Full Circle (Jerod's Third Tale - Part 1)

 

It was a typical evening in the house. I was busy doing the daddy thing. Checking on Toby, making sure the baby was sound asleep, dry and with a nicely full tummy. Lana, our little toddler was busy with her toys, but she wasn't going to stay that way for long. It was nearly 6 pm and time for Lana's favourite visitor to stop in.

Sure enough, there were three soft taps on the door followed by a louder one. Lana ran to the door, shrieking her delight. Her godfather, Ted Ginger, was stopping by for his evening visit.

As far as Lana is concerned, her godfather is the supplier of toys, tickles and fun. He does occasionally steal candy from her as well. You have to expect that from him, Ted is an evil guy and the head of the local branch of the Company. The Company is composed of thieves, cutthroats and thugs; in other words, the people that keep cops busy.

Oh, yeah, you might not have met me before either. My name is Jerod, most everyone calls me Shrimp. And I can respect that Ted is evil and his place of work. I'm evil and I was Ted's boss at one time.

Once his godfather duties were completed, Ted sat down for a quick chat.

"We need a time and place to talk, Shrimp."

"Hey, why not now?"

"Nearly time for me to get to work and I've got some papers that you'll need to sign. The import company has been set up for you."

"What? You've arranged it already?" It seems like only yesterday that Ted proposed my partial return to working in the Company. Not as a normal thief, thug or henchman though. As a specialist in setting up deals from various overseas suppliers. It's a longish story about how I managed to impress them once with my results. I have no idea if I could possible match that first success.

"Yes, it's all set up. And I have two tickets for France." France? Good, my lovely wife Tania will appreciate that. I'm just glad it's not Egypt. That last trip was nearly fatal for me. It did prove fatal for the person who tried to kill me. Fond as I am of travel, Egypt isn't currently high on my to-do list.

"Right, Red Rendezvous at about 3 tomorrow? It should be fairly dead that time of day."

"Sounds good. I'll buy the first round."

"You're on."

"How's the baby?"

"He's splendid. Growing like there is no tomorrow. But I just put him in the crib so I really don't want to disturb him now."

Ted left his respects for Tania and went off to work.

So where was my lovely wife? She's on maternity leave from the local orchestra but that doesn't stop her from playing her favourite instrument every time she has a chance. So she plays for tips all over town, and earns a reasonable amount every time she does. As far as I'm concerned, the main drawback is that she sometimes loses herself in the music too much. She doesn't notice the time until 1 in the morning or her fingers start bleeding.

 Tonight, it was only 10 when she came home. "Sweetheart, how was the crowd tonight?"

"About average. A couple of people are decent tippers and the rest just chill to the music."

"I have news."

"What news?"

"Ted. He tells me we'll be traveling to France soon."

"France? Paris?"

"I'm guessing it's not a city in France but I won't have the details until tomorrow."

"That sounds wonderful, but what about Lana and Toby?"

"I'll check but I think there are a few sitters in town who are willing to live in the home with infants and toddlers. You know their godfather will be checking on them. Or you could stay, it would keep you from worrying about them."

"No way, Mister. You are taking me with you, that was the deal."

"Tania, you do know that it might not be safe? If Ted is arranging the travel, it's not a simple holiday."

"Shrimp, I want to travel with you. I know there are risks, but I'd rather be there with you facing them. It's horrible finding out from Ted you are facing a suspected murderer."

"You found out?"

"It took a few days but I did. I never found out what happened though."

"Possibly because I never told a soul exactly what happened. It wasn't pretty."  Pushing a drugged person into croc infested waters was seriously not pretty. Tania started to open her mouth. "Sweetheart, don't ask. I'm not going to tell you either."

The next day, I wandered over to the Red Rendezvous while Tania watched over the kids. Keeping a secret meeting is interesting in a small town. You could meet up at some bench in a park away from town but if anyone at all spots it, it will look suspicious. Two guys meeting at a bar and chatting? Perfectly normal and happens all the time.

"Jerod, this round's on me. What are you having?"

"I'm easy. Whatever is cold, large and expensive." Ted returned to the table with a couple of drinks.

"Hope this will do. I don't drink often."

"So fill me in, what's up?"

"What makes you think something is up? You did say you'd be our foreign representative if we had a legit business as a cover."

"Come on, Ted. There has to be a reason for you to setup a business for me this fast. It wasn't even a month ago."

"Ok, you're right. Now that we have a specialist, namely you, the higher ups want to find out why the costs of supplies from France are increasing way too fast. The last couple of years have seen some very serious price hikes."

"That's it?"

"That's as much as we know. The local shipping agent just keeps increasing the bill with every shipment. We don't have any hint why. You are going over to get the prices back down to something reasonable. It was costing us about 200 a crate for each shipment just a little over 2 years ago. It's over 600 now and we barely make back our expenses."

"Right, so push it back to something less than 300?"

"The lower the better but anything less then 400 would be acceptable. You do have to sign this." Ted shoved a piece of paper my direction.

I read the page carefully.  I'd learned long ago that I should double check details before I commit officially to anything.

While I was reading, Ted continued, "You officially import goods. A small firm stores the crates in your shipping area. A few days later, the crates are bought at a slightly higher price and the crates disappear." I read the paper a second time but it was extremely straight forward. I scribbled my signature in three spots.

Ted laid some keys and a deed on the table. "Congratulations, you are the sole owner of 'Simtastic Imports' a company specialising in importing rare goods. It's a little building near the stadium. You have an employee, Howie Kernan who is the business manager. He doesn't know anything about Company involvement, everything that he receives about the business is complete legit."

"Me, the owner of a legit business. That's just weird."

"I suppose even a rogue like you has to try something legitimate someday," Ted said with a grin.

"I better ask, where are we going? Tania hopes Paris but I've warned her that's not likely."

"It's a village called Champs Les Sims. I've heard that it's a quaint little place but I've never been."

"And why did we have to discuss this here? It doesn't seem necessary for signing one little piece of paper."

Ted blushed. "Well, Lana doesn't like it if I'm not paying attention to her. I didn't want her to start throwing a tantrum if I talk to you for while."

"Ted, I'm stunned. We meet here so you won't upset my daughter?" I chuckled. "You must need some kids of your own, take the gloss off the experience so to speak."

"Well, really, yeah. It's the one thing you have that I envy. A proper family."

"Ted, how are things going with Gala anyway?"

"Well, we are engaged but there's no date set or anything."

"Dude, pick a day and do it. Marrying Tania was one of the two best decisions I ever made in my life." I grabbed the keys and the deed from the table. "Guess I'll drive over to my new business and have a look around. See you later."

"When you are ready, I'll bring over the tickets. And I have something else for you."

---------

Bonus pics

woah, dude, your head!

hold toddler and talk? Impossible!

Ted, did you want to advertise your occupation during a 'secret' meeting? Honestly.

They were being stubborn about both sitting and drinking at the same time.

Poor Jerod - over time he has had the weirdest set of housemates. Ted's been part of the family several times over. Dennis Racket was one back in his day. Dark Travis, Sophie, Amin and Merat all joined the household at various points in the last story. Jerod's about to get another temporary housemate in the next part. Fortunately, Sims really don't care about such things at all.