Chapter 32 – Ah, Well
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A very pregnant Gladys is pretty much dying of boredom (aside from spending a full day at the spa), so she decides to take up a new hobby—fishing. The desert is the perfect locale for exploring this skill, because of, you know, all the water.
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Corrie is still Leader of the Free World, but the “Free World” now consists of dozens of Lucky Palms residents she has never met before. In an effort to get to know some of them, she takes her bass downtown and starts jamming away outside the grocery store. The abandoned, silent, tumbleweeds-rolling-by grocery store.
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Sensing his wife’s lack of audience as if by magic, Ash joins her a few hours later and adds to the music with some expert-level guitar playing. People start to show up after that. Or maybe because it’s not 6 a.m. anymore. (That’s a pregnant Karie dancing away over there. Ash and Corrie have two grandboos on the way!)
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Back home, Caspian is working on his logic skill in preparation for the higher levels of the criminal career. Francine is trying to help him out by acting as a worthy opponent. I suspect she’s also trying to heal their relationship through the healing balm of ruthless competition.
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Later that afternoon, after arriving home from the luscious desert pond or whatever, Gladys is hit hard with the labor pains. A baby Kindle is en route to Lucky Palms!
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Nile doesn’t realize what’s going on at first.
“Oh, hi, darling—what are you doing? Ooh, are we playing charades?!”
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“Ohhh, I see. You’re having a baby, and I’m panicking.”
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Some time later, after much heavy breathing, Gladys makes the “oh-god-here-it-comes” face…
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…and delivers a boy named Canyon into the world. Welcome, Canyon! (So much for all those watermelons Gladys ate...but y'know, it's fine.)
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Gladys must immediately contend with the pressures of motherhood. Canyon arrives in this world with a smelly diaper. The first of many. It's going to be okay, Gladys. Just breathe. Or...maybe don't.
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The rest of the family is pretty excited about the new baby. Ash immediately starts bragging about his grandchildren to anyone who will listen—in this case, his other son.
“Look how cute this baby is, Caspian! You could have a baby just as cute, you know!”
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To my surprise, Caspian actually stops his father mid-sentence and basically tells him he’s not interested.
“I’m not having kids anytime soon, Dad. Cool it.”
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With Francine, though…it’s a different story. With a new baby nephew to cuddle and coo at, she’s feeling pretty left out. Her husband has rejected her attempts to try for a baby with him and isn’t even showing much interest in her at the moment. (There IS evidence that Caspian wants a baby, though! He popped a wish to steal candy from one the other day! That’s something, right?!) I’m convinced that their relationship will mend itself over time, but Francine doesn’t know that. She’s feeling desperate.
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She’s heard a strange rumor from some people at the theatre where she works. People keep whispering about a well down by City Hall. A magical wishing well, to be precise.
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Without telling anyone else in the family, Francine visits the Wishing Well and pulls a coin out of her pocket. She contemplates it for a while. Maybe the Well would help her overcome the tensions with her husband and bring them a child.
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It’s worth a shot, right?
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Francine flings her coin gleefully into the still, dark waters. She asks the Well for a child. It is her greatest wish (aside from being rich…oh, wait, maybe we should’ve done that instead), and she has high hopes that the Well will grant her what she’s always wanted.
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The allotted amount of time passes. And nothing happens.
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Her hopes dashed, Francine begrudgingly reaches into the Well’s depths, trying to get her coin back (and maybe swipe some others in the process). Francine, I don’t know if this is a good idea, since the Well could probably—
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“Whoop!”
—swallow you if it wanted to…
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*gurgle gurgle*
Oh, Francine…I’m so embarrassed for you.
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Thank goodness the Well doesn’t actually swallow her alive. Horrified and ashamed of herself, Francine looks around frantically to make sure nobody saw that. (Ahem. I saw that.)
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In reality, she’s much more angry than ashamed. Curse the Well for refusing to grant her wish! Her pure, wholesome, unselfish wish! Or maybe the Well understands the true situation, and knows that having a child will not magically fix Francine’s relationship with Caspian. Either way, it looks like Francine is going to have to do the work of repairing her relationship on her own.
(Full disclosure: Francine wishes for a child many, many times, and not once does the Well grant her wish. I even send her back in the middle of the night after she manages to swipe a lucky coin from the Well, to see if that will help; nope. Then I do some research and some playtesting in another file, and I discover that the Well does not give you a child born of your own genetics. It gives you a randomly generated pudding face child. Of course; I should’ve guessed. With that knowledge, I decide to give up. I’d much rather have a true Kindle baby anyway.)
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Although Francine is not yet a happy parent…Nile sure is! He’s having a blast getting to know his firstborn son, even though he may or may not be able to actually see him through those foggy shades.
Next time, we’ll see Canyon grow up into an actual sim with actual features! See ya then!