight Falls for that elusive ruby, I’d always kept a couple of batches of my most used elixirs on hand.  I just needed to find another green swallowtail butterfly to make another batch of elixirs.  As I knew where all the butterflies and gems could be found in Sunset Valley, I decided to get the extra ingredients before I left. 

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Later tonight, I would say goodbye to my father, Gaylord.  Then I’ll go to Appaloosa Plains as I’d planned earlier.  I have now only vague memories of the town.  My father and his best friend Darris Teeter ran a combined grocery store and cafe.  When my mother died, my father sold his interest to his partner and we left Appaloosa Plains for Sunset Valley.  We never heard from Darris Teeter again. 

As I headed out in search of the elixir ingredients, the snow began to fall heavily.  I love snowflakes.  Whoever said it was childish to taste snowflakes, never tried it.

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After I caught one of the butterflies I needed, I used the elixir on myself.

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I was a young man again.  This time I’m going to do things a lot differently.

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I was just about to head over to the graveyard when I heard an argument.  Not shouting really, more a one-sided tirade of cold angry words.  I peered around the bushes and saw a surprising sight.  I’ve seen many unusual things in my time but this one truly dazed me.

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My heart skipped a beat.  Charity was right here in Sunset Valley.  How she got here, I couldn’t begin to speculate. 

As I watched her destroy that snowman, I knew deep in my heart I’d always felt that she wasn’t permanently dead.  Especially given that before I had returned from Moonlight Falls, I had gone to the cemetery to grieve at her tombstone but it was missing.  Someone else had taken it and Deborah Kalamia’s tombstone as well.  Originally I suspected Faith but she had no idea that her mother’s and sister’s tombstones had vanished. 

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After Charity destroyed the snowman, she walked around the bushes.  Then she saw me.  She looked startled.  I smiled at her.  With my heart in my mouth and my future happiness at stake, I approached her.

“Hello Charity”. 

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EDIT: ¹ Dr Who, The End of Time (2009) - 5th Special of the fourth series (story # 202)

[Cheezey]

And they're reunited! Can't wait to see what happens next. I felt for Gobias not being able to be a part of his kids' lives the way he wanted.  That had to be so hard!

[Nindigo]

@Magz from Oz

Oh my! What a story, Magz. I spontaneously decided to click its link in your signature while reading elsewhere on the forum, and I'm glad I did It was a delightful read. I really appreciate your imagination and creativity, and the fact that you dared to make Gobias Koffi the main character. He is at best an awkward Sim to flesh out. In my opinion, at least. And kudos for beginning it all backwards! You've done very well, I'd say

I used to write romantic short stories myself and have been an avid reader of supernatural/romance. Thank you very much for sharing with us

[Magz from Oz]

@Nindigo

Thanks for reading and your inspiring comments.  This story isn't finished.  There's still lots to go.  My excuse for not updating is I've been trying to concentrate on NaNoWriMo.  But this story just won't leave my head, so expect an update before the end of the month.

[Banana Bender]

Hey Magz I can't believe you didn't cite your Dr Who reference.  You're usually so good with crediting other sources.  I'm giving you an A- for this update.  Nevertheless, I've enjoyed reading Gobias' backstory and can't wait for the real deal now that he's found Charity again.