***Author’s Note: I wrote this chapter more like a time line than a regular story format. There was just so much going on in my game, I didn’t know what to include! I hope you like it as much as my normal chapters. It’s very long so make a cup of tea, put your feet up and enjoy!
“Sun are you in here?” Jin yelled from the open green house door.
“We’re in here,” Sun replied as she popped her head up from behind the half grown stalks of corn to look at him.
As she stood, her eyes rolled slightly back in her head and she stumbled a step to regain her stance. With great alarm quickly building inside of me, I jumped up in an attempt to get to her, awkwardly hopping over the row of potatoes and nearly falling to the ground. Luckily, Jin also thought quickly, and he beat me there.
“Are you okay?” The look on Jin’s face told me he was trying to remain calm, but I could hear the concern in his voice as he held Sun by her hips to steady her balance.
“I, I think I just stood up too quickly,” she said closing her eyes then opening them half way. She took a big breath and let it out slowly before speaking. “I’m fine Jin, really. Please don’t make a-“
Suddenly, Sun’s eyes once again rolled back, and her head lolled to the side as her body went limp. Thank goodness for quick reflexes, as Jin caught her before she really began to fall.
“Jade, get the door,” was all he said, as he carefully lifted Sun and carried her out of the green house.
“Jin! Be careful!” I cried.
“I’m trying! I just don’t want to pull her stomach and hurt the baby! Stay with her, while I call the doctor.
Looking down at my Mama, her peaceful expression gave no other notion than she had fallen asleep for an afternoon nap. It comforted me to know that she wasn’t in any visible pain, but my heart was racing none the less. In one moment of panic, I was reminded that I had already lost one mother to pregnancy and the thought of losing Sun, sent sharp pains through my chest and into my heart. Like I once did as a small child, I crawled into bed next to her and laid my head gently on her shoulder.
“Please don’t leave me Mama.”
“Jade? What’s going on?” she asked, still in a groggy state.
“Oh Mama, you fainted. Are you okay? Are you in any pain?”
“No, just a little dizzy,” she replied, while also trying to sit up.
“Whoa,” Jin said as he entered the room. “Lie back down. I just called the doctor and had a chat with her. She thinks maybe you were in a crouched position too long and the room was too warm. So you are to stay in bed. Rest!”
“I really think everyone is just over reacting Jin. The green house was extra warm today. I’m sure that was it. I’m fine now, see!”
Jin pressed a hand to her shoulder giving her a glaring look. “You are staying in bed, till the doctor says otherwise. So you had better get used to it till then!”
“Jin I just can’t stay in bed indefinitely! There is too much to do around here!”
“Oh Mama, Grand-mere and I can do it all. Don’t you worry about a thing, okay.”
“But Jin-“
“No buts my darling daughter! Jin made an appointment for two weeks from now. Until then, enjoy being a lady of leisure in your home. Anything you need, just ask. Now why don’t you just take a nap while I make us some dinner.”
“But Mama! You DON’T COOK!”
“Then it’s about high time I learned isn’t it now,” she replied with a smile. Margot grabbed my arm then and pulled me from the room.
“Jade,” Grand-Mere whispered. “Can you cook?”
“A little, but not much.”
“Oh, well a little is certainly better than not at all. How about you cook, and I will do laundry?”
I couldn’t help but chuckle. “And do we pretend to Mama that you cooked too?”
She actually looked like she was considering it, then shook her head as she walked away laughing. We had mac and cheese that evening, a meal I knew I could make without completely ruining it and letting Mama down.
Needless to say, I was a nervous wreck the whole time it cooked!
The following evening, we all received the best surprise. Josey, who had been resting most of the day, quietly padded into the master bedroom and gave birth to twin baby boys.
Both puppies looked nearly identical in colour and markings but puppy two was slightly larger with a thicker body and tail. They were an adorable mix of both Jack and Josey. Puppy two immediately went to sleep when laid on his bed, but puppy number one cried and wouldn’t settle, so I spent the night on the floor trying to soothe him to sleep.
Eventually he did lay down on his bed, but it was four thirty in the morning before he did so. I was cold and sore from lying on the floor, as well as incredibly exhausted.
So many hours later I was woken by Jin and Sun having an argument.
“I feel perfectly fine Jin! I refuse to lie in this bed for two weeks. I will go completely batty!”
“The doctor thinks it’s best you stay in bed.”
“The doctor does? Or you do? Didn’t the doctor herself say fainting can be normal in the second to third month? Seriously Jin! I will stay out of the green house and I will make sure I don’t crouch like I did. I won’t lift any heavy loads and I won’t do anything stressful. Will that satisfy you?”
I think you can probably guess that Sun did get her way, but the concession rules were she was to never be alone and all household chores were off limits. Two weeks passed by quickly and before we knew it the doctor’s appointment was to happen to following day. Yet mother nature had other ideas, as Jin found out while watching the weather report on the tv.
The following morning we had one heck of a summer storm come our way. Hail and high winds battered our home off and on for most of the day, making travel completely unsafe.
Sun sighed as she stood at the glass windows. “I’m more disappointed about not getting off the island than anything else. I mean, I’m only 9 weeks and I’ve had no other fainting episodes, which proves working in the greenhouse as I did, was the culprit. I’m not sick, just uncomfortable in my own skin. I feel sometimes like I’m carrying a rock instead of a baby!”
“You are so beautiful to me.”
“Jin, please don’t. I feel fat and completely un-sexy right now!”
“Nothing could be further than the truth.”
I really didn’t mean to eavesdrop on this conversation. I was about to walk through the room when I stopped for fear of interrupting and let’s face it; you never know what you will learn by watching and listening. This open affection between the two seemed a new occurrence since Sun’s pregnancy. As a child, I knew they were a couple and I attended their eventual wedding, but it felt like just three people living together most of the time. They never kissed, hugged or even hinted at the “that” type of relationship. However since the baby, I was seeing an increasing amount of this affection. Jin looked at her differently as well, as I believe this memory of mine says it all.
This one as well, but it was a whole different kind of loving that I prefer not to think about, if you don’t mind. I mean, I haven’t even had my first kiss! Not like I ever will get to either, but still I don’t think I want to be thinking about such things right now!
The three of us took over all the daily routines of the household, while Jin also made sure Mama kept her word. It became very clear having four untrained dogs who got into regular mischief, was more work than one person could handle. Biscuit, who had been with our family since he was a puppy, knew the house rules and behaved like I had trained him to do. However, the continuous puddles needing to be mopped up from the house floor from the other four dogs, was enough to make even a saint lose their cool.
How did moms get all their work done while watching a baby too? Not that I knew anything about babies, but if taking care of a puppy was any indication of how hard it could be, we were in for a rough ride. There was no doubt, the four dogs HAD to be trained before the baby arrived!
Mama, who had been suffering a bit of morning sickness throughout the day, suddenly felt much better at 11 weeks. However better, also made her restless. One night I caught her up at about 3 in the morning, taking out the trash while being as sneaky about it as she could.
I had cracked open my bedroom door thinking the noise I heard was one of the puppies getting into trouble again, when I saw her. She obviously was worried about getting caught so I quietly closed my door and went back to bed. There was no way I wanted to get in between Jin and Sun or be the cause of a fight.
I didn’t matter though, because somehow Jin found out and since Sun had broken their agreement, Jin put her back on strict bed rest.
She didn’t always listen, complaining that if she stayed in bed, she would start to get bed sores. She played with the dogs whenever they came looking for attention, which had Jin very firmly telling her to get back into bed.
“Jin, I’m only 11 weeks pregnant. If you don’t lay off, I will make this the longest 9 months of your life!” I heard her snap at him one day.
A week later, Mama’s appetite returned with a vengeance and she began to crave all kinds of foods, while always having a feeling of being hungry. Stuck in bed, she took to reading whatever cook books she could get her hands on and salivating at the foods.
Reading, led to baking and the house always smelled of such wonderful baked goods. Cookies seemed to be her favourite food at the time and you could always see a plate sitting next to her as she read the new recipe.
However, Mama started packing on the pounds from all her snacking, mostly around her middle and she was really unhappy about it! She convinced Jin that short walks around the island, accompanied by one of us would be the best thing for her. He agreed, and so taking my mother for walks, was added to my list of daily chores! Needless to say, my school work, was a faint memory at this point. My school average, very quickly slid to a D.
The end of summer was upon us, and as the temperatures were a bit cooler, we spent much of our time lazing on the beach.
Mama was feeling very uncomfortable with all the extra weight around her tummy and combined with the heat, she spent a lot of time napping on the beach. Due to the size of her middle, most of her clothes had stopped fitting her and so she was quite happy to walk around in her bathing suit anyway. At six months pregnant, she was feeling incredibly frustrated with the constant movement of the baby who, “was training to be a dancer,” she often said.
She moaned a lot to Jin about her sleepless nights and the need for relief.
“I promise for your next pregnancy, I will install air conditioning, but winter is soon to be upon us and it’s just too late,” Jin told her.
She would smile and nod her head, then later grumble to me. “Next pregnancy? Is he out of his friggin mind? The only way there is going to be a next pregnancy will be if HE carries it!”
However, Jin did buy her an snow cone maker, in an effort to appease Sun and help with the night time sweats that were part of what was keeping her up at night. She used it a lot, which I know because the sound of it making ice woke me several times a night!!
Fall gave Mama a bit of relief from the heat, but her moaning did not end there. She couldn’t find a comfortable position to sit, or to sleep and even taking her daily walks was a chore. Her back ached, she had non stop heartburn that couldn’t be cured by meds and even though she had cut out all the sweets, the number on the scale still grew faster and higher than she ever wanted. Her ankles were also swollen, and so Grand-mere tried to calm her down by telling her the number on the scale was sure to be water weight. Yet even sympathy or comfort, simply reduced Sun to tears.
I’m telling you, there were times I was convinced my real Mama had been replaced by an alien. Because this woman, was nothing like the sim who had raised me my whole life.
Before we knew it, Grand-mere’s birthday was upon us and we had not one, but two grumpy females in the house.
Even though Margot’s hair had turned gray long ago, she was very happy that she had remained young for so long. Her impending transition caused much turmoil within her and my very self assured grandmother, was all of a sudden full of fears about death.
“I won’t be here to see this little on grow up, just as Manon missed Jade growing up. What will you do without me? I don’t want to go. I’m not ready to die.”
Just like her daughter, no matter what you said, Margot could not be made to see reason. And so we dealt with two weepy women in the household and did what we could to spread the responsibilities between Jin and myself, till Margot felt better.
Fall also meant, harvesting the crop in the green house and canning to prepare for the winter season ahead.
I was feeling incredibly overwhelmed with everything going on, but it all had to be done and so I trudged on, although in silent begrudgement. If I could have whined I would have, trust me. I just figured there was enough whining these days, unfortunately.
Once the harvest was done, we breathed a sigh of relief until Sun decided it was time to get the house ready for the baby. Boxes upon boxes began arriving on the island and cutesy baby paraphernalia took over the house in every corner.
Little by little, this change to our family was becoming very real. Some of the items Sun wanted for the baby, could not be shipped to the house and to keep her wife happy, Jin planned a trip to the mainland and the city to pick up everything on her list. That is when the most brilliant idea came to mind.
I pulled him aside when he was painting under the gazebo by the beach.
“Jin. Pleeeeeaase, take me with you to the mainland! Please, please please!”
“Jade, no.”
“Why? The harvest is in and my homework is all done. Please Jin.”
Jin sighed. “I will think about it.”
“Thank you, thank you, thank you,” I said excitedly and ran down the beach.
“I didn’t say yes!” he yelled after me.
But the very next day, Jin let me down again and it was becoming very clear that I was NEVER getting off this island. He took Margot instead. Margot! Of all people, he decided he would rather spend time with his mother in law, than his sister! Jin made it clear he really didn’t want to go at all, leaving Sun while she was pregnant. But traveling on the water for an hour, was something they both knew she would not be able to handle.
“Jin, just go. I will be fine here with Jade. I still have seven more weeks to go and besides, this may be the last time you get to go for a while especially after the baby is born.”
“I wouldn’t even be going if winter weren’t on the way. If I don’t stock up now we won’t be able to go until Spring.”
“I know. Just go. I’m sure you could use the break anyway.” Then she kissed him and sent them on their way to return the following day around supper.
That fall day turned out to be as hot as a mid summer day and the humidity didn’t seem to ease at all when the sun went down. Even I found it difficult to fall asleep that night.
That night I was in a very deep sleep, when in my dream I heard Mama screaming my name. I woke with a start and jumped out of bed.
“Oh my gosh! Mama, are you okay?”
“Pain! The pain, is so bad! Jade, get Jin!”
“But mama, Jin is not here. He’s gone to the mainland.”
“CALL HIM!” she screamed!
I tried twice, but he wasn’t picking up.
“Jade! I need you. Please help me!” I raced back to her.
“What can I do?”
“I can’t have this baby now! It’s too soon.” She let out a deep growl in the back of her throat. “I feel like I need to push. Jade you need to help me. I can’t do this alone. Jin was supposed to be here. Why isn’t he here!” Mama began to cry.
“Mama, I’m here. I know I’m not Jin but hold my hand.” Mama began to bear down then. “I see the head, baby is coming.”
Sun pushed and pushed and I cheered her on the best I could.
She stared me down with each contraction…..
and before I knew it, a beautiful baby slid into my arms screaming to high heaven and sticky from head to toe. Drying the baby off as best as I could, I lifted the squirmy bundle and stared into beautiful light brown eyes.
“It’s a boy mama. You have a son!”
What I heard next, will haunt me till the end of my days. I looked up just in time to see my Mama’s eyes roll back and begin to scream,
then fall to the ground and continue to scream.
High pitch non stop screaming, deep from the bottom of her soul.
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Sun’s falling poses: http://modthesims.info/download.php?t=522225
Stories By Bee 