The Sims 2 Presents: Foster's Valley!

[Cassini90125]

(It's a little choppy, but it says most of what needed to be said...)

Foster's Valley - "The Biography Of Miss Frances Foster"

(Parts of this chapter come from Craig or were derived from things he told me. Additional details are in the Frankie Discussion Thread.)

Frankie thought it over for a moment, then began. "I was born on July 25th, 1984. Mom told me I was a handful when I was a toddler; I cried a lot and didn't sleep much." Frankie laughed. "Might be why I never had any brothers or sisters."
"Happy childhood?" Watube asked.
"I guess," Frankie shrugged. "Kind of average, I'd say. I was a little shy but I got along well with the other kids. Played with Barbie, ran around the yard, those sorts of things."
"Got along well with your family?"
"As well as I could." She sounded wistful. "Mom was quiet, kind of distant sometimes. She cared about me but she had trouble saying so. Dad was a workaholic, pretty strict, too. He was more interested in climbing the social ladder than anything else. He didn't care for pets or Imaginary Friends and he certainly didn't approve of what my Grandmother was doing, turning her House into a foster home for abandoned Imaginary Friends. He'd been planning to buy it from her but when Foster's opened that idea was out."
"You didn't live there, then?"
"No. Dad got his own place after college. The three of us lived there until I went to college. He sold the place in my freshman year. It didn't matter to me much; I practically lived at Grandma's at that point anyway."
"How about your Grandfather? The show never mentions him."
"I never knew him; he died long before I was born. Quite a character from what Grandma told me; prim and proper like Mr. Herriman but full of mischief and a real sense of humor. I wish I could have known him."
"He and Mr. Herriman, were they rivals for your grandmother's attention?"
"What? Where'd you hear that?"
"It's one of the theories floating around the web."
"Oh. I hadn't read that; I don't go near the fansites. No, they weren't rivals, they were all very close. As a matter of fact, Mr. Herriman had a hand in getting them together."
"Really? I never knew that."
"Yeah. After his death both Mr. Herriman and my grandmother were inconsolable. He retreated to the attic, she became kind of aimless. Eventually my father made an offer to buy the House; Grandma was going to accept. She went to clean out the attic and found Mr. Herriman was still there and realized how close she'd come to losing the other most important person in her life. She cancelled the deal; my dad blamed Mr. Herriman for that. That's why he dislikes Imaginary Friends so much, and why he never let me have one of my own."
"Yet you created Miri anyway."
"I did." Frankie sighed. "It was back in 1st grade, right after 'Bring your Imaginary Friend to school' day. I was one of the only kids there who didn't have one. I felt so left out. I'd cried about it before and back at home I cried about it again that night. My parents were tired of hearing about it and they sent me to my room. I hadn't planned on creating one but I wanted an Imaginary Friend of my own so bad that it just sort of happened."
"Understandable."
"You might think so but I was sure my parents wouldn't. You've read that you get the Imaginary Friend that you need, not just the one you want, right? I needed one that badly, but in the back of my mind I knew I needed to keep her hidden, too, so when she came into being she was the size of a grape."
"She's grown a bit since then."
"The Valley does that to Imaginary Friends. I don't know how or why but this place humanizes them."
"Good friend?"
"Oh, Miri was the best!" Frankie exclaimed. "Playful, outgoing, sometimes hyper, sometimes lazy. She rarely cleaned up after herself, often snored," Frankie laughed at the memory, "and complained that the Barbie Dreamhouse I kept her in was too big, too pink, and stank of perfume."
Watube laughed. "Sounds like she was quite a handful."
"She could be; she was very feisty sometimes and kind of a troublemaker but very sweet, too, and was always there for me."
"How did the two of you get separated?"
"I don't know. I honestly don't know. I went to school that day and when I got home, she was gone."
"You must have been frantic."
"You bet I was. Worse, I couldn't tell my parents or ask for their help. I wasn't supposed to have an Imaginary Friend to begin with; they would've gone through the roof. They knew I was upset but I wouldn't tell them why. Kind of made our relationship worse. It never really got any better. I searched everywhere for weeks but never found a trace of her. Eventually I remembered that my grandma was running a foster home for Imaginary Friends so I went to her for help. She was very understanding and dreamed up the idea of letting me hang around the House all the time. She told my father that if I hung around there, maybe I wouldn't want an Imaginary Friend of my own and would quit whining at him about it. He bought it, and I started hanging around Foster's more than at my own home, even sleeping over a lot, all while still searching for Miri and hoping that maybe she'd find her way to Foster's on her own."
"Didn't you tell anybody else?"
"I told Mr. Herriman, who said I was irresponsible for losing her. Yeah, that really made me feel better." Frankie rolled her eyes. "I felt guilty enough about it, I didn't need to hear that. But I thought he was right so I begged my grandma not to tell anyone else in the House; I was scared that they'd all think badly of me for losing Miri. She said she wouldn't, and she made Mr. Herriman keep his mouth shut about it, too. I told Wilt a couple months later but no one else."
"Why Wilt?"
"He knew I was depressed; he's intuitive like that, with kids. One afternoon he sat down next to me and asked why I seemed so sad. I couldn't talk to my father about it but I figured Wilt was the next best thing, so I told him. The next day he went out searching. I've thought of him as a father ever since. He never found a trace of Miri but he found a lot of other lost Imaginary Friends over the years, which is why he gets named Friend of the Month so often."
"You think of him as a father, then?"
"Yeah. Always have, always will, and he thinks of me as a daughter." She smiled. "We told each other that shortly after I got out of college. We hugged, Grandma said 'Awww' and took a picture, and Eduardo got all weepy. He's pretty sentimental. Grandma still has the picture on her dresser. I formally took over as the House caretaker the next day and I've worked there officially ever since."
"How was school?"
"Hard." Frankie sighed. "The work wasn't bad but after class I usually went home and to the House right after. I had to be there, in case Miri showed up, you know? Didn't take long for me to get a reputation as an oddball, that weird girl who hung out with Imaginary Friends all day. It wasn't too bad in grade school but it got worse in high school. I rarely went out with the few friends I had and almost never dated. Never had a boyfriend, either, not a serious one anyway. It was a lonely time in my life. I mean, yeah, I'm surrounded by Imaginary Friends all day so I always had someone to talk to, but I need human friends, too. I went without all that, without much of a social life at all, because I wanted to be at the House in case Miri found her way there. I really got depressed about it as graduation neared; I was sure she'd turn up by then. She never did, though. I almost missed the prom, too; I ended up going with Wilt, since there was no time to try to get a date."
"That must have been awkward, going to the prom with an Imaginary Friend."
Frankie shrugged. "I managed. We danced once, talked with some of the people there, and went back to the House. That's it. Not really memorable but it was okay. I started college soon after; things were better there, people were more accepting. I met my best friend Kathy there. Anyway, Dad sold the house after I enrolled and I moved to Grandma's once and for all. I worked there, too; that and a couple odd jobs here and there, plus a scholarship and some money I got from Grandma and my parents paid for everything. After that... well, you've seen the show, you know the rest, and you know what my grandma did."
"The CN plot? Yes, I heard about that."
"Yeah. I'm glad we got past that. Eventually we moved to the Valley, and now there's a huge gap in my memory, and everybody else's, too. The only thing I remember from that time is the night Saturn rose in the sky; I'll never forget that." She paused for a moment. "I saw it again the other night, too. I think I was dreaming."
"Dream or not, it's significant," Watube said. "When Saturn appears, whether to one or to many, it means something important is going to happen to those who see it. Are you familiar with the Valley's ancient mythology?"
"I'm not, sorry."
"Read it sometime; there is much to be learned from the old texts."
"Well, what I'd like to learn right now is how to get Miri away from Dylan. Are we done yet? You said you had something that could help me."
"We are, and I thank you for telling me your story. You have been through much, Miss Foster, and I sense that there is more to come in the future. One moment, please." Watube got up and went to a closet; a moment later, he presented Frankie with a large box:



"I think you will find this most useful."
"What is it?"
"A little island magic. Use it wisely, for it's power is great. Now, I think you ought to return to your hotel and get some sleep; you're going to have a busy day tommorrow."
"That I will. Thanks for this. And thanks for listening, too; I needed to get that all out."
"My pleasure, Miss Foster."
Frankie smiled and left:



Watube smiled and looked at the night sky, remembering the night that he'd seen Saturn himself. It was last night, less than a day before Frankie arrived.

Back at the hotel, Frankie had barely gotten to her room when the phone rang; Madame Foster was on the other end:



"Frankie, we can't find her! Wilt is tearing the airport apart, and Mr. Herriman is questioning everyone who was on the flight, but she's not here!"
"It's okay, Grandma, she's at Dylan's place."
"Dylan Lee? That letcher?" Madame Foster figured it out a moment later. "He's using Miri to force you to date him, isn't he? That scoundrel! We'll get the rest of the gang and storm his place!"
"Don't, Grandma, he's expecting something like that. I'm not putting Miri at risk. Don't do anything unless I call, okay? I need to handle this myself."
"How?"
"I've got it all worked out" Almost all, she said to herself. "By the way, do you have Duchess's phone number?"
"555-HAGG. Why?"
"I'll tell you later. Just sit tight; I'll have everything under control soon." They said their goodbyes at that point. Frankie went down to the beach and opened the box Watube had given her. There was something inside; she took it out to look it over. She could see the power emanating from it. And it had a name:



"Hello, Mr. Mickles," she said softly. "Glad to meet you." The object, a plushie, said nothing. Frankie returned it to the box and turned to watch the waves. A malicious smile formed on her face as she sang along with the hotel music, an oldie by the Eagles:



"Somebody's gonna hurt someone
Before the night is through
Somebody's gonna come undone
There's nothing he can do..."

Just a few more posts to wrap things up. Stay tuned...