Lanea Witherspoon stepped into frame as the camera panned a bleak and deserted landscape. As she wiped dry her crystal ball and the images formed inside of it, she began to speak…

“Greetings, dearies. Things sure have changed in recent days. To look at it now you would never believe it, but once the mansions of gilded age families rose to ostentatious heights on this very landscape. The grounds were verdant green, lush with flowers and teeming with twittering children. Ah, those days were not so long ago.”

“But while you wonder what happened, I already know. I am psychic after all, this crystal ball isn’t just window dressing, you know. Ah, but wait, the images are becoming clear, clear enough for me to share with you the very events that led to the downfall of the spoiled citizens of Orion Bay…”

“I see misbehaving, unsupervised kids…

and social climbing on the skids…

Terrifying taunting

old wounds haunting,

relations still salty

and apologies found faulty.

Old love reunited, yet destined to go unrequited.”

“Theodore Winfield at his new size and strength astounded

while sister Sabrina’s delight at her reflection unbounded.

In Aunt Veronica’s approval, young Alexa did bask

while all Delilah could see was her next social task,

and Trip hid his thoughts behind a birdcage mask.

“Entertainment was high, the guest enjoyed and imbibed

far more than the bartender had ever prescribed.

Which never goes well and soon tempers did swell

and to the families of the Bay, we must now bid farewell.”

——–

Notes:  I blew up the game, it’s all my fault for ignoring wacky error messages and game glitches that have been happening for more than a month now.  Not only did I ignore them, but I demanded that the Winfield’s summon every single neighbor for a great birthday party, then I aged 5 teens in one sitting.  There is a back up from August, but the thought of reinstalling for 7 hours, then catching up over a month of play is just too daunting to deal with at the moment.

For those who have been reading a while, Maleena was the Voice all along.  Her inside source into every house in Orion Bay was the maid Arcadia Santander and her source for business related material (Kitty’s quest to free her father and Francis’ framing of said father) was Francis’ secretary and former lover Shelly Placer, a neighbor of Maleena’s from Rigel Heights.  Even as the Voice, Maleena could not bring herself to tear down her family, so her sister Veronica was rarely mentioned in the Voice’s articles.  Since she couldn’t say anything nice, Maleena chose not to say anything at all.

Oh, and it turned out that L.C. Gibson, Elizabeth Mendenhall’s long lost daughter, was gay.  After she arrived at the dorm at Hunter, she had three bolts for Olivia, a beautiful drama major, and paid no attention what so ever to the handsome Evan that I had strategically placed in the dorm room next door.

Hi, I’m Francis Xavier Mendenhall III, but you can call me Trip, most people do. As you can see, we have a pool and I’m really into sports.

But I don’t get to play all the time. Like tonight, Ma decided I should go to Bay Prep which meant an interview dinner with this guy, I think he just wanted a free meal. That’s my ma in the blue, doesn’t she look nervous? I think she was all anxious was because Gram was wearing her pajamas and telling another fish story. Thank goodness I take after Pop or I’d have an ulcer by this age.

Speaking of Pop, here he is. I’m named after him. Nice guy, laid back, doesn’t care if I leave my toys laying around. He and Ma are having problems though, they think I don’t notice cause I’m a kid but I’m just short, not blind. Oh, I got into the school too. Uniforms, blech!

Meet one of the causes of my parent’s problems. Shelly works with Ma, Ma’s a high power attorney, and she brings her friend home from work with her a lot. I don’t know how you work in a bikini but whatever, adults are weird.

After seeing that, I decided I didn’t really want to go swimming and went to watch movies with Gram instead. This guy over here is Paul, he’s a freeloading gambler, or so Ma says. I think he’s pretty fun, you can’t tell right now ’cause he’s reading.

Gram is a lot of fun too, she lets me watch scary movies and never asks if my homework is done. She used to have a parrot that we were teaching to talk but I forgot and left the cage open one day and it flew out the door, but she didn’t even get angry at me. My Gram is cool.

That’s why we were all so upset when her time was up. She was old, kinda smelled funny too, but I wasn’t ready for her to go. It was a crazy scene, Death floated in and showed her it was time and she went quietly. The rest of us cried our heads off.

Except Ma, she didn’t shed a tear. I thought that was weird but as I said, adults are weird, maybe she bottles it inside. Paul was all broken up, fell on the floor crying and had to be visited by a doctor, I was upset too but keep it together, man.

The very next day, Paul and Ma got in a fight. A real fight! Ma was pissed because Gram left most of her money to Paul, so she froze the Will and told Paul to move out. I thought that was extreme, it was Gram’s money after all.

So Paul was indigent, I thought Ma said he was indignant, which I could understand considering the circumstances, but apparently they are two different words. I thought Paul was a goner, but since he didn’t have anywhere to go, Pop let him move back in. He takes care of me when my parents are at work so that the social worker doesn’t come.

One good thing, besides my inheritance, came out of Gram’s death. That reminds me, I have to call my friend.

Hello, I am Sabrina Winfield, heiress to the Winfiend construction fortune, but I’m not pretentious about it. That was my friend Trip on the phone, his Grandmother just died, it’s tough for the kid.

My grandma isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, that’s her there. No, not the old lady, that’s our nanny Rose. Grandma is the one holding the cat. She moved into an apartment where they only allowed 2 pets so she brought Big Fuzz and Shankie to live with us.

Big Fuzz sleeps in my room, he’s named after the cartoon cat voiced by one of Mom’s friends. That’s my brother Theo scratching his head, I try to help him as much as I can but he’s too into sports to pay much attention in class. I told him, he has to get A’s or he’ll be a loser but he’s a loser anyway.

Just look at him, shoveling food into his mouth, like someone is going to take it away from him. Boys are gross.

And sooo juvenile. I was only trying to teach him manners, he’s a Winfield too.

That’s my Mom and Dad, Monica and Randal. They are really in love and always go on vacation together.

Don’t get the idea that they are absentee parents, Dad does work a lot, you have to if you are going to keep a fortune growing but Mom always has time to play with us and she’s a lot of fun.

We do need friends our own age though. My bff is currently Alexa, she’s also my half-cousin, my mom is her mom’s half sister on their father’s side. She and her parents just moved back to the Bay from Rigel Heights so you’ll have to excuse her choice of associates, like Delilah Placer.

Hi everyone, my name is Alexa Veronica Bettencourt-Gunderson, the most important part of that name is the Bettencourt. That means that I am the heiress to the Bettencourt money, which I’ll never see if my grades keep up like this.

We just moved here from Rigel Heights, so I was still going to Heights Elementary which was not stimulating my intellect at all so Mom decided to enroll me in her alma mater, Bay Prep. The admission process was just a formality, but Mom laid it on thick anyway.

Dad, on the other hand, was no help at all and maybe even a detriment. Poor guy, he’s working as a muralist trying to beautify the City of Nephila, but it’s a hard task.

That’s my Grandmother, Maxine. Doesn’t she look like a grouch? That’s because she is, Mom always lets me cheat.

Gramps is a lot more fun, it’s like he’s my age. We go swimming a lot and he is a real life spy so he has really cool listening devices that I can use to spy on Trip and Theo, not that I like boys yet.

I was surprised how upset I was when Grandmother died. She just fell out on the floor, right in the living room, while Dad was painting Aunt Veronica for a perfume ad campaign. Death came and the sky lit up and all that was left of Grandmother was an urn. Mom put that on the coffee table, lovely.

Mom and Dad’s friends came by to offer their condolences. This is Elizabeth Mendenhall, she’s Trip’s aunt and she’s supposed to have a daughter too but I’ve never seen her and the only Mendenhall in my school is Trip.

Later that night, Mom and I found Gramps crumpled up on the pool deck. Mom broke down right away but I knew something was fishy and I was right, he was just teaching a stray cat how to play dead. Mom said that was distasteful, but I think what is distasteful is the state of our lawn. Really, someone needs to talk to the gardener.

I saved the best for last, this is my Aunt Veronica, I’m named after her. Isn’t she gorgeous? She’s a famous actress and the voice of Big Fuzz the cat, that’s cool. I want to be like her when I grow up, men are always coming by the house trying to talk to her but she blows them off. Grandmother wanted her to get married but I’m glad she didn’t, she’s a strong independent woman, just like me.

“What do you mean, what do I mean?” Veronica stared at the screen in disbelief but held back from typing while Maleena finished.

‘…said he was doing much better?’ the screen read.

Veronica wished desperately that she could just call her sister but she didn’t want to chance being overheard, she never knew where her father was lurking these days.

‘He is, kinda but not really. He’s…I don’t know…he’s acting weird.’ Veronica’s fingers flew across the keyboard as she tried to explain her father’s recent behavior, but still they could not keep up with her thoughts, ‘this sucks, can you do lunch tomorrow?’

“He’s always been childish, that’s what made him fun,” Maleena laughed as Veronica stole a bite of pasta.

“Yeah, but not like this. He’s driving mom crazy and if he ventro-farts me one more time, I swear…” Veronica asserted. “Speaking of Mom, she’s none to stable either. You need to hurry up and marry Jodie because she’s intent on one of us getting married.”

Veronica’s thought turned to the night before…

“Turner’s always hanging around, Mom thinks he’s still in love with me. So do I but this whole Buddhist thing is weird. He’s almost as bad as Xavier. Do you know he wanders by the house at least 4 or 5 times a day? Like I can’t see out the window. He’s such a stalker. Xavier! Pay attention,” Maleena was trying to keep up but Veronica had a way with a story, “Anyway, back to Turner, he came over again, but not for the reason I had hoped.”

“In the meantime, Dad had his whole “I’m dead, not dead” thing and Catherine Mendenhall died…oh, you didn’t hear? Drunk on the floor, right in front of Elizabeth! Don’t you read the paper?” Veronica took a breath but Maleena knew better than to try to speak.

“So, anyway, now Mom is trying to marry me off to Turner! Saying things like “I want to see you happy before I go” and talking about me having kids. Go where? is my question and I already told her I’m not having kids, but last night at dinner she came right out and asked Turner if he had bought a ring! Thank god he said no,” Veronica concluded her tale and looked to her sister.

“What does all that have to do with Dad?” Maleena asked, trying to bring her sister back to the point of the whole story.

“Oh yeah, I forgot,” Veronica blushed and stole another bite, “this is way better than my hot dog.”

“Veronica!” her sister was exasperating.

“See for yourself, we’re all coming over this afternoon. Don’t give me that look, you don’t have anything better to do.”

“Go Grandpa!” Alexa yelled as Robert came through the front door with the smustle on his mind.

Grandpa’s visits were always so much fun, he was the only one who would touch her bug collection and actually play with her at the playground. The other adults just watched and talked, like they were doing now…bor-ing.

Alexa ran over to Veronica, her favorite aunt, and begged her to smustle too.

“Honey, the adults are talking about important things,” Veronica said, pointedly excluding her father from the use of the word ‘adult’ but she knew she wasn’t going to win, she couldn’t say no to her only niece. The child had already been unfortunate in the looks department, there was no reason to disappoint her on smaller issues.

Maxine stared at her family as if they had all lost their minds, ‘How can they all do the smustle while I am dying?’ She hadn’t told the girls outright, she hadn’t told Robert either because he wasn’t mature enough to handle it, but her time was short on this planet and she needed to know that her daughters were secure…and by secure, she meant married…and her husband would be taken care of after she was gone.

Veronica was hopeless, she had already tried to interest Turner Ignatowski in an engagement, but Maleena had promise if only she would make her relationship with Jodie official.

The Bettencourt-Gunderson family arrived at their new home just as the spring tulips came into bloom along the walk.

Jodie had agreed to the move, though not to an official wedding, because he thought it was the best thing for Alexa, who was busy gaping at the three story facade. Now she would go to Bay Prep with Sabrina and Theo Winfield rather than to Height Elementary with the Gibson’s red-headed terrors.

Maleena had agreed because her mother had seemed so desperate and it might be nice to live in luxury again.

Alexa agreed because, well, she didn’t have much choice.

And that, my friends, is how Alexa Veronica Gunderson-Bettencourt left the care-free life of Rigel Heights and became the heiress to the Bettencourt fortune, because she didn’t have a say in the matter.

——
Notes: I know this post is weak. I needed to get Maleena, Jodie and Alexa back into Bettencourt Manor just to widdle down the number of houses to play and besides poor Veronica was being pushed aside in the story and she wasn’t going to stand for that anymore.

‘A celebratory drink,’ Catherine Mendenhall told herself. She knew she was slipping, had been since Francis had moved out, but one more wasn’t going to hurt anything besides, she had a lot to celebrate.

Francis had ended up in a cramped Nephila flat while she had taken full possession of the Mendenhall family estate, her flower business had just received the coveted 5 star rating, her granddaughter L.C. was doing well in college and now that Elizabeth had finally found her heart again she was considering introducing the two, plus Kitty and Xavier were bringing Trip over today. There was a lot to be happy about.

Xavier cringed at his wife’s words to their son. So he worked in his mother’s flower shop, while she filed briefs and torts at some international law firm. So what? He had never been interested in money and neither had she, they were supposed to enjoy life but lately that was becoming harder and harder.

He had heard about enough about this “frame-up”, as Kitty insisted on calling it. His father was an ass, to be sure, but he wasn’t evil enough to send an innocent man to prison, besides he didn’t even live here anymore.

“Can’t we just let it go for one day, Kit?” Xavier almost pleaded as the door opened.

Xavier was pleased to see that Kitty did let it go. She and Elizabeth talked business while his mother made breakfast and Trip explored his father’s old room, which hadn’t changed a bit since Xavier left for college.

He wasn’t so pleased to see that the bar had returned, he would have thought Elizabeth responsible enough to see that it remained gone.

“It was scary!” Trip lamented his latest movie night to his grandmother while Xavier proudly looked on. He was extremely proud of his son, Trip was outgoing, if not always nice, and had already earned a spot on the soccer team and straight A’s on his report card apparently without effort.

One wouldn’t think so but Catherine was extremely good with children. She ooo-ed and ah-ed at the appropriate moments and feigned fear when Trip revealed that the main character was a werewolf. Looking at Trip, who was the spitting image of Xavier, she suddenly longed for a house full of grandchildren.

Elizabeth, on the other hand, was as bad with children as her father had once been. She and Trip had nothing in common and spent most of their interactions arguing.

Even a friendly game of chess turned unfriendly when Elizabeth caught Trip cheating and rather than let it go as most adults would, she called him on it,”Where did you learn that?”

“No where, it’s the way you play. Play to win or there’s no reason to play,” Trip answered logically.

“But if you cheat, you make sure you don’t get caught,” Elizabeth advised. “The old, look over there trick wasn’t your best option there. You should have…”

While Elizabeth was advising her nephew, Xavier was trying to patch things up between his mother and his wife. Apparently Kitty had not let her suspicions go as he had hoped and had only succeeded in making Catherine angry with her insistance that a wife always knew what her husband was up to.

“What she means, Mother, is that there is a chance that Vernon wasn’t the only one embezzling,” Xavier explained.

“That’s not what I mean at all,” Kitty turned on her husband. “What I mean is that your father took the money, then pinned it on my dad.”

Catherine sat stone faced, not believing what she was hearing. Francis was ruthless when it came to business and she had never questioned how they were the only gilded age family to keep their fortune through stock market crashes and governmental regulations, but she wasn’t about to believe that her husband was so heartless as to frame an innocent man.

Catherine had seen her son and his family to the door soon after and as she turned to join her daughter for a much needed drink, a premonition so real that it could not be ignored planted itself in her path.

Elizabeth cried out as her mother crumpled to the floor, stretching for one last drink.

Thankfully, Catherine did not languish long. Death arrived and barely needed to check his clip board, he wasn’t going to be denied by the rich residents of Orion Bay twice. It was, indeed, time for Catherine Mendenhall to go.

“Here’s to you, Mother,” Elizabeth raised her glass in a solitary toast.

—-

Notes: Catherine’s death was arranged and despite Elizabeth’s show of emotion at the scene, she recovered immediately and went to make herself a drink, which I though quite rude.

Elizabeth Mendenhall made it a point, an almost daily point, to remind Shelly Placer that there was no way either she or her daughter were ever going to see a penny more of the Mendenhall fortune. She had gotten Francis, but that was all she was going to get.

Not that getting Francis turned out to be the boon Shelly had envisioned. He was old now and without his fortune, he was just a wrinkly guy in pajamas, always in pajamas or underwear with his nose stuck in the paper reading the obituaries.

He didn’t even seem to care that the pension from his own company barely covered the weekly bills or that he had left everything with his lush of an ex-wife. No, technically Catherine was still his wife, another source of frustration for Shelly.

Francis wasn’t all bad, he did get up every morning to make Shelly breakfast before she was off to work and he was a great replacement for the irresponsible nanny, but you can’t pay bills with omlettes and bottles which meant that Shelly had to keep working while Catherine sat on her ass stuffing flowers into a vase set for life.

When the arguement finally blew up, it really exploded. Francis, who had been living on love for the first time in his life was stunned to find out that Shelly was in it (and had always been in it) only for the money and the social position.

Without either of those, Shelly was done.

Francis said goodbye to his daughter that very night. Tomorrow would be her birthday and he would not be there to see the workmen come to install her new swing set, according to Shelly he wouldn’t get to see a lot of Delilah’s childhood, but he would make sure that she was always taken care of. A trust fund, he had decided, was better than giving money directly to Shelly now that he had seen her true nature.

Elizabeth and Zee had been dating again for a while now, yet he still refused to move in with her. He preferred the city, he said and specifically the Starlight Apartments which had an extra bonus room for all the residents to hang out and watch movies.

Truth be told, he also liked that Elizabeth was miles away in Orion Bay. Starlight had some hot residents and he couldn’t have her cramping his style. He hadn’t actually intended to rekindle any romance with her, he had been dating Veronica when he bumped into her thanks to being dragged to some Winter Fete thing, but as long as Elizabeth only came over when she was invited he could live with it, besides they did have a daughter together even if Zee had yet to meet her.

Elizabeth stopped short outside Starlight, there were her father and mother talking and laughing.

After being unceremoniously thrown out, Francis had taken an apartment right next door to Zee. He wasn’t keeping an eye on his daughter’s boyfriend, he was keeping an eye on Mendenhall Enterprises which was just down the street, close enough to walk to.

He had allowed Shelly to make him soft and look what it had gotten him, a piddly pension, a wife who refused to allow him back into his own home and a suspicious daughter in law looking to replace her imprisoned father with him.

Catherine actually found her husband’s circumstances karmically correct but Francis just laughed at her idea of cosmic retribution.

It had been no surprise when Shelly befriended Kitty, they had started talking when both of them were pregnant and Kitty’s fast rise up the corporate ladder had not gone unnoticed by her new friend.

Seeking to ingratiate herself and perhaps get back at Francis just a little, Shelly had given Kitty the papers and the second set of books months ago when she realized that she was never going to be the lady of Mendenhall Place.

But stupid girl that Kitty was, she had taken everything straight to her father-in-law in a pathetic attempt to blackmail him. Now Shelly would have to wait even longer to get her hands on Delilah’s trust fund. Dead or in jail, it didn’t matter to Shelly, either way she would become Delilah’s sole guardian and thereby the trustee.