Peri
Chapter 1:
Dusk was falling upon the farm just as Peri finished tightening the last bolt on her old Ford pick-up truck. Pumpkin slept lazily on a nearby stack of hay, and the lights inside the barn shown like stars strung from door to door. Peri wheeled herself out from under the truck, stood up, and wiped the grease off her hands. As she watched the sun duck behind her childhood home, she was overcome with an overwhelming feeling of satisfaction at the work she'd done. The truck was a bit of a clunker, but its sentimental value (and her inability to afford a new one) far outweighed the labor she put into maintaining it. As she climbed the ladder to the loft Peri, looked back on the quiet day that had unfolded. Besides her normal farm chores her activities had been relegated to reading and whatever source of monotonous tasks would keep her hands busy. She reached over to turn out the lights, and as the cool night air began to blow in Peri reserved herself to the soft, warm recesses of her bed, her headphones fastened firmly to help with cascading her mind towards the cushy lands of sleep.
Such was it that she found her ethereal-self floating atop the clouds, the stars like pin pricks representing the ancient remnants of some long-forgotten gods. Older than the mountains, older than the sea. Though this glorious scene presented itself to her, it presented itself only to her. It came to her that such was a travesty, and in those ponderings, she discovered a certain longing and loneliness. Peri felt selfish, how could she be presented with such majesty, such beauty yet long for more? Yet this self-flagellation did little to heed the swell of her deepest feelings coming now towards the light. Then there was a presence. It was distant, and due to this, faint. Peri could see across the sea of clouds a blue light, only slightly larger than the lights that dotted the sky above. The presence felt like her own, longing and lonely. Then she woke up.
A new dawn broke and somewhere a rooster crowed. Peri rose groggily wiping the sleep from her eyes and though the sun had partially risen it was still dark. She looked at her phone, 5:30. Like clockwork her body had adapted to waking up at such ungodly hours to do her daily chores. It was cold, and her breath hung in the air like a frosty ghost. Though her body had gotten used to waking up at such times, it still took all she had to not only relinquish herself from the warm embrace of her blankets, but to also confront her almost bare body to the air. With a leap she dashed over to her drawer to retrieve some clothes that would provide her with at least some reprieve from the current conditions. After donning her requisite farming jeans, t-shirt, socks, and shoes Peri climbed down to the ground below where the frosted ground crunched beneath her feet. She then retrieved her jacked from the Ford truck's side window.
Now within her protective clothed cocoon Peri made her way to the chicken coops. Said chickens sat huddled in their respective nests enjoying the warmth their ample fat and feathers provided them. When Peri was little she would frequent the chicken coup to play with her feathered friends. Life on the farm gave her a life of relative seclusion from other kids her age, so the animals compensated for a lack of companionship. Sometimes, she would think back to her childhood and think about how lonely it must have been for young Peri but came to find solace in the idea of being entrenched in the environment the farm provided. The bounty of eggs was plentiful this morning, but the usual suspects weren't so happy to relieve their embryotic packages and the pain in her hand reminded Peri of the fury that could come from animalistic maternal instincts.
Setting aside the basket of eggs, she headed over to the cow to provide her with some much-needed relief. "Hey Bessie," she said to the bovine, almost embarrassingly as she had skimped on her duties for the past couple of days. Getting on her knees, Peri unburdened the cow with the inordinate amount of milk that had stored in her udders, and she judged this would be more than enough to sell as well as having enough left over for her own use. Afterwards she went to weed her crops. The weather was cold so that one couldn't grow much, but what she could grow was potatoes and that's what Peri did. They wouldn't be ready for another couple of weeks but when they were not only would she have made a pretty penny, but she would also have fresh potatoes to cook with.
Afterwards she went into the house to take a shower. The house was empty, as it had been for almost a year now. Peri remained the sole occupant of her childhood home. As an only child it had never been a necessarily lively house so the only thing missing now was her mother and father sitting in the living room. Yet even without her parents the house retained the same sort of homely warmth she enjoyed. She went into the bathroom and shut the door. Some would say it's unconventional to take a shower after already starting the day, but it had become somewhat of a ritual for her and nothing relaxed her more after farm work than the hot jets of water to clean the dirt from her body.
After her shower and a breakfast that made use of the fresh ingredients she had acquired that morning, Peri returned to her barn where Pumpkin sat waiting and alert for her return. The corgi barked happily and ran to meet Peri at the entrance to their shared home. She reached down and gave the dog a satisfying pat.
Late into the morning as Pumpkin laid sprawled at the foot of her bed, Peri had her nose buried into a Terry Pratchett novel when her phone buzzed excitingly notifying her of a text message. It was from her mother,
M: "hi hun how are you doing"
P: "Good mom, what's up with you?"
M: "well…me and your father are planning on spending the day at the beach! : )"
P: "Isn't that what you two do most days?"
M: "yup! retirement is a blast lol"
P: "Then why text me about it?"
M: "can't a mother want to talk to her favorite daughter"
P: "Sure, I guess."
M: "great lol"
P: "Anything else y'all need?"
M: "your father says hi btw"
P: "Tell him I say hi back. Now what do y'all need?"
M: "well i figured since you were all alone on that farm you might want a roommate"
P: "Not particularly."
M: "too late! you remember your cousin Steven's friend?"
P: "Which one?"
M: "Lapis"
P: "Oh"
M: "i was talking to Pearl on the phone and she mentioned how she had gotten in trouble recently and her family thought a new setting might be the best thing for her so i offered to let her stay in the old farm house. isn't that exciting!"
P: "Um, sure I guess."
M: "great! lol. she should be arriving sometime tomorrow you'll need to pick her up at the airport"
P: "Alright."
M: "cool ttyl sweetie me and your father love you"
P: "Love y'all too, bye."
Peri exhaled sharply, confronted by a wave of emotions that all her a second to properly parse. Her mother doing something that directly involved her without asking for any sort of input was frustrating, but unfortunately very much characteristic of the older woman. Besides, the house was still in her parent's names so in the end nothing could really be done on her part. She couldn't even charge them rent, which was disappointing due to the fact such limited farm work only paid for so much. Besides that, it was going to be a blow to the peace and quiet she had established for herself. Peri placed her phone beside the bed on her desk and turned around to curl up facing the wall. Staring blankly, she tried to see the good in this.
She supposed it couldn't hurt to have another pair of hands around to help, though Peri couldn't help but question the ability of someone who's lived in the city their whole life to help out with farm work. That being said any help was an improvement, and maybe she could make up for the lack of rent with labor. Peri wondered if she would actually be able to ask that of someone. She'd never been one for conversation or confrontation and asking someone to do something for her was a scary concept at the best of times. This was not helped by Peri's own experience with Lazuli.