At 5 Sunrise Valley Beatrice Greench and Yoseph Y. Hedgewall are trying to found a family. Their relation is still not very strong, and Beatrice refuses to have children until they are married.
But even non-farmers can help in the garden, and it looks like Beatrice got her point through. If they can grow high quality food, they will have a better home in no time. But...
A little later Corinne Y. Redward visited Sunrise Beach with her two children, Yamir and Rosanne. Corinne originally lived at the Yea-Low house that is just on top of the hill seen in the background. She ain't very happy with her current marriage, but she realizes there is not much point in making any changes. The Maccaroni community is too small to start searching for a good life elsewhere.
They had to walk back home, to get ready in time for the upcoming party at Roger's Light. Rosanne took care of the two youngest horses that are both adult animals by now. Her Father, Randal Redward, tries hard to sell them to make money. Rosanne likes being with the horses, maybe she will learn to ride them one day.
Her brother Yamir Redward is the oldest child of the Redward Ranch. His traits are Athletic, Insane and Coward. He might turn into some interesting Redward heir in the future...
Randal Redward, head of this house, and according to himself, also head of the entire island, goes for a ride every day. Today he was riding Bliss, the first wild horse he tamed. When riding by the original red Redward home, which he owned, he noticed the old grapes field. His mom Rita used to make nectar. As the owner, he had the right to harvest those grapes, why didn't he think of that earlier?
He was no farmer, but he got some gardening skills, and he really was in need of some money... Harvesting grapes could easily become Yamir's duty as soon as he became a teenager.
He could even move some stuff from this house over to Redward Ranch. It would please Corinne. And they would all need some more space...
A couple hours later, most of the residents flocked to Roger's Light. The name of the headland refers to the Lighthouse built by Roger Redward not long before he died. And Constance R. Hamming welcomed everyone...
The program was rather loose. Constance's honest wish for the event was to make neighbours meet. She was tired of the splits and conflicts caused by the elderly generation. Tonight residents from north, west, south and east would talk. It's pretty amusing to see this group mostly descending from the 8 settlers. Maccaroni Island currently has 38 residents!
Yoseph Y. Hedgewall always dreamed of becoming a writer. I think he might have written the ghost story himself...
Christopher R. Black had been quite on the edge of joining the party, but he knew his brother Randal would have been upset, and maybe started a fight even. It could have brought Christopher some sympathy from the community, but it could also easily have ruined tomorrow's meeting...
Cody producing flowers? Why not? He might use his gardening skills on flowers instead of lettuce and carrots.
Randal and parties don't go well together, obviously. Why did he need to debate insane taxes now? Couldn't he have waited? Bridgette B. Greench did not find it amusing.
Bridgette's husband Archie Greench was a member of the Village council, just like Randal Redward.
It suddenly turned darker, which gave a perfect setting to Yespar Yea-Low's story telling. The kids flocked around him, and the story obviously fascinated them!
The celebration went on...
... and on, but little by little people left.
Over at 4 Black Heights Christopher R. Black was leaving the little house. He knew he should have attended the party after all, but now it was too late. Instead he decided to go looking for gems. Maybe he would find some in the Maccaroni Mine.
We'll not close this chapter without seeing how Agnes and her secret friend Beetle were doing. They planned skipping the celebration, and rather walk up to the mine. Agnes was not allowed to go there, but nobody would know, and bedsides - she was only one day away from adulthood! She could take care of herself!
They stopped near the mine. It felt pretty good to be alone and knowing that all the others were busy elsewhere.
Agnes hesitated. She was attracted to the mine for various reasons, but she didn't like that Beetle had kept something secret from her all this time! What was it that he never before had told her?
If she had turned around, she would have noticed the Beetle was leaving...
Instead she walked further down... not really knowing what to expect...
Down deep on the mine floor, Christopher was checking some of the regular spots for smaller gems or other hidden values. Tonight there was something down there... but what... it felt ALIVE !???!!
Not blaming Agnes for getting scared by Christopher's screaming. In the mine, his voice turned very dark and was thrown from wall to wall, fading into a rather spooky sound.
Agnes turned, she couldn't see her friend Beetle up there... what was going on? She ran up the stairs...
Beetle was nowhere to be found... Agnes ran back home. Had she lost her best friend?
To be continued in about 3 days :-)
