Good afternoon! Maude here again with another thrilling tale. Well, perhaps not as thrilling as the last, though that was more chilling than thrilling, wasn’t it? It certainly seemed to distress some of you, for which I am truly sorry. One doesn’t like to be the bearer of bad tidings. But let me reassure you that Sid’s story is not over, and you may be seeing more of him in the future!

As for the rest of the Kilmans, well, they had a tough time at first. Spontaneous sobbing erupted at all hours of the day, and Sid was ever on their minds. Joey, growing more moody by the minute, got a job as a gofer for some shady corporation in the City, and Tiffy distracted herself by focusing on her schoolwork, finally receiving her first A+ report card.

Poor Rhonda couldn’t get used to sleeping alone, no matter how hard she tried. She often woke up crying, and seemed to be at loose ends when it came to family matters. They were quickly running out of money, even with Joey’s contribution, but Rhonda knew her job skills were almost non-existent. How would she be able to provide for her children?

Enter the Desanto family. The Desantos were two brothers, Theo and Alessandro, who had recently moved into a trailer house right across the street from the Kilmans. Long-haired Theo, a security guard at the mall, was the more serious of the two and couldn’t wait to meet a nice Mt. Geneva girl and settle down. Alessandro, who was easygoing and rakishly handsome, had just joined the military and also wanted to meet a girl — though not necessarily a nice one.

But he met a nice one anyway, of course — our poor widow Rhonda Kilman. He saw her getting the mail one Saturday afternoon and walked over to introduce himself. And let me tell you, I could almost see the electricity in the air when they shook hands. Even after Rhonda turned to go back into her house, Alessandro lingered on the sidewalk with a dreamy, faraway look in his eye. He didn’t move until Theo poked his head out the door and asked him what in the sam hill he was doing standing in the neighbor’s yard.

The next day, Alessandro invited Rhonda over for dinner, and they continued to get along swimmingly. I hadn’t seen Rhonda smile in days, and here she was, watching TV with Alessandro and thoroughly enjoying herself! It helped that he liked all of the same TV shows as she did.

She still cried once in awhile over Sid, but she had a new glint in her eye. Was it the light of love, or the gleam of greed? Alessandro certainly wasn’t rich, but he had a promising career, and between Theo and he, they brought in a nice pot of money each day. Call me cynical, dear readers, but I found myself questioning her motives. Their relationship was moving a little too quickly, if you ask me. But perhaps that’s just my cold, dead heart speaking. They certainly acted like a couple in the throes of newfound love!

Rhonda invited Alessandro over to her place to introduce him to the kids. They were polite enough, but didn’t engage him in conversation, and quickly went off to do their own thing. Alessandro was too moony-eyed to care. He was in love! And he demonstrated it by asking Rhonda to move into a new house that he and Theo planned to buy with the money they had saved up. Rhonda said yes, and within days the Kilmans and the Desantos up and moved into Gustav House.

Gustav House was built by the Dobbinses, if you recall them, but they vacated it shortly after Will Dobbins moved out, so it was nice and empty and ready for the Kilmans and the Desantos to move right in. And move right in, they did.

The very first day Rhonda met some of her new neighbors — Paige Dobbins’s old roommates, Audrey and Bailey Singleton, and a nice gentleman by the name of Steven Keaton. Rhonda was immediately impressed with her fashionable new acquaintances and asked Audrey if she would come over sometime and give Rhonda a make-over. Trying to forget her old life, perhaps? She certainly seemed eager to leave that trailer house…

And what about Tiffy and Joey? They seemed to like their new house, but they stayed out of sight most of the time, and still had not developed any kind of rapport with Alessandro or Theo. In fact, I didn’t see them much at all during the first few days at Gustav House. I wonder what they were up to? Probably busy with school and work, but you never know with moody teenagers…

Not long after move-in day, Alessandro asked Rhonda to marry him. On the curbside, of course. Is it just me, or does that seem to be the trend in Mt. Geneva? A romantic proposal out on the front lawn, with the leaves whispering and the birds singing…and the garbage can stinking it up a few feet away. Curious!

My, how quickly things move in Mt. Geneva these days! But Sim life is short, and I suppose we must make of it what we can. Rhonda certainly was making the best of things, though I wondered if she was truly happy. And what were those kids up to all this time? No good, I suspect… We shall find out soon enough! This is Maude, my dears, saying ‘adieu’!