Everyone had expected her death ages ago, turning 127 is quite some age. But now that old Bianca is gone, the final tie to the other world (Sim Nation) is also broken. Not a single soul alive has ever seen the world outside Maccaroni Island!
This morning, Corinne Y. Redward was on her way to school, but decided to first stop by at the Consignment Store.
Constance R. Hamming owns and operates the store. Today one of her teen sons was there to assist her.
Beatrice Hedgewall is the only local who produce clothes, and also some materials. Most clothes were produced of textiles found on the beach, though. Content from stranded crates, or floating in the sea after falling off a ship out there, for some reason. A few times they even found a floating suitcase packed with clothes. Or a full sized sail from a sailboat.
Lately there were nothing hitting the Maccaroni Beach. They are also running out of about most other stuff. Recirculation has got a new meaning.
One of her students are Marvin Hamming, today serving the cash register.
Marvin might have his green'ish skin from his dad, but his mother Constance happens to be Randal Redward's sister, and Marvin might be the one to challenge him!
Corinne didn't feel like pulling a major quarrel. She had a disagreement this morning with her husband Randal, concerning heritage. She just needed to move on to the school.
Albert Blumington resides with Carie Peel at Greench Farm, but grew up in the northern region. His numerous cats still lives there. Earlier Albert, Constance and Graica Greench (now Yea-Low) founded the local Pets Club.
Constance is a Redward, when she smells a profitable trade, she grabs it. That's what her successful business is all about.
Seems like Albert will keep himself busy for a while...
Over at 9 Yea-Low Ring the newly wed couple just woke up. Graica G. and Reynar Yea-Low got this house to themselves when Reynar's folks moved down to the Sunrise Valley. Now, Reynar's mom, Dorothy, stopped by...
Dorothy grew older, and my did she look much older even if she dyed her hair with the herb mixture that she produces for sale at the Hospital.
Graica grew up at the Greench Farm. She never was a green thumbed farmer girl, but she learned a few things, and now that she needs to help bringing in money to her own little family, gardening has grown a bit on her. She would much prefer a somewhat mor social job, though, as she loves most kinds of events.
Reynar's dad's mom, Yvonne Yea-Low died long ago, but she planted a lime tree garden. Reynar's younger brother Yesador did tend it somehow up to now, but Reynar is totally not interested. He doesn't like the outdoors that much.
There was quite some history to these limes. They are supposed to come from the smaller island where the 4 stranded couples lived for a short while before discovering Maccaroni Island.
Small black beetles crawling all over one of the fruits? She ran over to tell Reynar...
Just a few of the fruits obviously attracted the beetles. But Graica knew that the entire tree garden had to be of the same kind, as they all descended from the single dusty fruit that Reynar's granny brought to this place. Now, didn't Greench Farm also get some fruits from this garden, and didn't Graica's granddad Gabriel plant them at their farm? Graica couldn't say for sure, but she felt the urge to alarm her dad, Archie Greench, that what they thought were ordinary lime fruits probably was something else.
In the western region, at 5 Redward Heights, Randal Redward had just entered the little red house, together with his son, Yamir. Actually, the house is of decent size, with 3 bedrooms. It is owned by Randal, but has been vacant for a long time.
It's packed with memories. Randal and his 3 siblings Constance, Dorothy - and Christopher, all grew up here! Randal and Yamir have been harvesting the grapes growing here, but hardly ever walked inside.
The master bedroom looked like if Randal's parents Roger and Rita were just out for a quick walk, but they both died very long ago.
Except from wild plants climbing up onto the pergola, and no food on the counter, not much had changed.
Randal Redward had been working a lot on a future strategy for the family, and especially for his main heir. According to Maccaroni Law all heirs should count equally, but there can be a testament, and certain directions can be done while the Possessor is still alive. Yamir had declined to take over Redward Ranch, which is the largest lot, and therefore should be considered the family's main seat. This upset Randal, and forced him to take action.
Visiting the red house was part of a plan. He then invited Yamir to join him for a ride. Yamir had still no clue, when they shortly arrived the central region.
That's a pretty bold message... sigh...
Their next stop was the brand new Business Offices building. Quite modern, but pretty primitive on the inside. Intended to inspie locals to start new businesses, both to build a thriving community, but also to offer more job variety.
Having just one heir would mean the values would never need to be split.
... and they rode on to the Fort Base, where Yamir spends his working hours...
Yamir certainly warmed to the new future, pretty quickly.
That's what Randal and Corinne had a disagreement over, this morning. Randal wanted to benefit Yamir, while Corinne insisted on sharing all their values equally. According to law, it is permitted to give up to 50% of the total values to one of the heirs, or someone not being a heir at all for that matter, before the remaining values are shared as regular heirloom. Because of Corinne's protest, Randal could only give 25% to Yamir, but it would still help as it was nearly §26.000. Unfortunately Rosanne's 3rd was already reported to community books and could not be reduced, meaning the 25% thing was not affecting her, while poor Yvilla who was still a teen, would inherit way less then her siblings.
Randal had of course no intention of giving up any essential values quite yet. Especially not the bank stocks which made him powerful. So, in addition to the ranch, Yamir got a note saying how much he would get at some later time. Just like Rosanne got when she moved out a little earlier.
The total values of the bank stocks is §81.306 and Randal's plan was that Yamir would have them all. This way Yamir would end up with §48.029 more than he had the right to, so Randal also gave him Randal's debt to Rosanne (her remaining claim) of §47.411. It means that Rosanne will simply claim her rest heritage from Yamir, and not from Randal! Randal was proud of his master plan! Yamir had be given no option, because he actually had no choice.
Randal, Corinne and Yvilla moved over to the red house across the road, and they brought Wildhorse. The oldest horse, Bliss, died from old age, and Yamir was left with just 2 horses.
Over at 4 Yea-Low Ring, Amadeus Hawk was about to leave with his friend Evita Hedgewall.
Agnes had not seen Beetle in quite some time. After her husband, elderly Joe Hawk, was found dead in the Maccaroni Mine, Agnes had started to fear that it was Beetle who killed Joe off, and then decided not to show up again. She couldn't remember that night clearly, except that she had told Joe to walk up to the mine to look for Grim who was missing. Just like last night, why didn't she remember last night?
Agnes' youngest son, Grim, is the only one with her very dark eyes and he had also expressed himself a bit differently from early stage. Agnes saw herself in Grim. She suspected that the curse had been transfered to him, but he was probably too young to understand.
While Amadeus was Beetle's son, Agnes still doesn't know who is Grim's father - Joe or Beetle.
So, there was still something going on... Agnes heard the voice more often in the past, in fact after a while she tended to think the voice belonged to Beetle, but now that he seemed to be gone, she still heard the voice occasionally, and that confused her a lot!
If Grim had the curse, he will probably get those black spots on his face, too...
Tonight Reynar will get good assistance from his dad, Alex Yea-Low when fireing off the fireworks. It's a risky job, both crafting and fire the stuff, can be real dangerous. Like this evening, when Reynar experimented and suddenly caught fire! If it wasn't for Graica, he might not have made it!
After dark Reynar and Alex walked up on Maccaroni Mountain, where Reynar's sunlight reflector is still standing, no longer functional. They brought 3 sets of fireworks, hopefully at least one of them would work intentionally.
On the picture above, the mine is seen right under Reynar and Alex. Bolan River and Sunrise Valley to the left, and the central region in the background to the right.
On the hilltop between the Hawk house and the Blumington Bridge, Amadeus and Evita had already been waiting for a while. They knew teens were gathered elsewhere in the village, but they didn't mind being here alone. They are cousins, both a bit different from the rest, and have sticked together for a long time.
Evita had never seen a TV-set, or a movie theater, she had read about it, but it was quite difficult to understand how it worked and how it could benefit anyone.
The Sugar top is seen in the background. Any longtime readers might recall Beatrice and Yoseph having a first kiss up there, near Greench Farm, very long ago...
Meanwhile on the mountain...
And this one really was a biggie!!! Evita and Amadeus were nearly blown away by the light and the ka-boom.
Was it an explosion? Or just some really huge fireworks?
All over the island people woke up, or stopped doing whatever they were doing.
Even teens who had gathered at Greta's Bistro thought it was a little too much...
Looks like someone might need some help up there!
Question is if Maccaroni Island has neigbours at all. How big is the solitude radius? Ahoy, can anyone out there see us now?
More in a short week! Only 2 more chapters to go until season break and a new one-household legacy can begin!
