Freeman Legacy 1.4

Helena was sitting next to her father one night at the dinner table. Her little sister, Harriet, was already in bed, and her mother had called it an early night after a long day at work. Sergio, Helena's father, wasn't a usual dad. For years, he had claimed adamantly to hate all children, and he certainly never wanted kids of his own. Despite this, he was a wonderful and caring father, though he wasn't too keen on hosting sleepovers. Helena knew that her Papa loved her and Harriet, and so she often turned to him when she needed help, whether that be with homework, or life in general.

"Papa," Helena spoke up. She wasn't sure how to phrase her question, and in her attempt, it all sort of rushed out. "Why are you and Mama so much older than the other kids' parents? Matt Robinson was saying that Harrie and I were mistakes, but Samantha Collins said that two kids can't both be mistakes cause when her mommy got pregnant with their new baby, Sam's dad went to the hospital and got a surgery like that time her dog went to the vet and the vet chopped off his -"

"Whoa!" Sergio stopped his oldest before her questions got too inappropriate for the dinner table. "Where is all this coming from?"

"Well, Kyle Friezen told my friend Katie Harris that his uncle was really old like you and Mama, and that he was gonna die of old age or something," Helena said. She looked up at her dad with round eyes, so much like his own, but a brighter shade of green. "Are you and Mama gonna die?" Those eyes filled with unshed tears. "I don't want you to die, Papa."

Sergio felt an old fear rear its ugly head. He himself had worried, ever since Helena's birth, if he would live to see her grow into the wonderful young woman she was sure to be. He hadn't seriously thought like that in years, but Helena's teary eyes brought it all back. However, instead of allowing his fears to overwhelm him, Sergio set them aside, and pulled a smile onto his face. "Don't worry, honey. Mama and I will live for a long time, until you're much older than we are now."

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Harriet, called Harrie by her family, was getting big. It was all Sergio could do to hold her up and not drop her right into her birthday cake. Harrie took a deep breath, filling her young lungs with as much air as possible before sending it all in a rush towards the candles. For all her effort, however, she managed only to make the flames flicker as if in a light breeze. Though she did manage to launch a surprising amount of saliva all over the cake.

"Yay!" Dianna cheered as she tossed a small amount of confetti into the air. Not too much - after all, she would most likely be the one to clean it up. Harrie giggled and squirmed to be let down. In doing so, Sergio surreptitiously blew out the candles. On the floor, Harrie gave a birthday dance while her family sang "Happy Birthday".

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Harriet entered childhood with a smile on her face. She was excited for all the new things she would experience - school, and the people she would meet there, new places to play and new books to read. Her entire world opened up and it was as if she could see into the light of her future.

Very quickly, she started meeting new people. Anyone who happened to walk in front of the Freeman house had the unexpected experience of meeting Harrie, who would stop them and begin a conversation that could last hours. But she was a charming girl, and very few of those she met really minded her countless questions or her short-lived obsession with ponies.

Harrie's behaviour did worry her parents, though. Both had jobs and they couldn't always be around to watch over their youngest daughter. Dianna and Sergio each tried to give Harrie the "don't talk to strangers" talk but her ears were closed. If she didn't talk to strangers, how would she ever meet them? How would they stop being strangers and become friends?

Harrie's best friend, however, was her older sister. Now that they were closer in age, the girls became thick as thieves. Helena helped Harrie figure out grade school, and they could often be found doing their homework together on the dining room table, talking and giggling about events at school, or moaning over a complicated question. Though Dianna loved that her girls got along so well, she did pay close attention whenever they worked together. Helena had already done what Harrie was now learning, and if ever Harrie asked it, Helena would tell her the answer to any question instead of letting the younger girl figure it out for herself.

This is not to say that the girls were joined at the hip. Helena, as she had as a toddler, enjoyed her solitude and would spend hours drawing or playing on her own on the monkey bars in the back yard. Harrie had little interest in either sort of activity. She was a social girl who preferred talking to people to either art or physical activity. Meanwhile, Helena found happiness in learning what she could and could not do. She could hang from her knees off the monkey bars, but she could not pull herself up with only her knees. She could shade in a drawing until it nearly looked real, but she could not pull it off the page. Dianna suggested that Helena play with clay if she wanted something 3-D, but Helena found that had more limitations. One had to consider weight and balance. What might work on a page might never stand on its own.

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As for Sergio, he took up boxing. It helped him feel fit and strong, a feeling that seemed to leave him a little more each and every day. He had always said that his biggest goals were monetary. As a young man, he'd wanted to have enough money for any house, any number of nice things he might want. As a husband and father, he'd wanted enough money to give his family the wonderful life they deserved. But as he faced old age, Sergio found that the one thing he wanted most was to feel like himself.

Years at a desk job, and sitting hunched over his own desk at home had weakened Sergio's back. It had come to a point where he could feel his spine curling, bending his shoulders and neck forward as he walked. So when he boxed or otherwise worked out, Sergio pulled his shoulders back and held his head up. His spine was as straight as he could make it. Maybe he wouldn't be able to stand beside his daughters forever, but so long as he did, they would never see his strength fail.

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Harrie was sitting in the living room reading a book. It was not an uncommon sight. For a girl who loved to be around people so much, Harriet had an unusual appreciation for time spent alone with a good story. This time, however, it was to be interrupted.

Helena pushed open the back door and stomped her feet on the small rug there. Her sandals were covered in mud and bits of grass. Looking at the mess she had made on the floor, Helena pulled her sandals off and started to sneak to her room to hide the shoes, or perhaps to the bathroom to clean them off. That was when she noticed Harrie, who had lowered her book and was looking between the dirt on the floor and the incriminating evidence in her sister's hands.

"Hey, Harrie," Helena said. She rushed into the bathroom, threw her sandals into the tub, and returned to the living room. "How's the book?"

"How's Mama's garden?" Harrie shot back.

Helena tried to give a guilty look but failed miserably as a smile ripped across her face. "Oh, the plants are fine. Except a dandelion I squashed, but Mama doesn't care about those. The strawberries are delicious by the way."

"Mama's gonna kill you," Harrie warned, but her heart wasn't in it. She was just as guilty as Helena of occasionally sneaking into Dianna's garden when she wasn't looking and swiping a few yummy treats.

"Nah, she won't," Helena replied. "Have you seen her new plant? It's so cool. I bet if it got any bigger it could eat the school."

Harrie let out a small puff of air that might have been a laugh. "It's a plant. It's not like it can walk there."

"I dunno. It's pretty weird."

The plant in question was indeed weird. Dianna had noticed it as a sprout and had removed it from her garden, unsure of what it was. But she had never seen a weed like that before and so she transplanted it to just outside her garden fence. Since then, it had grown exponentially. Now it resembled something like a venus fly trap, something like a vine, and something like a cow with crocodile teeth.

Normally, Dianna would have long ago cut down anything so strange that might be dangerous to her children. The plant turned out to be carnivorous and she wasn't sure that if it was hungry enough, it wouldn't eat a child. But she was fascinated. She'd been combining plants for years, but she'd never gotten anything like this. In a way, it was a push she needed. For a while now, Dianna had been thinking of writing a gardening book. Nothing fancy, but something about growing your own fruits and vegetables. But this, this could really sell her book.

So Dianna was trying to learn all she could about it. She spent hours taking notes, watching the plants natural behaviour and seeing how she could stimulate different ones. Dianna wasn't a scientist, but she wanted as much information on this plant as possible to go into her book. The oddest piece of information she had so far discovered was that the plant liked being pet.

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Sergio and the girls sat on the couch while Dianna waited by the oven. Neither adult was talking much, but the girls found themselves in an animated conversation.

"So what do you think it will be like?" Harrie asked her big sister.

"I dunno. It happened to Matt Robinson. Katie says he got stupider but he's always been stupid, so it's hard to tell if there's a difference." Harriet answered honestly.

"But you're a girl so it's not the same," Harrie insisted. "You'll get, like, boobs." A thought seemed to hit her. "You think your boobs will be as big as Mama's?" Sergio coughed but otherwise pretended not to have heard. Dianna was standing a little bit away, so none of the others could see but a little smile had appeared on her lips.

"Probably not," Helena tried to sound a bit superior with her knowledge. "Katie said her sister has tiny boobs. Like, you can't even tell they're there."

"Girls," Dianna called, interrupting the conversation before it could go any other places. "The cake is almost done. Gather around the table and I'll finish up with the icing."

Helena almost hesitantly approached her birthday cake, Harrie encouraging her from behind. She swung a confident grin she didn't feel at her sister, and quickly blew out all the candles.

It wasn't like going from toddler to child. Helena barely remembered that one. This was like being on stilts while blind and not being sure if you could take a step or if doing so would send you off a great big cliff.

The part about feeling blind turned out to be because Helena aged up without her glasses. However, after rushing to her room to grab a pair (and a better outfit after she could see herself in the mirror), Helena felt much better about being a teenager. Even if her boobs weren't as big as her mother's.

With Helena's birthday over, it was time for another. Sergio had insisted that Helena go first, and that he really didn't need a cake. But after capitulating to the first request, his family insisted that he at least be able to blow out some candles. So the candles were re-lit and Sergio took his turn at blowing them out. Doing so, he remembered, way back when Helena was small enough that he could hold her with one arm, that he had wondered if he would be old and grey by the time she was a teenager. Sure, he was turning old, but at least he had seen his oldest daughter as a young woman with eyes unclouded by age.

And then old age hit him like a bag of bones.

Sergio glanced in his and Dianna's bedroom mirror. Not too bad, he thought to himself. His hair had turned white, sure, and the bags under his eyes needed to be checked at the airport, but he still stood tall and he still felt strong.
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There's the end of the chapter! Chapter 5! Next chapter will probably have the heir poll and will therefore be the last chapter of Generation 1. I tried something a little different with this chapter. Just a slightly different way of telling the story. Partly because I was running out of transition words. A break is just so much easier.

I must say though that I never expected to spend this much time on Sergio. I didn't really even like him at the beginning, and now I'm sad that he probably won't live to see grandchildren. That's what I get for making them wait so long to build a house and have kids.

Speaking of which, I haven't mentioned why they only have two kids. The first reason is that by the time Harriet was born, I felt they were too old to have another. But the reason it took so long for them to have Harriet was that it took a ridiculous amount of tries for Dianna to get pregnant both times. For a little bit, I was seriously considering not having a second kid at all and just saying Helena was heir for Gen 2. But then Dianna got pregnant and Harriet was born and so now an heir poll is happening. Maybe it's because Sergio has the Hates Children trait? If so, that's the only side-effect of that trait that ever showed up. He is seriously a great dad and never gets negative side-effects from being near his kids. He always wants to help them with homework or talk with them. But no, I have him program all the time. That's mostly why there's so few pictures of the parents. They just skill all the time, so I don't take pictures.

Anyway, I've rambled enough, but I hope you enjoyed this chapter and will continue to enjoy future chapters of this legacy. I'll see you soon! With an heir poll!