@daravi As always with new things not everyone like them. Anna would love to try flying, but hasn't gotten the opportunity yet. So she'll sail instead.
John gets out of the house and Emily takes control
Back in the US, John has aged up to a young adult, and as soon as he possibly could enrolled in university and left home for Britechester. Living in the same dorm as his father once did, he arrives to find it quite different than the stories his father told. Gone are most the fireplaces and time is starting to show, with some cracks in the wall and carpets stained and worn from years of students walking in and out of the rooms. The common areas has been updated, with more durable wooden floors, and a complete refurbishment of the bathroom, but the rooms are worn and more than a bit dated. None of that matters to John, however, who is just happy to be somewhere that is not at home and who immediately throws himself into his studies.
Emily misses her eldest boy terribly, but try to focus on the four children still at home. But something is different. Alone without constantly adapting after Frank's whims, and after her victory over Caroline, she feels stronger, more confident. As her eldest moves out, and all her children are at school all day, she takes her previous charity work to the next level, and joins a charity organisation full time in a paid position. No longer having a mother waiting at home for them, the kids learn to take care of themselves after school, playing with friends or each other while waiting for their mother to come home. She does miss them, but make up for it by helping them with homework and tucking them in at night. For the first time in a very long time, she feels pride in herself, her children and her home. The kids have more friends over, dinners are more relaxing and the air easier to breathe.
But then the day comes, when Frank is set to return home. The trial is done, the hefty fine paid and the time in jail over. Emily is nervous. She cannot go back to how things were. Sitting down, she makes sure she looks her absolute best, and gets the children ready to greet their father. Beatrice runs to hug him, while the boys are more hesitant in their greeting, letting their father kiss their cheek and then looking to their mother for permission to go play. Nodding, Emily calmly greets her husband, bringing him into the house for a very serious conversation. It is not easy, and it's not smooth. Frank is not used to being contradicted, but Emily will not be silenced this time. There will be no more affairs, no more alcohol, and no more criminal activity out of her house. Frank tries to argue, but also know when he is out of cards. If he wants to have any chance to get his job back, to get his standing in society back, he needs his very popular wife, and more importantly, her very influential father on his side. There is little to do but agree.
All this drama in his family has made Joseph gray haired. He's worried about his son, about his grand children, and about his daughter-in-law. He gathers his family for his birthday and they celebrate him. Dolly, who is also getting on in years, has made a grand meal and baked a cake, and as always Joseph enjoy having them around. But secretly, Abigail worries about him, wishing their children could cause him less concern. Perhaps now that Frank is back home, and John out of the house, he can begin to worry less. Now if only Anna would return from her foolish explorations and settle down and start a family, then maybe there could be some peace in the family for once.
Moreover, I advise that the cart button must be destroyed!
I hope Emily will be able to stand up to Frank in the long run!
So this will probably be my last comment before forum migration... I think I might take some forum vacation anyway (I need some distance to the game after the last weeks), but I'm looking forward to catch up on the future of the Whittakers
Wow, I don't think I could stay away for so long! I will keep posting and then save the posts in order to migrate them manually once the new forum opens. Enjoy your break!
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While all this drama is going on in Willow Creek, Anna has an easier time over in Japan. As mail travels even more slowly than it did to Selvadorada, Anna has very little word about what happens back home, but in return she has plenty of time to enjoy her surroundings. She and Omisco loves taking long hikes to the sights so Anna can take photos for the articles she's going to write when she returns. They hike through the bamboo forest, to the temple, the burial grounds, the mountain shrine... Anna already has a title lined up for her article: "The shrines of Mt Komorebi". She's visited the one in town, where she's been told most people marry, the cave shrine (that was her favourite so far), and the historical one deep in the snowy mountains. She is a bit confused as to the names, as the cave shrine looks far older than the historic shrine, but none of that matter to her when she suddenly, on a beautiful evening as she walks in the sunset, encounters the forest spirits she's heard the locals talk about.
Anna's main goal with travelling to Mt Komorebi, however, was to climb Mt Komorebi itself. That is something she knows will take effort and time. She is slowly progressing, however, and is attempting higher and higher walls. The first time she scaled one of the larger walls of the lower parts of the mountain she felt as if she'd just conquered the world, but she was also sore in just about every muscle in her body and well aware that it is not yet time to try the actual mountain. As she writes to her sister:
Dearest Alice,
The mountain still eludes me, though I am getting better. Today I scaled what the locals call the 'medium' wall. I promise you it did not feel medium at all when I was finished. There are muscles in my body that aches that I never even knew I had! Yet the feeling of scaling it, the victorious joy as I could look out over town and see all of it stretch out before me... oh how Maurice would have loved to paint that sight! I can barely imagine what it will feel like when it's the actual summit I've reached.
After an arduous climb it is a fantastic feeling to visit the local bathhouse. I've learnt they call it an Onsen. You undress and submerge yourself into the most glorious natural hot spring, and all those aching muscles get to rest for a moment. It's hot, really hot, but fantastic! It is certainly something I will miss once I return back home. I visit almost daily, and so does the locals. Many bathe here instead of in their homes which do not all contain full bathrooms, but then when this is here, who would need it?
The Japanese are a friendly people. Hard to speak to, as I am a long way from mastering their language, but willing to try either way. I have visited my neighbors, farmers most of them. I find them inviting and willing to put up with all my questions, although to be fair their animals are so sweet and lovely that I spend as much time petting them as I do trying to learn the local tongue. When they learnt that it is my 35th birthday tomorrow, they made sure to invite me out to local lounge. I look forward to it, as I have yet to visit the place. He tells me it's 'quite modern, almost like in Tokyo' which I've come to understand here means a mix of traditional Japanese and western influences. Apparently stained glass is supposedly very popular, but I do not know if that is something they have here. It will be interesting to see now that I have a better understanding of their traditional architecture.
I hope you are doing well and cannot wait to hear from you.
Your loving sister,
Anna
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In the Sinclair household, Josephine is busy as only a mother of twin infants can be. Grace and Hazel are luckily both fairly easy to deal with, Grace being calm and Hazel sunny in their disposition, but twins are twins, and between feeding them, changing them and taking care of them when they cry, there is very little time left for life outside the house. Still, Josephine loves her girls and loves the time she spends with them.
Josephine's busy schedule is of course affecting Thomas, who as a toddler also needs his mother. She does her best to spread her affection and time but it is not always easy. Thomas is learning to play on his own more than before, but does feel jealousy towards his sisters. So much better then at weekends when he can convince his daddy to play with him. And dinner time is also good, then he has both mummy and daddy for himself now that he can eat on his own as the twins are usually asleep at that time.
But there is of course perks with having siblings too. Sometimes, the twins can be played with, and they always laugh when you blow raspberries on their stomachs. They also love it when you sing to them. Thomas likes to sing!
And sometimes, when the babies are sleeping, Thomas can persuade mummy to play with him too. Those are the best times. And when she reads to him when he goes to sleep, even if daddy does that more often these days.
For Josephine it is a bit of a struggle to maintain the house to the standard she wants, but she finds time for the never-ending pile of laundry when the children all sleep. Time for herself? She barely makes it to the bathroom, and showering is done when everyone else has gone to sleep, which means she's the first to rise in the morning and the last to go to bed at night. Still, as hard as it is, Josephine still loves every minute she has with her babies and will happily live with a little less sleep at times. Especially when she can pride herself with her beautiful family and her hard working husband who just received his first promotion! It might not always be easy, but as Josephine and Nash are both about to turn, Josephine does think they have the perfect life.
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In Mt Komorebi, summer has arrived, and while the mountain is as cold and snow-covered as ever, the countryside where Anna lives is getting warmer. For Anna this is a welcome change, as she enjoys the opportunities the warm weather offers. Right on her doorstep, she and Omisco has found a little beach, where she can swim in the lake on particularly hot days (or on cold days just because she likes it). The nearby waterfalls is a beautiful backdrop when you're swimming around.
By now, Anna has gotten to know most of her neighbors and started to master, some, basic Japanese. Enough to be understood, and to understand, the people around her. She spends a lot of her time in the evening at the Onsen, enjoying the hot springs after days of hard climbing, and has found that it's a great way to get to know the locals better.
And then, finally, the moment has arrived. Through years of hard work, of lessons and climbing practise, she is ready to tackle the mountain itself. She cannot wait! The night before, she and her guide (as the local law stipulates that you have to have a local guide with you up the mountain) meet outside the Onsen to get ready for the climb. Anna has done everything she can to prepare. She's bought brand new climbing gear, since her old one was getting worn, and brought her old tent from Selvadorada and sturdy sleeping bags so that they won't be cold. And so the climb begins.
They spend their first night on one of the leges about half way up, and even though there is a long way to go, Anna cannot believe how high up she is. It's exhilarating, and intoxicating, to see the view from up here. I am only half-way and yet I already feel like I am at the top of the world!" she writes in her journal.
The next morning, they push on, and now it's time for the biggest wall of all. Just looking up at it, Anna is wondering if she was not hasty, if she did not need more practise first, but then she pushes that thought out of her head and starts to climb. One grip at the time, carefully scaling the wall, she makes it closer and closer to the top.
And just like that, she's there. It's almost a bit of an anti-climax. So much work, so many months of preparations, and then it's just over. Breathless, Anna tries to wrap her head around the fact that's made it, but it's not until she steps up on the plateau, looking out over nothing but clouds that it finally hits her. She's here! She made it! She's one of few people who has ever been this high, and most likely the only woman.
Taking out her camera, she takes a photo of her guide, who in spite of their massive achievement looks as grim as always:
Before they set up their camp for the night, Anna takes the time to explore a cave nearby, while Takagi waits outside.
As night settles, they prepare their camp-site, and then Anna takes out her camera again, taking the most amazing photographs.
Once back down, and after she's returned to pick up Omisco from the neighbors and had a well deserved rest, she and Takagi visit the lounge for a celebration and farewell feast for Anna. After two long years, it's time to return home. To be honest, Anna longs for it. Climbing is fun, the adventure was amazing as was the feeling of being at the top of the world, but Anna misses her family, her friends and most of all her sister. She pens her a quick telegram before leaving. I made it! Now it's time to return. When you receive this I am already on my way. Expect me within a few weeks. Love, Anna.
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Anna returns to the US and the Alice is in her first "talkie"
Alice is thrilled to receive Anna's telegram, but not nearly as thrilled as when she finally sees her sister again. The two reunite in great happiness as Anna gets settled for her stay in the extra bedroom. "See, I told you it would come in handy!" Anna beams at Cora, who just laughs. She too is happy to see Anna again. It's nice to have someone you can be completely honest with.
They stay in that night, sitting up and talking until late in the evening, until Anna cannot stay awake any longer. After all, it has been a long trip home, with weeks on the sea. It's nice to sleep in a proper bed again.
The next day, Alice and Cora take Anna all over downtown. They visit the museum, where Cora works on her handiness for her next part, and Alice and Cora show off their acting skills on the performer stage even if Anna is the only one watching. Then they head shopping, having lunch outside on the streets and before heading home, Alice takes Anna to see their father's plaque on Starlight boulevard.
As they return they take with a swim in the pool, and some time to relax as they dry off before heading back to the apartment. Alice has, of course, arranged for a party in Anna's honor now that she is back.
After just a few days, it's time for Anna to move on towards Willow Creek, to visit her parents and attend Abigail's big birthday celebration. Anna expect to join her before that day, but first there is something she has to do. She has namely gotten a part in her first talkie! To be honest, she is quite nervous. Ever since the movie The Jazz Singer was released in 1927, sound movies is all everyone can talk about in Del Sol Valley. Silent films are still made, but everyone in the business knows it's the new format that will win the crowds. Since the Jazz Singer features song and dance, so will the movie Alice is in, and she has trained hard at both dancing and singing before she hits the studio. As it is a contemporary piece, she does not need the endlessly blond wigs, but gets to perform as herself, although in the right costume. She knocks it out of the ball park! The dancing is just perfect, her acting is the best it has ever been. She is the master of this new format, and she hopes the audience will see it too. As she too gets ready for head to Willow Creek, she feels pleased she has given the performance of a life time.
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As Anna returns to her childhood home, the first time in many years, she finds it just as it was - and quite different. At home, she is greeted by her happy parents and younger brother William, and is soon caught up with all the latest gossip of the family, some of which she knew (such as Frank's arrest, conviction and return home) and some things that had not yet reached her in Japan before she left. Frank's eldest, John, has returned from university a doctor and married one of the Rowley girls. Melanie has left for college. There had been more birthdays than Anna thinks she can keep track of as her mother rattles them all of. Frank's Beatrice and Ida's Madison are both about to age up to a young women soon and might go off to college, as will William and Edward who also have their birthdays just around the corner, and Harold has turned 15 and the twins (who were not even born when Anna left) are apparently adorable toddlers. As her mother finish rattling of everything Anna feels more confused than enlightened, but figures she'll sort everything out eventually. (You'll get an updated family tree at the end of this post)
She starts figuring things out already the next day, when Josephine hosts another birthday party, this time for Thomas, her eldest, who is about to come to the age where he is starting school! It's another one of Josephine's children, that Anna has never met, but he takes an instant liking to his aunt and treats her to a song right before it's time to blow out the candles.
Josephine is so proud of her young boy, and her home, and she is happy to show it off to the sister who rather travels the world than settles down like she ought to. But it is when the guests leaves that she takes the time to be alone with her son, gifting him the one thing she got such joy from as a girl. A violin.
The next day, Anna takes the opportunity to visit friends she has not seen in too long, Elizabeth and George. Last time she was at their home they lived in an apartment with their twin toddlers. Now the girls are children, they have moved to a house in Willow Creek and have two more children, a little toddler and an infant. All four of them girls. It's a happy reunion of the friends, and the girls seem to take to their mother's friend right away. Anna is starting to realise that for whatever reason, children just seem to like her. "It's a shame you have none of your own." Elizabeth tells her. "You'd be an excellent mother." Anna shakes her head. "You can't climb mountains as a mother." Of course if Maurice had lived... but she does not say that.
Alice arrives later that same evening, and as always the sisters are happy to see each other, even if it was only a few days ago last time. Alice talks about her role in the movie, about the difference of making a movie with sound and song, and hopes they will go to see it when it comes out. William seem more impressed than their parents, and Abigail most want to know if none of those handsome men that Alice has been seen with in the papers are serious, potential husbands. "They're just friends, mum." Alice says to Abigail's great disappointment.
The sisters do not need to listen to their mother's worry about them being unmarried for long, however, as Abigail and Dolly are quite busy the following day preparing for the big party. They rush around the house cleaning and cooking. "Mum, when did you get glasses?" Alice suddenly asks. "Oh, just a little while back. Do you like them." Alice lies and says they're very nice. It rattles her a bit, to see her parents look so old. But old or not, there is nothing wrong with Abigail's energy, and as the party starts the rooms are filled with family members that Alice has not seen for years. It's a good night, with talking and laughing and fantastic food, but as the night wanes and people leave, Abigail and Joseph is a bit glad to be by themselves. Retiring to their bed chamber they take a moment to be grateful for the life they have made for themselves and the family they've raised together.
The updated family tree:
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@jazzyrocksoul88 Yes! We've gotten to the point where they cannot invite everyone at once to their birthday parties. So far, there have been people living far away that naturally would not be able to make it, but it's getting harder and harder to throw family gatherings because some people will have to be left out. But at the same time it's sort of fun that the family has grown so much.
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but you could create clubs for the different family branches, members (preferably from the active houshold) could start a group meeting at the party. I did this on winters eve holiday before we had family gatherings ingame and came on 17 or 18 guests at all with 3 groups. Normally there are 20 sims allowed on the map, but you can increase that number with mccc and I don't know how it's interfered with the gathering, I didn't repeat that since then. But I guess it's a receipt for pure chaos and desperation.
@Daravi Thank you for the tip, and yes I have used clubs for especially holiday celebrations before, they're so practical. I use MCCC to increase the numer of sims allowed in the club as well as on the lot. I do find however that the game becomes extremely laggy when too many are on the same lot, so I try to work around it instead, because yes, everyone is there, but basically the game becomes unplayable, at least on my laptop. So for that reason, I try to keep it within the game limits or just briefly above that.
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William and Edward age up, Joseph starts worrying about death and Anna has an awkward encounter
On Anna's last day at home in Willow Creek, it's time for yet another party. This time of year so many people have birthdays it seems to Anna that all they do is go from one party to the next. But this time, it's her baby brother's party - and Edward's of course, but to be fair Anna has not been around enough to actually get to know all her nieces and nephews so she cares less about him. The two boys have, however, their entire life been inseparable, born on the same day as they are. Now it's time for real life to begin. College, moving out, getting a job, finding someone to marry... (partying, although they do not share that idea with their parents).
The party, is as every party held in the Whittaker house, a resounding success. The family crowds in, eats, talks, kids play (some sneak up to the attic to play with the stored toys they have up there) and then it's time for cake, wishes and the blowing out of candle's. William, born a few hours earler than Edward, blows his out first, and then it's Edward's time. William gets the trait romantic, and Edward party animals - meaning two boys longing to party are going off to college. Anna congratulate them both, but is happy when the party is over, and look forward to going home to San Myshuno the next morning.
For Joseph and Abigail it is a new experience to have the house to themselves. For the first time in their life together, there are no children, or teenagers, in the house. Just the two of them. Well, and Dolly of course, although she too is getting on in years, and no longer perform her duties as quickly as she once did. On this, however, Joseph and Abigail are in complete agreeance. Dolly will stay on as long as she wants, as this is her home too, and if she's too old to perform her duties, then so be it.
Something else is starting to worry Joseph, however, and that is what will happen after he dies, for in Louisiana, spouses do not inherit each other, instead the children do. With community property (that they own together), the children will simply have to wait to gain access to their inheritance until the remaining spouse also dies, but with private property - that is all property someone owned prior to marriage - will be divided at once. For Joseph and Abigail, this means the house and about §100 000. Abigail would not be poor by any means, but she would have to move unless their children decide to wait to take out their inheritance. Joseph wants to trust that his children would, but after having a son sentenced for bootlegging and tax evasion, he must admit that he does not entirely do so. There is also the fact that Frank and Ida are not technically Abigail's children, even if she did raise them. Besides, Nathaniel and Nash are definitely not Abigail's children, and Joseph knows his girls enough to know that they would not be the ones making the decisions, but let their husbands do the choosing for them. There is only one solution to this. Joseph needs to write a will! After speaking to those who know more than him about legal matters at the club, he sits down in his office to write.
Back in San Myshuno, Anna takes pleasure in being less crowded. Now she and Omisco can go back to the routine they had before. A quick walk in the morning, then work, then a longer time spent outside in the Myshuno meadows, jogging, eating, roller skating or just enjoying nature. Her walls are now filled with her own pictures again, from the jungle and the mountain, but perhaps the wall space is a bit too limited in the small apartment. Is it too much? Anna just knows she loves her pictures.
On arriving, she considered - briefly - knocking on Lamotte's door, but she quickly decides against it. To be fair, she does not know if he still lives there, and she did leave without a proper goodbye. Best to just leave it, she decides. He has probably moved. He must have. It's been years. He's probably married with kids living in the countryside somewhere.
But as she and Omisco take their trip to San Myshuno meadows, who does she run into if not Robert Lamotte! It's a rather awkward encounter at first, both of them a bit unsure of what to say to the other. But soon the two old friends are talking away as if they met just yesterday. It helps that Lamotte, unlike most of her family, seems genuinely interested in her adventures and her mountain climbing stories.
The next day there is a new festival in town, that the two friends decide to visit. It turns out, funnily enough, to be a Japanese festival. Anna feels almost right at home. The food taste - different - more bland, than what she had in Japan, but close enough. The Sakura tea is something she never tried in Japan, but she find it stimulating. A bit too stimulating, as she finds herself flirting in ways that is not typical of her. She heads home before the tea gets to her head and makes her do something she regrets. Lamotte is a great friend. She does not want to spoil the friendship by doing something rash that she'd regret later.
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As 1928 turns to 1929, Josephine is in heaven. Her son is doing well in school and has friends in his cousins which he sees a lot, her daughters are adorable and cute. Yes, perhaps Nash is a bit lazy and leaves his clothes all around the house (as does Thomas who takes after his father), but Josephine does not mind cleaning up after him. It's her job as a wife after all. And Nash is what many other men is not - a devoted and present father who enjoys playing with his children more than he does working and Josephine loves him for it.
And life is only getting better, as Josephine finds herself pregnant again.
She loves having the family over and the children love their grandma and aunt Ida who are there often, and when thanksgiving rolls around, Josephine begs to host it. As they are getting on in years, and William cannot attend as he is in Britechester, Joseph and Abigail agrees. Josephine spends all day preparing, and the family gathering is a resounding success. Everyone is having fun, playing, talking, eating, and Josephine has never been happier.
But as the party wanes, and people go home, Josephine starts feeling the fatigue. Highly pregnant, on her feet all day, she first think it's just tiredness, but when rashes start appearing all over her body she realises it's something more. The very next day she rushes to the doctor, terrified that this illness might hurt her child or cause another miscarriage. She does not want to lose her baby. But her doctor tells her that this is nothing to worry about, that there is this new drug called penicillin and if she just takes it she'll be fine. Josephine is a bit sceptical at first, but follows doctors orders and takes this new drug. It works like a charm. Her rashes are gone almost instantly. Remembering only far too well her brush with the Spanish flu a few years earlier, Josephine is amazed. Obviously, penicillin wouldn't have worked on the flu, but Josephine doesn't know that. All she knows it that this wonder drug treated her almost instantly. What a fantastic new world 1929 is!
Over in Del Sol Valley, Alice has similar thoughts. She lives in a beautiful apartment, with the woman she loves, and her acting career is going better than ever. Evenings consists of parties in her home, parties at the Biltmore in town, and fans asking her autograph. She doesn't even mind the paparazzi!
But she has to admit that she is mostly excited for this new award ceremony they have just announced. The starlight accolades! And she is nominated for best actress for her last role!!! Her first talkie was a smashing hit, her singing is praised and her dancing and acting as well. Just being nominated is big enough, a recognition that her moving here was the right thing to do. That she was born to do what she is doing. She dresses up to the teeth, and makes sure she poses for the paparazzi before entering the gala. Once there, she watches and claps as her friends receive awards, and then, at the end of the night, finally it's time for best actress to be announced... and she gets it! She wins the desired trophy, she was the best actress of 1928 and her peers know it, as will the world (and her parents) when this hits the papers!
The very next evening she's back again, this time for a new honor, one her father had before her. To get her very own plaque on the starlight boulevard! And Alice is determined to make the most of it. She hugs her fans, signs autograph and enjoys every moment of her time in the spotlight as she put her plack in place on the ground. No one can say she hasn't made it now. It's right there, written in stone! She can't wait for her parents and family to read the papers.
But as the papers arrive, Alice achievements are not at the front page. Instead another event takes the spotlight:
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A baby is born, Christmas is coming and Nash is starting to panic
As the news of the stock market crash reach the world, Nash is more worried than he lets on. Josephine has never been one to care too much of economics and numbers and politics, but Nash has to, and he knows how much they owe the bank, and how much less money they now have when the stock he's invested in has plummeted in value. What is worse, is that his clients money has done the same.
The bank isn't pleased.
It's also not doing very well. As many other banks at the time, they have loaned out too much money to too frivolous investments, and they now see the worth of their loans dwindling - and those who have money in the banks more eager to remove them. During the depression 9000 banks in the US failed and had to close. Several of them overnight. It is not that bad for the bank Nash works for, but that doesn't stop them from laying off people, and Nash is one of the ones being laid off.
He returns home devasted and embarrassed, but tries to keep up appearances for the children. Only after they are put to bed does he tell Josephine about what happened. At first she's shocked, then angry that they could possibly do something like that. But surely he can just speak to his brother-in-law who owns part of the bank, or go to the unemployment office and get a new job - a better job - where they know to value his vast knowledge. "You'll figure it out, I'm sure. Besides, Christmas is coming and you wouldn't be working anyway. You have time to find something new!"
To his credit, Nash does try to live up to his wife's view of him. He spends the next day sitting outside the unemployment office. He sees the secretary looking at him, and people come and go, but after waiting in line for a full day, the office closes before he even gets inside. There are simply too many people in line, too many people who, like him, has been laid off as businesses crashed and went belly up. "Perhaps you can come back after Christmas," the secretary says as she gets up to leave.
So Nash does the second best thing, he goes to beg his sister to sway Rhett to give him his old job back. Or any job really. He's fine with being demoted as long as he can pay his bills, and the payment on his loan. Morgan seems sympathetic enough when he speaks to her, but as Rhett comes home he puts his foot down. How would it look if he stepped in to help his brother-in-law when so many others were let go too? When there were others with better results than he had on the stock market? No, he will not under any circumstances sway the bank to keep him on, nor will he influence the bank to give him extra time to pay his mortgage. He even refuses to lend Nash money. Nash is forced to go home with nothing to show for his efforts.
He walks home slowly, unsure of how to tell Josephine of how badly today has gone, but as he arrives he finds himself off the hook as she goes into labour. In a flash, Abigail is called over to help with dinner, dishes and the children, as Josephine retreats back to her room in order to deliver the baby. Nash is in panic, his paranoia getting the better of him again and again, but he forces himself to keep it together for his children, distracting them the best he can from the sounds coming from upstairs.
And then, a new sound, and the family gathers in the bedroom to meet the new bundle-of-joy. Nash wishes he could just rejoice at their little Christmas present without worrying how in the world he is going to feed his new born son. He wishes he was more successful, and feel a new and sudden urge to be as he is suddenly plunged into an early midlife crisis. He cannot fail his family, he has to find a way!
As the kids go to bed, and Josephine falls exhausted into bed, Nash goes to check the post. He knows the bills are coming, and as he expected they are waiting for him in the mail box. §15 000 in bills. §4 900 on the account. And tomorrow is Christmas Eve. How in the world is he going to fix this?
Moreover, I advise that the cart button must be destroyed!
When Christmas Eve comes around, Nash is desperate. He now has another mouth to feed, and a holiday coming up, and no money to pay for either. As Josephine dotes on her new boy, Nash tries to find some way to come up with the money to at least buy a tree for the family. Taking on the odd jobs he can find on a Christmas eve, he still doesn't even cover the cost of the tree he brings home. Behind Josephine's back, he pawns the gaming table and chairs instead of just moving them to the attic. She won't know until the holiday's over and it pays for the tree, for some nice food for Christmas and then some.
Of course it does not pay the §15 000 bill that looms overhead. Unless he can come up with something fast, lights will be cut off tomorrow. Now wouldn't that be a fantastic Christmas gift? Perhaps he should tell Josephine, but he doesn't want to spoil the evening, so instead he lets the family rejoice at the tree, and Josephine cook a fantastic meal, and pretends not to be worried out of his mind as he and Thomas dress the tree and the family enjoys dinner. It's a quiet Christmas Eve, but a nice one.
After dinner Josephine brings out the violin she got from her father and plays for the entire family.
While the children listens, Nash suddenly has an idea. As Josephine heads upstairs with the children putting them into bed, he stares at the violin. It's an expensive one, and he saw one just like it in the pawn shop when he pawned the furniture. One of these will fetch more §12 000. With the money they have saved that's enough to cover the bill and still have a few hundred left over. But it is Josephine's most treasured possession. Still... what choice do they have?
He waits until she's slipped into something more comfortable, and come back down before he breaches the topic with her. At first she flat out refuses. Why should her violin be pawned? Surely they can get money some other way? How much is it anyway? As Nash tells her, however, reality starts to dawn on her. "We owe the bank §15 000 and they want it back now?"
Nash shakes his head. "We owe the bank more than §100 000 and they want §15 000 of that now, they'll want the rest too, eventually, but we need to pay this bill now. I know it's your violin, and we'll get it back for you, I promise, but you don't want the children to freeze when they shut off the power. Do you?" Josephine relents. When her children are at risk, how can she not? Nash tries to comfort her, but it is with a heavy heart she goes to bed that night.
Nash on the other hand, rushes off with the violin, and pays off their bills for the week. At least for now, they are safe. Still he too has a heavy heart when he goes to bed. What kind of man is he when he needs to take his wife's private possessions to pay for the bills of the house?
As Christmas Day begins it's a quiet morning in the house. Josephine puts on a brave face, but Nash struggles with feelings of inadequacies and failure. Still, the kids need food, and getting dressed and everything else that comes with a family of four young ones before they head off to the grandparents for Christmas dinner. Once there, Nash tries to keep a brave face, even though the topic of conversation among the men is all about the financial crash. Does he, who works in finance, have any inside information on how long this will last? How about his job, now that the bank is struggling. "It's a huge blow financially," Nathaniel says, "that the local branch of the bank is closing. They've been a very loyal tenant and provide one of my biggest incomes." Nash pretend he isn't completely thrown off by this news, but that the of course knew the bank was closing all along. How could Rhett not have told him this when he was there the other day?
"Will this affect your job at all?" Joseph asks Nash, who is still reeling from the news but then suddenly catches onto an idea. "I'm not at the local branch per say, they deal with loans and such and I'm in the investment side. But, there is a risk that we might have to relocate if this continues so I am looking at other options right now. Of course nothing is certain yet so I have not yet told Josephine," he ads, knowing she'd throw a fit at the idea of selling their home or moving. But nevertheless the thought has now lodged itself in Nash's mind. In a big city there will be more opportunities for him, and more banks. If he can get one of them to hire him then perhaps they can get back on their feet? He'll have to think about this.
Joseph grunts. "I can't say I like the idea of you moving, but either way you should include Josephine in the decision," he says. Nash nods. "When I know more, I will. Right now there is no real risk so there is no need to worry her needlessly."
As Nash worries, the rest of the family is enjoying Christmas Day. The dinner is as usual excellent, and present pile so big it no longer fits under the tree and people are chatting and eating and laughing. Josephine, so good at putting worries out of her mind, forgets all about her violin and financial issues that the only one not being able to let it go is Nash.
By the time they get home the girls are exhausted as they are read to sleep by their parents.
The rest of the holidays go by quietly. Nash and Josephine stays at home with their little family and newborn over boxing day and New Years. As 1929 turns into 1930 the entire family is sleeping and no one really pays any attention.
Next years start with a string of birthdays. In that first week of the 1930s, Madison Preston is turning into a YA and Austen Preston is set to start high school. In the Sinclair family Grace and Hazel are soon ready to start school, but most pressingly little baby Arthur needs a bigger bed. One they really can't afford right now but needs to buy anyway. Even as this weighs heavily on Nash, they first need to attend Madison's birthday party. Tess has outdone herself with the food, and Nash realises he will miss his gaming table as the family gather around the one in the Preston family living room. He has yet to tell Josephine about the table, but figures there will be time for that. Either way, they have a nice night. Madison makes a wish, blows out her candles and gets ready to leave the nest. She's already engaged, and will be married shortly, as her sister is already married. In 1930, women married early, and Madison knows her dream. To become the best mother she can.
But back home, Arthurs need of a new bed is pressing, and money is tight. As the empty space that used to be their gaming table becomes glaringly obvious, Nash makes the decision to sell the typewriter. It is not as if he needs it right now, not without a job, and Arthur needs a bed more pressingly than he needs a typewriter. It's also an item which Josephine does not use and will not miss. He can only hope he's found work before the girls' birthday, so that he can better afford their new beds.
The very next morning, Nash is back at the unemployment office in Newcrest Townhall. This day, however, the line is even longer, and so the waiting is too. Tensions are high, and at one point even a fight breaks out between two men asking for the same position. When Nash finally gets in, the news aren't hopeful. On the one hand, his schooling is excellent, on the other banks just aren't hiring at the moment. "It doesn't have to be in finance," Nash assures the employment agency handler. "I do understand, but you have to understand that right now unemployment numbers are soaring. Almost a quarter of all men are looking for new employment. I cannot find jobs that aren't there. But I will keep your papers, and let you know if something shows up."
As Nash returns home, things are not looking better than they were when he left. How in the world is he going to explain this to Josephine?
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Moreover, I advise that the cart button must be destroyed!
As bills pile up Josephine sees more and more of her furniture vanish. First the piano (they weren't using it that much anyway), then the desk (why keep it when there is no typewriter?), Josephine's pearls (I'll replace them I promise!) some of the artwork on the walls (they can put up pictures of the kids), then the vanity table in their bedroom, the Tiffany lamps Josephine felt such pride for... With every sale something breaks in Josephine. It's not the things per say - but the house no longer feels welcoming, just a stark reminder of what they no longer have. Ashamed, and unwilling to admit the truth, Josephine no longer ask her friends or family to come over and visit, but instead prefer to take the children to visit them, keeping up appearances as much as possible.
It's also taking a toll on their marriage. Nash knows he's supposed to provide for his family and feels like a failure when he can't, and while Josephine wants to be supportive and unquestioning, every sale is preceded by another fight.
After every fight, Josephine feels horrible. It's not that Nash doesn't try, and Josephine knows it. Every morning he goes to the unemployment office, taking any odd job they offer. Rarely they have jobs for his skillset, but he no longer has any standards. If it will put food on the table, he is happy enough, but with him constantly being tense, he often fails the jobs he takes, and his rating as a worker is not moving up. Most of the jobs go to men with more muscle, more grit and less manicured hands. Besides, even when he does succeed the pay is too low ot help pay the bills, and so there is another fight, another thing sold, and then the guilt for them both.
More and more, Nash is thinking about moving somewhere else. Somewhere he can get a job, where his family can thrive once more. He tries to breach it with Josephine, but at first she won't hear of it. This is their home. Their house. That they, themselves, had built. Their family lives in this town, everyone they know. How could they possibly move? Then one day, as the girls are giving her a run for her money and baby Arthur is even more intense than usual, her mother, having a sixth sense about these things, is suddenly at the door. As Josephine is busy upstairs with the kids, Nash lets her in to wait as he heads out the door to see if there are any jobs for him today. Abigail is in shock. The house, once so cared for and welcoming feels empty and cold. What on earth is going on?
Josephine is mortified! She never wanted her mother to see this, but instead of admitting the truth, she hears herself lie: "I meant to tell you," she says with a gaiety she does not feel. "Nash has been transferred to a new post in San Myshuno. I know it's sudden, but it has gone so fast and I'm all up in arms with all the packing. I promise I did intend to come and see you before we leave." A part of her cannot believe she's lying to her mother, but it's too late to take back now. She'll never be able to look her mother in the eye again if she does, and so the option to move has now become more than a suggestion but a reality. Abigail is, of course, heartbroken. All her babies will now be gone from town. Anna in San Myshuno or galivanting around the world, Alice in Del Sol Valley, William in Britechester and now Josephine too? And with her grandchildren! She's so upset that she does not even think to question her daughter's story. "I am so sorry you had to find out like this," Josephine tries to comfort her. "But times are hard, and we have to go where Nash's job takes him. We'll return when the bank opens up again."
That night, Nash is relieved. As hard as he worked to keep it from happening, he knew it was only a matter of time before the bank foreclosed on their house. This way, at least they'll have some control over the sale. "It will be better once we're in the city," he promises. "There must be more jobs to be had there. And it's not like you won't have any family. You'll have Anna. I'm sure the kids will love playing with her dog." He hopes he's right, but even if there are more jobs in the city, he is also competing against more people. A third of the population in San Myshuno is unemployed at the moment, but still... there are still functioning banks. Perhaps he can get a job at one of them. He must at least try.
They start by selling all their furniture, and most of everything else as well. Even most of the kids' toys, a part from a few favourites that they can pack and carry themselves. The last night, they hold a quiet birthday celebration for the twins, on the table they've just sold but that has not been picked up yet. Josephine has struggled with what she's had, and after reading about it in a magazine, has sown new dresses for them out of a bag of flour. The girls don't know of course, but love the fact that they match. Josephine is just mortified, but pretends to be happy for their sake.
They sleep on the floor that night, in sleeping bags that Nash has arranged for them. The kids think it's a great adventure, but Josephine has a hard time relaxing, and toss and turn with worry and grief and worry. What is worse, or better, she's not sure, is that she's already pregnant again. She doesn't quite know what to feel about it. If this was hard with three children and an infant, what will it be when there is yet another mouth to feed?
Things are what they are, however, and the next morning they're off to San Myshuno to an apartment Nash has secured only by phone. They have not even seen pictures, and when they arrive it's worse than Josephine's worst nightmare. She imagined something like their home in Britechester. Cramped, not really to her taste, but at least proper. This is not it. The carpet is stained by things she does not even want to know about, the walls have no covering and the rooms are even smaller than the ones in Britechester. Looking around what will be her new home, all Josephine wants to do is cry. "It will get better, I promise it will," Nash says, but Josephine isn't sure she believes him anymore.
Moreover, I advise that the cart button must be destroyed!
For the family it's a time of hard readjustment. The apartment is cramped, and just finding space enough to sleep is a challenge. Nash uses the last money they have from the sale of the house on a Murphy bed for him and Josephine, so that their living space doesn't look like a bedroom during the day. The kids all get to share the bedroom, and their beds are found through charity from the local church, as is all other furniture. The table is wobbly, and held up by a book, and probably really a desk that has now gotten new use. The children's beds are worn, most likely home made but they work, even if it's crowded. "It's fun sleeping on top," Thomas says in an attempt to be brave for his mother. As much as she tries to hide her despair from him and his sisters, he's perceptive, and besides, it's not hard to tell that mom is miserable.
The apartment is a challenge not only due to the limited space. In a short period of time they experience an electrical failure and a gas-leak, discover that cockroaches has taken up residence in the kitchen, and mice has done the same in both bedroom and living room. The kids are spending as much time as they can outdoors, playing on the playgrounds of the city, while Josephine tries her best to keep the place - and her children - clean, but washing clothes is hard in a space smaller than your previous kitchen. "We can't live like this," she tells her husband as she cries at night. "It's not reasonable!"
Nash does what he can to get his family out of the apartment. The first thing he does as Monday comes around is report to the unemployment office. But the situation here is not much better than the one in Willow Creek. The banks are failing, one by one, and the ones who are not are still not hiring. Not even Nash's connections from his previous job helps him now. He's stuck doing the same menial labour that he did back in Willow Creek. He tries to explain his situation to the unemployment agent, but gets nothing but a shrug in return. "Take it or leave it, this is the best we have." It's enough to put food on the table, and to pay the bills, but only just. Josephine is learning how important it is to stretch her budget, more than she's ever had to before in her life. Luckily there is a trift store just next door. As her own clothes are starting to wear out, she manages to find a more modern dress there for a moderate amount of money. Sewn by someone, not store made, by the looks of it the same type of flour bag fabric that she used for the girls' dresses, but a different pattern. But who can afford to be picky at this point?
For the kids, there is one upside to living in the city. Aunty Anna! Josephine makes a point to bring the children there as soon as she can, if only to make sure that Anna never ever visits her apartment which she is sure Anna would do otherwise. The girls love little Omisco, and Thomas is in awe of all the pictures on Anna's walls, telling stories of faraway places and exciting adventures. Little Arthur on the other hand, quickly decides that Anna is a person he loves being held by. As she looks around her sister's apartment, a place she would have called cramped just a short while ago, Josephine cannot help the jealousy that comes over her. It's not much bigger than her own, but clean, whole, with wallpaper on the walls and proper furniture. "So when can I come and see your place?" Anna asks. "Oh, not for a while," Josephine answers with a smile. "We have to get it in order first. There is so much to do, you wouldn't believe, new furniture that needs to be bought, it's just so empty at the moment, and then I need to update it to modern aesthetics. I will probably end up redecorating the entire place before I think it's fit for visitors."
She tells her mother the same thing as she phones her from the phone in the local drugstore. "It's quite nice, very clever use of space, although I will need to redecorate it to my tastes of course, but that's to be expected. What? Do we like it? Oh, you know me, mother, I'd be happiest in a house with a garden, but it's a nice apartment and is conveniently close to Nash's new job. And the kids love the outdoor space and the local playground. They send their love." Josephine never thought lying would be something she got good at.
Although, Anna isn't convinced, even if she lets Josephine think so. On the weekend, she shows the entire family the botanical park and gardens. She, Thomas and Nash skate around on roller skates (Nash isn't very good) while Josephine is tending to baby Arthur and the twins enjoy the swings.
On the weekdays, when the children are at school and Nash doing whatever work he's found for the day, the park is where Anna takes Josephine to walk Omisco and talk. "You're waring pants?" Anna shrugs. "Lots of women do now, and they're dead practical. You should try it!" Josephine shakes her head. Her sister has always been weird. But she does seem good with Arthur. "You would be such a good mother," she tells her sister. "Have you never wanted to be married and have a family?" Anna hesitates, then decides that perhaps a little trust is needed both ways, if she wants Josephine to tell her the truth. "I did once, during the war. His name was Maurice. He was a French soldier. For a while we were engaged, or well, we were more than just engaged. To be completely honest we were more or less married in all but name, but then he needed to return to the front and... well, he didn't return to me. And with him my hopes for marriage and family died too." Josephine is stunned.
"You never said anything!"
"You were getting married. What was I supposed to do, ruin your big day by sharing my heartache? Alice knows, as does mother and father. I never saw a need to burden you with my grief when you were just about to start your life. But enough about me. How are you? You look tired. Is everything well?"
But Josephine is not ready to be as honest as her sister. She smiles. "Of course it is! Aside from Arthur still not sleeping through the night, but he will have to learn now that he's getting a new brother or sister!"
"She's lying," Anna says on the phone later when she speaks to Alice.
"How do you know?"
"She's not wearing her pearls. How many times have you seen our sister without those pearls? And her story makes no sense. Nash would just get a job at a bank in times like this when we read about banks failing on a daily basis?"
"He is brother in law with Rhett Goth, surely he would pull some strings?"
"Have you ever known Rhett Goth to pull strings for anyone but himself? I'm telling you, she's lying! I have half a mind to just show up on her doorstep."
"Don't! Give her time. She'll tell you when she's good and ready."
Anna is right of course, and the stress is weighing heavily on Josephine. So much so that she one day, as the children and Nash are away, feels something some all too familiar cramps in her stomach. In pain, she rushes to the doctor, even if she can't really afford to. After hours in the waiting room of the one free clinic she knows of, she finally gets seen, only to be dismissed. "No need to be in hysterics, it was nothing serious. You women need to stop worrying about any little thing you feel. It's all in your head." Josephine is both relieved and insulted as she heads back home. She wonders if she should have asked for a new diaphragm to be fitted, but she didn't dare. Not with this doctor. Besides, she wouldn't be able to afford it anyway. What is worse is that she doesn't know how to feel about the baby she is carrying. On the one hand she wouldn't want to go through another miscarriage, but a nagging part of her mind wonders if it wouldn't have been for the best for all of them if this pregnancy had never happened in the first place.
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Moreover, I advise that the cart button must be destroyed!
That night there is a festival in the neighborhood. Even though it is way too late for them, Thomas and Hazel sneak out to take part and see the fireworks. For Nash, however, the fireworks are a trigger, and as the sound of explosions fill the air, he has a panic attack. Josephine does her best to calm him down, but right then and there he is back in the trenches of war forgetting he's safe and sound back home. He has a restless sleep that night, plagued by nightmares he thought he left behind a long time ago.
Waking up, to another thing broken as a pipe has sprung a leak, he feels desperate. They need to get out of here. And they need to do it fast. He can feel his grip on reality failing, his kids snuck out in the middle of the night, and Josephine almost lost the baby. They cannot go on like this! The next morning, as he's back at the unemployment office, with the same handler but another room, he resorts to begging. "I need something else. I need to provide for my family! We cannot stay here!"
But the handler has no good options to offer. "I hear there is work out west. Arizona and California." he says. "It's farm work and ranch work, so not what you're hoping for, but it's work and it's the best I can offer. We can arrange for transportation and work permits."
"Where would we live?"
"That's up to you. Farms offer a place to stay for single men, but with a family? You'll have to see what you can rent. I can give you the relevant addresses for places who arranges that kind of thing."
He tells Josephine as the children sit down to do their homework. Josephine is both scared and hesitantly hopeful. Anna's questions has her nervous, and she hates the apartment. Whatever is waiting them there, it cannot be worse than this! And steady work is steady work. Of course there are preparations to do, things to arrange - laundry to take care of! The very next day Josephine decides to try out the new washeria in the Cashbah market. (This is a bit early to be entirely accurate, the first laundromat, called a washeria, wasn't opened until 1934, but it's only a few years so I'm taking some liberty here). She's slightly hesitant to using machines for something she has done herself all her life, but highly impressed when she hangs the laundry out to dry. If washing clothes was always this easy!
And then it's time to move. They only says a quick good buy to Anna, rush off to the train station and heads off west. It is a long journey, more expensive than they can really afford, even if they've sold their new furniture (well the bed) and used every discount they as a family could get. The train first takes them to Chicago, then they need to wait until the next train leaves from there to Arizona. The entire trip takes more than 4 days, and the hard wooden benches does nothing for Josephine's back. Even the children are cranky when they finally hop on a bus from Phoenix to Chestnut Ridge. By the time they arrive, and Nash goes to get the key to their new home, arranged for them by the local church, they're exhausted. And then they're horrified - or at least Josephine is. There she is, highly pregnant with her fifth child, staring at her new home and it is - as if that was even possible - even smaller than the apartment in San Myshuno!
That first night, no one has time to take it all in. They all fall into bed and sleep, utterly exhausted from their journey. Therefore the extent of their misfortune isn't fully clear until the next morning. The shed, because it is more shed than house, has only one room, in which they all need to fit. In the middle there is one table, but only four people can sit at one time, so there will be no more family dinners with them sitting together around the table. Speaking of dinners, there is no electricity, no indoor bathroom, no plumbing of any kind. The closest toilet is across the yard, they need to gather water by the pump or pond, and a dingy windmill gives them only enough electricity to power a lamp. Josephine is heartbroken. "There isn't even plaster on the walls!!!" she exclaims. Nash, embarrassed by the conditions promises her he'll fix it. "I'll fix this up, and as soon as we can we'll move somewhere else." Josephine scoffs. She doesn't even have the energy to pretend she trusts him any longer.
The kids have an easier time adjusting than Josephine. They are now used to things getting progressively worse, and the girls barely remember their once pretty house in Willow Creek. Thomas does, and it is harder for him than his sisters, but he does his best to be brave for a mother that is more often sad than not. The joint outdoor space gets a lot of use. The kids play marbles, play in the pond and quickly get the hang of horseshoe throwing. And there is school, where they can get some food when breakfast only consists of fruit sallad every morning. Another staple is foragers stew, which mostly is whatever vegetables mum could get her hands on, or mushroom soup, or tomato soup... meat is becoming more and more rare, so when the kids managed to find several frogs to make a frog pot not even Josephine complained.
Nash is gone more than he's at home, working as a ranch hand at a neighbors farm, and the time at home is spent trying to improve things. The neighbours are nice and helpful, and even Josephine befriends them and accepts their help at times even if Joseph is much more active in befriending them. He even speaks to one of them about helping to plaster the walls of the shed, to make it look like a proper home.
Before there is time to get that project started, however, Josephine wakes up one early morning to realise that it's her time. Forcing herself to wait it out until she can no longer, she wakes up the family. Nash panics at first, but Josephine hands him Arthur and simply throws him and the kids out of the house to fend for themselves. She's had babies at home before, granted always with her mother's expert help, but she can do this. Besides, she wouldn't be able to afford a doctor and it's too far to the hospital so there is little else to do than have this baby on her own anyway.
With a crying infant in need of changing and food in his hands, and three tired kids who now has to get ready for school, Nash does what any man would do. Ask a woman for help. He hands Arthur over to neighbor Lilian, who is only too glad to help sort the kids out while Josephine is busy giving birth to their third baby girl, Barbara.
After this day, even Josephine accepts Lilian's help, and Lilian becomes a fixture in their house, coming and going a bit as she pleases. With only one child of her own (and one on the way) she has more time to help than Josephine has to cope, and slowly life in Chestnut ridge falls into a routine of chores and plights that somehow has become normal. They go to church on Sundays, for service and charity hand outs. They work, each in their own way, and Nash even gets the walls plastered with supplies he's found or been given! Well, two of them. That's as far as the material stretches. "It's better than nothing," Josephine says.
To her family, Josephine, now used to lying paint an entirely different picture of life in Chestnut Ridge:
You wouldn't believe how beautiful it is out there. Wide open spaces and a more stars than you can count. The house Nash arranged is beautiful and has a large outdoor space. Nash is so appreciated in the new office, and there are hints of promotions once the economy pics up. The kids love their new school, and the community here is wonderful as is our home. It's a white house, just like back home in Willow Creek, and the garden is spectacular.
I love you all and miss you much. The kids send all their best wishes.
Josephine
Moreover, I advise that the cart button must be destroyed!
In San Myshuno, Anna does not trust her sister's assurances that everything is fine. In fact, she is absolutely certain that Josephine is lying. The question is what to do about it, and how to go about it. "It's the way she left," she tells Johnny. "It was so rushed. A promotion, or even a transfer, would take longer time, and then there is the fact that she never invited me over to their apartment. Not once."
"Maybe she just don't like visitors?" Johnny suggests with a shrug.
"That's just it. She does. And there is something about the wording. I just don't trust her!"
"Maybe you're right. Maybe you're not. But either way, she's an adult woman, if she doesn't want to tell you the truth, or accept your help, that's her choice."
That night they go out, taking a new neighbor who also comes from Willow Creek with them to a newly opened bowling alley. It's Anna's birthday, and while she's worried about her sister, she still manages to have a good time. While a bit shaky at first, it turns out she's quite good at this bowling thing.
The next morning offers a big surprise. As she takes Omisco for a walk a stray dog approaches them, begging for food. A stickler for animals, Anna cannot help but to cuddle with the big dog, who then resolutely goes on to follow her and Omisco around until Anna relents and takes him home with her, starting out with offering the big dog a bath. So without planning or even thinking it through, Anna suddenly finds herself with two dogs instead of one. One of which is a lot bigger than Omisco and fond of howling and barking on odd hours. A bit hard in a rather small apartment, but Anna figures she can make it work as long as she spends enough time with them at Myshuno Meadows with them. Buddy is not as quick to learn as Omisco, but stubbornness make up for a lot and in just a single afternoon Anna still manages to teach him the all important heel-command.
Johnny, also an animal lover, likes the new addition to Anna's family and has a perfect solution for Anna's cramped condition. Namely, that she just move in with him in his bigger apartment.
Anna isn't as sure about this suggestion. It's not that she doesn't have feelings for Johnny, but moving in? She knows the implication that holds, because you just do not move in with a man, not without a marriage waiting down the line. Even if that kind of de facto marriages are much more common in the city than in the rest of the country, it's hardly proper behaviour, and nothing she could ever do to her parents. No, moving in means marriage, and that she has long since given up on. Even if she knows it will hurt him, Anna turns Johnny's offer down. She convinces herself that this is not the right time. And besides, Josephine needs her. Her sister must come first.
Johnny is not impressed. "You're leaving? Again? I waited for two years while you were off in Japan."
"I never asked you to!"
"Well, don't expect it off me this time!"
"You want to do what?" Alice asks as she tells her over the phone. "Go there! Surprise her, confront her!"
"But why on earth would you want to do that?"
"Because she needs our help, but is too proud to accept it."
"Who says she'll accept the help just because you go there?"
"But at least then I've tried, besides, the trip would do me good."
"And what does Johnny has to say?"
"Why would he say anything at all."
"What happened?" With Alice there is no hiding for Anna, she can read her like a book, even over a long distance phoneline, and so Anna tells her sister everything. "So what you're saying is that you're running scared? My sister, who can climb mountains and conquer jungles, is scared of a boy she likes?"
"It's not about Johnny, this is about Josephine!"
"No it's not, and you know it. If you want to help our sister, then go, but do it for the right reasons, not because you're afraid. You told me once to not be governed by fear, I think it's time you hear the same."
"It's too late now anyway. Johnny is gone."
And Anna is nothing but stubborn, which is why she cand her dogs are on the train to Chestnut Ridge already the next day. Two trains, a bus and less than a week later, she arrives at the rental she's arranged for from home, and she immediately sees what Josephine wrote, about the wide open spaces and sense of freedom. The dogs love it! They run around, playing in the bushes and fighting squirrels - or rather Buddy does. Omisco is too old to behave like a puppy. Instead he just lays down outside and enjoys the space.
But Anna is not there for the nature, but for Josephine, and as soon as she has settled in she goes off to find the address her sister has sent. It takes her a while to find the right door, but when she does she is greeted by three happy children.
Josephine is not nearly as happy to see her sister, but instead deeply embarrassed. And Anna is shocked. She knew her sister was lying, but this is worse than she thought. After she's been introduced to Barbera, talked to the family and the kids has gone to sleep she pulls her sister aside. "You can't live like this. Let me help!" she says, but Josephine is every bit as stubborn as her sister. "I know you mean well, but I will not take any charity, not from you, not from anyone. We get by. Things will get better!"
Back in her cottage, Anna writes to Alice.
Dear Alice,
The situation is worse than I could have even imagined. No bathroom, no electricity, they're all in one dingy little room in a shed that is so poorly built that I fear it will fall to pieces in the autumn storms. I don't know what to do to help, but I must find a way that is acceptable to Josephine. Arthur has a birthday tomorrow. I will help them celebrate it, and stay on a while and get to know this town. Somehow I will find a way to help.
Your loving sister,
Anna
Moreover, I advise that the cart button must be destroyed!
While all this has been going on, life has not been standing still for the rest of the Whittaker family, many of whom are no longer Whitakers at all any more.
For Frank and Emily, family life has gotten a lot smaller. Of their five children only two still live at home, Harold and Harrison. Instead they have become proud grandparents of Gordon, son of their eldest, John and his wife Lorraine. Edward and Beatrice have also gotten married, Edward to Britany and Beatrice just recently to Roger Green. While Beatrice stayed in Willow Creek, Edward has started a vet clinic in Brindleton bay where he has adopted a cat and a dog. Interestingly enough, Emily, so terrified for so long of getting pregnant relaxed her worries when she became a grandmother, thinking surely she could no longer get pregnant herself. Turns out she could. She is now expecting her sixth child.
Ida and Nathaniel Preston have also become grandparents, to little Norman, son of Madison who ended up marrying not the man we picked for her (MCCC married him off with someone else), but with Byron Stewart. Melanie married David Anders as planned, and they live in Newcrest. No babies yet, however. As Nathaniel's mother Florence died, and Tessie moved out of the house to finally get married and have a family of her own, there is now only three members of the original family. Ida, Nathaniel and teenage Austen, soon out of the house as well as he's set to start college soon.
Abigail, still mourning the move of her daughter and grandchildren, has been given some comfort by the return of William who has decided that he ought to stay with his elderly parents. He too just got married to Amanda, who also joined the household, giving Abigail a well needed rest from house chores.
Here is the latest family tree with all the new family members. The tree is now so big that it's hard to get it all in one screenshot. As the family keeps growing I will likely have to focus on one side of the family in future postings of the tree.
Moreover, I advise that the cart button must be destroyed!
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John gets out of the house and Emily takes control
Back in the US, John has aged up to a young adult, and as soon as he possibly could enrolled in university and left home for Britechester. Living in the same dorm as his father once did, he arrives to find it quite different than the stories his father told. Gone are most the fireplaces and time is starting to show, with some cracks in the wall and carpets stained and worn from years of students walking in and out of the rooms. The common areas has been updated, with more durable wooden floors, and a complete refurbishment of the bathroom, but the rooms are worn and more than a bit dated. None of that matters to John, however, who is just happy to be somewhere that is not at home and who immediately throws himself into his studies.
Emily misses her eldest boy terribly, but try to focus on the four children still at home. But something is different. Alone without constantly adapting after Frank's whims, and after her victory over Caroline, she feels stronger, more confident. As her eldest moves out, and all her children are at school all day, she takes her previous charity work to the next level, and joins a charity organisation full time in a paid position. No longer having a mother waiting at home for them, the kids learn to take care of themselves after school, playing with friends or each other while waiting for their mother to come home. She does miss them, but make up for it by helping them with homework and tucking them in at night. For the first time in a very long time, she feels pride in herself, her children and her home. The kids have more friends over, dinners are more relaxing and the air easier to breathe.
But then the day comes, when Frank is set to return home. The trial is done, the hefty fine paid and the time in jail over. Emily is nervous. She cannot go back to how things were. Sitting down, she makes sure she looks her absolute best, and gets the children ready to greet their father. Beatrice runs to hug him, while the boys are more hesitant in their greeting, letting their father kiss their cheek and then looking to their mother for permission to go play. Nodding, Emily calmly greets her husband, bringing him into the house for a very serious conversation. It is not easy, and it's not smooth. Frank is not used to being contradicted, but Emily will not be silenced this time. There will be no more affairs, no more alcohol, and no more criminal activity out of her house. Frank tries to argue, but also know when he is out of cards. If he wants to have any chance to get his job back, to get his standing in society back, he needs his very popular wife, and more importantly, her very influential father on his side. There is little to do but agree.
All this drama in his family has made Joseph gray haired. He's worried about his son, about his grand children, and about his daughter-in-law. He gathers his family for his birthday and they celebrate him. Dolly, who is also getting on in years, has made a grand meal and baked a cake, and as always Joseph enjoy having them around. But secretly, Abigail worries about him, wishing their children could cause him less concern. Perhaps now that Frank is back home, and John out of the house, he can begin to worry less. Now if only Anna would return from her foolish explorations and settle down and start a family, then maybe there could be some peace in the family for once.
The Saraste Tales Legacy Intro
Happy Simming!
So this will probably be my last comment before forum migration... I think I might take some forum vacation anyway (I need some distance to the game after the last weeks), but I'm looking forward to catch up on the future of the Whittakers
My first attempt at creating a Sims comic: The Parker-Goth Legacy.
While all this drama is going on in Willow Creek, Anna has an easier time over in Japan. As mail travels even more slowly than it did to Selvadorada, Anna has very little word about what happens back home, but in return she has plenty of time to enjoy her surroundings. She and Omisco loves taking long hikes to the sights so Anna can take photos for the articles she's going to write when she returns. They hike through the bamboo forest, to the temple, the burial grounds, the mountain shrine... Anna already has a title lined up for her article: "The shrines of Mt Komorebi". She's visited the one in town, where she's been told most people marry, the cave shrine (that was her favourite so far), and the historical one deep in the snowy mountains. She is a bit confused as to the names, as the cave shrine looks far older than the historic shrine, but none of that matter to her when she suddenly, on a beautiful evening as she walks in the sunset, encounters the forest spirits she's heard the locals talk about.
Anna's main goal with travelling to Mt Komorebi, however, was to climb Mt Komorebi itself. That is something she knows will take effort and time. She is slowly progressing, however, and is attempting higher and higher walls. The first time she scaled one of the larger walls of the lower parts of the mountain she felt as if she'd just conquered the world, but she was also sore in just about every muscle in her body and well aware that it is not yet time to try the actual mountain. As she writes to her sister:
Dearest Alice,
The mountain still eludes me, though I am getting better. Today I scaled what the locals call the 'medium' wall. I promise you it did not feel medium at all when I was finished. There are muscles in my body that aches that I never even knew I had! Yet the feeling of scaling it, the victorious joy as I could look out over town and see all of it stretch out before me... oh how Maurice would have loved to paint that sight! I can barely imagine what it will feel like when it's the actual summit I've reached.
After an arduous climb it is a fantastic feeling to visit the local bathhouse. I've learnt they call it an Onsen. You undress and submerge yourself into the most glorious natural hot spring, and all those aching muscles get to rest for a moment. It's hot, really hot, but fantastic! It is certainly something I will miss once I return back home. I visit almost daily, and so does the locals. Many bathe here instead of in their homes which do not all contain full bathrooms, but then when this is here, who would need it?
The Japanese are a friendly people. Hard to speak to, as I am a long way from mastering their language, but willing to try either way. I have visited my neighbors, farmers most of them. I find them inviting and willing to put up with all my questions, although to be fair their animals are so sweet and lovely that I spend as much time petting them as I do trying to learn the local tongue. When they learnt that it is my 35th birthday tomorrow, they made sure to invite me out to local lounge. I look forward to it, as I have yet to visit the place. He tells me it's 'quite modern, almost like in Tokyo' which I've come to understand here means a mix of traditional Japanese and western influences. Apparently stained glass is supposedly very popular, but I do not know if that is something they have here. It will be interesting to see now that I have a better understanding of their traditional architecture.
I hope you are doing well and cannot wait to hear from you.
Your loving sister,
Anna
In the Sinclair household, Josephine is busy as only a mother of twin infants can be. Grace and Hazel are luckily both fairly easy to deal with, Grace being calm and Hazel sunny in their disposition, but twins are twins, and between feeding them, changing them and taking care of them when they cry, there is very little time left for life outside the house. Still, Josephine loves her girls and loves the time she spends with them.
Josephine's busy schedule is of course affecting Thomas, who as a toddler also needs his mother. She does her best to spread her affection and time but it is not always easy. Thomas is learning to play on his own more than before, but does feel jealousy towards his sisters. So much better then at weekends when he can convince his daddy to play with him. And dinner time is also good, then he has both mummy and daddy for himself now that he can eat on his own as the twins are usually asleep at that time.
But there is of course perks with having siblings too. Sometimes, the twins can be played with, and they always laugh when you blow raspberries on their stomachs. They also love it when you sing to them. Thomas likes to sing!
And sometimes, when the babies are sleeping, Thomas can persuade mummy to play with him too. Those are the best times. And when she reads to him when he goes to sleep, even if daddy does that more often these days.
For Josephine it is a bit of a struggle to maintain the house to the standard she wants, but she finds time for the never-ending pile of laundry when the children all sleep. Time for herself? She barely makes it to the bathroom, and showering is done when everyone else has gone to sleep, which means she's the first to rise in the morning and the last to go to bed at night. Still, as hard as it is, Josephine still loves every minute she has with her babies and will happily live with a little less sleep at times. Especially when she can pride herself with her beautiful family and her hard working husband who just received his first promotion! It might not always be easy, but as Josephine and Nash are both about to turn, Josephine does think they have the perfect life.
In Mt Komorebi, summer has arrived, and while the mountain is as cold and snow-covered as ever, the countryside where Anna lives is getting warmer. For Anna this is a welcome change, as she enjoys the opportunities the warm weather offers. Right on her doorstep, she and Omisco has found a little beach, where she can swim in the lake on particularly hot days (or on cold days just because she likes it). The nearby waterfalls is a beautiful backdrop when you're swimming around.
By now, Anna has gotten to know most of her neighbors and started to master, some, basic Japanese. Enough to be understood, and to understand, the people around her. She spends a lot of her time in the evening at the Onsen, enjoying the hot springs after days of hard climbing, and has found that it's a great way to get to know the locals better.
And then, finally, the moment has arrived. Through years of hard work, of lessons and climbing practise, she is ready to tackle the mountain itself. She cannot wait! The night before, she and her guide (as the local law stipulates that you have to have a local guide with you up the mountain) meet outside the Onsen to get ready for the climb. Anna has done everything she can to prepare. She's bought brand new climbing gear, since her old one was getting worn, and brought her old tent from Selvadorada and sturdy sleeping bags so that they won't be cold. And so the climb begins.
They spend their first night on one of the leges about half way up, and even though there is a long way to go, Anna cannot believe how high up she is. It's exhilarating, and intoxicating, to see the view from up here. I am only half-way and yet I already feel like I am at the top of the world!" she writes in her journal.
The next morning, they push on, and now it's time for the biggest wall of all. Just looking up at it, Anna is wondering if she was not hasty, if she did not need more practise first, but then she pushes that thought out of her head and starts to climb. One grip at the time, carefully scaling the wall, she makes it closer and closer to the top.
And just like that, she's there. It's almost a bit of an anti-climax. So much work, so many months of preparations, and then it's just over. Breathless, Anna tries to wrap her head around the fact that's made it, but it's not until she steps up on the plateau, looking out over nothing but clouds that it finally hits her. She's here! She made it! She's one of few people who has ever been this high, and most likely the only woman.
Taking out her camera, she takes a photo of her guide, who in spite of their massive achievement looks as grim as always:
Before they set up their camp for the night, Anna takes the time to explore a cave nearby, while Takagi waits outside.
As night settles, they prepare their camp-site, and then Anna takes out her camera again, taking the most amazing photographs.
Once back down, and after she's returned to pick up Omisco from the neighbors and had a well deserved rest, she and Takagi visit the lounge for a celebration and farewell feast for Anna. After two long years, it's time to return home. To be honest, Anna longs for it. Climbing is fun, the adventure was amazing as was the feeling of being at the top of the world, but Anna misses her family, her friends and most of all her sister. She pens her a quick telegram before leaving. I made it! Now it's time to return. When you receive this I am already on my way. Expect me within a few weeks. Love, Anna.
Alice is thrilled to receive Anna's telegram, but not nearly as thrilled as when she finally sees her sister again. The two reunite in great happiness as Anna gets settled for her stay in the extra bedroom. "See, I told you it would come in handy!" Anna beams at Cora, who just laughs. She too is happy to see Anna again. It's nice to have someone you can be completely honest with.
They stay in that night, sitting up and talking until late in the evening, until Anna cannot stay awake any longer. After all, it has been a long trip home, with weeks on the sea. It's nice to sleep in a proper bed again.
The next day, Alice and Cora take Anna all over downtown. They visit the museum, where Cora works on her handiness for her next part, and Alice and Cora show off their acting skills on the performer stage even if Anna is the only one watching. Then they head shopping, having lunch outside on the streets and before heading home, Alice takes Anna to see their father's plaque on Starlight boulevard.
As they return they take with a swim in the pool, and some time to relax as they dry off before heading back to the apartment. Alice has, of course, arranged for a party in Anna's honor now that she is back.
After just a few days, it's time for Anna to move on towards Willow Creek, to visit her parents and attend Abigail's big birthday celebration. Anna expect to join her before that day, but first there is something she has to do. She has namely gotten a part in her first talkie! To be honest, she is quite nervous. Ever since the movie The Jazz Singer was released in 1927, sound movies is all everyone can talk about in Del Sol Valley. Silent films are still made, but everyone in the business knows it's the new format that will win the crowds. Since the Jazz Singer features song and dance, so will the movie Alice is in, and she has trained hard at both dancing and singing before she hits the studio. As it is a contemporary piece, she does not need the endlessly blond wigs, but gets to perform as herself, although in the right costume. She knocks it out of the ball park! The dancing is just perfect, her acting is the best it has ever been. She is the master of this new format, and she hopes the audience will see it too. As she too gets ready for head to Willow Creek, she feels pleased she has given the performance of a life time.
The Saraste Tales Legacy Intro
Happy Simming!
As Anna returns to her childhood home, the first time in many years, she finds it just as it was - and quite different. At home, she is greeted by her happy parents and younger brother William, and is soon caught up with all the latest gossip of the family, some of which she knew (such as Frank's arrest, conviction and return home) and some things that had not yet reached her in Japan before she left. Frank's eldest, John, has returned from university a doctor and married one of the Rowley girls. Melanie has left for college. There had been more birthdays than Anna thinks she can keep track of as her mother rattles them all of. Frank's Beatrice and Ida's Madison are both about to age up to a young women soon and might go off to college, as will William and Edward who also have their birthdays just around the corner, and Harold has turned 15 and the twins (who were not even born when Anna left) are apparently adorable toddlers. As her mother finish rattling of everything Anna feels more confused than enlightened, but figures she'll sort everything out eventually. (You'll get an updated family tree at the end of this post)
She starts figuring things out already the next day, when Josephine hosts another birthday party, this time for Thomas, her eldest, who is about to come to the age where he is starting school! It's another one of Josephine's children, that Anna has never met, but he takes an instant liking to his aunt and treats her to a song right before it's time to blow out the candles.
Josephine is so proud of her young boy, and her home, and she is happy to show it off to the sister who rather travels the world than settles down like she ought to. But it is when the guests leaves that she takes the time to be alone with her son, gifting him the one thing she got such joy from as a girl. A violin.
The next day, Anna takes the opportunity to visit friends she has not seen in too long, Elizabeth and George. Last time she was at their home they lived in an apartment with their twin toddlers. Now the girls are children, they have moved to a house in Willow Creek and have two more children, a little toddler and an infant. All four of them girls. It's a happy reunion of the friends, and the girls seem to take to their mother's friend right away. Anna is starting to realise that for whatever reason, children just seem to like her. "It's a shame you have none of your own." Elizabeth tells her. "You'd be an excellent mother." Anna shakes her head. "You can't climb mountains as a mother." Of course if Maurice had lived... but she does not say that.
Alice arrives later that same evening, and as always the sisters are happy to see each other, even if it was only a few days ago last time. Alice talks about her role in the movie, about the difference of making a movie with sound and song, and hopes they will go to see it when it comes out. William seem more impressed than their parents, and Abigail most want to know if none of those handsome men that Alice has been seen with in the papers are serious, potential husbands. "They're just friends, mum." Alice says to Abigail's great disappointment.
The sisters do not need to listen to their mother's worry about them being unmarried for long, however, as Abigail and Dolly are quite busy the following day preparing for the big party. They rush around the house cleaning and cooking. "Mum, when did you get glasses?" Alice suddenly asks. "Oh, just a little while back. Do you like them." Alice lies and says they're very nice. It rattles her a bit, to see her parents look so old. But old or not, there is nothing wrong with Abigail's energy, and as the party starts the rooms are filled with family members that Alice has not seen for years. It's a good night, with talking and laughing and fantastic food, but as the night wanes and people leave, Abigail and Joseph is a bit glad to be by themselves. Retiring to their bed chamber they take a moment to be grateful for the life they have made for themselves and the family they've raised together.
The updated family tree:
The Saraste Tales Legacy Intro
Happy Simming!
On Anna's last day at home in Willow Creek, it's time for yet another party. This time of year so many people have birthdays it seems to Anna that all they do is go from one party to the next. But this time, it's her baby brother's party - and Edward's of course, but to be fair Anna has not been around enough to actually get to know all her nieces and nephews so she cares less about him. The two boys have, however, their entire life been inseparable, born on the same day as they are. Now it's time for real life to begin. College, moving out, getting a job, finding someone to marry... (partying, although they do not share that idea with their parents).
The party, is as every party held in the Whittaker house, a resounding success. The family crowds in, eats, talks, kids play (some sneak up to the attic to play with the stored toys they have up there) and then it's time for cake, wishes and the blowing out of candle's. William, born a few hours earler than Edward, blows his out first, and then it's Edward's time. William gets the trait romantic, and Edward party animals - meaning two boys longing to party are going off to college. Anna congratulate them both, but is happy when the party is over, and look forward to going home to San Myshuno the next morning.
For Joseph and Abigail it is a new experience to have the house to themselves. For the first time in their life together, there are no children, or teenagers, in the house. Just the two of them. Well, and Dolly of course, although she too is getting on in years, and no longer perform her duties as quickly as she once did. On this, however, Joseph and Abigail are in complete agreeance. Dolly will stay on as long as she wants, as this is her home too, and if she's too old to perform her duties, then so be it.
Something else is starting to worry Joseph, however, and that is what will happen after he dies, for in Louisiana, spouses do not inherit each other, instead the children do. With community property (that they own together), the children will simply have to wait to gain access to their inheritance until the remaining spouse also dies, but with private property - that is all property someone owned prior to marriage - will be divided at once. For Joseph and Abigail, this means the house and about §100 000. Abigail would not be poor by any means, but she would have to move unless their children decide to wait to take out their inheritance. Joseph wants to trust that his children would, but after having a son sentenced for bootlegging and tax evasion, he must admit that he does not entirely do so. There is also the fact that Frank and Ida are not technically Abigail's children, even if she did raise them. Besides, Nathaniel and Nash are definitely not Abigail's children, and Joseph knows his girls enough to know that they would not be the ones making the decisions, but let their husbands do the choosing for them. There is only one solution to this. Joseph needs to write a will! After speaking to those who know more than him about legal matters at the club, he sits down in his office to write.
Back in San Myshuno, Anna takes pleasure in being less crowded. Now she and Omisco can go back to the routine they had before. A quick walk in the morning, then work, then a longer time spent outside in the Myshuno meadows, jogging, eating, roller skating or just enjoying nature. Her walls are now filled with her own pictures again, from the jungle and the mountain, but perhaps the wall space is a bit too limited in the small apartment. Is it too much? Anna just knows she loves her pictures.
On arriving, she considered - briefly - knocking on Lamotte's door, but she quickly decides against it. To be fair, she does not know if he still lives there, and she did leave without a proper goodbye. Best to just leave it, she decides. He has probably moved. He must have. It's been years. He's probably married with kids living in the countryside somewhere.
But as she and Omisco take their trip to San Myshuno meadows, who does she run into if not Robert Lamotte! It's a rather awkward encounter at first, both of them a bit unsure of what to say to the other. But soon the two old friends are talking away as if they met just yesterday. It helps that Lamotte, unlike most of her family, seems genuinely interested in her adventures and her mountain climbing stories.
The next day there is a new festival in town, that the two friends decide to visit. It turns out, funnily enough, to be a Japanese festival. Anna feels almost right at home. The food taste - different - more bland, than what she had in Japan, but close enough. The Sakura tea is something she never tried in Japan, but she find it stimulating. A bit too stimulating, as she finds herself flirting in ways that is not typical of her. She heads home before the tea gets to her head and makes her do something she regrets. Lamotte is a great friend. She does not want to spoil the friendship by doing something rash that she'd regret later.
As 1928 turns to 1929, Josephine is in heaven. Her son is doing well in school and has friends in his cousins which he sees a lot, her daughters are adorable and cute. Yes, perhaps Nash is a bit lazy and leaves his clothes all around the house (as does Thomas who takes after his father), but Josephine does not mind cleaning up after him. It's her job as a wife after all. And Nash is what many other men is not - a devoted and present father who enjoys playing with his children more than he does working and Josephine loves him for it.
And life is only getting better, as Josephine finds herself pregnant again.
She loves having the family over and the children love their grandma and aunt Ida who are there often, and when thanksgiving rolls around, Josephine begs to host it. As they are getting on in years, and William cannot attend as he is in Britechester, Joseph and Abigail agrees. Josephine spends all day preparing, and the family gathering is a resounding success. Everyone is having fun, playing, talking, eating, and Josephine has never been happier.
But as the party wanes, and people go home, Josephine starts feeling the fatigue. Highly pregnant, on her feet all day, she first think it's just tiredness, but when rashes start appearing all over her body she realises it's something more. The very next day she rushes to the doctor, terrified that this illness might hurt her child or cause another miscarriage. She does not want to lose her baby. But her doctor tells her that this is nothing to worry about, that there is this new drug called penicillin and if she just takes it she'll be fine. Josephine is a bit sceptical at first, but follows doctors orders and takes this new drug. It works like a charm. Her rashes are gone almost instantly. Remembering only far too well her brush with the Spanish flu a few years earlier, Josephine is amazed. Obviously, penicillin wouldn't have worked on the flu, but Josephine doesn't know that. All she knows it that this wonder drug treated her almost instantly. What a fantastic new world 1929 is!
Over in Del Sol Valley, Alice has similar thoughts. She lives in a beautiful apartment, with the woman she loves, and her acting career is going better than ever. Evenings consists of parties in her home, parties at the Biltmore in town, and fans asking her autograph. She doesn't even mind the paparazzi!
But she has to admit that she is mostly excited for this new award ceremony they have just announced. The starlight accolades! And she is nominated for best actress for her last role!!! Her first talkie was a smashing hit, her singing is praised and her dancing and acting as well. Just being nominated is big enough, a recognition that her moving here was the right thing to do. That she was born to do what she is doing. She dresses up to the teeth, and makes sure she poses for the paparazzi before entering the gala. Once there, she watches and claps as her friends receive awards, and then, at the end of the night, finally it's time for best actress to be announced... and she gets it! She wins the desired trophy, she was the best actress of 1928 and her peers know it, as will the world (and her parents) when this hits the papers!
The very next evening she's back again, this time for a new honor, one her father had before her. To get her very own plaque on the starlight boulevard! And Alice is determined to make the most of it. She hugs her fans, signs autograph and enjoys every moment of her time in the spotlight as she put her plack in place on the ground. No one can say she hasn't made it now. It's right there, written in stone! She can't wait for her parents and family to read the papers.
But as the papers arrive, Alice achievements are not at the front page. Instead another event takes the spotlight:
As the news of the stock market crash reach the world, Nash is more worried than he lets on. Josephine has never been one to care too much of economics and numbers and politics, but Nash has to, and he knows how much they owe the bank, and how much less money they now have when the stock he's invested in has plummeted in value. What is worse, is that his clients money has done the same.
The bank isn't pleased.
It's also not doing very well. As many other banks at the time, they have loaned out too much money to too frivolous investments, and they now see the worth of their loans dwindling - and those who have money in the banks more eager to remove them. During the depression 9000 banks in the US failed and had to close. Several of them overnight. It is not that bad for the bank Nash works for, but that doesn't stop them from laying off people, and Nash is one of the ones being laid off.
He returns home devasted and embarrassed, but tries to keep up appearances for the children. Only after they are put to bed does he tell Josephine about what happened. At first she's shocked, then angry that they could possibly do something like that. But surely he can just speak to his brother-in-law who owns part of the bank, or go to the unemployment office and get a new job - a better job - where they know to value his vast knowledge. "You'll figure it out, I'm sure. Besides, Christmas is coming and you wouldn't be working anyway. You have time to find something new!"
To his credit, Nash does try to live up to his wife's view of him. He spends the next day sitting outside the unemployment office. He sees the secretary looking at him, and people come and go, but after waiting in line for a full day, the office closes before he even gets inside. There are simply too many people in line, too many people who, like him, has been laid off as businesses crashed and went belly up. "Perhaps you can come back after Christmas," the secretary says as she gets up to leave.
So Nash does the second best thing, he goes to beg his sister to sway Rhett to give him his old job back. Or any job really. He's fine with being demoted as long as he can pay his bills, and the payment on his loan. Morgan seems sympathetic enough when he speaks to her, but as Rhett comes home he puts his foot down. How would it look if he stepped in to help his brother-in-law when so many others were let go too? When there were others with better results than he had on the stock market? No, he will not under any circumstances sway the bank to keep him on, nor will he influence the bank to give him extra time to pay his mortgage. He even refuses to lend Nash money. Nash is forced to go home with nothing to show for his efforts.
He walks home slowly, unsure of how to tell Josephine of how badly today has gone, but as he arrives he finds himself off the hook as she goes into labour. In a flash, Abigail is called over to help with dinner, dishes and the children, as Josephine retreats back to her room in order to deliver the baby. Nash is in panic, his paranoia getting the better of him again and again, but he forces himself to keep it together for his children, distracting them the best he can from the sounds coming from upstairs.
And then, a new sound, and the family gathers in the bedroom to meet the new bundle-of-joy. Nash wishes he could just rejoice at their little Christmas present without worrying how in the world he is going to feed his new born son. He wishes he was more successful, and feel a new and sudden urge to be as he is suddenly plunged into an early midlife crisis. He cannot fail his family, he has to find a way!
As the kids go to bed, and Josephine falls exhausted into bed, Nash goes to check the post. He knows the bills are coming, and as he expected they are waiting for him in the mail box. §15 000 in bills. §4 900 on the account. And tomorrow is Christmas Eve. How in the world is he going to fix this?
When Christmas Eve comes around, Nash is desperate. He now has another mouth to feed, and a holiday coming up, and no money to pay for either. As Josephine dotes on her new boy, Nash tries to find some way to come up with the money to at least buy a tree for the family. Taking on the odd jobs he can find on a Christmas eve, he still doesn't even cover the cost of the tree he brings home. Behind Josephine's back, he pawns the gaming table and chairs instead of just moving them to the attic. She won't know until the holiday's over and it pays for the tree, for some nice food for Christmas and then some.
Of course it does not pay the §15 000 bill that looms overhead. Unless he can come up with something fast, lights will be cut off tomorrow. Now wouldn't that be a fantastic Christmas gift? Perhaps he should tell Josephine, but he doesn't want to spoil the evening, so instead he lets the family rejoice at the tree, and Josephine cook a fantastic meal, and pretends not to be worried out of his mind as he and Thomas dress the tree and the family enjoys dinner. It's a quiet Christmas Eve, but a nice one.
After dinner Josephine brings out the violin she got from her father and plays for the entire family.
While the children listens, Nash suddenly has an idea. As Josephine heads upstairs with the children putting them into bed, he stares at the violin. It's an expensive one, and he saw one just like it in the pawn shop when he pawned the furniture. One of these will fetch more §12 000. With the money they have saved that's enough to cover the bill and still have a few hundred left over. But it is Josephine's most treasured possession. Still... what choice do they have?
He waits until she's slipped into something more comfortable, and come back down before he breaches the topic with her. At first she flat out refuses. Why should her violin be pawned? Surely they can get money some other way? How much is it anyway? As Nash tells her, however, reality starts to dawn on her. "We owe the bank §15 000 and they want it back now?"
Nash shakes his head. "We owe the bank more than §100 000 and they want §15 000 of that now, they'll want the rest too, eventually, but we need to pay this bill now. I know it's your violin, and we'll get it back for you, I promise, but you don't want the children to freeze when they shut off the power. Do you?" Josephine relents. When her children are at risk, how can she not? Nash tries to comfort her, but it is with a heavy heart she goes to bed that night.
Nash on the other hand, rushes off with the violin, and pays off their bills for the week. At least for now, they are safe. Still he too has a heavy heart when he goes to bed. What kind of man is he when he needs to take his wife's private possessions to pay for the bills of the house?
As Christmas Day begins it's a quiet morning in the house. Josephine puts on a brave face, but Nash struggles with feelings of inadequacies and failure. Still, the kids need food, and getting dressed and everything else that comes with a family of four young ones before they head off to the grandparents for Christmas dinner. Once there, Nash tries to keep a brave face, even though the topic of conversation among the men is all about the financial crash. Does he, who works in finance, have any inside information on how long this will last? How about his job, now that the bank is struggling. "It's a huge blow financially," Nathaniel says, "that the local branch of the bank is closing. They've been a very loyal tenant and provide one of my biggest incomes." Nash pretend he isn't completely thrown off by this news, but that the of course knew the bank was closing all along. How could Rhett not have told him this when he was there the other day?
"Will this affect your job at all?" Joseph asks Nash, who is still reeling from the news but then suddenly catches onto an idea. "I'm not at the local branch per say, they deal with loans and such and I'm in the investment side. But, there is a risk that we might have to relocate if this continues so I am looking at other options right now. Of course nothing is certain yet so I have not yet told Josephine," he ads, knowing she'd throw a fit at the idea of selling their home or moving. But nevertheless the thought has now lodged itself in Nash's mind. In a big city there will be more opportunities for him, and more banks. If he can get one of them to hire him then perhaps they can get back on their feet? He'll have to think about this.
Joseph grunts. "I can't say I like the idea of you moving, but either way you should include Josephine in the decision," he says. Nash nods. "When I know more, I will. Right now there is no real risk so there is no need to worry her needlessly."
As Nash worries, the rest of the family is enjoying Christmas Day. The dinner is as usual excellent, and present pile so big it no longer fits under the tree and people are chatting and eating and laughing. Josephine, so good at putting worries out of her mind, forgets all about her violin and financial issues that the only one not being able to let it go is Nash.
By the time they get home the girls are exhausted as they are read to sleep by their parents.
The rest of the holidays go by quietly. Nash and Josephine stays at home with their little family and newborn over boxing day and New Years. As 1929 turns into 1930 the entire family is sleeping and no one really pays any attention.
Next years start with a string of birthdays. In that first week of the 1930s, Madison Preston is turning into a YA and Austen Preston is set to start high school. In the Sinclair family Grace and Hazel are soon ready to start school, but most pressingly little baby Arthur needs a bigger bed. One they really can't afford right now but needs to buy anyway. Even as this weighs heavily on Nash, they first need to attend Madison's birthday party. Tess has outdone herself with the food, and Nash realises he will miss his gaming table as the family gather around the one in the Preston family living room. He has yet to tell Josephine about the table, but figures there will be time for that. Either way, they have a nice night. Madison makes a wish, blows out her candles and gets ready to leave the nest. She's already engaged, and will be married shortly, as her sister is already married. In 1930, women married early, and Madison knows her dream. To become the best mother she can.
But back home, Arthurs need of a new bed is pressing, and money is tight. As the empty space that used to be their gaming table becomes glaringly obvious, Nash makes the decision to sell the typewriter. It is not as if he needs it right now, not without a job, and Arthur needs a bed more pressingly than he needs a typewriter. It's also an item which Josephine does not use and will not miss. He can only hope he's found work before the girls' birthday, so that he can better afford their new beds.
The very next morning, Nash is back at the unemployment office in Newcrest Townhall. This day, however, the line is even longer, and so the waiting is too. Tensions are high, and at one point even a fight breaks out between two men asking for the same position. When Nash finally gets in, the news aren't hopeful. On the one hand, his schooling is excellent, on the other banks just aren't hiring at the moment. "It doesn't have to be in finance," Nash assures the employment agency handler. "I do understand, but you have to understand that right now unemployment numbers are soaring. Almost a quarter of all men are looking for new employment. I cannot find jobs that aren't there. But I will keep your papers, and let you know if something shows up."
As Nash returns home, things are not looking better than they were when he left. How in the world is he going to explain this to Josephine?
As bills pile up Josephine sees more and more of her furniture vanish. First the piano (they weren't using it that much anyway), then the desk (why keep it when there is no typewriter?), Josephine's pearls (I'll replace them I promise!) some of the artwork on the walls (they can put up pictures of the kids), then the vanity table in their bedroom, the Tiffany lamps Josephine felt such pride for... With every sale something breaks in Josephine. It's not the things per say - but the house no longer feels welcoming, just a stark reminder of what they no longer have. Ashamed, and unwilling to admit the truth, Josephine no longer ask her friends or family to come over and visit, but instead prefer to take the children to visit them, keeping up appearances as much as possible.
It's also taking a toll on their marriage. Nash knows he's supposed to provide for his family and feels like a failure when he can't, and while Josephine wants to be supportive and unquestioning, every sale is preceded by another fight.
After every fight, Josephine feels horrible. It's not that Nash doesn't try, and Josephine knows it. Every morning he goes to the unemployment office, taking any odd job they offer. Rarely they have jobs for his skillset, but he no longer has any standards. If it will put food on the table, he is happy enough, but with him constantly being tense, he often fails the jobs he takes, and his rating as a worker is not moving up. Most of the jobs go to men with more muscle, more grit and less manicured hands. Besides, even when he does succeed the pay is too low ot help pay the bills, and so there is another fight, another thing sold, and then the guilt for them both.
More and more, Nash is thinking about moving somewhere else. Somewhere he can get a job, where his family can thrive once more. He tries to breach it with Josephine, but at first she won't hear of it. This is their home. Their house. That they, themselves, had built. Their family lives in this town, everyone they know. How could they possibly move? Then one day, as the girls are giving her a run for her money and baby Arthur is even more intense than usual, her mother, having a sixth sense about these things, is suddenly at the door. As Josephine is busy upstairs with the kids, Nash lets her in to wait as he heads out the door to see if there are any jobs for him today. Abigail is in shock. The house, once so cared for and welcoming feels empty and cold. What on earth is going on?
Josephine is mortified! She never wanted her mother to see this, but instead of admitting the truth, she hears herself lie: "I meant to tell you," she says with a gaiety she does not feel. "Nash has been transferred to a new post in San Myshuno. I know it's sudden, but it has gone so fast and I'm all up in arms with all the packing. I promise I did intend to come and see you before we leave." A part of her cannot believe she's lying to her mother, but it's too late to take back now. She'll never be able to look her mother in the eye again if she does, and so the option to move has now become more than a suggestion but a reality. Abigail is, of course, heartbroken. All her babies will now be gone from town. Anna in San Myshuno or galivanting around the world, Alice in Del Sol Valley, William in Britechester and now Josephine too? And with her grandchildren! She's so upset that she does not even think to question her daughter's story. "I am so sorry you had to find out like this," Josephine tries to comfort her. "But times are hard, and we have to go where Nash's job takes him. We'll return when the bank opens up again."
That night, Nash is relieved. As hard as he worked to keep it from happening, he knew it was only a matter of time before the bank foreclosed on their house. This way, at least they'll have some control over the sale. "It will be better once we're in the city," he promises. "There must be more jobs to be had there. And it's not like you won't have any family. You'll have Anna. I'm sure the kids will love playing with her dog." He hopes he's right, but even if there are more jobs in the city, he is also competing against more people. A third of the population in San Myshuno is unemployed at the moment, but still... there are still functioning banks. Perhaps he can get a job at one of them. He must at least try.
They start by selling all their furniture, and most of everything else as well. Even most of the kids' toys, a part from a few favourites that they can pack and carry themselves. The last night, they hold a quiet birthday celebration for the twins, on the table they've just sold but that has not been picked up yet. Josephine has struggled with what she's had, and after reading about it in a magazine, has sown new dresses for them out of a bag of flour. The girls don't know of course, but love the fact that they match. Josephine is just mortified, but pretends to be happy for their sake.
They sleep on the floor that night, in sleeping bags that Nash has arranged for them. The kids think it's a great adventure, but Josephine has a hard time relaxing, and toss and turn with worry and grief and worry. What is worse, or better, she's not sure, is that she's already pregnant again. She doesn't quite know what to feel about it. If this was hard with three children and an infant, what will it be when there is yet another mouth to feed?
Things are what they are, however, and the next morning they're off to San Myshuno to an apartment Nash has secured only by phone. They have not even seen pictures, and when they arrive it's worse than Josephine's worst nightmare. She imagined something like their home in Britechester. Cramped, not really to her taste, but at least proper. This is not it. The carpet is stained by things she does not even want to know about, the walls have no covering and the rooms are even smaller than the ones in Britechester. Looking around what will be her new home, all Josephine wants to do is cry. "It will get better, I promise it will," Nash says, but Josephine isn't sure she believes him anymore.
For the family it's a time of hard readjustment. The apartment is cramped, and just finding space enough to sleep is a challenge. Nash uses the last money they have from the sale of the house on a Murphy bed for him and Josephine, so that their living space doesn't look like a bedroom during the day. The kids all get to share the bedroom, and their beds are found through charity from the local church, as is all other furniture. The table is wobbly, and held up by a book, and probably really a desk that has now gotten new use. The children's beds are worn, most likely home made but they work, even if it's crowded. "It's fun sleeping on top," Thomas says in an attempt to be brave for his mother. As much as she tries to hide her despair from him and his sisters, he's perceptive, and besides, it's not hard to tell that mom is miserable.
The apartment is a challenge not only due to the limited space. In a short period of time they experience an electrical failure and a gas-leak, discover that cockroaches has taken up residence in the kitchen, and mice has done the same in both bedroom and living room. The kids are spending as much time as they can outdoors, playing on the playgrounds of the city, while Josephine tries her best to keep the place - and her children - clean, but washing clothes is hard in a space smaller than your previous kitchen. "We can't live like this," she tells her husband as she cries at night. "It's not reasonable!"
Nash does what he can to get his family out of the apartment. The first thing he does as Monday comes around is report to the unemployment office. But the situation here is not much better than the one in Willow Creek. The banks are failing, one by one, and the ones who are not are still not hiring. Not even Nash's connections from his previous job helps him now. He's stuck doing the same menial labour that he did back in Willow Creek. He tries to explain his situation to the unemployment agent, but gets nothing but a shrug in return. "Take it or leave it, this is the best we have." It's enough to put food on the table, and to pay the bills, but only just. Josephine is learning how important it is to stretch her budget, more than she's ever had to before in her life. Luckily there is a trift store just next door. As her own clothes are starting to wear out, she manages to find a more modern dress there for a moderate amount of money. Sewn by someone, not store made, by the looks of it the same type of flour bag fabric that she used for the girls' dresses, but a different pattern. But who can afford to be picky at this point?
For the kids, there is one upside to living in the city. Aunty Anna! Josephine makes a point to bring the children there as soon as she can, if only to make sure that Anna never ever visits her apartment which she is sure Anna would do otherwise. The girls love little Omisco, and Thomas is in awe of all the pictures on Anna's walls, telling stories of faraway places and exciting adventures. Little Arthur on the other hand, quickly decides that Anna is a person he loves being held by. As she looks around her sister's apartment, a place she would have called cramped just a short while ago, Josephine cannot help the jealousy that comes over her. It's not much bigger than her own, but clean, whole, with wallpaper on the walls and proper furniture. "So when can I come and see your place?" Anna asks. "Oh, not for a while," Josephine answers with a smile. "We have to get it in order first. There is so much to do, you wouldn't believe, new furniture that needs to be bought, it's just so empty at the moment, and then I need to update it to modern aesthetics. I will probably end up redecorating the entire place before I think it's fit for visitors."
She tells her mother the same thing as she phones her from the phone in the local drugstore. "It's quite nice, very clever use of space, although I will need to redecorate it to my tastes of course, but that's to be expected. What? Do we like it? Oh, you know me, mother, I'd be happiest in a house with a garden, but it's a nice apartment and is conveniently close to Nash's new job. And the kids love the outdoor space and the local playground. They send their love." Josephine never thought lying would be something she got good at.
Although, Anna isn't convinced, even if she lets Josephine think so. On the weekend, she shows the entire family the botanical park and gardens. She, Thomas and Nash skate around on roller skates (Nash isn't very good) while Josephine is tending to baby Arthur and the twins enjoy the swings.
On the weekdays, when the children are at school and Nash doing whatever work he's found for the day, the park is where Anna takes Josephine to walk Omisco and talk. "You're waring pants?" Anna shrugs. "Lots of women do now, and they're dead practical. You should try it!" Josephine shakes her head. Her sister has always been weird. But she does seem good with Arthur. "You would be such a good mother," she tells her sister. "Have you never wanted to be married and have a family?" Anna hesitates, then decides that perhaps a little trust is needed both ways, if she wants Josephine to tell her the truth. "I did once, during the war. His name was Maurice. He was a French soldier. For a while we were engaged, or well, we were more than just engaged. To be completely honest we were more or less married in all but name, but then he needed to return to the front and... well, he didn't return to me. And with him my hopes for marriage and family died too." Josephine is stunned.
"You never said anything!"
"You were getting married. What was I supposed to do, ruin your big day by sharing my heartache? Alice knows, as does mother and father. I never saw a need to burden you with my grief when you were just about to start your life. But enough about me. How are you? You look tired. Is everything well?"
But Josephine is not ready to be as honest as her sister. She smiles. "Of course it is! Aside from Arthur still not sleeping through the night, but he will have to learn now that he's getting a new brother or sister!"
"She's lying," Anna says on the phone later when she speaks to Alice.
"How do you know?"
"She's not wearing her pearls. How many times have you seen our sister without those pearls? And her story makes no sense. Nash would just get a job at a bank in times like this when we read about banks failing on a daily basis?"
"He is brother in law with Rhett Goth, surely he would pull some strings?"
"Have you ever known Rhett Goth to pull strings for anyone but himself? I'm telling you, she's lying! I have half a mind to just show up on her doorstep."
"Don't! Give her time. She'll tell you when she's good and ready."
Anna is right of course, and the stress is weighing heavily on Josephine. So much so that she one day, as the children and Nash are away, feels something some all too familiar cramps in her stomach. In pain, she rushes to the doctor, even if she can't really afford to. After hours in the waiting room of the one free clinic she knows of, she finally gets seen, only to be dismissed. "No need to be in hysterics, it was nothing serious. You women need to stop worrying about any little thing you feel. It's all in your head." Josephine is both relieved and insulted as she heads back home. She wonders if she should have asked for a new diaphragm to be fitted, but she didn't dare. Not with this doctor. Besides, she wouldn't be able to afford it anyway. What is worse is that she doesn't know how to feel about the baby she is carrying. On the one hand she wouldn't want to go through another miscarriage, but a nagging part of her mind wonders if it wouldn't have been for the best for all of them if this pregnancy had never happened in the first place.
That night there is a festival in the neighborhood. Even though it is way too late for them, Thomas and Hazel sneak out to take part and see the fireworks. For Nash, however, the fireworks are a trigger, and as the sound of explosions fill the air, he has a panic attack. Josephine does her best to calm him down, but right then and there he is back in the trenches of war forgetting he's safe and sound back home. He has a restless sleep that night, plagued by nightmares he thought he left behind a long time ago.
Waking up, to another thing broken as a pipe has sprung a leak, he feels desperate. They need to get out of here. And they need to do it fast. He can feel his grip on reality failing, his kids snuck out in the middle of the night, and Josephine almost lost the baby. They cannot go on like this! The next morning, as he's back at the unemployment office, with the same handler but another room, he resorts to begging. "I need something else. I need to provide for my family! We cannot stay here!"
But the handler has no good options to offer. "I hear there is work out west. Arizona and California." he says. "It's farm work and ranch work, so not what you're hoping for, but it's work and it's the best I can offer. We can arrange for transportation and work permits."
"Where would we live?"
"That's up to you. Farms offer a place to stay for single men, but with a family? You'll have to see what you can rent. I can give you the relevant addresses for places who arranges that kind of thing."
He tells Josephine as the children sit down to do their homework. Josephine is both scared and hesitantly hopeful. Anna's questions has her nervous, and she hates the apartment. Whatever is waiting them there, it cannot be worse than this! And steady work is steady work. Of course there are preparations to do, things to arrange - laundry to take care of! The very next day Josephine decides to try out the new washeria in the Cashbah market. (This is a bit early to be entirely accurate, the first laundromat, called a washeria, wasn't opened until 1934, but it's only a few years so I'm taking some liberty here). She's slightly hesitant to using machines for something she has done herself all her life, but highly impressed when she hangs the laundry out to dry. If washing clothes was always this easy!
And then it's time to move. They only says a quick good buy to Anna, rush off to the train station and heads off west. It is a long journey, more expensive than they can really afford, even if they've sold their new furniture (well the bed) and used every discount they as a family could get. The train first takes them to Chicago, then they need to wait until the next train leaves from there to Arizona. The entire trip takes more than 4 days, and the hard wooden benches does nothing for Josephine's back. Even the children are cranky when they finally hop on a bus from Phoenix to Chestnut Ridge. By the time they arrive, and Nash goes to get the key to their new home, arranged for them by the local church, they're exhausted. And then they're horrified - or at least Josephine is. There she is, highly pregnant with her fifth child, staring at her new home and it is - as if that was even possible - even smaller than the apartment in San Myshuno!
That first night, no one has time to take it all in. They all fall into bed and sleep, utterly exhausted from their journey. Therefore the extent of their misfortune isn't fully clear until the next morning. The shed, because it is more shed than house, has only one room, in which they all need to fit. In the middle there is one table, but only four people can sit at one time, so there will be no more family dinners with them sitting together around the table. Speaking of dinners, there is no electricity, no indoor bathroom, no plumbing of any kind. The closest toilet is across the yard, they need to gather water by the pump or pond, and a dingy windmill gives them only enough electricity to power a lamp. Josephine is heartbroken. "There isn't even plaster on the walls!!!" she exclaims. Nash, embarrassed by the conditions promises her he'll fix it. "I'll fix this up, and as soon as we can we'll move somewhere else." Josephine scoffs. She doesn't even have the energy to pretend she trusts him any longer.
The kids have an easier time adjusting than Josephine. They are now used to things getting progressively worse, and the girls barely remember their once pretty house in Willow Creek. Thomas does, and it is harder for him than his sisters, but he does his best to be brave for a mother that is more often sad than not. The joint outdoor space gets a lot of use. The kids play marbles, play in the pond and quickly get the hang of horseshoe throwing. And there is school, where they can get some food when breakfast only consists of fruit sallad every morning. Another staple is foragers stew, which mostly is whatever vegetables mum could get her hands on, or mushroom soup, or tomato soup... meat is becoming more and more rare, so when the kids managed to find several frogs to make a frog pot not even Josephine complained.
Nash is gone more than he's at home, working as a ranch hand at a neighbors farm, and the time at home is spent trying to improve things. The neighbours are nice and helpful, and even Josephine befriends them and accepts their help at times even if Joseph is much more active in befriending them. He even speaks to one of them about helping to plaster the walls of the shed, to make it look like a proper home.
Before there is time to get that project started, however, Josephine wakes up one early morning to realise that it's her time. Forcing herself to wait it out until she can no longer, she wakes up the family. Nash panics at first, but Josephine hands him Arthur and simply throws him and the kids out of the house to fend for themselves. She's had babies at home before, granted always with her mother's expert help, but she can do this. Besides, she wouldn't be able to afford a doctor and it's too far to the hospital so there is little else to do than have this baby on her own anyway.
With a crying infant in need of changing and food in his hands, and three tired kids who now has to get ready for school, Nash does what any man would do. Ask a woman for help. He hands Arthur over to neighbor Lilian, who is only too glad to help sort the kids out while Josephine is busy giving birth to their third baby girl, Barbara.
After this day, even Josephine accepts Lilian's help, and Lilian becomes a fixture in their house, coming and going a bit as she pleases. With only one child of her own (and one on the way) she has more time to help than Josephine has to cope, and slowly life in Chestnut ridge falls into a routine of chores and plights that somehow has become normal. They go to church on Sundays, for service and charity hand outs. They work, each in their own way, and Nash even gets the walls plastered with supplies he's found or been given! Well, two of them. That's as far as the material stretches. "It's better than nothing," Josephine says.
To her family, Josephine, now used to lying paint an entirely different picture of life in Chestnut Ridge:
You wouldn't believe how beautiful it is out there. Wide open spaces and a more stars than you can count. The house Nash arranged is beautiful and has a large outdoor space. Nash is so appreciated in the new office, and there are hints of promotions once the economy pics up. The kids love their new school, and the community here is wonderful as is our home. It's a white house, just like back home in Willow Creek, and the garden is spectacular.
I love you all and miss you much. The kids send all their best wishes.
Josephine
In San Myshuno, Anna does not trust her sister's assurances that everything is fine. In fact, she is absolutely certain that Josephine is lying. The question is what to do about it, and how to go about it. "It's the way she left," she tells Johnny. "It was so rushed. A promotion, or even a transfer, would take longer time, and then there is the fact that she never invited me over to their apartment. Not once."
"Maybe she just don't like visitors?" Johnny suggests with a shrug.
"That's just it. She does. And there is something about the wording. I just don't trust her!"
"Maybe you're right. Maybe you're not. But either way, she's an adult woman, if she doesn't want to tell you the truth, or accept your help, that's her choice."
That night they go out, taking a new neighbor who also comes from Willow Creek with them to a newly opened bowling alley. It's Anna's birthday, and while she's worried about her sister, she still manages to have a good time. While a bit shaky at first, it turns out she's quite good at this bowling thing.
The next morning offers a big surprise. As she takes Omisco for a walk a stray dog approaches them, begging for food. A stickler for animals, Anna cannot help but to cuddle with the big dog, who then resolutely goes on to follow her and Omisco around until Anna relents and takes him home with her, starting out with offering the big dog a bath. So without planning or even thinking it through, Anna suddenly finds herself with two dogs instead of one. One of which is a lot bigger than Omisco and fond of howling and barking on odd hours. A bit hard in a rather small apartment, but Anna figures she can make it work as long as she spends enough time with them at Myshuno Meadows with them. Buddy is not as quick to learn as Omisco, but stubbornness make up for a lot and in just a single afternoon Anna still manages to teach him the all important heel-command.
Johnny, also an animal lover, likes the new addition to Anna's family and has a perfect solution for Anna's cramped condition. Namely, that she just move in with him in his bigger apartment.
Anna isn't as sure about this suggestion. It's not that she doesn't have feelings for Johnny, but moving in? She knows the implication that holds, because you just do not move in with a man, not without a marriage waiting down the line. Even if that kind of de facto marriages are much more common in the city than in the rest of the country, it's hardly proper behaviour, and nothing she could ever do to her parents. No, moving in means marriage, and that she has long since given up on. Even if she knows it will hurt him, Anna turns Johnny's offer down. She convinces herself that this is not the right time. And besides, Josephine needs her. Her sister must come first.
Johnny is not impressed. "You're leaving? Again? I waited for two years while you were off in Japan."
"I never asked you to!"
"Well, don't expect it off me this time!"
"You want to do what?" Alice asks as she tells her over the phone.
"Go there! Surprise her, confront her!"
"But why on earth would you want to do that?"
"Because she needs our help, but is too proud to accept it."
"Who says she'll accept the help just because you go there?"
"But at least then I've tried, besides, the trip would do me good."
"And what does Johnny has to say?"
"Why would he say anything at all."
"What happened?" With Alice there is no hiding for Anna, she can read her like a book, even over a long distance phoneline, and so Anna tells her sister everything.
"So what you're saying is that you're running scared? My sister, who can climb mountains and conquer jungles, is scared of a boy she likes?"
"It's not about Johnny, this is about Josephine!"
"No it's not, and you know it. If you want to help our sister, then go, but do it for the right reasons, not because you're afraid. You told me once to not be governed by fear, I think it's time you hear the same."
"It's too late now anyway. Johnny is gone."
And Anna is nothing but stubborn, which is why she cand her dogs are on the train to Chestnut Ridge already the next day. Two trains, a bus and less than a week later, she arrives at the rental she's arranged for from home, and she immediately sees what Josephine wrote, about the wide open spaces and sense of freedom. The dogs love it! They run around, playing in the bushes and fighting squirrels - or rather Buddy does. Omisco is too old to behave like a puppy. Instead he just lays down outside and enjoys the space.
But Anna is not there for the nature, but for Josephine, and as soon as she has settled in she goes off to find the address her sister has sent. It takes her a while to find the right door, but when she does she is greeted by three happy children.
Josephine is not nearly as happy to see her sister, but instead deeply embarrassed. And Anna is shocked. She knew her sister was lying, but this is worse than she thought. After she's been introduced to Barbera, talked to the family and the kids has gone to sleep she pulls her sister aside. "You can't live like this. Let me help!" she says, but Josephine is every bit as stubborn as her sister. "I know you mean well, but I will not take any charity, not from you, not from anyone. We get by. Things will get better!"
Back in her cottage, Anna writes to Alice.
Dear Alice,
The situation is worse than I could have even imagined. No bathroom, no electricity, they're all in one dingy little room in a shed that is so poorly built that I fear it will fall to pieces in the autumn storms. I don't know what to do to help, but I must find a way that is acceptable to Josephine. Arthur has a birthday tomorrow. I will help them celebrate it, and stay on a while and get to know this town. Somehow I will find a way to help.
Your loving sister,
Anna
While all this has been going on, life has not been standing still for the rest of the Whittaker family, many of whom are no longer Whitakers at all any more.
For Frank and Emily, family life has gotten a lot smaller. Of their five children only two still live at home, Harold and Harrison. Instead they have become proud grandparents of Gordon, son of their eldest, John and his wife Lorraine. Edward and Beatrice have also gotten married, Edward to Britany and Beatrice just recently to Roger Green. While Beatrice stayed in Willow Creek, Edward has started a vet clinic in Brindleton bay where he has adopted a cat and a dog. Interestingly enough, Emily, so terrified for so long of getting pregnant relaxed her worries when she became a grandmother, thinking surely she could no longer get pregnant herself. Turns out she could. She is now expecting her sixth child.
Ida and Nathaniel Preston have also become grandparents, to little Norman, son of Madison who ended up marrying not the man we picked for her (MCCC married him off with someone else), but with Byron Stewart. Melanie married David Anders as planned, and they live in Newcrest. No babies yet, however. As Nathaniel's mother Florence died, and Tessie moved out of the house to finally get married and have a family of her own, there is now only three members of the original family. Ida, Nathaniel and teenage Austen, soon out of the house as well as he's set to start college soon.
Abigail, still mourning the move of her daughter and grandchildren, has been given some comfort by the return of William who has decided that he ought to stay with his elderly parents. He too just got married to Amanda, who also joined the household, giving Abigail a well needed rest from house chores.
Here is the latest family tree with all the new family members. The tree is now so big that it's hard to get it all in one screenshot. As the family keeps growing I will likely have to focus on one side of the family in future postings of the tree.