Week 13 Day 6: The biggest surprise

Warning: This is the second to last chapter! When week 13 is full, this story will move on to a spin-off legacy, based on just one of the Maccaroni Island households.

Last night's explosion at the Maccaroni Mountain went much better than it looked. Reynar burned a hand and Alex got a temporary breathing problem from all the smoke, but today they are both fine. They got proven that fireworks can be dangerous, and Reynar got pretty curious to whether it was the dried lime juice that caused the massive explosions.

Let's start this chapter with some community news! Although the recently opened Business Offices building is hardly equipped indoors, a few offices have already moved in.

 A community news desk was established, and Graica G. Yea-Low got the journalist job. News will be posted on various walls in the central region, and only on special occasions delivered in every household's mailbox. Graica and Reynar had a daughter, Dorance, and because Reynar works as Inventor at home, Graica can step out to work.

Also Rosanne R. Major got herself a job. She decided to take up the old Redward family tradition of selling canes, and rents a small office. Her Father, Randal Redward, would of course have preferred to run the cane business himself, but he realizes there are only so much he can do. Rosanne starts small, offering simple canes that are produced at the Warehouse.

Finally, and to Yamir Redwar's growing concern, Russell Hamming got a job at the Fort Base! Yamir and Russell are cousins, but this will sure make it harder for Yamir to hide that he isn't actually doing much at the Fort Base.

More teens will soon grow up, and maybe more jobs will be available, too.

Few days ago Beatrice G. Hedgewall finally found time to visit her brother, Archie Greench, at 3 Greench Farm to check the book he had recommended. Beatrice found a strange flower in her garden, and she was curious to learn more about it.

Beatrice read about the strange flower, Death Flower (Reaperus antimortis). It said the flower would protect its owner from Death! Rare and difficult to grow, but sure worth the efforts if this was all true! Beatrice didn't even recall planting it, but she had planted a few unknown seeds she found in the hillside.

After some thinking, today Beatrice had made an important decision. She and Yoseph were invited to a party at the café at 3 PM, and she talked Yoseph into taking a walk up to Sugar top, on their way to the café.

Finally they reached the top. They were both warm and exhausted, because the east side hills were very steep, and the top could have been accessed much easier from the Greench Farm side.

Yoseph did not understand much at this stage, but in a short while he will recognize what a tremendous offer his wife just made for him.

The view down to Greench Farm is great from here, and they chose this much easier trail downhill. The café can't be seen on the picture above, but is located to the right, just up from that road hill.

When they arrived, relatives from the farm were already busy preparing the surprise party.

Also Jess G. Hamming and LaShawn G. Gladiston were there, the two elderly men who are twin brothers, born by settlers Greta and Gabriel Greench. Jess married Constance Redward long ago, and LaShawn recently married the much younger Rebecka Black. The red haired young adult man is Jess' oldest son, Russell Hamming.

That's right, LaShawn and Rebecka had a daughter just before LaShawn turned elderly.

Inside the café, manager Carie G. Peel got some assistance from her daughter, Blanca. Carie wants all her 3 daughters to work at the café, but first she will need to buy the place. She made a deal with Randal Redward on Week 13 Day 1, that if she is able to buy the café within 10 simdays, he will buy Carie's bank stocks to help her raise the needed funds. Then a big dream will come through, and Carie's family will have a safe income source. Carie still needs to save some money to reach her goal.

Jess G. Hamming is Carie's older brother, making Russell her nephew.

Bad news to Carie! She had no idea others were interested in buying the café. Well, was Russell really interested in the place, or was it more that he wanted to make himself important? After all, he hails from the western region.

A few minutes later, most of the guests were gathered.

 Outside, the twins Boletta and Godrian Greench walked up to the café...

They opened the door and stepped inside...

It was actually the twins' two oldest siblings, Graica and Bertil who came up with the idea yesterday. Throwing a surprise party not just for the twins' birthday, but also for gathering all the Greench relatives. It's a huge family, and they reside all over the island except up north.

Boletta and Godrian both grew up without changing much. Clothing might not be the top choice, but the only options when their aunt Beatrice (the one who produce clothes for the Consignment store) had helped the twins' mom Bridgette, redoing some old clothes and cloths.

Boletta is Diciplined, Absent-minded, Vegetarian, Family-oriented and she Loves the outdoors.
Godrian is Artistic, Absent-minded, Neurotic, Hydrophobic and Hot-headed.

The party went on for a couple hours. It's always fun to meet outside the garden gate.

When the party ended, the Greench family returned to the farm to eat dinner. The oldest son, Bertil, went for a ride with Pepper, to hunt the mysterious glowing horse.

Greench Market is the local grocery store where they sell various farm products and produce. Archie owns a part in it.

There isn't really a strong conflict between the Redwards and the Greenches, but everyone expected a certain distance. And Boletta, who used to be so insecure and almost shy, had she really changed this much just from growing up, or was it mostly a call for attention?

To Godrian the subject didn't sound good at all. So, he had to ask...

It's pretty normal that oldest kid get the offer first, and there was a tradition of heirs with minimum 10 skill marks having a benefit.

Bridgette laughed quietly. Her daughter Eileen was right, Boletta's style really was a bit old for her age, but to all honesty, they had no choice.

Much later, the dark night had embraced Maccaroni Island and the moon guarded them all. At 4 Black Heights, Christopher, Bella and their two teen daughters Bonita and Carla were all asleep.

Around midnight most homes turned dark like this, and now at 3 AM the silence was everywhere. Except from right here - up north! A strange sound was heard, and Bella woke up...

It wasn't the uuu-uuu sound, that they all had grown familiar with. No, there was something else, hard to describe... and it was pretty close to them!

Well, footsteps don't sound quite like that... it had to be a mix of several things, all frightenly strange...

They all moved towards the front door. Was it out there? Or more correctly, was some of it out there? Christopher opened the door, and they all moved closer to get a better look...

What they saw was something they never could have expected to see. Christopher was just shocked, Bella felt like her last day had come, Carla didn't know what to think, and Bonita just tried to keep up a tough appearance.

There they were, not just one someone, but 4 someones! Lined up in weird, but practically identical uniforms. The hypnotic look from their front man caught the attention of all the four Black family members, that were still in shock. Who where those guys?

The final chapter in the SimBasic story will be up in a short week!