VIII. "You ever feel like no matter what you do, you're going to fail?"

More than a week had passed since the power outage and her brief stay at Marnie's. Since then, Lucy hadn't seen Shane a lot. Then again, she rarely ventured out of town as she focused on tending to her crops and trying to tame the miniature forest that the farm had become in times of disuse. The good news was, she had finally had a coop made, thanks to the shipments of crops that she'd religiously taken care of in her first week. On that sunny Sunday, with the bulk of her work done, she thought she'd look through her letters and answer them.

Sorting through the letters of requests again, Lucy saw that she hadn't resolved the purple shorts one yet. She'd gone through every request, but she just hadn't encountered any shorts, purple or not. Not that you could expect to see shorts just lying around town. Well, Mayor Lewis will have to do without his shorts, then, she thought, dismissing it.

Seeing the letter her dad had sent her a week ago, the one where he joked about eating eggs, Lucy thought about buying a chick at last. Why not? She had a fair amount of gold right now, and it was still an hour before Marnie's shop closed.

Walking through Cindersap Forest, Lucy inhaled the scent of grass and the sweet air. It had never been this sweet-smelling in the city. Then again, she'd hardly ever gone out. Her job at Joja had left her too tired to go off and enjoy what the city had to offer. It was weird, she reflected, to think that she was working twice as hard on the farm, but didn't feel the fatigue that she had when she was working in an office cubicle. She smiled. Maybe farming was in her blood, after all.

"Hey, Marnie!" she called out as she opened the ranch's door.

"Lucy! What a nice surprise." Marnie dusted her hands on her dress. "What can I do for you today?"

"I'm here to buy my first chicken," Lucy said, unable to keep the excitement from her voice.

"Great!" Marnie said. After picking out a chick, Lucy paid the woman with gold. She cuddled the soft, warm chick against her chest.

"Remember, she needs to be fed with hay every day, or if you don't have a silo yet, just let her at some grass." Lucy nodded as Marnie rattled off details on how to take care of chicks.

"Well then, thanks for everything, Marnie," Lucy said as Marnie finally wound down. "I'm going back to the farm to put Cheepa in her new home."

At this, Marnie gave a start and exclaimed, "It's six PM? I promised Caroline I'd deliver her some hay for her chickens!" Marnie rushed into the adjoining room and emerged with a stack of hay in her arms. "Would you be a dear and lock up the shop for me? The animals are still in their pasture, I'm afraid. Oh dear, I've been such a scatterbrain today."

Lucy nodded. "Sure, it's the least I can do." At that, Marnie thanked her and bustled out the door, like a miniature, tomato-colored whirlwind with hay in her wake.

Alone in the ranch, Lucy headed towards the pens and herded the goats, pigs, cows, and sheep back to their respective barns. She'd put down little Cheepa in a basket in Marnie's room, and she went back to get her.

As she picked up the sleeping chick from its cozy basket, she caught a flash of purple in the corner of her eye. A piece of purple cloth was peeking out from underneath Marnie's bed. She tugged it out. A pair of shorts!

As she was processing this information, she heard the thump of footsteps on the ranch's wooden floor.

"Aunt Marnie?" Shane peeked in the door and raised an eyebrow at the sight of her. "What're you doing here?"

She frowned. "Buying a chicken. What are you doing here? Don't you always spend every evening at the Saloon?"

He rumpled his hair, obviously pissed at the question. "Morris didn't give me my salary today, so I figured I'd just go home than just buy one beer and end up being even more dissatisfied."

"Oh," Lucy said.

Noticing the shorts in her hand, Shane motioned towards them. "What've you got there?"

Her eyes widened at the realization that she was still holding the shorts in her hand. "Well, uh..."

Shane held a hand up. "Let me guess. Mayor lost his shorts?"

Lucy almost dropped the shorts in surprise. "How did you know?"

He grinned, a slow, sardonic one that didn't have any mirth in it. "Just a lucky guess."

"Y-you mean-" she stuttered out.

He grinned even more. "Cat got your tongue, farm girl?"

Lucy blushed furiously. "I'm going home!" she said, shouldering her way past the grinning Shane. She didn't know why, but the thought of Marnie and Mayor Lewis...together... made her feel weird. Add that to Shane's teasing...

"Hey, hey, I was just teasing," he said, putting a hand on her shoulder. As if he was surprised at his gesture too, he quickly removed it.

She narrowed her eyes at him. "So...they've been...?"

He blew a stray hair out of his face. "Yep."

"How do you know?" she knew it was none of her business, but she couldn't help it.

"Hey, my room is right next to my aunt's." While Lucy processed this information, he went up to her and stroked the sleeping Cheepa's head. "Hey there, little one," he said, his voice uncharacteristically gentle.

Lucy started. "Oh yeah, I have to get back home," she said.

"Want me to walk you home?" he asked, turning away a little from her.

"Sure. If it's not too much trouble," she said. Wow, he's being really nice.

They carefully locked the door behind them and walked to the farm. As they approached the coop, she asked him to wait as she deposited Cheepa.

"She settle in okay?" Shane asked, once Cheepa was safely in the coop.

"Uh-huh," she nodded. It was growing dark, and she was feeling a little hungry. "Shane, want to have dinner or something?"

She'd taken him by surprise. Before he could refuse, she followed up with, "I even have some beer. Gus gave me some bottles of the stuff as a reward for completing a request of his."

He grinned a little, just the corners of his mouth lifting up slightly, but it was a grin nonetheless. "Fine. There's this spot at the lake that I go to sometimes. We could eat there."


After depositing the controversial shorts at the bottom of a chest in the house, Lucy set off with Shane. A basket of food was in her hand, while Shane was holding his beloved beer.

"Here we are," he said, as he stepped onto the dock. He walked to the end, and sat, his legs dangling over the edge. Lucy set her basket down and sat beside him.

They attacked the food hungrily, although Shane went through two bottles before he finished his first sandwich. They were silent, with just the song of the cicadas providing the only sound in the surrounding area.

Suddenly, Shane spoke. "Hey, Lucy?"

She looked over at him. His eyes were glazed with intoxication now, and she briefly wondered whether she was going to have to carry him back to Marnie's ranch. "Yeah?"

He leaned forward, looking down at the depths of the lake. "You ever feel like... no matter what you do, you're gonna fail?" He swirled the beer in his third bottle and drank it almost absentmindedly. "...Like you're stuck in some miserable abyss and you're so deep you can't even see the light of day?"

Lucy was taken aback. He seemed so hopeless, his tone so forlorn, that she wanted to offer him some comfort. How, though?

Shane looked at her. "Have you?" His words were slurred, but it didn't seem like he was waiting for an answer. "I just feel like no matter how hard I try... I'm not strong enough to climb out of that hole." He was still looking down at the lake, as if it was the abyss he was talking about.

Not knowing what else to do, she lightly laid her hand on his. "Shane...whatever it is, I'm here to listen to you, okay?"

He glanced at her, as if realizing that he wasn't alone. "Thanks." Shaking her hand off, he held up the empty bottle to his lips, trying to catch the last drops at the bottom.

After a long moment, Shane stood up, albeit a little shakily. "Guess it's time to go home," he said. "Thanks for the meal."

"You're welcome," Lucy said, standing up too. She noticed one more bottle of beer among the remains of their dinner. "Hey, do you want to bring this home with you?"

He chuckled a little. "Why don't you drink it, farm girl? It's yours after all."

She shrugged, then downed it all in one gulp. Whoa. The beer shot down her throat, burning its way down with its bitter taste.

Shane laughed a little more, catching sight of her alcohol-flushed cheeks. "All in one go, huh? Woman after my own heart." At that, he set off towards the direction of Marnie's farm, leaving her alone on the dock.