Satoshi and Molly

So far Satoshi had not had his life completely turned upside down by getting together with Molly, his days went as per usual. Get up, in his underwear, go downstairs, head to the fridge, get something to eat and vegetate for the day until his shift started at one o’clock where he would get dressed and head down to the theatre to do his daily routine of working till nearly nine at night before heading back home and doing it all over the next night. It wasn’t a bad routine of sorts. It had some regularity to it and Satoshi was perfectly happy. And to top it all off, Molly was the icing on the cake of sorts. It was peaceful to say the least.

That peace and quiet came to an abrupt, screeching halt when she, after a few too many passionate interludes between the two of them, had to make a dash for the washroom. No...it wasn’t mold growing on the birthday cake – the fridge was kept too cold for that to happen. Let’s just say that the Watcher thinks that it would be a rather cold shower for the two’s ardour. It could be classified as a viral infection that caused her illness, a stomach flu of sorts. One that takes eighteen years to get rid of at the earliest – at least in Canada. South of the border, it took until twenty-one before you could kick it out of the house.

Molly and Satoshi’s collective reaction to this news was “oh...flark!”

The rest of the family were too busy with the rest of their lives to worry about the fact that there was going to be a screaming, squalling and stinking addition to the house and very likely a big disruption to their peaceful existence. There would be l’essence de parfume de extrémité arrière or L’eau D’Excrement if one wanted to be fancy. In other words the house would reek with diapers.

All of that prompted the four youngsters, the young adults, that is; to hastily do their best to get the hell out of the house and go do other things, like get themselves prepared to take their scholastic aptitude tests in preparation for university.

Hail to the Thunderbirds! Hail UBC!
Thunder and lightning — Onward to victory!
Hail to the Blue and Gold, Hail UBC.
UBC Forever, Onwards to Victory.

The Thunderbird, a long standing tradition at the school and the revered mascot was under fire by those who thought that utilizing the native symbol of the Thunderbird was disrespectful to the Native population of BC and thus were seeking to substitute it with the noble Llama. The four were directly in the camp that they should be able to use the Thunderbirds and be referred to as Thunderbirds despite the support for the Llama mascot by those who were inured with political correctness. Somehow the llama didn’t have as much ruthless aggression to it as using the Thunderbird. When one pictured a llama, one pictured a South American ruminant chewing its cud and looking rather blearily at the camera. And Haruo couldn’t imagine playing hockey with the UBC Llamas – that mascot would look just horrifically comical on ice.

Meanwhile, Satoshi was trying to figure out what happened. Even while being questioned by Haruo on how the SATs would benefit him in the future as he was going to be an angler, he was still trying to figure out what could possibly be done about the situation with Molly’s gravid state. This was going to take all of his brain-power to figure out and Satoshi felt that he’d really put himself and Molly in a situation. He had always been told that one should marry the mother of his child and in that respect that would be the proper thing to do. On top of that, he also had to now raise the child of someone who hadn’t had the proper fortitude to own up to their mistakes and raise their own child. So was he prepared to take on Sandi as his child? That was the main question that he had to ask himself. But considering the fact that he was able to divide his attention between the fact that he had his own set of problems and give Haruo cogent advice on his own problems, it was pretty well certain that Satoshi had the makings of a decent father.

For Haruo, River, Bebe and Torao, the Scholastic Aptitude Test was quite a brain-yanker. Some of the questions took a straw, jammed it up their nostrils right into their cranial cavity and gave their lipton-noodle-soup a good stir. Stuff like: The number of radians of arc in a circle is 2π (pi)... so was that cherry or lemon or since there was 2...could you have both?

“Oh, Torao, how many electrons in a moron?” Haruo asked jabbing Torao in the ribs.

“1.5 x 10^28 electrons in a human being; the last time I checked you were missing two which is about the right total for a moron.” Torao shot back. Ah...the love of relatives.

Bebe and River ignored the two of them jawing at each other. It had always been like this. Brotherly pranks between two cousins who were as close as brothers having grown up with each other. They were all a family. Haruo and River having been together since birth and Bebe and Torao growing closer together as a couple.

“The chemical formula of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is now well established. The molecule is a very long chain, the backbone of which consists of a regular alternation of sugar and phosphate groups. To each sugar is attached a nitrogenous base, which can be of four different types. Two of the possible bases—adenine and guanine—are purines, and the other two—thymine and cytosine—are pyrimidines. So far as is known, the sequence of bases along the chain is irregular. The monomer unit, consisting of phosphate, sugar and base, is known as a nucleotide...” River was starting to think that her brain was starting to short out...by the fifth paragraph.

“The authors use the word “backbone” in lines 3 and 39 to indicate that A) only very long chains of DNA can be taken from an organism with a spinal column. B) the main structure of a chain in a DNA molecule is composed of repeating units. C) a chain in a DNA molecule consists entirely of phosphate groups or of sugars. D) nitrogenous bases form the main structural unit of DNA.” AAARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!

“Exactly how the hell is this supposed to benefit me in the arts?” River muttered caustically to herself as she grasped pencil to fill in the multiple choice question answer selection sheet making doubly sure that she was filling in the right line so that the automated checker wouldn’t attribute her selection to the wrong question.

With the fact that Satoshi had ended up getting Molly pregnant, there was only one thing that could be done. Yasunobu was adamant about one thing, the new Chikamori child was not going to be an illegitimate off-spring, so thus Satoshi was told that he was to put Molly in wedlock...immediately and as head-of-the-household, Yasunobu set down the rules. Since the mantle of head-of-the-household fell to the oldest of the family, the oldest of the family would end up wielding the decisions of the family. From there, the mantle of family decisions would fall to Haruo as the firstborn son (and frankly, only son) of the preceding generation’s oldest family member. This was the way of Japanese families and as Yasunobu was an immigrant to Canada, that was the way things would go; following the old Japanese traditions.

So...if Yasunobu, head of the family, told Satoshi to “marry Molly” for the sake of family reputation; so it would be. And Molly had no problems with that either – Satoshi adored Sandi as a daughter and he loved Molly and Molly loved him...so it was really no skin off their back.

“You have dishonored the family, Satoshi!” Yasunobu was absolutely horrified at the casual way that Satoshi had broached the fact that Molly had a nice little bun in the oven. Anata wa kazoku o fumeiyo ni shimashita!Anata ga morī to kekkon shinakereba, watashitachi wa meiyaku kakesareru! If you do not marry Molly, we shall be covered in shame.”

“Relax, my brother, Rirakkusu, Ani, watashi wa Molly to kekkon shimasu, ima anata wa tamuyu-ka? I will be marrying Molly, now will you ease off?”

Yasunobu shook his head as if frustrated, “How you manage to get yourself into things...I have no idea. Dō yatte jibun o konran sa seru koto ga wakaranai yo...”

Satoshi shrugged his shoulders as Yasunobu rolled his eyes.

It was quite apparent that Satoshi was quite complacent about the whole deal of Molly's pregnancy. Not that he wouldn't step in and do his part as a father. After all as a Chikamori, he was duty-bound to be a responsible father and to not cast shame on the family name.

This was something that was hard to understand for those not of their family; the concept of meiyaku; shame and family honor - a word that straddled both illusory concepts and made it so that the Japanese as a society were constantly looking to save face. And making sure that if they committed no offence to others, that they would have none inflicted upon them. At least in the latter half of the twentieth century. And they had a long laundry list to atone for in the early half.

But anyhow there were no criminals in the family, as far as anyone knew and except for the soon-to-be mooch who would become the father-in-law to Torao, there really was no shame to be had within the family.

Needless to say, though that the pregnancy had thrown a major monkey wrench into the works. And there would now be a wedding to prepare for after the baby showed up. That was going to make for some fun times for Satoshi.

Haruo was out fishing. The less he spent time hanging out at home the less likely it was that he was going to fall prey to what he wanted which was full on happy time with River which would have put their desire to wait until the marriage bed into serious jeopardy.

And of course that night was the night that Bebe and Torao decided that they were going to take the plunge into full on engaged bliss.

"You know we've been dating each other for how long?" Torao stated as he gazed into Bebe's eyes.

"On and off again since Grade 10 and steady since Grade 12." Bebe murmured softly. She had an inkling of where this was going and was curious if Torao had the same idea.

"You know I've always had feelings for you...". Torao stated. Bebe nodded, mutely. She'd known that Torao liked her a lot and it took quite some time being on-again, off-again friends to finally give them a shove towards being girlfriend and boyfriend in Grade 12. "Aside from the steadiness, we weren't that much different than my cousin". He informed her.

"Yeah. It took them a long time to come to the conclusion they were right for each other." Bebe said. "...and now they're engaged to be married.".

"So what does that say about us?" Torao grinned.

Bebe smirked, "OMG. That means we're slow?" Both Torao and Bebe burst out laughing at the utter ridiculousness of the whole thing. Bebe had been so focused on getting her friends together that she hadn't realized the extent of the bond she had with Torao.

"Well..." Bebe found her boyfriend on one knee, "Shall we fix that problem?" He asked holding up a velvet colored box in his hands, open to show her a pretty glittering diamond engagement ring. A nice solitaire cut in a princess cut that glittered reflecting off the ambient light in the room.

It took a long moment for her to realize just exactly what had been said to her and yet it seemed to take no time at all. "Oh...MY GOD!" She exclaimed. "Oh my god. Oh my god..." She repeated.

Torao was starting to fear he'd broken Bebe since that was all she could repeat for a few minutes. "Uh...Bebe?" He said looking up at her. "Will you do me the honor of becoming Mrs. Chikamori?"

With one final, "Oh my god!" Bebe said "Yes. I will." Gazing incredulously at the ring, as Torao slipped it onto her ring finger; she admired it and then threw her arms around her fiance nearly smothering him with a kiss.

"Unlike River and Haruo, even though I have all the respect in the world for their decision to wait," Bebe smirked, "I have no intention of delaying any mutual gratification till the time is right." She raised her eyebrows meaningfully and inclined her head towards the bathroom door. What followed was sheer utter blissful ecstacy for both Bebe and Torao.

River and Haruo on the other hand, curled up together in bed and slept content in the knowledge that one of these days they would give of themselves to one another and it would be sheer utter wanton pleasure for them on their honeymoon. Hopefully they wouldn't end up in the family way before coming back from their post nuptial travels.

A bun in the oven was not the most economical way to start off their married life.

As far as Yasunobu, worried about the shame that an unwedded pregnancy could cast on the family, was concerned; Satoshi could get married at anytime while Molly was adamant that she was doing no such thing until she could fit into her wedding dress after losing whatever baby weight she had gained. So Satoshi tried to avoid the whole matter by heading into work as a stage-hand, just so he wouldn't have to hear the kvetching from both ends.

So things were tense all around. The one thing that Bebe and Torao agreed upon was that their schooling came first so they would wait to get married until.after university.

Fiona was exceedingly busy considering her boss was constantly on her about writing articles and reviews. In fact there were limited restaurants to review. And the movies being put out by Starlight Shores and Hollywood were lacklustre at best.

Shark Attack looked promising but fizzled halfway through with no character development or a wandering plot that led through a side story about two bullied high-school students luring their classmates onto a boat then all the bullies getting eaten by the shark. Fiona tuned out of that movie after the first hour. If it had a halfway decent plot, maybe it could have worked. It didn't.

The other option was reviewing the Canadian Soccer League (CSL) Llamas latest field efforts. Soccer or what was known as European football was considered boring by North American standards. North American football was violent and a lot of players got injured but it was exciting. Fiona was more into hockey, that was what she grew up with. With the WHL and then the Canucks entering into the league the year River and Haruo were both born.

Players wore boots with blades on their feet, carried a bladed stick. The pads were generally thinner and more flexible. And oh, it was fast. Names like Hull, Gretzky, LaFontaine, Messier, Lemieux, These were the players in the late 80s that carried the NHL.

The BCHL's Sunset Valley Llamas were the cream of the crop with two Junior Cup wins as far as the BCHL was concerned, but to get drafted and get to The Show was the big dream of many a Canadian kid and to hoist Lord Stanley's mug over their head and do a victory lap around the rink with their team-mates after drubbing their opponents 3-0 on the ice.

It wasn't the case for Haruo. Even though he loved hockey, he knew his meagre skill level wouldn't get him to the show. In fact it would barely get him recognized by Jungle B (Junior B) and it would be a long tough slog to make it to the NHL from there. It was a long shot.

Maybe he would be good enough to make the fourth line at the college level. Who knew? And the UBC T-Birds had inquired into whether he was interested in playing for them since he'd played minor hockey through his life.

River was busy with her painting. Having recently received a commission to do ten paintings for an office. She was nearly halfway through the project having mastered her painting skill and was hoping for an inspiration of a masterpiece however the efforts to brush a masterpiece was exceedingly illusive. Unfortunately inspiration was a fleeting exercise in frustration and disinclined to stick around.

Needless to say that fact made it even more annoying as everyone thought outside of her husband-to-be thought her works were brilliant and her husband-to-be thought they were masterpieces but she knew better and it irked her that it was taking so long to perfect a masterpiece.

For Molly, the most annoying thing about the pregnancy was the waddle that developed as her center of gravity shifted forward. And this wasn't some stationary object either. Every so often it would shift and then give her a solid kick in the bladder which prompted her to have to make a frantic dash to the lavatory or risk an embarrassing accident by peeing on herself.

It was at breakfast one morning that River asked Haruo if they just might as well get married early because the frustration of waiting to go to university due to Molly's pregnancy, the waiting until they both had their degrees and waiting for marriage to do the deed, so to speak, was driving River hormonally crazy not to mention the once a month visit from Aunt Flo which did nothing but to make River cranky as hell.

That time of the month was when Haruo usually decided his best bet for his long-term survival was to go fishing and stay out till dark. Of course at the fishing hole he couldn't avoid hooking the equally cranky black goldfish which he promptly got rid of to the Langley RCMP which contrary to their national Dudley Do-Right "Always Get Our Man"; "arrest 50 armed gunmen with one Mountie" historical reputation; terrified the living shit out of the law-enforcement staff at the station.

"Well.what do you want me to do with the things?"

"Feed them to the piranhas?"

"I put them in a cooler together; I expected the piranhas to make short work of the little bugger: I open the cooler and I got the one intact black goldfish at the center of the cooler with fifteen piranhas, some missing pieces of their fins, cowering in the corner.".Haruo told them. "You think that was going to work?"

"Oh Flark." was the general consensus from the law enforcement agents.

"Besides, your chief inspector's the one who wanted this black goldfish to be at the station." At this statement the RCMP constables turned pale white as Haruo passed over the goldfish bowl containing one absolutely pissed off black goldfish which turned a bulbous malevolent golden eye at the shaking police officers and glared.

"J-j-just put the b-b-bowl d-d-down on the c-c-; leave it there." And all sixteen officers backed away as far as they could get from the counter. The fear in the officers' eyes did prove to be amusing.

However with River's assertion that they should get married before they went off to university held just as much an appeal to Haruo as it did to River considering how much they wanted each other's bodies; that was another story. That was more of an aggravation than amusing.

"I don't know, River. Don't you think we should be concentrating on our school-work at university. Besides there is a lot to do there and some of the exams are going to be tough."

"Yeah, I know" River heaved a heavy sigh. "but it just seems like such a grind to constantly be studying and not taking time to enjoy our relationship."

"But think of the end-goal. We have degrees that will carry over into life and potential careers." Haruo reasoned with her.

River nodded, standing up and moving closer to him pulling him closer to her, "but it doesn't alleviate just how much I want you..." She leaned in and purred in his ear. Haruo's eyes widened.

"Oh, Watcher, River, you're going to make me wish I didn't make that decision to not do anything until marriage, aren't you?" Haruo groaned as River smiled wickedly and nodded.

"...and this way you are going to so be in knots by the time our wedding night rolls around.". She whispered in his ear and then licked his ear-lobe and brushed her hand along his front which made him really uncomfortable.

She laughed as he headed out, rather awkwardly, she thought. He was trying to keep from having his front end visible as he exited the kitchen. That was just being an absolutely wicked tease, but she was frustrated and wanted him just as frustrated as she was.

She knew just how much he wanted her and she wanted him just as bad and hearing amatory sounds coming from the third floor bathroom over the sound of running water as Bebe and Torao took and gave of each other just made her frustrated to no end when all River wanted to do was jump Haruo's bones and make both her and him absolutely satisfied and wrung out.

Anyhow back to the painting.

Haruo stood at the pond, fishing rod in hand wondering just how he was going to get through the next few years of university without tossing in the towel so far as his and River's decision to remain celibate till marriage. Just the warmth and nearness of her body while they slept made him regret every word when he wanted to lose himself with her.

By the time their wedding night rolled around they'd be so horny that they'd end up ravishing each other for hours. How had they come from being innocent childhood friends to wanting each other physically as lovers. Haruo wryly grinned.

It was rather clear to see that River had certainly filled out in all the right places, that she'd become absolutely gorgeous, with beautiful fiery red locks of hair worn long and flowing; stunning green eyes that stopped men in their tracks to gaze at her and a curvaceous hourglass figure, lithe and gorgeous was what could be said about her. Her lips were full and so soft and kissable and she had eyes only for him, Haruo thought to himself. "I'm a lucky man" he said quietly to himself as he eased in his line and then cast it back into the water hoping to catch some more fish he could sell at the market.

It was with some sense of relief for Molly and the waiting-to-go-to-university kids when Molly went into labour one morning at breakfast. The rather ample size of her belly had had made walking an exercise in balancing herself since she couldn't see her feet and had to go on balance alone.

Everyone else had other things to do. River painted, Haruo fished. Torao went to the community garden and got vegetables and fruits. Yasunobu trimmed trees and worked on his own garden. Fiona wrote and went and reviewed restaurants, movies and sports events. Bebe went to work as a teacher's aide, Satoshi went and did his own thing at the theatre where he was a stage-hand. And well, Molly stewed being stuck at home until she gave birth. She was loath to cook anything because the fridge was already stocked full of eats.

The distinct focus of the Chikamori family now that the malevolent narcissist Mayumi was out of the picture was that everyone pulled together for each other's mutual benefit. Everyone knew their role in the family and each new member of the family that joined that structure instinctively knew what it was that needed to be done.

It was early afternoon when the family heard that Molly'd had twins and was headed back with Satoshi in a taxi. Molly was so exhausted that she lay down and went to sleep. Satoshi joined her and plumb forgot about Sally Akiko French who ended up.outside in the front yard.

If it wasn't for Yasunobu, who knew what would have become of poor Sally. Maybe she would have been snatched by baby slavers or worse. As it was Yasunobu woke Satoshi and raged at him, "How could you leave Sally outside. How dare you be so careless with your own child?"

This time Satoshi couldn't ease his way out of it. He had to be penitent. The party-animal in him always sought enjoyment and self-gratification above else but leaving a child in their own yard where there were dogs and not minding the child was irresponsible and careless, according to Yasunobu and Yasunobu was livid. "Don't ever do that again, Satoshi. I don't want River and Haruo to have to parent a child before they're ready but if you can't take care of your own off-spring. You're going to force my hand."

It was clear that Yasunobu wanted his family to be upright citizens and was prepared to exact some painful punishments if his edicts were not obeyed. Fiona marveled that Yasunobu could go from hen-pecked to lord-of-the-manor so quickly upon Mayumi getting killed. But even if he was harsh at what Satoshi and Molly had done, it was fair considering the severity of the situation.

Being irresponsible carried it's own set of consequences and Satoshi realized the ramifications of what could have potentially happened to Sally and Satoshi knew Yasunobu was right to grill him over hot coals.

Mayumi on the other hand would have been evil enough to call MCFD on the couple and potentially have all three of their children taken away. Satoshi's eldest son was a young adult so he was no longer at-risk of that happening but Sandy, Sally and Diane were all of an age where it could happen to them.

It was unsure as to what Satoshi and Molly had planned in terms of wedding bells but Yasunobu was not going to settle on a "hmmm, maybe down the road." When it came to the twins, he insisted that they be legitimized immediately so as to not tarnish the Chikamori family name. And he was definitively not going to take no for an answer. Especially when Torao was the son of a pair of divorcees which was shame enough according to Yasunobu.

Which was one of the reasons behind Haruo wanting to wait until they were legally married to do anything like the horizontal tango. The intimate "dance of lovers" was completely out of the question; no way - no how.

Yasunobu or Fiona would have killed them. Or both at the same time (which pair the Watcher is referring to, he will leave you to guess).

In other news, Cordell Van Watson, the illegitimate get of the town harpy, taking after his mother, Madison, was making life miserable for Miraj Alvi so the Watcher did an intercession answering the age old question from Handel's Messiah from one of his tenor airs (opera solos are called arias; oratorio solos are called airs which in any case is completely different from the phrase putting on airs which is what you would do if you want to be supercilious or if you are listening to an oratorio straight through on a recording - Confusing? Me too...) "Who makes intercession for us?". Well in this case, Miraj got a direct answer from the Almighty Watcher since Cordell got fried.

In any case Cordell won't be doing that again if he doesn't want to risk the wrath of the Almighty.

Ten bucks say he's stupid enough to do it again.

Haruo went over to see Moses, not the biblical one, at the elixir shop.

"How are you, Haruo?" Moses Joseph asked, "...and how's that pretty wife-to-be of yours?"

"We're both doing great, Moses." Haruo grinned back at the long-time elixir shop attendant. "She and I are planning on heading to university soon."

"That's a good choice. Can't go wrong getting a post-secondary education."

"That's the long and the short of it. At least what it'll do is give us some options." Haruo stated. "And I'll have a good chance of making some money with the collecting at least even if I don't put the degree to use. In any rate, I'll have choices."

"Gotta say those pups have some good noses."

"You bet." Haruo grinned at him propping a rainbow gem on the counter.

"Dang. Largest one I've seen yet." Moses commented.

"Franz doesn't find small ones and the other two are finding their tracking skills pretty well."

Moses raised an eyebrow, "That's pretty good."

After stopping by the elixir shop. Haruo headed back home. At least things had settled back down somewhat after the incessant brouhaha over Molly having twins out of wedlock. Thank goodness for that. Otherwise he would probably have had to stay out and fish all night. Oh deer... ~smirk~

Needless to say there was a stigma attached to such things and for Yasunobu; face was always important. If one had to save face one always was on the wrong end of things. The best thing to do was just make sure that one did not step wrong. And that was difficult to do at the best of times.

River's paintings were selling quite well and she wasn't doing too badly on the quality front. In any case the some fact that the paintings had some interest proved that River had made the right choice to pursue painting as a career choice. After all finding that niche in one's career path was not an easy task.

Haruo figured spending his day out with rod and reel was as good an option as any considering Molly's tots were at an age where the screaming coming from.Satoshi and Molly's room could wake the dead. Luckily River, Haruo, Bebe and Torao were on the top floor on the other side which meant that any screaming they heard was after going down on the elevator. After. Molly stopped screaming, she would feed the tots before THEY started screaming.

Until Molly's kidlets were of an age where they could walk and talk the four of Bebe, Haruo, River and Torao would be stuck making money and then they could head off to university. And fishing was relaxing unless you had a snapping blacktip or a psychopathic black goldfish on the other end of the line which made life really fun for Haruo.

Every so often Torao would enjoy coming out to fish but that wouldn't last long. Those black goldfish scared the living bejesus out of him. And forgetting putting them in his ruck. It was just as well that goldfish didn't have teeth or they might be calling him Three-Fingers Torao.

Torao knowing that his soon to be step-mom.needed help decided to be the ever-helpful stepson and take one of his soon-to-be step-sisters and teach her how to walk and talk now that they were toddlers. Yes, it was certainly taking a long time for Haruo, River, Bebe and Torao to go to university. Besides Molly was expected to be back at work on Sunday at her usual place of employ.

Fiona was pretty disgusted at the lack of decent films coming out of Starlight Shores the poor man's Hollywood. "Love in the Time of Llamas" was pure foreign romantic schlock, tripping ALL the tropes for such drivel. Figures it would have come out of Champs Les Sims. "The Dictator of Bandar Abbas" was yet another dismal flop with only those who would be interested in the dour war genre being enthralled by this particular one out of the country of pyramids; Al Simhara. The only flick that seemed to have a faint hope of being any good was "Crouching Tiger; Hidden Llama" which proved to be good for about the first twenty minutes then plummeted into a no-plot chop-socky Kung Fu flick. So much for any silver screen hope from perennial Oscar favorite, Shang Sim La. Maybe she should have just put her reviewer's brain on off and subjected herself to "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure". A most truly excellent piece of cinematic achievement. STATION!!!

Molly had a lot of things to do and once she was finished dealing with teaching Sally Akiko how to talk she was dealing with teaching her how to walk which in any case was not going to be that hard since Torao was taking care of Diana Mariko.

In actual fact with Torao helping her Molly was able to teach the twins in short order to talk, walk and go potty in that order. Which would seem.to be the logical order. Teach the kid to talk so he or she can say "Mommy, go potty." So tot doesn't leave a nice mess in her diaper. Teach her to walk so she can make it over there and keep Mommy from throwing out her back. And finally teach her to go potty so that laundry from.accidents is lessened. Actually the last two could potentially be interchangeable. Pottie before walkie is also good so that tot knows just why walking is so good. Get to the potty before go poopie in pants. Now there's a concept.

Meanwhile Satoshi was at the park up by Summerhill Court which allowed him to fish on his day off. Hardly anyone came to this park which made for a very tranquil park for the likes of Torao, Yasunobu and Haruo. But for Satoshi, long hours of nothing exciting was pure boredom and he hated it. With the exception of biting fish which livened up a few moments, even fishing was an exercise in tedium which in the end made Satoshi resolve to never do this ever again. Although in his defence he did reach level seven in his fishing skill which would allow him to have enough skill to catch for Molly's benefit the fish used to make dinner be it fish and chips or grilled salmon. Was there a function for the tuna? The Watcher figures it's for tuna sandwiches.

Before Haruo could get out the door to join Satoshi at the park he got dragooned by River who told him, "Sweetheart, could you do something about the shower in the bathroom in our suite? I think Sandi broke it again." Of course when River gave him that oh-so-sweet I'll definitely make this favour you do for me worth your while when we get married look, Haruo could not resist. Oh little did he know that was the way of countless wives to coerce their husbands into doing stuff the wives wanted their husbands to do even though the husbands didn't really want to do it in the first place. Then they would sit around the tables with their female friends comparing notes.

"Hey John fixed the gutters last weekend."

"Way to go, Sarah. So what did Dave do, Eileen?"

"Oh he repaved the driveway, mowed the lawn and replaced the shingles on the roof."

"WOOOOOOAH!!! " Winner winner chicken dinner.

"How did she break this?" Haruo asked River incredulously when he saw the geysering shower-head. "Did she hang off the thing like monkey-bars?"

"Watcher only knows" River rolled her eyes. So guess what Haruo was doing for the rest of the day?

Haruo proceeded to then wrench the hot water tap in the shower.

WATCHER: "Hey, dude, if the showerhead is doing a good impression of Old Faithful; chances are, you got a busted O-ring. It's not gonna do anything for you to wrench the hot water tap."

Well, with Yasunobu breathing fire at Satoshi, Satoshi and Molly decided that they'd better look into getting married or they would be toasted over a roasting spit. It wasn't as though Satoshi didn't know this. Even if Yasunobu wasn't primped and stuck-up about it, he held to the old-world Japanese tradition of face which meant you kept your actions in your everyday life as honorable as possible and did nothing to bring shame upon one's family.

To the younger generations, that was easier said than done. Owing as to emotions and hormones running rampant. But Satoshi was nearly fifty: so what was his problem? Evidently he hadn't grown up yet. With at least twenty-five years left to go, let's just say that he didn't have much time left to get it right.

Anyhow being born in 1940 Satoshi had gone through the war as a baby and coming out the end as a five year old. Which meant for him that life was meant to be enjoyed.

Yasunobu on the other hand born in 1934 was six years old when the war started for him and eleven when the war ended which gave him a very different view of what life should be. Because he had spent most of the war providing for his brothers and his mother. His view was that life and time should not be squandered; that every moment wasted was a moment that couldn't be recovered. For him study was important, because it meant the chance at a better life.

Though he wasn't anywhere as psycho as Mayumi, he was displeased when Haruo squandered time and was exceedingly proud of him when he demonstrated academic prowess.

The upshot of Yasunobu's decision was that Satoshi and Molly needed to get married in three days time and not waste any more time for the children to go to university by their indecision.

Well that was that. And Satoshi capitulated, knowing that he had to accede to the wishes of the head of the household.

So the next three days were a whirlwind of wedding preparations in any case so that they were able to go ahead and get married and for Yasunobu, the only thing that would satisfy him was a public declaration of marriage so that tongues didn't wag about those wanton Chikamoris and their propensity to have children out of wedlock. That would not go over well with Yasunobu at all.

Mayumi, if the hated old bat was still around would be throwing tantrums about how Molly didn't deserve to become a famy member and that they deserved to be excommunicated from the family for the shame they'd brought to them all.

However family blood ties were important to Yasunobu and a stern castigation as opposed to throwing the poor bum on the street was warranted. Any thing more severe than a harsh talking to on the subject of family honour was overboard.

And so, with three days to plan and execute the wedding, things went into overdrive. After all the destination was in the family back-yard which meant the poor dogs would have their houses and food bowls removed to a different spot in the yard and a wedding arch would be set up for Molly and Satoshi to take their vows. This was to keep costs down for those having to pay for the wedding to take place.

The officiant was a portly priest of the Shinto faith. A Reverend Otaro Yamagata; a priest in his late fifties. He had no problems with the couple wearing Western clothing for taking their wedding vows. And would make sure that they were properly endowed with the right blessings from the Almighty Kamisama. After all the couple were getting married to legitimize their children so why not be blessed as well.

Perhaps that might help with the diaper changes. At least maybe cut down the smell a bit. Maybe? After all, what are blessings for? Heavenly Assistance in Childcare.

When the day of the wedding dawned it was clearly apparent that the Watcher was clearly in favour of Satoshi and Molly's union as the sun shone bright. And as it was a weekend morning the wedding was going to start bright and early. The better to have Molly and Satoshi married off and into their new lives together. Where they would happily sit in a cottage together on the island where all the Chikamoris would all eventually live, away from the hustle and bustle of the ever-expanding Sunset Valley municipality.

Ideally the Chikamoris should have a much bigger island, a large island world to populate (much like Maple Ridge where the Watcher grew up only Maple Ridge didn't have a coast-line) but this will have to do until the Chikamoris have enough simoleons to get their own island. (The Watcher wishes he had HIS own island too but unless he wins the lottery; that isn't going to happen anytime soon.

Of course the sun shone bright as Molly and Satoshi watched the guests gather and waited by the arch for the ceremonies to begin.

When the officiant had gathered the couple together at the wedding arch, he read some Shinto scriptures and blessed the couple and then Molly and Satoshi made their vows to each other. The good Reverend Yamagata blessed them again and read another bunch of scriptures. Then they were asked to sign the marriage licence papers stating to the Province of British Columbia that they were married in the eyes of the Crown of the Queen of Canada, also the Queen of England and the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth as her loyal subjects even though they'd taken vows of marriage not in a religion officially recognized by the Crown of the Commonwealth.

How does that work again? Oh, religious freedom.

And then the Reverend blessed them again. With all this blessing they should rightly now be completely filled to the brim with happy happy blessings of joy joy.

And now they were married in the eyes of the public and Sally Akiko and Diana Mariko would no longer be considered illegitimate offspring and a shame to the family.

Which opinion is stuffy to say the least but it partly stems from the morality doctrine that gets shoveled down their throats to justify persecution of those who don't toe the line of societal norms.

Anyways Molly and Satoshi were now married, Yasunobu was happy. Bebe, Torao, Haruo and River were all happy because they could escape this madhouse and now go to university to get their degrees and enter the hamster wheel of 9-5. Bebe in.a classroom; the others deciding that the cubicle wasn't in their future. The dogs were ecstatic because they got their houses put back and every thing was all happy happy joy joy big boat y'know. Hunky Dory.