Homeless in Sunset Valley (Chapter One; Part One)"
The Worm Turns"
“What do you mean, you’re gonna live with that McIrish tramp?” Mayumi screamed at her son. Haruo winced. It had always been like this since he was very young. Anytime that he did anything that rubbed his mother’s sensibilities the wrong way, she exploded on him. “Her mother is a paparazzi that writes trash for that two bit rag…”
https://i.imgur.com/tIZHgsF.jpg
...but his mother calling his girlfriend a tramp was a bit too much and slagging his girlfriend’s mother was a no-go zone for Haruo. Fiona McIrish had been more of a mother to him (when he was over at River’s house), than Mayumi had ever been. Mayumi had always been a pompous, prideful piece of work – with no self-redeeming qualities as a mother or as a human being. She was dedicated to making her son’s life a living hell and reveled in it. As a teacher, she was nothing but tyrannical. From what he could see, living with no roof over his head would be preferable to staying in a house with that despotic parent. He began working plans in his head of how to escape.
https://i.imgur.com/8KbxXXN.jpg
Haruo kept his silence; he’d long-learned that even uttering a single peep while Mayumi was ranting would elicit another three hours of denunciations and he was tired of it. When Mayumi was finally winded enough, turning around with a final huff and a “You’d better really think about it. If you marry that thing you will no longer be welcome in this house...” he whirled and left the room, taking care to not slam the door when he headed into his room or that would be another three hours of ranting about how ungrateful he was
for not tolerating Mayumi’s airs and suppositions.
https://i.imgur.com/i3HnvK8.jpg
He was in Grade 12, his senior year. River was in her junior year, a Pisces born in 1971 – which meant that Haruo was older than her by 9 months as he was a Gemini (born in June 1970).
https://i.imgur.com/e5jwuje.jpg
River was his life. She’d been a friend from the time they’d first laid eyes on each other in kindergarten – in fact, they’d grown up together; played together outside of school, after-school or during the holidays (during school hours, one didn’t really associate with kids from other grades other than your own) from Grade 1 to Grade 6. As they grew older, they grew even closer and started dating, much to Mayumi’s aversion to the fact that her son and
that tramp were seen together as an item.
https://i.imgur.com/8DPdsvb.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/IOdtgH8.jpg
River had been exceedingly surprised to find out that her boyfriend of three years got down on one knee and proposed to her. It had never crossed her mind that he was that enamoured of her that he would link his life to hers and walk life’s path with her.
https://i.imgur.com/Xojriaa.jpg
“You’ve picked a good man…” Fiona had told her daughter. “I hope he never gives reason to break your heart…” she left the
like your father out. They both knew all too well how River’s
biological donor had left Fiona in the lurch when she was pregnant with River.
https://i.imgur.com/snBTsNY.jpghttps://i.imgur.com/ueayBYj.jpg
“He loves me…” River had responded to her mother. It was a simple assertion, but in it held a tidal wave of hope...and fear and her mother, attuned to that psychological wavelength knew in her heart that she hoped that River would never, ever feel the heartache that Caeden had perpetrated on her.
Homeless in Sunset Valley (Chapter One; Part Two)"The Worm Turns"
Haruo left his parents’ house that night
burning bridges vowing never to return; it would prove to be hard on his father who he loved very much, but the simple fact was that it was a choice. His father could choose to support his wife who was hell-bent on beating her son down, or he could leave her. But Haruo was not going to stay and have his willpower extinguished to the point where desperation breeds desperate measures. This was how he was going to deal with the cards that life dealt him. If it meant the streets then so be it.
https://i.imgur.com/XEocU3C.jpghttps://i.imgur.com/KmgT9N9.jpg
There was other bad news. River’s mother’s house was full up with Molly and Sandi living there so there was no way that Fiona had room for another. And River...if anything was going to stand by her fiancé – if he was going to have to live outdoors in the elements (thank goodness that it was springtime with warming weather) so was she – she was not going to stand there comfortable in her own bed while he suffered alone. Fiona couldn’t dissuade her nor did she as she knew just how deep the affairs of the heart ran and she also knew that with summer impending; winter having ended, the last of the snow melting...so they had enough time to gather together enough money to hopefully buy a bigger property and build something substantial before the onset of next winter...
https://i.imgur.com/vHm7B8b.jpg
...so with Fiona’s blessing, a tent that Fiona managed to scrounge up and a couple hundred dollars, there they ended up with at least something to cover themselves with. So they spent Sunday night to Monday living in a tent. And Monday was a holiday so Haruo was going to have to do what he could to scrounge together enough for them to eat. Haruo was adamant that the §280 that Fiona managed to scrape together from her own meager funds was going to be their rainy day fund and that anything that they ate was going to have to be either scrounged from the apple trees in Central Park or he would have to dumpster dive…
https://i.imgur.com/VIwZ2Ow.jpg
...and eventually sell the proceeds on consignment at the consignment store. Every so often he would run across a gemstone. The gem-cutter at the consignment store would only cut gemstones, and he had no way of smelting precious metals that he found in the dumpster. So unfortunately, he was going to have to save up for that §50,000 cutter that would also smelt. It would be an investment and jumpstart his business so far as being a purveyor of precious metals and gemstone cuts.
https://i.imgur.com/SpJBrQO.jpg
“Sweetheart, you know, if it wasn’t for the ever-present back-of-the-mind thought that
we’re homeless. It would be like a camp-out...y’know.” Haruo said, trying his best to appear nonchalant insofar as their dire situation.
https://i.imgur.com/uV0I3qJ.jpg
“I know…” River commented as she looked around at their little place where they’d holed up...right near Erin Kennedy’s house. Hopefully she wouldn’t call the cops on them for establishing a little hole-up. Erin was military, prim and proper and thus didn’t really condone anything that flouted the law. But hopefully she would take pity on a pair of homeless teenagers and just ignore them.
https://i.imgur.com/fMFdxQD.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/oPy9Tx7.jpg
Later that afternoon around five, thankfully after showering, he held his fiancée, “Yeah, I sold a stove I found, a couch and a spiny turtle. Dang thing nearly bit my finger. If he managed to, I’d be in the hospital. If it wasn’t for Provincial Medical, I’d be hooped with a severed finger to boot.”
https://i.imgur.com/5l3N0uf.jpg
“Well...try not to pick up
spiny turtles...or any turtle for that matter.” River smirked at him.
“I love you, you know that…” Haruo told her. “You keep me looking at the bright side of things.”
https://i.imgur.com/A5xsoaf.jpg
“Always. Sweetie…” River responded. “We’ll get through this...believe me, we will…”
(to be continued)
Author's notes: Since I'm writing a story as well as playing the game, this is going to be in short little tid-bits. So Chapter One is going to be quite long...and thus you're gonna get this in little bits.
Homeless in Sunset Valley (Chapter One; Part Three)
"
The Worm Turns"
Monday had brought them a veritable landslide of money. It was good fortune that his dumpster diving had turned up a number of valuable items. In one of the last things that Yasunobu was able to do for his son, after being henpecked by his wife to not do anything for that ungrateful brat he had turned up and helped him pile all that dumpster diving loot into the back of his pickup truck and hauled them over to consignment so that Haruo could sell them. With that money, Yasunobu convinced Haruo to put down money for a lot on the toney Summerhill Court. He could start with there as a nest once he and River were of age. “I can’t do anything more for you, son. This life is your road to walk now.”
https://i.imgur.com/3qemPnr.jpg
“I love you, Dad.” Haruo couldn’t say much more for the lump in his throat – it was more than he had expected his father to do and he knew that the only thing that Mayumi would let Yasunobu do was watch his son, whether the end would be for good or for ill. He wouldn’t be allowed to raise a finger to help his son in any case. Mayumi controlled the Chikamori family or at least Yasunobu with an iron fist. Helping his son had to be done on the sly. Haruo was eighteen, the age where they could make decisions on their own with no liability falling to their parents. Eighteen was the age where they could be kicked out of the house with no ramifications. River was seventeen, but out on her own at her own recognizance – she was standing by her fiancé and her Mama, Fiona, could only hope that she would remain alright.
https://i.imgur.com/pc8oQAO.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/yDgDDV7.jpg
What followed from utilizing the Conjuring Cauldron was a comedy of errors. Firstly, Haruo tried to conjure up something which resulted in scratching his head in confusion because nothing appeared. Of course he tried to do this while exhausted so he ended up passing out in the dirt. Then River tried and ended up conjuring up a tomato. It was finally after multiple tries that they managed to get their first gemstone; a quartz. Haruo was lucky enough on the sixth attempt, and two pass-outs to conjure up a Zebra Metalmark butterfly which he promptly took up to the Science Lab which paid him out §280 above the actual value of the butterfly which was a rare specimen.
https://i.imgur.com/SwDW9v0.jpg
Haruo took it up to the Elixir Shoppe (must have the medieval spelling there) or otherwise known as Aleister’s Elixirs and Sundries, and ran the Quartz through the gem cutter to produce two gemdust. One of which he was going to take to Granny Zsa Zsa the witch to turn into a nice skull and the other to place into the cauldron as a conjuring guide.
Haruo went dumpster-diving at the criminal hideout and gathered some garlic. Hopefully that would become useful later on.
https://i.imgur.com/q4V7UgW.jpg
Then they knew that school was still on the menu even if they were homeless...so they would have to keep clean and tidy so that the teachers didn’t suspect that they had no home. So not only would the gym be their washroom but also their laundry. And unfortunately, for Haruo and River, it would mean sneaking in and trying to get their ablutions done without being spotted by security.
Homeless in Sunset Valley (Chapter One; Part Four)"
The Worm Turns"
In the morning, Haruo got up at 5:30 and started selling the items that he’d managed to conjure up by heading up to Aleister’s first thing before school. That would have them in by the deadline which was 5PM when payout was for all the sales that happened that day. Haruo also made sure that he’d consigned the gemstones; the Septarian Nodule and the Smokey Quartz that he’d managed to ask Granny Zsa Zsa to turn into a skull. That would bring in a decent chunk of simoleons.
https://i.imgur.com/FmkwXGA.jpg
 = -x(x + 3)2(x - 2)2 : polynomial with real zeros hence with lowest degree.” She proclaimed triumphantly after about five minutes of calculating. <BR />https://i.imgur.com/272NaJf.jpg<BR />“Wait...what?!” Haruo looked even more confused; he looked over noticing Gunther Goth walking past them. “Man, to be rich with no problems like him…” he muttered under his breath. “Must be nice.” <BR /><BR />“Don’t be so certain about that…” River told him. “Many people are dealing with things that they don’t bring to the surface.” <BR />https://i.imgur.com/rwMtNCb.jpg)
https://i.imgur.com/UeJncFB.jpg
...and they finished off the day by heading back to their tent; River painting until bedtime, Haruo doing as much conjuring as was physically possible without the threat of a concussion by passing out.
https://i.imgur.com/xlJheJ8.jpg
...and then again it was time for bed.
(to be continued)
Homeless in Sunset Valley (Chapter One; Part Five)"
The Worm Turns"
https://i.imgur.com/VRgkOFn.jpg
 – which surprisingly did not feature anything Corsican other than the name. No Corsican Chicken, no Civet de Sanglier, no Canneloni Brocciu. So...what exactly was Corsican about it? When you can get a North American hamburger at the Corsican Bistro, that was a complete mind-bender. Did Jean Paul de Rocca-Serra, President of the Corsican National Assembly, know that the nom commercial of the restaurant in Sunset Valley was a complete facade and not even related to the island in the Mediterranean in the least? Who cares…it was a great place for food and being the only viable sit-down high-end restaurant in Sunset Valley, most flocked there for great foods, and great entertainment – imported fado singers from Portugal? For Watcher’s sake, at least try to bring in some Corsican folk singers.<BR />https://i.imgur.com/xBjTt6A.jpg<BR />Of course, the field trip got canceled at the last minute at the Corsican Bistro because of the municipal government needing a place to hold an impromptu “breakfast meeting” and well, since Haruo and River had been assigned homework already, they decided, might as well skip the rest of school, do homework then go do the things they had to do to survive. Such was life. Life throws monkey wrenches into the good things in life. And the lesson here: Persevere and just maybe you might get somewhere. <BR />https://i.imgur.com/rcuCy2a.jpg<BR />Meanwhile, Jonathan Erickson and Ricky Behrens (NPCs) were pondering their own lot in life and some of the decisions they’d made which had led them to this position: being carnival food hawkers at the Spring Festival in Central Park in Sunset Valley. <BR />https://i.imgur.com/UQEypME.jpg)
 decided that she was going to sit at a bench in the park and don a look that would curdle milk not to mention making all the decorated eggs in the park go rotten. Was there nothing that she was ever happy about? When she wasn’t chasing the faculty around, she was belly-aching about term reports never being filed on time. For Mayumi, it was an year-round b-fest when for the past five years, she was the quintessential Japanese (not Chinese)-Canadian tiger mom towards Haruo. <BR />https://i.imgur.com/kGvTpaW.jpg<BR />Luckily for River, she’d happily hidden herself away in the parking lot of the Everfresh Delights Local Fresh Produce market to do her homework to keep away from the prying eyes of Mayumi Chikamori. Of course, River McIrish was a red-head...and well, redheads are renowned for their temper and believe me, Mayumi would not want to mess with Haruo’s fiancée. <BR />https://i.imgur.com/fRqQxSl.jpg<BR />Poor Agnes looked as though she was bored with life. Being a papergirl for the local rag wasn’t the fun side-job that she’d thought it would be. And frankly, with the money she had, §238,747 in total, she could afford to sit back and relax. But then again, who really wants to hang around the house with a drowned ghost bemoaning his watery demise and deep-sixing any potential relationships to Davy Jones’ locker? Darn you, Erik. Get a life...oh sorry, that came out all wrong. <BR />https://i.imgur.com/txf0p3M.jpg<BR />Who allowed Mayumi to drive anyways? Did the licensing bureau know that Mayumi was a rolling violation to all standards of driving? Does Yasunobu know that Mayumi is driving his pickup truck? Has anyone called the RCMP yet? How long till she runs over a pedestrian? Maybe the Watcher is being too harsh on Mayumi’s driving skills; maybe she’s picked up some decent attentive safe-driving while being behind the wheel. <BR />https://i.imgur.com/cQe4ut6.jpg)
https://i.imgur.com/9NclWxF.jpg
Nope, she didn’t even bother with the Yield sign. This is a School Zone, Mayumi, 30km/hr...you know there could be children playing nearby. Mayumi: “hell no, just floor the accelerator. Less kids to have to worry about in the fall.” Can somebody please take Mayumi’s driver’s license away?
Homeless in Sunset Valley (Part Six)"
The Worm Turns"
Phil looked over at Haruo as he walked towards the door of the school, “Hey, Haruo, wasn’t there a field trip?”
https://i.imgur.com/EIz6U0S.jpg
“Nope...field-trip got canceled, so River and I have other stuff we need to do. But we’re getting our homework done first.”
“Skipping the rest of school?”
https://i.imgur.com/U247z1e.jpg
“They can’t say anything if River and I have our homework done before tomorrow.” Haruo’s rejoinder was smug.
https://i.imgur.com/b99JSpa.jpg
“Lucky you…” Phil muttered as he walked into the school, “I got six hours worth of homework tonight and a science project due...so I need to visit the Science Center this afternoon.”
There were seeds that needed collecting in order to start a garden; trees to harvest to start an orchard and various other odds and ends that needed accomplishing for Haruo and River so they knew just how busy they needed to be in order to get everything done, but for right now, getting their homework done was first priority. And it was a headache and a half to be able to get it done.
https://i.imgur.com/snpYzgk.jpg
. <BR />https://i.imgur.com/7WYjQmM.jpg)
https://i.imgur.com/D6RFQ1p.jpg
Meanwhile River thought that a change of scenery might help with doing her homework. So she went all the way down to the beach and sat down at the table to do her homework. It was now after three and she was still at it. Well, at least her classmates were probably starting their homework. Haruo meanwhile was long-since done his homework (Asian parental conditioning: “GET YOUR HOMEWORK DONE!!!! You want use FACEBOOK… well
FACE BOOK and STUDY!!!”) since 10:30PM and running around enjoying his day. If River didn’t love him, she’d hate him.
https://i.imgur.com/uVEjXNT.jpg
 and banana cream.<BR />https://i.imgur.com/DtjMf4G.jpg<BR />When he grabbed a taxi to head to the supermarket, he found out Candi Burney was the driver, “Hey, Candi? You’re my driver?”<BR />https://i.imgur.com/LdsoGFX.jpg<BR />“Yeah…”<BR /><BR />“So how long have you been doing taxi-driving since high-school graduation?” Haruo was inquisitive. <BR /><BR />“Two years so far. You graduating this year?” was the response. <BR /><BR />“Yeah...glad to be…” <BR /><BR />“It’s gets harder from here…” Candi informed him as she drove him over to the market. <BR />https://i.imgur.com/brvd3bk.jpg<BR />“I suspect so…” Haruo didn’t tell her of the fact that he had essentially become homeless and he was going to jog home from the market. “Good seeing you…” he said as he was dropped off. <BR /><BR />“You have a good one…” Candi replied. <BR /><BR />Selling the majority of the fish and honey nailed him some §445.00 so that brought a little money into the bank. River met up with him at the grocery store after finally completing her homework around 4:15 in the afternoon. They decided to go over to Hogan’s catching a cab again. <BR />https://i.imgur.com/79YYfxr.jpg)
https://i.imgur.com/3UmC038.jpg
After eating they opted to go to bed early since they wanted to get a head start on getting things done because there was school tomorrow.
Homeless in Sunset Valley (Chapter One; Part Seven)
"The Worm Turns"
Teen homelessness in Canada was a major problem with over 40,000 youth across Canada being in situations where they didn’t have a roof over their head. Likely more were threatened with the prospect of couch-surfing and being at risk of homelessness where they weren’t homeless yet, but could potentially be without a roof in the very near future. Haruo and River were in the former category where the only thing that was over their head was the fabric of their tent.
Sunrise in the summertime was an early 5:04 in the morning as the first rays of the early rising sun peered over the tops of the mountains and made it’s early morning appearance. Haruo was not a happy camper that morning and the earliness of the sun’s arrival made him even more cranky than he was already. “Confound it…” he muttered to himself as he woke up. “I hate mornings…” especially since he didn’t like having to get up out of a nice cosy sleep where he was enjoying dreams of fishing and having a nice comfy place to call home. Being rudely awakened at five was not his idea of a fun morning.
To top it all off, River didn’t wake up in a great mood either. She was a bit snippy that morning. School was at 7AM and she didn’t want to go. She huffed about having to wake up in the cold morning and neither of them wanted to leave their sleeping bags within the tent. But school was a requirement and if the truancy officer caught them they would have been in big trouble, so off they went, regardless of their desires.
https://i.imgur.com/FbPDWgU.jpg
12:45PM found them deep in study, in class. Haruo and River were still in grumpy moods, having their usual teen burst of angst, both coincidentally on the same day. And Haruo with a nasty case of hay-fever couldn’t help sneezing his head off, which annoyed the teachers to no end while trying to keep a quiet classroom for tests. Today since he was in a snippy mood, he wasn’t about to stifle his sneezes, which caused titters throughout the classroom. “Mr. Chikamori, could you please try not to disturb the class with your sneezing?”
“But teach, I got hay fever...and if I stifle my sneezes, I could end up blowing my ear-drums out…”
“Really?”
“Yeah, teach, from the pressure difference.”
“Well, try to stifle it any ways...you’re disturbing the rest of the class…”
Haruo muttered malevolently to himself.
At least I didn’t give into the urge to give VJ Alvi the beating of his life. It was unusual for Haruo to think those kinds of thoughts but his irritable mood as well as the combined discomfort from his hay-fever made his temper even more volatile than it usually was. So he was having a difficult time stifling his temper so he was darned if he was going to stifle his sneezes which were causing him no end of irritation.
If that wasn’t bad enough, next class was math. For crying out loud, will the hits never stop coming?
River on the other hand, contrary to her good nature, was incomparably irritable and telling fellow classmates to “Just shut up! I’ve got a headache!!! I don’t wanna hear you talk.”. Her answers to teachers were also curt and bordering on the limits of civility. Not to mention the fact that she wanted to do irreparable damage to the school by turning on all the taps in the female washrooms and letting them overflow. That might probably get her arrested along with resultant criminal charges for mischief and deliberate property damage.
“Ms. McIrish, what’s the square root of pi?”
“How would I know?” River asked in a Valley Girl tone, “Aren’t you the one that’s supposed to be teaching us?” That cracked the entire class up.
“River, that’s unspeakably rude. You’re supposed to be learning something in class…”
“Whatever…”
“Would you like to go to the principal’s office?”
“Yes, anything would be more interesting than here. I’d probably be more entertained watching paint dry.”
https://i.imgur.com/m6E1ezP.jpg
Understandably, 2:00 couldn’t come fast enough for the teachers. Having their two nicest students behaving so boorishly towards them was not their idea of a fun time being an educator. But of course, they understood that kids have off-days and can be the complete flip-side of their personalities. After all, they were teenagers. But that wasn’t really any excuse for being so rude.
https://i.imgur.com/42mbXP3.jpg
 and Haruo decided to hang around the park and sniff mushrooms; not those kind of mushrooms. Porcinis don’t give a hallucinogenic high. At least none that the Watcher knows about. Maybe they do if they’ve gone bad, like this one which happened to be of bad quality. Will you look at the size of that mushroom? It’s like a porcini on steroids.<BR /><BR />Friday wasn’t much better. Even though they woke up in better moods, the fact that they hadn’t done their homework due to their mutual snits had consequences. Their GPA plummeted which made the possibility of even getting to university be marred in jeopardy. So they went to school and suffered the wrath of their teachers who after yesterday’s exercise in obnoxiousness were not bound to let an indignity go unpunished and the lack of schoolwork being done promptly resulted in the hammer being brought down on both River’s and Haruo’s collective heads. <BR />https://i.imgur.com/pXMOCsf.jpg)
https://i.imgur.com/9KoUw8H.jpg
The end of Friday couldn’t come sooner for Haruo and River and they quickly escaped. River headed to the park to do her homework in the downpour and Haruo, not caring in the least, decided that he wouldn’t bother doing his homework, because since he was aging up to young adult; he wouldn’t be returning to school on Monday. So much for his GPA; besides he was going to try his hand at being a farmer. He decided to go fishing; everything’s better when you go fishing.
https://i.imgur.com/nzeXHmc.jpg
Saturday dawned just as pouring rain as the previous day had half-way through. Haruo did some conjuring in the morning and headed up to Aleister’s to drop off a few rainbow gems cuts. Then they went out to lunch. Since Haruo’s birthday party was supposed to start off at 5PM, they needed to get freshened up so they did over at the gym. The gym was undoubtedly the most convenient spot to go to in order to stay clean and have a place to do their “business” since it was right next door.
“River, sweetie, I have something I need to show you.” Haruo said as he held the door of the gym open, after they had their showers, so that they could head back to their little squat of a lot. “Let’s take a cab. We’re headed up to 15 Summerhill Court. Meet me there…”
River was blindsided, 15 Summerhill Court was a rich neighbourhood and they weren’t anywhere near that amount of money in net worth. According to Haruo’s last calculations; they were still wondering if they had enough to get their next meal. “Wait...what?”
Meet you there… you mean I’m supposed to take a cab by myself? River thought flabbergasted at the audacity. Well it wasn’t a deal-breaker on marrying him and curiosity won out.
https://i.imgur.com/bomjh3l.jpg
He’d already hopped a cab and it was moving away rapidly. River rolled her eyes in irritation as she flagged down another cab. The driver nodded as she read him out the address of her destination.
https://i.imgur.com/Hd0T1sh.jpg
As they were coming up the hill she could see a house tall and ornate in the background where an empty lot used to stand. Her jaw dropped open as the driver came to a stop. “There has to be some mistake. This is 15 Summerhill Court.”
https://i.imgur.com/xTTaPov.jpg
“No mistake, young ma’am… we are at 15 Summerhill Court.”
I am absolutely… there were no words to describe how she felt; there was shock and amazement. And she could see Haruo unlocking the ornate gate to the property.
How… words failed her at the moment. “Thank you…” Her mind still reeling, she regained enough faculty of her senses to acknowledge the driver as she stepped out the vehicle and crossed the street to the other side. She held her breath as she took in the view. The Altos and the Landgraabs were their neighbours now. In an irritating repetition; her question of
how... kept running through her head.
https://i.imgur.com/01bAmRV.jpg
“How are we able to afford this?” were the first words out of her mouth when she was able to speak again. They were on the bridge leading over to the front door of what she could see was a large mansion, it looked even bigger than the Altos, even bigger than the Landgraab mansion and a three car garage. “Aren’t the owners going to come back and boot us off the lot? What will we do then? We don’t have any place to go and this is illegal…” Haruo was looking at her with a look of amusement as she rambled on, half-panicked. “We can’t afford this…” she said finally.
https://i.imgur.com/hqYBGo5.jpg
“Shhhhh…”
“Don’t shush me…” she snapped irritated. “You bring me here to this place...you expect me to believe that we have enough to buy this place…”
https://i.imgur.com/pbmh2RW.jpg
Haruo just finally stuck the bank-book in front of her face… “Honey...read this…” he said. River looked at the digits on the page of the bank-book as her jaw dropped open. There were 6 numbers before the first decimal point. She barely heard him say “I just got a call from the bank saying that our current balance is now §729,595.00. The rainbow gems that I cut this morning? All of them sold.” he paused looking out at the flowing stream into the fountain… “My greatest fear with all the sh** my mother put me through was to lose the roof over my head; to have nowhere to turn, nowhere to call home. With you beside me, that fear grew to include you; us losing the roof over our head.” He turned to look at her, “Do you understand? Now with what we have...we no longer have to fear…my mother can no longer touch us.” This was why he’d worked. School didn’t teach entrepreneurship; it came from oneself.
"Now...come on inside and let me show you exactly what we own now..."
https://i.imgur.com/i95bU4Q.jpg
River's jaw dropped open when he opened the door and ushered her inside.
