Many years ago Adam Slade came to Sunset Valley with a vision. Not for him a 'run-of-the-mill' life, instead he spent all his savings on a large plot of land where he, and his successors, would build a family estate that would be a landmark across the three towns. Now his grandchildren Cleo and Carl, carry that vision forward.
In this chapter Carl and Cleo and Pascal add occupants to 15 Summer Hill Court ...
Time moves on for the Slade family, Brandon has left to work on his historical research, but Cleo and Carl, and Cleo's partner Pascal, have managed to get their lives back on track and keep their grandfather's dream of a Slade dynasty alive.
As a fire-fighter Cleo had plenty of to occupy her time, from simple household fires to rescuing people trapped inside burning buildings.
Indeed, her commitment to the job had so impressed the colleagues that she was rapidly promoted and given the option to have a direct response link added to her home.
Pascal found the fertile soil of Sunset Valley ideal for growing a great variety of fruit and vegetables, perhaps even more so than his home town of Champs Les Sims.
One of the first things Pascal did after moving into Summer Hill was to turn Adam Slade's original garden into a feature of the property, ideal for growing the most excellent produce.
Realising his own natural aptitude for gardening Pascal registers as an officially certified supplier with the town council.
It was something that meant a great deal to Cleo, that Pascal was following in her grandfather's footsteps.
Since leaving school Carl had struggled somewhat to find a career that he would be happy with. He couldn't face working in an office, and certainly didn't have his sister’s bravery.
It was while browsing a forum site for one of his favourite games that the idea struck him – he could be a writer! He had already created a few online stories on the forum and received lots of good feedback from other players. Often, however, he felt constrained by the limitations of the game itself, as each story progressed he kept finding ideas bubbling into his head ... perhaps it was time to go beyond the computer game and create something totally unique.
So, before he had time to realise how big a project he was taking on, Carl got straight to work on what would be his first novel, "The Tatum Terror".
Rather unexpectedly Carl found that spending hours at home, alone, crafting his novel, meant that he started to enjoy getting out and meeting people that much more than he used to when he was at school.
In addition to long-standing friends like Jaron Messer, he had started seeing more of Malia Norwood. It was Malia who introduced Carl to the "La Place on the Bay". It was a bit livelier than Carl was really comfortable with but Malia had a way of focussing his attention so that he seldom noticed the other people in the bar.
-- + --
Inevitably there came that moment, however, when the family missed having their parents still with them. A moment of great joy, but one tinged with sadness for those not there to share it with them ...
A few months after convincing Pascal to move in to Summer Hill, Cleo gave birth to a beautiful baby girl.
With a nod to Pascal's French origins, they choose a good historical name for a girl who would, herself, become part of history. Before leaving the hospital they had named her Danielle ... though for some weeks she was more often referred to simply as 'my beautiful baby'.
Having a baby in the house did mean disrupted sleep for everyone, but that was OK, Danielle was adorable.
She was such a happy baby and Cleo just loved holding her as she gurgled with delight.
Danielle was all that Pascal could have hoped for, he had a wonderful partner in Cleo and now they had the most gorgeous baby girl. His life in Champs Les Sims had been good, he had been content, but now, here, his life was joyous.
And for Carl, who frequently found adult relationships difficult to navigate, having someone whose love was uncomplicated and unconditional, was wonderful. When Cleo or Pascal had to leave the house for work he loved stepping in to take care of his little niece.
With Cleo's birthday fast approaching, Carl and Pascal worked together to organise a very special and fun day for the family. Not just celebrating Cleo's big birthday but also to show off Danielle to their friends and family.
The met. office forecast was for a week of really warm weather so they decided on a 'pool party' theme.
In addition to the water slide installed for Carl's last birthday, Pascal organised the installation of a hot tub from which they could relax and enjoy the view over the bay and Carl sent out invites to their many friends in the Valley.
And so, Cleo's big day arrived. Pascal got the day off to a fine start by presenting Cleo with a wonderful bouquet of flowers and the promise of a day to remember.
It was going to be a wonderful day, with baby Danielle joining them on the patio, Cleo was already getting emotional thinking about how good her life had become.
As the guests started to arrive, Carl took on the role of greeter. It wasn't something he was entirely comfortable with but at least he knew most of the visitors so was managing to keep his nerves under control.
Of course, it helped that he had made sure some of his closest friends, such as Jaron, would be there too. Jaron had some good news of his own to share – he had recently been taken on at Barney's Personal Style Parlour as a trainee tattoo artist.
While Carl was busy catching up with his old school friend, another guest slipped past him to join the party at the back of the house ...
"Garett. What are you doing here?"
"Well, Carl invited me, of course ..."
"Oh," Cleo was somewhat taken aback, "I didn't realise you knew Carl."
"Yes, I'm surprised he didn't tell you. We met just after your mother passed away, we'd just chat about 'stuff' and it seemed to help him having someone to talk to. Maybe, at the time, he wanted to keep those feelings to himself. Anyway, great to see you again, looks like a wicked party."
"Thanks Garett, Carl and Pascal have done a great job organising."
"Yep, Pascal is a good guy ... ahh, to think, once upon a time, this could have been us ... but I'm really pleased that he makes you happy"
Dropping to a whisper, but retaining a clear firmness in her voice, Cleo implored Garett, "yes, about that, please don't say anything to Pascal he doesn't know about that, and he mustn't"
Garett nodded his understanding, "Of course, that was then, it's all in the past and we can keep it there."
“Garett!” a voice calls out above the hubbub of the party guests.
Carl rushes up to Garett "I didn't know if you'd come."
"How could I not, I haven't seen you since you graduated and, of course, I had to be here to celebrate your sister's birthday. Anyway, tell me, what have you been getting up to."
Falling straight back into the easy familiarity that they had from the first time they meant on the beach all those months ago, Carl brought Garett up to speed on the family news and his first steps as an author.
For Cleo one of the best things about her party was that Pascal had arranged for his parents to come over to Sunset Valley. Although his father had visited several times his mother, Edith, had never actually travelled outside of France.
Cleo loved finally being able to show her mother-in-law around this beautiful part of Sunset Valley and, of course, show her the latest addition to the family.
It wasn't just family who loved seeing Danielle, many of Cleo's old friends, such as Nick Bartlett, joined in the celebrations.
More than just a birthday party this was a day for reconnecting with many of the good friends they had around the Valley.
Pascal's father, Gerard, was delighted that his son had made such a success of his life so far. Sure, he wasn't the high-flying executive that his father was, but he had a wonderful wife, a beautiful baby daughter, a lovely home and had already established himself in the life of the town.
So, sad though he was that Pascal had left their home town, Gerard was nonetheless very proud of the man his son had become.
Although he thought he knew all of Cleo and Carl's friends, there was one guest that Pascal was not familiar with and, when he asked, Cleo just described him as "Garett, he's really a friend of Carl's, though he went to my school so I know him from back then."
There was one point in the afternoon, when Pascal noticed that Garett had separated from the main activity of the party to play with Danielle.
To Pascal, there was something in Garett's body language that was a little ... unusual. At first glance he was holding her just as anyone would but there was an something a little more intense about the way Garett was looking at the baby.
"Oh, baby girl, your life is going to be so ... interesting. I will surely love watching you grow up and I know you will remember my name." Garett whispered to the infant.
"Garett? Hello, I don't think we've been introduced." Pascal interrupted him.
"No, indeed, it is my pleasure to meet you at last." Garett held Pascal's gaze as he firmly shook the host's hand.
"So, Cleo tells me you're an old school friend?"
"Well, yes, though, to be honest I haven't seen her much lately, but I've kept up to date through the newspaper reports." Garett explained with a broad smile, "I've actually seen more of Carl recently, we became friends after his mother passed away – we both enjoyed spending time at the beach."
"Yes, yes, that was a difficult time for the family ..." Pascal remembered.
"But now you have a lovely baby girl, I'm really pleased for you both, she's adorable." Garett handed Danielle back to her father as he heard his name being called, "but now it seems it is my turn on the slide!"
As the sun began to set, Pascal brought out the cake that Carl had created especially for his sister.
With much whooping and cheering, Cleo's transition to a fully-fledged, 'official', adult was celebrated by all the people she cared about.
"So, Carl, you made this cake yourself? It's delicious." Edith Morel commented.
"Thank you, yes, it's a bit of a family thing, my grandad was an excellent cook and dad was pretty good too – kind of a male Slade thing."
"Now that is good thing, sadly Pascal never quite got the hang of cooking, at all!" she laughed.
"Mother!" Pascal snapped with mock indignation, "If it wasn't for the quality produce from my garden, Carl's skills would be wasted! But, yes, he is a fine cook, and done us proud with this cake."
Carl looked across the lawn to see his sister and Garett. He had noticed that Cleo had not spent much time with Garett during the party. Which was a little odd, as Garett had told him that they had been good friends.
Even now, although she was smiling and laughing, Cleo seemed a little uncomfortable. Perhaps there had been some disagreement he didn't know about?
With the guests all gone, Pascal, Cleo and Carl, spent a little time in the new tub to unwind after the hectic celebrations. Pascal took the opportunity to ask Carl more about Garett.
"So, Carl, it was good to meet Garett at last, he must have been a good friend to have after your mother ..."
"Yeah, he was. I just bumped into him one day, we had a game of chess and got talking. It was good."
"I am sure, it was a difficult time. Cleo had me to help ..."
"Yeah, I suppose, I was in a weird place. J was there an' all, but maybe it was that Garett didn't know me so he was easier to talk to."
"Though he knew Cleo of course?" Pascal noted.
"That was years ago, back in school." Cleo interjected, "Well, this has been a great day, but I am shattered, time for bed I think. And thank you both so much for making it such a special day."
"And thank you, for Danielle." Cleo whispered as she held Pascal in a tight embrace.
-- + --
The following day, as he was clearing up the remains of the party, Carl got a phone call. It was Garett, sounding very agitated, distraught. "Carl, are you free? Can I see you now?"
Concerned that his friend sounded so upset, Carl invited him over immediately.
"Carl, I have a massive favour to ask of you. Did you see the news this morning? About the meteor shower?"
"No, I haven't had the news on at all today, what is it?"
"There was a huge meteor shower last night over the other side of the valley and one, a huge rock, hit my house!"
Carl could hardly believe it, he thought he had seen some lights in the sky when he went to bed, but nothing that seemed too unusual.
"I was lucky, I got out unhurt, but there's a lot of damage and the fire department said the whole house is unsafe so I have to move out."
"That’s terrible. What are you going to do, where are you going to stay?"
"That's just it," said Garett, "I've no family round here and I just can't afford to stay in a hotel ... I was hoping I might be able to stay with you guys? Just for a short while, while the house is made safe and I get the insurance sorted."
Carl didn't hesitate, "Of course you can! We've got plenty of room, and I'm sure Cleo and Pascal will be happy to help."
"Carl, thank you so much, you don't know what this means to me. I'll have a word with Pascal as soon as he's back, make sure he's OK, it would really help me out. Thank you."
Chapter 18: News for Garett
