Though we leave in sorrow
All the joys we've known
We can face tomorrow
Knowing we'll never walk alone
When the ivy walls are far behind
No matter where our paths may wind
We'll remember always, always
Graduation day ~The Freshmen
School's out for summer
School's out forever
School's been blown to pieces
No more pencils
No more books
No more teacher's dirty looks
Well, we got no class
And we got no principals - (Watcher: or was it principles... ~evil smirk~)
We ain't got no innocence
We can't even think of a word that rhymes - Alice Cooper - "School's Out Forever"
So much for five years of post-elementary school education.
In the morning of Friday, June 30, 1988; they received a call stating that there was to be a graduation ceremony for Haruo, River, Phil and Noel...since they were the only four that were left to graduate out of that year’s class. And it happened to be that they would be called down to the city hall around nine o’clock or so or depending on when the school got the sound-system and stage set up. Considering the ad hoc graduation ceremonies that end up in this town, they just might as well keep the stage setup up all year. It would save them having to take it down and put it back up the next day. But of course, they had to have some make-work for all those who didn’t have much to do other than to take stuff down and put it away... and then take it back out four days later...and set it all back up again. Politics.
Maybe...it might be a good thing to have just one set day a month to have a graduation? But no, that would make too much sense, wouldn’t it?
Bebe on the other hand was thankful that yesterday was the last day she had to work as a playground monitor. Now she got to monitor classes in-class...as a teacher’s aide. Which meant that she had to make sure kids were listening when the teacher taught a class and try not to fall asleep herself if she ended up in a class that she herself had taken as a student that was taught by a teacher who was dull and an effective teacher as banging a rock with a two-by-four hoping to make a hole. Luckily for her, that wouldn’t count towards her final grade or cutting points off her grade. Unfortunately sleeping on the job could cost her her job. Time for coffee. Could they get Biohazard Coffee there in Canada; 928 mg of caffeine per 12-oz – guaranteed to keep you hanging off the rafters like a chimp at the Greater Vancouver Zoo; (Watcher: they don’t have any in real life) screeching not included. At least, considering the fact that she was a family member of the graduates, she wouldn’t have to be sitting in those hard chairs...this time around.
Well, at least this time around the graduates would be Haruo, River, Torao and whoever the others were. They suspected that it would be Phil...or on the off-chance, Parker, who was only one day younger than Torao and River.
Phil was already a fire-captain in the Sunset Valley Fire Department and was making great strides career-wise for someone who was completely insane. Oh wait, having to run into a raging fire versus running out of the blaze was a perfect job for someone who was magnanimous...and had friggin’ bats in the belfry.
Haruo and River preferred nice sedate jobs, preferably at home: River had painting and Haruo went out to fish. Torao would be busy in the garden and well, Bebe was the only one who had to commute.
Haruo, after finishing his meal, headed out to the front of the house, still in his underwear (luckily it was dark and only three in the morning...so he didn’t freak out anyone else not within his family circle) to pay the bills, then he headed over after changing into his every-day clothes over to see Moses Joseph to consign yet another group of items that needed consigning. After which he would check out the other consignment shop and see if he could get rid of some of the meteors that he’d had assessed.
When Haruo went over to the other consignment store, he’d realized that in his zeal that he forgot exactly what time it was. Naturally at 4:59AM, the consignment store would NOT be open. Well, duh. Unlike the Chikamoris, nobody else in town was insane enough to get up at 3 in the morning to start their work-day. After all, getting out of a nice, warm comfortable bed to get met by a cold blast of morning air; no matter how hot it would get in the midday would be any enticement to become an early-bird; worm or no worm. (Watcher: I’m quite certain that most sims’ palates would not extend to sampling Lumbricus terrestris no matter how appetizing it might be for robins).
So considering the fact that the consignment store down at 280 Sunnyside Blvd was not open, Haruo returned to the Elixir Consignment store at 365 Oak Grove Road and went to consign his space-rocks there – the Watcher, being holy, is resisting the urge to say something about Haruo getting his rocks off to consignment.)
Evidently the school was a bit more on the ball that morning and called at around 6AM to let them know that the school graduation would start at exactly 9AM; which is the way that all graduations should be run. A specific time, a specific place, a specific duration of time and it shouldn’t start any later than 9:15AM to prevent late-comers from milling around essentially not knowing what the heck they’re doing. Which of course prompts Murphy to show up and present his dictum; in other words, everything goes to hell in a hand-basket.
Uncomfortableness abounded that morning as Fiona decided that she would do the driving to the graduation ceremony instead of the family taking a cab and enriching Yellow Cab’s coffers by §160.00. And she placed Haruo in the shotgun seat which meant that she could keep an eye on him; which also meant that he couldn’t sit with River in the back and neck. No heavy petting, no lips on lips...and most definitely NO woohoo...especially NOT until they were married.
Oh, yes, graduation again was a long-winded affair; especially with teachers and faculty all having something to say to the graduates...and in actual fact, bloviating for the sake of bloviation which extended the graduation ceremony from a one hour affair of “walking across the stage, getting your high-school certificate and shaking the teacher’s hand and getting the flark off the stage.” to a three hour “sit in your chair and hope your tail-end doesn’t go numb”. Bebe sat in the audience hoping that she wouldn’t hear the same exhortations to greatness that she heard the first time around when it was her turn to graduate three days ago. That hope got blown to shreds when Mr. Isaac Klassen, the biology teacher pulled out a well-worn, much folded piece of paper and proceeded to read from it by rote. “Dear fellow faculty, and graduates of the School for the Gifted...” oh for the love of the Watcher...make it stop.
Meanwhile the band in the background softly played “Land of Hope and Glory” over and over again...
We've heard this song before
On endless repeat,
Stuck here in our chairs for...
Hours listening to speeches.
Can we please get out of here,
So we can go eat?
That was about the sum of it...and eventually all expounding of exhortations came to a halt; either because of those at the dais running out of oxygen or running out of cogent things to say – it wasn’t certain as to which but to the utter relief of the graduates that were present; it was clear that they would get out of the graduation hall within a timely fashion...though not timely enough for them. At least it wouldn’t be one o’clock before they managed to sit down at a fashionable restaurant to intake some food; thank goodness.
...and just to put a damper on things...when they got out of the ceremony, they ended up finding that the sunny day that they were expecting had clouded over; a metaphor for their life to come after the sunny days of no responsibilities other than getting their school-work done for the next day at school...or for Haruo, trying to come up with believable excuses for why his homework hadn’t been completed. “I’m sorry, Mrs. Frew...my dog buried my homework while searching for space-rocks.” Welcome to young adulthood and a mountain of responsibilities where excuses will end up giving you a nice little cushy spot on the unemployment line.
Or for Haruo...a lifetime of working for himself – self-employment being perfect for someone who doesn’t like answering to anyone other than himself; or to someone who just buys the fish that he is going to catch; thus having chosen the life of an angler.
But for now...there was trying to find sustenance thanks to Yasunobu offering to take them all out for a meal to celebrate their graduation. Ah yes, a good meal to start off their life of employment...
...and again the Watcher provided them a metaphor...to learn something about life. It started hailing. Sometimes life has a habit of kicking you in your happy place...painfully.
Pretty much most of the family members looked resigned that they hadn’t brought umbrellas to the graduation. But of course, no-one knew that the weather, after the pontificating of at least half the faculty and graduating valedictorian, would have changed from blissfully sunny to excreting hail-showers.
Satoshi, being a roadie, oft-wondered what he was doing with his life, however being as he was always a rebellious metal-head, he didn’t tend to wonder about other’s opinions of him. His attitude was unlike most other Japanese who were a bunch that tended to follow the crowd; making the tried and true their path in life. Satoshi blazed his own path; in essence marched to the beat of his own drummer.
In fact most of the Chikamoris tended to blaze their own paths. Now that Mayumi, the one who least liked dissension from who she considered her rank and file was out of the way; Haruo was free to be himself. In fact now that he didn’t have to deal any more with Mayumi who had been hell-bent on marrying him off to a timid woman whom she could control, he was free...to be with River...whom he’d admitted now to himself, had loved from the time they could walk – even though at the time he didn’t realize what those feelings were. Haruo realized just how fortunate he was that his evil mother, Mayumi was resting in pieces.
When they were finally in the doors it was not a minute too soon as a paparazzi wandered in...trying to look for sound-bites from the newly graduated. Which of course was stopped in its tracks by a resounding crackle of electricity and a clap of thunder which resulted in a rather strangled pained scream. Evidently the paparazzi had need of reading the following book by the Right Reverend Aster Royd.
It would certainly be rather en-light(e)ning, no pun intended.
Flashback Prior to the Bistro
During the discussions prior to the meal at the Bistro, Haruo and River had discussed a few matters regarding what their plans were for post-secondary. He had mentioned, "I think we really should get our post-secondary education out of the way so that we can get that over with. I think it's hard to go to university after you have kids, but it's that much harder to do so and of course if we manage to do what we can to get our degrees now it would make it so much easier on us in the future, wouldn't you say?"
“I’m inclined to agree with you. It’s been on my mind a lot. I want to get my fine arts degree before we go travelling. Like you’ve always said, business before pleasure...or shall we say education before pleasure.” River responded looking at Haruo with a mischievous twinkle in her eye.
She paused for a long moment looking over at Bebe and Torao who were in the midst of their own clinch and said, “I think Bebe said she wanted to get her degree in technology so that she can pursue a higher educational position – like a tech teacher in high-school.
Haruo looked amazed, “But...isn’t Bebe technophobic?”
“Pushing boundaries, my love...” River commented. “She may be uncomfortable with the thought of technology, but if she doesn’t pursue it she doesn’t tackle her phobias head-on and beat them.” River gave him a kiss. “Just like you overcame your apprehensions about how I would react to finding out that you love me.”
“I do...very much...” Haruo said.
Bebe and Torao were having pretty much the same conversation about post-secondary.
And frankly Bebe needed a break from the little hooligans, including little Johnny Keaton. Evidently Bebe had caught little Johnny in a racket. Evidently the school kids were talking about how dense Little Johnny was... “Yeah...we asked him if he wanted the nickle or the dime...heck he’s so schtupid that he took the nickle. Yeah we keep showing that to everyone and they all think he’s slow.”
Bebe had asked Johnny, “Why do you let the other kids pick on you about the nickel and the dime? Don’t you know that a dime is worth more than a nickel?”
“Well...Ms. Hart...” Little Johnny Keaton grinned at her, “y’see, if I took the dime, they’d stop doing it... I’ve made more than twenty bucks...off ‘em.”
Well at least he wasn’t making adult jokes in class.
Torao thought that it might be a good choice to have Bebe relax a bit by going to university...even though the classes for technology might be hard, at least it wasn’t annoying as having to make sure that Little Johnny Keaton was behaving himself and not getting himself in detention by asking the teacher about the difference between animal excretions.
Maybe she wouldn't be so stressed afterwards.
The Next Day
Post-graduation involved some blues as not seeing their friends whom they’d graduated with any more or had left behind since those friends were a year or more younger than those who had their commencement ceremonies – of course in university...a more fancy term would be used once they graduated – it would be called a convocation. Six of one and half dozen of the other... University, the penultimate goal of every person who wants to be considered educated – a current year (1988) value of §15,180 to get a piece of paper to hang in a frame on the wall denoting that you are edumacated so “respect ma authoritah!!!”
Anyhow, the next morning was pretty much the same as before; having to get up and go to work in the morning, for both Bebe and Fiona. Fiona’s place of work was at Doo Peas where she worked as an investigative reporter. It was a keep-you-on-your-toes kind of work which appealed to Fiona’s innate curiosity for details. She was constantly writing articles about politics and other things that appealed to the readers of the Sunset Valley Leader and Sunset Valley Times. It involved a lot of nosing around for things to write about and making sure that her articles didn’t cross the line into subjective slander staying within the bounds of legal critique of local politicians. At least it paid §126 an hour.
Meanwhile, Franz was busy hustling the good hustle finding rocks, gems and metals to get for his favorite humans. He was up from dawn till dusk staking out good locations and digging. Of course he’d occasionally unearth bones and sometimes either objects such as maple leaves, empty chip bags, snake-skins and colourful feathers...which usually meant he’d have to dig three more places each find to make up for the latter four items. It usually ended up that he came home tired and hungry. But if it meant that his humans would be the richest darned sims in Sunset Valley, he’d do his part. Asides from a few good toys, a luxury doggie house, a fancier food bowl and a lot of gourmet pet food, the humans would reap the benefit of his labours.
Haruo did his best to improve his martial arts; now a brown belt he set his goal at breaking boards with the ultimate goal to toughen up his hands by giving them microfractures which would heal and supposedly make his hand-bones tough as steel allowing him to go after spacerocks and smash them to pieces allowing him to harvest the gemstones that lay within. That would also add to their net-worth. He had now progressed from blue-belt to brown-belt and was now tackling oak-boards though he warmed up with a few foam boards to condition his hands to start smashing the harder boards.
River painted some more paintings in order to make sure that she progressed in her fine-arts mastery. She was now at a level where she could start to take commissions for her work and though the requests were spotty at the moment, eventually it would get to the point where she was able to get regular work. Her paintings were astounding and Haruo was constantly impressed by her attention to detail and the subtle colour shifts in her paintings.
Meals were a welcome break in the monotony of work to obtain simoleons and of course Haruo and River made time to talk with other members of the family which went a long away to easing the laborious nature of the work needing to be done. Yasunobu headed out to do the gardening...while coaching Torao on the finer details of raising plants from seedling to mature plants and how to increase their quality. It was a labour of love with regards to tending plants as the plants provided nourishing food for their table and any excess was sold off to the stores. For the tender of the land, it was backbreaking but satisfying work.
Haruo headed off to fish as he’d chosen that sedate career to enjoy his time. He spent his time at either Pinochle Pond, or at one of the other various lakes or the seashore in order to pull out his fishing reel n’rod and look for the not so smart of the finny-tribe. “Uh...duh...what’s that little shiny thing in the water...hey look there’s a worm...attached to it...wonder how it ta-...”Darwin.
Yup...that’s a hook.
And of course nights were cozy when they were exhausted enough to drop into bed and fall asleep in each other’s arms – no hanky-panky; at least not until they were married. Although it was sheer torture for the both of them, feeling their body warmth close by and it would have been so easy to give in to their desires for one another. But they knew that waiting was worth it and it would be so much more satisfying within the bonds of marriage...to give to each other what they had been holding off of for so long.
Torao was also curled up with Bebe and the two of them were just as close as Haruo and River.
It was one morning about two days later that Haruo was down fishing by the seashore in a little secluded area in direct view of the island that they were considering laying down money on to purchase outright as their final place where they would settle...off the coast of Sunset Valley in the middle of Boundary Bay. At first Haruo couldn’t tell but it appeared that there was someone who had happily tied their houseboat to the dock...and Haruo realized who it was that had parked her houseboat illegally at that dock. It was that woman; one of the Rackets, that noisome bunch from Twinbrook who had moved to Sunset Valley; one Marigold Racket to be certain who was planning to try to heist that island from any potential buyers by doing a right by possession by being present on the property with no abstainers from that right. Well...that wasn’t going to be the case for Marigold Racket on this property.
Haruo picked up his cell-phone – the good ol’ Dynatac 8000x brick...that you could use to concuss people you didn’t like as well as make calls, “Hey, hon?”
River picked up the landline, “What is it, sweetie?”
“That Marigold Racket just tied up her houseboat on the dock of the island that we were looking at buying.”
There was a dead silence on the other end of the line and Haruo could feel the vibrating anger that was emanating from the other end of the phone-line. “That double-dealing skank...” was River’s exclamation as she paced the room that she was in. “I knew the Rackets were trouble when they moved to Sunset Valley.”
“I take it we’re going to have to take the plunge and nail down that property.”
“Oh you’re right we’re going to nail down that property. There’s no way that I’m letting that Twinbrook slime swipe that property out from under our noses.” River paused for a moment. “I’m gonna head down to city hall. Was the last balance on our bank account correct?”
“Good. Because I’m going to buy both the lot and the dock...then I’m going to take a water-taxi out to the island and personally hand-deliver that eviction notice to that skank and tell her with great pleasure to GET THE FUCK OFF OUR ISLAND!” River exclaimed vociferously.
“Take Hank...with you... I’ll give him a call letting him know that you need police presence, you don’t know what that woman is capable of.” Haruo warned River. “I mean it, River...you shouldn’t confront Marigold Racket on your own.”
“OK...honey, I’ll stop by the police station and pick up Hank and then serve Marigold with her walking papers. Are you sure we don’t have any access to det packs?” River asked.
“Haven’t gotten that far in inventing yet.” Haruo returned.
River simpered, “Oh...that’s too bad...”
“Why?”
“Because if that fucking bitch wasn’t about to leave the island in peace. I was going to give her houseboat to her in pieces.” River’s tone was vehement. “Try to take our island, that’s going to make one enemy out of me. Marigold Racket better watch her back.”
“Wow! And I thought I was the one who had the temper.”
"Be quiet, Honey."
By the time that River and Hank had gotten to the water taxi, the clouds had moved in and Haruo had headed back to the Central Park. They would head over to the island.
Haruo heard from River later that Marigold had thrown a conniption fit regarding the fact that she had invariably tied up her houseboat to a dock that had been sold in the last few hours. “I didn’t know...” The Matriarch Racket had fumed.” River told Haruo that she considered that his piece of advice for her to take Hank to the island to give the eviction order was well thought-out. As Haruo’d figured, Marigold Racket didn’t take the eviction well at all.
“Well, Ms. Rackett, you are going to have to move your houseboat...as Ms. McIrish and her fiancé have legally binding documents attesting to their ownership of the island.”
“BUT...I was going to the city hall to buy the property...”
Yeah, sure, Marigold, sure you were... you were hoping to build something on the property and squat there claiming right of ownership. River thought to herself. Well at least hubby told me that she was there so that we could claim the island and make sure that we were the ones in legal possession of it by actually purchasing the land rights to the property.
It finally took Hank having to threaten Marigold Racket with arrest and seizure of her houseboat to get her to move. Muttering under her breath, Marigold untied her houseboat from the dock and sailed away, cursing at River and telling her, “You haven’t heard the last of this...”
It was Hank moving in front of River to protect her, that caused Marigold to subside and move her houseboat clear without further confrontation.
“You were right, honey,” River said to Haruo, “She didn’t take it well at all. If I had been there on my own, there was a good chance that she would have done something to me.”
“I thought so...” Haruo replied, noting mentally that he may have to take care of the Rackets later on down the road in life. Lolly appeared to be the only good Racket out of the bunch. And of course Ethan Bunch was going to pull Lolly away from her family to try to redeem the Racket name. It had been said that the Rackets had ties to the Irish mob. And considering the actions that the Rackets had been committing, it was quite certain that Marigold was one of them. He’d have to keep a closer eye on them. "I told you to take Hank because I had a gut feeling and with having grown up with my mother's idiosyncracies and whims, I've learned to trust them. It's not fate if you walk into a situation knowing full well that you could have prevented the situation - it's stupidity."
On top of that once they were finished with their studies at university, they would be moving to the island. Haruo had always been an introvert and he preferred solitude. In a way, though River was more friendly and outgoing, she was the same way. She preferred solitude over being in a large crowd. So this island was going to be like an idyllic place to live for the two of them. They could make their start in life and have a family and use it as their base of operations for their travels. Plus it provided solitude for to recharge. Bebe and Torao were the same way so it was going to end up being their little refuge for their families. Bebe and River had always been friends and thus it was nice for River to find that she and Bebe would be related.
The island had always been a place Haruo and River had been interested in; large with only one structure located on it. The island was far enough away from the mainland that it would keep those curious wandering lookie-loos from trespassing on their property. It was a large enough island that they could also turn around and make a graveyard and put their deceased on the island as well. Though, of course, the thought of sharing the island with a bunch of spirits probably wasn’t the most reassuring thing in the world. Nothing like let’s freak out the kids when despised Gramma makes an untimely visitation. That might actually scare them into eating their vegetables.
The next afternoon being sunny, Yasunobu headed down to Central Park to pick some of the fruits off the trees, since nobody else seemed to be eating them and he’d be able to create a bit of an orchard in the new property on the island by planting what he picked. Haruo joined him at the park and went to pick a few flowers as well as fish. In the afternoon however Haruo headed over to the bookstore and picked up a few bait-books so that he could learn more about the fish that he was going after. It was necessary to have that kind of knowledge in place so that he could more readily have the bait on the hook that would catch whatever fish he was after.
Some of the denizens in the town seemed to have major fashion malfunctions as Haruo came out of the bookstore. Noticing a townie in a brilliant yellow baseball jersey and a fedora – the kind of thing that would make Alexander McQueen go off the rails. It was a fashion eye-sore on the order that could make one’s brain explode with a searing question: How the hell does one end up wearing that out in public?
Catching the taxi back home, Haruo came home to find Bebe and River at the kitchen table. Bebe was taking time to write while River was digging into birthday cake. That was the problem with having multiple people having birthdays on the same day or consecutive days. There was enough birthday cake to last several days of eating if not several weeks. One could pretty much get sick of birthday cake. It appeared from the constant pungent swearing from upstairs that Torao was at the chemistry table. He hadn’t had much luck even though he’d reached a proficient enough level of logic that he should have ordinarily been able to find potions with relative ease.
When River was done with her cake, she let Haruo know that she had to head out for a bit since she’d had a commission sale she had to deliver to a client.
The following day in the midst of a deluge, Haruo headed out to go fish with one thing in mind: to catch a clownfish. Evidently while River was gone to deliver the painting to her client, he’d received a call letting him know that he was to try to catch a clownfish for delivery to the theatre. Well, a clownfish was on the line after he’d managed to get completely soaked from the rainfall. But at least the Amphiprioninae Pomacentridae was of satisfactory proportions and mood that he did manage to get §470 out of the whole deal. It compensated him for getting drenched. Hopefully he wouldn’t catch pneumonia.
While Haruo was out, River was swearing up a storm having been doing a house-cleaning of the entire residence. “Oh for crying out loud, do you two ever clean your toilet. This is absolutely disgusting.” Having to attack the third floor toilet that the boys used was absolutely horrendous. There were things that looked as though they were growing in that toilet. She was quite certain that she had to toss the toilet brush out when she was done. If that growth in the upper left hand corner of the toilet bowl grew an eye and blinked at her, she was going to be out of there so fast she’d leave a smoke-trail behind her.
Torao had to go down to the bookstore and get a few skill books to read. One of those books was a book on handiness. But he also wasn’t the only one that had to go down to get books. River and Bebe headed down as well. As Bebe needed to work on her charisma as well as her handiness. River wanted to work on her cooking skills so that she was able to take over cooking from Molly who was considering finding her own place eventually as soon as she was able to find something. Of course though Satoshi was making the moves on her so that probably wasn’t about to happen since she could potentially end up becoming part of the family.
Evidently the elevator door had a bone to pick with Satoshi. He got sandwiched between the closing doors before he could get out and ended up on the floor face down on the carpet which was not a pleasant situation to be in since he ended up with rugburns on his elbows. Needless to say, it didn’t serve to put him in a very good mood as he stalked towards the fridge to get himself something to eat since he was the first one up that morning.
The rest of the family soon followed suit as they each woke up and headed downstairs.
Their diet was probably not one the doctors recommend as they were each trying to polish off the cake before it started growing things that were best left unmentionable. Since they had the top notch fridge that kept things from going bad, at least things weren’t blinking at them from the inside of the fridge or genetically evolving sentience asking them, “How are things out there?” That would not be a good thing. At least they weren’t going to be debating the nihilist pre-existentialism ponderings of Neitzsche, "He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." How apt.
That morning, Torao headed back upstairs, after eating his portion of the cake, directly to the potion table. After all his main objective was to find several different potions that were of use to the family. The first of which was the sleeping potion which would cut down their required sleep time to half of what they currently were utilizing. More time spent awake would increase their productivity two hundred percent of what they currently were outputting.
His secondary goal was to locate the Young Again Potion which would reset everyone’s age back to the beginning of their young adult stage. This woud allow members of the family to essentially live forever. If he was able to do that, then the Chikamori family would essentially live forever. Torao’s interest had always been the sciences. Truth be told, he should have gone into science as a career, however one of Torao’s other loves was the love of the earth which he would be able to grow vegetables and fruits that his family would be able to eat and the fact that he and his cousin were such close friends and that two good schoolfriends, one of which was his cousin’s fiancee, and the other; his girlfriend of several years were slated to become family in the near future made that necessity of making sure that both their families were fed well and finding a good set of potions to ensure their continued health down the road a necessity.
Torao’s father otherwise known as Haruo’s uncle had no such lofty goals in mind. In fact his own immediate satisfaction was foremost in his train of thought. And while his nephew went out to fish for members of the finny tribe, and his son was fishing for ideas on how to come up with the next potion that he was going to discover; well, Satoshi went fishing for...Molly (not the fish)
...and all it took was for Satoshi to turn his charm on to one hundred and fifty percent to hook Molly; line and sinker. After all, Satoshi and Molly both lived for immediate gratification and mutual attraction was the ultimate high as far as getting to one’s happy-place. Compliments were key in reeling Molly in. Considering Molly was flirty, a daredevil and a party-animal; she was right up Satoshi’s alley.
Satoshi, after all, had been the most charismatic of the older generation of Chikamori siblings. Poor Haruo being an only child after all and the target of Mayumi’s focused abuse, hadn’t the benefits of having brothers or sisters and thus he didn’t have the experiences of such a close upbringing with family members his own age. His fiancee was the only one that he’d grown up with; and his own son as a family member almost as close as a brother.
But Satoshi’s mind at that very moment was entirely on Molly and the fact that she had enthusiastically responded to his advances was all that he wanted. He enjoyed her attentions and relished the fact that she wanted him. After all, he wanted her too. She was like the rose that was on the bush, radiant and fair...and he was hoping that she was attracted to him too. He was reaching his fifties and he wanted to make sure that he was ready to settle down with someone who appreciated him. And to him, Molly appeared to be that very person.
Rolling her eyes, she saw her mother and Satoshi disappear into the elevator and head upstairs to do Watcher-Knows-What. Frankly, she didn’t even want to consider the situation - she just settled for giving Satoshi a reproachful look.
Luckily for everyone still there, the floors and walls were thick.
Haruo spent his day fishing in full view of the island in which they were planning to move to eventually once they had finished their post-secondary schooling.
After enjoying themselves Molly wanted to see if there were any interesting books that had been placed on consignment and Satoshi, prior to working decided to head over to the Elixir Consignment shop to harass the bees. Needless to say, the bees were not impressed and had it in for him. Evidently Satoshi’s screams could be heard all the way to Central Park.
Satoshi hopped around but wearing loose-fitting Japanese clothing was not the way to keep bees out from one’s clothes. They managed to infiltrate every single layer and sting him. And unfortunately for Satoshi, the honey that he’d harvested exacted a very painful price in terms of cost for him. He would end up going to work in pain from the numerous sites where he was stung on his body. And that would put him in a not very happy mood for the rest of the day; not to mention the stress he was under at work. So all in all, Satoshi would be a very miserable person for the rest of the day. So much for the woohoo. In very bit of pleasure there is a little pain...or in this case a whole LOT of pain.
For those who came to Aleister’s Elixir Shoppe and Consignment Store, those patrons hadn’t had this much entertainment in years.
Moses stated, “I’m sorry about the noise. Unfortunately it seems that the bees were rather disturbed this afternoon. If you’d like, I’m looking into sound-proofing the walls.”
Poor Satoshi.
He had some time before he had to head in for work so he decided to assuage his tenderized and stung ego by pulling out his guitar and serenading his now lover, Molly.
Molly looked impressed. A man who could hunt and gather as well as sing. What a precious find, she thought. Perhaps she had made the right choice in taking him as her lover and perhaps it would lead farther to something better than the choice she made that produced Sandi though she loved her daughter dearly. She felt as though she was getting on in years and needed to find someone whom she could spend the rest of her life with and Satoshi looked like a good candidate. After all they shared a great many similar characteristics which bode well for a continued wonderful relationship.
The Next MorningThe next morning involved a lot of enjoyment in their morning shower for Satoshi and Molly. After all, getting up in the morning involved a lot of sound effects...mostly relating to the aches and pains of advancing age. Satoshi and Molly worked out all their aches and pains with a nice, relaxing, hot shower... in more ways than one.
(The Watcher suspects it’s not necessary to mention anything regarding the other things that they did in the shower)
After all, they were consenting adults and didn’t need to be minded like others within the nuclear family.
After all the showering...and grunting and groaning...from aching muscles, Satoshi headed down to breakfast which was again...cake. They were getting tired of cake and of course since Yasunobu had managed to survive through the war years when they were short of supplies and food, he was very insistent upon not letting any food go to waste. Tabemono o nokosanaide, ne... Mottainai yo
Haruo wanted to talk to his uncle about the fact that he was trying to decide what to do; whether going to university was the best possible solution for the fact that he was planning to work as an angler. After all it seemed like he was wasting money when it could be put towards perhaps buying a boat or something to fish with. But his uncle told him. “What if there’s a downturn in the fishing industry and you need to find something else? You need to know that your future is secure. Your best bet, Haruo-kun...go to university; get your degree and make sure that you have your options secure, neh. You don’t know what the future will bring. Mirai o yosoku suru koto wa dekimasen.
“But Ojisan, you think that going to university won’t waste four years that I could be getting ahead in fishing?”
“But Ojisan, you think that going to university won’t waste four years that I could be getting ahead in fishing?”
“Look, Haruo-kun, you go to university and you’ll have a secure plan B. Then you can do your job without fearing that you’re going to have no options if something happens that you can’t do your job any more. Look at it as a way to keep your head above water financially. It’s insurance, nephew...” He paused eating, put down his fork and looked over at his nephew, "It's something that you need to do before you start picking up your burdens in life. Make something of yourself and do what you need to do."
Haruo could see that there was wisdom in what his Uncle Satoshi was saying and he nodded; “Then that’s what I’ll do. The University Mascot brought us the bucket so I figure, why not do the test...in fact, I think I’ll do it after I get back from the park with River, Torao and Bebe.”
“Good thing, nephew...You won’t regret going to university, as always, it’s a piece of paper, but it’s a valuable piece of paper that will guarantee that you will always have options.”
River and Haruo sat on a bench at Central Park. “I was talking to my uncle today...and he confirmed that I should go to university.” he ventured, “It’s been on my mind, but there’s always been doubts as to whether since I had that much trouble with schoolwork in high-school that going to do a further four years of post-secondary education is worth it.”
River looked at him, “So what did he tell you?”
Inviting River to nestle into his arms, Haruo wrapped his arm around River’s shoulders and River nestled into his embrace. Haruo continued,“He told me that it was a good choice to go get further education, that it could possibly mean a plan B for me if there is a downturn in the fishing industry. And well...I’m sure it’s a good investment, but the entry evaluation scares me. I’m not sure how well I’m going to do on it, if I even do well, he sighed... “And yet, the time that I spend with you at Uni will be fun...if I make it.”
“That’s a lot of ifs you just said, Haruo.” River replied, “Why don’t you just say...when. After all if you go into it with the mindset that you are going to do well, then you won’t be giving yourself doubts? Right?”
Haruo nodded, “You’re right. I shouldn’t give myself doubts. I just gotta do it and just let things fall where they fall and just go for it.” He looked at her tenderly, “You’ve always been my rock, River.”
"...and you've been mine..." River said to Haruo...as she leaned in...and lovingly placed a tender kiss on his lips.
"...always...and forever...River..." Haruo whispered and a passionate clinch ensued.
When they separated for air, River, her voice soft and breathy, whispered, “I want you so much right now...”
She continued, her voice throaty, “If you keep this up...we’re not going to wait till marriage because I’m going to want you in my bed...making passionate love to me...”
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