From Sims to Real Life

According to the ship’s captain, tomorrow they would be arriving at Sunset Valley.

Val already felt better. He seemed to get used to seeing only water. He left his cabin and went to have a shower. He noticed that it was evening but, as he had been in bed during some days, it didn’t attract him to go to bed again.

Then he heard his sister’s voice. She was conversating with the captain. They seemed to be very relaxed and he could notice that they got along quite well.
Seeing them together he started yearning for Daisy. He wanted to call her but he couldn’t find his mobile.
Then he remembered that it fell into the ocean while he was throwing up but at that moment he had been too sick to pay much attention to that.

He cleaned his throat and managed to draw his sister’s attention. She was pleased to see that he was better already. He told her what had happened to his mobile and asked her if he could use hers. She said: “Of course, but who do you want to call?” and when he answered “Daisy”, she said: “I’m so sorry Val, I don’t have her number anymore.” Seeing the disappointed look on his face, she said: “Jeremy eh…, the captain says that we will see land tomorrow and once in Sunset Valley we could find her number in the international phonebook.”
Val became aware of his empty stomach and went to eat something. Jeremy told him not to eat very much because his stomach couldn’t keep that after all these days.

Jeremy had been right. When they woke up next morning they saw very vaguely land; so vaguely that it almost seemed a mirage.

But it didn’t take long before they could see it better. Jane was excited, thinking that she eventually could find their mother; Val was thinking about that international phonebook and Jeremy had an inscrutable look on his face and kept his thoughts to himself.

Everybody was with his own thoughts while they approached Sunset Valley.
The sun stood high when they could see more details.
A lighthouse island and some beaches….

When they were very near the Lighthouse Island, Jeremy told Jane that he had been living there for almost 2 years.
“But… there seems to be nothing there… only the lighthouse” Jane said.
“That’s true; if I really needed to buy something, I had to take the motorboat and go to town. Anyway, I grew my own vegetables.”

He came back to reality; stood up and said: “Well Jane, it has been a pleasure but I have to prepare the boat because it won’t be long before we will arrive at the quay. I suppose that you’re going to rent an apartment but until you find one, there’s no problem if you want to use the cabins. Anyway, I would advise you to stay here overnight and look for an apartment tomorrow. It’s already 7 p.m. and within a moment it will be dark.”
Jane gratefully gave him a hug and went to her brother to tell him that they would leave the ship tomorrow.

Later that evening Jane saw how Jeremy was standing there alone and she approached him. She asked him: “Weren’t you very lonesome?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, when you were living in the lighthouse…”
“Oh…. well yes; but that was what I was looking for; I was in a very difficult personal moment and my stay on the island brought me to embrace life again. It’s a kind of a tradition that people, who are trying to find themselves back, spend a time of their life taking care of the lighthouse. I found there very interesting information written by a man called Raphael Lightkeeper who was so kind as to write down his look on life. The only thing he asked was to leave a copy of it to be found by others, who eventually needed it.”

“It sounds very interesting. Is it possible to visit the island?”
“I don’t know if somebody lives there right now. I suppose that the lighthouse isn’t really used anymore because technology has taken over.” There was an absent look on his face when he said softly: “Perhaps I will pay the island a visit, I’m going to be here long enough.”
After a while he said: “You should go to bed Janey; you will have a lot of things to do tomorrow”. He saw her walking away and sighed. The good things in life pass so quickly….

He went to bed but couldn’t sleep. In his imagination he was seeing Jane sleeping next to him. He knew that between them there were only about 60 or 70 centimetres, only a wall. He tried to push his thoughts away and turned around…. only to find Jane as well on the other side of the bed. He stood up and thought it would be a good idea to go outside into the fresh air.

Jane was trying to sleep but one way or another, she kept thinking of Jeremy. He felt so close. As a matter of fact, she felt atracted to him and at the same moment, insecure because he seemed to be very experienced while she… well…. she hadn’t even had her first kiss. She imagined how it would be to be kissed by Jeremy and she fell asleep but then happened something that hadn’t happened to her since she was 10 or 12 years old. As a child she had been a common sleepwalker.

She stood up and walked to the deck. She was just guided by her feelings. Her unconsciousness had taken over.
Jeremy saw her coming and noticed that Jane was walking in her sleep. He held his breath when she approached him and put her arms around him. He tried to avoid it but he couldn’t do anything about it. He gently tried to wake her up without scaring her.

Once he managed that, he wanted to bring her back to her cabin but then she asked: “How can I be sure that I won’t start walking again? I could fall off the ship and drown”.

Then Jeremy took her with him and they shared a few moments talking on his bed until there was a weird silence between them.

Jeremy wanted to stand up and leave the bed to Jane when, all of a sudden, Jane started to speak fast and she stumbled over her own words: “I’ve been dreaming of you… of this moment and how it would feel to be kissed by you…. I’ve never been kissed and perhaps you would be willing to…..”

When Jeremy was aware of her confusion, he cuddled close to her and held her gently: “Do you want me to give you your first kiss?” Jane nodded and started to blush.

He looked at her and said softly “Don’t worry my darling…. I will be very careful”.

A whole new world opened for Jane. She felt some strange energy running through her body. At the same moment, Jeremy felt that he had unlocked his own fortification and felt freed of the guilt that had pursued him the last 5 years. He still couldn’t sleep and watched Jane while she was sleeping. He enjoyed how she talked in her sleep and felt very good when he noticed that she was dreaming of this first experience. It made him want to wake her up again but he decided better not to do so.

With a warm feeling in his breast, he fell asleep as well.

“Jane, JANE!!!”
They woke up with a start when the door was opened and Val stood there in awe looking at both with open mouth.

They jumped out of bed while Val continued looking first at Jane and then at Jeremy. Afterwards he blamed his sister for not being dressed because they had to leave the ship and go ashore.

There was no time for anything else. Before leaving, Jeremy told them that they could leave there luggage and pick it up later, depending on what they would do; rent some apartment or continue sleeping on the ship. Jane asked him why he had put his uniform on and Jeremy answered: “I know that you love uniforms and I just want to make sure that you come back”.

Val wasn’t sure if he would like to come back but Jane felt a lump in her throat when she imagined that she would never see Jeremy again. She said… “I will surely come back to pick up my belongings”.

Jeremy looked at them as they left.

A very warm feeling settled in his heart when Jane turned around and waved good-bye.

*****

In a certain way this is the end of the story but it isn’t complete yet. First I will write another short story and after that, I’ll write the completing of this story about the Hunter Twins.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks to Cazarupt for his ship Merlin and a very, very specials ‘thanks’ to Fredbrenny for having created her ship that I called ‘Frederique I’. Thank you very much for creating it for my story (((Fred))).

*****

Jane and Valdemar Hunter had arrived at the last train station and needed to continue by ship. Jane left the train and walked to the ship to buy their tickets while Val still was with Daisy but he would come afterwards. The ship wouldn’t be leaving until 5.00 p.m.

It was a big and luxury ship. That couldn’t be otherwise because it was from the Cazarupt Shipping Line. Jane was thinking that they had to find a job because all this travelling had reduced their finances.

She saw other people boarding the ship as well and the captain looked… well…. very special. He was not much of a talker, at least not during the first hours.

Jane went to her cabin. It was very big and Valdemar surely would like it. She began to feel nervous thinking that her brother still hadn’t arrived and she considered taking a taxi to the train and drag him to the ship. But it wasn’t necessary because he was coming on board already.

He had a dreamy look on his face and didn’t say very much. Later that day he discovered the radio on one of the decks and he started dancing alone. That’s what everybody thought but in his imagination he was dancing with Daisy. He couldn’t stop thinking of her.

The ship had already set off and it didn’t take long before they only could see water. During dinner they had made acquaintance with the Ford Family. They had two children: a girl of about 8 years old and a boy of about 14 or 15. The girl looked very unhappy and the boy didn’t bother about anything but playing with the computer. Their parents had only eyes for each other and spent practically all of the time in their cabin, leaving the children alone.

When Val saw that there was only water all around he started feeling sick. Several times he had to run to the toilet to throw up. Then he found out that the best place to be was in bed, so he spent the next day sleeping.

Jane had a very good stomach and she sat on one of the decks to enjoy the sun. The captain saw her and approached her. “Miss Jane, be careful with the sun, you could get burnt” and he took place on a deckchair. They talked a while and then she remarked: “It’s strange but I lose my orientation capacity; I could swear that we’re heading back from where we came”.

The captain was surprised. “Well…, I must say that you are very clever and there’s nothing wrong with your orientation. You don’t see that very often”.
“So we are going back?!” she exclaimed. “But why?”

“Because there’s a technical problem and I don’t want to take any risks. So we’ll go back, not exactly to the same place where we came from, but not very far away. I’ve already ordered to prepare one of my older boats which is not as big and luxury as this one but I do hope that it will be no problem for you”.
“Have you told the Fords about this?”

“No, not yet…. I don’t want to make them upset by knocking on their cabin’s door, they seem to be… playing all of the time” and he glanced at Jane with a humorous look in his eyes. Jane didn’t know whether she should laugh or not and she started to blush. She was very much aware of the captain’s presence and she wondered how old he would be. It was very difficult to know. He had many wrinkles around his eyes but that could be due to his job; always in the open air and she saw that he never wore sunglasses. She felt attracted to him but “it’s most probably the uniform” she thought.

The captain stood up and said: “Look, there are many seagulls; within an hour or so we will see land, so I’m going to tell the other passengers that they should prepare their luggage; I think you better wake up your brother and prepare your belongings” and with a polite greeting by touching his cap, he went to announce the news through the speakers.

Mister Ford was angry and due to that, his wife got nervous and looked impatiently if the new boat would come. The captain tranquilized her and said that they wouldn’t have to wait a long time.

There it was: an older boat from the “Brenny Lines”. When Mister Ford started to complain about the looks of the boat, the captain told him that, in spite of being older, it wouldn’t have the same technical problems as the other one. Besides, he stated that he liked this one better because he found it more reliable.

They all went on board. Mr Ford was so angry that his daughter had to pay for his bad humour. He shouted at her and the girl began to cry.

Mrs. Ford, who usually only paid attention to her husband’s likes and figured herself away, showed for once her mother’s instinct and shouted at her husband to leave the girl alone.

When the captain heard all this shouting, he quickly came down from his office and said: “Mr. Ford, I can see that you’re not very happy with all this; neither am I but I really don’t accept violence on board. I’ll give you all of your money back and invite you to leave the ship”.

Ford knew that he had done wrong but didn’t want to admit it. He ordered his wife “Prepare everything; I don’t want to stay one minute longer on this…. this…. rubbish!” His wife quickly went for the luggage again and they left the ship, leaving Val and Jane as the only passengers.

The captain made some arrangements to make the cabins more comfortable for the passengers and in the evening they set off to New Simland.

That same evening Val had to throw up and he started to think that it would have been better to travel by plane. He just went to bed and tried to stay there. Although he was hungry, he didn’t want to eat fearing that he would throw up again.

The captain, Jeremy invited Jane for a drink and he told her, that he didn’t expect to use this ship again for passengers. He is modernizing it little by little and made his excuses that the bathroom doors still were the old ones.

Jane said that she didn’t mind and she accepted it when he invited her to dance. She asked him why he had changed into his official uniform. He smiled and answered: “Well… I just wanted to give this dear, old boat of mine a bit more of importance”. That was the beginning of their conversations.

Later Jane told him about the tragedy that had struck her family and how she found out that her real mother lives somewhere in New Simland and that they had spent practically all of their money in the journey. Once in New Simsland, they would have to find a job to start gathering money for their journey back.

Jeremy was very sorry for them and told her a bit of his life as well. How he had worked hard to be able to buy the ship Sims’ Delight but now he would have to spend lots of money for the reparation and he asked himself if it would be worthwhile. Perhaps he could better sell that big expensive ship. Fortunately he had this one that could be used to live on.

During the next days Jane noticed that Jeremy was very pleasant company and he taught her many things about navigation. He had a very good sense of humour as well.

When he said that they would arrive soon at New Simland, she asked him if he would return right away but he said that he was planning to stay a few months there. He knew the town, Sunset Valley; he had been there before.

He said: “Look Jane, we are approaching and I’m quite sure that we will see land tomorrow; look how beautiful this is.”
Both looked at this view and felt a special bond had formed between the two of them. They had shared their life stories and some jokes as well. They had become very good friends.

To be continued….