A Sour End to a Strange Day

“Whoa,” Mick blinked. He hadn’t seen this many strangers at one time in all his life – except on TV, but those were mostly cartoons anyway.

“Miiiick…! Wait up!” Anisia shouted.

Anisia froze. She’d been anxious to get to Mick and hadn’t noticed the crowd when she turned the corner.

“Mick, I’m ready to go home now. Mom probably made dinner already,” Anisia whimpered.

“What,” mocked Mick, “Is little Nisi scared?” he cackled.

“No. I’m tired,” Anisia pointed her nose up. Mick could get annoying when he was in his manically evil mood.

“Anyways,” he rolled his eyes,  “if you wanna eat, then come in. I’m not gonna wait for you,” he warned her.

Anisia sighed resentfully, but knowing Mick, he was serious. She didn’t want to wait here, so she figured she’d meet up with him at home.

There certainly was a lot of pink-haired people around, she noticed.

She rode her bike home, somewhat frightened of being alone, and feeling guilty for not being close to Mick like she promised her father she’d be. But she couldn’t stand being around strangers for too long.

When she got home she saw the Diamanda woman was still there. She kept her eyes on the floor as she walked past her.

She entered the dining room/kitchen and saw her sister explaining to her mother where she’d been all day.

“I only stepped out to buy a book for Mick,” she half-lied. “I’ve been at the beach behind the house for most of the day though.”

Danielle glanced at Anisia, who immediately looked down. Anisia hated lying, and her family could always tell if she was covering for somebody.

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Danielle shot Abbey a reproachful look.

Abbey couldn’t really do much but laugh pathetically and look at her shoes.

“I really do have the book though,” she mumbled.

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“Have you two seen Mick?” she asked exasperatedly, looking at Anisia.

“Umm…” Anisia began nervously, “He’s coming.”

“So, how’d you get home?” Abbey frowned.

Mick had discovered the reason behind the town’s new inhabitants – Emerald Harbor had re-opened.

Three weeks ago.

While he was recovering from the shock however, he had noticed a nearby policewoman eying him, and got irked when she wouldn’t look away. He called her out on it…

…and discovered that a new curfew rule had been established in town.

“Mommy, are all changlings like that?” worried Linda’s children.

“No, of course not,” laughed their mother nervously, “Just the McGrubers.”

“Wait, no, that’s not what I meant,” she panicked.

Mick couldn’t have cared less that the police had just ‘arrested’ him. He saw it more of a ride home than anything. He had other more engrossing thoughts.

“Thanks for the ride lady,” Mick smirked lazily. The policewoman scowled at him before driving away. She could tell he was going to be trouble.

When Mick turned around he saw his mother running up to him with a furious expression on her face.

“Was that a POLICE OFFICER in front of our house?!” she shouted.

“Yeah,” Mick said cautiously, “What’s the big deal?” They all knew their father was involved in some sort of dirty business – she couldn’t really be about to give him a speech about morality now, could she?

“Whats the BIG DEAL?!” she shrieked. “Mick, there was a POLICE OFFICER in front of our HOUSE! You KNOW your father is involved in some shady business, yet you’re irresponsible enough to attract enough attention to bring a law enforcer to OUR HOUSE?!”

“Oh,” Mick realized. It hadn’t occurred to him what could happen if the police got suspicious enough to start some sort of investigation. His face became hot with shame.

“Do you want your father to be taken away from us? Who would provide for the family? We’d be turned out of the house, not to mention, your father would be in jail! Our reputation is bad enough, and people have only just started coming in!” – it seemed like Danielle was aware that the town had been reopened – “Don’t you think about your family at ALL?”

“O-of course I do..!” Mick stammered weakly.

“Well you have a funny way of showing it. I’m very disappointed in you,” she said with contempt.

Mick had never felt so ashamed – and foolish – in his life. While he knew it wasn’t his fault about being ignorant of the new curfew law, he should’ve been home earlier – or at least been cautious enough to leave when he’d caught sight of the police officer.

Mick slowly looked up at his mother ready to apologize for putting their family in danger when he saw a figure move out of the corner of his eye. Diamanda was still at their house?

His temper suddenly rose, and he gave his mother a furious look.

“You’re calling me irresponsible? I don’t care about our family? Who’s the one who let two criminals into the house, two dangerous people, and into the same room where Anisia was? It’s bad enough that you let her in,” Mick spluttered, “but then you have a shouting match with the lady in front of her? You know how scared Anisia is of strangers, nevermind her mother fighting with one!”

“And what was your reason for letting this happen?” Mick dropped his voice, “For the sake of our reputation. Be honest. When you get down to it, that’s what you really care about, isn’t it?”

“If anyone’s disappointed, it should be me. You don’t care about Dad, or Nisa, or any of us. Dad’s only the caretaker in your eyes. The rest of us  are just liabilities.” Mick was intentionally saying anything he could to make her hurt. A more virtuous sim might feel a bit of guilt saying all this to their mother – Mick reveled in her pained and resentful expression. Though Mick did care about his family, his inclination for the bad things in life didn’t always exclude manipulating and hurting them from time to time.

After Mick finished what he had to say, he walked into the house and went to his room. Danielle sighed and went to the kitchen to clean up. It wasn’t true what he had said -

– she did love her children, and though her relationship with her husband wasn’t always pleasant, she told herself that she loved him too.

However, when it came down to it, she wasn’t sure if her first allegiance was to herself or to her family.