[Sara, a single mother, and Mike, her son, are homeless and living in an abandoned park in
The Sims 3's Sunset Valley. Their plight began
yesterday. This is their continuing journey.]
Sara and Mike are falling into an inexplicable routine consisting of
nothing but napping and brushing their teeth. They sleep for a few
hours on a bench, wake up, and brush their teeth ... and never just
once. They brush their teeth two or three times during each visit to
the public restroom. They will be active for a couple hours, then they
brush their teeth again -- multiple times -- before taking another
nap. Once they wake up, the cycle repeats itself.
So, at first, I condemn the restroom and "board up" its doors (as in,
I remove them). But instead of finding anything else to do, Sara and
Mike simply complain all day that they don't have any way to brush
their teeth. Then they take a nap. When they wake up, they continue
their rant about how they can't brush their teeth.
Despite
my wishes against intervening in such a heavy-handed manner, I bulldoze
the restroom. Sara cries briefly. Perhaps having the entire
toothbrushing diversion was her only guard against the reality of her
situation. Removing the restroom from her life is a bit too much to
handle. But her thoughts, for the first time since falling into the
restroom loop, now begin to wander toward other things.
Fully aware of how terrible he smells, Mike still tries to make friends
at school despite his lone wolf personality. All the other kids make
disgusted sounding noises as they pass by him. Mike waits for the
morning bell to ring before he goes inside. Mike eventually meets
another boy, Malcolm Landgraab. This picks up Mike's mood. He wants
to make Honor Roll now.
Without the restroom occupying the greater portion of her thoughts,
Sara actually comes out to meet her son when he returns from school,
and gives him a hug. They're finally talking to each another again,
instead of simply waving in passing while on the way to the restroom.
Removing that building was blatant on my part, but it was obviously
important that I do so.
Mike has still been getting free lunches at school, so his hunger pangs
are kept at bay. But Sara is (verifiably) near death. If she doesn't
get something to eat, she will (verifiably) die soon. I send her over
to a house adjacent to the abandoned park. It's the Hart household.
She sprints over to the trashcan and, somehow not garnering the
attention of Dorie Hart (who's just returned home), Sara nervously
files through the Harts' trash.
Sara finds two old newspapers (useless) and an uncut pink diamond (!).
Still, there's no food to scrounge. In a bold move, Sara goes up and
rings the doorbell to the Hart residence.
Sara is cordially welcomed, and Dorie, who answers the door, doesn't
even complain about Sara's smell. Dorie wanders off to another part of
the house and Sara, whose habits die hard, heads for the bathroom so
she can brush her teeth.
Dorie only made enough dinner for herself when Sara had arrived. So
Sara patiently watches TV in the living room, and then watches Dorie
play videogames -- which apprarently bore Sara. Sara also meets Gus,
the silent and book-reading man of the house, as well as Bebe, a
teenaged girl that loves music but loathes television. Sara
understandably talks about little except the Harts' home. Dorie, after
a marathon gaming session, decides to make another meal. This time
there's enough for everybody. (Verifiably) only a few hours from
death, Sara gets her first meal since becoming homeless.
By midnight, Bebe says it's getting late and she asks Sara to leave.
Sara does. Sort of. Unwilling to go, Sara stands on their front porch
for several hours, listening to Dorie practice guitar while Bebe dances
around in a bikini by the stereo. Sara thinks on everything before
exhaustion hits.
Mike had come home from school and finished his homework some time ago. Still, he appears to be missing somebody.
Around 3:00 a.m., Sara returns to the park. Mike is up waiting for her
when she comes back, but he's not angry. Sara is stumbling from
exhaustion, but she still lets Mike gush about art, film, and
literature. Sara doesn't mention where she's been.
