Chapter Forty Nine

When Joshua got home that night he went up to Menolly's room to try and talk to her and see if he could find out what was bothering her and why she had turned so rebellious.

Finding she wasn't there he searched the rest of the house and the barn, but it soon became clear that she had sneaked out yet again.

Going back inside he interrupted Miralys' workout, "Where's your sister gone?  Why didn't you stop her going out?  You know she's been grounded!"

Miralys was shocked to realise Menolly had snuck out yet again, "I'm sorry Dad, I never noticed her leave, you never said I was supposed to be keeping an eye on her and I got caught up in my workout"

As Miralys left the room to shower, Joshua phoned the police to alert them to the fact that Menolly was out after curfew again...

Joining Tamara in the kitchen for an evening snack, he told her Menolly had snuck out again and the two of them discussed the need to get to the bottom of her behaviour

The two of them agreed that Joshua would stay up that night to wait for Menolly and nap on the sofa if necessary.

But, by the time he awoke the next morning, Menolly still hadn't come home...

When Tamara came down a little later, Joshua was already fearing the worst

"It's the vampires, they've found us again and they've taken her or killed her!"

Despite her own fears, Tamara did her best to calm him down, "We don't know that for certain, you know how rebellious she's been recently; she may have stayed out all night and not come home yet, or she may have run away.  Bad as that is, it doesn't mean the vampires have found us although if she's run away they might find her...  We're going to have to call the police and report her missing"

After Tamara had made the call to the police, Miralys came downstairs and, on hearing that Menolly hadn't come home at all immediately thought that she must have decided to run away.  "She's always been talking about how she want's to make it big in the music industry, what if she's decided to try and do that now rather than waiting til she's grown up?  Oh Mum, I should have noticed her slipping out and stopped her!"

 Tamara hugged her eldest child close "Don't say that dear, it's not your fault if your sister's decided to run away!  We'll tell the police what you said about her wanting to make it big in the music industry, maybe that'll give them a lead"

Tamara decided to stay at home that day and train Dune on the jumps she'd set up in the back garden rather than go over to the training grounds 

Late in the morning she received a phone call from the police "I'm sorry ma'am, we've discovered that your daughter managed to slip onto the ferry to the mainland, she's left Dragon Falls but we'll do everything in our power to find out where she's gone and bring her home.  We'll let you know anything we find out"

Once the policeman had hung up, Tamara went into the house to find Joshua and let him know the news "Oh Joshua, she has run away!  The police just called, she snuck onto the ferry for the mainland, she could be headed anywhere in the world and who knows what might happen if the vampires find her..."

This time it was Joshua's turn to be the rational, sensible one, "We have to believe that the police will find her, she can't have gone far... 

Just in case though, they agreed that they'd better phone Tamara's brother-in-law, Gary, and let him know what had happened so he would be prepared if the worst did happen...

As the days passed with no news of Menolly, the remaining members of the family fell into a routine, Tamara would train the horses (and Shimmer the unicorn) in the back field

And care for the animals, a task added to when Cinnamon gave birth to another foal, whom they called Dusty

Like Dune before him, he looked a lot like his mother, although he also bore the unmistakable stamp of his father...

Joshua would tend the garden and fish in the small pond on their property rather than going off to the ocean

And experimented with turning the fruit from his garden into  different types of nectar

While Miralys alternated her spare time between practising her chess skills at home

Working out in front of the tv rather than going to the gym

And scouring the internet to see if she could find any news on Menolly and what had happened to her

When their respective work was done, Tamara and Joshua would sit together on the sofa in silence just waiting and worrying

They did make the occasional trip out of the house, Joshua to sell the vegetables from the garden and 

And Tamara took Dune down to the Equestrian Centre once he was reasonably trained to sell him on to a good home

As the time for Miralys' birthday came near, she and her parents were invited to an awards ceremony to celebrate the achievements of her year group.

She was presented with some nice trophies from her time in the school sports team but their celebrations were muted by Menolly's continued absence, being restricted to a family meal at home 

The evening was further dampened when both Midnight and Smudge aged to elders and the family realised that soon they would depart this life... 

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Pet Spam

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Town News

• Quetzal Sperie dated Ryan Crist but they have split up
• Scarlett & Elijah have had twins babies - Joey (f) & Ramin (m) - pictured below
• Pacey Harris aged up to a teen
• Boy Crist joined the political career
• Nathan McKinley aged up to a YA and moved out
• Bryce Roman has married the consignment clerk, Meriwether Stacy
• Various people started dating townies but I've since deleted all sims who aren't either register sims or from people's legacies...

Joey McKinley

 Ramin McKinley