The morning was bright and sunny, in high contrast to the day before. Dew sparkled on every surface and the sky was still pink and orange when Jovi awoke. She hopped out from under the sheets, wiggled her toes, and rolled her shoulders up and down. She felt surprisingly good.
"Thank God I'm not sick or anything," she said to herself as she dressed for the day. Letting Finn out with a short, sharp look of admonition, she followed the side of her house around and beamed at what lay before her.
The milky tops of plump turnips peaked out from under the ground and a tuft of floppy green leaves protruded from their tops like hair. Enthusiastically, she set to work harvesting her produce. She dropped seventeen into the shipping box, kept two, and fed one to Finn, who happened to be very fond of vegetables. Jovi had a faint idea for a recipe including turnips that she might try later on.
"Today is a good day, huh, Finn?" she asked the puppy who was licking his bear paws clean with a pink tongue.
On the other hand, Jamie was not having such a grand time as Jovi. He had caught a nasty cold from being in the rain for so long. He pulled the blankets up over his face and stared into the cloth.
Stupid Jovi and her stupid dog, he thought before he erupted into a violent fit of sneezing. His nose was running but he was too weak to fetch himself a tissue. His ears and head boomed and his muscles and eyes ached. He felt as if he couldn't get warm enough under his patterned quilt, but his body poured out perspiration. Jamie was miserable.
"Oh! I've got nothing to plant, now!" Jovi discovered. Finn cocked his head to the left. "I have to go and buy some more seeds. Do you want to come with me?"
"Rrrrran!" replied Finn.
"You have to promise not to wander off." She crouched before him. He licked her check feverously. "Alright, alright, I believe you," she laughed.
The girl and her furry companion trotted down the path to the Spring Farm, where they sold the seeds for the crops that were in season. They arrived after a bit and Jovi stuck her head in the doorway. The air was cool inside. No one was at the counter.
"Hello?" Jovi called. "Anyone home?"
A flustered Nina hurried forward from the other room.
"Sorry! My mother is out shopping and she left me in charge. I was making breakfast and forgot to watch the store. Sorry." The pink-haired girl seemed embarrassed.
"Don't sweat it," Jovi smiled and walked further into the shop, Finn on her heels. "I came to buy some more seeds."
"Oh! Did your turnips turn out well?"
"Yeah! Finn says they taste absolutely superb, isn't that right, Finn?"
"Arrrran!"
Nina's eyes darted down to look upon the floppy-eared puppy named Finn.
"A dog! Oh, how I love animals!" She sped around the counter and collapsed on her knees before Finn, squeezing his cheeks, telling him how adorable he was and how much she wished for a pet like him, and petting his silky fur.
"Your dog's so nice! I can't even go near Jamie's dog- it's so aggressive. There was a rumor going around a while back that it was actually a wolf!" Her face was expressive as she said, "I even believed it for a while."
She laughed and Jovi joined in.
"Speaking of Jamie, I heard from Bob that he hasn't made any shipments this morning. He usually has all of his crops in the box by seven. I wonder what's wrong." Nina tapped her chin with a finger.
"Bob? I'm afraid I haven't met him, yet," admitted Jovi.
"Bob is the one who takes care of Flower Bud's deliveries and pays the people who ship them. He's a really nice guy, but he can come on strong at first. I'm sure you'll like him," Nina nodded.
"I see. I live up by Jamie," the new rancher said.
"Perhaps you should drop by and see how he's doing."
"I just might. Finn got lost last night in the rain and Jamie found him and brought him home. I think Jamie's really just a big softie," Jovi giggled.
"A… softie, huh?" Nina processed this in her little head and Jovi browsed through the seed pouches before her on the counter.
"Can I take four of these 'breadfruits'?" she asked. "What are breadfruits anyways?"
Nina stood and said, "They're a necessary ingredient for pastries and breads. It takes seven days to grow and you can harvest it more than once. That will be three hundred and fifteen G's."
Jovi paid and bid the girl farewell. As the new farmer left, Nina crossed her arms over her chest and hummed thoughtfully.
"Jamie's a softie now? He isn't kind to anyone else." She mulled it over in her head before reaching a shocking conclusion. She ran to Blue Sky Ranch to tell Ellen.
Kdonk! Kdonk! Kdonk! Jovi rapped on Jamie's door. She had been trying for about five minutes. Her foot tapped impatiently. She didn't like being held up. Finally, she trudged around his big house and balanced on a fence post. She clung to a window ledge and peered inside. She felt wrong for doing it, but she needed to know what was up with Jamie. Suddenly, she drew in a sharp breath.
There, in a bed with the sheets and pillows in a jumble, Jamie lay, red-faced and not moving.
"Oh no." Jovi's breath fogged up the window even though it was at least seventy degrees Fahrenheit outside. "He must've caught a bug from running around in the rain looking for Finn."
At the mention of his name, below her, Finn whimpered. Then he shot straight up and barked loudly in one direction, his tail wagging with either excitement or apprehension. Across the way, a black figure stood majestically on four legs.
"Is that… a dog?" Jovi squinted.
It was, indeed, a dog. Jamie's dog to be precise. It glared at Jovi and Finn from afar, its lip folded upward in a silent snarl. Then, it strutted boldly over and growled loudly, bearing white canines.
Jovi, as smoothly and quietly as possible, stepped down from the fence and bent before the animal.
"It's okay, doggie. I won't hurt you. I just want to help Jamie."
Unperturbed, he arched his back and barked once.
However, Jovi was also unafraid. She stuck out her hand for the dog to smell her. He did, and although he didn't react nicely to her friendly gesture, he didn't react badly, and he swaggered proudly away, leaving Jovi and Finn alone.
"Let's hurry. Jamie is sick and we have to help him get better," Jovi said and hefted Finn under one arm and scurried around the bend to their house. In her small kitchen, she chopped up one of the turnips she saved and dropped it in some boiling water. She added salt moderately and bits of a green herb she'd found at the base of a tree earlier that day after finishing up with harvesting her turnips.
Soon, it was bubbling and putting off a rather therapeutic-smelling vapor. Carefully, she carried the still-hot dish over to Jamie's house. Not bothering to knock, she tried the doorknob and found it was locked. She knew, from city life, that usually, people put extra house keys outside their doors just in case. Cleverly, Jovi found one under the doormat and unlocked the door with a kaclick! Not wasting any time, she found the closest bathroom and rummaged about in the medicine cabinet for aspirin and a thermometer. She found both and hastened to Jamie's side. He looked terrible.
Jovi shoved the thermometer in his mouth and his eyes shot open and he flung up in bed.
"What are you doing in my house?!" he hollered and then winced as his head rang painfully. "H-how did you even get in here?" He said this more calmly and cringed as the words came out.
"I know a few things about keys," Jovi put simply. "Come on, lay back down. You're lucky to be conscious right now. You're temperature is…" She read the little red line in the glass tube. "A hundred and four."
Jamie sighed. "If you had just taken care of your silly dog, this wouldn't have happened."
Jovi sighed too. "I know. I'm sorry."
"I could probably report you to the mayor for breaking and entering."
"I know. But I couldn't just stand by and watch you suffer, after everything you did for me, finding Finn and all," she brushed a few strands of his purple hair back from his sweaty, hot forehead. Jamie was glad his face was ruby with fever so that Jovi couldn't see the blush conquering his cheeks. The girl with yellow hair left for a minute and returned with a cold wet washcloth. She pressed it against Jamie's skin as he looked off into space, trying not to make eye contact with his new personal nurse.
"I brought you some soup. Do you want it?"
Reluctantly, Jamie looked up at Jovi and nodded. He hadn't eaten a thing today. Jovi helped him sit up slowly and relax against three layers of pillows. She placed the steaming soup before him and watched as he carefully slurped down a mouthful.
"How is it? Does it taste good?" She leaned forward enthusiastically.
He nodded. "Yes, it's good. You made it with your turnips, didn't you?"
Jovi smiled big. "Uh huh. I didn't really have a recipe to go off of. I just kind of winged it- tried my luck at a new dish."
Jamie jolted.
"I was the tester of an experiment recipe? I could've been poisoned!" He was aghast.
"But you weren't, right?" Jovi said quickly. "And how do you feel?"
"Better than before," he said after pausing.
"See?" She grinned from ear to ear. Jamie looked away and stirred his turnip soup a little to cool it off.
"You're really annoying," he said, but there really wasn't any bitterness in his voice.
"I don't try to be," she said back and handed him a couple aspirin tablets. "I just try to be myself."
Jamie thought about the hard exoskeleton he wore to make himself look tough and unemotional. What he saw when he looked at Jovi was really her- not some made-up pawn. He wanted that, too.
"Thank you… for coming over… even though you didn't have to," he said quietly, then took another sip of broth and swallowed the aspirin.
"Please, Jamie, don't be so modest. It was the least I could do. It's my fault you got sick anyways," Jovi said. She stood up. "Now, is there anything that I can do for you while you rest? Water crops? Feed animals? Anything?"
"Well…" He thought for a moment. "The livestock need to be put out to pasture and the crops need to be harvested and watered… But you don't have to-"
"Okay then, I'll be back in a bit to check up on you," Jovi cut him off and went out the front door. Jamie stared at his soup.
Why does she have to be so… good? he asked himself as he ate silently.
Outside, Jovi filled Jamie's watering can- which was a load nicer than her hand-me-down one- and swept a sheet of water over each plant. There were so many. She harvested turnips, breadfruit, potatoes, cabbages- all of which she placed in Jamie's shipping box.
"That had to have cost a fortune," Jovi said to herself in envy.
Next, she hopped over the wooden stakes creating a perimeter around a grassy section of land and entered a large stable. Two sheep and a cow turned their heads toward Jovi and blinked dark eyes. She picked up a bell from a shelf on the wall, held it above her head, and rang it. The animals lurched into action, hurrying out the door. She put the bell back and walked outside. The cows and sheep were munching on the long green grass happily. Jovi smiled.
"I wonder when I'll get livestock, too."
Her work was done, so Jovi returned to Jamie's side to find he was fast asleep, an empty bowl in his hands. She took the dish and set it aside. Then she flipped the cold washcloth around on his forehead to the unused side. He didn't budge.
"Poor Jamie," she sighed.
Jamie's eyes fluttered open. He sat up and looked around him. Outside the window, the sky was dark.
"Agh! The animals!" he exclaimed when he realized that he had been in bed the entire day and went to throw the blankets off himself, but stopped as his hands felt a piece of paper that had been laid on his stomach. He held it before his eyes. A little purple flower with a green stem decorated the front of the folded sheet and a yellow and black bumble bee leading a curvy dotted line hovered above the petals. Jamie opened it up. Inside, in the same happy purple as the flower, words had been scrawled in untidy handwriting.
Jamie,
Don't worry; I put the livestock back in the barn. Just stay in bed and get better. I'll be over to check on you in the morning.
Rest well,
Jovi
P.S. Did you know you talk in your sleep? You kept going on about squirrels and things.
Jamie set the paper on his nightstand and lay back down. He closed his eyes. She'd be over in the morning.
At Jovi's house, she looked at the packets of breadfruit seeds in her hands.
"I didn't get a thing planted today," she said. "At least I helped Jamie out…"
Tired from the hectic day, she gathered up Finn in her arms and tucked herself into bed. Her diary entry for that night read,
Dear Diary,
I feel like such a dope. Because I didn't keep watch Finn more carefully and he got lost, Jamie is ill today because he was out all night in the rain looking for him. So, naturally, I just had to give him a helping hand. I made him some soup- with my own home-grown turnips- and worked around his farm for him. I must say, that was the sickest I've seen anyone. His temperature was way up there and his face was all red. I feel really guilty. I'm going to go check on him in the morning. I hope he won't hate me that much.
~Jovi
Finally, she laid the little book of her thoughts down and snuggled into the mattress. Within minutes, she was fast asleep.
Merry Christmas, everyoooooonnnneeeee~!
