The world at large

Round 36: January 2043 (Summer)

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Clarke 2 household profile

Calvin and Aaron Clarke are 40, Amy is 8, Natalie is 6 and Curtis is 4. 
(James is 68, Madelyn is 63, Maia is 41, Ethan is 37, Willlow is 8, River is 6, Alex is 4 and Wren is 3)

Narrated by Aaron Clarke

Amy’s birthday is right after the new year, so we had a party for her here at home, with some of her school friends.

It was the first non-family party Calvin and I have done for one of the kids and it went pretty well.

We’re not in a hurry to do another one any time soon though we’re probably looking at another one in August, for Natalie.

Natalie didn’t even wait until the party was over to tell us she wanted one for her birthday. 

Curtis had a great time too, playing with the older kids, but I’m not sure yet if he’ll want a party. 

7 8 and 9 year-olds, plus at least one parent of each, plus Natalie and Curtis, was a whole lot of people to pack into our relatively small house and yard. 

But Amy really wanted a party this year and she had a great time. That was most important to us, at the end of the day. 

Amy’s party has been the only “big” event we’ve hosted here at the house over the school holidays. Everything else has been just us five or little one-on-one play dates.

I started a little vegetable garden this summer, so it’s been nice to just potter around with that while the kids are playing.

If Amy and Willow want to play together, Maia and Ethan will usually bring the whole family over and make a day of it instead. 

We might as well catch up ourselves, if we’re getting the kids together. 

It’s really worked out pretty well that our kids are all around the same age. Amy and Willow are best friends and River and Natalie are in the same class at school.

Wren is a little younger than Curtis but he still deigns to let her play with him.

Maia and Ethan are really laid-back and their kids are the same way. It makes for fairly peaceful afternoons. They never get into too much trouble. 

We adults have mostly been talking about Maia’s job lately. She’s thinking of giving up the events planning and just focusing on Rosa Lucida.

She can pretty much set her own hours there, plus she can prepare a lot of the floral arrangements at home but her day job is a lot more rigid.

Maia’s always been the kind of person who likes her freedom, so I can see her being happy with just the shop.

I still like working at the paper but Calvin is getting a bit restless lately. 

He was just inducted into the basketball Hall of Fame a few months ago and now, his entire job consists of just doing appearances. He does a few a week and the rest of his time is his. 

Some people would love that but Calvin is bored. He’s been talking about going into a new career or maybe starting a business. He hasn't got any solid ideas yet though. 

Whatever he wants to do, I'll be supportive of it. He's very cautious with finances, so he's not going to take on any massive risks. 

He's been talking to Dad about it and Dad came up with the idea of taking over Novak Motors, once Dad is ready to retire. He's always wanted to keep it in the family but to be honest, Ethan, Connor and I aren't really interested in running a business. Calvin taking over would be the next best thing. 

Calvin is quite enthusiastic about the idea, though he's still considering it. It would be a load off Dad's mind, that's for sure. 

Mum doesn’t understand why Dad doesn’t just retire entirely. She’d retire tomorrow, if she could. 

I can see Mum spending a lot more time with the grandkids once she’s done with working. She always talks about wishing she could see them more.

I think she’s hoping Connor and Lila might have even had a kid by then but she’ll have to content herself with mine and Ethan’s kids for now.

Mum and Dad were talking to Curtis about pre-school and they were surprised by how unenthusiastic he is about the whole thing. 

He’s not the shiest kid in the world but he just really, really doesn’t like change. There’s nothing at all that’s exciting to him about starting pre-school in a few weeks.

He’s been asking us why he just can’t stay home forever and Calvin and I can teach him. Not exactly realistic, at least for our family.

I'm hoping he warms up to the idea by the time his first day comes around but I suspect we might have some tears!

Maybe Alex’s enthusiasm will wear off on him. They’ll be starting together and unlike Curtis, Alex can’t wait to get in there!

He’s a lot like his mum in temperament, so he’s really not too nervous about new things or new people. 

Alex is also a really sweet kid, so I know he’ll watch out for Curtis when they’re at school together too.

Plus he has his two big sisters at school with him too, so he’s not going to be on his own pretty much ever.

For the rest of the summer break, we’re just going to try and let him relax and not worry about school until he has to.

Notes:

• Title is from The World At Large by Modest Mouse.
• First of all, I am so sorry about how long it took me to get this update out! The last few weeks of work were incredibly busy and stressful and I just didn't get the long stretches of time I need to write and play. I will try to get the next update out in a more timely fashion. I like to move things along and it bummed me out not being able to do that last month. 
• Calvin taking over Novak Motors is something I thought of while writing this, actually. I had originally written that scene a bit differently but then thought "why not?" So that will probably happen in a couple of years. 
• Natalie is the shyest of the kids but I see her as somewhat of an extrovert. I think she'll probably end up like Audrey - loves to socialise, as long as it's with her people. I'm really growing to love her, though she didn't get too much of a look-in this round.