Chapter 1.5 Silas - Life moves on

Eventually Silas had enough and cleaned up the house. It wasn't easy taking care of two child, a house, and working full time to make ends meet. It had 9 been years since Marilyn died and his kids were sprouting like bean stalks. Wyatt was just turned 12 and Evelyn was 9 going on 30. If it weren't for those two, Silas wouldn't even be sure any time had passed at all. 

Evelyn was smart. Way too smart. She was already smarter than all the adults on the island combined, which both made Silas proud, and also very afraid. He only hoped that she followed in her mother's footsteps instead of his own.

Lily was a frequent guest, coming over almost every day to entertain the kids, cook, and occasionally clean while Silas was at work. Even though their own relationship had always been strained, Lily adored her grandkids, it helped that neither of them had a mean bone in their bodies. 

With her frequent visits, Silas's relationship with his parents gradually improved. They could even be in the same room as each other without fighting! Usually. They kept conversations light, talking about the weather, how the kids were doing, how the crops were coming along, how Dana Swiftstream passed away, leaving a very heartbroken Jonathan.

 Wyatt loved his grandma, she listened to all his stories about school. He wanted to be a doctor when he grew up! Lily was the only person who didn't laugh at him. Wyatt knew he wasn't as smart as Evelyn, but he still knew a lot! He could name every healing herb on the island even! They wouldn't laugh at him anymore when he was the one saving everyone!

While Silas made dinner, grandma Lily played her guitar to entertain Wyatt (Evelyn usually stayed at school well into the evening, studying or being tutored in one thing or another). Because they didn't have a lot of money, there wasn't very much to do at home. Wyatt loved when grandma came over, her music completely enraptured Wyatt.

As a way of saying thank you to his mother, Silas usually made her favorite: salad. Simple, easy, and most importantly, cheap.

"Wyatt, do you know where your sister is?" Silas asked.
"Umm...I think she's visiting Grandma Keely."
"For?"
"I dunno, Evelyn said something about grandma Keely having some books or something that she wanted to read."
"Do you know when she'll be home?"
"Nope!"
Evelyn had found her mother's stash of old notebooks, written by some old lady named Olivia. There was a lot of stuff written in these, stuff Evelyn had never even heard of before! She spent almost every afternoon at grandma Keely's studying these books.

It was pretty common for Wyatt to sleep in bed with his father when he had nightmares. He'd dream of monsters and water and someone was always crying. Silas knew they were the memories of a toddler that had witnessed his mother dying and always let Wyatt sleep with him whenever he had one of these nightmares.

Despite being an only parent, and a broke one at that, life was good in the Rivers household. His children were clothed, fed, happy, and growing every second. Sometimes Silas could even forget that he was alone. Sometimes.

The bar was still doing well and Tristan Greenwood still helped out from time to time (and was usually his only customer during the day). Silas used the old man as a guinea pig for his newest experiments, which Tristan was only happy to oblige. The man sure did love his drinking, especially after Dana, his ex-wife, passed away.

One day, Tyler Swiftstream came into the bar for the first time in years, with a bone to pick with Silas. Or anyone, really, Silas just happened to be there.

"Your son Wyatt is a coward!" Tyler yelled at Silas.
"Excuse me?"
"You heard me! He's a coward!"

Silas really could not help himself.

And of course Tyler picked a fight with the wrong man, because he was handed his ass twice over.

But, Silas had grown. He wasn't as angry as he used to be, the fact that he hadn't punch Brandon Swiftstream (now Wisp) in his stupid face the second he walked in the door was proof of that. And he definitely still had a very stupid face.

Silas even listened as Brandon described the obviously exaggerated fish he caught the other day. And not wanting to embarrass the guy by calling him out right in front of his wife, Eva Wisp, Silas just silently nodded along and poured himself another drink.

Evelyn and Wyatt were the best of friends. Even though Wyatt was 3 years older than her, Evelyn saw him as her little brother. She let him win almost every game they played together.

And Wyatt really loved to win at tag. He also thought he was really good at it.

Now that the kids were old enough, Silas let them hang around the bar after school most days. They really liked to dance and the bar had so much more room than at home! They could smustle as much as they wanted to or even do cartwheels! They'd dance until they tired themselves out, which Silas was only too happy to let them do. Two exhausted children were easier to get into bed than two energetic ones.

After dancing the afternoon away, they'd all come home, the kids picking up some books, Silas making dinner. Silas was so proud that they both loved to read. Evelyn was reading some weird notebook she'd found and Wyatt was studying medical herbs. Silas was just glad they preferred to read over terrorizing the neighbors like he'd done as a kid. It would have only been karma coming around to bite him in the ass if his children had inherited anything from him. Instead, karma decided Silas had suffered enough, and left him alone.

His kids even cleaned up after themselves! Something Silas NEVER did at their age.

Evelyn, having sensed her father's money woes, would bust out her lemonade stand any time they had visitors. Today was Wyatt's 13th birthday, so she was taking advantage of all these poor suckers. She made 10 whole dollars! She promptly hid it in one of her father's jackets pockets for him to find later.

After the kids went to sleep, Silas invited everyone over to the bar for a round of free drinks

That's when a very drunk Eva Wisp decided to get revenge for Silas beating her husband up that one time almost a decade ago.

Tristan only paused briefly in his tirade against how good the young people of this island have it nowadays to watch as Silas tried to get Eva off him without hurting her.

He only just managed to push her off and back onto her seat, leaving a mess for him to clean up tomorrow.

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Silas decided one day to visit his father, Nathan. His parents were getting old and Silas wanted to make up for lost time before it was too late.

"Hey dad."
"Hey kiddo, what brings you around?"
"I just wanted to catch up. Wyatt is a good kid and all but....you know, hormones." Nathan chuckled a little, remembering all the hell Silas had put him and Lily through. Seemed like just yesterday that he was worried about Silas ending up at the bottom of a volcano, and here he is today, a responsible young man with two children that he raised himself. It had been 13 years now since Marilyn passed away, and Nathan was still sad for his son.
"Ahh, teenagers. You've got it easy, son. Imagine having you as a teenager!"
"Yeah...sorry about all that. Really. I don't know how you and mom put up with me. At least Wyatt and Evelyn got their mother's good naturedness. Well, actually, Evelyn is a little chip off the old block, honestly. She's not nearly as bad as I was, but she still has a bit of a temper. Paranoid, too. I think she's too smart for her own good."
"Paranoid of what?"
"Mostly fire. She's convinced the entire house is going to go up in flames. Even checks the fireplaces at least 3 times a day."
"She must get that from Lily."

Paranoid Evelyn was. At the rate she was going, she'd have gray hair by the time she turned 14! Today she had a good reason for worrying, her brother was having one of his weird mood swings. Evelyn didn't understand what was wrong with him. One minute he'd be quietly reading a book, the next he'd be stomping around the house, yelling at no one. Daddy said Wyatt was going through puberty, which Evelyn then went to read about. It sounded really unpleasant and she really hoped she didn't get puberty. Wyatt told her she was next. This caused her to worry. She checked the fireplaces 5 times that night just to get some kind of relief.

"Ev, stop that! You're so annoying!"
"I'm just making sure we wont burn to death, Wyatt!"
"We aren't going to burn to death!"
"Yeah, because I checked the fireplaces!"
"UGH!"

Wyatt had a good reason to yell. He seemed to be the only one that noticed the ghost of his mother floating around. He first spotted her a few weeks ago and he finally got the courage to talk to her. She told him she loves him and his sister and asked about how their lives were going. He spent most nights filling her in on life after she passed away. Truth be told, Wyatt was angry that she left them. On the one hand, he was happy to be able to talk to her, on the other hand, he was mad at her for leaving, and even madder still that he was the only one that could talk to her.

"Mom, why can't you talk to dad?" he'd asked her one night.
"I don't know. I don't even know how I'm here."
"I read in a book once that sometimes ghosts couldn't like, move on or whatever, if they had unfinished business. Do you have any of that?"
"Well, I guess that would be you guys. I'd always wanted a family. Maybe this is my way of getting what I'd always wanted." She'd answered.
"But then why can only I see you?"
"Maybe you're the only one that believes in ghosts."

Wyatt wasn't sure what to make of that answer.

One morning Wyatt decided to make his mom something to eat, because he wondered if they could even eat solid food. Turns out they can!

It also turned out that Wyatt couldn't even make a simple salad, and that ghosts could indeed throw up. At least his ghost mom cleaned up after herself.

It was routine now that the entire family read together every night after dinner. Most days Silas barely saw his kids, especially now that Silas was beginning to date. Evelyn still stayed after school to get tutored or stayed over at Keely's house to look over those old notebooks. Silas cherished this time with his children, it wouldn't be too much longer before they both got old enough to move out and Silas wanted to make their childhood last just a little bit longer.

Chapter 1.6

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Author's Notes: I'm trying to make chapters a little longer but kids and teens aren't really all that much fun in such an empty world. In case it wasn't obvious, Evelyn is my heir. I really couldn't decide on which one to choose so I took a sneak peak at what they're going to look like as adults, and Evelyn turns out so so pretty that I couldn't not choose her. She's hot-headed like her dad, a genius, eccentric, and neurotic. I randomly rolled everything except for eccentric, which I gave to both kids because I rolled Inventor for the next career roll. I don't remember what else Wyatt is. Silas is hot-headed, mean spirited, loves the outdoors, artistic?, and I think handy. I'm probably wrong, it's been so long since I looked at his traits.