Falderol Falls: Distance
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As PartyPartyParty grew more and more successful, Daisy began to make plans to expand her empire--and her budding social lifee. She'd decided to use her biggest weakness (her plantishness) and turn it into a strength by opening a tiny organic grocery store which she called Sunshine Grocery. Though not as instantly successful as PartyPartyParty, she was comfortable that she had enough money in the bank to more than cover her needs until the store took off, and even purchase a modest home for herself to fill with nice things and the dream of someone special.
At least, she thought so until she got home. Rose greeted her cheerily and instantly gushed about how they'd had just enough money after paying their modest taxes to build a greenhouse around her garden.
Daisy wanted to kill her. She wanted to lock her dear, sweet mother into a room full of flaming objects and swallow the key. She interrupted Rose's garden talk. "Mom! How could you? That was my money!"
"Now, Daisy. There's no yours and mine in a family. My baby plants need that greenhouse. It's just too cold here. Besides, you have everything you could ever want or need right here. There's sun and water and shelter from the cold. What could you possibly need a bunch of money for?"
Daisy was speechless. Was her mother serious? Could she possibly be that clueless? That ... disconnected from reality?
"Come inside now, Daisy. You can tell me all about what you did at your little business while you help me tend to the plants." Rose turned and began walking toward the house, but she stopped and came back and patted Daisy on the arm. "It was such a happy accident when I spawned you."
Daisy froze. "I was an accident? You never meant to have me?"
"Of course you weren't an accident. A surprise, maybe. You see, I was really itchy one day--have you ever heard of a PlantSim with pollen allergies?--and I bent over to scratch my head really well and up you sprang. Jason, well, you know how that weirdy likes the strange stuff. He kept trying to make me do it again, but I just wasn't itchy anymore. It would have been cool though," she sighed. "Think of how big my garden could be if there was an army of us! The most I could ever get was this little cloud to pop up. Like this!" Rose rubbed her head. Daisy sneezed.
Rose laughed. "Hah, that never gets old. Now, come in. It's freezing out here!" And, with that, she turned and walked into the house. Daisy stood on the sidewalk, gaping. She wasn't sure how long she stood like that, lost in her own whirling thoughts, before a soft noise alerted her to someone else standing there. Gerard was standing near the corner of the house, hands in his pockets. Daisy muttered a hello, but wasn't able to come up with anything more brilliant. Gerard came up to her and took her hand in his.
"I'm sorry, Daisy. I came by to talk to you and your dad told me to wait by the pool. He's looking a little green around the gills, so I... oh, geez. Poor choice of expressions. I'm sorry." Daisy wasn't sure how he did it, but he seemed to know when she needed a little cheering--even if they were miles apart. She tried to shrug off his apology. "Ah, Daisy. Please don't cry. Come, take a walk with me." She shrugged again and they walked aimlessly. Daisy hardly noticed as the frost melted off, but Gerard took her coat and held it over his arm as it got warmer. He apologized again. He hadn't meant to eavesdrop on her conversation with her mother--he'd just been in the wrong place at the wrong time. She sniffled and shrugged again. They turned a corner and he asked her what she was going to do.
Daisy shrugged. "Maybe I'll just stay at PartyPartyParty permanently. I'll open my own bank account so Rose," she spit the name out with obvious disgust, "can't get her hands on it. I really don't need to sleep or anything. I could just have a bathtub put into one of the public restrooms and I'll be fine. Maybe I'll take up painting or something in my off hours. All my life I've hated that I'm so different from everyone else, but maybe it's not such a bad thing after all--at least I don't need much to survive." Gerard stopped walking and looked into Daisy's eyes.
"Daisy, I don't want you to have to just 'survive.' I want you to be happy." Daisy half-shrugged, as if to say that was just the way life was. "I don't have much," Gerard continued, "But I do own this little house with a big yard. I'd hoped that maybe... one day... you'd help me turn it into a little home." Daisy blinked, unsure whether she was dreaming or had misunderstood what Gerard had said. He was much too wonderful to settle for an oddball accident like her. "Maybe I should say it a different way," he said, letting go of her hands.
"Daisy Chain Greenman, would you make me the happiest of men and be my wife?" For what felt like the millionth time that day, Daisy was speechless. Unable to form even the hint of a thought, she stood and looked at the beautiful ring Gerard was offering her. Gerard's face fell just the tiniest bit. "If you don't like the house, we can build onto it--there's plenty of space. Or we could find a different one..."
His words died suddenly as Daisy threw herself into his arms, nearly knocking him over backward, and covered his face with kisses. "Yes," she murmured between kIsses. "Yes, yes, yes, yes!"
And so, without even returning to the Greenman household to collect her things, she moved into Gerard's house and they set about making it a home.
Repeatedly. Which, of course, led to a quicker wedding than either of them had originally planned.
Not that either of them felt troubled about it.
And the party was amazing, even if Gerard wasn't able to convince Daisy to invite her parents.
Their honeymoon, though brief, was refreshing. Though Gerard really hated the shower in their hotel room,
he did make a point of joining the new Mrs. MacPhearson as she laid out and worshiped the sun. Sadly, the sun did not worship Gerard so much.
And, together, they played on the beach and took pictures and loved one another.
And while Gerard slept, Daisy searched the shore for seashells and other treasures. Sadly, she wasn't often successful.
All too soon, the honeymoon was over. They came home refreshed and Daisy quickly took her place among the ranks of business tycoons in Falderol Falls. She opened a new store featuring all sorts of electronic equipment and Gadgetery soon became a busy place. She even convinced Gerard to follow his dreams of owning five top-level businesses and he purchased a plot of land to build a bait shop on. Daisy still put in the time at PartyPartyParty, though. She even met a woman who had four children toddler or younger. She tried to talk Erin into buying a bar (heaven knows, she probably needed it!) but Erin left with a secret smile at Daisy's belly.
Daisy also met a being as strange as she was. Raven lived with a busy, growing family and loved every one of them. Daisy tried to talk him into a bubble machine for an upcoming birthday party, but he left instead with a more modest bunch of balloons.
At home, the MacPhearsons became known for throwing amazing parties and people came from all over for just the chance of getting in. Not that anyone was ever turned away. Their open-door policy led to some interesting conversations. Like when Raven overheard Erin telling another man that if she wasn't happily married, she'd marry him.
Bawdy jokes were commonplace.
One of their party guests had such a great time, she left a dog as a hostess gift. Daisy instantly fell in love with him, calling him Biscuit and teaching him parlor tricks.
With so much going on, Daisy never had a chance to even pick a hobby--much less, get started--before, at the close of the winter, she and Gerard were blessed to add Makayla MacPhearson to their family.
The winter did not go so smoothly for the home Daisy had left behind. Rose did her best to care for Philip, but having never been around human children, she had little idea how best to care for them. She did make sure he knew how to walk and talk and use a potty--though she was never sure she'd taught him correctly, since she'd never done it herself. Her body's water supply was too precious for her to piddle away.
Jason had been withdrawn and prone to nervous fits ever since his little "abduction." The event became a source of strife between the once-happy couple and Jason turned to food for comfort.
He took vacation time at work, refused to get dressed in the morning--often refusing to bathe at all--and spent most of his time either with a spoon in his mouth, his nose in a book or, on very rare occasions, shoving food into Philip's mouth. When he held Philip, a very sad smile seemed to pass across his face before he summarily returned Philip to the nursery to play with Daisy's old toys.
On one of the rare occasions he did get dressed, he found he couldn't fit into his old clothes. He started leaving his pants unbuttoned using his untucked shirt to cover the mess.
All the contention in the house seemed to drive Rose even deeper into her garden.
One afternoon, while she was on her way in from the garden to check on Philip, she was hit by pain like she'd never felt before.
Happily, it was over almost as soon as it had begun, and she was left with a tiny new baby to care for. Rose called her Pansy and set up a new crib for her out in the greenhouse so she'd be closer at hand than Philip's nursery room. Jason didn't even seem to notice that there was a new person in the house.
The eggplants were in bad shape as their harvest date drew closer and as Rose became more preoccupied with her plants, the children began to fall through the cracks.
Rose figured it couldn't be helped with Jason out of the picture. When Daisy had been young, Jason had stepped in whenever and where ever he was needed. Rose wasn't sure if it was The Big Secret he refused to talk to her about honestly, or if it was simply because they were ordinary babies that made him not care about them. In the midst of all her problems, she tried to call Daisy from time to time, but was rarely able to reach her.
She was always polite to Gerard, but secretly imagined he was working Daisy like a slave. To her shame, she was a tiny bit pleased with the thought. As winter drew to a close, Rose was learning to balance her new familial responsibilities with her garden time. She had just set Pansy down for a nap and had started talking to her plant babies when she heard yelling coming from the house.
She knew that Philip should still be happily playing with his favorite bunny head, but she ran to the window between the greenhouse and the house proper to make sure everything was okay. What she saw scared her a little. Jason was standing beside the piano, holding his stomach and screaming in pain.
Without a thought, Rose ran to him. What if she lost him? What if she never got to apologize for her silent anger toward him? By the time she reached the house, it was all over. Jason handed her a tiny green baby boy and picked up a little green baby girl. They weren't as green as she was, but a sickly green--almost alien.... The realization that Jason hadn't been entirely dishonest struck her like a smack to the head.
Once Preston and Pepper were properly tucked into rush-ordered cribs, Rose put her arms around Jason while he cried. Though things were not back to normal--how could just one night undo half a winter's worth of hard feelings?--Rose was confident that they were on the right track. It was also kind of nice to not be the only green being in all of Falderol Falls.
Rose finally harvested the last of her eggplants, but was so enthralled with Preston and Pepper and their nose-less little sweet faces that she forgot all about Pansy's transition day. Though there was no cake, Pansy didn't seem to mind very much. She had the biggest smile of all.
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