Some years later, Cynthia continued doing her job at the cemetery.
Always when she had to do something official she had put her sun glasses on in order not to be recognized.
When she wanted to go to the beach, she just sat there and kept thinking of swimming to the Lighthouse Island. It really was ‘calling to her‘.
One morning she woke up and decided that she had been hiding long enough. She changed to her former look and registered again as an assistant in the household.
It didn‘t take long before she got her first offer. There was that man, Mr. Koffi, who needed somebody to do the cleaning and she accepted it because the work hours were alright and in the afternoon she could go to do her other job.
Then she was called by a woman working at a lawyer‘s office. The woman asked her if she would accept a job only during one week. An old house behind the former cemetery had to be cleaned thoroughly because the heiress of that house would come over to live there. It would be paid very well because nobody else dared to be in that house longer than 10 minutes, especially not after sunset.
Cynthia went to the lawyer‘s office to pick up the keys and she promised that she personally would hand them over to Mrs. St. John next week.
When Cynthia saw the house and its location, she loved it right away. The only thing she asked herself was how can I manage these 3 jobs together?
She decided to start with the highest floor of the mysterious house. As a matter of fact, that was quite easy because the rooms there, were closed and she had no key to open them. So she only had to clean the floors, doors and stairs.
Then she ran to Koffi‘s house but she didn‘t have enough time because she had to take care of the fruit crop as well and her cemetery job was just about to start.
She left the work at Koffi‘s house without finishing it and went to her afternoon job.
After finishing, she went again to Koffi to finish the cleaning up and she was so tired that, when she sat on the couch, she just fell asleep.
When Koffi noticed next morning that she had been sleeping there, he said: “Well, your salary will be less because you used my furniture to sleep; I don‘t mind but if you would sleep in a hotel, you would have to pay for it as well“.
She accepted it without saying anything but thought that he was a real tightfisted man and she could understand why he hadn‘t found anybody to marry him.
From that moment on she worked during the morning at Koffi‘s place, the afternoon at the cemetery and the evenings at the mysterious house.
As there was nobody around she decided to sleep there. Now and again she woke up by some strange noises but, as she was used to this kind of noises, she didn‘t pay much attention.
After a stressful week of working, Cynthia had a short walk along the beach and then she saw something that almost left her breathless.
Chester was standing there looking very much in love with a girl that was now saying good-bye to him. Her first intention was to run away but then she thought that she had changed in 5 years and he, most probably wouldn‘t notice her.
Anyway she did not stay very long and went back to house because today was the day that she was expected to give the keys to Mrs. St. John.
She waited for the heiress to come but this ‘Affera‘ woman apparently was not in a hurry. Then Cynthia prepared her bills and when she had put them into the mailbox, she went to the street to wait for Mrs. St. John to appear.
When Cynthia saw a young woman approaching she noticed that the woman was hesitating if thought she wasn‘t sure where she had to go‘.
“Hello, are you Affera St. John? Yes? Well I‘m Cynthia del Campo and I‘ve cleaned this beautiful house of yours. Here are the keys and the bill is in the mailbox.”
Affera said: “All right, thank you so much. Is everything in order with the house? I mean… it looks so spooky.”
“No the house is really beautiful; I myself wouldn‘t mind owning it“ and then she said in a kind of jokey way “and you surely don‘t have to be bored because every night there‘s a ghostly show; if you want me to, I can show you around the place.”
She definitely shouldn‘t have said that because now she had made another enemy for life.
The woman said coldly: “I will transfer the salary to your account. Good-bye…!”
Cynthia arrived a bit late at Koffi‘s house and found a letter on the table.
“Miss Cynthia, I‘ve noticed that you arrive later every day. I do not really mind it very much but I‘m not willing to pay the amount of money you pretend to earn. You may continue working here but I will only pay you half of the price you ask. Sincerely yours, Gobias Koffi.”
Cynthia thought: No wonder he has so much money; he turns each cent 4 or 5 times around before spending it. When a few weeks later he left another letter telling her that, if she didn‘t want to lose her job she had to adjust her salary, she got furious. She did her job and in the evening while Koffi was asleep, she went there and took his most valuable furniture out to sell it right away on the black market.
Next day she went again to Koffi‘s place and left him a letter:
“Mr. Koffi, When I arrived here I found that you have sold all of your furniture. I think that I‘m not necessary anymore but it would have been nice if you would have told me on the forehand that I would be dismissed. Now that I lost this job, it will take me some time finding another job. We have signed this contract that both of us would have 2 months time to dismiss. If you turn this letter around you will see my account number and I would appreciate it very much if you would transfer a two months‘ salary. Thank you… Cynthia.”
Now Cynthia did not accept a job for a couple of weeks and during that time she saw Chester more than once with that nice looking woman.
She tried to find some information about the woman but nobody knew her. Then she decided to do some investigations of her own and one afternoon she followed her home. There she looked in the trashcan and found some interesting papers; letters that were torn into bits and pieces.
She took them home and finished the puzzle. She found out that the woman was called Ilona Picaso from one of the suburbs of SimCity. Cynthia went to the library and used the web for more information. Ilona had studied at university and later lived during one year on the Simmish Islands. The interesting part was that she gave birth there to twins but she left them behind. Shortly after that she immigrated to Sunset Valley in New Simland.
Now that was an interesting story! She was practically sure that Chester didn‘t know that. She wrote an anonymous letter and hoped that their romance would break but only one week later she saw them together again.
Cynthia knew about a woman who was trying to become a famous novel writer. She wrote her a letter telling her the ‘real story of her life‘ with names and surnames and gave her permission to use this story in one of her novels. She even signed the letter with her real name.
One evening Cynthia ran into Ilona and Chester and they had a very unpleasant confrontation.
A few days later, Chester waited for her in front of her house and he let her know that he supposed that she had done all the bad things to him and as well to Koffi. She wondered how he would know that but she didn‘t deny it and even told him that she had done those things. There was no witness around but then he said that he had a pocket recorder and with that evidence he would go to the Police.
Now, she wasn‘t sure if that would be true but just in case, she took her belongings and went to a Real Estate to sell her house.
She stored her personal belongings somewhere and went to the beach.. She looked at the rocks and then at the ocean.
She changed into her swimsuit and slowly walked into the water…
To be continued.
From Sims to Real Life 