Changing Seasons, Summer part 1

Summer Part 1 Take it from me, if you want to disappear, summer is the time to do it. End of the school year, and no-one’s going to worry about you until the autumn term. Not when there isn’t anyone to worry about you anyway. And everyone will just assume you’ve changed schools when you don’t go back to the old one. Not that anyone’s going to be going back to our old school anyway. Not until it’s been rebuilt. It sort of caught fire. Nothing to do with me of course – nothing that anyone could prove, anyway. But I had a feeling it was time to get lost again. And I’d seen this town on some programme – mostly about its graveyard, but it had appeal. A ghost town, they’d called it. Long gone downhill from its Victorian roots, but the church had looked good and solid. From the outside, anyway. And the inside looked promising too. A bit draughty, but not damp, not round here. Nice and cool in fact, after the heat outside. Was my luck in! This must have been the vestry once upon a time. I didn’t much fancy the look of the bed, but that’s why I’d got my sleeping bag. I remembered that the programme had interviewed the town’s one inhabitant – a guy called Old Pike or Old Trout, or something like that – and made a big thing of how there was power and water still on because he wouldn’t move out. They seemed to think that he was some kind of hero or something, standing up to the company that had wrecked the town with their pollution. But power and water were what I was hoping for – water especially. Yep! Now with a bit of luck, behind that other door there would be… …Just what I was hoping for! A good old-fashioned toilet! And –even more than I was hoping for – a shower! This place would do very nicely indeed. This will be a great base for a while. The thing is to always have somewhere that you’ve come from, a place you can describe. Now let’s see what I can find in the way of food to add to my supplies. I’ve got dried foods – and I am very good at making a fire for heating water – but a bit of fresh food never goes amiss. And I know how to forage for things. I remembered this place from the TV programme. Used to be a thriving community garden and orchard, they said, and look at it now...Well, there’s still some stuff surviving and I’ll have it. And hopefully there’ll be some fish somewhere too. Always pack a collapsible fishing rod, I say. And some matches, of course. Must steer clear of Old Minnow, or whatever his name was. People do so like to see teenagers shut up in a school. There we are! I found some odds and ends in the building, did a bit of re-purposing, and voilà! One outdoor cooking facility! I’m setting it up at the back of the church – don’t want Old Whitebait spotting it from the front. And there’s plenty of old brambles to pull over it when I’m done, make it look like it’s been here for years. Clara Hayes, you have fallen on your feet here. Well and truly. Nothing’s going to spoil this for me. “And just who do you think you are? Taking things out of the church building? Messing around?” Whoa! What was this? Who was this? I couldn’t possibly be looking at a ghost – could I? “Well? What are you doing here? Up to no good, I’ll be bound. I can see right through you, young lady…”
Hang on. I’m not going to be harangued by a bossy ghost.
“See right through me, can you? Well, there’s a coincidence…And as for what I’m doing, it’s none of your business. If I want to spend my summer holidays investigating…um…the architecture of old churches, what’s it got to do with you?” “You come waltzing into my home without so much as a by-your-leave and ask what it has to do with me?” The ghost actually sniffed, in a decidedly annoyed way.
That got to me. I hadn’t liked it when the social workers had done that to me when I was younger. “Haven’t you been taught to knock and wait? Or to introduce yourself properly?”
You don’t get as far in life as I have done without learning when to trim your sails to the prevailing wind. And I am good at presenting the front people want to see. “Good afternoon. May I introduce myself? Miss Clara Hayes at your service. I must say you have a fascinating residence here. I’m charmed to make your acquaintance.” “Adelaide Kirk. Miss Adelaide Kirk. Miss Kirk to you.” Gosh, she was just like some scary schoolteacher. In fact, I bet that was what she had been when she was alive. But she was definitely sounding a bit mollified by my politeness.
“I will be happy to assist you with your researches into this fine building. In fact, I think you could be an invaluable ally in aiding its preservation. In my current state, alas, there are various things I cannot do.”
Hang on. Invaluable ally? Aiding its preservation? What did this old bat have in mind for me to do?


This building and these characters were created by AlphaFen!
https://www.thesims3.com/assetDetail.html?assetId=9310815
Back story here: https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/comment/17074021/#Comment_17074021