The Errol Flynn Family Ch. 6 Pt. 1 Oldest Daughter

Yvette Flynn Wilson
Errol and Olivia Flynn's Oldest Daughter

It was time for Errol and Olivia's only grandchild Simone to celebrate her birthday. At least, the only grandchild so far. Her nursery was converted to a child’s bedroom and basically, she was ready to go. Her daddy did the honors helping her blow out the candles. (In Loriland the move from toddler to child is almost instantaneous). Simone favored music and, like her mother, games. She also liked to exercise to salsa CD's. Meanwhile, Yvette was starting to think of having another child. Her kid sister, Melanie, was pregnant and it made Yvette long to have a baby before it was too late. Simone was all in favor of this, but Mark had reservations; mostly related to whether or not they had room.

But Yvette had a solution for this.

“We could convert the studio into another bedroom.”

“Where will I paint, where will we be able to put the exercise machine?" Mark asked.

Yvette smiled triumphantly,

“That's easy: we'll use your building. You never use the tables except for the desk when you make out your invoices, Mark, and we can keep the washroom as it is.”

Mark always got so dirty while working on the cars he restored he didn’t even like to come in the house to wash up. So they had built a small bathroom in one corner with a toilet, sink and small shower.

Yvette went on,

“We could keep the bathroom and your desk in the corner. I think your industrial sewing machine would be okay in there, too. Probably even your bookshelf and armchair can stay. All we’d have to do then is put some extra windows in on the other side of the room.”

Mark looked dubious, he had a real fondness for his man-cave, or rather, man-house. However, he knew he should at least consider her plan. His auto restoration business was doing very well, he had customers lined up to bring in their derelict but inherently valuable cars. The extra driveway was lined up with cars waiting to be picked up when their owners made the last payment and picked up them up. Through the years only two had tried to skip out on their last payment and never even showed up to get the car. When that had happened Mark was eventually able to sell the car himself for quite a profit. He said to Yvette now,

“Let me go over to the building tomorrow morning and take a look (my last look, I have a feeling). I’ll see what we can do. Maybe.”

Several days later Yvette had a cooking mishap in the kitchen that almost became a tragedy. Cooking was Yvette’s specialty since she was a teenager and she still enjoyed it. While making several meals to put up for later, inexplicably, the food burned and suddenly burst into flames. Yvette was so near to the stove she was caught in the fire. Fortunately the alarm had gone off immediately and in seconds a fireman was putting out the fire. Miraculously Yvette was unharmed and recovered her nerves enough to serve lunch to her family an hour later. She used leftovers though; she was still too upset and fearful to go near the oven yet.

Mark cuddled with Yvette that night an extra long time realizing he had nearly lost her.  

Summer was turning to fall. Soon the leaves would turn, but on this day of Indian summer, the sun was out and the cicadas still sang at top volume.

    

Simone had her new friend Loni Faye Hammond over to play one day after school. She stayed through supper and into early evening when Yvette drove her home.

Simone sometimes asked Yvette to help with her homework when necessary, although the child’s grades were excellent. She liked to do her homework early in the morning rather than after school when she was tired and cranky. It was time alone with her mother and she never could have enough of that.

Sometimes Simone played on her father’s executive putting green. She enjoyed it so much she thought of becoming a professional golfer someday.

Simone loved living in the red farmhouse; they had a big yard, a pond and a pool and it was near enough to the ocean to hear the waves. It was a farmhouse with no real farm, admittedly, unless you counted Mark’s small greenhouse. Weekends were the most fun of all. One Saturday in the early morning it began to rain, crushing her hope of swimming, but by noon it was sunny again. Yvette went fishing, but Mark and Simone jumped in the pool and played Marco Polo.

Yvette could hear them laughing and splashing and finally could stand it no more. She had to join them. Anyway, by now she had good fresh fish for supper now and plenty more to go in the freezer.

That night at dinner, while they ate some of the fish Yvette had caught, Mark brought up the idea of having Yvette’s sisters over the next day, which was Sunday.

Lalique, Melanie and Gareth came over for lunch. Afterward they played the Llama game and Simone won a round.

“Okay,” Mark said, “Time for me to take a picture of all three of you sisters. How often are all of you in the same room at the same time?”

They had to admit Mark was right, they didn't get together as often as they should. Considering Pleasantview was such a small town you'd think they would spend more time with each other. They did frequently run into each other while shopping for clothes or groceries, but those meetings were mostly of short duration. And they should be visiting their parents more often, too. Of course, Melanie was living at home, but Lalique and Yvette needed to get over there more frequently.

“Dad and Mother aren’t getting any younger,” Yvette cautioned them.

Simone loved both her aunts, but was much closer to Melanie. Lalique was the beautiful aunt that she had on a lofty pedestal, but Melanie was the cute, young and energetic aunt who often teased and hugged Simone. She was just getting to know her new uncle, who was handsome and loved games even more than Simone and Yvette. Already she liked him though. Melanie, Gareth and Lalique stayed for supper as well and then left for home.

The next day was a school day of course. Almost the only time Simone watched TV was while waiting for the bus each morning. Maddie Candeloro came home with Simone that night, they both loved to draw and that night they showed off their finished projects to Yvette. Supper was spaghetti and meatballs, then the girls played Red Hands until it was time for Maddie to go home.

The next day Simone was off to school bright and early. Yvette spent her day at the sewing machine most of the time. She made many of Simone’s clothes. After school Simone was playing outside when she spied Kirstie Burb walking down the sidewalk. In fact she was on her way to make a surprise visit to Simone. They played video games and told secrets. Simone's secret was that her Aunt Melanie was probably going to have a baby soon. She'd heard her mother talking about it on the phone to Grandmere (that was the name used by Olivia, it was French for Grandmother). Her other grandmother (who lived out of state) she called Grandma. Then it was time for Kirstie to go and Yvette walked her home.

With fall came changes; Yvette still hope to get pregnant and so they converted the rooms. The studio was now in the little building and to his surprise Mark actually liked it better. Simone still slept in her old room as they redecorated the old studio to be her new bedroom.

Yvette began sewing winter clothes for Simone now that the fall was here and there was a nip in the air. Simone practiced her piano and dream of becoming a concert pianist some day (unless she became a professional golfer first…).

Aunt Melanie was pregnant and the family awaited the new grandchild.

There was an element of expectancy in the air; as though something yet unknown was going to happen but had not occurred yet. Something unknown but good.

Next update: The Errol Flynn Family Ch. 6 Pt. 2 Middle Daughter