From Sims to Real Life

Hi everybody! This will be the last part of this Sims2 story. It will continue in the Sims3 game under the name ‘The Hunter Twins Travelling’.
Many thanks to the cc artists and a very special mention to CycloneSue for the Castle and the Highlander Croft.

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At last Jane had fallen asleep. It was a restless sleep and she dreamt only images of her youth.

She saw images of her father playing chess with the doctor and afterwards they were talking in the staircase. She herself was playing with her brother, and mother came to play with them. The images were tumbling around.
The curious thing was that she was fully aware that it was a dream. While sleeping in the bed she saw her brother and herself as well.

A certain moment Lady Jane turned around towards the bed and said: ‘It must be otherwise, remember that it’s otherwise.’

Little by little her image faded away and with that all the sequences of her dream.

When she woke up she had the feeling if though she forgot something but she didn’t think about that a long time. After breakfast she ordered a taxi and went to the shopping center where she bought a master key. To her disappointment, the key couldn’t open the door either.
It seemed that there was something inside the keyhole. She had a closer look and discovered that the keyhole was just ornamental. What could she do…? Just chop it down with an axe as someone surely would suggest?  Or break a window? She wasn’t sure and got quite bad humored. She thought about going home but there was something, she didn’t know exactly what…, that stopped her.

She went downstairs and looked a bit around in the different bookcases. She knew already most of these books but there was one untitled. She took it and noticed that it was Lady Jane’s diary.
Her first impulse was to put it back. It was against her character to read someone else’s intimacies but her curiosity won this time.

She started to read it. Apparently Lady Jane had begun from a very young age to write it; the style was very childish.
As a matter of fact Jane found it touching but it couldn’t keep her interest very long. She decided to keep it and read more of it in the future when she was bored.

She went home to get some other clothes. Val wasn’t there; most probably he was looking for a job. She felt like going out that evening.
When back in the castle her brother called her: “Hi Janey, I see that you’ve been at home. So sorry I wasn’t there. Have you been here for a special reason?” Jane said that she went there to get some other clothes and she asked him if he would feel like going out with her that evening. He answered that he would love to and they would see each other at the bowling where they could play snooker as well.

After having spent some nice hours together, Jane said that she was going back to the castle.

“I don’t understand why…” said Valdemar but his sister said that she simply couldn’t forget about the roof apartment. Valdemar laughed: “It’s the always the same with you; you always have been doing and thinking otherwise.”

Jane stood still immediately and looked puzzled ”What’s the matter Jane?” Val asked. She said thoughtful: “I just remember a dream I had last night” and she told her brother about it.
He wondered why mother told her to do it otherwise. “To do… what… otherwise?”  “I don’t know either”, she answered.

“Well, I got to be going, I feel unquiet; if though there’s something I just fail to see.” She wove that thought away and said: “I’ll call you tomorrow Val” and she added: “Be careful at home; don’t fall from the stairs!”
Her brother reacted: “Hey…, I don’t think that’s very funny! I know that I’m clumsy but there’s no need to exaggerate, sis!

As soon as Jane arrived at the castle, she lit the fire but that wasn’t enough to warm the whole castle. It’s a pity that she didn’t have a stove in her bedroom! But wait… she could use her parents’ bedroom…; there she has a stove!
She went upstairs and changed the sheets of her parents’ bed. She lit the fire and went downstairs again to drink a hot chocolate.

Returning to the bedroom, she found that the temperature was already nice. She accommodated on the bed with her mother’s diary though she didn’t have the patience to read it from the start so she skipped regularly some pages. There were a few things that stunned her and she thought that this information perhaps would interest Sean McCormick.

She passed quickly to the last few pages and there she read: First of all, Valdemar wasn’t very pleased with my idea of having a roof apartment built. He said that it would be a lot of money for something that only would be used during a couple of weeks.

Fortunately I was able to convince him.
He said that he didn’t want that the door could be locked from the inside because if Miss Picaso would be here, there would be a possibility that she would go into labor and then it would be difficult to enter the room.

I promised him that there would be no key to that door.

I contacted Deirdre, the Keeper of Forgotten History, and she told me to use a ‘magical door’ that only could be opened saying a special word. She took care that the door was installed and then she told me that I myself had to find a proper word. I had to whisper that word three times and then the wood would have absorbed the word as the only proper key. I tried that out and it really works. Obviously I will not write down what the keyword is; not even reversed!

March, 15
Yesterday Miss Picaso arrived here and she is very happy with her private apartment. She feels at home and appreciated very much that I put a painters easel there because she loves painting. After dinner she gave us some very good news; she’s going to have twins and McCormick confirmed it. Oh my dear God! I’m so extraordinary happy! Tomorrow I will go to see Ian Woodcutter to order him to make an extra crib. This joy and happiness is too big for my chest and I am crying all of the time out of gratefulness. I’m very sure that I will not have the time anymore to write in this diary; at least not very regularly.

Jane closed the diary. There were still a few more pages but she had enough with what she read. She wondered: Where and how can I find that word that will open the door. Mother didn’t want to write the word down; not even reversed…! The other way around…, otherwise…  OTHERWISE! That must be the word! She jumped out of bed and went upstairs.

Once in front of the door, she felt unsure…. A magical door…; does it exist? Am I supposed to believe that? Her logic told her to go downstairs and to bed but…
it was night and nobody was there to make fun of her. She walked to the door and whispered  ‘otherwise’…  the door swung open.

She went inside quickly and was almost blinded by all the lights that automatically were put on. There was a writing table, some comfortable chairs, a bookcase and there were even living plants. How can they have survived… she wondered.

There was a painting on the wall representing a young fairy. This is so odd; a magical door, a fairy painting and plants that look if though somebody has watered them recently…. Jane didn’t know what to think about it. There was a very relaxing sphere. To her big surprise there was a completely modernized bathroom. She was very excited and the peace of the room made her eyelids heavy.

She opened another door and found a small bedroom.

Jane didn’t think it over twice and went to bed; in only once sigh she was sleeping.

She woke up completely relaxed.
It was then that she noticed another painting on the wall representing a girl; a young woman and on the painting was a name: ‘Ilona Picaso’.

Jane almost forgot to breathe: Ilona Picaso…; that must be her real mother’s name. She asked herself if Ilona was the girl on the painting or the painter of the girl… or both.

Now she thought she knew enough. She had a shower and went downstairs to have breakfast. Afterwards she phoned the information service to ask if they had a number of Ilona Picaso. After a while the operator told her that this person was unknown. They had numbers of M. Picaso; J. Picaso; T. Picaso. She wrote the numbers down. The operator told her that these numbers corresponded to a neighborhood of SimCity which made Jane very hopeful. Now she had something to start with.

At the first number there was nobody home and it was of no use to leave a message. At the second try she was lucky. A woman’s voice said: “Good-morning; here Clo Picaso.”
“Good-morning, my name is Jane Hunter and I’m looking for a friend of my mother. This friends’ name is Ilona Picaso. Do you know her by any chance?”
There was a short silence before the answer came: “Yes, she’s my sister-in-law but she doesn’t live here. She emigrated to New Simland about 20 years ago”.
Jane asked her if she had a phone number or an email address but Clo answered: “Yes I have but I will not give you that information because I don’t know you.”

Jane said: “That’s fair enough, thank you very much” and she disconnected.
She had to digest this all…; New Simland.

She ran upstairs and had another look at the painting of Ilona Picaso and took a picture of it. Then she went home. Entering the house as an autumn storm, she called her brother. He called out loud: “Wait a moment; I’m just going to have a shower!

Impatiently she took the newspaper to see if there were direct flights to New Simland. No…, there weren’t. They would have to travel to different destinies before they could arrive there.
When she heard the water stopped flowing, she went to the bathroom and asked if she could come inside. Val said: “Wait a moment sis; I’m dressing.”

After a short while he said she could come inside. “What’s the matter?” he asked her and she answered: ”Have you found a job already? No? Good! Because we are leaving today; our mother lives in New Simland. No suitcases please; backpacks are easier!

Valdemar seemed unhappy with her decision but he knew that he always got the worst of it; his sister had always been the leader.

Anyway, he had to admit that her enthusiasm was contagious.

When they had everything prepared, they went to Sean McCormick’s place to tell him about their plans and before saying good-bye, Jane gave him a present. She didn’t tell him what it was; but advised him not to open it until after they had gone.

The man wished the young people lots of luck and asked them to write him now and again.

He kissed them good-bye.

Would he even see them back?