Chapter 34: Spooky Action at a Distance

"I'm so sorry," Susanne whispers, hugging Logan in greeting. They had both gone to the prom last night alone, and spent evening dancing and laughing together. They had made a date for the next day, but when Logan got home that night, he learned that his grandmother had died.

"Thanks for keeping the date. I'm sorry I'm not as much fun as you hoped," Logan says, trying to smile.

"Ssh, It's okay. I want to be with you even when you're sad," Susanne answers.

Logan tries to distract himself from his grief with games.

But in the end, his new girlfriend is the better distraction.

Logan gushes to his mother about his new love and his plans for the future.

Frenzy has also been in mourning for her humans. But late at night, they still come out to play with her.

Frenzy follows Tearney and Aiden a few days after them.

Sage thinks hard about her birthday wish. On the one hand, she really wants a puppy. But she also wants to meet her father. In the end she decides that a puppy is something she can get for herself, but meeting her father might require some kind of magical intervention, and she chooses her wish accordingly.

Sage becomes a teen.

"I want a puppy," she tells her mother right away.

"You can adopt one from the shelter," Kelsey answers, "Just make sure you are prepared to take care of it."

That was easy enough, and Sage is glad she didn't waste her wish on that. "Mom, I want to know about my father," She says, deciding to take some action on achieving her real wish, "He's the one that sends you things from around the world, right?"

Kelsey nods. She'd been expecting her children to ask about their fathers someday. Logan never seemed to care, but Sage has always liked to poke around the things Chayton sent her, and to stare at his picture, her unasked questions hanging in the air.

"Why doesn't he ever visit?" Sage asks, "Will I ever get to meet him?"

"I don't know," Kelsey says, putting her off.

Chayton calls her that night, as she kind of knew he would.

"What has happened?" he asks when she picks up, "I felt your grief."

"My parents have passed," she answers, "How is it that you know what I'm feeling? How do I have dreams about you that are true?"

"We share a bond," he says.

It can't be that simple, she thinks. "Will I ever see you again?" she asks.

"Yes," he says without pause, "I will come to you."

Her joy at he thought of being with him again falls as she remembers she hasn't told him about their daughter. After all this time, it's not the kind of news she wants to give him over the phone. "Maybe we could meet in Redwood Harbor," she suggests. That way she could tell him about Sage before he meets her. And if having a daughter is too much for him and he decides to back off, at least Sage wouldn't be hurt by his sudden entrance and departure from her life.

"I'm leaving for Al Simhara tomorrow," he says, "I'll call you when my trip is done, and we'll get together then."

Aimee might make fun of her for it, Kelsey needs to talk to someone about this mysterious bond she has with Chayton that allows him to sense her feelings, and plagues her with visions of him.

"That's the kind of wacky spiritual shit my father was always talking," Aimee says, completely devoid of any mockery, "It's too bad he's not around, he'd probably have some kind of explanation for you. Not that any of the shit he believed in was anything but mumbo jumbo, mind you."

"What about your brothers?" Kelsey asks, "Would they know anything about it?"

"No, we were all equally disappointing to the old man in our lack of interest in his bullshit," Aimee answers with a laugh.

"Don't you even care about who your father is?" Sage asks her brother.

"Should I?" Logan questions her back, "Whoever he was, he wasn't here when I was born, and he's never come around. I've done just fine without him."

"But don't you want to know where you come from? He's half your genetic heritage and all," Sage persists.

"I come from here, that's all I need to know," Logan says. He's never spared so much as a thought for his missing father, and he doesn't like the new questions his sister is stirring in his head.

Kelsey hasn't been to the library since high school. Back then, they said she was a genius. And she had excelled in school, and was the captain of the debate team. They expected her to go into science, or become a doctor like her sister Tennyson, but Kelsey followed her own path and left the life of research and study in the dust.

Now,  she has an unsolved question, and no one has answers for her. Maybe because she'd been seeking some kind of supernatural explanation, when she should have been looking to science. Vaguely, she remembers something she read about when she was in school, something in quantum mechanics about entangled particles. Kelsey browses the stacks, looking for the dimly remembered book.

Before she finds it, she runs into her brother Rory, recently divorced. Rumor has it that Alana finally left him when she discovered he was having an affair.

"I'm so happy for you," Kelsey exclaims, hugging her little brother.

"You're the only one, then," Rory laughs, "Everyone else thinks I'm a major asshole for cheating on Alana."

"I'm just glad you got yourself out of that miserable situation," Kelsey says, "I don't care what you did to make it  happen."

"Oooh, is that her?" Kelsey says, spotting a lovely young woman hovering nearby. She'd heard that Rory's new girlfriend had just moved into town, and she's the only new face Kelsey had seen.

"Yeah, that's Lauren," Rory says with a blush, "She wants to meet my family, but everyone is treating her like 'the other woman'."

Kelsey introduces herself to Rory's new girlfriend, Lauren Hurd, and welcomes her to the family. She's going to give her siblings a piece of her mind about their attitude later. They should all be as happy for Rory as she is.

Sage is reading Wane McMottder's Traps and Triggers, a guide to avoiding grisly death when breaking into ancient tombs. As soon as she graduates, she going to find an ancient tomb to test these techniques out on.

It took a few days before the shelter had any puppies available. As soon as they did, Sage took hers home. She's a Canaan, named Scout.

"Hey, kid, your bed is in the room with the vicious bird of prey. It eats little puppies like you for breakfast." Rowley greets the newcomer.

Kelsey watches her children having lunch together. It seems like they were just toddlers, but now they are teens, and Logan will be graduating tomorrow and moving out on his own.

She expects Chayton to call her in another few days, and then they'll meet in Redwood Harbor, and she'll have to tell him about their daughter. There's a lot that could go wrong, and Kelsey's nerves have been jangling since she las spoke to him, swinging from excitement at the thought of seeing him to anxiety about the news she has to tell him, and how he'll react to this secret she's held for so long.

Sometimes she's out catching small animals for the pets store, but just as often, she's just running for the sake of running. But it never gets her anywhere, wherever she goes, the anxiety comes with her.

Sage sees him standing by the front door when she comes home from school. She doesn't need to see his face to know who he is.

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Challenge Notes:
I don't think I ever mentioned Kelsey's traits. Genius, Animal Lover, Lucky are the three I remember right now. I gave her Animal Lover but rolled the rest randomly.

So, I intervened in Rory's life. It reached a point where Alana had declared him a nemesis. But they were still together. So, when Lauren immigrated to town and joined the Criminal career, I decided to make her and Rory Romantic Interests, hoping it would push things along. It didn't, so I just reached in and divorced Alana and Rory, and moved Alana out. Then Lauren moved in and SP had them have a baby.
I have my SP setting to allow for affairs, but I have never seen one happen that I didn't make happen. Not even for Sims with Commitment Issues (they usually break up very quickly with anyone that they've partnered with, rather than waiting around to cheat on a partner.)