Winter days.
by
Gameman 231
Chapter 1. Tragedy.
"Hello Jack!" a man with a large red top hat and suit smiles warmly at a teen with spiky brown hair, blue jeans and a tan shirt.
The teen looks back at him and sighs "Hello Mayor."
The mayor furrows his brows and looks at him confused. "What's wrong son?"
"This is whats wrong." Jack walks over to his garden sadly showing the mayor row upon row of dead crops.
"Oh my Jack what happened to your crops?!" the mayor exclaims in disbelief as he runs over to the crops.
"I'm not sure, I mean the other day they were doing fine and when I woke up they all were dead." Jack explains with a sad face as he gently lifts a dead carrot's leaf and then lets it drop "But that's not the bad part." He then motions for the elderly man to follow him into his food storage room. The two walk into the room and the old man gets a shocked face as he sees the storage fridge has been raided and there are pieces of broken bottles of milk and food on the floor. "Jack who could of done this!?"
"I'm not sure, I don't have any enemys but without that produce.."Jack slows to a stop with his words as he chokes up.
"What?" the mayor asks afraid of what he's going to say
"I'm gonna lose the farm."he practically spits out.
"That's-that's horrible!" the mayor exclaims in shock
"I can't afford to feed the animals or buy new seeds so I have no choice." Jack says feeling like a knife has been shoved into his chest "I'm already behind on my payments."
"I'm so sorry lad." the man says trying to comfort him.
Jack remains silent for a few seconds before saying"No, it's not your fault but I think I'm gonna go say goodbye to my friends."Jack then heads for the door "And pack my stuff up." Jack leaves the building and looks around the huge farm. The cows are mooing in the pasture happily and his horse is grazing. He can hear his chickens in his coop and he also sees the trees that surround his farm. It was the middle of spring and the cherry blossom trees had bloomed beautifully. He goes towards where his dog, Sam was sleeping and petted his head. Jack slowly walked out of the farm and looked around. Galen was at his wives grave and he could see Vesta at her farm harvesting her crops.
"Hi Jack-kun!"a cheery voice calls out to the right. Jack turns his head and sees three figures approaching him. One is a blond haired girl with emerald eyes and a red dress. The second is a brown haired girl with brown eyes and a green dress and apron with brown eyes. And finally there is a short red haired girl with light blue eyes and is wearing tan pants, a orange shirt and a blue jacket. Jack smiles at the appearance of the red haired girl but suddenly is it with another tragic realization. "Hi girls." Jack responds despondantly as he looks towards the ground keeping his eyes out of sight.
Nami notices his tone of voice and knows that he only acts like that when he's depressed. "Jack, is something wrong?" Nami asks concerned
"Oh, um it's nothing."Jack lies but Nami sees right through him.
"Okay, see you later Jack-kun!" Muffy smiles before walking off with Celia.
Once the two are gone Jack lets out a long sigh before realizing that Nami is still standing right in front of him, tapping her foot.
--
"That's...terrible!"Nami stutters in shock as Jack tells her the terrible news while they sit on a wooden plank at the beach shore. 'How could this of happened?! Jack always seems like he's on top of things and this is so sudden.' Nami thinks as she feels like a part of her just died with those words.
"Now what's up Jack?" Nami demands as the two walk down to the shore
"It's nothing you should worry about Nami." Jack mutters as he stops and bends over picking up a smooth stone of the ground.
"Jack, we've been friends long enough and you've always been there when I needed help." Nami admits "Please tell me what's wrong."
"It's about the farm." he says sadly as they arrive at the beach.
"What happened, did one of your animals die?" Nami asks curiously
"No." Jack says feeling the stone over
"Then what is it?"Nami asks starting to get anxious
"I'm losing the farm."Jack says sadly as he clenchs his eyes shut.
"What?!"
"Someone raided my storage and poisoned my plants." Jack explains "I can't afford to feed the animals."
"Well can't you do something?" Nami asks hopefully "I'm sure if you asked Vesta she'd loan you some money."
"No, I can't do that to her."Jack says clenching the stone tightly in his fist "It was my fault for not keeping a lock on the storage room, I need to take responsibilty."
"But this isn't fair!" Nami exclaims standing up
"No it isn't."Jack admits as he releases his grip on the stone. "But sometimes...life isn't fair."
Nami can feel the tears begin to well up in her eyes so she quickly turns her head to the ground and looks away. "So, when are you leaving?" Jack looks up at her and can see a tear going down her face.
"I'm not sure, tommorow Takakura is going to go sell the animals."Jack says sadly as he walks over to her.
Nami is trying not to let Jack see that she is crying, Jack trys to reach for her to comfort her but she turns away fiercly and starts running away. He quickly retracts his arm and looks at her in sympathy. He looks out to where the sun is setting over the ocean. Being overcome with a feeling of hopelessness and rage he takes the stone and fiercly throws it out at the ocean. It skips a few times over the water thanks to the velocity but eventually is swallowed up in the massive ocean. Just like my life. He thinks as he shoves his hands in his pockets and starts walking back to the farm.
As he walks up the dirt path he sees Grifffin's bar in the distance and sees a sillohette of him giving Nami a special meal made from his first succesful crop. "She was so happy"
--
Slam! The door to the Inn is opened and slammed shut as Nami storms in.
"Oh Nami what's.."Before Tim can finish his sentence Nami runs up the stairs and slams the door to her room. "wrong?"
--
Nami slams the door to her room and quickly locks it. Once she is sure she's out of earshot, she lets it out. Her loud sobs can be heard downstairs as she falls onto her bed and hugs her pillow tightly. Her warm tears of sadness dip onto her pillow while she thinks. "Jack."
"Oh, hi Jack."Nami says slightly suprised to see Jack up this early visiting her.
"Well I couldn't sleep so I decided I'd go for a walk and when I saw your lights were on I thought I'd pay you a visit."he explans pulling something out of his backpack. He pulls out a small plastic dish and pops of the lid. Inside is a salad with chunks of melon and tomato. He hands it to her smiling and says "Take it."
"You want me to have this?"she asks even more suprised
"Yeah, I made it from some of the fruit and vegetables I had left."Jack explains as she takes a bite and blushes.
"How does it taste?"he asks hopefully
"It..tastes good."she smiles weakly "Let me know when you make more."
"That was the first time I felt something."she says quietly
--
Jack walks down the road and sees his farm coming in the distance. Once he walks in he sees a sillohette of him showing her around the farm, letting her pick a carrot and help. "Why does it have to be this way?" He asks himself lifting a wilted plants leaf and letting a tear land on the leaf.
--
Knock. Knock. Knock. Nami raises her head from the pillow in suprise and quickly wipes the tears from her face with her shirt.
"Wh-who is it?"she chokes
"Nami, it's me Ruby."the kind woman calls from behind the door worried. "Is something wrong?"
"No...I'm fine."she says so quiet that it's almost a whisper.
"Nami-kun!" Ruby cheerfully calls upstairs
"What is it Ruby?"Nami asks opening her door.
"There's someone I want you to meet."she says.
Nami rolls her eyes in annoyance and slowly walks down the stairs. She gets to the lobby where the partner of the old farmer, Takakura is standing in the lobby with a boy her age with spiky brown hair and brown eyes. The boy is shaking hands with Rock and turns when he hears her. He stares at her for what seems like forever before quickly snapping out of it. "Hi my name is Jack!" he smiles warmly holding his hand out for her to shake. She looks at his hand and gives him a icy stare which causes him to sweatdrop. 'She's scary!' Jack thinks slowly retracting his hand.
"If only I could restart and try again."she thinks opening the door and walking past Ruby without saying a word.
--
Chapter one is up and Chapter 2 will be coming.