January 2030
Violet is 36, Uziah is 39, Wesley is
13, Willow is 7
The
next morning Violet headed to work determined to focus on her current
project and stop thinking about househunting and bills for at least a
few hours. She ended up staying late every night that week and
finally got home just before 9pm on Friday, meeting Uziah at the
gates as he returned from his evening run.
“Hi
honey, how was your day?” Uziah met her with a smile and a rather
sweaty hug. She didn't answer at first and he looked at her
curiously. “Everything ok?”
“Yes,
at least nothing disastrous to report.” Violet still looked pale
and Uziah thought she seemed a little shaken. “But there is
something I need to tell you.”
Uziah
frowned and then smiled gently, “as long as you're not about to run
off with your secret millionaire lover I'm sure we can cope, what is
it?”
Violet
paused for a moment and then looked back up at her husband.
“We
had an interesting day at the lab today, you remember I told you I
was working on a cloning device?” she asked him.
“You
mean the device you've been muttering about for months, getting up in
the middle of the night to make notes about and working late to
perfect? Yes I think I remember something about that.”
“Yes,
that one,” she still wasn't smiling and Uziah wondered what had
gone wrong, hopefully she hadn't lost all the work she'd done or had
the machine blow up in her face.
“Well,
we had some progress with it this morning and I finally came up with
a way to solve the stablisation problem we were having. I still have no
idea where the idea came from as I'm sure I was thinking about houses
at the time.” she took a breath
“Anyway,
after all this time we've finally managed to clone all of the test items consistently... Uziah, it works!”
“Violet,
that's fantastic. That's your hard work honey, you have finally
managed to produce a cloning device and you are absolutely amazing.”
Uziah hugged her again but wondered why she wasn't grinning from ear
to ear as he would expect. Had something gone wrong?
“Vi,
is there something else? You don't seem to be as happy as I
expected”
Violet
was still straight faced but gradually her lips began to twitch with
the beginnings of a smile.
“Well,
we got the machine working reliably this morning and then we had a
whole load of phonecalls and meetings and liaison coordinators
running around like headless chickens...”
“And...?”
“We
sold it!”
“That's
incredible, you sold it the same day you finished it? Is that even
possible?” he asked,
“Apparently
it is when the Simland Interstellar Agency has been closely following your progress,
desperate for a possible solution to reducing the weight of ships on
long distance voyages.”
“Of
course, we were talking about that only the other day. If we can
clone replacement parts and supplies in deep space it would
dramatically reduce the weight of the ship and the amount of fuel we
would need to carry. Hey, maybe we could even replicate fuel?!”
Uziah was grinning now, this would make an incredible difference to his
work as well as Violet's.
“And
then there's the food serum,” Violet looked at Uziah waiting for
him to understand,
“You
believe you can clone your food serum?” he couldn't believe what
she was saying.
“Yes,
if we can work with your engineers to get everything working in space
you could be cloning your meals on your first ever trip to the Kazian
home planet.”
Uziah
swept Violet off her feet and swung her round in a bear hug.
“But
there is one thing I haven't mentioned.”
“OK,
what's the catch? Do we have to move to the other side of the
country now? Or are you going into orbit for six months of testing?”
“No,
nothing like that... actually believe it or not it's more good news.
As this is my invention I will receive a percentage of the advance
payment from the Space Agency. Zia, it's 50,000!”
Now
she was grinning and he was laughing and she wondered whether the
children would look out of the window and think they were finally
going mad. Uziah couldn't believe she'd managed to keep a straight
face all the way through the conversation and it took him a few
minutes to completely comprehend the amount and what it would mean.
“We
don't have to move.”
“That's
right my darling, we don't have to move, thank goodness we don't have
to move!” Violet was so relieved at the thought of not having to
uproot the family again that she could barely believe it herself.
“Are
we being sensible to stay though? Do we need to sit down and think
this through? If it's a single payment it won't last forever. I
hate the thought of going through this again, should we think about
downsizing anyway, make it last longer?”
“You're
right we need to think about this before we tell the children.”
Violet tried to be sensible, “and definitely before I tell mum.
But I think we'll be ok. My supervisor assured me today that I will
have to be promoted in the next quarter given the money I've brought
it, they won't want to risk losing me to another company. And you're
due a pay rise in April even if they don't promote you soon which
they really should.”
“Hey,
if you keep making inventions like this I could build my own rocket
and work for myself exploring the cosmos!” Uziah laughed.
“Who
knows what the future may hold my love...” Violet simply held the
man she adored and smiled, who knows indeed?
**********
Gameplay Note: This first chapter did not work out quite as I had planned. I rolled bankruptcy for Uziah and decided that a debt problem caused by their bills which meant they had to urgently move house was more realistic given their history and the ridiculous size of the Sims 4 bills (at some point they have to be able to pay their bills without the kaching magic wand!). Then, just as I was working out where to move them Violet invented the cloning machine and I realised that they could use it at home along with the transform ray to make more than enough money to pay the bills. I had to repay her somehow and so they got a reprieve. Hopefully the next couple of chapters will be a little more light-hearted and a little less wordy...
