"So we need to book a venue for the wedding, sort out the catering, a wedding car, band, invitations...we need to draw up a guest list and send out the invitations...I need to get measured for a dress..."
"Suzy, I'm in the middle of eating breakfast!" said Neil. "You called me in here, in between mouthfuls, because you said it was an emergency"
"If we want a Summertime wedding we have to start planning now, not later, not manana: Breakfast or no breakfast" said Suzy, earnestly.
"General Westmoreland could do with you on his staff!" said Neil, taking another bite of toast.
"You'd never find him complaining about breakfast when there's more important things for him to do. So here's a list of venues and wedding services...you call them and ask for availability around June and July."
"Sir! Yes Sir!" saluted Neil as he finished his toast. "Now with your permission, Sir, I request to use the bathroom."
"Silly!" said Suzy, giving him a gentle slap on the arm. Neil went to the bathroom but as he flushed the toilet a leak suddenly sprang up."
"Oh great...add 'find a plumber' to my growing list of tasks" he thought. "However...I can show Madam that I can be handy around the house: Do the manly tasks." He thought with a wry grin.
"Just coming through...nothing to worry about" he said, dashing from the bathroom to the cupboard under the sink in the kitchen. He grabbed a tool bag and dashed back. Suzy briefly looked up from her note book to see Neil streaking past but had no idea what he was doing.
"Right....what to do, what to do?" Neil said to himself. The truth is, he had no idea what he was doing. Fortunately he had a handyman book his father had given to him so he looked up "leaky toilet" in it and guessed that the problem was a broken washer letting the water pour through.
Outside the bathroom, Suzy was trying to practice her guitar. She had in mind a couple of songs that she wanted played at the wedding and wanted to play them through to see which one she preferred for the song list.
But her practice was being disturbed by what she could hear coming from the bathroom: Loud, metallic banging noises punctuated by a lot of shouting. BANG! BANG! BANG! "OWW!" BANG! BANG! BANG! "SON OF A BITCH!" BANG! BANG! BANG! "OWW!"
Then the noise stopped, the door opened and Neil staggered out. "There, I've fixed the toilet" he mumbled.
"Fixed it? It sounded like you were smashing it to smithereens" said Suzy.
"Well, you know with a tricky job like that you can't do things in half measures" he replied, trying to sound like an expert in plumbing. "Oww-owwww!" he said, clutching his lower back.
"What's the matter?" said Suzy, putting down her guitar and rushing to his side.
"Pulled some muscles in there...I had to really crouch down to get to the U-bend and then I stood up too quickly...hey, are you smiling?" he said, looking sternly at Suzy.
"Oh no...not at all" said Suzy, suddenly looking serious but thinking Neil was adorably dorky with pretending to be some kind of handyman who, instead, strained some muscles. "Now does it hurt...here?" she said, gently placing her hand on his back.
"Hmmm, yes. That's exactly the spot" he said.
"Well, let's sit down together and I'll give you a massage" she said.
"That's what I was hoping you'd say" he replied.
"You're welcome...and thanks for fixing the toilet. I appreciate your help. It's like we're a married couple already"
"Alright...give me the list of things to do and I'll make a start" said Neil. Once he saw Suzy hand him not a one page list, but an entire notebook filled with wedding ideas, he was taken aback.
"Is there a volume two?" he joked.
"Maybe..." said Suzy with a wry smile.
They both headed off to work. Neil had two 4 hour shifts with 4 hours in between them so he arrived back home at lunchtime. He'd made lunch and then a few phone calls for wedding venues...two were available on the preferred dates: Newcrest Chapel and Myshuno Meadows. Neil booked appointments to go and visit them in person.
After that, he found a book of Suzy's that was lying on a coffee table so he picked it up and browsed through it. It was a history of Sim City and he found some interesting information that he didn't know about previously: That the Goth family arrived in the country from Europe in the 1750s, that the Landgraabs were descended from an old Dutch naval dynasty and first emigrated to America in 1810. The Fengs were latecomers: Victor's parents setting in Sim City in 1920. The book told of various political struggles and deals struck between the Landgraabs and the Fengs over the years.
Neil read on a bit more and then he suddenly shut the book. "Wait!" he thought. "That part doesn't make sense!" He looked up a section in the index and went to the relevant page. "Just as I thought...we've assumed the wrong thing all along! I must tell Suzy!" and with that he shut the book again and went to the phone to call her office. The polite secretary at Hey Wow magazine told him that she was in a meeting and couldn't be disturbed. Frustrated, Neil hung up and checked the book again...there was mention of the old Willow Creek tree; first planted in 1880 but no one knows by whom...one day it wasn't there and one day it was a sapling that grew to full size in a matter of months, not years. Neil went to check it out again.
"Now why would a history book single out one tree in a relatively small and obscure suburb? Hmmm" he thought on this more and more. He tried to find the opening Suzy found but today it was invisible. Another oddity about this tree and mysterious history of the city.
He couldn't hang around any longer; he had another shift in a few minutes so Neil went home, changed into his work shirt and waited around, hoping to catch Suzy and tell her his thoughts about what he'd found. Alas, he could wait no longer and headed off for work...minutes later, she arrived home: They had missed each other by only 5 minutes.
Had he managed to stay longer, he would have seen that she was upset and angry. At Hey, Wow magazine a big advertiser had decided not to renew their contract with the magazine. They claimed the publication didn't promote a "healthy" lifestyle for young people and that it wasn't even relevant to the youth scene anymore. The news came out of nowhere, there were no warning signs and it left a huge hole in the revenue of the magazine. Staff and editors were shocked and tried to figure out why this advertiser pulled out: Suzy suspected the sinister hand of the Landgraabs in all this. Suzy felt like venting...what she needed right now was to either punch something, hard, or else get rid of the stress...she chose the latter.
"Ugh...why did I have to find that strange page in a random book in the first place?" she thought to herself. "Why did I allow myself to become wrapped up in the Landgraab's dirty business?"
The citrus scented bath did the work, however, and the tension gradually eased as she relaxed.
Time was marching on and she wanted to get back home but after getting dressed she spotted Alan Cuffe getting ready for a massage. He waved to her and signalled her to come over to speak with him.
"Suzy...how's my favourite fashion journalist?" he said.
"Well...a lot better for a bit of spa treatment I can tell you" she replied.
"You know, I heard about your biggest advertiser pulling out of Hey, Wow. That's a huge blow" he said, cutting straight to the point.
"Word gets around" she said.
"Indeed it does. But not what I'm about to tell you: I don't want to see Hey, Wow going under because the Landgraabs are being petty so I'm going to buy advertising space to cover the hole in your magazine's budget. But that's hush-hush at this stage"
"Wow...that's good news, but why would you want to do that? I thought you were friends with the Landgraabs" she asked.
"I am" he replied in a flash. "To a point. You know people have me pigeonholed as this peddler of smut, that I have orgies, exploit women and have no principles."
"Do you?" asked Suzy, boldly.
Cuffe let out a small laugh. "No one who works for me is ever forced to do anything they don't wish to. I'm a libertine and a pleasure seeker and I won't deny that my parties can get a bit....racy. But anyone who attends is there because they want to be. No, the principle here is bigger than titillation or mere hedonism: I believe in a free press...what they're doing to you and your magazine now they once tried to do to me...heck, they're still trying to. I don't want anyone to use their power to silence their critics. Geoffrey...yes, I play tennis with him occasionally and will be at some of the same social events as him and Nancy but they're thin skinned and think they own this town. They only mostly own it, but they don't own you or me. That's why I'm helping you out."
"I appreciate that, Alan" Suzy said. "Well, all of us at the magazine will."
"Remember; this is hush-hush. Only you and your boss will know about this." he cautioned.
Those were welcoming, and sobering, words that Suzy took with her on the way home as way of comfort.
As soon as she got home, the telephone rang. Upon answering it she noticed that it was her boss at work calling.
"Suzy...I know today's staff meeting was arduous but I have some good news for you: You've been promoted. Jill was put off by the negative publicity about our difficulties and has defected to Smogue...I want you to take over from her at leading features"
The news was a shot in the arm: Despite her pessimism, things for her had turned around today. She felt better and was in a better shape when Neil came home.
"Hey, guess what?" said Suzy to Neil as he entered the house.
"No idea...but if you tell me your good news I'll tell you mine" he replied.
"I got a promotion!" she said.
"Oh really, so did I! Wow, in sync. Well congratulations but I have other information that you'll be interested in: I was doing some research and I have this idea: The Triangle of Power that runs the city? We've thought it was the Landgraabs, Fengs and Goths but hear this....I don't think the Goths are part of it at all! I need to do some more research but it's someone else other than them!"
"So now you're involved as much as I am?" Suzy said folding her arms; impressed by her man.
"To have and to hold" he replied.
