Islands of Sunset Valley – Chapter 11: Faith's Story
I woke and the bed beside me was empty. This was disconcerting to say the least. A quick shower and I went into the nursery. The cots were empty. There was no sound in the house except the clock. Not even a radio. I remembered this house design isolates sounds poorly as it has so many rooms opening into one another through arches rather than doorways. So the quiet was unexpected and unsettling.
In the kitchen someone had made coffee. I grabbed a cup and went to the garden to find Julian not Faith harvesting the new vegetables. I asked if he wanted any help but he shook his head, “No thanks dad. I need the work to increase my skill.”
I was pleased to hear him call me dad so naturally. “We’ve eaten. Did you have some breakfast?” I shook my head and he tossed me a watermelon with a huge grin then a wink. I wasn’t really hungry but I ate it to please him.
I had never particularly envied Chris his sons but I thought it was going to be fun to have some. I eyed that basketball hoop and promised myself that I’d use it soon.
At the fishing pond I saw Diana with Keith chatting happily as they fished together. They were hitting it off really well. I was wondering where Faith was when I heard the squeal of children’s laughter coming from the playground. I walked over there to see Faith playing with Leon on a bumblebee ride while Hope played with a stuffed toy.
“Good morning darling,” she said as she approached me and kissed my lips. “I hope you slept well. Unfortunately, the sounds carry in that house so I brought the twins outside so you could sleep in.”
“Thanks Faith, that was considerate of you.” I said feeling somewhat foolish that I had felt anxious about waking alone. “What would you like to do today before the morning sickness hits?” I picked up Hope and cuddled her. Hope looks so much like my little sister Deborah except for the wings. Obviously the female genetic material in that family was incredibly resilient. Even my sister Rosalie looks just like mum.
“Oh, that’s no problem, I won’t get morning sickness, I have Simmunity” she said smiling. “I thought we’d just relax and wind down before Joshua’s party. Jamie said it was for 2:00 p.m. Your mother thinks I should take you shopping but is there anything you’d particularly like to do today?”
“I thought we could spend some time getting to know each other better.” I said.
“Yes please!” she whispered giving me a long mind-numbing kiss. “I’ll ask Julian to keep one eye on the twins.” Before I could correct her misguided assumption she flittered over to Julian. I have the uneasy feeling we’ll be talking at cross purposes often, so I made a mental note to be more circumspect about how I phrase things.
She was back in a moment. “Have you ever tried it in a hot tub?” she asked mischievously taking my hand and leading me back into the house.
“Faith, you’re incorrigible and as you’re now pregnant, you can’t get into a hot tub. Do you think we could just talk?” I asked
“Oh, are you still tired?” she pouted.
“No. I’m well rested,” I replied.
“Are you hungry?” she asked.
“No.” I replied.
“Good, let’s get to know each better, then we can talk.” she assured me leading me back to the master bedroom. There’s nothing wrong with Faith’s energy.
Before she found the energy to distract me again, I said. “Now, my darling, let’s just talk.” I wasn’t sure where to start as I had so many questions about a lot of things. I didn’t want to just jump in with the twenty questions, so I asked about Keith because I was very concerned about him.
“Forgive me if I’m out of place talking about this,” I said hesitantly, “but despite my unfavourable remarks about Jamie’s crassness she really is a talented surgeon and my grandfather Arthur St Clair is a World Renown Surgeon. I’m sure between them they can help Keith or at least know an ophthalmologist or someone else who can.”
“Thank you for your concern but it’s not necessary.” she said awkwardly. “There’s nothing wrong with Keith and his eyesight is fine. He has his father’s eyes but he is sensitive about being different, so he wears the dark glasses to hide his eyes and also to keep people at a distance.”
“What about his skin colour? I’ve never seen a Sim with skin that colour.”
“He inherited his father’s skin tone?” she replied.
“Tell me about your first husband,” I asked, trying the open question approach since the direct questions weren’t getting me anywhere.
“Tepeq was an alien. He abducted me 4 times before he worked up the nerve to tell me how much he liked me. I told him that if he really liked me to stop the probing, as I didn’t appreciate it. He asked me out on a date and we went to the museum. He was fascinated. We sort of dated off and on for a year. Tepeq was extremely intelligent and very amusing in his quiet way. I was lonely and asked him to move in with me. When he confessed he was in love with me, we became lovers,” she said.
“Tepeq frequently asked me to marry him but I was commitment shy at that time in my life. By the time we were expecting Julian, Tepeq was an elder. He convinced me it would be better for the baby if we married. So we did. We were happy together. He was a very loving father and husband. His death was unexpected and very painful.” She said with a catch in her voice.
“So tell me about Elias,” I said.
“I had known Elias all my life. I think he had been in love with my sister, Charity,” she began. Whoa... back up, sister! Another thing I didn’t know about her. But Faith continued before I had the chance to say anything, “I met Elias again at a friend’s wedding after Tepeq died, Elias was very kind. A lot of the people in Moonlight Falls were cruel about Julian and Keith’s father being an alien but he defended me.
We danced half that evening together. He had a very gentle soul. He often called at my house after that. He was really good with Keith. He worried about me leaving the boys at home alone when I worked at the restaurant and he came over to keep an eye on them.”
“Since he began spending so much time at my house, we really got to know one another. He told me he deeply regretted that he had always been too shy and never married. When he first asked me to marry him, I refused. I didn’t feel that way about him. But it was clear that he felt that way about me.
He was a charming and uncomplicated companion. Since I did want more children before Julian and Keith became much older, when he asked me again, I married him. If you’re thinking I felt guilty for not loving him, you’d be wrong. I admired and respected him. He knew I wasn’t in love with him and he was happy just being married and he loved being a step-father. When we had Hope and Leon he was ecstatic.
Every day of our marriage Elias told me how much he loved me and thanked me for being his wife. When he was murdered, I grieved for myself and especially for Keith who had lost the only father he knew.”
“People can be so cruel to innocent children. They can say what they like about me but not about my children. I couldn’t stay in Moonlight Falls anymore. My father came to see me briefly. He has been living in Lunar Lakes but trying to find out what happened to my mother’s family in Simfield. He asked for my help as no-one was willing to tell him anything.”
“So the children and I went there briefly, I didn’t have any more success than my father did. Keith felt a shadow over the town which made him tense and agitated. I received an anonymous phone call that I might find what I was looking for in Twinbrook. The Bakers there were not our family. They told me there were more Bakers in Sunset Valley, so we came here. The Baker family who lived here were also not the Bakers I was looking for. Since we drew another blank and Keith liked it here in the Valley we decided to stay. The rest you know.”
“Okay I’m picking up a theme here.” I said cautiously. “I’m not only curious why you marry elderly men you don’t love just to have children when you could adopt or get medical intervention to have babies. I’m also curious why you didn’t want to wait to fall in love and marry like everyone else, then have children.”
Faith didn’t look at me as she replied, “I never wanted to fall in love. I saw what it did to people. My father was a prime example. He loved my human mother. When she died of old age, he was only just an adult.
He deeply grieved her passing but has never really moved on. He’s had a few relationships over the years but has not remarried. Initially I thought that it was romantic, that he loved my mother so much. I can still easily picture mum and dad cuddling at the Fae Ray Arboretum in Moonlight Falls.”
“But when my older sister Charity fell in love and married a wizard I saw another side of love” she began.
“Charity adored her philandering husband and forgave him affair after affair. Charity’s lifetime wish had been to be surrounded by family but her husband, Myles, disliked children and would not give Charity the babies she wanted nor allow her to adopt. When he eventually left, I asked Charity to return home and live with dad and me. I told her that she could adopt and dad and I would help her look after her baby.”
Faith sobbed into my shoulder. “Charity said she didn’t want to live like dad through a long lifetime without the partner she loved by her side. That last night, when I left her house, I really thought she was considering my solution. Sometime in that terrible night, she swallowed an elixir to Forsake the Fae and become a normal Sim. Then she tried to repair a broken dishwasher.” Faith’s voice faltered.
After a minute or two she continued in a tight small voice barely above a whisper, “I think Charity knew there was a good chance she could die repairing that dishwasher as a human with no handiness skill. I believe she did it deliberately.” Faith sobbed anew. I held Faith while she cried for her sister.
“My father refused to believe Charity could have done that but I think that dishwasher broke and instead of doing a fairy repair, she saw a different solution and chose death.”
Brushing aside her tears she continued, “I swore then that I would never risk my heart and fall in love. I also realised that I was alone in Moonlight Falls for the first time and I didn’t like it. Charity’s wish for children soon became mine. I wanted children of my own but there are social norms where marriage and children go hand in hand. As I was never in love with my husbands, I thought I had the perfect answer to everything. My husbands were happy and I had the children I wanted. They were good men and I loved each of them in my own way and I genuinely grieved their passing.”
“I had wanted a sister for Hope. Julian and I discussed the father issue. He was adamant he did not want to see me grieve for another husband passing and suggested I marry a Fairy or a vampire who would not die so quickly. I didn’t want to marry any of the fairies or vampires I knew. Besides, to marry someone you are not in love with is much easier on your conscience; if you know it may only be for a short while.”
“Older men realise what they’ve missed in their lives, they generally know what they want and they value people more. The only man in Sunset Valley who met my criteria was Gobias Koffi and I just didn’t fancy him at all. He was a bit too flirty and something of a party animal. I don’t like either trait.”
“Julian begged me not to marry another human. At Julian’s suggestion; I registered at the hospital for artificial insemination. Dr Jamie Steel was my Gene Therapist and she scheduled some tests. I actually believed I was immune to falling in love until you came along with your sad smile and steel blue eyes. I told myself it was lust at first sight. But you soon turned my preconceived world upside down.” She said wryly.
“I think I was initially attracted to your innate sadness. When we were talking over coffee at the coffeehouse, I was becoming more and more certain that I wanted you to be the father of my baby. You really listened to me prattle on about my children and wanting a baby. I thought you understood me like no other man before. When you kissed me at the theatre, I knew you were attracted to me too. Then you seduced me in the theatre, and I was sure we would be good together.”
“Excuse me,” I said startled, “Back up a minute. Who seduced who in the theatre?” Faith would never hear from me that I hadn’t listened to her prattle on as intently as she imagined.
“You seduced me with your eyes. Every time I said something to you, you were looking at my lips. I really wanted you to kiss me again. When I asked you to either stop looking at me like that or kiss me and put me out of my misery, you kissed me so thoroughly that I just about melted on the spot. Then we started making out, and I knew I was way out of my depth. When you started unzipping my dress, I didn’t want you to stop.” As she explained her version, I could see in her eyes that she believed every word she said.
Snippets of different memories of that day surfaced. I’m sure I remember that she had my shirt undone long before I touched her dress. I think we were both way out of our depth that day. I remember lucidly every kiss and touch and thinking back dispassionately and with the benefit of hindsight, it has been a mutual and equal meltdown - two people desperately in love and deeply in denial.
I regret that it happened on a public lot which ruined both our reputations but had she invited me back to Quantum, it wouldn’t have happened at all. Maybe fate just lined us up. In a public place, I was less on my guard and more open to stimuli. I don’t think Faith is too constrained by anything as simple as location or social mores.
“Tell me why you wanted a baby so soon after Elias death.” I asked neutrally, hoping she hadn’t already covered this subject on the day we met when she thought I listened so attentively to her.
“So I could fill up the house with children. If I had a full house, I couldn’t marry again even if I wanted to. But when I met you I changed my mind. I told Julian I’d met someone special and I was going to cancel the fertility clinic appointment. I rang Jamie and told her I may not need medical intervention to have a baby. I asked Jamie if she knew you but she said she couldn’t tell me anything, as you were her patient too. She did say that she would still run the tests through the lab and keep my appointment on the books, which lead me to believe that you were unavailable.”
“As you know, I hadn’t heard the rumours that were circulating. Nick Alto and Gobias Koffi came calling that evening, so I asked them about you. Both said you were a recluse in love with your late wife. Gobias told me that you had cut yourself off from everybody but your family. He portrayed you as a rather tragic if pathetic figure.”
“On the other hand, Nick left me with the impression that he thought you were weak and an idiot. I realised that neither wanted to paint you in a positive light. But that only served to increase my interest because I saw none of that in you. I thought you were sociable, intelligent and funny and a very passionate lover.”
“Since I knew from the theatre that you weren’t totally immune to me, I hoped I still had a chance to have my baby. But you were so touchy yesterday morning when you came here, I wasn’t so sure anymore. When I asked you bluntly to be my baby’s father, I saw that flash of heat in your eyes. The more we talked about it, the more I could see how tightly you tried to control your emotions; I knew that you were not totally against the idea. It was only when you were so abrupt when you finally refused my request that I really saw how much you did care. I realised that I pushed you too hard too soon. I thought I could just bide my time and you’d come round.”
“When I saw you asleep in the sun and realised the consequences of that, I became really frightened. I tried to tell myself it was because if you’d died that I’d lose my primary choice for my baby’s father but I knew I was fooling myself. I knew for certain then that I loved you as surely as the sun rises. I didn’t want to face how I felt about you. That was a door I didn’t want to open if I didn’t have to, but I wanted my baby before you did something else stupid and die on me.”
“So why did it take five proposals to get you to marry me?” I asked puzzled.
“I did promise Julian that I wouldn’t marry again in haste, but the truth was - I was scared! I was in love with a human. I never wanted to be in love with anyone let alone a human who would die of old age before I even reached adulthood.”
Faith looked at me, with tears swimming in her beautiful eyes and lips swollen more from her biting them than my kisses, “I do love you just the way you are but you’re already an adult. So I’m asking you from my heart, will you take this.” She handed me a gift box, “It’s a Bottled Blessing of the Fae. Become a fairy and live with me and love me all the days of my life because there are not enough days left of yours to give me the time I need to have with you.
“Faith we will have all the time in the world. Let’s just see how this life pans out. If deathflowers, Ambrosia, Young Again potions and Elixirs aren’t enough we can take this step.” I said hesitantly.
“It’s fun to be a fairy,” she said. “You’ll like it”.
“Let’s just put this decision on hold for a while and let me get used to the only three fairies I know. I love you as you are and I would never ask you to forsake the Fae.”
“Well good, I don’t ever want to but I also don’t plan on leaving you with enough energy left to stray,” she said
“Faith, listen to me.” I said. “I love you. I am not your ex-brother in law. I’m not flirty or charismatic. Trust me, I will never do anything intentionally that’ll break your heart because it would break mine too. Believe in me and our love and we’ll work through your fears. I promise you I won’t ever cheat on you. If you ask my brother, he’ll tell you than I’m pretty much a one woman kind of guy.”
“Oh Brandon, I guess I am being paranoid,” she said. “Please be patient with me, I’ve never been in love before and it wonderful but it’s painful too. I never expected that. I think of losing you and I just can’t bear it.”
“Faith that works both ways,” I said holding her. “We have a great basic foundation. We’ll build on that day after day as we learn each other’s peculiarities, our likes and dislikes and what makes each other tick. As long as we talk about the things that bother us, we’ll make it.”
“Well it bothers me that you have so many clothes on,” she whispered in my ear.
“I can rectify that,” I assured her and I did.
