Direction

"Jane... Why are you playing Madden?" 

In the week since she'd brought Izzy home from the hospital, Jane had grown increasingly bored. Quitting her job had seemed like a good idea post-pregnancy, but now that her brain was unclouded by hormones and baby-related happiness, she'd begun to wonder if it had been a good idea after all. True, she had gone into teaching because she loved English and wanted to teach countless generations the value of literature and proper grammar; but after her promotion to assistant principal, she'd begun to face every day with a sense of grudging obligation, rather than actual happiness or joy. 

Playing computer games was all she really felt like doing, day after day. After Sophie and Ethan, Izzy was painfully easy to manage, and with everyone but mother and baby gone during the day, she was bored, lonely, and restless. 

Quitting had been easier than she'd thought. One push of the button, a brief conversation with the principal, and a small amount of paperwork later, she was unemployed- and surprisingly happy. But after the initial elation, she realized that she was now back in the sea of unemployed Sims, struggling to find her dream job. 

Immediately after pregnancy probably hadn't been the best time to do this, but she was feeling oddly driven. And so she'd sent out her resume, made a few phone calls, and tried to figure out what exactly she wanted to do with her life. 

It was hard to remember what she'd wanted to do before she started teaching. Once, she'd wanted to be a writer, and she'd never fully abandoned that dream, but with three children to raise and a husband who'd already made a sacrifice in his career, she didn't feel comfortable sitting around trying to write a bestselling novel. 

So what was there left? 

"... Jane?"

"Huh?" Jane barely looked up from the keyboard. "Oh, hi, honey. One second here... Just have to get this one... last...." Her voice trailed off as she concentrated on her game.

"Jane!" Moe's reprimand did not have the effect he wanted, so he reached out and turned the computer screen off.

Jane finally looked up, glaring at him as she waited for an explanation. "I was playing that, Moe!"

"Yes, I know, dear, but you've been playing it for days. Every time I come home you're glued to the screen, and I don't think it's very good for you," he pointed out hesitantly. "I think you need to get up, out of the den, and start getting back into the swing of things."

"I'm just saying!" Moe added hastily as she started to speak. "I know you're happy about quitting your job, but you've got to do something with your time, other than playing computer games."

"No, you're probably right. There's only so much Madden I can play before going crazy," she conceded, stretching as she went into the kitchen and filled up the basket in the coffee maker. "I just don't know what I want to do and it's driving me crazy. I haven't heard back from anyone, and I'm not even sure which jobs I'd want to take even if I got any offers," Jane admitted. 

"You don't have to go back to work if you don't want to," Moe pointed out. "We can get by without a second job. But a hobby, or something, just so you don't go crazy." He was trying to be as tactful as he knew how to be, but there weren't many ways of saying "get your lazy ass off of the computer chair and start doing something." 

It probably wouldn't have bothered him if she hadn't seemed so uninterested in everything. As a doctor, he knew the signs of post-partum depression, and he wanted to make sure that Jane didn't suffer from it- or if she did, that he got her the help she needed. 

But so far, she hadn't seemed depressed- just directionless, like a sailboat with no wind. He hadn't even been aware that her job made her so unhappy, but apparently it had. All Moe wanted was for her to find something to care about again, so he wouldn't have to worry about her being bored, home alone playing football against some thirteen year old in Florida all day. 

---

"Who's the best baby on earth? You are!" Jane tickled the baby's stomach and blew her a raspberry, smiling as her daughter giggled happily. So far, Izzy was a much quieter and docile baby than either Sophie or Ethan, and it was a welcome relief. She ate when she was supposed to, slept when she was supposed to (for the most part), and responded to Jane's playing with appreciative gurgling. Yes, Isabel Pesce was shaping up to be a dream child.

Jane's thoughts were interrupted by the abrasive jingling of her cell phone. "Hold on, Izzy, we'll keep playing, Mommy has to answer the phone... Hello?"

"Yes, Mrs. Pesce! This is Celina Lay from the the Daily Sim. I'm calling regarding the resume you dropped off at our offices last week. I was wondering if you were available for an interview tomorrow morning at ten?"

"Ten? That's perfect! Thank you so much!" Jane hung up the phone, smiling happily as she contemplated the phone call. She'd never pictured herself working as a reporter before last week, but it did involve writing, and the pay was definitely more than she would have received at any of the other places she'd applied.

Still, was it really something she wanted to do? It was difficult to say, so she resolved to at least give it a try.

---

A few days later, Jane began working on her first article, a piece on the museum and some of its contributing local artists. Not exactly groundbreaking material, but she was excited to write her first piece.

If it ever got written.

"Jane, you've been staring at that paper for an hour," Moe pointed out. "Shouldn't you be doing this on the computer anyways?"

"I already tried," Jane replied glumly. "I wasn't getting much done there, either. I'm just not sure how to format this... There's so many directions I could go with it, and I don't even know where to start."

"Maybe focus on only a few of the artists and their exhibits?" Moe mused. "There was an exhibit by a local artist that Ethan rather liked last time we were there. Amy Jenkins, I think it was."

"Yeah... I've come across a little bit about her in my research. Kind of sad, actually, she was murdered out at Hollowlog Springs earlier this year."

"Really?" Moe's eyebrows raised in surprise. "I hadn't heard anything about it- do they know who did it?"

"No, it was dismissed as a mugging in the end, so there's not much I could really use for the article," Jane admitted in defeat. "Still, it might be a point of interest I could use... I'm just not sure. And I can't get anything done around here!" 

"Why don't you try the library? It might help to get out and away from the house," Moe suggested. 

And it actually did. 

The library was mercifully empty this late in the afternoon, and Jane was glad for the peace and quiet. It didn't solve the problem of what to include in the article, but she at least felt more productive. She flicked through the first few pages on the library's website, hoping that she'd find inspiration in one of the articles. 

Out of sheer boredom, she pulled up the library's newspaper archives and began scanning the ones from earlier that year, entering in the keywords and filtering the results to bring up anything that discussed the artist's murder. "Amy Jenkins, age 28, found dead in Hollowlog Springs... survived by one daughter..." Jane skipped ahead to the end of the article, her eyes drawn like a magnet. 

"Investigation underway... Main suspect brought into custody.... main suspect-" Jane stopped reading, her mouth frozen in mid-word. The police's main suspect had been... 

Chase Cruz?

Posted in: chapter 1, story