8.1 Trouble Rising

Hello, people. This is Alayna. I’m worried about my brothers. Naturally, Brady worries me because he is insane and lovelorn, but Owen worries me the most. Something is wrong with him, and I don’t know what it is. I don’t think he knows what it is. He’s still in love with Alexia, but he never sees her or picks up the phone to call her. He works like a crazy llama, chugging sleep replacement potions like water. During the day, he’s at work. Then he comes home and tends the garden all night. He throws back a potion, and then he stays up until the wee hours of the morning writing books! He does this day after day, and I don’t know what to do with him anymore!

He does anything and everything he possibly can to make money, and he’s getting worse. He completed the first three milestones for the fabulously wealthy aspiration, and now he was in the homestretch with only one last goal to reach. The first three were easy to complete thanks to the wealth we already had and the profits from the flowers. But, now his goal is to earn §200k. He has become more determined than ever. Perhaps “blinded” would be a better word. Determination is good, but he is on something else. He never sees anyone, talk to anyone…he didn’t even congratulate me and Roland when we had our first baby! I don’t think he’s even been in the nursery to meet my son!

Nowadays, he’s even taken to going on regular space missions to see if he could find anything rare up there to sell.

Just when I thought things couldn’t get any worse for him, they did. In a way, I can understand that he is working toward a goal and will stop at nothing to accomplish it, but there is a line…and I believe he crossed it. Whenever Owen is in the garden, all he sees is simoleons. Rows and rows of simoleons. Simoleons everywhere! It’s like he’s been hypnotized. If he is going to make this §200k, he needs more flowers from space, he explained. So, first he dug up the spliced plants because they are the least profitable flowers at only §300-800 total. He didn’t feel they were even worth the time anymore and replaced with some of the most expensive UFOs. Then he dug up the snapdragons. They were more profitable than the spliced ones at §800-1200, but still not worth his time. Ok, yes, in the grand scheme of things, we’re not going to miss those flowers. I took Cadence’s advice and looked up our family online and have just been diving deep into our history. There are pages and pages and pages noting every detail on this blog called Pruett Family Legacy. Anyway, I learned that the lilies are the only flowers that our founder planted. The snapdragons and spliced flowers were part of Joy’s work toward becoming a freelance botanist. Joy was his daughter. But, there is something still sentimentally wrong with this! Whether it is wrong or right, it works for him, and Owen gets high off the profits. It didn’t take him long to begin digging up Xavier’s precious lilies and replacing them with UFOs! I had enough. Somehow I feel like he is beginning to destroy this family’s legacy! I tried to talk to him and reason with him, but he wouldn’t listen. With my new knowledge about our family, I even tried to appeal to his sense of purpose and duty by reminding him that our adult birthday is just around the corner, and he doesn’t have any children yet. He says the same exact thing everytime I bring it up:  “Don’t worry about it, sis! I’m a guy! I can have kids until I die.” He worries me so much. I hope he knows what he’s doing. Sadly, I don’t think he does. I don’t want to lose our family!