English Legacy: Gardening At Night (Chapter 15)

I see your money on the floor, I felt the pocket change.
Though all the feelings that broke through that door
just didn't seem to be too real.
The yard is nothing but a fence, the sun just hurts my eyes.
Somewhere it must be time for penitence. Gardening at night is never where.

* ADVISORY: This chapter includes pixelated nudity and an old man. *

Laurel woke up, lying on a cot in the Research Center's infirmary, feeling oddly out-of-sorts. One of her co-workers was standing over her, holding a clipboard in his hands. "Ah, you're awake, Test Subject L4UR3L," he said, robotically. "How do you feel?" he asked.

"I... I feel fine, I guess," she said, looking herself over. She lifted her left hand, and was startled at what she saw. "Why... why is my Thumb Green?" she asked? The scientist didn't answer immediately, but instead scribbled on his clipboard for a few moments.

"The discoloration should be temporary," he replied. "37 out of the last one hundred test subjects have had the coloration disappear within a few hours." He scribbled more notes, and looked her over again. "It's close to the end of your shift," he said, with a bit of humanity evident in his voice. "I can tell you've had a very stressful shift, just from how Hard you've been Working today. The boss mentioned that he likes your work ethic, so don't be surprised if you get promoted soon. Why don't you head home?"

"Um, okay. Thanks," Laurel answered as she got up, still feeling a little strange.
Five minutes later, Laurel walked out the front door of the Soil and Water Research facility (where they researched more than dirt and water, obviously) and did something that startled her.

She took a deep breath of the fresh air. This surprised her, because normally when she left a building, she would dash right to the curb to catch a cab, or jump in the police cruiser as quickly as she could, before the shakes and shivers would start. This time... there was nothing, no unease, no sense of dread. Curious, she stood outside the building for five whole minutes. To her surprise, it felt no different from being indoors.

Still amazed by this, she caught a cab, and headed home.
She was still feeling a bit Stressed when she got home, so she immediately availed herself to a hot bath. As the rough day faded from her body, she pondered on her past life. One day in particular came back to haunt her - the way she had been unable to keep herself from Flirting with Brian's boss, Hal, at Alex's birthday party.

She was a middle-aged woman now, the wife of a wonderful man, and the mother of two strong boys - she had no business Flirting with anyone else, anymore. The stress she felt from her first day's work made her appreciate Brian even more - she hadn't quite realized how hard he pushed himself over the years, to provide for them. Even her most difficult days raising the boys while he was at work, hadn't prepared her for the stress level of the workplace.

After her bath, she went to find her husband to show him just how much she appreciated his many years of work - even now, he still went to work each day, and did analyses from home for extra cash on his days off.
The next day, Laurel decided that she had better work on her gardening, if she wanted to ascend the ranks at the Research center. After planting her first few seeds, she purchased a sprinkler to keep her garden watered.
Of course, to her, there were two kinds of devices in this world - things that work properly, and things she hadn't tinkered with yet. It didn't take long at all for her to modify the sprinkler to turn itself on when necessary.

Over the next few days, Laurel found that her fledgling garden was growing quite well - the plants actually even seemed to do better when she Talked to them.
It wasn't long before she realized, from her gardening books, that she could get her plants to grow even faster if she fertilized them with fish. She confidently purchased a fishing pole and headed to the fish hatchery to get started on that skill.
To her surprise, she seemed to have a knack for fishing, right off the bat. She'd never considered herself an Angler before, but that may have been because until the accident with the potion, she didn't like being outdoors.

Laurel wasn't the only one experiencing changes in her life - it wasn't long at all before it was time for Christopher's birthday.
They'd invited quite a few of both Alex and Chris' school friends, who all showed up, due to Laurel's status as a Legendary Hostess. Christopher happily stepped up to his cake, and blew out the candles. Finally, he would be as big as his brother!
As he spun around, surrounded with sparkles, he wondered who he would resemble more - his mother or his father?
Creator's Note: Christopher looks so much like Brian it gives me chills - I'm tempted to put glasses on him and see if anyone can tell the difference outside of his blue eyes (which he got from his mom).

As for Laurel, no where in the rules does it say a Sim can't have a Mid-Life Crisis; so I let her have one. She exchanged Flirty and Hates The Outdoors for Green Thumb and Angler.

Oh yeah... I didn't say the pixelated nudity and the old man would be in the same shot. You people make me wonder sometimes.... ;)