A Landgraab Legacy: Chapter 18: Moving On
Welcome back to the Landgaab Legacy. It seems all of my various ancestors felt it necessary to air our dirty laundry so to speak to the whole world by releasing various journals. First my esteemed ancestor Alabaster, the 'founder' to our family.
And then his daughter Esmerelda, my grandfather Jean, my murdering uncle Lucas, and then my mother with a magazine article.
I guess this means it is my turn to document the various dramas in my families reign of Sunset Valley.
Very well, my name, as most of you know, is Allan Landgraab. I am an artist, and a very popular author. I had tree bestsellers before I even became an adult.
I was the second half of a set of twin brothers. That seems to be a regular thing in my family.
My brother is Glen. Perhaps he is not as well known as I am, he was more of the bookish type. He loved reading cookbooks, and learning new recipes as he came across them. But more on him later.
This is the house I grew up in. It had been built by my great-grandfather Yves Landgraab and his brother. After the untimely death of my father Bryan, and the passing of my grandmother Christen, my mother decided to tear it down.
She had it professionally rebuilt, though I admit I liked the old one much better.
This is what it looks like now. There is a pond on the one side, and a family vault in the back. I personally think that it is way too big. I miss having a large yard to play in.
I may end up rebuilding, but maybe not. With so many deadlines to keep, it is hard to find the time.
Both my brother and I felt uncomfortable after the major rebuild, but we made due as best we could.
Anne found the pond next to the house lovely, and very useful. Much like our grandfather Jean, Anne loved to fish. She planned on being a robot cross breeder, whatever that is.
Though my other sister Mulan had great dreams of being a Star News Anchor, she loved to strum on her guitar. Whenever she wasn't doing homework, or her daily chores, this is what she was doing.
With Grandmother Christen gone, and all of us kids in school, Mom found herself home alone. She had gotten a job, but quickly found herself unsuited and quit.
She did depressing things like locate new stars and name them after Dad. I insisted she get out, meet new people or visit family.
She did both rather well. In fact, I guess you could say that she took my advice to heart.
Enter Titus Yancey into my little family drama. He was nothing special I assure you, just a flirty maid who came in at just the right time to cause trouble.
I don't blame Mom, she was very lonely without Dad or Grandma around.
After admiring the handsome maid from afar, Mom finally caved in and asked him to hang out. Titus jumped at the chance, he thought Mom was really pretty.
After chit chatting for a bit, Mom finally found the courage to ask Titus if he was single. He was, and Mom was hooked.
I'm sure you can see where this is going.
Yep, it went there. Now, Mom made absolutely sure there was no way that there would be a baby. She had enough, and didn't want to cause too much stress on the rest of us.
When we got home from school, we kind of sensed something was different.
It almost felt like Mom was flaunting Titus in our faces. I'm pretty sure that wasn't her intentions, she was most likely embarassed and couldn't bring herself to say anything.
Glen refused to even sit in the same room with them when they decided to join us for dinner.
He was livid, feeling that Mom had moved on from Dad. It was like she had forgotten him already.
Later Mom tried talking to Glen about it, but he just pretended she wasn't there. Instead he just buried himself in his cookbooks even more.
Then Mom asked Titus to be her boyfriend. I think Glen decided then that he wanted nothing more then to move out as soon as he could.
I sometimes wish that Grandma had been there, perhaps she would have known just what to say to keep Glen from losing it.
Much to our disgust, Titus started staying over all the time, sleeping where Dad used to.
When Glen noticed, he was just livid.
He found himself running away from the kitchen, refusing to believe that Mom would move on from Dad.
Glen got sick at the thought of that man replacing Dad in the house. I tried explaining there was no way Dad could ever be replaced, but he wouldn't listen.
And seemed now that Mom had a new man, she was going to take advantage of it. The two would spend all day in bed, it was very disturbing to us kids.
I tried to play nice, it was great hearing Mom laugh again.
But not Glen. He let Titus know exactly how he felt.
It nearly killed Glen when he saw Mom propose to Titus. I think he ground his teeth so hard while giving a fake smile, that they may have broken a bit.
In an attempt to make things better, Mom had thrown a party for me, Glen and Anne.
A large number of the family came, even from Dad's side. It was nice seeing everyone in the house, even if there was a noticable void.
Shortly after the party, Glen cornered Titus and really let him have it.
Glen: I hate you! You will NEVER be my dad!
Titus: Get used to it kid, I'm going to be in this house for a long time!
After that, Glen moved out without a single word. He was gone. Mom was upset, but, the new boyfriend distracted easily.
Poor Anne was heartbroken. It always seemed to her that people were leaving just as she got to care.
The next day, Mom made it official. Titus was now my Step-Dad.
I tried my hardest to like the guy, but it was hard when I found him bragging to the new maid how he had started so low, and was raised so high by his love.
I would have to keep an eye on this guy.
I called an old friend from school, Alesha. Okay okay, she was more the just a friend. I had loved her for years!
And I finally let her know. To my relief, she was very receptive to my advances.
So receptive in fact that our relationship progressed very rapidly in one afternoon!
And that was how my lovely Alesha became part of the family. She wanted to be a visionary, so we both had a love for art. It only made sense we would end up together!
And much like my sisters, I hoped that our family had seen enough drama. Well, at least for a long while.