Chapter 4.5 | Rules for this challenge | Chapter 4.7

Generation Four: Orange

Appearance: Orange hair, Island clothing style
Traits: Foodie, Good, Active
Aspiration: Friend of the World
Occupation: Lifeguard
House Goal: 40,000 worth

Meeting the In-Laws

One day bled into the next, one painting looked pretty much like the next.. and, slowly, our bank account started to grow again. I looked sadly at the bank statement, sighed, and went back to painting. To get the house livable, we needed at least twice what we had. Greta was helping with the painting, but wasn't having a whole lot of fun with it, either. Painting was what her parents had pushed her to study.... not what her life-dream had been. So - although she was a talented painter, it held no joy for her.

I knew where her heart lay, though, and I bought several packets of flower seeds for her, and encouraged her to take a day off of painting to start a garden. Her eyes lit up in a way I hadn't seen in a while, and she clutched the seeds closely as though they were pure gold.

"Really? But don't we need this money for the house??" she queried.

"We do." I said with a smile, "But what's a house without some landscaping? One day off won't set us back by too much, love. It's supposed to rain tomorrow, so it would be the perfect day for planting a garden. I have work in the morning, then I'll paint twice as hard to make up for your time off. Enjoy yourself, honey."

I watched the doubts clear from her eyes, and she set the seeds aside for the next day reverently.

The next day dawned pretty much like we had expected it to, with a light rain - so the beach was unusually quiet, which gave me a lot of time to think. I still had no idea how to bring up my change of.. heart.. to my parents. The dolphins seemed to think everything would be okay, but I knew the legality of the whole legacy, and my heart sunk every time I thought of how I might not actually be able to have a true heir that would count for the legacy to go on. The weight of the town's expectations of me lay heavy on my shoulders, and I simply had no idea what to do. I hadn't even had the guts to tell Greta about the whole heir issue yet... which was something else just hanging around my shoulders.

So burdened, I headed home, steeling myself for another miserable day of painting - and this time, it would be in the rain. Although I could change the weather at will, I knew the flowers Greta were planting needed their rain, so changing the weather seemed a poor idea today.

While I painted, and Great lovingly started her flower seeds in the sandy ground, a woman dressed to the nines showed up in front of our house, stepping gingerly through the sand, gripping an umbrella tightly.

Greta looked up expectantly, wondering who had stopped by... and froze. With a little shock on her face, and a heavy sigh, she stood up to meet the visitor.

"Hello, Mother." she said as she approached the woman, standing between Charlie and her mother as if to protect Charlie.. or was it to block Charlie's view? "What can I do for you?"

"I had to find out through your younger brother that you had decided to move out and get married." her mother said in a slightly accusatory tone.

Greta shrugged and replied, "Sorry. I've been so busy since then, I hadn't had a chance to phone you about it yet."

Her mother yawned dramatically, and pointed at the little mounds of dirt with a petulant frown, "And here I find you, planting your silly flowers when you could have been phoning me to even just say hello. Or goodbye. Or at least SOMETHING."

Having the grace to look sheepish, Greta tried to come up with a defense as to why she'd put off calling, but couldn't come up with anything. "Mother.. I'm sorry."

"You SHOULD be!" Mrs. Laurent replied, stomping her foot like a child. "And.. is THIS what you left us for?" she gestured at the grey monstrosity gleaming in the pouring rain.

"And you wonder why I hadn't called you yet." Greta said, straightening her back and steeling herself for the reply, "I'm sorry, Mother. Things have been hectic. We're raising money to get the house finished, and I've been painting like crazy. This is the first time I've taken a day for myself in a week or more."

With a crafty look, Greta's mother glanced at Greta out of the corner of her eye, and repeated, "We?"

Yawning dramatically in a facsimile of the yawn her mother had done earlier, Greta replied, "And here I thought Jace would have passed along the news that I'd gotten married at the Romance Festival. When I stopped by to pick up my stuff, I DID tell him to tell you..."

"EXACTLY!" Mrs. Laurent yelled back, "You told your BROTHER. Not me, not your own MOTHER. You left me to find it out second-hand!"

Greta balled her hands up in fists, and huffed a sarcastic, "I'm so SORRY. It's not like I had all the time in the world. It was a spur-of-the-moment wedding. ... And I wanted to have the house completed before inviting you and Father over!"

"How about telling us the fact that you didn't even have a real house to move TO?!" Greta's mother raged on, then dramatically dropped her face into her hand. "How am I supposed to tell my friends that you're... slumming on some .. beach in Sulani!"

"Mother! I am NOT slumming on some Sulani beach. This is MY beach. Mine.. and Charlie's. And that building is to be our home. As soon as we make the rest of the money the architect needs." Greta started to explain, then glanced towards the house, and froze again.

She stood there looking at the dapper older man for a long moment, then turned back to her mother. "You brought Dad with you??" she finally said incredulously.

With a self-satisfied smirk, Mrs. Laurent placed a hand on her hip, and replied, "Of course I did. I knew you'd at least listen to HIM."

The man finally walked over, and leaned in close to Greta, whispering, "What IS THIS?? Please don't tell me you're going to call this ... box... your home? You don't even have a front door yet!" He looked around in dispair, then said, "And here you are, playing in the DIRT in the RAIN when you could be safe and comfortable at home while your.. whatever this is.. gets built!"

"Dad!" Greta replied, at wit's end, trying to figure out how to make this whole situation okay.

Cautiously, Greta's Mother put her umbrella away as the rain finally stopped and the sun started to peek around a cloud.

Finally, Greta sighed and pulled out her phone, jotting a quick "Help me, love." text message to Charlie, and turning back to her parents.

"Look. My wife is heading over here," she said, gesturing to me, "Could you both please mind your manners for a while?"

I took a look at my phone, and hurriedly dropped my paints and paintbrush, and hurried over, wondering what on earth was wrong. Greta had always seemed more than capable of anything. What could she possibly need help with??

Greta pasted a smile on her face, and introduced her mother, Hilary, and father, Hector, to me.

They muttered some gracious things, and her mother gripped my hand politely. "It's so good to finally meet you, ... Charlie?"

"Yes. Charlie. Of the Naiades family." I nodded, feeling the need to make myself, somehow, more important than usual.

"Oh, really?" her father asked, "I thought your family basically ran Sulani?" He looked around, confused, then continued, "Why are you too poor to build the rest of your home?"

I laughed, and replied with a smile, "Because our family believes each of us must make our own way in the world. That's why. I started out with just this strip of sand a few weeks ago. Everything else you see I have worked for, and .. I'm proud of it!"

"Oh." Her father looked from me, to Greta, to his wife, and back. "Um... I can't bear to have my precious daughter camping in her own front yard. It's just.. not.. healthy. Please.. how much more do you need to get the house livable?" he asked tentatively.

"Only about 10,000," I replied. "Truly, we're nearly there. Probably only another week or so."

"Will you take a loan?" Hector Laurent asked with a smile, "I know you said you need to get things on your own, so I won't try to make it a gift... but surely you two would be more comfortable if you got the house finished while you paid me back the 10,000, instead of having to pay the money up front to the Architect?"

Looking unsure, I glanced at Greta, who still had a smile literally glued to her face. I could see the tension in her shoulders, however, and knew all had not gone well on this meeting with her parents. Quickly, I tallied things up in my head, and then mentally sighed. Without Hector's help, there was no way I could promise his daughter a roof over her head in the next two weeks. It's not like I wasn't breaking the "rules" in a half a dozen other ways.. certainly a loan wasn't illegal, I thought to myself, and turned back to Hector Laurent. "I'm not sure I could accept that much...."

"How about this, Ms. Naiades," he replied, and raised a hand as if he'd just thought of the best of ideas, "I'll loan you the 10,000 - and you can pay me back by being the first to try out our new rental property in Tartosa. It'll be finished in a few weeks - and I'd hazard a guess you'll have the money paid back by then, and be needing a break." He slyly glanced to Greta, then back to me, "It's nearly time for the winter Monsoon season, and I doubt you both even GOT a honeymoon with all this work you've been doing!"

Greta looked at me with a little bit of puppy dog eyes, and I caved in. Of course I did. "Um... sure. I think that'll work quite nicely. I will, of course, pay you interest on the loan!"

Both he and his wife broke into a grin, and he glanced down, shaking sand off his expensive shoes. "Good. It's settled." He reached into his back pocket, pulled out a checkbook, and blithely wrote a check for 10,000 as if it was something he did every day, and handed it to me.

Trying not to gawk at the check, I shook his hand, and bid the pair goodbye.

Greta leaped into my arms as soon as they had rounded the corner out-of-sight in a chartered boat. "Oh, Charlie!" she said, nearly in tears, "Thank you for saving me. They're so damn hard to talk to."

"You should have called me over earlier." I scolded her mildly, "I'll always save you!" I held her close, and glanced over at the restaurant that was having it's last night of operation before the demolition started tomorrow. With a sigh to myself, and a million doubts about my legacy accepting this loan, I kissed Greta lovingly, and led her over to the water. "Perhaps we should get some rest. I'll go talk to Magnus' Dad tomorrow about getting the rest of our home built. Your dad is right, the Monsoon storms should start any day now."

With a little effort, I was able to, finally, put my worries from my mind and fall asleep beside my gorgeous wife. At least we would have a house soon. Surely that counted for something...

Chapter 4.5 | Rules for this challenge | Chapter 4.7