I'm probably going to come back and edit this in a couple of days, just like I did the previous chapter, but I'm too impatient right now and just want to get this darned thing up. I really wrote quite a lot the past few days. owo'
omg I just used that face whatever don't sue me
"Where is he, do you think?" I asked Dr. Hardy. He had said he had visited my brother before. Dr. Hardy's eyes narrowed.
"I think I might know," he said. We walked out of the small cabin, going back down the path we had driven on. We were heading towards the very small town.
"By the way, Jill, I live right here," Dr. Hardy said as he pointed at a small house right off of my brother's property. I nodded.
"Well, I'm not going to be missing you any time soon," I said. We walked forward past what a sign said was the inn. Right across the path from it, there was a bar. I followed Dr. Hardy to the bar, groaning as we headed for the door.
"Are you serious?" I asked. We walked through, a bell ringing.
"Welcome to the Blue Bar!" a peppy blonde girl called. I blanched at the sight of my brother sleeping at the bar. I strode over to him.
"Jack Pete Jr. you are in so much trouble, oh my goddess!" I exclaimed as I grabbed him by his shirt and pulled him up. He looked at me with shot, startled eyes. I slapped the idiot, which I knew wouldn't hurt very much coming from me, but it would be enough to get the message through and wake him up some more.
"My goddess, Jack, what the hell have you been doing all these months?" I asked, exasperated. The girl behind the bar squeaked.
"Um, is everything alright?" she asked quietly. I glanced over at her.
"No," I snapped. I immediately felt bad as the poor girl shrunk back, nodding quickly and running into the door that lead to some other room in the back. Poor thing seemed nice enough. I would have to make sure I excused myself later. I looked back at Jack, leaning closer as I pulled at the fistful of his shirt.
"Look what you made me do," I whispered, agitated. Jack just blinked slowly, eyes glassy and breath reeking, dried drool on his chin.
"Jack! Answer me, dammit!" it hurt to think he had been wasting away all this time and hadn't asked for more help. The way he had written in his letters, it just sounded like he couldn't get the hang of milking cows or getting the right seeds for the season or something trivial like that. But this was something entirely different. He couldn't get anything right. What an idiot. I sighed.
"Doctor, could you help me get Jack to his house?" I asked. Dr. Hardy nodded, doing as I requested. We hobbled over with the drunken Jack, taking much longer than before to reach the sad cabin. We hauled him onto his bed, Jack falling asleep almost immediately. Dr. Hardy got some water from the well outside, Jack not even having a kitchen or a bathroom in his house. He forced Jack to sit up and drink it, then left him be. There was a knock on the open door. I looked over and saw a squinty-eyed old man with dark hair and an anchor tattoo on his arm, a towel around his shoulders.
"Can I help you?" I asked.
"Ah, I was just checking out what was going on here. I saw Dr. Hardy getting some water at the well and the door was open. I live about ten feet away in the cabin over there," he pointed out to the right.
"Oh. I'm Jill, Jack's twin," I said. The man nodded.
"I know about you," he said, walking over to where I sat next to Jack on the bed.
"Oh, did Jack talk about me?" I asked. The man smiled, causing his eyes to squint even more.
"Not your brother Jack. Your father. I knew him very well once upon a time," he said. My eyebrows raised.
"You knew my father?"
"Yes. My name's Takakura. I was actually good friends with his father, your grandfather. I haven't seen your father since he ran away, but he still writes to me," Takakura said. I couldn't hide the shock on my face.
"My father ran away? I mean, he's told me that his own father was a little overbearing but I didn't think he had run away," I said. Takakura nodded.
"Keith, your grandfather, had always been very strict, but that wasn't what had caused your father to run away. It was when Keith died that Jack didn't want the responsibility of keeping up the family farm. So, he ran away to Mineral Town to work with the blacksmith Saibara. But, it didn't work out for Jack, so he ran away to the other side of Abra Island, where he was pressured to save an entire town through farming. That's why your brother's here now. Your father wanted him to save what was left of the farm he had abandoned," Takakura finished. Wow, was not exactly expecting an entire history here.
"So this is my grandfather's farm? And Jack totally failed because he's an idiot," I pointedly said the last part loudly to my brother's sleeping form. I kept staring at him.
"Are you only here to visit?" Takakura asked. I sighed and shook my head.
"I was planning on living here. But I'm weak and sick. I was expecting to just help out by feeding chickens or watering a couple plants or something. Not totally rejuvenating an entire farm," I said, my frustration clear.
"Goddess, this is stressful," I continued, holding my head in my hands. Dr. Hardy pat me on the head roughly.
"Oh, come on Jill. You're not as weak as everyone makes you think. You can help your brother by a lot," he said. I looked up at him, trying to hold back tears. I was just so frustrated.
"I don't know. . ." I muttered. I shook my head.
"Jill, this farm is doomed anyway. You might as well take what is already destined to fail and change its outcome. There is nothing much worse you can do to this farm," Takakura said. I bit my lip. That kind of helped.
"I guess I can try," I said. Takakura smiled.
"I'm happy to hear that."
I smiled a little back.
"I guess I'll go visit while this shlop rots away," I said, getting up. I stepped outside, looking around.
"This place is awful," I muttered, walking down the path towards the town once more.
"Do you need me to walk you around, Jill?" Takakura called out.
"I'm good!" I called. I didn't really want to start out my new life having my hand held already. I wanted as much independence as I could get without killing me. I decided to go to the bar first to apologize to that girl. I walked into the building, and the girl was there again. When she saw me, she looked downwards.
"Welcome," she squeaked out. I walked up to the bar, sitting down.
"Could I just get water please?" I asked. She nodded, making sure not to look at me. She quickly got me a glass of water, condensation proving that it was icy. I dragged it closer to me, but didn't take a sip yet.
"I'm sorry I snapped at you earlier. I was just really shocked to see my brother wasting away like that," I said, quiet. The girl smiled sadly.
"You're his sister?" she asked in the same volume. I scoffed.
"Unfortunately. His twin, even better," I said. She seemed intrigued by this bit of information.
"Wow, I wouldn't have thought it but now that you say it, it's a little too obvious," I grimaced a little at that.
"Do I really resemble him so?" I asked.
"Oh no, no, it's only your faces. I can already tell there's quite a lot of difference between you two," I laughed a little.
"Well that's a relief. We better hope so if I'm expected to save that goddess-forsaken farm," I finally took a big gulp from the glass of water.
"You're taking over the farm?" the blonde asked. I nodded, pressing my thumb to the roof of my mouth. I had a brain freeze.
"Don't expect much though," I said through my thumb. The girl giggled.
I took out my thumb, looking at her.
"So, um, I'm Jill," I said.
"Muffy," the girl said. I smiled.
"Nice to meet you, Muffy," I replied. She nodded, smiling.
"Yes, nice to meet you."
I really liked this Muffy girl. We had been talking for hours, mostly about all of her failed boyfriends and careers, but she still had this inherent kindness and humor about her. I had never really had a friend my own age before, although Muffy was a couple years older.
"So now you're living with this older guy Griffin?" I asked. He had walked in before and introduced himself to me, but went into the back room, which I now knew was their own rooms.
"Yeah," Muffy replied, giggling a little. I smiled.
"And you guys are dating now, or. . .?" Muffy's eyes grew wide.
"NO! No, no, no, not at all. He's, like, a decade older than me," she said, waving her arms around.
"Oh, so then is there anyone you like?" I asked. Muffy's look grew pensive.
"Well, not really. I mean, there's this guy named Marlin that's pretty cute. And honestly, Jack's pretty good-looking, too. But I don't really see myself with either of them. Especially Marlin because he's obviously in love with the other farmer's daughter, Celia. He's really over-protective of her because she's so sickly," Muffy explained.
"I feel like I don't like the guy already. And Jack's gross, what the hell?" I said. Muffy shook her head, smiling.
"Oh, Marlin's not bad at all. He can be a little mean but he's really sweet. I've known him for a couple of years now. And I can't help it if I think Jack's cute. Besides, I just told you I don't really see myself with him. Plus, you should take my finding him cute a compliment, since you're twins," she winked. I laughed.
"I guess so, yeah," I replied. Muffy laughed a little with me. Suddenly, a bunch of people came in at once, surprising me. I had been the only other person in here for hours. I looked outside, and was surprised at how much darker the sky had become. I looked at the clock above the door.
"Six o'clock?!" I exclaimed. I had been here for somewhere around eight hours, or something. My goddess. Muffy giggled.
"Yeah, we've been talking for a really long time."
"Yeah, just a little bit," I said, still shocked. The people sat down next to me, all but one looking at me. There were two almost identical old guys, some weird-looking blonde guy, and an orange-haired girl with glasses, the only one looking preoccupied with something else.
"Hey Muffs," the blonde guy said, waving her over. Muffy smiled and went over to him.
"Yes Rock?" she said. He leaned in.
"Who's the chic?" he whispered loudly. I raised an eyebrow. He glanced over at me and saw me looking, causing him to wink. That shocked me. Muffy giggled.
"Why don't you ask her yourself?"
"No, no, introduce me," he adjusted his little white vest thing.
"Everyone, this is Jill. Jill, this is Kasey, Patrick, Rock, and Flora," Muffy smiled at me.
"Hello," I said, waving. The old guys looked like they were inspecting me intently. I gave Muffy a look, pleading to be rescued. She shook her head, making a reassuring little gesture with her hands.
"Um, can I help you?" I asked. I saw Rock slap Muffy on the shoulder lightly, complaining about something.
"Do you like fireworks?" one of them suddenly asked, voice gruff.
"Um, I don't . . . really know. . ."
"Do you not know . . . what they are?" the other asked, sounding incredulous. I couldn't remember which one was which.
"Well . . . no, not exactly. I've only read about them," I said. The twins shook their head.
"Unbelievable," they muttered together, and started whispering to each other, glancing over at me every few seconds. Muffy came back over to me.
"Rock's too insecure to introduce himself," she said. Rock yelped.
"Muffy! I keep telling you! Introduction! Like 'oh have you met Rock? I would go out with him but I'm too busy shacking up with some old guitar player I'm completely in love with', you know? Something like that," he said. Muffy ran over to him and smacked him on the head.
"Shut up, you idiot," she said. Suddenly, Griffin came in.
"Sorry, Muffy, I was in the bathroom," he said, taking his position behind the bar as well. Muffy shook her head, biting her lip a little.
"O-oh, it's fine, Griffin," she said. Rock wiggled his eyebrows and she glared at him. She went over to the girl named Flora, asking her what she wanted. Flora looked like she was being brought back to a different reality. She answered quietly and Muffy nodded, getting her drink. I decided to leave and try to get some rest.
"I'm going to head out, Muffy," I said. Muffy looked around quickly and waved, smiling big.
"Alrighty, Jill, take care!" she called as I left.
It was really starting to get chilly. The spring still had some frosty bites left in the early and late hours of the day. A quick wind blew and caused me to hold my arms, rubbing up and down and jumping a little. I walked to Jack's house. Well, our house now. I walked in quickly, the room dark and abandoned, save for a snoring Jack. I groaned. I wasn't going to get a lot of sleep with his snoring every night. I'd have to work on getting that fixed very soon. Maybe I could sleep in the chicken coop, if it didn't look right near to falling with the slightest gust of wind. I turned on a light, which was only a single bulb in the middle of the room that didn't illuminate much.
I didn't know where I was going to sleep. Maybe the chicken coop really was my only choice. There was no way I could sleep with his loud snoring. I shrugged, going to one of my suitcases and pulling out a blanket. I went to my brother's bed and stole a pillow, then went to the trunk at the foot of his bed. I grabbed a bunch of his clothes and stacked them on top of both the stolen pillow and my blanket. I looked all around for a flashlight, but only found some matches and a small candle in my brother's toolbox. I went outside, opening the door with some difficulty, but managing, and turned off the light with my nose.
The night had descended quickly with only a very little amount of light left. I stumbled toward the outline of fragile structure in front of me. I opened the chicken coop's door cautiously, expecting some onslaught of chickens, or something. I peered in, the dark coop silent. I put down my makeshift bedding carefully onto the dirt so I could take out a match and light the candle I had put in a jar, but I only got very little light from the small flame. I didn't immediately see anything, so I just decided to kick in my bedding and closed the door, trying to suppress the fear at being in a dark room with unknown contents. I looked around, and saw little nests and a shipping box, but no chickens anywhere in the yellow hay. I shrugged, turning around back to my bedding. Suddenly, I heard a very small chirp.
It was freaking adorable.
I turned around, trying to illuminate the little nests once more, looking extra carefully. In the third nest I inspected, there was a very small, yellow chick. Its little black eyes blinked and another small chirp came from the little creature. I swear I almost freaking exploded, the damned thing was so cute. Honestly, nothing I had ever seen had been so cute. I immediately cooed and put down the candle on one of the nests' wooden frame. I took the little chick into my hands carefully, taking a closer look.
Another chirp sounded, and I squeaked a little. I couldn't handle it. It was a very small chirp, though, and a closer revealed some crusty eyes. I think it was sick. It was shaking, almost unnoticeable because it was so quick. My heart broke and burst all at the same time.
"Oh darling. . ." I whispered. I put it to my cheek, then kissed it.
"Don't worry," I continued, "I'll take care of you, little chirpy."
I don't know why I called it that, but I just went with it. I went over to my bedding and made my bed right next to the nest with the chirpy little bird. I put down my brother's clothes and his pillow, then lay down with my blanket on top of me. I closed my eyes, sighing as I thought of all the days ahead.
"At least I have you to help me start out, little chirpy," I mumbled sleepily. There was no response. I sat up and looked at the little bird, heart racing. It didn't die, did it? I realized I had forgotten to snuff out the candle. I inspected the chick, and saw that it had simply fallen asleep, its little body breathing. I smiled, relieved, and blew out the candle.
I PROMISE I'LL BRING IN SKYE NEXT CHAPTER OH MY GOD
I already wrote most of it. Just gotta shove him in there. Jesus.
