1.21 Somewhere there's hope

Beth grew up into a quiet toddler all on her own. Nobody had remembered it was her birthday – Birdy and Billy had been on a school trip all day, and her mother had harvested the potatoes and sold them in the grocery store. When she returned home, she found her little daughter significantly taller and older than she was at her departure. Beth refused to look or smile at her mother; she just sat in her bedroom for hours, staring blankly ahead. 

The older siblings were trying to substitute for both father and mother, a task almost impossible to perform. Among their school duties Billy and Birdy fed their two sisters, changed their clothes in the morning and in the evening, made some lunch – mostly salad – and tried to keep the house clean. When Anna finally noticed what was happening, their grades had already dropped drastically. Their teacher had even given Billy a note which said that he might not pass the finals. He had thrown it away on the way home. He surely was going to make it somehow. And even if he didn’t – who cared? It wasn’t like he would need a job later He would be famous, which was much better than sitting in an office all day long. Birdy worried about her brother, and so she told Anna about the note. It seemed like a stupid idea, because there was only a slight chance her mother would respond at all, but she didn’t know what else to do. They didn’t have more family, and she was not willing to trust her teachers with this. This was the moment Anna realized something was going really wrong. For a long time, she had been mourning over Jo’s death, and completely blanked out that her children needed her to take care of them. 

And so she took action. The next day, she called a plumber to repair everything that had broken throughout the last days and weeks. He spent all day inside the house, unclogging the toilet, sealing the sinks, repairing the stove. None of this had mattered to her before, but it had to now. Her kids were supposed to live a happy life, that’s what she had wanted for them all along. 

Billy and Birdy still were sad, of course, but finally things were looking up. They did their homework on time, wrote good grades and passed their finals successfully. Birdy was already looking into summer classes on biology and anatomy, while Billy was just relieved that this misery had come to an end. Lately, it had been unbearable in the house.

 

A side-effect of their difficult situation at home had been that they had lost most of their friends. Kids who were late in the mornings, hadn’t finished their homework and never had time to play in the afternoon weren’t exactly popular. This was hard, especially for Billy. He had already gathered a few fans, who had been mesmerized by his brave actions in school, and now he had to start from scratch.

Every day, when Anna had brought her oldest two to the bus, she watched them disappear at the end of the road, and felt proud. Her children had accomplished much more than her during the last few months, and it was time to take over again. This included no longer neglecting Beth and Britney, and of course providing a loving home for Billy and Birdy, who longer had to be afraid of the chores waiting for them at home. Beth at first was skeptical about the sudden attention, but quickly changed her mind. She finally had her mother back.

With the help of her mother, Birdy even dared to approach Kokette on her own for the first time. The unicorn sensed that the little Sim was intimidated, and enclosed her in what was close to a hug. 

Soon, it was time for a very happy occasion in the house, the first that was celebrated properly. Britney was finally aging up into a schoolchild, eager to follow in her siblings’ footsteps!

Right from the beginning, Britney was a huge support for her older sister, who now started to act out her feelings, now that she no longer needed to be strong. Britney hugged her many times every day, ensuring her that everything really was going to be fine very soon. 

And it actually seemed to be. Although Anna still spent a lot of time in the garden, she made sure her kids weren’t left out. The garden remained her special place where she processed everything, but she no longer hid out here. The quality of the vegetables and fruits increased, and she whipped up delicious meals every single day – healthy, yet tasteful. On Britney’s first day at school, she had prepared a complex fruit salad for dessert, food her daughter ignored. Instead, she got up after dinner, ran into her room and puttered with different objects. When she came out again, Anna couldn’t believe her eyes.

Her little daughter had already turned into a young woman. When asking what all the noise was about, Britney responded that she needed to look older in school, so she would get taken seriously. She had already met many people, bothering them with questions about this and that, and most of them had turned away and left. Surely because she was just a first-grader, and looked like it. Well, no more.

With every day passing, it also became obvious that she was very interested in literature, especially travel reports and biographies. Other Sims’ lives made her curious, and she wanted to know every little bit about them. There were so many things that stayed under the surface, while they should have been public. Hiding them was wrong and the world needed people to reveal those secrets. Maybe she would be one of them.

While Britney made plans about her future, Anna focused on the present. She hadn’t touched her guitar for ages, because it made her think of Jo. But now it was time to take it out again, time to feel the music. Music had been the one thing that always managed to console her, even back home it had. As soon as she held it in her hands, it was like all the sorrow was lifted from her. The more she played, the better she felt. Every accord gave her a little of her strength back, which she had earned while Jo was still around. She could feel it, it was time to move on.

And moving on included putting back the black clothes, letting her hair down and putting a smile on her face. At least sometimes.