Jack and Karen Dance with the Green Fairy
by pvc
The world's first Harvest Moon fanfic written while under the influence of absinthe.
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Jack and Karen were out to treat themselves to something special on the occasion of their fifth wedding anniversary. After having bribed the Harvest Sprites with sacks of flour and leaving their four year old son in their care - "Jack, I just hope they don't greasepaint his whole body paisley like last time." "Ah, but dear, he loved it." "Yes, but you weren't the one who spent two hours cleaning him up!" - they both paused at the door of the Village Inn and reflected. It was actually very hard to do something special in Mineral Town. They both knew very well what awaited them on the other side of the door – the usual people, the usual over-familiar home cooked dishes (all six of them,) the same crude country style liquor – in other words, what they had 'indulged' in every Friday night for years on end. Yes, they had already resigned themselves to another evening of the same old same old. So they thought.
As they opened and went in the door, they were met with the first hint that the evening was not going to be an ordinary one. Doug standing behind the bar wiping a glass, instead of presenting his usual bored, dour expression to them was all smiles and good cheer. And – first either Jack or Karen had ever witnessed – he was singing!
"Oh happy days are here again! The skies are bright and clear again! We'll sing a song of cheer again...Hey, good evening kids! Good of you to drop in on me on such a fine night."
Jack and Karen exchanged puzzled glances as they advanced to the bar and took their usual seats.
"Good evening to you too. You're certainly in fine spirits."
"Yes! Fine spirits is just right. This is a very very special day for the Inn. The hundred year drought has broken! The Green Fairy has returned!" He pointed to two new and unfamiliar bottles of greenish fluid standing on the shelf behind him. "Behold – absinthe! The government just lifted the ban on it and those are the first bottles of it seen in this village since nineteen hundred and oh five."
Karen's expression went a little dreamy as she replied. "Absinthe! I've read about it of course, but I never thought we'd have it in this village. The associations it conjures up...the Montparnasse...the Impressionists...the Left Bank orgies! Oo la la!"
Jack was a little more practical than his slightly pretentious, artsy wife. "But Doug, doesn't that stuff make you crazy as a loon? Make you see things? Didn't one of them frog painters cut off his own ear while smashed on it?"
Doug waved off his concerns. "Ahh, he was crazy anyhow. Look, the government wouldn't let it in the country if it wasn't safe, right? They're never wrong!" Seeing from her expression that Karen was already sold he went on. "Pour you young folks a glass? Something real special to celebrate your anniversary with? I have to tell you that it is somewhat pricy, but hey, you're only young once, right?"
Karen looked at her husband with a pleading look. "He's right, dear. Weren't we wanting to make this a special occasion? Wouldn't you really rather try this than the usual grape liquor." Her voice went sultry in the way she knew from long experience always melted Jack's resistance. "Please darling, buy it for me. You'd make me so happy." She winked as she made an 'O' with her lips. "And later on, I'll make you very very happy too."
As careful with the household finances as Jack tried to be, he never could resist his beloved wife's well practiced techniques for getting him to open his coin pouch to fund her extravagances. Besides, he mused, the pineapples that year were truly luscious looking and were guaranteed to bring in a hefty profit. He knew he could easily afford to treat Karen to one of her expensive whims. And he also knew well that she'd make good on her promise of joys to come once they got back home and behind closed doors.
Jack looked proudly expansive as he told Doug, "Absolutely right, the both of you. What's money for, eh? OK, set us up!"