Chapter 9.4 – June 2023 – part III: Grandma..? Who was grandma?

The morning after the funeral in Dudleifs household...

Nishit was the first to wake up to have some leftovers of one of moms salads for breakfast. Udisha being a very busy woman would often go for making simple, fast and effective, but healthy meals..

    Nishit had eventually figured out that the grandma he had never met or known had passed away.. Dad hadn't spoken much of her, only saying that she wasn't 'a very good woman', and that she was 'self-righteous', 'manipulative' and 'deceiving'. Nishit wasn't sure yet of the actual meaning of all these words.. was grandma really this bad? Why? What had she done? Why couldn't they visit her, like they would go visit Laranya and Deepak? Why didn't they even go to her funeral...?

    When he tried to ask his mom about it, he didn't get much wiser.. Apparently his grandma must have done some terrible things, but what? The only answer he really got was 'You'll learn when you get older...'. As if that was an answer... why are adults sometimes so annoying, only saying stupid things like that..

    The answer to Nishits ponderings came to him in the form of a question from a kid in the grade above him during recess at school one day.. a scrawny looking boy with freckles and dark blonde hair that in a few years time would become the terror of the schoolyard, before he mysteriously and suddenly had to change schools which lead to his family moving out of town never to be seen again.. but that's another story...

    "Why does your granny kidnap and murder people?" the boy asked while he tried to pull up the sleeve on the left arm of his shirt, that appeared to be just two sizes to big..
Nishit was bewildered at the question.. His thoughts immediately went to Laranya, whom he knew as his grandmother.. "Granny isn't a murderer!" he shouted back at the kid.

    "Yes, she is. Don't you know?"
    "Granny is not a murderer!" Nishit shouted again.
    "Yes, she is. I heard daddy say it." the kid with the oversized shirt said. "She has dead people in her basement. Everybody knows about it."

    "She does not! My granny isn't a murderer! She's a musician! She makes music for the cinema!"

    "Not that granny! Your other granny!" the kid with the white shirt explained.
It just so happened to be that both of Nishits grandmothers where celebrities, with Laranya being a famous hit movie composer and Marianne being.. well.. who she was..

    "What? I only have one granny.." Nishit said, now even more confused.. Laranya was grandma to him. Marianne was just.. 'dad's mom that he never talked about'...

    "Nobody has only one granny! That's impossible!" the kid said. "Don't you know about your grandma?"

    "She's not grandma. She's just mom's dad." Nishit said, having finally understood what the other kid was getting at...

    "That's what a grandma is" he said. "They're parents of your parents. When my dad gets angry, that's where I go..."

    That's when Nishit learnt that he had a grandma that was possibly a criminal.. a criminal that murdered people? Could this be true? He had asked Dudleif about this one day.. was his mom really like that? Did she keep people in the basement? Questions to which Dudleif, a man usually not prone to anger, snapped at him for as he shouted "Where did you hear that!?".
    "J- Justin told me" Nishit said. "Justin from school.."

    "Oh.." Dudleif knew about Justin and his family, as he had himself gone to their door while on duty after the police station had received a concerned phone call from a neighbour about some family quarrel going on inside their house...

    "Well.. you probably shouldn't believe everything you hear.. That thing about the basement.. is not true.."

    "So.. your mom isn't a criminal then?"

    "Well.. she's got her ways, she's umm.. if I could prove she was a criminal, I would have her in jail..... now, don't you have homework to do?"

Nishit realized realized that was probably a good as answer that he would get.. his other grandma, Dudleifs mom, must've been up to something.. why else would he be willing to put his own mom in jail..? It had be that way.. that's why people were saying these things.. That's why they never went to visit.. that's why they didn't go to her funeral.. That's why Nishit only really had one grandma...

Dudleif didn't want any of his kids to visit the old Skurchk household.. he couldn't, because he knew there would be no warm welcome.. and he wouldn't, because he didn't want any of them to have a bad influence on his kids..
    Dudleif wanted his kids to do good in life, in whatever path they would choose, as long as it was on the right side of the law.. and it may well be something creative, music or arts, like most members of his wifes family.. or business, like his wife or that one weird brother she has that he hasn't quite understood..

Upstairs the youngest member of the family had woken up her mom to let her know she had just dropped a major stinker, and was in need of a bath..

    "Well, good morning..Smelling lovely today." Dudleif said in a playful banter as Udisha came down the stairs
    "Funny..." she said sarcastically, as she turned around to take Madhunisha to the bathroom..

    "Looks like mommys a little grumpy today, isn't she?" Dudleif said to Ole Christian while preparing another spoon of his breakfast. "Open up, here comes another one! Atleast us guys can have a good time, can't we?"

..but who's to say the ladies can't be having a good time? After the dirty diaper has come off and most of the filth has been washed off, taking a bath can also be good quality time for mom and daughter. ;)

..and speaking of mom and daughter, here's another one! Gerda Botnen, the frontwoman, singer and guitar player of the band "The Bushweeds", just gave birth to a lovely little boy called Øyvin. She has chosen a less common form of the name 'Øyvind', omitting the 'd' at the end, citing that it just isn't necessary as it nobody pronounces it anyway. (The 'd' at the end is silent.)

New Sim: Øyvin Botnen.

Date of birth: 24.06.2023

And as usual with every new birth, the town council steps in to provide a crib for the newborn and the mother, so that she doesn't have to worry about her baby resting comfortably while doing other things, such as preparing a simple meal to herself in the kitchen. :P

 

Nishit wanted to hangout with his friend from school again, and called over Elen to hang out.

Now that his neighbour Emilia had become a teenager, they had somehow began to drift apart and their friendship fade, so it was time for Nishit to find another 'girlfriend' to spend time with. ;)

Elen wanted to make a good impression on Nishit, talking fondly about the theatre and conduction music, since of course, she knew (and was impressed by) his good grandmother being a well known composer and all that.

Nishit likewise wanted to impress his new friend by handing her a gift of festival tickets he had collected. ;)

Dudleif was inside teaching Madhunisha to talk and the value of being a good person to make friends.. not enemies...

The always ambitious Udisha was busy preparing another business plan to be presented at her job the next upcoming monday...

Nishits old friend had now found her first romance in Notzo Curious. When the message popped up, she was hanging out at the junkyard with her brother Atle.

Notzo was at the park downtown with Tay Bayless.

Oops, Madhunisha created another stinker. This is what you get for poking fun. ;)

Udisha evaded this one by going outside for some fresh air and talking about the theatre with Nishit...

Family life was good in this home, in spite of smelly and stressful times, much laughter and joy was also heard..

After Dudleif had given Madhunisha another bath, Elen came in to say hi to the little toddler and play a game of peek-a-boo.

Elen had gone out to find the spring rider as Nishit had decided to continue his painting of a chocolate cake, or whatever that is supposed to be. :P

Dudleif was taking Madhunisha out to show her the playground area in their backyard.

"There you go, you stay here and have some fun while daddy goes back inside to do some private business.."

Hmm.. I'll call this dubious parenting, leaving a one year old kid alone in the backyard like that late at night, but then again, maybe this is how Dudleifs own parents raised him when he was a kid.. which wouldn't be to surprising...

Ah, but luckily Madhunisha is both resourceful and indepent for her young age, as she immediately heads over to the spring rider. ;)

What a smart kid. She climbs on top of it with ease and intuitively knows just excactly how it works without anyone there to assist her in anything. ;)

Inside again Udisha just finished feeding Ole Christian and takes him upstairs to the bedroom so that he can go to sleep for the night..

Dudleif is finished with his business too, and goes outside again to pick up Madhunisha, leaving the spring rider for Elen to enjoy once more.

Nishit is still painting his candy coated work of art while Udisha passes him on the way back to the bedroom after she went downstairs quickly to empty another stinker from the potty...

Madhunisha got her last meal of the day on the couch while Nishit had realized he couldn't stay up painting all night and decided to go to bed..

..and soon everyone would be sleeping tight again once more. Good night. ;)

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Chapter 9.3 – May 2023 – Their house isn't haunted..

Madhunisha and her family was sleeping safe and sound on this chilly night in May, only accompanied by the faint sound of a piano playing an unrecognizable tune.. The stereo downstairs was off, and so was the tv they just bought last month, and as far as the Narrator knows, their house isn't haunted..

Well.. as should have been expcted, the source of the uneven attempt at a melody or a song came from their neighbours porch, as he had, of course, decided to practice playing the keyboard outside in the middle of the night, because.. why not?

Honestly, it always puzzles me how the spring season in this town always has this cold spell, as it has happened a few years in a row now.. I mean, frost was still on the windows and in the ground when Udisha woke up to greet her son that also just woke up. 

She had just enough time to pick him up and feed him, before going to work. Still feeling exhausted and overworked from pushing herself at the office, and having to tend to the house and take care of her kids when she's at home..

Nishit had spent the night sleeping in his treehouse, and decided to spend his morning hunting for pirates. The two youngest ones took a lot of mom and dad's attention, and so none of them had noticed that he had started to skip doing his homework..

While Nishit was at school, the parents at work and the babysitter taking good care of Madhunisha and Ole Christian, the delivery man came by and dropped off the seesaw that Udisha had ordered for the kids, and the dart board Dudleif had ordered for himself... making the playground area in their backyard a little more complete.

--

Madhunisha being fed by the babysitter.

In Palash and Sofias house things were by the usual, with Yumi being in need of discipline..

Sofia appeared to have accepte her fate now, thinking about what the future could hold, and certainly the clock had passed the point of no return and then somehow.... at this point she no longer had a choice..

..but that didn't seem to matter much as she even appeared to enjoy her own appearance, belly and all, while trying on a different hooded sweater and a pair of jeans in front of them mirror.. ;)

------

..and speaking of kids, hmm, back at Dudleif and Udishas house Ole Christian was being a good boy and using the bathroom excactly like he should, saving the babysitter from a bit of grief. ;)

Though she was exhausted, Udisha was still happy after having put in another good days work at the office.. or maybe she was actually more happy about finally getting out of it, to run home to land on the couch and watch some tv. ;)

Meanwhile, Nishit was sitting in the school bus patiently waiting for his friend Elen to finish her after school activity..

However, after a while the school bus driver had enough of the waiting and said "Now we're going..I'm not getting paid overtime just because your friend is slow.."

So it was home to do, well, homework among the noise of mom watching tv, daddy playing with Madhunisha and Ole Christian crying for something again..

Well, atleast Dudleif and Madhunisha was having fun. ;)

After awhile Elen did show up just as Nishit was getting fed up by the noise inside and had gone out on the porch to do his homework outside...
Elen was bummed out the school bus wasn't waiting and that she had to bike all the way, before they sat down to their homework together.

Inside Madhunisha had joined her mother in watching tv. The moving images on the screen were interesting, captivating and sometimes confusing.. so she gave up watching and turned her head to watch her dad playing with Ole Christian instead. It will probably take a while before she can get anything out of watching the romance channel. ;)

Udisha kept the focused scowl on her face as her tv watching was interrupted by her phone ringing, but smiled a little when she heard that she got a party invitation. It was from Julienne Knekknes-Skurchk, her sister-in-law. It wasn't the best party invitation she could get, considering Dudleif had cut all ties (or been estranged) with his own family, but still..

It could be an opportunity to have some fun, something which she was in desperate need off. She said she'd be there shortly before she got into her husbands police car and drove to the more affluent part of town..

Their house was really big, bigger than she remembered it from last time she was in the neighbourhood to visit her brother Palash and his wife.. It looked almost intimidating, yet they had left one door open, perhaps as if to say "Come on in.. we have nothing to hide.."

She could hear people talking and glasses politely clinking together over a slow jazz tune played at just the right volume as she walked up the stairs to their porch.. For a brief moment there, it was as if a cold breeze came at her through the open door that made her stop in her tracks and immediately turn around..

She knew all about them from what Dudleif has told her.. these guys weren't honest and hard working like them.. they were thieves and crooks, and maybe even worse.. Something there gave her a chilling sensation, and though she still wanted to attend the party out of curiosity as well as an opportunity to unwind, she couldn't make herself walk through that door..

Well, that, and she was probably much to exhausted anyway.. so without looking back, she got into the car and drove back home again.. Going there wasn't the best idea, it was better after all to be home with Dudleif and the kids..

Nishit had finished his homework and had gone out in the backyard to play tag with Elen.

Udisha thought she spent her time much more wisely giving Ole Christian a bath before carrying upstairs so that he could go to bed in his own clumsy way.. like father, like son.. ;)

Udisha stopped in front of the mirror for a while at the sight of her own reflection... "I didn't know I looked this tired.." she thought as she flinched at what looked like darkened droopy patches of skin under her eyes..

Downstairs Dudleif was reading a bedtime story for Nishit from a pregnancy book he had just 'randomly' picked from the bookshelf....

Udisha was desperate for sleep now, but there was another young one in need of feeding before she could go to bed...

Whatever it was that Dudleif had read for Nishit, it worked, because it didn't take long for Nishit to fall asleep, even if Elen was there in his room playing with the toy blocks in the corner. Well, it was getting late, and it was time for Elen to stamp out soon too as Dudleif approached her to wave her goodbye.

..and finally, after having fed Madhunisha it was finally time for both of them to hit the sack and Udisha could carry her upstairs to kiss her goodnight..

..and everyone could get their well deserved rest once more. Good night. ;)

---

..and speaking of sleep, well, it looks like a different, more permanent kind, will soon await some of the oldest of the towns populace..

I didn't know this guy was that old already.. but one I knew was that old, is this character...

Marianne Skurchk, Dudleifs own mother.. Without informing her son, of course, she has already written her will and mentioned her sons Bill and Dennis as heirs to her propery and fortune – but not Dudleif! He's not getting a single cent or speck of dust.. actually, least of all would he get his hands on the dust..

Other happenings:

Nishits neighbour and friend Emilia Stabell-Jones aged up and is now a teenager.

Dille Pindal aged up and is now an elder.

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