The Riverview Review

A Night of Wonders

The first night back from China, there was a full moon. The zombies started to pull themselves out of the ground around the house. The family was walking up the path to the house when the concrete under Arcturus's feet began to shift with the emergence of a monster. "Oop," he said as he did a little sidestep to avoid it. A hand popped out of the ground, Emily casually kicked it and it rolled out into the yard. "Next time, try not buying a house built on a cemetery?," Betty said, raising her eyebrows.

*I am still not a fan of the zombies and the green light the full moon casts on the game, so I tried to speed through the night. I feel like I disable the full moon every time I play this game but it never takes.*

There were two consequences to fast-forwarding through the night

First, I noticed a crunching sound once I went back to regular speed. The garden had a few zombies in it, crouched over. I zoomed in and they were eating the plants. They had basically eaten everything by the time I noticed, including all the life fruit that I had used to make Arcturus come back to life. They had eaten the entire money tree too. There was no evidence of it left. They ate the stump and roots and then, I guess, planted grass in an act of kindness.

This dead dude got stuck on some weeds.

"Haha. What a dope!"

Arcturus had to personally ask each zombie to leave the property because there was no mass "stop eating my garden" option. By the time the sun rose, there was only one "monster" left. He stood up and turned to Arcturus. It was Chris Schafer, an adult human man. He had taken advantage of the zombie invasion to get a free dinner! "Oh, gimme a break, buddy!", Arcturus complained. Chris wiped his mouth and walked away. "Tree eater!" Arcturus shouted after him. He turned back to the garden with his hands on his hips, stared at the mess for a bit, and then shouted again down the street, "You owe me big time for this, Chris!"

The other consequence to fast forwarding through the night was that Emily came out of her bedroom the next morning as a teenager. She hadn't even told anyone she was ready to grow up. Arcturus was like, "Are you the new babysitter?" but when he looked into those crossed eyes, he knew. The jig was up. Nice try, Emily.

Emily's imaginary doll friend had also grown up. When exactly does this imaginary friend go away? Well, never, I don't think. In fact, I looked it up and he can, as I had once hoped, be turned into a real person. This is certainly the direction I will be heading with this character.

"Emily. Emily. Emily! Stop eating. We have things to do."

Getting to work on this immediately after breakfast, Emily went into Arcturus's secret lab and started making potions. It will take her a while to find the right one but she will get there. She will eventually fall in love with this imaginary doll man and have a baby with it. I can promise you that.

"You better be making that potion right, Emily!"

After some of the chemicals she was mixing exploded, Emily went down to her dad's former place of employment (Doo Peas Corporate Tower!) to take some chemistry classes and maybe apply for an internship as a scientist. She was so committed to this potion she was trying to make that she didn't bother to straighten her hair, clean her face or put on new clothes after the explosion blew them off of her.

Emily: "I'm here for some classes."
Secretary: "Ok, I can help you." *dials 9-1-1*

Meanwhile, back at home, Betty had set a fire by leaving some food in the oven. Arcturus ran into the room and pulled at his hair a bit. Classic. The fire alarm was blaring. Betty crouched down and screamed. When all was nearly lost, the doll walked in to put it out. What did Betty and Arcturus see when this was happening? Is the doll willing himself into existence without Emily's help?