Chapter Five - Moonlight

Time had flown by, and Tamsin was feeling huge. Her back ached, her ankles were swollen, but she was determined in her denial. She did not deny she was pregnant, she simply denied that she had to do anything about it. A part of her hated the baby, it was now far too late in term for abortions even if they had been legal. She resisted every urge to eat crazy foods. She cast from her mind all thoughts of babies. She hated the little maggot that moved inside her. She tried to treat her pregnancy with complete indifference. Even if her world was ending, she was going to be stoic enough to at least continue doing the bloody laundry!

She threw herself into her chores and her inventing with a newfound gusto. She exhausted herself daily, giving over very little time to think about her circumstances. She became a conveyor belt of dipping birds and floor hygienators. She threw the last of her savings into inventing, and didn't even blink when the repo-man seized her only chair.

She barely had a house yet. Why would anyone imagine she'd need furniture?

Finally the inevitable happened, and she used up all her scrap reserves. If she didn't find more, she'd have nothing to do. She needed to gather as much as she could - at least 80 units. More, if possible. Her life was evolving into a melodrama. Her denial was a great, sweeping gesture. It deserved its own soundtrack, so desperate and vigorous it was. She marched, nearly literally, towards her quarry.

As Tamsin entered the lot she saw a mad old woman in a silver swimsuit. It annoyed her that anyone else would be there, especially somebody who, from the looks of her, was two kittens short of a crazy cat lady. Tamsin was horrified, at one point, to notice the old bat licking a piece of metal she'd pulled out of the pile! She tried to rummage on the other side of the heap, ignoring the hobo.

After half an hour, Tamsin was left to her own devices. She gathered anything that looked like it could be recycled, hissing to herself that so many perfectly good resources were left to spoil and to ruin the environment. When she got home, she continued her inventing blitz.

Late that night she went into labour. She thought carefully. She could call a taxi. But that would be an acknowledgement of this mess. She heaved herself clumsily onto her bike. Her labour pains made the journey nearly impossible, and at more than one point she almost tumbled. What she was doing was insane, but part of hoped her carelessness would be the end of the baby - or even of them both.

She arrived at the hospital in tears, the muscles in her inner thighs felt torn. The doctors were visibly furious with her, as much as they tried to mask it behind professionalism. She didn't care. The birth was long and she had put both herself and the baby at risk - not so much as to be locked away, but enough to send a very clear signal of her wilfulness. Afterward the birth, she declined an offer of free counselling.

Holding her new baby girl, she tried to love it. She understood it was now her child. It was very important. She had to take care of it. But she didn't yet love it. She figured she would have to work herself up to that. All she really felt was sad.

When she got home she stood on her porch in the moonlight, holding her baby. She liked ludicrous names. She thought, at the moment, that "Moonlight" was a good name. It was nature-themed. It was beautiful. It was very, very sad, and a little frightening.

She would never tell her daughter why she had chosen this name. It was too horrible. But her daughter, she decided, was Moonlight Knox.

Moonlight Knox spent the first night of her life sleeping on a cold, stone floor beside a very depressed woman who happened, unfortunately, to be her mother.

Moonlight Knox, as tiny as she was, was already insane - the bike ride had addled her brain - but she was not unhappy. Moonlight stared upwards. She enjoyed the twinkling of the stars with uncomprehending newborn wonderment.

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Challenge Notes

The first child is here. She is Insane and Loves the Outdoors. The next child is heir, and the quota for this generation. I'm not really certain how I'll get the next child. Do all the children have to share the same parentage? I'd rather not draw Perseus back in. I was so thrilled to see Prof Von Threadneedle in the quarry! It's a hidden tomb lot. I had thought Sims never routed to those autonomously! I guess I was wrong. Tamsin is currently too broke to pay her bills. I should have spent a lot longer skilling up in her professional abilities before letting her have children, but this destitution suits the story.