(cont'd right from where Part One left off; sectioned up because not only am I wordy, but apparently I'm also snap-happy with the camera)




Night has become morning at Mann Manor, too.

Junior Mann is an early riser which makes it that much harder for him to do a whole lot of nothing all day. He needs his fix.  For some folks, it's
caffeine they crave, for him it's his flavoured cigs. Sure, there must be nicotine in them, but it's the scent, the taste of candy apple—lately he
likes that even better than cloves—that gets him going. And now he can' t find his favourite lighter and it's gonna bug him all day until he...


"What the hell? What are you doing here?" Junior demanded when he heard covers rustling and turned around to find Candy in this bed, in his house!

"Oh, it's you Junior. Shit. Keep your voice down."

"But what the hell are you doing here?"

"Just crashing. Had a fight with my Pop and I didn't wanna stay there. It's no big deal."

(Liar, liar, pants on fire...but she's not wearing pants.)

Candy threw the covers back, yawned, and stood up.

But Junior was still being confrontational.
"So you broke into our house? To sleep?"

"You're the ones with extra rooms, right? And I didn't break in, relax. Nothing's broken. I didn't take anything either, you can check."

"I didn't mean to—"

"Whatever, Junior. Now, you gonna just stand there starin' at me or can you hand me my shirt so I can get outta your house?"



He stepped aside and watched her get dressed. And it was like she didn't even care and he was staring. She sat back on the bed to pull on her boots, got up, and headed out.

Rich Junior had no clue what to do with Candy Hart.



He wasn't much of a mystery to her, though. Nothing like his father.
She also didn't have the same difficulty filling up her days.

How could anyone be bored when they can always sleep, or sleep around?
She didn't get it.



Valentine thought he was starting to get it.

He was noticing that she was sleeping way too much. Either something was up...or she needed to be put to work, too, like her brother.

Candy laughed at her Pop's suggestion that she was pregnant.
She laughed harder when he told her she needed a job.

But he meant what he said. These lazy kids needed to either start bringing it home or get out and pay their own damn taxes.

And that ain't no warning, it's a threat.
Don't believe him? Talk to Rhett.


~~~



Sandy was feeling restless at home and her mother-in-law noticed.

Daytona kept Hamilton busy and the children were in school now so there was nothing for her to do. It was making her crazy.
But when Daytona purchased Municipal Clearings*, for the town, she put Sandy in charge. She doesn't even mind all the paperwork!




She was less than enthused when Daytona told her she'd hired Rhett Hart to work here.

Sandy finally had a reason to get out of the house and be somewhat productive, the last thing she wanted to deal with was another immature man-child. Honestly, there's
no other kind in Widespot, but this one walked around like his very presence was some kind of gift. Come on! She's got her own kids, why should she have to babysit?



Sandy took him out to show him around. In the past they relied on passing day-labourers whenever there was a need and, of course, Rich Mann's people
handled construction. With the highway nearly complete, Daytona foresaw a boom in expansion so they're all about getting a head start, to be proactive instead of reactive.
They deal with the permits and licensing but also the actual clearing and harvesting of the wood as well. That's where he comes in, she told him.



He could hardly believe what he heard.

Rhett does not do grunt work, not that kind, and he had to make that clear to Sandy.
She could go tell Daytona, tell Pop, he didn't care. Nobody was going to have him out there chopping wood like some kinda lumberjack,
roughing up his hands. He needs these hands, these are magic hands, musical hands. What was this woman thinking?



She relented pretty quickly. Told him to put his magic hands to use...typing. On a typewriter!

He tried to go along for a while but these people expect him to come back tomorrow! To do this, everyday! The only compensation for Pop turning
him out on the world like this is being so near Penny. It's not as convenient as their spot (which is closer to his house), plus there's those freakin' kids,
but sitting here with nothin' to do but work stare at this page or at her house through the window, he kinda missed her. Might be time to forgive her.



Outta there!



But the old man answered the door and he wouldn't let Rhett in.
"I'm here to see Penny," he protested.

"Young man, I know you are not here to see me," Skye retorted, "but my daughter does not want to see you."

"But I'm not mad anymore. Just tell her I'm here."



"Mad? You're not—and what right have you got to be mad? You use my daughter, mistreat her, and you have the audacity to tell me,
her father, that you're not mad at her? Get off my property! Right now, I tell you. And don't you come near my Penny again."

"I'll go," Rhett said, "but you make sure and tell her it's your fault I'm leaving. See whose side she takes then. Heh, I don't
have to come back here, she'll come looking for me. She ain't been your little girl in a long time. She's my Penny." He mumbled
that last part, and sort of ducked; the old man looked timid but he was crazy enough that he might've lunged for him.



Penny watched him go from the window.
She'd overheard every word and she was livid that he'd speak so disrespectfully.

But he was not wrong.
She loved him. That jerk.



She tried to smile and brave it out for her father when he came back inside.

He had protected her. Just like he always did.



Sandy could put 2 and 2 together, she knew where he had wandered off to. She started to
ask him how Penny was, it's been a while since she'd seen her but he caught her off-guard,
walking in with flowers. Obviously they had simply been yanked from right outside but it was
a nice gesture after they'd gotten off to a rocky start. And then the flowers were so pretty.



She still remembered them that evening. Hamilton never brought her flowers.
He was a wonderful father, and far too enthusiastic a son, but as a husband...


~~~


Mary found some time to herself. She immediately made her way over to see her Harts.



There was something particular she's been wantin' to say but she's not much with words. Valentine looked at her with those kind eyes of his but it ain't help none.

"I've been meaning to thank you. I know you're the one who cooked the food your mother sent over."

"Just the chicken. And the corn," she said.

"I know it. I can tell. Come on to the back and let's talk."


Hindsight being 20/20 he can't pretend he already suspected what she was wanting to say, a man
sometimes just likes what he's seeing. She wasn't even aware of the way that she swayed.



He was heading all the way out back for a private chat when Mary stopped off and started cleaning!



"Mary, come on now, leave those dishes alone."

"Oh, I can't leave the house lookin' like this. Won't take but a minute."

"Doesn't matter. These lazy kids can figure out how to wash a dish, and they will, too. Soon as we run outta clean plates. Now you know
how much I appreciate how you helped us out when we first lost Angel. But it's been long enough for us to be doing for ourselves now."

In one ear, right out the other. Old habits die hard.



When he wasn't looking she even started cooking.

No matter what Valentine said, there was nothing wrong with a clean house and good food on the table.

And who knew what they needed 'round here better than her?


~~~


Across town Daytona Beech was making sure of her own investments in the Hart family.

Sandy wished she was surprised to find her mother-in-law checking up on her. She never discussed work at home because she felt like as long as the work was being done,
well, and money was flowing like it should be there was no reason to check in with Daytona aside from making sure all the right paperwork got to her on time. All that
hovering mothering stuff she could save for Hamilton. Sandy hasn't even complained about her hiring Rhett Hart. Yet that was exactly who she stopped off to talk about.

"He is superfluous. But I guess he's not in the way. If you don't mind paying him to sit around looking pretty, I don't mind ignoring him. But we'll still need to hire
extra hands to meet the demand you expect to roll through. As there's no guarantee there'll be any available I thought that's what he was for. I was wrong."


"Advertising the forest park as a rest stop has been getting the job done. Now if people start settling more than passing through some of them
are sure to need the work themselves and in the meantime the local boys can always lend an arm. Beulah's boy may not be into it much but I know
Skye's son could get it done. I hear he's getting pretty good with his hands, helped Skye out a lot while we were getting the works up and running."

"Skye?" Sandy blanked on the name for a second. What was that,
perimenopause or something? "Oh, Penny's father. Right."

"Right. Skye Weiss. Owns that house right there. Teaches your children... "

"Yes, of course." Can't even have a momentary brain burp without her mother-in-law pouncing on it!

Daytona made another stop to check on her other investment.

Skye hadn't been looking for friends in Widespot but Daytona Beech was persistent. He knew why, she
needed his particular skill set to get the town going, but it turned out to be a mutually beneficial arrangement.

It was her suggestion that he take charge of the town school, once the infrastructure was more or less in place, and
teaching again has reinvigorated him! He had retired from teaching science to move here for Penny's & Woody's sakes.
And he loved the isolation, but helping and passing on his knowledge has given him purpose again.

He'll always be grateful to Daytona for that.



So being in Widespot has been mostly positive. Skye's opening their home as a school even brings children into Woody's comfort zone so he's able to flourish
despite that incurable shyness inherited from himself. But Skye really wished this hadn't happened. Penny's "lust for life", specifically the human interactivity side of life,
has always confused him. Confronting a daughter's sexuality must be difficult for all fathers but he can't even relate! He didn't father them the, well, the conventional way.



Oh dear!



Woody isn't any more thrilled than his father that Penny got knocked up. Because no matter how much
his dad blusters about he's pretty sure Rhett doesn't plan to marry her. It's too bad, he'd make a
really cool brother-in-law, he could teach him all about women and, you know, what to do and stuff .
Yeah, that'd be cool. He probably wouldn't make the best husband, though.


~~~



Mary couldn't help but feel like she was born to be a wife. And a mother. It's prideful to say so but she knew she was a good homemaker.
She's had plenty of practice. At home, and here, too. She just, she fit in. Looking at this place when she first came in, they needed her!

Goldie, at least, would not disagree.



After dinner Mary started in on the living room.


Valentine came up right behind her. He was about ready to put an end to this stalling.



He figured something had happened at home and he knew she needed to work up her nerve
when there was a weight on her heart. He had given her plenty of time but he was about ready
to draw her out (and if any man knew how it was to be done, Valentine was that one).



Mary was still feelin' shy and a little scared 'bout what she had to tell him, so she whispered to him. "I'm fixin' to have a baby. Your baby."



Clearly, not what he was expecting to hear.



But experience came up with the quick save. He took her hand in his and kissed it and whispered sweet things to her because he liked to see her smiling.



But what mess had he gotten himself into now whispering sweet things to that sweet lonely girl.



Valentine was stunned, more than he should've been. He could only pace back and forth in this room. This room!
It's not exactly a shrine to Angel but it is her room. Everything in it, everything about it was her doing.

Valentine has refused to change a thing, serious about honouring her memory. Whether other people thought so or not.

Life is for the living and so he lives, but some things are sacred. Angel was the mother of his kids. In all his
checkered past he never forgot that, never betrayed her that way. And now she wasn't even there to forgive him.

If I had gone ahead and gotten this up last weekend as intended it wouldn't be running into a Part Three but playing it as a BaCC there are still some things that should be foreshadowed so that they don't seem quite so out of synch when I finally get down to the nitty gritty. In fact, while I play rotations, I'm still not sure how I'll write them since the storylines all overlap. Dilemma for another day.

*Municipal Clearings. It was a placeholder name but looks like it stays. It's a tract of grass with a lot of trees, some chop-able, and neighbourhood deco trees overlapping plus that tiny office for Sandy (and Rhett) but this is the comm lot that instigated a lot of the way I framed the backstory. It germinated entirely from the idea that Widespot should be self-sufficient. I see Rich Mann as the only resident with continuous contact to the world outside Widespot, so aside from needing to establish where the food comes from—who grows it, who sells it?—there was also, as I prepare for new settlers, who builds the houses and where does the material and the furniture come from? In the same vein, I installed a mod that cancels the paper delivery because I can't imagine who's writing the Widespot Gazette and every home with a kid has Inge's institution sign tucked away to disable the schoolbus since there isn't a real school, only a teacher, and they can all walk to the Weiss house. Now if only I could find a mod that would disable them coming back home on the bus so it wouldn't ruin the illusion!