The Ithaca Legacy - 5.7. Bump in the Night

[NotJustaBook]

This legacy is over and done with. It's mad. The story has gotten away from me and the planned finale gives me a bad taste in my mouth. I plain don't like it. Not going to do anything more on it. I'll just leave it as it is. Rest assured everyone lived happily ever after and things. I just can't finish it.

Extras:
Ithaca Family Tree

Generation 1:

1.0. From Ithaca with Love
1.1. Unexpected Things
1.2. Something Like Home
1.3. Three Times Trouble
1.4. Lilah's Story
1.5. The Troublesome Trio
1.6. Holiday Cheer
1.7. As Time Goes By
1.8. The End of an Era

Generation 2:
2.0. The Dog and the Redhead
2.1. Junkyard Girl
2.2. I'm the Queen, Bow to Me, Peasants
2.3. A Mature and Responsible Adult
2.4. Mediocre
2.5. Junkyard Girl and Funny Hat Guy
2.6. The Ithaca Legacy Lives On
2.7. Have All the Babies
2.8. One Big, Happy Family
2.9. Too Many Birthdays
2.10. And Then There Was One
2.11. A Mother's Lament
2.12. A Concerned Citizen

Generation 3:
3.0. Lunacy
3.1. Catching Up
3.2. Once Upon a Time in Moonlight Falls
3.3. The Wedding Guest
3.4. The Problem
3.5. Normality
3.6. The Girl with Purple Hair
3.7. The Imaginary Friend
3.8. The Ballad of Two Brothers
3.9. Deal?
3.10. Goodbye to Magic

Generation 4:
4.0. The Atoner
4.1. The Babysitter
4.2. The Traveller
4.3. The Explorer
4.4. The Alchemist
4.5. The Girl
4.6. The Liar
4.7. The Daughter
4.8. The Bride
4.9. The Stranger
4.10. The Spirit

Generation 5:
5.0. Mariah Briar
5.1. Children Laughing
5.2. Rumour Has It
5.3. Murphy's Law
5.4. On the Edge
5.5. The Burden of Evidence*
5.6. Changing Hypothesis
6.7. Bump in the Night
5.8. Out with It

---

* Deals with topics that might be distressing to some readers

[NotJustaBook]

1.0. From Ithaca with Love




At least it was sunny when I arrived in Monte Vista. The town was lit by warm, yellow sunlight, birds were soaring in the air and the warm colours of the facades and burnt orange roofs gave it a welcoming glow.

To an outsider, my story might seem like a tragic one. I was orphaned at age ten and left to the care of my aunts, Lilah and Didah, and indeed, in my teen years, I made up all sorts of tragic tales of my parents' untimely demise. I had read all the stories – stories of heartless relatives, haunted orphanages, and the hollow ache the loss of a parent can leave in a heart. I considered myself quite the tragic heroïne.





When all was said and done, though, I wasn't unhappy as a child. I missed my parents, and at first they were vivid in my mind, an image I couldn't believe I would never see again. But as time is wont to do, the picture blurred and reality settled in around me. It startled me a little the first time I realised that now I couldn't believe I had ever known them.

Lilah and Didah were my reality, and they raised me to the best of their abilities. The tragic heroïne died out and was quietly replaced with just a person. Persephone, affectionately dubbed Persie by Didah. Big, round, cheerful Didah. She was as much my playmate as my guardian and always my best friend.

Was. Another face that would one day be blurred.

Lilah was Lilah. Until aunt Didah passed away, she was already cold, more calculated, less likely to sit down and play, but still my aunt, still there to chuckle and shake her head at Didah's crazy schemes and ideas.





When Didah died, part of her died with her. It's such a clichée, but it's true, at least for my aunts. They weren't just sisters, twins, friends; they complemented each other. Didah livened the old house up. Lilah brought Didah down to Earth when she was being too childish for her own good.

Lilah didn't know what to do with herself when she wasn't there, and worse yet, she didn't know what to do with me. Long, awkward days we sat in front of each other, smiles paled and tears took over and then we didn't smile anymore. A week passed in silence and tears and missing the friendly smile of my best friend, and then Monte Vista came up.

“It's sunny, exotic, you'll like it there,” Lilah said. “There's no sense in staying with an old babblehead like me when you're still young.” She hugged me in the driveway, more stiff than she had used to be around me. It was like her smile wasn't the same anymore.





“This is the address of some friends of mine. Just say my name to them and they'll help you get settled. They're nice fellows.”

Well, those friends, the brothers who went by the name of Mancini, barely opened the door when they saw me. It wasn't until I almost stomped my foot like a little girl and shouted my aunt's name at the oldest one, Carlo, something suddenly changed in his eyes, and he let me in.





And I was in. I was in their livingroom, poised at the edge of my seat, wringing my hands and seeing clearly in the younger brother's, Camillo's, face, that I wasn't winning any popularity contests.

“So, she comes to the door with big sparkly eyes and you let her in just like that?” he asked from opposite where I sat. He didn't even look at me.

“I did. Because her name is Ithaca.”

“What, as in-?”

“That's right, Lilah Ithaca's niece.”

“So she didn't lie.” Camillo laughed. “I thought she made the niece thing up. Are you sure it's really her and not...”

They were still talking – did they even notice I was still there?

“It's her all right...





… I'd recognise those eyes anywhere.”

“Huh, yes, they're actually the exact same colour as...”

“Okay, stop!”





“Stop, okay? I have no idea what's going on here. How do you know Lilah?”

I knew that I didn't know Lilah the way I had known Didah. Lilah simply didn't have that kind of open heart. She was never cruel or disliked me, but she wasn't warm and open either. She had secrets, too, that much I knew, and I suspected these guys were in on them.

“What did Lilah say about us?” Carlo finally turned to face me, something like amusement on his face.

“Nothing, she just sent me here and said to talk to you and tell you her name. She said you'd help me settle down.”

“Ah, I see.” He suddenly got to his feet and bolted out the door. “Well, you had better come with me, then.”

I shot Camillo a look and he looked back at me with something I couldn't read. Then I bolted after his older brother.





Carlo waved me into a taxi and I hesitantly got in the back. He got in the front, barked some directions at the driver and we drove off.

We drove all the way through town, sometimes making stops at houses where Carlo talked to someone, then came back and yelled more instructions at the driver. Though the ride was scenic, my companion said nothing but his instructions to the driver and my heart was sinking. I cursed Lilah for sending me here – it seemed likely that the man was mad.

By the time we finally stopped and I was waved out of the taxi, it was dark.





The older Mancini brother pointed to an empty plot of land and I got out, looked at it.

“What...?”

“Welcome to your new home.”

I spun and looked at him, flabbergasted. “Excuse me?”

“This is your land. It's all paid, all yours, courtesy of me. When you talk to Lilah again, tell her we're even.”

“But... there's nothing here!” I said. “And I have barely any cash. No furniture. Nothing.”

“Well, I'd say getting a job is in order.”

“But, I-”

“Look,” he said, and he handed me a card. “If you're desperate, go to Good Guys Inc. and tell them you talked to me. They'll give you a job.”

“What, you want me to go to everyone in town and yell names at them?”

“Sure.” He laughed. “You are good at yelling names at people – I should know. Enjoy your new place.”

I was going to say something more but he was already in the taxi and heading home.





Lilah, Lilah, Lilah! What had she gotten me into?

---

Author's note: The first part of my on-going legacy. I've been posting this for a while on another forum but I thought - why not. Let's have it on here as well This first chapter is old, mind, but not as bad as I feared it would be.

[KaseOfHearts]

I AM SO GLAD YOU BROUGHT THIS OVER. You know I love it, Louise. FANGIRLING.

[NotJustaBook]

1.1. Unexpected Things



I didn't know anything about Good Guys Inc. but as I left their headquarters the next day, I sure did. Turns out “job” in their view is a very broad term. I hurriedly left after they discussed the contract and the requirement that I steal items worth a 1000 § a week and extra items I would get to keep and... thank you, no.

I hurried out of there, shaking my head. That was where this Carlo Mancini worked. That was what Lilah had been into.







I felt like a frightened mouse when I went to the hospital late that night and meekly asked if they had a position – they did.

“Nothing brilliant,” the man who would become my boss said. “Very low-level but you look bright enough. If you work for it, you can work your way up.”

With a final smile he shook my hand. On the way out, he winked at me and said he would be glad to be my guide to Monte Vista, but I just shot him an insecure smile and hurried out.

Then began a long period of... nothing.







The job was slow, life was slow, I lived on a plot of land with nothing but a sleeping bag and autumn rapidly approaching. I slept outside in the rain and the hail, then went off to work. That was the daily humdrum my existence had become.







A tedium that was, oddly, only softened by Carlo calling now and then. The first time, I told him of my visit to Good Guys Inc. and told him in no clear terms that I didn't appreciate him trying to make me a criminal.

He just laughed at that. “So you don't take that much after your aunt, huh?”

“No, I don't, and she isn't a criminal these days, you know. She's a journalist.”

“Aha, I see interesting. Still living with her sister.”

“No,” I just said.

He didn't ask further, but he did keep calling. Not everyday, but often enough, just to hear that I was doing well – was I advancing at that boring old job at the hospital. Yes, and thank you, it wasn't boring at all.

I didn't tell him that I was bored out of my mind.

And I didn't tell anyone at all that I appreciated the phone calls, and I always told myself that he called because he had an odd respect for my aunt. It was all for Lilah's sake no doubt, so I told myself.







A couple of days work and only a small promotion which basically meant a little more money and a pat on the should, and then Leisure Day came.



For some reason I didn't expect to run into Carlo at the Summer Festival. I don't know why not – it's everyone's day off, it was a nice, sunny day. But I guess he just didn't strike me as much of a Summer Festival kind of man. I greeted him with a little wave of the hand, noting that it felt odd seeing him in person. Over the past couple of days, I had talked to him, gotten to know him, but only his voice and the things he told. Here he was, in the flesh.



Even then, I had thought I knew him.







Sometimes you think you know people and then you don't. I knew for certain I didn't know Lilah but I thought I had Carlo Mancini figured out - a hardened criminal who had been trying to get me into 'the family business', but it was like I forgot that detail. I never figured I would be able to forget that after my embarrassing expedition to Good Guys Inc.. I never thought we would be playing football at the Summer Festival, either.







I never thought we'd be in an eating contest. Or that we would be skating together. That he would be funny. That we would have things in common. That we could actually talk about things that weren't just my aunt. I never expected anything.

[KaseOfHearts]

I forgot how much I love your founder.

[NotJustaBook]

1.2. Something Like Home



Rarely do things turn out the way one initially expected. When Didah Ithaca agreed to tend her baby niece one afternoon, she never expected that one day, she would be her guardian. Her carefree soul didn't have the capacity to imagine that her brother and sister-in-law would pass away in a tragic accident.

But that happened, and at age ten, their niece was left in her and her sister's, Lilah's, care. Something changed in Didah. Maybe the latent mother's instinct that she had never needed when she didn't have a child to care for. She was still happy, still a child at heart, but she was also nervous.



At times, her sister would receive a phone call and suddenly dash out the house, run down the road, disappear in the night, all the while Didah and her niece could do nothing but watch and wonder. Would she come to harm? Would she come home?



And Didah never expected to be the first to go. I saw that in her face the day it happened. Even after Lilah stopped running off, she still thought Lilah would be the first. She never saw it coming.



And nor did we.



Nor did I expect to live on an empty plot of land, to fall in love with a criminal, to marry him on the spot and see him grow old.

But I did all of that. All of that came in rapid succession like a whirlwind and before I knew it, I was settled, so to speak. Settled on a piece of land where we could build a house, all thanks to the money Carlo brought with him.



Well, something like a house. A roof over our sleeping bags, more like. Carlo laughed at that, laughed at knowing that I had lived like that for so long.

“You could have slept over, you know.”

“At the Thieves' Guild? Not likely.”

“Cheeky. Just like your aunt.”

My aunt.

It suddenly hit me. I had called her once or twice a week since I had moved to Monte Vista and I still hadn't told her about the marriage. It had all been a blur, all so unexpected – I hadn't given it a second thought. But of course she should be told. Especially...



… considering recent developments. Things I had hardly wrapped my head around - me, creating new life? It was too strange and wonderful.

But then, when everything was so unexpected, what was I to say? I tried calling once, but it was like I was at a loss for words and couldn't open my mouth. When she didn't pick up, I didn't try again.

In my head, I knew exactly what to say. Sort of.



I wanted to say that this was right. That somehow, I fell in love. That we were living together and that we were happy. That she had done the right thing to send me here to start a new life but I wish she would have come with me so we could have done this together.

That I felt that Carlo was my new Didah, my best friend and support.



I wrote it all down. A jumbled mess of sentences and paragraphs and terrible spelling and worse handwriting. Both trying to relay everything accurately and to express my love and my happiness for this current situation. It was barely readable, I think, but I sent it, and somehow knew it was the right thing to do.

---

Author's note: It's so long since I wrote this! I can't believe how short my chapters were back then. Gosh. Where did I get all those extra words later on?

[Jane.Eyre.Force]

Can I just say how much I adore your writing style? This is so lovely! You're very talented.

[NotJustaBook]

Oct 20, 2013 4:47:14 GMT -5 Jane.Eyre.Force said:

Can I just say how much I adore your writing style? This is so lovely! You're very talented.

Don't mind me - just gonna go over in a corner over here and blush a lot. Thank you so much ^_^

[NotJustaBook]

1.3. Three Times Trouble



The letter was sent but I didn't hear anything from Lilah. Time passed and soon the day arrived. Carlo dashed from work in the middle of the night. It was raining heavily that night, and under the eerie full moon, three girls were born.



Yes, three. As we left the hospital, it was all I could do to keep myself together. Carrying the three sleeping babies, all I wanted to do was lay down and to sleep forever. But they cried and they needed me.



Aërope was the first born, then came Pasiphaë and last Ariadne. It was the strangest feeling. Looking at my children and knowing that I loved them, but also feeling tears coming into my eyes because it was too much. There were three of them.

I stood clutching Aërope to my chest, equal parts terror and love flowing through my head, when Carlo tapped me on the shoulder.

“Get some sleep,” he said gently. “I'll take care of them.”

“But I-”

“No, Persie, sleep. Now.”



He took her from me and smiled.

“See, I didn't drop her and I didn't turn her evil with my magic criminal hands. Aren't you proud?”

All I could muster was an exhausted smile and then I went to sleep.



And slept the night and the full moon away.

Turned out later, I was going to feel this way a lot. Perhaps that was to be expected but I didn't see it coming.

As a child, time would pass achingly slow, but now, time flew by. Carlo time and time again proved himself to be deserving of a Father of the Year Award and all I felt like I earned was a Sleeper of the Year Award.

But they grew up quickly, my little girls.



Aërope turned out to love heat, always staying out in the sun after the other two had crawled off back into the house, and when she was out, there was no end to how easily impressed she was with everything. Pointing towards butterflies and plants and the sky and everything else that made her eyes big with joy.

Pasiphaë was a little eccentric and we could barely drag her out of bed in the morning.

And finally Ariadne shared her sister's eccentricity and was always the first to leave when we were in the garden. I could tell she didn't like the outdoors much, which amused me a little. Both Carlo and I were outdoors people who were happy to spend hours and hours outside in the garden – Ariadne was much happier inside.



It was hard work, raising three toddlers, but they were adorable. It quickly became second nature to ignore one's own hunger and exhaustion because they needed something. The only thing that seemed to take some of the pressure off of my shoulders were the three dolls that arrived in the post, supposedly from a distant relative of my mother's. With the girls' attention completely engulfed by them, I found moments where I could work on my skills to get better at my job.

Still, I couldn't even say chaos reigned in our little home. I didn't have time to realise it was chaos, because I could think of nothing but caring for the girls, often at the expense of my own needs. While all this happened, my former worry about Lilah and how she would react to all of this completely left my mind, until one night there was a sharp knock on the door.



I went out, more tired and grumpy than polite, I suspect, and was greeted by a pleasant-looking older man. He introduced himself as Edmund Darke, and said it was his sorry duty to inform me that Lilah had passed away.

I think I just stared at him for long, until he said: “Are you alright?”

“What, no, yes, I mean, you know. I didn't even... who are you?”

“Like I said, I'm Mr. Darke. A friend of your late aunt.”

He explained she had passed away a week before and because she hadn't told him where I was, it had taken him some time to track me down. She hadn't known anything about my marriage or my children, he said.

After some talk back and forth, well-wishes and more condolences than was strictly needed, he quickly took off and left me to my own.



I left for work in my own thoughts, and still didn't feel quite myself when I came back. Carlo came out from the bedroom, rubbing his eyes.

“Hey, you coming in to bed? The girls are sleeping and...”

“Lilah's dead.”

He stopped, blinked like he didn't get what I'd just said. “What?”

“Lilah. I had a visitor before I went to work. A friend of hers. She died a week ago.”

“I'm... I'm sorry, Persie. I really am.”

I nodded. “Well, so am I. I think maybe... you knew her better than I did.”

He stood long, staring at me, rubbing his neck. “I don't know about that. I knew her, I guess, but not well.”

I managed a smile as tears came from my eyes. “Yeah, well, tell me about her anyway.”

“Huh?”

“Tell me about Lilah. I think it's about time you told me how you got to know her.”


[Author's note: I guess there was some sort of Murphy's law in play when I played - I did use fertility treatment but I'd counted on twins, not triplets. At this point they were living in a shack and didn't have a lot of money at all.

Fun with Names:

As all names for this legacy (except NPC names, needless to say) are based on ancient Greek mythology, I thought I'd just share some short info on their namesakes here:

Persephone: Daughter of Demeter, she was robbed by Hades of the Underworld and had to stay there for part of the year.

Aërope: Wife of Atreus and mother of Agamemnon and Menelaos, the latter is the man who married Helen and destroyed Troy when she was kidnapped by prince Paris.
As you do when you lose your lady.

Pasiphaë: Wife of king Minos of Crete and mother of, among many, Ariadne and the Minotaur.

Ariadne: Daughter of Pasiphaë and Minos (I forgot this when naming the girls!), she fell in love with Theseus and helped him escape the labyrinth and kill the Minotaur. According to some stories she later became the bride of the god Dionysos.]

[KaseOfHearts]

OMG. I forgot about the triples! OMG. You poor freakin thing.

[NotJustaBook]

Oct 21, 2013 14:44:30 GMT -5 KaseOfHearts said:

OMG. I forgot about the triples! OMG. You poor freakin thing.

Triplets are okay... so long as your sims don't live in a shack on a very limited budget with only two adults in the households who both have fulltime jobs... ha ha kill me, how did I ever survive that?!

[NotJustaBook]

1.4. Lilah's Story







“Lilah Ithaca was like a whirlwind,” Carlo explained. “She didn't even live in Monte Vista; one day she just knocked on our door, almost like how you did. Difference was she didn't know anyone, she just came to our door and said she wanted a job with Good Guys Inc. I sent her to our boss, and an hour later she came back, glowing, and said that she'd made it and she was going to change the face of the crime world in Monte Vista.



“And believe it or not, she did.”







“Everyone made the mistake of laughing at her at first. But they quickly found out that this pretty woman was not to be trifled with. When she wanted a deal done, she got it, even if she had to yell at the whole town.”







“Even my younger brother, whom she called a friend, came to fear her. Not because she was evil or cruel or heartless or would ever resort to unpleasantness, but because she was stern and determined. What more was, you could count on her when there was a job to be done.”

Camillo was pretty young and it was inevitable that he would mess up and he did. In one of the worst ways possible. When he got himself imprisoned, he didn't even bother calling me up with his one phone call. He got Lilah – even though he feared her, he respected her, and that was the case with the rest of us, too. She became a friend to many of us and a valuable part of the bank robbing team.”

She was the one who got us into the best kind of trouble – and out of it again, too. That's what she did once when Camillo got himself caught and imprisoned.”







“I don't know how she did it, but I hear she was seen with the prison administrator, being her usual, unforgiving self. And the next day he was free.”

Carlo took a deep breath and I pondered this, vaguely remembering one night: One of those nights where Lilah had run off at an odd hour, only telling us that a friend needed her. She had looked more anxious than usual. Carlo continued:

“I owed her more than you can imagine.”







“And I remembered what she said to me once. The only time I ever saw her showing some kind of weakness. She came to my door, crying, and told me that her brother and his wife had died, and she had to take care of her niece.”

She came by less and less after that, and always had something to tell about her niece. About you. Then one day, she didn't come any more. She apologised, she called and said that she was leaving that life behind her because there was you and there was Didah, and that was the last I heard of her.”

I never forgot, though.”







“So when her niece showed up at my doorstep, how could I refuse? An empty plot of land for her niece in exchange for my brother's freedom. It seemed fair.”







“Of course, I never expected any of this; of us. But here we are. All thanks to Lilah.”

[PeregrineTook]

Nice story! Ironically, we were just going over Hercules' labor with the Cretan Bull this week in mythology class and I had been mentioning the Minotaur and Pasiphae. We'll be covering the Minotaur and Theseus tomorrow. I believe Carl Jung would simply call this synchronicity :=)

[KaseOfHearts]

Louise has greek mythology all up in this bitch. If she were a greek goddess, she would be The Goddess of Greek Mythology.

[PeregrineTook]

My son once called me the goddess of Masculinity. I think that's the best Greek title EVER!