Lunastia - part 7 - Dramaville
After a several-month-long hiatus, I dropped in on Lunastia to see how the first generation natives were doing and stumbled into quite the drama.
I had left Ben Willis and Susie McMillan playing chess and bonding. When I returned, Kendrick Hogue, the town trouble-maker was knocking on the door of the Willis house. Stephen went to see what he wanted.
Stephen is an excellent cook, and I think Kendrick is hoping to scrounge a meal. Kendrick has a hard time making friends because he's such a jerk, but he really seems to like Stephen, the owner of the colony's only bar.
I'm thinking Kendrick is sharing ideas with Stephen about some musical acts he can hire for the bar.
I don't remember what Kendrick's job is, but he might be a musician. However, I haven't seen him performing around town.
One person I have seen performing around town is Westley Decker.
His son Curtis is following in his footsteps. Curtis was a Busker, but I made him get a real job in the music career after he married Rachel Underwood-Kemp, who went from being a child of one of the poorest families to marrying into one of the richest.
I dropped in on the Deckers and furnished their house a little more since their girls aged up to children and Rachel joined the family. One of the girls has an evil streak, but oddly enough it was the "nice" one I caught shoplifting apples and taking money from the cash jar at the grocery store.
Put it back, Adrianne!
Ben Willis and Susie McMillan, the kids playing chess at the beginning of this episode aged up to teens. Susie just had a quiet celebration with her parents. (I don't know what Ben might have done as I wasn't with him when he aged up.)
I think she's mortified by her mother. Who wouldn't be mortified by a woman who would kiss a stinky man, even if he does offer to take her to the theater?
Susie is kind of a daddy's girl.
Susie's father, Moses, is a cop who needs to write up some reports about the crime rate of the colony, so he went down to the bar and questioned Don Esquivel, a local politician.
Don reports some concern regarding the petty thefts at the grocery store, but was more concerned about Kendrick Hogue and his penchant for beating up those he doesn't like, which qualifies most of the colony's residents. He was last seen cutting loose of Ahmad Ring in front of a number of spectators.
Ahmad considers him a sworn enemy.
Moses knows of Kendrick's reputation all too well, having received a slap or two himself from the guy in question. The most recent time occurred when Moses attended one of Stephen Willis' parties.
Shortly after this altercation, I heard some commotion upstairs.
She and Moses had a thing going awhile back, but Moses chose Jaimey as his mate.
Moses always turns down Sheena's attempts to reestablish their romance; however, Sheena isn't discreet, and this is a small community, so this is especially awkward when she starts flirting with him in public.
"You need to forget about me and pay more attention to your husband, Sheena. We both have families now and someone might get hurt!" Moses exclaimed.
There were quite a few people at the theater that night, and someone must have blabbed to Stephen about it, because he felt betrayed.
"I don't want to hear any more of your lame excuses, you Jezebel! Either you want to be my wife or you don't!"
"Now I have to wonder if the child you are carrying is even mine!"
Yes, to add to the drama, Sheena discovered she was pregnant a few days earlier and took to giving into her cravings for fried peanut butter and banana sandwiches.
Stephen was upset for several days. I was wondering if he was going to call it quits. When Sheena went into labor, he just left her to it.
There's no hospital in the colony yet. That's one of the things on my list. Until then the women have home births.
"You've given birth before. I'm sure you'll do fine," he said.
If looks could kill, he'd be a dead man. Shortly thereafter, baby Briggs was born.
To add to the drama, Stephen got a letter in the mail from Camille Underwood-Kemp. Stephen and Camille are good friends, but she hinted that she would like to be more than friends. He ran into her
at the bookstore a day later.
"I just can't believe what a fool Sheena is making out of me!"
From this point on, I did nudge them. They didn't resist until I got to the risky woohoo part; then even though they found each other extremely irresistible, they didn't go through with it despite there being ample woohoo spots available.
I think the rumor mill will be in full force by morning.
At this point, they thought it better to cool off.
Camille told him about her dream of writing a book about what it was like settling on an empty planet far from Earth.
Stephen talked about how he wanted to convert his humble bar into a high-class restaurant someday.
It's good that they cooled things down. Not to much later, Camille's husband Brandon showed up, and it seemed like he suspected something was going in. Maybe word is getting around.
Stephen was tired, but didn't want to go home to Sheena, so he took a room at the "hotel" section and contemplated his options.
Will the rumor mill be his downfall?
How will this affect his friendship with Camille?
He was starting feel foolish.
What he did was clearly inappropriate behavior.
Maybe he betrayed Sheena, but she betrayed him first. Will they rebuild their relationship or part enemies?
Meanwhile, Stephen's teenage son Ben was getting soused at his father's bar.
Yes you! Go home!
After Briggs was born, Stephen and Camille had a heart-to-heart on the phone. They decided they needed to remain simply friends, and let the romantic feelings for each other cool.
A few days later, I saw Brandon stepping up his game and wooing his wife.
All's well that ends well.
Despite Ben's mother flirting with Susie's father, Ben and Susie have a romance blossoming.
"You know, you look more like your father every day," Susie pointed out.
Precious thought they made a cute couple.
It wasn't long until Ben asked Susie to go steady. She said yes.
They saw each other nearly every day after school.
The day came when it was time for Ben to meet the parents and let them know his intentions.
"Susie and I are in love, and as soon as we graduate from high school, I'd like to marry her. Will you give us your blessing?"
Moses was impressed that Ben would make such an old fashioned gesture as a sign of respect.
"Of course you have my blessing. I have always thought you were a fine young man - the best this planet has to offer. Susie is a fortunate girl."
As a member of the colony's law enforcement, Moses has encountered his fair share of surly, disrespectful teens. Especially when he warns them that they are violating curfew and need to go home and get some sleep.
Rachel Underwood-Kemp was a prime example before she aged up to a young adult and married Curtis Decker.
Now she gets along much better with adults, being one herself. Here she is trying to defeat Stephen Willis at chess. She didn't win, but Stephen is an expert - he's registered as a professional chess player in addition to running his bar.
Moses did have some advice to give Ben, however.
If you are going to marry my daughter, you are going to have to be a responsible adult. That means getting a respectable job, . . .
and getting to work on time. I don't want to hear you've been out all night partying and can't make it to work.
Remember, I'm in law enforcement, and I will hear if you get in trouble with the law.
Meanwhile, Ben is preparing for his new life with Susie. He bought an old junker car and had it shipped to Lunastia and is fixing it up. That way he and Susie will have their own transportation when they move in together and won't need to use the taxi to get to work each day.
He's hoping to have it done by the time he graduates.
Pregnant women seem to find Moses attractive. Precious Shaw married Julius Kauker and was pregnant with his child at the time she was flirting with Moses at a party he threw. Moses is loyal to his wife Jaimey, however.
This was before she knew she was pregnant, I suspect. Maybe her hormones were getting out of control. It wasn't too long afterward that she gave birth to a baby girl named Tamsen. The house she and Julius were living in couldn't accommodate a crib, so I built them a new house up on the hill near the Deckers' house.
It's pretty empty inside, but it has the essentials. They will continue to furnish it as they get more money.
Since this was taken, they have a full kitchen.
Julius is level 5 in the political career, and Precious is a skilled nectar maker. In fact, when she samples nectar now, she makes this funny gargling sound. That's something I didn't know about.
Rachel Decker isn't sure what to make of it.
I built one more thing before I left. I noticed there was a firefighter in town, but I didn't have a fire station.
The big building is the arts center and movie theater. The smaller building on the other side of the fire station is the city hall, which houses the mayor's office, police, and military recruitment office. There's an empty lot in between where I plan to build a small hospital.
So long for now.
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