Two days ago I left the twins with Evan and went to see mum. I needed to check up on her since I’ve been receiving odd phone calls from her recently. She keeps calling with this idea’s she’s seeing locals that she met years ago yet haven’t grown up. At first she thought it they were extremely close resemblances until she saw an old friend of mine I had stay once.



I sat down with mum while dad played with his train set. She was upset over Pippin dying, saying the grim reaper came and took him away. Threw his stick up to heaven where Pippin went to fetch it and never came back so you can see how concerned I was with mums mental health.

‘Rhianon will you leave that please. I’ve told you I can buy you a new one.’



Mum and Dad never went out much, preferring to stick with their friends. They rarely went out for groceries as they stocked the fridge themselves with their homegrown produce. She never understood how she could cook a roast turkey out of tomatoes and a cucumber. I guess I never really gave it much thought.

‘Ryder, come on, let’s go! Your dad is pulling up now.’



How many times do I have to tell my kids the same thing over and over?

So anyway when I was talking with mum she saw her neighbour walk by. Samantha Ottoma. Mum said she hadn’t seen her since before I left for Uni even though she lived right next door. Mum thought she must have moved a long time ago.

Walking outside we saw Samantha was pregnant. Mum said she wondered how many kids she had now as she was pregnant last time she saw her.
Mum walked up to say Hello.



‘Samantha!’ She said. ‘How are you? I see you’re pregnant again’
Samantha replied ‘No, no. Same baby’
Mum didn’t understand, neither did I? Samantha went on to confirm this was the same pregnancy from when her and mum last saw eachother…….17 years ago.



After everything Mum had seen in the past few months, this was too much. She fell to the ground and well, went a bit loony.
She sat there on the pavement in a heap, giggling like a crazy woman.



I asked Samantha if this was some sort of sick joke and that she shouldn’t mess with the mind of an elderly person. Samantha assured me she was in fact, not joking and that this was the very same baby she was pregnant with the last time she saw my mother.
I was floored, not as literally as mum was but even so.

‘OK Rhianon, Ryder. It’s time to go….
….Rhianon, come onnnnn’



‘How many times do I need to repeat myself to you two? You’re Nan and Pop are waiting, let’s go already’

Right, where was I?
Right….I helped mum inside and then I called Brandon. When Brandon arrived I filled him in on the recent bizarre events including what I had just witnessed myself before checking on mum.
‘I told you’ She said to us. ‘I told you this place was loony!’



I had to agree. We all did. Especially Brandon after the cow plant incident.
I asked mum what we could do. She said she’d had enough and wants to go home.
‘Home’ Brandon and I looked at eachother.
Home, where mum grew up. Where it is sunny on both sides of the road. Where strangers don’t walk into your house and eat your food and swing from your fridge. Where coffee doesn’t give you the jitters after only one cup and it doesn’t cost half a day’s pay.



Where it doesn’t take people a full hour to wee and the majority of adults don’t wet themselves. Where you don’t get 5am phone calls every time you take an interest in a new hobby. Where people don’t have to stand up to kiss each other goodbye. Where pregnancies last longer than 3 days and you have the option to have your baby at a hospital.

The list went on.

‘Promise me’ Mum said. ‘That you won’t raise my lovely grandchildren in this place. Where they can’t take a day off school without losing a grade and you can take them to a doctor when they get sick’

So that’s why we’re here today.



To say goodbye and leave this place for good. Some things will be missed of course but only some. It will be a whole new world for Brandon and I, Evan and the twins too, but mum has always been there for us and we’d like to return the favour. I’m actually looking forward to this other world mum and dad have told us so much about. And if we don’t like it after a few years we can always come back.



But I find that unlikely.
Goodbye Sim city and thanks for having us. It may be a long time, if ever that we see you again.