Chapter Thirty-Four (Part Two)

Melody decided she needed some alone time after the shareholders' meeting to recharge her batteries. She took a jog down to Hunter's Park, to the pond where she and her father had spent their last quiet moments together. Tossing a few loose pebbles into the water, she watched the ripples spread outward and disappear. She thought a lot about Stephen, about what he'd told her before he died...
They had spent all day at Hunter's Park, just the pair of them -- no distractions, no one approaching them, no babies crying, no yelling and nagging, nothing. They'd cast their own lines, hardly looking at each other but feeling each other's presence just the same. "You know, Melody, I don't want to tell your mother this -- I don't want to worry her -- but I've been having heart issues for some time."
"Father!" shouted Melody in disbelief.
"My doctor says that if I avoid stress and follow a healthy regimen I should prolong my life." Stephen then changed the subject. "Listen, sweetheart, about the toy shop -- I know you don't really like toys and toymaking, and I know you've never set foot in the shop. That fact disappoints me, but it's the choice you've made. I still think you'd be a great toymaker, the way you like to take apart things. I had just bought your new computer and I passed by your room and there you were, with a screwdriver in your hands, taking it apart. I had to laugh, I couldn't help myself. It wouldn't be so funny if that Alienware hadn't been special-ordered and it didn't cost 4000 simoleans."
"I've always liked to try to figure out how things worked."
"While I was on the phone with Alienware, I had to explain to them that I'd bought the computer for my daughter and that her curiosity had caused her to take it apart. I know about your fascination with machines. You've been that way since you were little. That's why I wasn't surprised when you asked for the robot crafter."
"I'd seen one and read up on what could be done with them. I decided I wanted to learn how to do that."
Stephen gazed fondly at his daughter. "I know about the situation with the jack-in-the-box and about what happened when our store Inner Child opened. Melody, dear, there's more to making a toy than a piece of wood and a hammer. I'm pretty sure that if you tried it, you'd enjoy it. It even involves painting, and I know you like to do that." Stephen took a deep breath. "I want you to promise me something. In the event of my death, I'd like you to keep Tinker Toys in the Tinker family."
Snapping back to the present time, Melody realized that she had never truly had time to grieve Stephen's passing. No matter what the DNA test results would ultimately reveal, she felt a connection to him. Right then and there, she buried her face in her hands and sobbed. The fact that he was now dead had altered the fortunes and priorities of her whole family -- herself included. Her kid sister, Harmony, would never know her father -- the kind, loving, generous man she knew.

The next morning, Melody awoke to the smells of Wanda's fresh-brewed coffee and omelettes. "Hey, sweetheart," Wanda smiled, looking up at her daughter. "I see you've been rummaging through Stephen's things again."
"Yeah, this was one of his shirts. Kinda reminds me of him."
"You know," Wanda said while flipping the omelettes over, "he'd be so proud of you, the way you took over that meeting room yesterday."
"You were there?" Melody asked, somewhat surprised by this revelation. "I thought you'd gone to pick up Harmony."
"Harmony stayed after school for ballet classes, so I stuck around the meeting room."
After a brief pause, Melody stopped Wanda for a second. "Mom -- " she began in a hushed, halting voice, with the sepia-toned Polaroid of a young man with glasses, dreadlocks, and glasses, "who is this?"
Wanda nearly burnt her omelettes. "What? Where did you find that?"
"In the box with daddy's stuff."
"Oh, that's sweet little Billy -- my beloved little brother."
Melody's eyes bulged in disbelief. "Mom! You never told me you had a brother! And he kinda looks like me!" "There's a lot of things I haven't told you, dear. I wanted to wait until you were old enough to know."
"I think I'm old enough to know now."
Wanda managed a chuckle. "Yeah, you sure are, I guess. If you're old enough to positively take over a boardroom with Malcolm Landgraab in it, then you're old enough to hear about your uncle Billy."
After serving breakfast, Wanda proceeded to tell Melody everything about her younger brother, William Zarubin. Of the two of them, William, or 'Billy' was unquestionably their parents' favorite -- and no wonder. He was their shining light, the overachiever, the golden boy. He made straight A's without trying. "Meanwhile, I -- I just struggled," Wanda revealed, "I did everything I could do to try to outdo him, but nothing I did helped. In fact, everything I did made things worse."
Like his niece would do many years later, William -- he hated being called Billy, even though Wanda insisted on it -- got into Academie Le Tour early due to his excellent grades.
"What happened to him?" Melody asked, her curiosity growing with every word Wanda uttered.
"After graduation from ALT Billy got a job as a chemist at Sim City General. His bosses were pushing for a deadline for an antidote to a specific poison, and he rushed it through, testing it on himself -- " Wanda struggled to fight through tears.
"So Uncle Billy was a scientist?"
Wanda took a deep breath. "Yes, he was. The lab was shut down, there was a huge investigation and the whole project was scrapped."
Melody shook her head. Wanda wiped her tears long enough to recognize that the wheels were churning in her oldest daughter's mind. "Do you know what poison they were trying to make an antidote for?"
"Melody!" This was why Wanda worried. This was the source of her sleepless nights, nearly every night, since her daughter left for college. And this was why she was afraid to let her go. She didn't know when the next time she saw her oldest daughter would be her last.

The Tinkers' late-model grey sedan pulled onto the curb beside Aldrich Dorm. "Melody," Wanda called to the tall, lithe girl, "could you give me a hand?"
"Sure, mom," Melody replied obediently as she walked toward the trunk of the car.
Wanda cut an authoritative presence as she carried boxes toward the entrance of the dormitory. She was playing the part of the wealthy widow and playing it well. Other dormies leaned forth to see what was happening. "Is that Melody's mother?" they whispered to each other. "Funny, but they look nothing alike."
Wanda shot them a glance, and their whispering immediately stopped.

Melody kept a low profile -- or at least as low a profile as she could -- as she returned to the campus grind and the routine she so loved. She was back to waking up at the crack of dawn to jog, going to classes, then the library, then the lab, then the observatory. She was glad to know that the reporters who had camped around the dormitory had moved on to some other story, so she could return to something resembling normal student activities. She glided within her air-tight inner circle, trying to maintain the privacy she cherished.
"Stop playing him like a marionette!" warned Jessica, pointing her finger as Melody entered the secret society house.
"What are you talking about?" asked Melody, wondering what she did to get accosted in this manner.
Jessica shook her head. "You know darn well what I'm talking about. There's only so much he can take, and keeping him dangling there isn't helping matters at all." Jessica stood as close as she dared, their noses almost touching and feeling Melody's hot breath on her chin.
"How the heck do you know how Chester feels?" Melody asked in an accusatory tone, feeling the bile rise from her throat.
"I want to know," Jessica said slowly, emphasizing every word that came from her mouth, "do you love him or not?"
"It's none of your business how I feel about him."
"Actually, Melody, you're wrong. It is my business because he's my boyfriend. And because I've seen him look at you in a way he'll never look at me."
Melody was puzzled. "What do you mean?"
"He follows you around like a little puppy dog, he takes your orders, bends over backwards, is available at your every beck and call, and does he complain? No! Whenever we're talking, it's always Mel this and Mel that. Do you know how hurtful that is? Especially coming out of the mouth of the man you love? Or do you even care?" Jessica heaved a heavy, deep sigh. "There's no way I can compare to the great and glorious Melody Tinker. I don't have a billion and a half IQ, but what I do have is love and lots of it. I love Chester with all my heart and soul, but I know that he doesn't love me back. There's a piece of him that I cannot take for myself, and that's the piece that loves you."
Tears started flowing down Jessica's face as her voice failed her. Wiping her hand angrily across her wet, flushed cheeks, she turned and ran out of the room, away from the ice princess herself.
Melody was left alone in the darkened room, forced to ponder Jessica's words. She buried her head in her hands, and if one came close, they could hear a couple of loose sobs. What was happening here? Her whole perfect world was crumbling around her ears. A young woman who prided herself on knowing things suddenly didn't know anything at all.