Harcourt he visits the local consignment shop & thrift store, seeking inspiration among the objects other people have thrown away.
Mab squeals with delight as her grandfather gives her a push on the swingset at Little Pirates Playground.
This could have been the last place anyone saw my son alive, Acheron reflects. Maybe if he had been here, watching Harcourt at that time... ... No. There's no use thinking about it.
"Well if it isn't the famous author!" Pedro laughs awkwardly. "Haven't seen you at Ferry Lane in ages."
"We meet here every week," Harcourt reminds his friend.
"More like once every two or three months," Pedro corrects. "You've become a shut-in. Always the excuse that you're busy writing."
Has he? He's written so much. He's won so many awards for his writing. His books are on best-sellers lists, and used in classrooms. Harcourt receives floods of fan mail; people claim that reading his work has made them think, has made them better people, has changed their lives. If even only one person had done this, he should have felt validated. But he doesn't.
"The more I write, the more I feel like I said everything wrong," Harcourt ventures, trying weakly to explain why he chains himself to a word processor, even when the royalties he already receives could support his family for the rest of his life. There's no practical reason anymore.
"I got a job at the science center," Pedro says glumly. "They use me as a test subject."
As disturbing as the title of test subject is, Pedro seems to think it's even worse that Noma Libros won't date him. He only got a job because she told him that's why she wouldn't date him.
"So why don't you quit?" Harcourt inquires, concerned for Pedro's health and safety.
"Dude, man, my Mom has gotten used to me paying my half of the bills. I can't. This sucks."
They go inside. Harcourt buys drinks.
A few Band Slams and Purple Gnomes later, Pedro is talking about Noma again. About her string of boyfriends, about how none of them "really" love her. Harcourt is pretty sure his cousin is using men more often than they're using her, but Pedro cannot be convinced.
"You dated for a total of three days," Harcourt tries to reason. "You need to get over her, and out of this funk."
"I love her!" Pedro protests.
This is hopeless. This is totally going to be a scene in Harcourt's next novel.
Claire worries Acheron will hurt himself, but he never manages to do so.
Mab thinks her grandfather is damn cool for an old guy.
"Whoa..."
It cut Harcourt a little too deep, to be called a shut-in. So he doesn't write for a whole day.
And then another.
And then another.
Instead he spends his time trying new things on the Bistro's menu, going to the movies with his family, and other such things he thought he did before but didn't really do very much.
"You get moody if you don't write," Mara reminds him. He's told her so many times it's like a muscle. If one stops, it gets weak. She wouldn't concern herself with it, but, she knows it's always been important to him.
Cheek pinching. It's like when you see a tiny, cute animal and want to squeeze it until it's crushed to death.
Mara drives Mab to her favorite fishing spot.
Mab is at first interested in fishing, but within five minutes she's properly grossed out by the details, and uneasily wanders away to play with her toy fire truck.
Mab complains, off and on, that she just doesn't like the "feel" of this place.
Mara figures her daughter is just... bored.
But as sunset approaches, Mab begins to freak out and throw a tantrum.
Mara is forced to take her home.
Mara wants to think her daughter was only being a brat, bored and wanting to go home, but there's always... another possibility, and she discusses that possibility with Harcourt.
"She tells me she sees ghosts," Harcourt admits, hesitant. He's seen them too. "Maybe she's sensitive to supernatural happenings. Keep her away from that pond."
Mara pouts, unsure how to parent a supernatural being.
Harcourt pulls her close. "Don't worry... having magic in my bloodline never troubled me any."
Grandparents + hot tub = DO NOT WANT.
Mab isn't one of the popular girls at school, but sometimes Gwen La Mer follows her home.
Gwen is the daughter of Mab's father's friend, Lori La Mer, and a very distant cousin.
"If you put the words in your last name together, they're LAMER," Mab points out.
"F*ck you," Gwen responds.
Getting home consistently five to twenty minutes late for curfew is one thing. Sneaking out in the middle of the night to visit a graveyard with a disbelieving friend is an entirely more serious thing.
"They'll be here," Mab promises, and Gwen thinks this whole tale sounds stupid.
Gwen believes ghosts exist, but she doesn't think they're haunting Barnacle Bay.
Surely they would be haunting someplace more exciting.
"I'm tired, and this place is creepy!" Gwen stomps her foot. "There's no ghosts. Let's go..."
"There's Barnacle Bill," Mab whispers.
Gwen rolls her eyes as Mab has a conversation with something Gwen cannot see.
"Everybody at school is right," Gwen mutters. "You're a freak."
Gwen can't wait to tell all the other kids about this misadventure.
"So I told Gwen about how I see ghosts," Mab informs her mother, leaving out the part where both girls went alone to a graveyard in the middle of the night, "and now everyone at school is teasing me, like, constantly. I think maybe this is grounds to home-school me."
"Mm, I think not." Mara pokes at her pancakes.
"WHY?" Mab stamps her foot on the ground under the table.
"Because I'm not a certified teacher. I can't give you that kind of education."
"School education must not be very important if you went through it and then forgot everything!" Mab complains.
"Don't raise your voice at me, young lady."
"Well this isn't fair! They're mean to me all day!"
"I'm sorry, honey... I'll have a word with the teachers tomorrow."
Mab cringes.
Someone cracked raw eggs into Mab's packed lunch ("ectoplasm!" a group of kids shouted; the teacher could not discern which of them could have done the deed). At recess, several kids threw a sheet with eye-holes over Mab, called her a ghost and dragged her through the mud. Except the eye-holes landed somewhere other than on her face, and she really didn't see anything. And in the hallway, everyone makes "booo" and "woooOoooOooo" noises at her.
Claire is horrified by this mistreatment of her grandchild, but, like Mara, she has no solutions.
Since Gwen La Mer told everyone Mab's secret, Mab plays alone.
At least she's still having fun.
Mab does not have a party for her birthday.
Just family and cake.
Mab begins her awkward teen stage.
Gwen and Mab are talking again.
"You f***ing look like Rainbow Bright."
"You f***ing look like a raccoon."
__________________________________________________________________
Etc: Every relationship Pedro is in ends in tears. He'll be in an "official" relationship for several days, then it'll go to pieces. Meanwhile Noma will be seen kissing and flirting with loads of guys, but never goes steady with any of them.
Lori was the only one of Harcourt's little friend group who managed to reproduce.
I love Harcourt and Mara, but this legacy save file is getting so glitchy, I cheated and aged Mab up one day early. I'll be getting the screenshots I need to end this little story, and then we'll be moving on.
