#Midnight Sun Challenge Chapter 2.8 Goodbye Socks

Telling Jin about Socks was one of the hardest things I have had to do as a parent.

Maya and I had been up all night, cleaning up the yard and the barn to remove all signs the horses had been there.  Maya took care of all the objects and I raked all the hay into a big pile to do something with it later.  Standing there looking at it was just too tempting and I called Maya over, dipped her into a kiss 




and together we snuck into the pile for a little rendezvous. 

 Hey, people deal with grief in all different ways don't forget!



Anyway back to Jin.  When we told him, he just sat there, silent and staring off into space.  No ranting, no raving, nor any crying.

It worried Maya and I immensely, fearing he was in shock or that this was just another loss to add to any psychological damage he may be suffering from with all the changes in his life since he was born.  We decided to rally behind him and make him our first and foremost priority, leaving work and hobbies behind until we knew he was well again.  Maya suggested a day at the beach where I would finally be able to teach him to snorkel.  Jin loved the idea and eagerly jumped into the water waiting for me to join him. After giving him the basics, I watched as he tried it first on his own 

and then I joined him with his mother keeping an eye from the beach. 

We didn't find anything in the water that day, but the skill boost he got from all the practice put us one step closer to checking out the dive spots in the area. 

Maya cooked us some delicious hamburgers on the grill I installed in our new outdoor kitchen down on the beach.  

By the time they were done, the sun had almost completely disappeared for the day, leaving us sitting by the fire to eat our burgers, then roast some marshmallows. 

The evening started to get a chill to the air if you weren't close to the fire, 

so Maya send Jin off to bed, going with him to help him get settled. She then returned to the beach, where we enjoyed some quiet moments alone.

"Did you notice that Jin wasn't his normal chatty person today.  It was like he was here but not really here," said Maya.

"I think it will just take time.  Time to learn to trust again.  At least he understands that there was nothing magical or sinister going on here," replied Ian.

"Do you think we made the right decision to lie to him about who came for the horses?  What if the aliens come back? Come back someday when you and I are both gone?"

"Then hopefully he will handle it.  I've never before met an alien either."

"Yes but at least you knew about them somewhat.  Jin isn't in the real world.  He's sheltered here.  Perhaps he needs to spend some time in the real world, when he is older, so he is prepared."

"This isn't something I want to talk about right now.  I'm cold, come here."

Maya and I moved further down the beach and into the warm water. 

After a while, Maya said "He isn't you Ian.  You have to remember that.  He may not choose to live here on the island and you need to be prepared for that."

I would never be prepared for that, nor did I want to think about it at that moment. So I did what I had been wanting to do all day;  I leaned over and kissed my wife.  Which led to more kissing and Maya pulling me into the all in one bathroom.  I will never get enough of this woman, until the day I die!

Jin woke up early the next morning and came down to have his breakfast while it was still dark.  It seemed as if he went through the motions without really being there.  When he was done eating his bread and jam, he just sat at the table staring off into space. 

I felt so bad and didn't know what to do for him.  He left and headed off toward the beach.  A little while later I went in search of him only to find him sitting in the sand box, staring at the barn.

Then it came to me, what I could do.  So I made some quick calls and went on the internet to find what I was a looking for.  If I was lucky, it would arrive the next day.  For now, all we had to do was keep him busy till then.

Later on that day, Jin was busy doing his two hour afternoon dance training, so I thought to catch up on some reading I had put off for the past few weeks.  I sat down on my favourite spot by the bay window and.....

(reader may insert whoopee cushion noise of their choice here)

Go Ahead.  I'll wait....

My immediate reaction was to get instantly annoyed and want to yell for Jin, however then I realized that I couldn't get mad at Jin. Not now, it was just not the time.  So instead, I chuckled and wondered how long it had actually been lying there waiting for me to sit on it.






The next few days, Jin seemed to become more and more like himself.  He spent a lot of time playing with Sophie, which is something he hadn't been doing before.  

Sophie went everywhere with him, including the washroom where she patiently sat and waited for Jin to finish in the shower everyday.  The only time they were apart was at night, as Sophie had decided she really liked sleeping in the cat's bed.  





Aria was not impressed with this change, and spent most of the night up roaming the house searching for different places to sleep.  










Then sleeping most of the afternoon to catch up on lost good nights sleep.




During the time that Jin was giving Socks all his attention, Sophie has started acting out in her own little ways.  Her destructive ways had begun to get worse and she seemed to digress in toilet training, peeing all over the house.  Maya and I had tried to fill in for Jin by giving her lots of attention but it was clear Jin was who she wanted.

Now he had the task of re training Sophie to stop peeing in the house.  It was a task that was not going well.  Sophie had at least one accident everyday, and usually right when Jin was standing there with her.  

It was like she was telling Jin, I'm still sore with you.  Jin took up the task of training her, asking for no help from us and we left him to it, hoping the new bond he made with Sophie would help heal his sore heart.  

Maya and I briefly discussed getting Jin a horse or his own, but decided against it.  The island was really not a suitable piece of land for a full grown horse to live on, and together we agreed it was not a good lesson to teach him.   All loss was hard and could not be replaced with a replica.  We let the matter drop, feeling confident we had made the right decision.

It took more days than I had anticipated but my gift for Jin finally arrived.  I took him up into the barn to show him what I had gotten.
Jin walked in the barn and just stood stock still.  I was half way up the ladder when I turned to see him staring where the horse pens had used to sit.  I called to him and he followed me up the ladder.


"Tada!" I said to him for dramatics.

"What is it?" he asked.

"It's an inventing bench.  My father game me one when I was about your age, and now I am giving one to you!"

"For me?" Jin asked, surprised.

"Oh course for you, however I may want to use it every once and a while for the fun of it.  But I have one condition.  You have to manage how much time you spend up here.  Sophie can't get up the ladder and it's not fair to her to ignore her."




"I won't!  I promise!  This is soooo cool!  Can I try it now?"







"Sure go ahead.  I will take Sophie back to the house with me for a while.  Have fun!  But remember to be safe."

Jin spent the next few hours up in the barn banging away on the metal and when he was done, he had created this.

I'm not exactly sure what it is; some duck coin bank maybe?  It was his first creation and he was very proud of it, so we celebrated with him and told him it looked great.  







Since the night we lost Socks, we were really starting to see 
our old Jin back again.  After making his creation, he spent the night joking and laughing with us. He challenged me to a game of racing and beat me mercilessly! 





 I really felt that things were going to be fine.  That night his mother read him a bedtime story, which he missed as he fell asleep as soon as she opened the book.  Yes we had definitely struggled through the worst of it and come out on the other side. 

 From now on things were going to be good.  






Then.............Sophie went missing.......


ThanX to all my readers and friends for following along with the story!  Now just below you can leave me a little comment by clicking on No Comments or the little pencil (depending on if you are first) and perhaps click on the G+1 to recommend me to the public! Plus if you enter in your email up top (totally private no worries) you can receive alerts when there is a new post.  You are the best!!



CC Used In This Chapter

Contemporary Carpet 12  by PralineSims
(In Foyer)
http://www.thesimsresource.com/downloads/details/category/sims3-sets-objects-decorative/title/contemporary-carpets-12/id/1214756

Jin's Hair-Joey by Cazy
www.thesimsresource.com/downloads/details/category/sims3-hair-hairstyles-male/title/joey-hairstyle--child/id/1273277

Poses Used In This Chapter

Don't Be Sad/ Bad Boy by IMHO
http://urbanhypesims.tumblr.com

Pose Pack 02 by Tinu 
http://www.thesimsresource.com/downloads/details/category/sims3-poses/title/pose-pack-02-by-tinu/id/1277676

#Midnight Sun Challenge Chapter 2.7 Frights, Scares and Magic!

Sometime in the middle of the night, we were all woken by colourful lights that flashed brightly into our home but seemed to have no origin or cause.  My father's search of the skies from the third floor deck showed him nothing, as his vision was hindered by the intensity of the light and he couldn't see anything beyond a few feet in front of him. 

 They flashed in the sky for about a minute then, as quickly as they came, they were gone.








I just stood there frozen.  For my little mind, I had just about enough of all this craziness.  Was it magic?  Was it ghosts?  Or now, was it aliens?  At that moment, I wasn't sure I wanted to live on the island anymore.  Too freaked to sleep in my own bed, I climbed in with my parents and spent the rest of the night with them.  

We all slept in quite late the next morning, exhausted from our night time excitement and lack of ability to fall back to sleep right away after the "whatever" was gone.  I jumped out of bed realizing that Boots would be crying for her bottle.  I ran outside, completely forgetting my fright from the night before and went in search of my beloved pet.  She was in her stall, right where she had been put the night before, but Aurora and Cherry were not.  I let a very frantic Boots out of her stall and immediately gave her the bottle. 

Together we went outside in search of the other horses, but no where could they be found.  Boots kept whinnying, as if looking for them, but no horse came.  

I ran inside to tell dad and he came out to look with me, yet as I already found out, there were no horses to be found.  I was devastated! 

Boots didn't know what to do without herself without her horse friends, so she followed me wherever I went, like a puppy follows it's master.   No matter where I went she wouldn't leave my side, and when I went in the house, she stood at the dock loudly crying for me. I asked dad if she could just come in the house to sleep with us, but he said she needed to learn to be on her own and it was all part of growing up as a wild horse.  I don't have to tell you how that made me feel!  Dad led her to her stall and locked her in for the night.  I prayed she would be there in the morning.

Bedtime came and we were all tucked in for the night...or so we thought.  Sometime around three in the morning, I was woken by a very loud sound I had never heard before.  The wailing, screeching sound hurt my ears and I covered them with my hands to save my hearing.  I walked out of my room and saw my dad racing down the stairs with a look of anger on his face.  I ran after him, along with my mother to see a police officer battling it out with a woman dressed in black and white.  It took me a second to realize....that we were being robbed!  While my dad shouted encouragement to the police officer, I looked on in terrified and shocked dismay. 

Robbed?  All the way out here? Where did the police officer come from and how did she get here so quickly?  It just can't be! Luckily, the police officer won, our items were returned and the bad, uh, woman was escorted out in handcuffs and off the island. 

Oh I forgot to mention that when the woman broke into our house, she either let in a deer, or one followed her in.  

Funny thing is, Sophie slept through the whole thing.

"Some guard dog you are Sophie," I said to her, sleeping on the cats bed.
"Perhaps the deer would make a better guard animal!"








My parents sent me back to bed, but shortly after, I tiptoed into their room and slept on their couch, too scared to be in my room alone.  Who knew what would happen next on this crazy island?

The days following the robbery went on as normal.  I stayed close to my parents as much as I could, too afraid to be alone on the island.  Mom suggested some art therapy, and asked me to paint something that showed how I was feeling.  I thought about it for a bit, staring at the canvas and this is what came out of me.

When I was finished mom said it was good to acknowledge how I was feeling, because when I did that I could start facing my fears and gain back some of the safety and security I had felt on the island before all these scary moments.  She said it was always good to be cautious, but that I needed to remember the island was home and we should always feel safe at home. 

"Remember all the good things about the island," she said. "Maybe your next painting could be about that." 

I really tried to focus on that and began venturing out more on my own.  I spent some time up in the lighthouse standing at my art easel, trying to think of what I wanted to paint next.  I felt safe up there for some reason, I didn't know why.  Perhaps it was because I was like the king of the castle looking down on my kingdom, and no one hurts the king.  Right?


Thing is, I was wrong, so wrong.

**********************************************************************************
Two nights later, the bright lights returned while Maya and I were still cleaning up in the kitchen.  This time I needed to know where they were coming from so I raced to the door only to run smack into an alien who was just about to knock.  He held out his hand in an awkward attempt to greet me as humans do and I shook his hand.  But my thoughts were directed elsewhere, as you can see.  

Damn Ian -focus!

















"Good evening," said the alien.

At this point I'm still trying to come to grips with the fact that standing in front of me is a real live alien.  You hear about them, people talk about them, but you can go your whole life and never see one.  In fact there is a whole movement out there of sims trying to debunk the alien theory, which unfortunately meant labeling sims crazy, if they admitted to seeing one.  

What does one say to an alien?  Greetings from planet Sim? Welcome to our planet?  Something life altering of course, but what do I say?

"Hello." Brilliant Ian.

"I've come to apologize," said the alien.  "We had no idea anyone had taken over living on the island."

"We haven't been here that long actually.  Only a few months," I replied.

"You see we use the island for it's magical properties, to house our horses that belong to the uh, well you would call them royalty I suppose.  We leave them here as foals and return for them when they mature."

"So you are responsible for the two horses that went missing the other day?"

"Yes, it was time for them to come home.  We've returned for the last horse."

"Oh please no!" I said.  "My son, he is very found of that horse.  He named her Boots and has been taking great care of her.  They have become the best of friends.  Must you take her?  I could compensate you for her."

















"I'm glad to hear she has been well taken care of but I am sorry.  She is property to our leader and must return home.  But we will be leaving more horses over time and perhaps your son-"

"No!  No. I know that you come and go from your world but in my world, Planet Sim, I own this island.  If you can't leave me one small horse, then none others shall be left here either!"

"I'm very sorry you feel that way.  It may take some time, to get that request put through but I will get back to you when I have an answer for you," said the alien.

"I don't think you are hearing me correctly. This is not a request.  No more horses, not on my land.  I don't ever want to see you or any others of your kind here again."
















With that, I walked back in the house and slammed the door.  I was so mad, I even went so far as to turn off the light. Okay, yes I know, Jin gets it from me.  Probably not the best move, making an enemy out of an alien, but it was for Jin.  For him, I would do anything!   




Maya met me in the kitchen.

"What are we going to tell Jin?" she asked.  "He will be heartbroken!"

"I don't know.  I really don't know."



ThanX to all my readers and friends for following along with the story!  Now just below you can leave me a little comment by clicking on No Comments or the little pencil (depending on if you are first) and perhaps click on the G+1 to recommend me to the public! Plus if you enter in your email up top (totally private no worries) you can receive alerts when there is a new post.  You are the best!!

*********************************************************************************
CC Used In This Chapter

Contemporary Carpet 12  by PralineSims
(In Foyer)
http://www.thesimsresource.com/downloads/details/category/sims3-sets-objects-decorative/title/contemporary-carpets-12/id/1214756

Jin's Hair-Joey by Cazy
www.thesimsresource.com/downloads/details/category/sims3-hair-hairstyles-male/title/joey-hairstyle--child/id/1273277

Wisteria Pattern by marcorse
(In master bedroom on bed and walls)
www.thesimsresource.com/downloads/details/category/sims3-materials-fabrics/title/wisteria-pattern/id/1150723

#Midnight Sun Challenge Chapter 2.6 Trouble Is My Middle Name

I think it goes without saying that after dad discovered what I had done to his book draft, I was in the biggest trouble I had ever been in. 

If it had only been the booby trapped computer, I think dad would have been mildly annoyed.

But when he discovered what I had done to his book ...well lets just say it was the first time I had actually seen my dad mad; really mad!
















I hid up in the top floor of the lighthouse for quite some time to allow his temper to cool down.  Not that dad would hurt me or anything.  On hindsight, it really was wrong to do what I did.  I know that.  But what also was wrong, was hiding in an all glass room where I could be seen from everywhere. 

I thought that it would give me a good vantage point to see everything that was going on.  I never thought my parents would think of looking there first.  Of course, letting Sophie see where I went probably wasn't the wisest thing to do either.  I thought she would just stay up there with me, but she didn't.  I was found in no time and my punishment began.
  
I was ordered to sit at the table and listen.

My parents told me that my behaviour was getting out of hand. They said I needed some perspective and the only way that was going to happen, was through hard work, and putting some distance between me and the horses.  I protested heartily!

"I really don't see what is the big deal.  Its not like I deleted dad's book.  I mean all he had to do was highlight and delete my journal entry. "












"That isn't the point and you know it!  It's the fact that you did it at all.  You didn't delete my book, that is true, but you could have or really messed it up."

"But I didn't!"  I replied.

"Jin Charles Bell, I have had enough of this new found attitude. Ever since we moved to the island, it's like you have become a different boy.  Well that is going to change!  You've just earned yourself three days grounding.  Be prepared to work and work hard."

That, I didn't like the sound of.  Over react much dad! Really!!



Every morning dad woke me up early and I was given a list of chores I needed to complete by the end of the day. 












It always started with the chickens, feeding and collecting the eggs. I took my annoyance out on Charles, asking him all kinds of dumb questions that put him in a bad mood. 

He would always toss up his head, spin and walk away while swishing his tail.  It was fun making someone else's day as miserable as mine!

The beds were always on the list, first mine, then my parents.

Then I had to feed the horses, but I was not allowed to play with Boots or give her any extra attention.  I was allowed to say good morning to her, but that was it.  I could see that she was sad without me and that gave me another reason to be mad at dad.

There were toilets to be cleaned everyday.  

While I was doing the 'hard work' as dad put it, 
I found out that mom....


was doing this!!

I usually find it really hard to be mad at mom, but I'm telling you, I was not impressed with this.  I know; 
' It's all my fault I'm grounded ' blah blah blah. 
' The only person I should be mad at is myself ', blah blah blah. 

Whatever!  I really don't think what I did is cause to treat me like a cleaning lady!  Now I was also mad at mom.


Later I asked about giving Boots her bottle.  But I found out that...
















Mom had taken over feeding Boots twice a day.  



*Little Traitor*  
' What happened to not liking mom?!  I guess all it takes it popping a bottle in your mouth and you're their new best friend! '  



I have to say that kind of hurt, but I promised myself I wasn't going to cry.  I will not cry! So I took all that emotion and poured it into the two hours of dance I'm supposed to do in the afternoon.


Mom and dad said that practicing dance would teach me discipline. To me, dance was just fun so I didn't see how this was punishment. I was actually getting pretty good! 



I figured in no time, I would be leaping across the floor like I was flying!  If only I could keep my balance without holding onto the bar.  


I decided I was going to be a solo dancer; none of this dancing with girls.  Besides, living on an isolated island, what girls would be around to dance with anyway? 



After dance, I still had my regular studies to do for the day, although mom had dropped it down to one subject each day, or else I would have been up till midnight! 

While I was busy doing all this cleaning and learning, dad took over keeping an eye on the horses, and made me mad all over again.  He completely broke his word.  All the time he told me to stay away from the big horses.  They are wild horses Jin, he had said and you can't trust wild horses. They are not pets Jin, he had said.  You need to give them space, he said.  

Then what does he go and do? He decides to start riding them!  

Soooo what does that make them then dad?  I was steaming mad! But, I didn't do anything that was going to extend my grounding, even though I really, really wanted to!  So NOT fair!    






On my third day of grounding I was listening to the radio while practicing my dancing, when the weather report came on.  They were talking about a really bad storm coming our way and used the phrase tropical disturbance.  I didn't know what a tropical disturbance was so I looked it up on the computer.  I had no idea there were storms like this!  The more I read about hurricanes the more scared I became.  Even a category one storm could do damage to homes or even kill people.  I got really worried and decided to talk to my mom about it.

I asked her if she had heard about the weather.  She said she had but she really didn't think it would come as far out as we were.  

"Please mom!  We need to do something for the horses!  We need to keep them safe."

"What do you think we should do then."

"A barn.  A barn would keep them safe."

"Oh Jin.  I'm sorry honey but you are talking to the wrong person.  You need to go and talk to your father and if I were you, I would start with an apology for the computer incident.  I would also suggest that you MEAN IT!" she said giving me that mother look. 

"But I am sorry." 

"Good, then I suggest you tell him that!"

"Couldn't you maybe ask him about the barn?"  I asked.




Mom chuckled and gave me a hug.

"Oh Jin," she said.  "Go find your dad."

Turns out that when I went to find dad he was already clearing a spot for the barn.  He had heard about the storm too.  He had to clear away quite a bit of the back hill to fit the size of barn we needed for three horses.  He said perhaps the deer would want to take shelter in the barn too.  He told me he had decided to build a two storey barn, so that we could do all our messy stuff like sculpting in the barn. He also said, he thought perhaps an inventing table of some sort would be a good idea too, but he was still thinking about it.  

He asked me to help him build the barn.  When it was all done, it was a good sturdy barn! We painted it green to help it blend into the landscape a bit.   Later that day the rains began to fall.  The storm had begun.

The horses were quite happy to go into the barn to get out of the storm.  All but Boots, who wanted to enter the house because she was scared of the wind.  But dad put her in her pen and there she stayed till morning.  It rained all the following day and dad wouldn't let me go outside, so I took advantage of playing on my indoor playground!  First time I had done it since I first saw it. 

It was a lot of fun and it turns out that the teeter totter worked for adults too!

Dad and I spent most of the afternoon playing upstairs while mom tended her garden and played with Aria.  


It was a good day............ till night came.

ThanX to all my readers and friends for following along with the story!  Now just below you can leave me a little comment by clicking on No Comments or comments (depending on if you are first) and perhaps click on the G+1 to recommend me to the public! Plus if you enter in your email up top (totally private no worries) you can receive alerts when there is a new post.  You are the best!!

Content Used In This Chapter

Jin's Camo Shorts (EA shorts recoloured by me)
http://www.thesims3.com/assetDetail.html?assetId=8644400

Jin's Hair- Joey by Cazy at TSR
http://www.thesimsresource.com/downloads/details/category/sims3-hair-hairstyles-male/title/joey-hairstyle--child/id/1273277

Maya's long hair-Nightcrawler's Let Loose
http://www.thesimsresource.com/artists/Nightcrawler_Sims/downloads/details/category/sims4-hair-hairstyles-female/title/nightcrawler-let-loose/id/1280392

Maya's Short hair with bow- NewSeaYU093Rachel
http://simmingitout.blogspot.ca/2013/10/newsea-yu093-v1.html

Contemporary Carpet 12  by PralineSims
(In Foyer)
http://www.thesimsresource.com/downloads/details/category/sims3-sets-objects-decorative/title/contemporary-carpets-12/id/1214756

Poses

Bedside Manner by Spladoum
http://modthesims.info/download.php?t=453549

(Jin in lighthouse)