#spring 4

[whibleysims]

The transition from Winter to Spring in Year 4 was blurry for most as remnants of winter's chill gripped its surroundings with relentless stubbornness. It did not go gently into its good night.

Local flora tried to bloom despite the colder than usual temperatures with their natural resilience and obedience to seasonal routine. After a while, residents eventually stopped feeling surprised by springtime snow and carried on in a similar fashion.

No one knew precisely why this winter lasted longer than others. Some shrugged it off as changing climate, can't be helped, while others suspected there might be angry spirits trying to convey a message about lingering unfinished business.

[whibleysims]

"Can I help you?" Frankie W. sounded gruff like he had just woken up. His wrinkled clothes definitely looked slept in.

"Frank Wesemann?"

"Yes already, what do you want?"

"My name is Luc Riley, I represent the late Pattie Morrison Weseman's estate."

Frank released a grunty sigh as if to say, "And?"

"I've come here to settle any and all outstanding assets belonging to Ms. Morrison Weseman," Luc explained.

"She ain't got nothing here," Frankie shrugged.

"The house, sir."

Frank frowned. "I don't know what you're tryin' but you're mistaken. Pattie gave me this house."

"Do you have any record of that?"

"Who are you?" the homeowner glared.

"Luc Riley, entertainment attorney. As it happens, I was also Pattie's fiance before she died. Maybe you'd like to give me your attorney's information so I may deal directly with them?"

Crap!

Frank thought back to when Pattie left him and realized that their divorce settlement was entirely verbal; it would be his word against hers, and right now at the height of her postmortem popularity it didn't look good for ol' Frankie W.

"Mr. Wesemann," Luc began, "let me be clear, I harbour no particular ill will against you despite whatever history you and Pattie had once. If you'd like, you can buy the property from Ms. Morrison Weseman's estate. That is, you can buy it from me."

Frank wrestled with how to respond and inadvertently muttered something sounding like, "I can't."

"Then you'll need to leave." Luc masked his disappointment with bleak corporate politeness. "In squatter eviction cases like these, it's customary to give a month's notice — consider this the start of said notice."

Luc Riley didn't bother saying anything beyond that. He simply turned and walked away from, in his opinion, a pathetic disgrace who could do nothing but slowly close the door quietly behind him. To Frank's credit, Luc thought, at least the old man knows when he's beat.

In the short weeks that followed, Frankie W. would move out of his stunning mansion property, the mint green envy of the neighbourhood, to share a single-family suburban home with his son Sam.

"Bonnie's making pork chops tonight," he said sympathetically.

"Good," the father muttered, "at least that's—good."

[whibleysims]

Now that Spring 4 of The Mess has concluded its initial debut on Tumblr, you can download the complete PDF copy via my public Mega folder.

(If you haven't read Spring 4 yet, and/or you want to read all scenes together without "post" interruptions/delays AND with the added benefit that you can read a PDF offline, this is for you. Small reminder that each season of The Mess will have its own PDF as the story is only getting much, much bigger from here!)

We go straight into Summer 4 from here on Monday (May 5)!

As always, thank you for reading. <333

[whibleysims]

In the weeks following her break up with Vivian Rose, Lynda Floral found she couldn't sleep unless it was in her mother's bed. But ever so gradually, she would start waking before her mother to spend the better part of the morning without her; these were Lynda's baby steps towards living independently.

Often, those baby steps lead her to their basement art studio. Art would prove to be Lynda's preferred therapy time and time again.

And eventually, nearing the end of spring, Mavis and Lynda repurposed the spare bedroom into a nursery. The orphanage was thrilled with Lynda's application and had the perfect children in mind for her.

[whibleysims]

It would be Irene's birthday shortly after the twins were born. She celebrated exactly how she wanted to: a private party with just her daughter and grandchildren.

Known to a few but only remembered by one person now, Irene and Ethan Hill shared a birthday. Alone in his newly built Feverfew home -- an expensive luxury in such a town -- Ethan aged up as well.

Living alone didn't bother him like he thought it would. Turns out, living alone is actually quite peaceful. But on days like his birthday he thought about Irene and Sadie and what they were doing without him.

[whibleysims]

Sadie Hill went into labour extremely quickly, there was no time to move her. Thankfully for everyone, it happened to be Irene's day off from the hospital so Whibley's own chief medical officer was there to help.

Adam's mother, Mayor Diane, came by later that day to meet her grandchildren. Although she didn't quite understand why her daughter in law insisted on using her last name for the children--

--it was unanimous: everyone adored twin sisters Melanie and Claire Hill.

[whibleysims]

The headlines were inescapable. Happily Ever After: Reginald the Third and Camilla Cambridge Marry!

Although each outlet worded it a little differently, it was all the same.

The new Mrs. Camilla Cambridge Barber, beloved by all, crown jewel of the Barber family, saves the broken hearted Reginald the Third after a devastating break up by super villain Kathleen Thorny Rose. Everyone is happy and no one thinks anything poorly about the newlyweds or the Barber family. We can't wait for the couple to return from their well deserved honeymoon with a pregnancy announcement!

It drove Kathy to become a recluse, removing and refusing all outside media for a very, very long time.

[whibleysims]

"Come on, Li-luh! I wanna dance!"

"Keep your damn skirt on, alright?! I'm comin'!"

"Okay! What'd'yah think? Too much?"

Of course I couldn't say how I really felt, and I prayed my blushing cheeks were hidden well enough in my dimly lit bedroom for her not to notice. Maybe I matched the walls, maybe that's why she could look right past me most of the time.

"I've never seen you like this before," I said, which was true.

"Tryin' something new," she shrugged with a grin.

"No kidding."

"So it's too much?"

"No!" I protested. If she changed a single thing I was sure my heart would stop beating. "You look great."

"Great, 'cause I think we're crazy late to meet the boys."

"Grab your purse and I'll call the cab."

"We could probably walk there," I suggested. Anything to lengthen our time alone together.

"We're late enough as it is, C. I'm pretty sure if we stall any longer Will and Geoff won't be there to meet us."

"So?"

"I'm calling a cab. Just meet me downstairs, 'kay?"

"Okay. Right behind you."

I want to say that I knew better. I want to tell you that I didn't spend my whole life following Lila Rose anywhere she went, or Lila Roberts as I knew her then.

"They aren't comin'," Geoff probably said.

"Oh my god," Will would've groaned, because who wouldn't.

"Why would any nice girl wanna be with an old loser like me?" He used to play this dumb "poor me" act a lot back then.

"Geoff, pull yourself together, man. Lila wouldn't do that. They're comin', don't be an idiot."

Lila fell into Will's arms immediately jumping out of the taxi. As he said something sleazy, like, "Hey, babe," I was looking at my date: your father. He was anything but my type, but what he did offer me was a night out with my best friend, so you can understand why I gave him a polite chance.

We got to the bar, and I could tell you what happened there, but I'd only be repeating myself.

We were in college. We were young. She was a senior with her eyes on a sunny suburban dream, and I was a sophomore just trying to keep up. She didn't know, how could she? I was only just finding out then myself.

But I always wondered...

"Did you like him?" she asked me.

It took me a long minute to remember who "he" even was, but I nodded believing that's what she wanted me to do.

"Will likes him a lot, those two are pretty tight, like us," she explained. "And wouldn't it be great if the four of us could like, all get together and live together and be together? We could even raise our kids together!"

The things she said to me! She must have known how our doomed future gutted me, even then.

I knew there was no competing with Will Rowe -- that was his name back then, you see. Will was a farmer boy, sweet as pie and loyal as a dog. Lila told him to change his name to "Rose" because she wanted to be known as "Lila Rose" when they got married and moved to Whibley. I guess, looking back, this was when I also decided to marry Geoff and change my name too. Anything for Lila.

Later, or never at all, I remember thinking. I would tell her later when the time was right, or if the time was never right then I would learn to be content with whatever she wanted us to be: friends, neighbours, it didn't matter as long as I could orbit her world.

Can you imagine a more torturous way to live?

Part-way through the life I told myself I would be okay with, I needed a release, so I turned to writing, but one day Geoff had enough, he kicked me out, rightfully so!, because of course I went to Lila, and I told her, we kissed, but she looked so horrified after that I knew it was--

"The end. I never spoke to her again," Caroline Murphy finished.

"So that's the Lila story," her son Allan puzzled.

"That's the Lila story," she nodded.