Gen 1 Ch 11: Afterlife: The Proof

Arthur thoroughly enjoyed watching his children grow up. They got along so well too! Bismuth had started taking quite an interest in everything extraterrestrial - probably because of his big sister's obsession with finding the origin of her own DNA. But even Beryllium seemed to think that the t-shirt was taking things a bit far.

It made Arthur very proud to see how quickly Bismuth mastered the game of chess. It was during one of these game sessions that he received a strange phone call.

Apparently scientists at the local research station had made a major breakthrough and needed Arthur's help. He was to go to the local cemetery to procure the remains of a recently deceased acquaintance of his. Still living by his grandfather's advice of seizing every opportunity, no matter what, Arthur reluctantly agreed.

With shaking knees, he made his way to the science lab.

When, after a couple of hours, he left the lab with an actual ghost by his side, he still could not wholly grasp the situation. This was by far the weirdest thing that had ever happened in his life, and that was saying a lot.

He was more than relieved when the ghost of Milly Pidgin announced that she did not intend to stay at his home with his family. Arthur gave her some money in exchange for the promise that his wife would never learn all that had happened today. He really did not want to imagine what Kaitlin would have done with this information.

Arthur watched in amazement as the ghost got into a car...

... and drove off toward the sunset.

The following days, Arthur cleared his mind of this strange incident by completely immersing himself in his work. When he had a little time between investigating crime scenes, he would scour the seedy outskirts of the city to expand his collection of metals.

He spent so much time with work and his hobbies, that even Kaitlin took notice of his absence. So one day she insisted that he meet her and the kids at the town's spring festival after work. She greeted him with a passionate kiss.

Then they watched their children having an absolute blast on the dance floor.

It was great to see even Bloom letting loose. He'd let himself be talked into getting his face painted by his little siblings and didn't seem embarrassed about it at all. Arthur was relieved to see his children lead such normal and carefree lives, despite being so obviously different from other Sims.

Broccoli seemed to be a real hit with the ladies - much unlike Arthur had been himself. Then again, he did take more after his mother. Broccoli had discovered his ability to charm Sims with "flower kisses", as he called them. Kaitlin had been fascinated and asked him to document his findings for her, being all scientist instead of mother figure again.

Arthur hoped that his son would find one nice girl to settle down with at some point though.

But for now Broccoli was more interested in exploring all his options. He enjoyed socializing with all sorts of different Sims.

Even if their signs of affection felt extremely awkward to a PlantSim sometimes.

When prom night rolled around, Broccoli was very excited as he showed Arthur his tuxedo. He didn't have a date - by choice of course - he wanted to see what opportunities the night would bring.

Bloom was considerably less excited about prom than his brother was, but he tore himself away from his video games regardless.
"After all you paid for that charisma class, dad! I need to put it to good use... I guess."

Kaitlin had even rented a limousine for the boys to go to prom in style!

While the teens were out, Arthur and Kaitlin did not forget to take the chance to spend some time in the children's tree house together.

Of course the boys didn't tell their parents all that happened on prom night (and neither did Kaitlin and Arthur tell them what they themselves had been up to), but from what Arthur gathered, Bloom had made quite an impression on one of Broccoli's female friends.

Surprisingly, Broccoli had less luck with the ladies. He was voted prom king, however, and proudly displayed his crown and prom photo below his scouting badges from when he was still a child. Oh, how time flew by, mused Arthur.

Kaitlin seemed to be feeling sentimental too, as she put up the photo they had taken on their family outing at the spring festival.
"Photos like this are a great way to document their development. They do grow up so quickly, don't they?"