Changing Seasons. Autumn III, part 1

Autumn III. Part 1 “I did say the place would be a bit of a mess, Honey” Frank had his worried face on. “But Mr Campbell did say that the floors and roof were sound, that they’d fixed the odd loose tile and so on.” How did she explain to him that she was happy to give this a go?
“I don’t mind. This could be fun. And Mr Campbell sounded nice.”
“You’re as sweet as your name,” her mother had always said to her. It was true. She always looked for the best in everyone and everything.
“Can we go and look at the school first? It’s only next door. No-one will be there to show us round, seeing as we’ve arrived a day early, but the key’s under the rock by the front door.”
And only ten days ago, they’d been in their little rented house, far across the country… “Good morning, my honey-sweet. Here’s the mail. I think it gets saved up and only delivered once a week.”
“Any letters telling us we’ve won a million? Then we could move to somewhere nicer.” Frank bent over to have a closer look, while Honey pulled out the ingredients for a nice leisurely weekend breakfast. This was the one Saturday a month that she didn’t work, and they made the most of it. “Bill that we really need to pay, bill that we need to pay soon, a letter from my stepmother…”
Honey groaned inwardly, and then felt guilty. After all, Frank’s stepmother had had a lot of trouble in her life. But her letters always seemed to come with a plea for help of some sort attached.
“…and a letter for me from I-don’t-know-who.”
“Open that one first then! It might be our million dollars.” “It would be crazy.”
“But we could do it.”
Breakfast was forgotten. An old map that had belonged to Frank’s father was out on the table.
“Nearest town is Newborough. If I bought a motorbike, I could ride in. There’s always work for electricians, even if it’s only piece-work like I’m doing now, to start with.”
“Food, and a tiny salary. That’s what they’re going to offer the teacher. We’d have a house, food and power. And I’d be teaching again instead of stacking shelves and manning – sorry, womanning – the checkout. If you can earn as well…”
“And we’d have more time together.” “Follow the Redrock River up to Two Lakes. How well do you remember it?”
“Not at all, really. Mum dying and a lot of crying. The time at my grandparents, that’s what I think of as my childhood home. And it was very happy.” Honey leant over and kissed him. She knew his moods. His father’s second marriage hadn’t been as happy as his first one.
“Suppose we wrote back and said we wouldn’t sell, we’d come ourselves instead? And I would be the teacher? I am qualified. And I’d love to be teaching again! Do you think they’d be happy with that?”
“They want a teacher. You’re a teacher. What’s not to like?”
Honey laughed. “You’re right!” She paused for thought.
“We don’t have to leave a forwarding address, do we?”
“No. No, we don’t.”
And an unspoken sense of relief flooded over them both. Maddie wouldn’t be able to find them. Eventually they got round to cooking breakfast – “Brunch, now!” – getting dressed and eating it.
“We don’t have much to pack. We’ll sell the bookcase – that won’t go in our suitcases.”
“Let’s not tell the neighbours either. You know what gossips those two are.”
And Maddie’s as thick as thieves with them, a small voice added, in the depths of Honey’s mind. “Well, this doesn’t look too bad,” Frank said, heading through the doors ahead of Honey. And it didn’t. Old-fashioned, with that tiled floor, but clean and cheerful. This must be for the little ones, Honey thought. And it’s lovely. It would be fun to make a garden outside the window as well. And this would be her room. There were some really well-chosen books on the book shelf. We need an art space, though, Honey thought. What else was there in the building. “Wow, what a contrast!”
“I want an art room…If this is what it all looked like before, everyone’s worked so hard on it!”
Frank nodded. “We can have a go at this room ourselves, though. Doing the prep, at least. I think our house is going to look a bit more like this and a bit less like those classrooms, though. Shall we go and see?” “Candles for lighting!” Frank had been right about the contrast between this house and her classroom-to-be.
“Hey, we’ve got oil lamps downstairs! And I can get the place wired up – I am an electrician, remember?” Frank hugged her, a little clumsily.
“I remember, now – my grandparents-that-I-lived-with, teasing Dad about how old-fashioned this place was. His mum wouldn’t have it changed: she’d had oil lamps all her life, and she wasn’t having that new-fangled electricity coming into her home. I think they’d have updated it after she died, but then I came along, and then Mum died.” Honey made herself look on the bright side.
“You’re right. We can change it, and we’ll cope fine until then. And the place has been swept out for us, the bedding washed, the mattress aired…” Mr Campbell had written back to them, detailing all the preparations that had been made for them.
“And there’s milk in the fridge, and coffee, and cereal. And we have arrived a day early.”
True. Maddie’s letter had said she would call on them “sometime next week”, which might have meant Sunday morning. It had before. They’d packed as fast as they could and left on the Saturday, sleeping on the overnight coach as best they could. That bed looked very inviting.
“Bowl of cereal and bed, then?”
“Sounds good to me.” Sunday they’d met some of the neighbours! Marcus and Annette and a very cute little baby had come round in a very battered truck with vegetables, fruit and a couple of bikes in the back of it.
“People mostly cycle round here. We’ve got the truck because of getting our wine to the buyers…” There had been half a dozen of bottles of that as well.
And now it was Monday morning and they were heading off to the shop.
“You’ll want a week to settle in. Start school next week,” Marcus had said. “Patience is managing fine at the moment.”
“I reckon I could restore this car you know.”
“There’s no gas station…”
“And then sell it. To a museum maybe!” “These bikes look so good! Who was it again who did them for us?”
“Lachlan.” Honey had a good memory for names. “Lachlan McGowan. The father of all four of my first class.” Annette had drawn them a sketch map of what was where. They cycled past the laundromat (that’s useful, thought Honey. I’m not sure the two of us would enjoy washing everything by hand!), the derelict gas station, and on to a trim and cheerful red-roofed building.
“This looks so nice! We should do something about our garden too.” “Well, now, you must be Miss Glaze. I’m Minnie. Minnie Wagner.”
“Oh, please call me Honey. And this is Frank.”
“Well, I will then, but not in front of the children mind you. It doesn’t hurt them to see a teacher being given respect by everybody. You folks arrived yesterday?”
“No, late Saturday afternoon.”
“Kind of in a hurry to get here, were you? See what you were coming to?”
Kind of in a hurry to leave, Honey thought, deep down in a place she didn’t want to acknowledge. Kind of in a hurry to escape. Wonder what’s happening at our old house now? Wait! What? Up for rent or sale? But she’d been planning on staying here for a couple of months at least. They’d better be in, so that she could ask them what was going on. But no-one answered when she knocked at the door. And the house had that unmistakeable empty house look about it. The bookcase was gone, and all the ornaments from the mantelpiece. They’d moved? Without telling her? She had to find out where they’d gone.

The house and family were made for me by Hidehi as a lovely gift.
I’ve tweaked them slightly to fit the scenery of Two Lakes, so if you’re going to play them, they won’t look quite like this. I’ve tweaked Maddie’s personality too…
Link here for the house:
https://www.thesims3.com/assetDetail.html?assetId=9351879
And for the family:
https://www.thesims3.com/assetDetail.html?assetId=9351878
As usual, I've used things by Cyclone Sue and by Sandy at ATS3. Lots!