Chapter Three: Happy New Year?
Just a couple of days after Winterfest, it happened to be New Year's Eve. When Joshua and Emily came back from a trip out...
"Hey, Joshua, who's that on the front porch?" Emily asked.
Joshua's eyes widened. He recognised that blue shirt...
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"Oh no! Dad!" Joshua exclaimed. "Oh my Plumbob, I can't believe it..."
"Oh, Josh," Emily said sadly.
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Then the girls all came home from their Scouts meeting.
"It's Grandpa!" Hazel wailed, immediately cottoning on.
The Grim Reaper was impassive. He was very used to seeing families weeping and wailing over the loss of their loved ones; one became desensitised to it over time.
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That evening, Joshua invited over his old nanny, Jessica.
"Oh, honey, I'm so sorry about your dad," she said.
"Yeah, he died right on our front porch," Joshua sighed. "At least he's with my mother now."
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Later, the family all gathered in front of the television to watch the New Year countdown. They were a little subdued; it felt odd to be celebrating so soon after a death in the family. Hopefully the coming days and weeks would bring healing.
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The following day, Hazel held a meeting of her Kidz Club, which Clara and Katie had recently been accepted into. The younger twins engaged in a Voidcritter battle.
"Ha ha ha! My Wisp is so going to beat your Nymphaea!" Clara cried.
"Oh yeah? Take THAT!" Katie replied, thumping the controls.
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To cheer the girls up, Emily and Joshua decided to take them for an overnight stay in Selvadorada. Joshua celebrated his birthday there. The passage of time was starting to hit home after the past week. Hopefully he would stick around long enough to meet his grandchildren... provided the girls wanted to become parents, of course.
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"It's fun here in Selvadorada," Lydia said. "It's a shame we're not here longer."
"Yeah, hopefully we can come here again in the future," Clara replied. "It feels weird being off school, too."
"I heard there was loads of cool exploring to do here," Hazel remarked. "Some boy at school was talking about a temple."
"Oooh," Katie said. "I'll look that up when we get home."
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Sadly, Death was not yet done with the family. In the days after the family came home, the Grim Reaper came for Cloudy and Clover. Animal-lover Emily was devastated, and immediately purchased a new llama, Curly, and a new cow, Buttercup.
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