20. Meet Constance

"Hi, my name is Constance Youngblood. Nice name huh, there isn't a normal name in the whole Youngblood clan...well...except my mothers'. Her name was Christin and she died when I was an infant. So I never knew her, but everyone says I look a lot like her."

"These two guys celebrating my transition to the teen years are the main men in my life. The one on the left is my dad, he's pretty cool but there were a few years that he missed my mom so much that he was barely able to get out of bed each day. The guy on the right is my big brother. He is a writer and an artist, he likes to spend most of his time alone in his room but he's always been there for me."

"Over the years I've become a bit of a wild child. My dad says that my aunt Beryl was wild too and it caused a lot of grief in the family. But then she settled down, got married, had kids (I'm not sure in that particular order). They think I'm wild but I have a plan...I want to be a star!"

Everyday after school I went to my cousins house. He's a bit of a nerd but I trust him with all my secrets.

"Hey Cyd I have an idea." I said one day while studying.
"Focus Constance" he said in his typical serious tone.

"Sorry Con" he apologized "I just need to focus on this weeks tests,
I've got a low A in biology and if I don't do well it will drop to a B."
"Fine..we'll focus on studying" I said but my mind wandered. One thing it wandered to was dreamy Chuck Roberts. He was a senior, tall, handsome, and...completely taken by Bethany Whitehouse.

I just imagine how wonderful
a study session with Chuck would be.

But....no....here I was in my cousins kitchen.
All I could think was that someday Chuck Roberts would be "begging" me to go out with him. When I'm a star I'll have to beat off the boys with a club.

"Ok Con were done studying what's the plan?" he said in an unenthusiastic manner. "There's something I wanna buy with my birthday money" I replied "Will you go with me?" "Do I have a choice?" he smiled "NO...come on" and I grabbed him by the jacket and we raced into town.

When we arrived at the store I knew exactly what I wanted. I have big dreams. Dreams that can only come true with this item.

My dream began with the purchase of a Takamine ESP93 steel-stringed acoustic guitar, made of cedar and painted pale pink. As I strummed out the tunes I knew that this guitar was going to be my best friend for years to come.

19. Reunited

"CHRISTIN!"
I yelled, into the night as my true love appeared before me. She was just as beautiful as the day she left this world....the day the fire took her from me and our children.
But she was looking at me like a stranger... something was different......

It was her eyes. Replacing the soft violet pools of love and compassion was pain and hurt.
Her eyes were now filled with memories of the fire.
All I wanted to do was take her in my arms and take away all her pain.

"Sweety its me...its Boston...baby I brought you back so we could be together" I pleaded with her to trust me.
"Why" she finally spoke "why am I here?"

"Why? So we can be together again" I said.
"But I'm gone Boston, we can't take back what time has done" she softly smiled as she said this.

"I miss you Christin, I don't think I can go on another day without you." I said as tears of realization ran down my face.

"Boston!...you can...and you will go on...for me...for our children...and our grandchildren" as she said these words she took my face in her hands. "you are doing so well with our children, but they deserve more. You need to be there for them...emotionally. You need to move on my love"

"Move on? Are you serious?" I stammered.
"Boston Youngblood you are the most loving man I've ever met" she smiled again. "Yes, I'm serious. I'm in a good place. A place much kinder and more beautiful than I can even describe. And I will be there...waiting.....for you."

I couldn't resist any longer. I took her in my arms and placed a kiss on her lips that I hoped would last forever.

"I have to go" she squeezed me tightly "take good care of Carson and Constance, they are always in my heart."
The emotional lump in my throat was so large I couldn't speak. There was so much I wanted to say, I wanted to argue my side further but the words wouldn't come out.

She stepped away from me slowly and gave me one last smile. Her eyes were different now, they weren't full of pain anymore. They were full of peace and love. I wanted to be strong but I couldn't stop the flood of tears that continued to run down my face.
" I love you Christin" was all I could manage to get out.
"I love you too..." and as she said these words she floated away in the cool night breeze.
And suddenly I was filled with a warm feeling I hadn't felt since before Christin died.

I knew that my Christin was in a wonderful place and I knew that someday we would be together again.

18. Midnight Outing

Life...even without Christin did go on.
The years passed and as hard as I tried to put on a happy face for the kids I just couldn't crawl out of the shadow of grief that followed me everywhere. I know its effecting the kids, I know I need to do something.

Constance had her grandfather's artistic nature and filled her spare time at her easel. As she gets older she looks more and more like her mother. I think she has noticed the pain in my eyes when I look at her and I fear that she is blaming herself, she has distanced herself from me...I can't say I don't blame her.

Carson remains in his room when he's at home. He types away at his novels and has stated that he enjoys the escape that writing brings him. The only person he seems close to is his sister.

One lonely night I walked to the cemetery. I'm not sure what I was looking for or what I expected to find but it all began with a story my mother used to tell me when I was a very small boy......

She used to tell me about a dark land. A land ruled by darkness. The story was always very vivid, as if it wasn't a story at all but an actual part of her history.

In this land death was not an end but a beginning and the ghost from the land of darkness were called upon they would reveal the secret of bringing back those who we've lost.

My mother was my only connection to these dark world myths so I followed my instinct and went to the Youngblood family plot. I felt no fear but was a little uncomfortable as I called out my mothers name into the quiet darkness.

What happened next was nothing short of miraculous. The ground trembled slightly and bright starry lights began to appear before me.

In a few short seconds my mother, Audra Youngblood, appeared before me.

I'm not sure how I kept my composure. Here was my mother, my dead mother standing before me. She began speaking and a warm calm filled my soul.
"My dear Bishop, I know why you're here, I'm just surprised it took you this long."
I replied, "I'm glad you know because I'm still not sure."
"You will" she said, "just speak to the three ghost of lost love"
Before I could respond the graveyard was buzzing with life....well...not exactly life.

The first ghost who approached me was a beautiful woman. She told me a story of her first love and how it ended on their honeymoon. She and her new husband were on a dinner cruise off the coast of Greece when a rouge wave capsized their ship. The two clung to a piece of floating debris but it could not support the weight of two. The last thing she remembered was the feeling of blood trickling down her forehead as her "first love" floated away to safety and she sunk to the dark ocean depths.

As she floated away another ghost appeared...this time it was a large intimidating man. His wife of 35 years had created a lot of debt around town with her habitual shopping. But he loved her and assured her that he would work his fingers to the bone to pay off the growing stack of bills. Then one day after a long day she asked him to help her with the toaster, little did he know that he was the one to be "toasted". In the end he did pay off her bills...with the million dollar life insurance policy she collected from his little "accident".

The final ghost was a strange character. He was bubbly and animated as he told me how he had lived in a mansion in the Hollywood hills with his beautiful girlfriend. One morning he pulled out of his driveway and headed down the steep winding road that lead to heart of the city. As the car sped up he noticed a photograph on the seat next to him. It was his girlfriend...laughing in the arms of another man. He would would have stopped right there and gone back to give her a piece of his mind but strangely the brakes didn't work and the car dropped to a fiery end at the next turn. She always said she'd have the last laugh.

The stories the three ghost told me were obviously not of "true love" so I was a bit confused. But I didn't question the reasoning any longer as a book appeared on the ground in front of me.

The pages of the book were fragile and aged. The words described a ritual. The ritual of lost love. Not sure what to expect I continued to read. I read the book through to the end which happened to be just as the sun began to rise in the distance.

Feeling a rush of adrenaline I ran home. I needed to prepare. That evening at dusk I lit the candles and the urn.

I shouted the words from the book, called out her name, and waited.

Nothing.....nothing , I could feel my heart breaking again. And then .....

17. Speechless

It's amazing how just when you think you have it all and that you're the luckiest sim in the world and then it all crashes down around you. That's what happened the other day, what was supposed to be a joyous occasion was destroyed by the......

It was the morning of Constance's birthday and we had decided to have a quiet celebration rather than having the normal big bash. Christin said she would grab the baby and meet me in the kitchen because I was in the other room trying to find the camera. The next thing I heard were the screams of my sweet Christin. "Fire, the cakes on fire!".
As I ran into the room the kitchen was engulfed in flames and Christin and the baby were on the other sides of the flames.

I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I tried everything I could the estinguish the flames. The fire department finally arrived (I knew living this far out in the country was a risk) and they managed to contain the fire long enough for me to grab the baby and take her to safety.

But.....we weren't able to get to Christen in time. Before I had a chance to figure out what to do next I witnessed her body fall to the ground into the ashes of the fire.
What just happened? How could this be?

The next sound I hear put a cold chill down my spine, it was the sound of Carson's school bus dropping him off. The fire department was still on the scene, I couldn't let my son see his mother like this, I ran to meet him at the door and held him tight, but not before he saw a clean white sheet being draped over his mothers charred remains.

We celebrated Constance's birthday the next day.
It was impossible to even bring myself to smile. Carson was brave and tried as hard as he could to be happy for his baby sister.

In the months that followed our pain didn't go away but was softened by watching Constance grow and florish, I well up with tears and my throat tightens when I think of how she will never have memories of her mother. I am now a single dad and I know that I will never be able to give my heart to another woman, there is only enough love left for my wonderful children.

NOTE TO ANY READERS:
Christin was a clumsy sim and I totally forgot that clumsy sims can accidently cause fires from birthday cakes, she had taken Carson to his cake with no issues. So when this happened I was in complete SHOCK!
Also, since she caught on fire with the baby in her arms there was a glitch or something that she wouldn't put the baby down so she couldn't go to the shower to put herself out. I finally had to use ctrl+c "resetsim to get the baby out of her arms and as soon as the baby was on the floor Christin turned to ash. MORE SHOCK!!
This was not planned and really saddened me because I really like Christin, but...the story must go on.

Jules B

extra: The Youngblood Home Floorplan

I took this to give any readers and idea of how my legacy has progressed.
For anyone not familiar with Legacy rules by Pinstar1161 ( http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/39862.page ) my sim started life in Riverview on the biggest empty lot which left only 1300 simoleons to live off of.
My sims have come a long way from the lone bed in the middle of a field.
I personally like to play on a single floor, I always feel like I'm missing something if I have sims on two different floors.

Click on this image to get a bigger picture.