Chapter Seven
I went to the beach after my shower. I really needed somewhere tranquil, and currently, my farm was in too much disrepair to be relaxing at the moment. I sunk into the sand, pulling my shoes off. The sand was warm as I dug my feet in, wiggling my toes. I felt like crying, but at the same time, I begged myself not to. I suddenly missed what had been gone for so long. I wanted the pain to go away, back to small little box I kept it in my chest.
I pressed my forehead to me knees and let out a slow breath. I had to remind myself that things changed. Sometimes for the better... sometimes for the worst. I couldn't let myself keep going back. I couldn't keep retracing my steps back to those times. I couldn't keep seeing Grandma Williams' lineoleum floors or Gray's white plush bedroom carpet. I definitely couldn't keep seeing the worn-down blue carpet of my childhood home.
I swallowed roughly... then I screamed, directing my voice at the sand. I don't know why I screamed. It definitely blew some of the steam out that was fogging my brain.
"What are you doing? Are you OK?" My eyes flew open and I blinked towards the voice. It was Kai, standing with a beer, an eyebrow cocked up, "Claire?"
"I..." I blushed madly, "I thought I was alone."
"Did you forget my resturaunt is here?" Kai asked, gesturing with his beer to it. I had. But I lied and shook my head no. After a few moments, a smile spread across his face, "Come on. Let me make you a meal. You seem like you've had a rough day so far." He grabbed my wrist and yanked me to my feet. Across the sand Kai towed me, "I bet you've had nothing like it. I've been trained by only the best around the world. You won't regret it!" As we entered the shack, it was decorated in beach fun. Shells and floatation devices adorned the walls. A beautiful ocean mural was done across the far left wall. Kai had stars in his eyes as he entered it, "Sit right here!" Kai pulled me a bar stool out. I eased myself up onto it and folded my hands in my lap. Kai smiled and rounded the bar, "One second." He knelt down. I heard a bottle hiss. He slid a Hawaiian Shocktop beer down the bar for me. He then zoomed by and stuck a lime in the bottle neck part of it. "I'll make you the special." He said with a grin and turned his back to cook.
I took this time to admire the art work on the label. It was an assortment of fruit that made up a man's head with sunglasses. I squeezed the lime in and sucked on it for a moment before I took a swig of the beer. It was punchy, fruity, and tangy. I liked it quite a bit.
"So, why all the screaming?" Kai asked, glancing over his shoulder as he shoved pots and pans around on his gas stove, "Is it the sun?"
"Yes, farming is overwhelming," I said, almost telling the complete truth.
"Still better than The City?"
"In every way, yes."
"People get burnt out, I get that," Kai grabbed his beer and turned to me, stepping away from his station, "I think The City is great. It's probably one of my favorites. I've been to quite a few cities around the world, too."
"And yet every summer you still come to Mineral Town?" I asked, wiping the sweat of my beer on my jeans, "After seeing the tallest sky scrapers and travelling to the Edges of the World, you still would prefer to spend twelve weeks in Mineral Town?"
"Absolutely," Kai said eagerly. He gave a pot a good stir, "This is the first and only restaraunt I've owned. I keep calling it my trial period... have been for about three years," He laughed at this and drank from his beer, "Mineral Town is the first place I ever took a gamble on myself. You see, typically I do contract work. But I spend my time in Mineral Town to dedicate myself to owning and running my own business," He tossed some sauté vegetables around in a pan, "I found this shack on their website. It was supposed to be in working condition, but when I came to look at it, it was wrecked. But Mayor Thomas promised fixing it up would be worth it. Who knew that little freak was right about something."
"That weasel," I shook my head, "He did the same thing to me with the farm. The ad had beautiful as nearly every other damn word-"
"Same."
"... and when I showed up, it looked like a graveyard!"
"Mayor Thomas is an ass," Kai made a face as he plated the food on the lower part of the bar, away from my gaze, "But I'm glad you're here!" This made me smile. He whipped the plate onto the bar, setting it right in front of me, "Here's the special of the day! You got your sauté vegetables, carrots, mushrooms, broccoli- and over here is my own invention: baked corn! And right here, you got your steak, cooked rare, nice and bloody, with my homemade gravy," Kai set silverware out on the bar, too.
"Wow, this looks good," I said. It truly looked appetizingly fresh. The colors were bright and the arrangement was pristine. Kai was a talented cook. I tried every part of the meal for him right away, arching my eyebrows and nodding approvingly, "Kai, this is so good. I could eat here every day."
"Well, why don't you?" Kai asked, leaning forward on the bar and drinking his beer.
"It'd only last, like, four days on my current salary," I laughed as I speared a soft boiled piece of broccoli on my fork.
"You don't owe me anything for your meals!" Kai said, recycling his empty bottle under the bar. He immediately popped another open.
"What? No, that's ridiculous. This is a plate of food worthy of paying for!" I said behind a full mouth, which only seemed to make Kai's smile bigger.
"No, local business to local business, we help each other out," Kai grinned, beating his fist against his chest, "And besides, Claire, you're my friend!"
Friend. Ann and Kai had become my friends. Never had I ever made so many friends so quickly. In fact, I was sure I never had three friends at once during my lifetime. I think Gray had been my only friend for more than half my life. I found myself smiling back at Kai, my cheeks warm and flushed. He was someone I already felt fond of, despite only having known him for a day or so. If Gray liked him, there had to be a good reason, and I felt I had already struck that within the personality of this culinary-student.
In the next moment, the front door was opening and a little bell was jingling out loud. Kai peered around me and his face lit up, "Hey, Gray! Grab a seat!" He quickly crossed to the fridge and pulled a beer out, serving it with a lime. Gray climbed onto the barstool next to me. He had unbuttoned the top of his coveralls to reveal a loose white undershirt. His face was red and he missed some soot that was on his neck and jawline and right above his left eyebrow. His hands were clean but some of his nails had dust stuck under them. He stretched his legs when he sat down and tossed his hat onto the barstool beside him, ruffling his red hair which was growing quite shaggy.
"How was work?" Kai asked, already working over the stove again.
"The one fan we have in the shop stopped working today," Gray replied after taking his first refreshing sip of beer, "My grandpa is such a cheap ass he says he'll fix it when he gets around to it. It'll be snowin' before that happens, feh," He glanced towards what I was eating, "Are you making me what she's eating? It looks good."
"Yeah," Kai didn't look up from the stove top, "It's today's special."
"I want double the baked corn."
"Aye, aye, Captain," Kai grinned towards us, "Gray is a nut for my baked corn. I'm convinced it's his favorite food in the whole wide world! Order up!" Kai put nearly an identical plate in front of Gray. It was amazing how consistent he was. I was just scraping the last of my meal off my plate. I was running the brocolli through the steak juices, relishing in every bite. I then returned to my beer as Kai put the plate into a deep sink against the wall beside the entry to the pantry.
"So, where'd you visit these past couple of months?" Gray asked, smacking his lips as he chowed down on the baked corn first. The two fell into a very deep conversation about travelling and geography. Gray seemed so interested in hearing Kai's travelling tales. I watched the side of Gray's face, focusing on his eyes, to see he seemed envious of Kai. Like he wanted to travel, but his poor wings had been clipped. I was entertained by the first two stories Kai told.
The first story was his time in a Port City, specializing in a seafood and sushi restaraunt. His station was typically always the meals that required cooked fish. However, he had a great, and funny, story about the time he was sprung onto the sushi bar line, allowed himself to run low on fish, and as punishment, the boss made him sit out on the dock behind the restaraunt, waiting to catch more fish before the dinner rush. "I caught two catfish and a salmon in two hours-time. They were not impressed with my angling skills to say the least," Kai laughed, obviously intoxicated by now.
His next story was about helping the bar out at happy hour one evening during the Trivia game. The bartenders weren't supposed to help the guests with the questions, however, one of the categories was food, and majority of the bartenders were chefs, so together they made bets to see who could get their table to win. Kai described his method of writing the answers down on napkins. At the end of the night his table was the winner of the category and the bartenders, with big huffs, paid Kai collectively $60 for his amazing food trivia skills. Gray listened while he ate, most likely self-inserting himself into the fun stories.
Kai's travel tales began to grow risque. He soon began talking about the women he dated. He didn't hold back on the details of sleeping with them. Still, Gray listened silently and without judgement. His face didn't even twitch when Kai told him the few instances he had taken drugs.
I eventually began to feel like I was impeding. Gray hadn't seen his friend in a year's time and a lot changes in three-hundred and sixty-five days. I finished my beer, stood up, and said, "Thanks for the meal and beers, Kai. I should be getting back to my farm."
"Aw, are you sure?" Kai asked with nearly a pouting look.
"Yeah, I'll see ya," I waved to him and nodded to Gray, whose face was buried behind more baked corn. I left without another word.
...
I sat in my half cleared field and watched the orange sun sink behind the beautiful mountains. For such an ugly farm, it did have a really nice view. My seedlings were still just mounds of dirt and I hoped to the bottom of my heart I had what it took to turn them into golden pineapples. The sky was so peaceful and colorful. My eyes followed some birds squawking above. I sat back on my hands, listening to the cicadas chirp, welcoming the nighttime with their bountiful orchestra from the trees.
"Hey, Claire!" I looked over my shoulder to see Kai standing at the opening of my farm. I looked back towards the sun and listened to his flip flops crunch through the fields. When he seated himself, he threw something in between us. It was a six pack of Hawaiian Shocktops. "How about a drink to put a cap on the day?" He asked, popping a cap off a bottle without waiting and handing it to me. I grinned and took the bottle into my hand, twisting the cap in my palm as it glinted in the evening sun. Kai opened one for himself and took a long sip. The silence between us was comfortable as we watched the sun sink behind Mother Hill.
"So, what's up?" I asked.
"Well, I just wanted to come find you. Earlier, I think you felt a little left out since I was doin' all the talking," Kai explained, "After you left, Gray got his chance to catch me up on his past year... and well, I learned a little bit more about you."
"Oh, really, now?" I cocked an eyebrow up, feeling the onset of a buzz from the beer.
"Yeah, Gray's never talked about his childhood much, but he told me how you two were... what'd he say...?" Kai searched for his words for a moment, "I think he said best friend, but I was thinkin' more of childhood sweetheart. Anyway," Kai shook his head, "he told me how it'd been so long since you two had even talked to each other. He said he felt bad by how awkward it was between you two, that he wanted to change that, yada yada," Kai laughed, "He's not very good with his emotions, though."
"And why are you telling me this?"
"Well," Kai rubbed the nape of his neck, "I like you both. I don't want any awkwardness. It doesn't have to be that way, y'know? I know it's probably weird seeing him as a full grown man when the last you saw him he was a pre-teen, but Gray's a good guy and one of my closest friends on this planet," Kai shrugged, "I wanted to invite you back to lunch officially tomorrow at the Snack Shack so all three of us can be together."
"How nice of you," I laughed, "I do love your cooking so I won't say no. Besides, I would like to have more time to chat with Gray. He seems to be busy all day, nearly every day."
"Yeah, he does work a lot," Kai replied, "But he gets Thursday's off. That's the day Saibara usually goes to Waffle Island to play poker with some war buddies of his."
"Well, then, it's a date," I told him. He clanked his beer against mine and let out a relaxed sigh, looking towards my fields. By now it had grown dark and the stars stretched across the farm. I leaned back on my hands and looked at the sky, tilting my head. It was amazing the stars I could see. I thought back to my astronomy class in high school and tried to pick out constellations, but my memory failed me. I was too mesmerized by the streaks of purple and white flow through the center of the inky sky. "What're you growing?" Kai asked, using his beer to gesture to the garden.
"Pineapples," I said without tearing my eyes from the celestial sphere surrounding us.
"Pineapples!" Kai cried, "That's my favorite thing in the whole wide world!"
"What? No way," I laughed, leaning forward to cock my face at him, "You're lying."
"Nu uh! It's the truth," Kai smiled, "I eat pineapple flavored anything from anywhere! I'll have to take you down to Forget Me Not Valley sometime. There's an inn there that makes delicious chinese food, but also pineapple shaved ice. It's to die for!"
"Forget Me Not Valley?" I cocked an eyebrow up.
"It's the neighboring village. It's down in the little valley. You've never heard of it?" I grinned and shook my head, "You can see it from the top of Mother Hill!" Kai pointed up at the looming figure in the darkness over the trees, "Come on, let's go! I bet it looks pretty lit up at night!" Kai wobbled to his feet and took hold of my wrist, pulling me up after him. I drank some more of my beer and clumsily staggered off with him towards the bridge at the back of the property. Kai held my hand as we walked side by side, like drunken fools, "There's so many nice people down in the valley," Kai continued with a dreamy voice, velvety in the nighttime. Our boots thudded over the rickety bridge and we listened to the river gush beneath us. Next, we came to the gravel road, "There's a woman named Vesta down there who grows a lot of the vegetables sold at our street markets," Kai said, "She will pluck tomatos and eat them like apples. She taught me a greater appreciation for ingredients."
"So, cooking is your passion?" I asked as we began up the incline. My legs were screaming at me from the sudden exercise, but I continued on in my drunken stupor.
"I've always wanted to be a chef," Kai nodded, "My mom owned a bakery in the small rural town I grew up in. She made puff pastries and air cakes."
"Sounds devine," I smiled.
"Yeah, she encouraged me to explore the world and broaden my horizons. She gave me the money for my boat, actually. I want to make her proud so I study around the clock all year." We passed another bridge now and our hands parted so we could take the steep incline, "I take it easy while I'm here in Mineral Town, but when I'm gone, I'm studying and learning the next thing to help me be the best chef I can be."
"When will you be that?" I asked, pulling myself around a large rock, "How will you know when you acheive that?"
"When I feel satisfied with myself," Kai said as we got to the top. The wind rustled the loose ends of his royal purple bandana, "When I am finally content with who I am."
I tucked a strand of hair behind my ear as I stared deep into his drunk brown eyes. He then tore his gaze away and pointed out into the distance, "Look! Forget Me Not Valley, isn't it beautiful?!" I looked into the glittering of lights nestled deep in the valley that caved inward towards the sea.
"It is," I drank more beer and sat down, dangling my legs off the edge. Kai joined me.
"So, whaddya say? Pineapple shaved ice this weekend?"
I smiled as I finished my beer, "Maybe I'll take you up on that offer." I shrugged, leaning back on my hands to watch the stars from the even better view I had now. Kai leaned back to join in the stargazing, pressing his hand over mine.
