Changing Seasons, Spring IV, part 3

Spring IV, part 3 And this is one of my other ways of earning a bit of money. Artie’s paying me to help with Old Pete’s schooling. He says he’s just not up to the jumping any more – and not too happy about the thought of falling off on the flat either. But it’s starting to rain, so we’ll head back. I left Artie hunting out a crash cap for me, and he’s right: once we start going over the bigger jumps I should be wearing one. I brushed Old Pete, made sure he had food and water and said goodnight to him. He’s a nice horse (and okay, I feel a bit like a knight on a quest when I’m looking after him. When I’m riding him, I’m totally focussed on that alone. But here in the stable, I can dream a bit). “Well, I haveter say, we did a real good job paintin’ this room. Now we’re fixin’ up your front room, right?”
Artie nodded at his friend. “I’ve put that advert out for a rider for Old Pete. And I’ve said there’s accommodation included. So I’d better get this place spruced up.”
“True! Ain’t no-one goin’ to want to live among your fine collection of cobwebs!” “Well, I can see we’re ready to get paintin’. We goin’ for your favourite accent colour again? I can only see white paint here.”
“I thought I’d pick my accent colour from your decorating gear this time! So I’m going with blue. Minnie’s dropping it off on her way past later on. But we’ve plenty to paint white. You want to start on the ceiling or the walls?” Look – crash cap! And some jodhs too – Artie hunted them out for me. Old Pete’s got a good turn of speed. Lots of stamina. With a lighter rider, I reckon he’d do okay on the circuit. He’s definitely a stayer – I’m having to work at slowing him down, cooling him off. Some horses just love to run. Funny to think that this was a smaller version of the racing that’s still going on in Newborough. Artie and Old Tench were telling me stories about those days: they seem to have an endless fund of them. I checked out that big statue before Old Pete and I headed back – I’d never looked at it close up before. Someone had polished up the brass plate at the bottom so you could read it – bet it was Artie.
“Charles Woodside,” it read. “This statue was erected in grateful memory of the Englishman who did so much to advance the prosperity of this town with his love of horses and the generous investment of both his money and his time.”
Artie had said that the racing had brought money in once. I couldn’t see Old Pete singlehandedly (or singlehoofed-ly) reviving it though. Oh well – time to head back and see what Artie and Old Pete had done in the way of painting. I brushed Old Pete down, checked his hooves and then headed inside to get changed and eat. Wow – they’d really made a difference to this place. Not finished yet, not by a long chalk, but it was looking way better. “You just timed that right,” Artie said. “Grilled cheese okay for you? I’m not really that good at fancy cooking…”
It sounded great to me, and I said so, and told them how good the front room was looking now, which pleased them both. We talked about how Old Pete was shaping (well) and about Artie’s advert and the places he’d put it.
“Papers and all. People buy racing papers: it isn’t all on-line stuff. Even put it in a British paper too, as there was a special offer going for that.” Old Tench mentioned Maddie and I told them how kind she’d been to me, taken an interest in me, and a little bit about how brave I thought she was. Old Tench nodded and smiled – and looked at Artie in a kind of pointed way, as if they’d been disagreeing about something, so I sang her praises a bit more, told how she’d said she’d regretted some of the things she’d said and done when she was young… Sometimes I think that Clara is the only person who understands that I Do Not Like Being Pregnant! That it’s hard! And I’m fed up with other people humouring me and doing the “There, there, it’s just poor little pregnant Annette throwing a wobbler again.” At least Clara’s rude back to me if I’m rude to her, like we’re equals, and she treats me as normal the rest of the time.
And she wants me. I know Mary does as well, but it’s a bit one-sided at the moment. Clara wants me in her life. And today she wants to show me her house, and she’s borrowed the truck from Marcus so I don’t have to cycle there. “Plus, I want to move my stuff from the church. The scaffolding for the tower is going up soon now, and that will get dust everywhere, even before the work starts! And my bed and bedding and so on are nice and clean at the moment.” Clara’s a good driver. I never feel nervous when I’m with her – and neither does Marcus. Chris and Caleb both say the same, and that they’d be really happy to teach her how to drive the tractor. Which means she could earn more than just a baby-sitting salary, and that would be no bad thing. We can’t over-pay her – the last thing we need to be doing is submitting dodgy accounts! But if she’s using the tractor, we could legitimately pay her a fair bit more. “It looks great,” I said, and it did. “I love the colours you’ve chosen. That blue is very you.”
“It does look good, doesn’t it? I wanted to show it to someone else who’d get why I’m so pleased.” “And this is my bedroom. And it’s the first time I’ve put up wallpaper that needed such careful matching! But I did okay, didn’t I?”
“You did,” I agreed. “Definitely. I can’t spot the joins from here.”
Clara whole-heartedly happy: I don’t often see that.
“Come and see the kitchen next, and then I’ve got something else to show you.” “So the cooker’s going to go here – thank you both so much for saying you’d give me that – and when it’s in, then Lachlan says he’ll make me some more bench to fill the gap perfectly.” “And Patience and Euan gave me the table and chairs, and Amber and Lucie say they’ve got a housewarming present for me, and so have Rafe and Leo…My own home, Annette! I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy!” And she hugged me. Carefully, out of consideration for the bump.
And then the old practical Clara was back. “Right. There’s something I want to show you now. Something – I hope – for you. We’ll walk: it’s only just round the corner.” “Over the winter, Marianna and I went to take a good look at that bakery round the corner here. And it looked dreadful from outside…” “…and even worse inside! But it got us both thinking – about needing somewhere to meet up that wasn’t outside Minnie’s store, though that’s been really nice. Just us women if we wanted. Somewhere that felt a bit special. So we got Lachlan on board too, and even the children helped out with the brushing and the sweeping. Sort of helped, anyway! And Frank helped with the electrics, and Lucie and Amber hunted round their other buildings and found some bits – anyway, come and look.” Well, outside looked better, but inside still looked pretty grim. Not as bad, but not anything even remotely approaching special.
“No, it’s upstairs you need to see.” “The chair with the cushion on it is for you,” Marianna said from where she was sitting. “In case you’re getting backache.” She began to pour the tea as I sat down, slightly bewildered.
“You,” Clara said firmly, “need someone to talk to. Properly. About how you really feel about being pregnant. And I haven’t done this pregnancy thing, but Marianna has…”
“Someone female to talk to,” Marianna said, equally firmly. “Nothing against Marcus – or Lachlan – but it isn’t their bodies all this is happening to.”
Could I really tell them both how I actually felt?
“It’s okay to find this hard,” Marianna said calmly.
“Really?”
“Really. Tell us all about it. There’s plenty more tea, the toilets downstairs work and I brought some toilet paper with me and put it in there. You don’t have to feel guilty because you’re not feeling happy.”
How did she know? I opened my mouth and it all came spilling out… “…and then I feel guilty because Mary was full term and I didn’t have all the worry you had. That must have been awful.”
Marianna had her looking-back-into-the-past face on.
“That was one fierce battle, day after day, to try and hold onto them. And I felt guilty when they were so prem. And Patience feels guilty round me – a bit – because she’s carried three with ease…It’s just one big merry-go-round of guilt and shame. Until we admit that all our stories are different and that’s okay. Being pregnant doesn’t agree with you and you don’t enjoy it. And it’s hard work building another human being out of nothing except yourself. It’s okay to find it hard.”
It’s okay to find it hard. The words began to sink in. It’s okay to find it hard. Clara poured the fresh pot of tea. I was going to need that toilet again very soon! But I did feel so much better for pouring my frustration out to them both. Even when they both said I should have told them ages ago just how bad I was really feeling.
“We don’t have mothers here, any of us new mothers,” Marianna went on. “You and I, we don’t have mothers at all, and Patience’s mother didn’t want to know her after she married Euan instead of the guy they’d got lined up for her. And there’s no older women here, no Mrs Old Tench to take an interest in us. But we have got each other. We can’t do life on our own, all independent and needing no-one. We have to trust our friends will do their best to catch us when we fall.” I got the feeling she was talking to Clara as well as me.

The amazing bakery was a lovely gift to me from LMC6254, made for the SummerFest gift exchange – and for this town! - and can be found here
https://www.thesims3.com/assetDetail.html?assetId=9394968
An Old Jockey’s Nightmare is here:
https://www.thesims3.com/assetDetail.html?assetId=9394756
and that was by LMC6254 as well, for the same gift exchange.
So were Artie and Old Pete
https://www.thesims3.com/assetDetail.html?assetId=9394755
I’ve altered the buildings very slightly, to fit in with the town – the telegraph poles are by Cyclone Sue at TSR.
The milk, the kettle, the decorating stuff, and lots of other small details are by Sandy at ATS3.