Generation 2, Chapter 2: La grande faucheuse vient dîner.

I was surprised by how quickly Yves and I adjusted to living together. I was incredibly nervous that I had rushed into asking him, and that we would find that we detested being around each other so much. But in fact, it was the opposite. I thoroughly enjoyed living with him, and I found myself falling hard. His English had improved immensely, but we still spoke in French sometimes when we were alone together, just to make sure we didn’t start losing the language that ultimately brought us together.

I was worried that Mama would protest me asking Yves to move in, especially given that we were both so young, but she was stoic about the whole situation. When she “officially” passed the torch to me to start writing this legacy story, she told me that I had free reign of the house as long as she got to keep her spacious master bed and bath for the rest of her days. I wasn’t sure if that included asking my foreign boyfriend to move in, but Mama didn’t say a word. Secretly I thought she was just happy to have someone home during the day to talk to. Yves applied for a night job at Little Corsican Bistro, and being that he had so much knowledge from the motherland, they hired him right away. So, he and Mama were the only ones home during the day and I think she was pleased to have his company. 

I had taken a job at the local bookstore to try and keep myself occupied and add a little money to the family pot. After all, Mama’s pension was a bit on the skimpy side and Yves was still working entry level at the bistro. I was happy to be helping my family, and I absolutely loved the bookshop. The smell of newly printed paper and the cozy atmosphere made for an intoxicating work environment. But…I soon found myself growing frustrated with the clientele. I spent my days stocking the most magnificient works of literature – Voltaire, Shakespeare, Machiavelli, Hemingway – and I also found that customers traipsed right by them in search of the latest installment of the ever popular Vampire Romance series. It made me crazy. I know I shouldn’t judge, but…god, some days it was hard not to.

In my spare time, I kept honing my inventing skills. I was getting good.

In fact, I was quite happy to find that my handiness skill was improving alongside my inventing skill. That meant I could easily repair the things around the house that always seemed to break. I’m looking at you, dishwasher. You pesky thing, you.

Yves and I pooled some of our savings to put a nectar cellar below the studio. He said he always wanted to learn nectar making and he wanted to try it out in his spare time. To be honest, though, I think it helped ease some of the homesickness he was feeling. He loved Sunset Valley, but I also know he missed Champ Les Sims. There are some days he would be withdrawn and melancholy, and I knew it was because he felt a little alienated living in such a radically different place. The nectar cellar gave him a taste of what he had been missing.

And it gave me a little eye candy too. Look at those muscles! Ooo-la-la.

Kai spent an alarming amount of time in the studio ever since Tricia admitted to him that she was only interested in friendship. I think it was his own form of brooding. He was far too proud to admit that a girl had gotten to him, but he spent an awful lot of time pouring over the canvas in the weeks immediately following her rejection. I tried not to give him a hard time about it, but it was hard not to chuckle just a little bit at how cliché the whole thing was.

Mama was trying to find ways to keep herself busy. She took a few classes on fishing and public speaking, but she soon grew bored and restless with any new thing she picked up. I think it might have been her general frustration with life at this point in her life. My heart broke for her and I tried my best to spend as much time as possible with her. However, it was difficult. My job left me feeling emotionally drained when I got home and some nights all I wanted to do when I got home was sink into the couch and watch television or read a book.

One evening I decided I wanted to take Mama out on the town – we both deserved a little fun and relaxation. To my surprise and delight, she informed me that she actually already had plans to go out with some acquaintances she had met at her writing class (oh yes, writing was her latest endeavor). We made plans to go out over the weekend. As she hopped into the taxi, I found myself smiling. I was so happy that she was finally getting out of the house with someone other than Yves, Kai or myself. Not that we’re bad company, but family can drive you a little crazy sometimes.

With my plans being put on hold, I headed to studio and dragged Kai inside to have dinner with me. I made him Yves’s famous pancakes in hopes that I could soften him up into talking to me about his recently moodiness.

“Viv, I appreciate it…but to be honest, I’m just ready to graduate and move out so that I can get my life started. I don’t even know what I want to do yet, but I know I’m ready to get out of Sunset Valley and start something new for myself.”

I was a little sad, I’ll be honest. Kai and I had been very close when he was a kid and I was a teenager, but it seemed like we had both become so busy as we got older. I felt a little guilty for not spending as much time with him as I used to. I knew we were still close, and I knew his desire to get out had nothing to do with how he felt about me and our family, but it was hard not to feel sad when I heard him talk about how he couldn’t wait to move on.

The phone rang just as we were finishing out dinner. Kai rose from the table to grab it. I noticed that the call was quick and short, with Kai only uttering a few words in a very quiet voice.

“Who was it? Someone special?”

I couldn’t resist making the small joke, but the look in his eye told me I had struck a nerve.

“I’m sorry, baby brother, it was just a joke.”

But instead of tossing a joke right back and me, he pulled me into the tightest hug I think I have ever received. His voice cracked when he spoke his next words.

“It’s mom, Vivien. That was the restaurant. She collapsed at dinner and there was nothing they could do.”

My stomach felt like it would fall right out of my body and I swear something stole the air from my lungs. My legs wouldn’t support my weight and if Kai had not been holding me in a death grip hug, I would have collapsed right then and there. This wasn’t supposed to happen. Mama was supposed to be there for me, for Kai, for Yves and for her future grandchildren. Oh god, she would never even meet her future grandchildren. My children would have no grandparents. My thoughts were a whirlwind and I was barely aware that Kai had steered me onto the sofa and was now on the phone with Yves, informing him of what happened. Oh, Yves. Mama would never see our theoretical wedding, now.

The days immediately following Mama's death were hard. We were all in a state of shock and mourning and it seemed like none of us could get our brains into gear and carry on with our lives. Time moved, we existed. That was all it was - simply existing. Whatever we were doing...it couldn't really be called living.

And then one day, it was like a switch flipped in my brain. I decided that I was not going to carry on with the moping. I had a life to live, as did Kai and Yves. I realized that they were not going to pull through unless I began to pull through. I took a shower and put on fresh clothes, and for the first time in a week, I left our house. My first stop was to the book shop – I was going to quit my job. I was not going to waste any more time toiling at a place that chipped away at my soul. I was scared to do it, because we could not survive on Yves’s income alone, but I had a plan. My next stop was to city hall, where I registered as self-employed. I was going to spend my days inventing, painting and sculpting. I was going to pursue my dreams of following in the footsteps of DaVinci and I was going to support myself in the process. No more meek, pushover book store clerk! Vivien Collier is in charge of her own destiny, folks.

Speaking of that, my last stop was to pick up a surprise for Yves. Mama’s death made me realize how short and precious life is (ugh it sounds so cliché but its true), and I had no intention of wasting any more time when it came to things I wanted. And I wanted more than anything to marry that lovely man.

I was ecstatic that Yves accepted my proposal. We decided to get married right then and there, alone at the edge of the Collier land, overlooking the sea. I secretly hoped that the future Collier generations would all decide to have their weddings here too. It was picturesque and serene. It was perfect.

It was a few weeks after the wedding that I began to feel tired and grumpy. I had no idea what was wrong. I was getting plenty of sleep, but I must admit that after I decided to become self-employed, I worried about money more than I used to. Yves was moving up the ladder steadily at his job, but I didn’t want to rely on him to be the sole breadwinner, mostly because I didn’t want to put that kind of pressure on him. 

It wasn’t until the nausea set in that I fully realized what the symptoms were really about – I was going to be a mom! I was surprised – I mean not entirely surprised because Yves and I had been spending a lot of…ahem…time together. But we hadn’t talked about having a baby and certainly hadn’t planned on having a baby. That sounded silly when I thought about it because when it comes to babies, lack of planning is almost synonymous with “planning to have a baby”. We weren’t trying to prevent it, so we should have been prepared for it to happen. God I felt foolish – why hadn’t we just sat down and talked about whether we wanted children and if so, when? Why hadn’t we discussed a plan in case I did get pregnant? Perhaps our lack of planning was just a by-product of getting married so young, but it certainly made me feel like a child, and as such, improperly prepared to care for a child of my own. I panicked.

I found Kai in the studio, as usual. Mama’s death only added to his brooding, and now he came inside only for food and sleep. And the bathroom, of course. He’d asked Yves and I if we would consider putting a bathroom in the studio, but we both nixed that idea, mostly out of fear that we would never see him again if we did. I knew he was still upset, but I needed him right now. I needed someone to talk to about this, someone who could reassure me that everything would be alright.

His reaction surprised me. He didn’t panic, but he wasn’t jubilant and excited, either. He was very impartial to the whole situation, and I think it was exactly what I needed. He told me he was happy for us, and he would be here for us and for the baby when it was born. Everything would be okay.

Yves had work that night, so I waited until the next morning to tell him. He was over the moon, and I was relieved. There was a small part of me that had been worried about his reaction, but that all melted away when I saw his expression as he looked at my belly, which had begun to show.

I continued to invent things during my pregnancy – I wanted to try to keep life as normal as possible before the baby, because god knows it was going to be turned upside down when we brought the baby home.

I discovered that with just a little mailbox scrap and creativity, I was able to make cute little toys. I placed one into the nursery – the nursery which had been mine and Kai’s and would now belong to the third generation Collier baby. 

And before I knew it, I woke up in the middle of the night to a searing pain in my abdomen. It was unbearable and for a moment I was worried that something was wrong with the baby. Then I realized the baby was coming. It was coming right now! Oh crap, I am so not ready for this.

Yves rushed to call a taxi while I woke up Kai and told him what was going on. He insisted on coming to the hospital with us, but I told him it might be a while before the baby actually came, and he had school that day. He finally relented, but it was not without protest.

The taxi arrived and before I knew it, I was being gingerly placed into a wheelchair and whisked off to the maternity ward. After what felt like days (though it was only a few hours), I emerged with baby Blanche wrapped tightly in my arms.

 I was elated and quite honestly, I was a little surprised at the entire situation. It seemed like just a few weeks ago I was a young sim fresh out of highschool, stepping into a taxi that would whisk her away to the airport for her first ever trip to France.

Now I was stepping into a taxi again, only this time it was with my husband and baby girl. I was elated and I could not wait for what the future held for our little family.

Rest in Peace, Adair Collier. You were the founder of the Collier legacy and I'm sorry that your life didn't turn out exactly the way you wanted it to, but rest assured that you left behind a wonderful legacy for your children and grandchildren to carry on.