Hiding the Tears

Remar, Summer, 2001
Jorge is 34, Jolie is 34, Grace Elise is 6


It's finally summer time in Apple Valley and the weather is much much warmer. Grace Elise loved kindergarten so much that she's counting down the days until first grade.

"Only a few more weeks right?" she asks during dinner.

"Yes, only a few more weeks."


Grace Elise has been busy this summer. She hasn't outgrown her tendency to go in the backyard at all hours of the night, it's very rare to find her not dancing to the newest song, catching fireflies or talking to the trees. Grace Elise has also started a tendency to talk to her imaginary sister. She really wants a sister, there are no kids in her subdivision, except for Si'Enya Warwick, but she's going to be a fourth grader, and fourth graders don't talk to first graders.


Jorge has noticed his daughter talking to her imaginary sister. He hopes that Jolie doesn't hear her since they have been trying for the past five years to give Grace Elise a sibling, but no such luck. The lack of a baby has sent Jolie into a bout of depression before and since her mother died recently, Jorge can't afford to risk Jolie being depressed again. Therapy is expensive! So he buys Grace Elise a dalmation, though one might wonder if the dog is more for him than his daughter.


Unfortunately, his plan doesn't work. Jolie overhears Grace Elise outside playing with the new dog, Puggles, and her imaginary sister.

"Look, sister dear, Puggles likes me better."

Jolie almost drops the plate of llamaberry pie to the floor.

"Ha, ha! Run, Puggles, run away from sister dear! She's going to catch you!"

Jorge finds his wife minutes later brawling to the point of hiccups.

"She-she's gone!" Jolie wailed. "Daddy's g-gone too!!! And-and-st-still no ba-baby!!!!"

Jorge comforts his wife the best way he knows how.

Jolie has to make an apprearence at the new Jonagold Shoppes II to visit the Cooking Face-Off. She's written a few cookbooks and has a culinary column in the newspaper, so her duties as a minor celebrity baker include showing up at various events. Today's event was a charity cookoff.

She entered a new recipe, Curry Salmon over Rice. As part of the event, she started off with a cooking demonstration of the recipe in the food kitchen.


Then it was up to the showcase hall to place her recipe with other entries. It was evident that she would win, especially with one of the entries being cherry geletin with fruit bits and another being croissants. The only competition was Banana Caramel Tarts. She had to admit that they were stiff competition. That's the only thing about such competitions, there are no divisions. No such desserts division, or entree division. No, every entry under the sun is accepted.



So she waited like the other contestants as the judge came around. The audience was silent with tension. The admission proceeds were going towards the Food Expo's Feed a Hunger Program. That reminded her, she needed to get her Food Expo speech ready. Jolie was so deep in thought about if she should speak about baking techniques or low sugar sweets, that she barely registered that she won first place until the audience was on its feet cheering.



While Jolie was off winning blue ribbons, Jorge was playing a game of cards with a new set of friends. Names were not exchanged and thankfully neither were simoleans as his new friends were a brutal group of card players. Thankfully they shared a few tricks with him before Jolie came to claim her husband for a quick drink and dance.



"How was the competition?" Jorge asked.

"The same as usual, I talked, I cooked, I won."

"I guess it's hard being the best, huh?" he joked.

Jolie smiled. She knew that she was barely holding onto her title as the best chef in the hood. Ginger Grey apparently knew a thing or two about flavors and textures in the kitchen. Thankfully, she preferred feeding her family and friends and not entering competitions, but the rumor was that she was considering entering a competition soon. If Ginger really was as good as the rumors implied then Jolie needed to spend some more time behind the stove, but of course her job prevented much free cooking time. Sweating behind the stove at CupaJava making great desserts made a nice salary, but ate away her freetime, while Ginger...Ginger stayed at home all day, free to experiment with the freshest ingredients from her farm.


Jorge could see the wheels turning behind his wife's head, so he grabbed her close.

"Let's dance." He said.

Jolie smiled, Jorge was a great dancer and always perferred having fun as opposed to debating the serious issues of the relationship of whisk shape to performance. The dance was over all too soon as Jorge's alarm rang, signaling it was time to pick Grace Elise up from the summer day program.

The couple barely made it to the courtyard when Grace Elise came running towards them.

"Swing me, daddy! Swing me!"

Jolie smiled behind a curtain of tears. How she longed to have another little one...but time was running out.
---
Jolie wants a baby badly and they have been trying with risky woohoo and ACR, but still no baby. They're young too, so I don't know what's going on.