End of the Year Musings

Peacar, Winter, 2002
Lyndon is 48, Nicole is 46, Harvis and Susie are 16 (Faith is 18 and a freshman at PU)


Over a bowl of cereal, Lyndon decides that he has to find employment outside of his duties as the pastor for the hood. It's either that or move to cheaper housing, but the lease isn't up on the house until 2004, which is when the twins are off to university. Until then, he could either break the lease or find a job.


While fixing the leaking shower for the fifth time this simmonth, he thinks that maybe he should offer his services as a handysim.


However, he isn't fond of getting his clothes wet while banging the faucet with his wrench.


Nor is he fond of rewiring the components of the computer, to be honest, it actually bores him. Ok, that's not quite honest, he loves tinkering around the house, but it confounds him most of the time. He doesn't quite know the names of his tools, nor how items should fit together.


Finally he settles down with the paper and searches for a job. There's not a whole lot available and those positions that are available are low paying. He needs to find something soon, the only steady source of simoleans is Nicole's position as a sound engineer at the orchestra in the Metro.


Nicole is in love with her job. There are so many aspects of her employment that she enjoys. She loves being in an urban setting and walking around the metro, finding unique places to eat for lunch, or at least watch her co-workers eat while she enjoys her turkey and rye sandwiches from home. Her co-workers are very nice, which is a bonus considering how closely they must work together.


Nicole brings Harriet to the house after work to go over thier plans for the grand opening of the orchestra. The 2003 opening season will start with the orchestra's performance of "Ode to Springy Steps". Currently, they are having issues with the quality of the harp's microphones. The volume simply isn't loud enough to disperse throughout the concert hall.


To make matters even more stressful, the local media would be there to review it and if the journalist can't hear, then the review will be horrible. Thankfully, it doesn't take too long for the women to think of a set of solutions and Harriet is able to leave on the 7 o'clock ferry back to the metro.


Which is just in time for a slow dance with her husband.

"How was your day?" He whispers in her ear.



"Busy. Thankfully it is over. How about yours?"

"Busy. I fixed a couple of things, spent an hour on the phone with Tobi, trying to encourage him about the pregnancy and his finances."



Nicole nodded. She knew the young couple was having a hard time. With toddler triplets and a fourth unplanned baby on the way, money was even tighter in thier household. She also tried to encourage Li whenever possible and together they often visited the young couple to allow them to vent thier frustations of raising a growing family while watching thier salaries shrink.


Before they could continue thier conversation or thier caressing, they heard Harvis's voice at the door. Recently the teen found a job working as a lab assistant at Aspirational Labs. Thier neighbor helped him to get the job at her workplace. At least she was good for something besides fighting out in the common yard with her boyfriend.


"I'm home." Harvis said emotionlessly as he entered the door to the sight of his foster parents tickling each other. He rolled his eyes and headed to the computer. It was almost a nightly ritual of his to search the internet for any UFO sightings or blue alien sightings. He knew that there were more blue aliens in the nation, but he didn't know where.


He wanted to find them again...why were they waiting so long to claim him and his siblings. They were royalty, he knew this as sure as he knew that the sky contained two moons.

What annoyed him the most was that his sister Susie was chasing after the wrong things. He knew that she would invite friends to the house to distract him while she sneaked to the backyard to create some potion or another.


Susie didn't deny her fascination with the paranormal ways, in fact she began to openly embrace them. She even applyed a face paint-much like her ancestor Squirly Swims.


She spent her days afterschool studying the ancient secrets that remained locked to her.


But on most occasions she could be found with her mentor, and crush, Liam. It was hard, he was the most powerful warlock she knew, but more importantly ten simyears older than her. Maybe it was his power that attracted her to him, or his smile. Whatever it was, she was addicted.


However, he wisely kept her at arm's length. "You should find a boy your own age." He encouraged her. Not because he wasn't interested, but for precisely that very reason. He didn't want to end up in jail. She tried, honestly, she tried to find a boy her own age. She finally cornered that cute paper delivery guy in the backyard and got a kiss out of him.


It felt like she was cheating. Even though Liam denied her, Susie's heart in fact belonged to the man. She quickly ran from the backyard and hopped on her trusty broom for a therapeutic ride around the neighborhood.


While one daughter was dealing with the trama of an unfortunate choice for her first love, Lyndon wanted to be sure that his other daughter wasn't going to screw up her chances at a degree. The weather was nice when Lyndon invited Faith to the house to pick up some of her things. He passed the time by lazily trying to catch butterflies.

Finally Faith arrived on the morning ferry. She couldn't stay long as she had a final exam that evening. Lyndon handed her a small gift.

"What is it?"



"Open it and find out."

She did and found a music book of violin scores signed by her favorite composer. "How did you get this?"

"I found it on an online auction." Lyndon said, proud that his daughter enjoyed the gift.

"Thank you, daddy."

"You're welcome."

After a quick lunch, Lyndon finally broached the conversation and the true reason why he asked the young woman to make the commute to Apple Valley from campus.



"Please, Faith, be careful."

"About what?"

"Don't get pregnant again. You are there for an education, don't screw it up."



"Don't worry, daddy, I'm won't. I'm focused on my studies." She told the half-truth easily. She was also focused on Bill, Todd, joining the sorority and her planned spring break trip.



Convinced that he sufficently warned his daughter, they departed after a lightheaded rendition of the Pierce University fight song.