Changing Seasons. Summer III, part 3

Summer III, part 3 Well, this was a total surprise! What were they all doing here? What was I about to be railroaded into now? This looked like a get-Clara-organised deputation. Just goes to show how wrong I can be. And, boy, I’m glad I hadn’t said anything. Because:
“Happy Birthday!” Patience said.
“Yes!” Annette added. “You’re sixteen. You have an address now –even if you’re not living there yet. Marcus has booked your driving test. He says you’re more than ready.”
“So pour the tea,” Marianna said. “I missed Patience’s party, but I can make yours.”
I poured the tea. Feeling a bit sheepish, and that’s not me either. “Now you need to learn to trust people,” Addie had said, and I was kind of getting her point. In a very pointed way! “I forgot to ask you about the perfume,” I said to Patience, when I’d stopped blushing (and hopefully everyone thought it was just with pleasure and surprise). “Euan was debating how to present it all the way home. Down on one knee, just casually leave it around, surround it with flowers and put it on the bed…”
Patience smiled reminiscently. “He went for casual in the end. It’s kind of an in-joke between us – we used to hide little surprises when we were dating and first married. So I walked past it and did a double-take.” “He just happened to be standing there. Waiting for me to use it!” “And then it got very romantic…” “This is – really cool. Thanks, everyone.”
“It’s a girl thing,” Marianna said warmly. “And we all need girl time. When you move into your house and my four are at school, shall we have a go at that bakery/café place, you and I?” Sounded good to me, and I said so. “Ah,” Patience said from behind her teacup. “Um. I don’t want to overshadow Clara’s celebration, but…”
Annette paused with her teacup to her lips and a wicked grin appearing on her face. “Don’t tell me you ran out as well.” “No,” Patience said with great dignity. “We’re not that careless.”
“You’re pregnant again though aren’t you?” I’d caught Annette’s grin form her.
“Like they say, no method is one hundred per cent effective.” Patience sighed.
“I can teach for a bit – maybe: it depends how this pregnancy goes and how I feel. But we’re going to need a Plan B.” We all spent some time on Plan B. We didn’t manage to think of a really good one. We could cobble something together, but…
After everyone had left, I went into the shop to thank Minnie for the loan of her tea service “…your tablecloth, table, chairs and your lovely little garden. Those sunflowers are beautiful.”
“That was Lucy and Mike’s children. They had a sunflower-growing contest at school and gave their grandmother their left-over ones. I hear your school plans have hit a bit of a hiccup. Now that’s a real shame – not that Joy and Hope and that rascal Barnabas are going to have a new brother or sister, of course! – but that you’ll all have to think again. Are you still planning on doing up the building? I’m plumb-sure you’ll all come up with some bright idea.” “So Patience is pregnant again – due about February – but if it’s another multiple birth, she might be early. She’ll certainly have too much on her hands. So I wondered if you knew who owned that house by the school? We might find someone who’d come and teach…”
“Iffen there was a house thrown in? You never can tell, can you? I mean, look at them friends of Marianna’s. And this town, it’s comin’ back to life again. Ain’t like it were when you arrived.” Old Tench had got my point straight away.
“Lemme think. Artie’s comin’ round, so we can pick his brains too. Such as they are.”
“You wasted that insult. He’s not here yet. You’ll have to say it again when he arrives,” I pointed out sweetly, and got one of Old Tench’s guffaws of laughter. “Here he is, the man himself. See you put your good shirt on.”
“Glad I did, seeing as there’s a lady present.”
I liked the way these two made me feel. They treated me with a kind of… “gallantry” is the only word I can think of. Like, because I was female, I deserved extra care and politeness from them. Maybe it’s their age. There was a lot of reminiscing and “Didn’t he marry…?” and “Wasn’t that her?” It was kind of sweet listening to them both reliving past stories. Their pasts were places where they’d been happy, places they were glad to revisit.
“So we both reckon it’s the Ensteins as must still be ownin’ the place. Any way we can trace ‘em? Artie, you’re the one as is always writin’ to people.”
“I always did like writing,” Artie said a bit defensively. “And people like getting Christmas cards…”
“Keep your wig on! I was only sayin’ as you might know somethin’ I don’t’.”
“That’s not hard! Fred, now, his Lily died and they moved to be with her parents, him and their little boy.”
“And they didn’t manage to sell the place! I do remember that,” Old Tench said triumphantly. “People were beginnin’ to see the writin’ on the wall by then.”
Artie thought a bit longer, pulling up memories. I swear I could almost see him flicking through files and folders in his mind. And then his face changed as he found the right one.
“Then he married again. Remember Maddie Portland?”
“Her as married Rick Wilson? The bank manager? An’ ran through all his money? An’ drove him to work harder ‘n harder just so’s she could spend it all ‘til he just dropped down dead from a heart attack? I remember her alright.”
“She picked up Fred Enstein. Thought he was going to inherit from Lily’s parents – but of course it was all going to Lily’s sister. Nothing to Fred, nothing to the boy: they’d taken Maddie’s measure and weren’t going to leave anything she might get her hands on. Bess Preston told me that bit – said Maddie had moved on to someone else after she’d squeezed Fred dry. Divorced Fred when she saw which way the wind was blowing. Don’t think he lived more than a year after that.” “How ‘bout you writin’ to Bess then. Even iffen it’s not Christmas. An’ askin iffen she knows where that Enstein boy can be found. Seems like it’ll be his house now.”
“You could write.” There was a wicked twinkle in Artie’s eye.
“You know I ain’t one for writin’. Never was. But you can be sendin’ my regards to Bess, an’ sayin’ I was askin’ after her.” I’d never heard Old Tench speak so badly of anyone except the Lee Popeman company before.
“So, I get the feeling you weren’t exactly friends with this Maddie Portland?” I was intrigued. But it was Artie who sounded off first.
“She was a conniving, greedy, manipulating little schemer. Left trouble everywhere she went. Tried to spoil things between Tom here and his Mary, but Bess – Malton, she was then – saw straight through it and told Mary to go and ask Tom straight out iffen what she’d heard was true. And anyone that would try to do the dirty on your Mary, who was the kindest girl ever…”
There was quite a lot more, but I got the message. “There you are, Mary. You’re having a cuddle from your Auntie Clara. How does it feel?”
“I don’t think she can talk yet,” I pointed out.
“Idiot! I was asking you!”
“Kind of cool, actually. Are you really sure that you want me that involved in her life though?” I mean, Clara, local resident, is not the same as Auntie Clara.
“Yes, I am. We are. We want you in Mary’s life. And we trust you. We know that you will be good to her and good for her.”
Wow. That shut me up. “Now. Fill me in on the latest school stuff. What did Old Tench and Artie have to say?”
Annette had to ask me twice. I was still all amazed that they would want to trust me with their baby. Maybe Addie’s right about me. “Of course I’m right about you.” Gotta love Miss Adelaide Kirk’s certainty about things!
“I told you. I can see right through you. I can see the real Clara Hayes. And you have a chance to become her.”
Hang on, this was all getting a bit quantum, wasn’t it?
“This careful façade that you’ve created…”
What do you mean, façade? This is who I want to be!
“…isn’t really who you want to be. You need to let the real Clara out.”
This was going to be one of Addie’s painful-but-good-for-me conversations, I could tell.
“The childhood you had…”
“You learnt to read people, to manipulate them, because you couldn’t trust them to be good to you, to take care of you. You needed those skills to survive. Now adapt them. Learn how to read if people can be trusted. Learn how to manipulate people to bring out the best in them – it’s what a teacher does all the time. A good one. She looks for the best in her pupils and works out how to bring it out.” “But what happens when the other shoe drops? When someone lets you down? Betrays you?”
She’d got to the heart of my fears. Again. And I felt like I was five years old again. But there’s something about talking to the ghost of a bossy schoolteacher…you don’t have to be afraid of being honest with her.
“You will have to beware of resonant frequencies. You know – how you can sing a note and shatter a wineglass? People will let you down. Because they are human. And a little letdown will make all your big past betrayals hum in sympathy. You have to be smart enough to say: this little let down is not that big betrayal. This person is good. Fallible, but good. Young, but good. Old and forgetful, but good. Be – be savvy, Clara! Read people properly!” “Read people? But I’ve been doing that all my life…”
“Yes. But lose some of the cynicism.”
“So – read people for the good in them?”
“Read the good in them. Thomas Tench – you won’t find much bad in him, even if he was no scholar. And Arthur Campbell too – though he was a better scholar and had a knack for writing. Thomas’s Mary was the loveliest and the kindest girl I ever taught, and she chose Thomas. She could have had almost any of the young men, but she chose him, which tells you a lot about him.”
If a ghost could get all misty-eyed and nostalgic, I swear Miss Kirk was doing just that.
“What about Maddie Portland?” I asked. I swear the temperature dropped twenty degrees.
“Madeleine Portland was an untruthful, lazy, mischief-making spoilt little girl with an eye to the main chance. I caught her cheating more than once. And she used her influence and prettiness to the detriment of others.”
Well, that answered that question! And left me thinking, too. I wouldn’t want someone saying I used my influence to the detriment of others. And I know I can influence people. It’s how I’ve survived for so long. It’s my super-power.
But maybe I need to use it for more than just my own good. I kind of like the idea of seeing the best in little Mary and bringing it out in her. And in Patience’s three – especially Barnabas! And Marianna’s children too. Check this out! This is the school corridor. Looks good, doesn’t it? Check out the absence of Barnabas-sized holes as well. Most of the classrooms behind these doors are – shall we say, less than ideal? But two of them look great. This one’s going to be for the kindergarten. I think the little mice and rabbits are kind of cute. Patience’s three, basically, and then Mary and Patience’s next ones in a couple of years or so. And this room’s for Marianna’s four. There will be some furniture too! And those stepladders are going back to my house, because that’s where I’m painting, decorating, cleaning and gardening next. Addie approves of me having my own address. Partly because it means I can register to do exams. And I suppose she has a point. Though so far, I’ve done fine without them, I said, and she did agree. I’m going to finish painting that old dolls’ house today for the kindergarten room. Minnie’s going to shake down all three of her daughters and see if anything falls out of their toyboxes that they don’t need. Old Tench has promised a couple of bookcases, one for each room, and Artie’s giving some books and so’s Amber and Lucie. Everyone’s giving something. Patience is going to teach to start with. And later we have a teacher coming! Artie tracked down the Enstein son – the one who owns the old school house – to see if willing to sell it to us, but it turns out he’s going to move back here. He’s an electrician, and he reckons he can find enough work in Newborough. But his girlfriend’s a teacher! Can’t find a teaching job where they’re living, so she’s getting no experience, which makes it harder to get a job…this might break that cycle for her.
They know we can only pay peanuts – well, plus fresh fruit, veg and fish and a bottle of quite-decent-by-now wine every so often. But they’re fine with that, apparently.
“We’ll give it a go,” they said. “If it doesn’t work out, we haven’t lost anything.”
But I’m hoping it does work out. I like the idea of the school being used again. Eight children now, and at least one more on the way. Maybe I should repaint this hopscotch grid.
Old Tench is right. This place is coming back to life.

If you want to try Clara for yourself, she's an AlphaFen creation, and can be found here:
Not Quite A Runaway Success
A renovacy made for MamaDragon by AlphaFen as part of the Amayzing Gift Exchange
https://www.thesims3.com/assetDetail.html?assetId=9310815
Back story here: https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/comment/17074021/#Comment_17074021

Changing Seasons. Summer III, part 2

Summer III Part 2 Annette and I had gone to look at what I’d be taking with me from the church to my new house (house!) once I moved in there.
“The bed, obviously,” said Annette. “It looks like it will take to bits easily. But you need a new mattress – that one’s ancient. We’ll give you one for a birthday present. We can move the fridge on the truck. But I think that cupboard will fall to pieces if you try and take it out.”
“My rug! The one that Patience made for me. I’ll decorate the bedroom round it.” “The cooker should move okay though, shouldn’t it? And it’s electric, so it’s only to plug in at the new house.”
“You’ve not got a lot to your name, have you,” Annette said a bit thoughtfully.
I wasn’t having her going all mournful on me. “It’s terribly sad,” I said, watching her face carefully to read her reaction. “I mean, all I’ve got is somewhere to live – and another home being offered to me as well – enough to eat and wear…” No, the physical-needs-being-met wasn’t going to work. I was going to have to go deeper.
“A way of earning money that I enjoy, some dreadful jokes from my co-workers…” Still not enough. I was going to have to go for honesty. Ouch. “Annette, I’ve got people who care about me. You’ve been like a sister to me. Old Tench…he’s given me his house. With his blessing. He said his Mary would have liked me. I’m safe here. And I’ve got friends. I’ve not had this since my mum died.” Then I got a bit tearful and Annette hugged me in the stone-cool silence of the building and then we both cried. Quite a lot really. Annette’s just had a baby, she’s allowed to Be All Emotional, but it’s not like me. “You know what?” Annette said, looking round the building after we’d mopped ourselves up.
“You’ve done a fantastic job on this place. It would be so nice if Mary could have her wedding here.”
Whoa! She’s jumping the gun a bit isn’t she? The poor mite’s barely a month old!
“This place needs work you can’t do yourself, though.”
“And money I don’t have.” Minnie’s Susie’s Dan had said that the tower was sound – at the moment – but there are bits missing. And if they don’t get replaced, it won’t stay sound.
“No. But we have the tractor now. I think we’ll start a Tower Fund next. I think we’ll get everyone in on this. Rafe’s a sculptor. Leo and Lachlan are both good with their hands. Very good. Marianna knows about stained glass. Between us all…” Between us all. I kind of liked that. I still felt muzzy-headed from crying so much, but I did like the sound of that. It comforted something deep within me. “Why does it hurt so much?” I’d decided to stay at the church – I didn’t want Blake seeing me all tear-stained, nor Marcus either – until I’d recovered.
“Being that honest, I mean?” Addie thought for a bit, looking for an analogy, a way of explaining it to me.
“Imagine the things that happened to you when you were young like nasty wounds.”
Yep, that made sense.
“And then they healed over on the surface and you look whole and together from the outside.”
Got that too. I’ve worked hard at looking whole and together from the outside.
“But there’s still bits of bad stuff in that wound – shrapnel, gravel, however you want to imagine it. And that needs to come out or it will just fester. But to get it out – you need to be opened up again. Only this time, it’s to heal you, not to hurt you.” “Oh! So that’s what you were doing with Lachlan when you made him tell you all the awful things Marianna’s old hag of an aunt said to him!” Yes, Lachlan and I compare notes occasionally. We’re the only people who can see Addie. It’s kind of a bond between us.
“Yes.” She beamed with pleasure. “He had to go back and get those things out and stop believing them.”
“You’re so wise! Thanks, Great Aunt Addie. And now I better go and get some cooking started. Before Marcus decides he’ll do it…” I made a salad. A large and good one – though with produce as fresh as this, it’s hard for the salad not to be good. And I ate it and listened to Marcus and Annette and Blake (it really appealed to his romantic streak. Streak? More like enormous slice!) getting very enthusiastic about Project Restore The Church.
And I agreed with Annette that I should go on living in the church until I’d got my house repaired and decorated and so on. And they discussed wages with me, and how I could borrow Patience and Euan’s stepladders, pasting table and so on…I’ve fought and fought against people trying to control my life, but this felt like people caring about my life instead.
And then they moved on to who else could they rope in to Project Restore The Church…Rafe, Leo, Lachlan and Marianna were high on their list of Useful people with Useful Talents. Wonder if they know what they’re being let in for? “It’s nice to be able to have the boards off the windows! We must get these done before the winter.”
Rafe nodded his agreement. Amber was right: another winter with the windows boarded over to keep out the cold would be Too Much.
“We’ve done okay though, so far. Luce and I both have good outlets for our work now.”
“And I’m finding writing here so much easier. I’m way more productive. I’ve got space and quiet and places for walks and enough interesting people to talk to when I need to clear my head a bit…” “Ah, the man himself! Now we can start the meeting.” It was their monthly finance update meeting, plus their quarterly renovation planning meeting all in one. “What kept you, baby brother?”
“Baby brother yourself! There’s only fifteen months between us! Sorry I’m a bit late. I met Marcus and we got chatting about Project Restore The Church.”
“What did you think when you had a look round it the other day?” Lucie asked, and then stopped herself. “No. Business here first!” “Okay. This room first then. We’ve dealt with that awful ceiling and we can paint the walls easily. Floor – let’s do a Marcus and see what we can repurpose from this building or another one. I think recycled wood will look great. The real expense is going to be the windows.”
“And we need to get those right,” Amber agreed. “We’re not going to want to change those. Repainting the walls isn’t a problem if we don’t get the colour right, but changing the windows…Anyone got any ideas about those already?”
“I’ve got ideas and costings for three different designs,” Rafe said smugly. Lucie widened her eyes in mock admiration for his efficiency.
“Hey, I couldn’t stand those boards again! We can do whichever of the three we like, though one will stretch us a little. Tell us about the church, Leo.” “Well, I’m amazed at how much Clara has managed to do in there over the last two years. That girl’s a real worker – I kind of think she really deserves some help. She said cleaning the stonework’s been good therapy: she’s taken out a lot of anger on it. I don’t always quite get her sense of humour…” “And now she’s working on the upper gallery – just started there. Except that Marcus and Old Tench and Minnie all threw a fit and made her promise to stop until she could borrow some safety netting to go across all the openings! She wasn’t too chuffed about that, but she did agree. Marcus and Annette are setting aside money for the stonework that needs doing – and we don’t have spare money anyway – but we could try making furniture, maybe. What do you think, big bro?”
“Definitely. In our spare time, but there’s no mad rush. I’d like to do that.”
“Lucie and I could put in some stone-cleaning time as well. I like Clara – and so does Marianna,” Amber added. They were scouting out the buildings to see if they could find anything to repurpose for the gallery floor. Leo and Lucie said they’d do their own building – and they hit gold almost straightaway.
“Are you seeing what I’m seeing?” Lucie asked.
“Oh yes,” Leo said. “But this won’t be enough by itself. Let’s check the next room – and hope for the best.” “What do you think that is?”
“I have no idea! But we could get Lachlan to come and have a look at it…he might be able to work it out. And to get it to work!”
“It’s the same flooring, isn’t it? Hopefully, the two rooms together will be enough. I wonder what Rafe and Amber have found.” “Gosh, this place is in a bad way. Do you think we could sell some of these old storage tanks for scrap, or would we end up having to pay someone to deal with them because of noxious chemical residues?”
Amber forever surprised Rafe – sometimes she was patently in a different world and then sometimes she was incredibly sharp and down-to-earth.
“I guess it depends what was in them…”
“I’ll see if there’s any clues. But now let’s see if there’s anything useful here.” “Just be careful,” Rafe called up to Amber as she headed up to the last room in the building, right at the top.
“I will. But the stairs are sound – I shook them good and hard to test them first!” Amber stood on the roof and looked out over the landscape, at the dried-up lake, the broken railway tracks. Really, the town’s very name was a joke now. And from the back of the building, she could see the remnants of the second lake. You couldn’t call it a lake now – more of a watering hole at best.
“Didn’t useter be like this,” Old Tench had said. “Useter be birds, animals, butterflies, hosses an’ all. An’ trees an’ greenery an’ things.”
We need to make gardens, she thought. A garden round our gallery to begin with, but gardens in other places as well. We need to bring back the green. “Might as well check this room out, now I’m up here,” she thought. Her howls of laughter when she saw what was inside brought Rafe hot-foot up the stairs. When he saw what she had to show him, he roared with amusement too.
“We’ll take one home to show the others!” “That flooring’s perfect, Luce. We’ll lift it and re-lay it and then rent Dan’s floor sander. I guess we better paint the walls first though.”
“Wait till you see what Rafe and I found! I brought one back with me – come and look: I’ve just finished cleaning it up.” “There you are! One genuine brass and Bakelite candlestick phone! And there were dozens and dozens of them! All we need is an old-fashioned switchboard with someone to sit at it, plugging lines in…”
“Amazing! Hey, if Lachlan added these to his recycled bikes, we’d have…mobile phones!” “Speaking as one professional doer-upper to another, this looks good.”
“Thanks,” Amber said to me. “From you, Clara, that is a real compliment. We still need to sand the floor, but that’s all, and we’ve booked Dan’s floor sander for doing that. And these floorboards will wear really well. How’s Project Restore The Church going?”
“Wait until we’re all here, Clara, and then you won’t have to tell the story twice! Amber, can you move your laptop?” Leo was bringing in some really nice-smelling food from the kitchen. I ended up quizzing Amber about what she was writing though, instead of talking about the church.
“I’m writing in my other genre at the moment.” She’d been really nice about me not really liking fantasy novels.
“I do sci-fi as well. They’ve got a lot in common – epic adventures, strange new landscapes and creatures – but a different flavour to the characters. No mages, no Talented and Gifted people: instead you’ve got characters relying on their wits and skill.” That sounded a bit more up my street, and I said so. “This is great,” I said to Leo, and he smiled, pleased. Rafe’s a bit dark and brooding for my liking, but Leo’s a lot more approachable.
“So how’s the project going then?” he asked.
“Well,” I said. “I’m busy cleaning the stone on the upstairs gallery – don’t worry, Dan’s lent me some safety barriers to stop me from accidentally plunging to my doom – but once I’ve finished that, it’s all about the building work, and Marcus and Annette are in charge of that. We need seating though and a lot of the leaded glass needs cleaning or mending or both. Marianna’s going to help me with that and teach me how to do it – she says it’s fiddly and needs patience but it’s not difficult.” “And then there’s the old school to do as well isn’t there?” Lucie asked. “For the autumn, when Marianna’s four start school. Patience is going to teach them, isn’t she? I do like those two – Euan’s a lovely guy and so didn’t deserve what happened to him.” I got a grand tour of the rest of the place (needed work. And then some), but I could tell that they were all loving being here despite the mess, and full of ideas and vision and also the practicality to probably make it happen.
“There’s no cast-iron guarantees,” Lucie said, mixing colour carefully, “but we’re on the right track. We have monthly check-ins, and quarterly ones as well for the longer-tern stuff…” I listened and learnt. Amber and I chatted for ages – about why she should paint the walls in her writing room (“It would obviously make you more productive, from what you’re saying. I’ll help.”), about what was motivating her heroine (I said she sounded a bit wet at the moment. She should make her more determined. “Determined about what, though? That’s what I can’t decide. I mean, she’s got to be in among the asteroid belt for the sequel…” “How about determined not to be taken for a sucker again? Then she can have any sort of back story – betrayal over love or money or someone copied her exams or stole her spaceship…”) and what she should call her book (“I’m planning three books round her – no more – so I want linked but progressing titles”).
Yep, I liked these guys. More than that, I could tell they accepted me as I was: Clara Hayes, making her own way and writing her own story, at last. Come again, they said, and I figured I would.

The factory buildings, the holes in the walls and the candlestick phone are by Cyclone Sue at TSR

If you want to try Clara for yourself, she's an AlphaFen creation, and can be found here:
Not Quite A Runaway Success
A renovacy made for MamaDragon by AlphaFen as part of the Amayzing Gift Exchange
https://www.thesims3.com/assetDetail.html?assetId=9310815
Back story here: https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/comment/17074021/#Comment_17074021