Harper was sitting on the side of the bed, sighing every two minutes from anger. Mayor Buckman was walking up and down the room, sometimes, turning his head to look at the other man, growling angrily. Harper turned his head slowly to look at Buckman and the latter stopped in front of him.
"Ah'm really exhausted from all yer answerin' back and fightin', yah know that?" Buckman yelled to him and Harper's eyes narrowed.
"Do yah excpect me to be calm? Ah thought we had a relationship... And then Ah saw yah with Granny, kissin' and makin' out right in front of me. You don' want me anymore, do yah?"
"Of course Ah do, Harper. It's just..."
"Just what?!" Harper got up angrily and walked to Buckman, standing very close to his face.
Buckman blinked twice before looking down and sighing. "Yah have changed... my dear. We were fine until three weeks. What happened?"
"Ah told yah, Ah don't know... Somethin' is happenin' but Ah don't know what. I feel changed..." Harper sighed and landed on the double bed with a jump. Buckman rolled his eyes and sighed once more, getting out of their tent. Harper's eyes widened and got up, following the older man out of the tent, with an angry look on his face.
"And where do yah think yah're goin'?" Harper asked, crossing his arms in front of him.
"To take some fresh air... Do Ah need yer permission?" Buckman scoffed and walked away leaving Harper there, watching him leaving.
Someone knocked on Granny's hotel door and she opened after a minute only to reveal the Mayor waiting for her. "Bucky!" Granny's face lit up and grinned but she soon frowned seeing the worrying look upon Buckman's face. "Is everythin' okay, sweetie?"
"Ah'm afraid not, Granny... Harper's bein'... weird lately..." Buckman sighed as Granny let him enter and they sat on an old, brown Southern style couch.
"Oh..." Granny nodded and looked a little down before pausing for a moment. "Does it have to do with... what happened between us the other day?"
Buckman shrugged. "Ah wish Ah knew... He says this is it but Ah figure there's somethin' else bugging him also. The worse is that Ah can't figure what!" He threw his arms up in the air desperately and sighed.
"Just... give him some time and he'll come around."
"No... Ah can't, Ah'm extremely tired with him, Granny... Seems to me that only yah can understand me lately." He smiled to her and got closer. She smiled nervously before pressing a soft kiss to his lips and stroking his cheek.
"Yah have to talk to him. What we have is only a good, old friendship. Yah two have somethin' much more than a friendship. Don't yah waste this." She advised hima nd he looked down, pausing. They talked some more before he left, heading to his tent wich he shared with Harper. He got there only to see that Harper was missing. He called his name countless times before getting out to search for him. Into his frenzy, he didn't notice the little note that was left on the bed.
After an hour of searching, he gave up and returned to the tent, pausing in his tracks as he saw the note on his pillow on the bed. From Harper. "Harper..." He whispered to himself as he read the note. His eyes widened and the note fel onto the floor as he finished. He got out of the tent and knocked on Granny's door, frantically. Granny run to answer it, thinking something bad must have happened for someone to hit on the door this way. She opened the door, revealing a severely crying Mayor Buckman with trembling hands.
"Bucky..." Granny frowned deeply and pulled him inside by his arm, gently though as she saw him crying so badly.
"He left... He left, Granny... He left me a note saying... he can't be with me like this anymore and that he... he had a serious reason to leave Pleasant Valley for good... What will Ah do, tell me..." He sobbed as they sat on the couch, pausing to sniffle and sob some more as Granny patted his shoudler, stroking it as he spoke. he eyes gone wide and put her other hand on her lips upon hearing the news.
"What did this boy do! Why would he..." She sighed and tried to calm Buckman down a bit, by pulling him into a gentle hug and swaying him a little.
"Ah love him... God, Ah love him..!" he sobbed more and got the front of her dress all wet from his hot tears.
Truth be said, they were fighting all the time the last week but the last two days had been the worst. Buckman never thought Harper would leave him though. Why would he? It was only a fighting, was it not? Or was it also something else, making Harper sad and hysterical? No one could figure out.
Granny let Buckman relax there in her hug until he passed out. She looked down at him and set him down on the couch to sleep and relax a bit. He covered him with a blanket and headed up to sleep herslef.
The next morning, she woke up only to find Buckman dressed up and ready to go. "Are we goin' somewhere?" She asked, much reminding him of how Harper had asked him the last day.
He turned to look at her and nodded. "Yeh, Ah'm goin' to find this crazy young man and bring him back wherever he went."
"How?" Granny furrowed her eyebrows as she decended the rest of the stairs.
"Ah fought a hundred Yankees in our time, Ah can sure find Harper, it will be easy." He said stubbornly and confidently.
"Yeh, at least yah knew where the Yankees were when yah were fightin' them. Now yah have no idea where Harper boy is. He can be everywhere. Yah can't just go find him."
"Ah will find him, I said. I will!" He opened the door, determined to hear no more and started walking, thinking Granny was right... He was heading to nowhere. He had to be a magician to know where Harper would be.
He thought for a minute, rubbing his temples and then looked back up. His eyes were strong and confident looking, knowing what he would do. He run to their tent, thinking he would find Harper there waitng for him, but he was wrong. He hadn't returned and only the note was still there, laying on the floor. he picked it up and read it once more, tears fighting to escape his eyes but he forced them back and loked at the entrance. He had a plan B now. He got out again, with the note closed hard in his palm and walked to Crow's tent. He would find someone to ask if he knew anything about Harper's absence. Crow was the first one he thought of. So he did.
"Mornin' Crow. Can Ah come in?" He asked and smiled slightly as Crow's voice was heard, inviting him in. he walked inside as Crow was making some ice tea.
"To what do Ah owe the honor, my good Mayor?" Crow smiled and served him some ice tea which Buckman took immediately and took a sip. Then he opened his hand and showed Crow the note.
"This was left by Harper yesterday..." Buckman said and Crow took the note into his hand, looking through it and smirking slightly, nodding as he finished. "Do yah happen to know where he might be?"
Crow sighed an dlooked up at Buckman, seriously. his face had changed from a cheerful one to a more serious and determined one. "So, yah don't know, do yah...?"
Buckman narrowed his eyes, getting closer to Crow and paused. "Know? Know what?"
Crow smirked a bit more and continued. "Ah don't know where he is but... there is a reason why he left. He had talked to me a week ago..."
"What are you sayin'?" Buckman's eyebrows frowned and looked at Vrow ahrshly, seeing he wasn't directly telling him what was wrong.
"A week ago Harper came frantic to me wantin' desperately to talk to me about somethin'." Crow said, pausing for only a moment. "The last three weeks somethin' was buggin' him. He didn't know what it was until he went to a doctor to check himself out... He found out a week ago... just the day he found out, he came to me runnin' and sobbin' to talk. He didn't want to talk to yah. He was afraid..."
Buckman was listening the whole time, eager for Crow to continue and say more. "Afraid of what? And what, a doctor? Is he sick? Speak up, boy! I don't understand."
"There is a reason why he went away... Not only because yah keep fightin'... But also another, more important one..." Buckman's eyes were full of cuiosity and Crow saw that. He smiled and continued. "He is pregnant, sir..."