Desperate Sims: Something's Fishy

It had been some time since the Kanes had found the time to visit their "beloved matriarch", but since Jebidiah's late night phone call in somewhat of a panic, Farah had decided to extend the invitation to her descendants... Despite the rather cool distance she'd seemed to have been keeping ever since the family shoved off and moved to Twinbrook.

Jebidiah wasn't altogether thrilled about the idea of spending the evening with his mother, but... It was probably the least he could do. With all three kids bundled up into the car, they drove across town to Farah's miniature mansion -- it certainly was not the biggest in Twinbrook's "snob division", but most of the other decadent houses on the lane had more than one, old woman living inside them.

But... it was best to reserve judgement for someone that was doing him a very, very large favor.

"Wonderful dye job, mother," Jebidiah chuckled, trying to hide his sneer as he reached out to take his mother's hand.

"You can reserve the sarcasm for later, darling," she responded quick-wittedly, though still smiling. "I really am glad that you came."

"I... well... You know why I'm really here."

"Yes yes, it's inside. But please, don't make this visit all about that. I really do miss all my children."

As Farah and Meredith bustled into the kitchen to get dinner ready, with Amelia settled into the dining room with some toys, the boys got to work testing out grandma's new video game system... And Jeb had to admit, being rich really did have it's perks.

He missed those days... And it frustrated him to no end, that he had no idea when he might ever see them again.

But, just as they'd gotten into the heat of a game, his cellphone rang.

"You can take that, dear," Farah said as she swept into the room. "Meredith's just putting the final touches on the cobbler, I can play with the grandsons until it's ready."

Jebidiah grumbled a 'thanks' under his breath as he moved away from the television, but it was difficult to keep his voice down over the sound of the television as he answered the phone.

"I told you not to call me when I'm around my family! What the heck is it this time? ... Yes, I got it. ... Yes, I'll deliver it to you as soon as possible. ... 100, as we agreed upon. ... No, I didn't -- Just... Can we talk about this later? This is not a good time."

As he hung up the phone, the impulse to slam it against the wall almost overcame him... But as Meredith skipped into the room to announce, "Dinner's ready!", Jebidiah had no choice but to put on the biggest smile he could manage, and pretend that everything was alright.

The next day, Jebidiah received a call from Marigold Racket -- she was loony-er than a Canadian dollar, but... That was sort of his job these days, wasn't it? Settling riddles for the overly paranoid, overly nutty, and overly nosy. He didn't care if it was an honorable gig, but man, couldn't they at least pay him more?

Even though Marigold was certifiably insane, Jebidiah indulged her case on the sheer fact of the size of her pocketbook -- maybe he'd get a little bit more out of it, this time.

"So... You're saying, all the apples just disappeared?" Jebidiah was really trying to remain professional, but... It just wasn't that easy.

"Yes!" Marigold nodded vigorously. "I was coring a bunch of the darn things for a pie, and then, just outta the blue, I walked outta the room, and WOOSH! They were gone. Completely gone! I want to know what happened to my apples! MY APPLES!!"

Well, Jeb didn't have much choice but to stop by the Racket's estate to see what all this business about "apples" was; and first stop, the kitchen.

But, after he did a little bit of investigating, a look of surprise crossed his face: those weren't fingerprints! They looked like... Fin marks? And water, everywhere... And it smelled like a pond had just up and walked all over the kitchen, too. It didn't make any sense, but... There was a trail to follow -- and he was going to go after it.

It led straight to the trashcan outside. As he suspected, within the trashcan was "Apple cores," he murmured to himself.

Still, a lot of this didn't make sense. What he'd discovered wasn't human... Wasn't human at all. While he'd discovered what happened to the apples -- obviously, eaten -- he owed it to Mrs. Racket and her generous bank account to discover who -- or what -- had devoured her pie filling... And as he considered the possibilities, a tinge of disgust touched the tip of his tongue.

First stop: the science facility. It wasn't in his favorite part of town, but at least it was easy to find -- double silo, double water tower... The epitome of Twinbrook's once industrious nature.

He asked a whole lot of questions to the scientists, but no one seemed to want to give him any answers -- in fact, everyone was being a little too tight-lipped about this whole thing. Well, if the scientists weren't willing to talk about this "mutant fish", then maybe some people around town were willing to talk about the scientists.

Jebidiah spent almost all evening interviewing various people around town, but it wasn't until he ran into Pattina Knack that he finally got a lead:

"Well, I'm not really sure what sorts of experiments they've been running at the science lab, but that Marshall Curious sure has been acting funny lately... I saw him snooping around the Peddler's house last night, and it didn't seem like he was up to much good."

Pulling out his trusty branches, Jeb decided to spend a few hours in front of the Peddler's house trying to uncover this nonsense... But all he saw was Penny and her husband coming home in succession. "Rats," sighed Jeb as he uncrouched from his position... But, as always, there was one last thing to check before he went off to his next stop:

The garbage can.

And, as he suspected... More apple cores. What was Marshall Curious doing? Did he have some ravenous cravings for apples? That would almost make sense, except that didn't explain the fin markings... Granted, he could always be wearing a fish suit of some sort -- Jeb had caught Milly Pidgin dressing up as a shark to scare off fish only a few weeks ago -- but... that seemed unlikely.

However... The apple cores wasn't the only little tidbit of juicy information he'd discovered siphoning through the Peddler's trash.

"How... How did you know?!" Penny responded to Jebidiah's accusation, completely shocked.

"Why does it matter? You're pregnant, and I know who the father is -- and it's not your husband. You know... It could be really bad, if he found out..."

"What do you want?"

"Oh... I think you know."

"So... You, you... You promise not to tell anyone?" Penny stuttered as she came back with an envelope of cash, handing it off to Jebidiah as he attempted to keep his devilish smile under-wraps.

"As long as we keep this secret between you and me... No one will have to know. Even your husband."

"And, you won't tell the father, will you?"

"Well..." Jebidiah shrugged, as he slipped the cash into his back pocket. "No. No, I won't."

As he left the Peddler's house, Jebidiah felt a brief pang of guilt -- blackmailing a poor woman who probably just made some stupid mistake... But, he needed all the money he could get. If he wanted to keep his family together... every dollar would count.

"Brad, what are you doing here?" Travis looked up from his gaze lake-wards towards his little brother, scrambling up the latter to the top of the playground. "Can't you stop following me for a little while?"

"I'm not following you. Mom sent me here to tell you your friend's at the house looking for you. And, she wanted me to tell you to turn your cellphone back on."

Travis grumbled. "I'm not turning my cellphone back on. And... It's not Lolly at the house, is it?"

"No, it's Emerald's big sister."

Travis felt a huge surge of relief as he slid down the pole, landing on the send with a light *thud*.

"Jade," he whispered to himself. "Oh, how I wish..." Travis turned his eyes towards the lake, staring out over it's expanse with the same wishful daydreams he'd had before. "If only," he muttered, thoughtfully. "If only."

"Jeez, Travis, took you long enough to get here," Jade called as Travis walked down the stairs and settled onto the couch next to her. Jade had been playing video games in their basement ever since Meredith had sent Bradley out to look for him, so at least she was enjoying herself for the time being.

"Sorry, I was just... ya know. Hiding."

"Hiding? With your cellphone off? Whatever for?"

"Well, you know... I just..." Travis looked over at Jade, carefully eyeing her as she remained so absorbed in her current game of Simanimals. "Well, to be honest, I was hiding from Lolly."

"Seriously? You two having problems or something?"

"I don't know," he responded with a shrug. "She certainly doesn't seem to think so. I guess I'm just feeling really cooped up in the relationship, you know? She's not exactly very adventurous, just... way too overly traditional, not to mention she's sooo--"

"Clingy?"

"How'd you know?"

"Well..." Jade put down the controller to the game system, and turned her eyes to finally face Travis for the first time.

"June told me," Jade finally finished. "In fact, she told me that you'd chickened out breaking up with her because you're too much of a boy to go two minutes without having someone to mack on."

"Oh yeah? And what do you think?"

"I think the look you're giving me right now is a really dangerous one, Travis... Why don't you fix things with Lolly, and then we can talk about what I think..."

Jebidiah had never been up onto this side of Twinbrook, before; it was a lot higher, colder, more desolate... The trees all seemed to be dead, and only one house stood out among the expanse of rolling hills. There was no mistaking it: the Curious' house.

Whipping out his sturdy magnifying glass, he began to search... The mailbox, the garden, the trashcan -- until he came across something incredibly peculiar... A journal.

It looked like it'd been hastily thrown out, so quickly that Marshall hadn't even made absolute sure that it was discarded properly. After flipping through a few pages, Jebidiah decided to finish up his snooping at home, so that he wouldn't have any chance encounters with any of the Curious Kind.

As he read through the journal at Meredith's snoozing side, the heartbreak of a father became all too obvious: Marshall, a brilliant scientist, had made a terrible mistake... His own son had been accidentally transformed by one of his experiments, and no longer was anything what a Sim would call human. He had done everything he could to make him feel normal, but after a time, his son had escaped... So he'd been following him around town, making sure he was alright.

It was this "Fish Kid" that had stolen all the apples, and Marshall was just standing by, making sure he was alright... Like a father. But, in the end, he had to let his son go -- he had disappeared down a sewer, and now knew he would never see him again.

It was likely in his anguish that he'd tossed the journal away; so, as Jebidiah tucked it away in his nightstand, he decided that tomorrow he would tell Marigold that the culprit had been caught, and she'd never have to worry about it again. It wasn't worth bringing more shame on Marshall Curious than he'd already endured.

But... As Jebidiah slept and Meredith awoke, she looked upon her husband with a small amount of disdain.

She knew, he was up to something... He'd been growing distant, and since their one night of bliss, believing that she would be taken away, he had been withdrawn and angry. Meredith was tired... And was ready to discover what he was really up to.

Marshall Curious was not the only one who had something to be ashamed of: for, he was not the only man that lied.

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