Bebe Populous surveyed her new kingdom.  The bedsit she’d just bought in Sunset Valley wasn’t much to look at – she only had very basic furniture and a very small living space, but it was home for now – and she had plans…

You see, Bebe Populous was one of those people whose appearance is slightly deceptive.  She may have looked as if she was only interested in one thing, as if there wasn’t much going on inside (and, truth be told, she was quite happy to let people believe that of her) but she was actually a very intelligent and shrewd woman who knew exactly what she wanted from life.  Before she got acquainted with her new neighbours in the Valley, she took care of business.  She got herself a job in the local science facility.  Though she wasn’t planning on revealing this fact to many of her neighbours, she had achieved brilliant results in science at school, and she had a particular love for biology.

Her first assigned task was to harvest some of the fruit and vegetables growing at the lab and take them home to see how well they would develop.  The facility were experimenting with new plant types and Bebe was going to be partly responsible for testing them out, both at work and in the home garden.

She was told to look out for seeds around town and see what else was out there, what other plant forms she could find.  Bebe found something strangely exciting in planting these seeds – it was as if they were symbols of the other things she hoped to plant in this town, of the roots she wanted to spread here.

She spent her first hours in the library reading the latest biology journals and catching up on research into fertilisation.

She also found time to read some of her old favourite children’s books.  The library had all the books she used to love as a little girl, and reading them stirred something within her, a sense of longing…

Her first night in the Valley was spent at the local park.  As a young girl, she’d always been the one to initiate games of kiss chase with the boys, and she spent the evening engaging some of the local residents in a big game of tag… or rather, she engaged some of the local male residents…

Bebe’s neighbour, Judy Bunch sat watching as the menfolk of the town were drawn into this young woman’s game. She sighed to herself. Somehow, she sensed Ms Populous was going to be a whole heap of trouble…

—

2. Making a Start >>

Advertisement