Chapter Twenty-One: Welcome to Meadow Glen

Sadie had picked out a small house on the beach for them in Meadow Glen. Phoenix wasn't sure why she wanted to be so close to the water since she didn't like to spend a lot of time outside, but he had left the decision to her and, if it made her happy, he wouldn't complain.

Too much.

"It's not very big, will there even be room for kids?" he worried.

"Kids? Isn't it a little soon to be thinking about that when you haven't even started your new job yet?" Sadie chided.

Phoenix shrugged and grinned.

"Well, it's definitely not too soon to start practicing for when we're ready," he replied, taking her hands and leading her inside...

...where they had a housewarming celebration appropriate for newlyweds.

After working up an appetite, Phoenix ran to the store to pick up some veggies for a late night snack.

Sadie had fallen asleep while he was out, but eagerly got back up for a meal prepared by her husband.

She was so happy to be here pursing her dreams with Phoenix at her side, that it didn't matter if they hadn't even had a chance to get the electricity turned on, or purchase any furniture other than the bed, and she had to eat standing in the dark.

There was one place to sit, which Phoenix galanlty tried to offer his wife, but she graciously declined and let him claim the throne for himself.

After eating, the young couple finally went to sleep, excited about beginning their life together in their new home.

Phoenix was already awake and in the shower when Sadie awoke the next morning.

She grumbled as she took it upon herself to make the bed...

...and pick up the trashcan that a raccoon had knocked over during the night. It turned out that there were some parts of being an adult and taking care of yourself that aren't quite so fun.

After a quick breakfast, Sadie left early to ride her bicycle out to the museum, while Pheonix did a bit of studying before heading to the hospital.

Arriving at her new place of employment, Sadie chained her bike up on the side of the building and admired the architecture as she approached the entrance. The Meadow Glen Museum of Ancient and Contemporary Art was more impressive than she had been expecting. It was a brand new building, and not yet open to the public, so everything was clean and quiet.

Inside was quiet too, and mostly empty, other than a pile  in the lobby consisting of a few ancient relics, some boxes and barrels which must contain future exhibits, and the remnants of construction. Sadie wondered for a moment if anyone else was here this early.

"There you are!" came a voice from one of the empty show rooms as a snowy haired woman appeared,  marching briskly over to shake her hand, "You must be Sadie, I am so glad you're finally here. There is so much to be done! I really do wish you could have gotten here sooner, but we'll have to make do now, won't we?"

This had to be Mallory Englert, the head curator and Sadie's new boss. As she rambled on about how it really would have been better for her to have gotten there earlier, Sadie bit her lip and decided not to point out how, in less than a month, she had gotten married, bought a house, and moved halfway across the country.

"There doesn't seem to be a whole lot here yet, is the rest of the collection in storage?" she asked, attempting to change the subject.

"Now, that's what I hired you for, isn't it dear?" Mallory opened her arms wide, as if she were presenting an obvious fact.

"I'm sorry, I don't understand," Sadie replied, puzzled.

"We do have some in storage, of course, but we're starting from very little. I am far too old to go running around the world picking up new additions, however, so that will be your priority. I will make the arrangements, and you will travel to the location and assertain the authenticity of the items and transport them back here," her employer explained breezily.

Sadie didn't know how to respond. She had been under the impression that she would be working at the museum, cataloging and displaying artifacts, not travelling around the world collecting them.

"I've already prepared everything for your first assignment," the dauntless woman continued, "I have a contact in France who has been promising me some pieces if I send someone out. Honestly, I was starting to worry that I would have to go myself if you hadn't gotten here today. The information with your plane ticket and room reservation is all in the offices around back. I haven't hired a receptionist yet, but everything is in the folder on the desk right as you go in, so you should be able to find it yourself. Your office is the first on the right, I had my grandsons hook up the computers last week, if you have any use for the thing."

Her mind in a whirl, Sadie walked around to the back of the building as Mallory had indicated and found the administrative area.

The folder was on the reception desk, right where she had said it would be, and Sadie picked it up and brought it into the room that was supposed to be her office.

Inside was completely bare, other than the previously mentioned computer and the desk it was sitting on. Sadie opened the folder on the empty part of the desk and sat down to take a look.

Glancing through the file and seeing the tickets and the lists of French addresses, it finally sunk in, I'm going to France! She was actually going to get to travel overseas to collect authentic art and relics in person. This job was turning out to be even better than she could have possibly imagined.

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I had originally planned to have more stuff happen in this chapter, but it took 25 pictures to tell this part already, which is pretty average for my blog, and there was a pretty good stopping point, so I figured I'd just end it here instead of risking not having another good exit and making it too long. Since a few new places were introduced, hopefully it's still interesting enough! Sadie also kind of took over the chapter, and will probably hog the spotlight for a bit since her career is way most interesting than Phoenix's rabbit-hole one, but I promise I won't forget about him.

Phoenix and Sadie are so poor, it's almost like starting the legacy over from the beginning. I had to sell some of the windows off of their poor house in order to send Sadie to France as soon as I wanted to. I probably should have taken more of Rachel's furniture, if only to sell, but as it is I only brought things that actually belonged to Phoenix or Sadie, which wasn't much, especially since I decided to leave his bedroom furniture behind for being too childish. But, with a few days of work for Phoenix, and giving Sadie all the travel related life time rewards she had the points for, they could just barely afford it, and hopefully they'll be able to get comfortable a bit faster than Rachel, since they at least have the benefit of there being two of them!

The first picture of Phoenix and Sadie at the beginning of the chapter was the very first thing they did when they moved in, umprompted. I just had to pause it and get a picture to work into the story, even if there's a problem that, if you look closely, you can tell that the mailbox is in the wrong position and I hadn't put in the walkway yet. xD