They'd used nights exactly like tonight.
And although roughly… what… 7 months or so had passed, both nothing and anything possible had changed at all.
Eugene the Koala, donned in a white and blue shirt with a red scarf and a bell around his neck (a custom design by the mayor herself) and still up for some reason even he couldn't quite pin down, approached the yellow bench by the cliff looking out at the never-ending sea.
Curious. Said mayor Rachael was sitting there. Not every night you're up at nearly midnight to see the one overseeing your town of Kunaiobi with a thousand-yard stare, or something like that, out at the infinite waters.
"Searching for something?" he asked her. Sure seemed like it. She seemed to be scanning every wave.
Meanwhile… she might as well have been. That'd certainly be her only bet.
"You could say that," she sighed.
"What are you doing up so late?" Eugene asked, trying to figure out whether to be gentle or casual. Her eyes were wide to spell wonder, but her smirk seemed to spell disarray.
"You're the first to hear this, but…" Rachael sighed. "I'm starting my house over. Moving it closer to the cliff so I can live with the sound of the waves. Worked up until Re-Tail closed."
"…You scared me," Eugene chuckled. "For a second there, I thought you were saying you're going to close Kunaiobi!"
"Even if I was," Rachael chuckled back, turning to him. "You're leaving on Sunday! What does it matter to you?"
That's right. The last living evidence of that legacy was moving…
"I'd be mighty disappointed in you, that's what," Eugene asserted. "No matter where I end up… even if it's back where I came from, by some strange chance… Kunaiobi's a part of me now. Besides, you have others who love it here, too. You know… Monty, Elise, Jitters, Mira… all of them… I'll only be one of the crowd who'll never quit coming back. You're going to see more of me than you ever have while I was living here, trust me."
He laughed…a forced laugh of delicate hopes ready to be shattered.
"Then… why are you moving?" Rachael asked, rather quietly.
"The special one," Eugene replied, simple as that. "As long as I'm chained here, I'll never find 'er."
"True, true…" Rachael nodded, looking back out at the sea. They'd exchanged a few letters on the topic, she and Eugene. He'd mentioned a special one, and Rachael had made him the promise that she'd be there to help whenever he may have needed it. Funny… He seemed to be A-OK.
For a good moment, they both stared out together.
…That's right. Eugene was from that town before he'd come here. Certainly added a thickness to the moment, all things considered.
"Hey, Eugene?" Rachael asked. "…This may be a stupid question, but… do you ever miss Simon?"
Eugene looked at Rachael and gave her the cheekiest smirk she'd ever gotten from one of her citizens.
"That's why you're so wistful-looking," he grinned, every tooth glinting in the moonlight. "Oh, man… I'd seen you around when I was still living under him, and you'd come to visit. It was the shock of a lifetime when you came to ask me to move to your little square of the world. I thought everything was coming full-circle."
"The Shift…" Rachael sighed, nearly cutting Eugene off.
"…The Shift…" Eugene sighed sympathetically.
The Shift. Rachael fell asleep at the end of March and didn't wake up until around the middle of April. Frantically, she'd ran around town, nearly collapsing in relief that nobody had decided to move away… but feeling shriveled back up in devastation when she found that her BFF list was cleared. The very list which Simon had once sat proudly at the top of, both literally and in Rachael's mind.
"He and I…" said Rachael. "The differences between the nights we'd spend standing around in nothingness… when we were both in our towns at midnight, and he still found it in him to invite me to play video games with him…"
Eugene thought he could hear a slight choke in Rachael's voice. The Shift, as Kunaiobi called it. He hadn't noticed a single thing until this moment, when it was made clear that in other respects, it shifted everything.
"There really are no differences," Rachael continued, seeming to get ahold of herself. "The stars are twinkling the exact same colors. The air feels just as crisp. The trees are just as green, the sky's that same haze of something between black and blue… It feels like both nothing and everything has changed. Do you think he wonders where I've been lately? Do you?"
"Well… you've got new neighbors," Eugene proposed. "Olivia, Alfonso, Deena, and Camofrog weren't here before."
A bit of a pause.
"If I ever met the guy on the southern islands, or the other guy who lives in his town," Rachael smiled. "I… think I might seriously cry."
A third presence was there.
"Hey, what's this about crying?" a feminine voice with a country drawl asked.
Agent S with a shovel, wearing a blue jacket over a black shirt (another of the mayor's designs). She came to stand by Rachael's left side, by the bench.
Rachael was jolted a bit as she felt her phone vibrate in the pocket of her skirt. She checked it to see that Sara, one of her new friends, was online. At 11pm, of all times? On a Thursday?
"You never cry," said Agent S.
"I know," Rachael laughed. "Which would make it so much more insane. Then again… I'd be afraid I'd creep Simon out with it."
"Simon…" Agent S pondered aloud. "…Eugene's old mayor Simon? I haven't heard from him lately."
"If you do…" Rachael requested. "If anyone does… let him know I miss him."
There was that choking in her voice again.
"Straight-up 'Rachael misses you'?" Eugene questioned. "Won't that seem a bit-"
"Straightforward?" asked Rachael. "What of it anymore? I'll likely never see the man again. I took it for granted… Never thought such a thing could ever happen…"
The Shift. Kunaiobi barely talked about it… but Eugene and Agent S both started to wonder why not. What barely existed in one life threw someone else's emotions off quite a bit.
Meanwhile… it had been a total of at least two months since Rachael had heard anything from Simon, and it took until tonight to run its course. She'd never genuinely… missed someone before like this. But why? Why him?
Probably because she'd stayed up until 11pm, like they used to. Stayed awake for a night exactly like those past.
The koala, the squirrel, and their mayor looked out at their little sea of the world, seeing it as the world itself when it was only a little cup of water in actual comparison, for a good few more minutes.
Author's note: I wrote the story of this, all while listening to the 11pm theme on repeat. The midnight theme just started as I began this author's note. Both of these themes spell adventure and friendship to me anymore. Like, hey... the night's all ours, and we're spending it with each other. Anyway, I'll elaborate. "The Shift" is as a result of my spilling a bit of water on my old 3DS XL… and losing it as a result. I am extremely fortunate, as I could afford upgrading to the New 3DS, and through Nintendo Customer Service, I was able to recover a lot. Yeah, I'd lost my 100%ing Rhythm Heaven Megamix, but big deal. I can always say I did it. I thought I'd gotten off scot-free… until I've been stricken by bitten nostalgia lately, and I realized that I have suffered a great loss here. The loss of a friend who I can say has left a serious mark on me. All because of a few drops of H20. Well… this was more a piece driven by emotional inspiration than anything. I'm not usually writing at midnight, but here ya go. What do you think? Is this something that could… turn into a story of some sort?
5/26 update: And yes... I've learned. If you're the mayor, you can't simply move your house without wiping everything first. I chose to remain where I am, but I am bitter.