"Chro-knee-vack" sounded out Hannah as she and Joey looked at the screen.
"Sounds weird," said Joey.
"Yeah, but look, it looks like a Sims game."
"Sims game?"
"Make a character and then play their lives out. Let's see about these two over here..."
Hannah selected two characters who were rather close to the edge of the scanning perimeters as far as the IPAD was concerned, located in a different house from the center of the screen. When Hannah clicked on them, information about "Alicia Fuentes" and "Zek Kartal" popped up.
"That looks like our teacher, Ms. Fuentes!" exclaimed Joey.
"Pregnant belly too... look there's even information on the baby inside her," said Hannah amazed that the baby inside of the Ms. Fuentes character was named "Cristobal Fuentes-Kartal".
"I don't like that Ms. Fuentes will be leaving next week," said Joey as he did his characteristic stretch of his slightly big shirt over his knees to calm himself down. Ms. Fuentes had announced that she would be leaving for the remainder of the school year, which was only two months at this point, but it had caused Joey to nearly have a meltdown in anxiety over what the long-term substitute teacher might be like.
"Well... if what we're looking at here is anything, she doesn't have to go, if she's already had the baby," said Hannah, figuring that perhaps she could help Joey through this fear by playing pretend with the game.
"In fact, we could make Cristo... Cristo... Cris, a friend of ours by making him our age, then Ms. Fuentes won't have to go and we get a new friend... how does that sound?" asked Hannah.
"Okay..." agreed Joey.
Hannah immediately fudged around with the age of Cristobal, inputting that he should be 6 years old, just like Joey and her, and that he should be good friends with them both and the rest of their friends. The game asked a series of boring questions that didn't really make sense to Hannah, but she just clicked on the highlighted yes or no button like yes alter reality, yes don't age anyone else up but Cris, no don't make other users unaware of changes.
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In Zek's house, Alicia and Zek were in the midst of foreplay as Alicia's belly began to grow, rings appearing on their fingers as they went from engaged to married, the house changing as Alicia's own decorative style came into fruition, and then her belly immediately deflated and both Zek and Alicia became too tired from sleepless nights to continue doing anything beyond spooning. Elsewhere in the house, baby Cristobal, clad in just a diaper and a t-shirt with a jaguar on it had appeared in a newly decorated nursery looking up at a mobile of jungle animals before falling asleep himself. Changes continued through Cristobal's nap as he left infancy for toddlerhood, the crib eventually disappearing for a child's bed with side railings to keep him from rolling onto the floor--as Cristobal was a very active sleeper his parents had learned.
About the time that Cristobal had left the terrible twos, Alicia and Zek seemed to have recovered from their exhaustion and began once again to engage in foreplay, though in a more hurried manner so that their curious three year old who they'd just put down for a nap wouldn't catch them.
Diapers were replaced with training pants and then underoos with sesame street characters as potty training was reacquired by Cristobal.
Quickly and quietly, Alicia mounted Zek for a quick one while their four year old son slept for what was turning out to be shorter and shorter naps. Both did their best to get as much pleasure from the experience, while being as quiet as they could so as to not wake Cristobal. Alicia sighing with relief in unison with Zek as they both came together not long thereafter--they'd been practicing for several years now and knew just how to handle each other now. Unbeknownst to either, Alicia becoming pregnant once again in that instant.
At five, Cristobal was largely laying down in his room, half asleep and half awake, he didn't really feel the need to take naps as much anymore, not when he had to go to Kindergarten all day now, and especially not with his little baby brother, Ilyas always crying in the house, keeping his parents and him up at all hours day and night.
Six year old Cristobal was eager to get changed and go out and join his friends who were being babysat by Jeff, it especially would let him get away from having to watch as his annoying baby brother Ilyas was playing with his old toys. With deft practice, Cristobal slipped into a pair of soccer shorts, socks, and sneakers, running out the door while yelling that he was going over to Tommy's house play with his friends, passing his annoying baby brother looked longingly from his play pen as Cristobal ran out of the house.
Zek and Alicia meanwhile relaxed in post coital bliss. Their personal histories of the past six or seven years having been rewritten so that they'd met when younger on that cruise at 26 and 24. Alicia had gotten pregnant from their escapades on the cruise, and after some coaxing from her sister, she'd called Zek, and he'd done the responsible thing for once in his life without a second thought and married Alicia. Now, at 33 and 31, they were parents to two little boys, Alicia continued to teach, and Zek was a white collar professional downtown--his older sister's connections having secured an interview for him that had left Zek and Alicia rather comfortable in life that Zek no longer had to tap his trust fund.
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Joey meanwhile felt weird... a moment ago he'd been scared about Ms. Fuentes leaving the classroom in order to have a baby, but now memories about Mrs. Fuentes-Katral having two kids, one of whom was very good friends with him and Hannah began flooding his mind. Hannah and Cristobal were especially close as they played soccer together, but Cristobal and Joey's friendship revolved more around their shared interest in dogs--and Cristobal was always coming over to play with Joey and Barney. Cristobal was trying to convince his parents to get a puppy like Barney.
Hannah meanwhile felt just as odd as her memories shifted and she realized that the game on the IPAD was real, not just some silly game. What was Max doing with a game like this? And what other changes could they make to make the neighborhood more fun?