Phillip rose with the dawn (this was becoming a habit by now) and made himself a single, fried egg. It wasn't much, but he'd certainly had less to eat in his life.
After breakfast the auburn-haired youth snapped on the radio to hear the weather report- a full day of rain- and shrugged on his khaki jacket before heading to the door. He wondered absently as he kicked his shoes on who he would come face to face with today.
He had a good guess about it based on the past week and today was no different.
Cam tipped his hat in greeting from where he leaned easily up against the side of the cow barn as Phillip exited his front door. Phillip ignored him, per usual, and Cam let it go, being a quiet guy who generally said nothing anyways.
There was an awkward truce between to the two after everything that happened- and Phillip could not forgive nor thank Cam for his actions in the past few days. Phillip had fought to the last of his strength that first day to earn the right merely to be left alone on the mountain, and had been overpowered by Howard, by Georgia (once she'd regained control of her mare), and finally by Cam as well. Granted at the time Phillip had been bleary-eyed and exhausted, but the panic of not knowing what was happening to his sister had given him a renewed strength, and he certainly didn't leave the other combatants unscathed.
Why someone who had aided his search so earnestly in the beginning would turn on him later to impede it's success, the newcomer had no idea. Howard, sure. The barn-shaped blond man had almost nothing honest about him, but Cam… despite everything had been genuinely working to help out. By now Phillip had stopped trying to understand that guy and he noted with some satisfaction that there was still a mark on Cam's lip from where Phillip had split it with his fist.
With a sigh of frustration he remembered that today would mark seven… or was it eight days that he had been unable to get away from Bluebell?
It was almost as if someone were playing a game on him, talking about armies, and preparedness, and then sticking him on this ranch 'for the good of the village' so he could help feed the troops.
What troops..? All this place had in it were a few pissed off ranchers, at each other's throats for a grudge that those responsible for, had already died because of! The generation of people who began the whole fiasco here had passed away decades back, and still the feud went on- over something petty like food preferences, he had been told?
After nearly three days of being locked up in the basement of the café, Phillip had agreed to aid Bluebell in their conflict, on the condition that the village sent someone out everyday to search for Lillian. He had actually set the condition that it be Cam, from what he'd seen of the others he was not about to put his only sister's life in their hands.
So until there was an actual need for Phillip to be involved with the militia, army or whatever ranchers with weapons were calling themselves these days, he mostly went with Cam to do minimal foraging and took care of the two animals that the Mayor had Jessica give him on faith.
If this day went like the others, he knew Laney would come by again this afternoon with the leftovers of some new baked good she was trying to perfect. She had a habit of showing up at random intervals with squares of sponge cake and pieces of pie that would probably wind up on the Howard's café menu later in the week. She usually had a decent excuse to visit (as perfect recipes seemed to be the only thing she really cares about), but Phillip knew that she was really on an errand for Howard and checking up on him, so seeing Laney every day was starting to set his teeth on edge.
Her company itself wasn't bad, but by the time she arrived to act as his keeper for an hour or so before going back home marked the beginning of the evening when the Mayor or his Wife would be out walking the village, checking up on everyone.
The young man had to begrudgingly admit it was an effective system- everyone in the town was in constant communication and almost literally scheduled their lives around knowing where each other was.
Which obviously made it difficult for anyone to slip away unnoticed.
Phillip in general valued honesty and wanted to hold up his end of the agreement with Bluebell (although his agreement was compulsory), but his patience became thinner and his thoughts turned more desperate everyday when Cam came back to the little ranch on the outskirts and just shook his head.
His musings came to an end when he realized he was done with farm work for the day (there were a few seeds that Cam had brought over planted out front, but the rain took care of those), and Phillip realized with a start that he had a whole afternoon with nothing to do. He dropped the brush and milker off into the barn and looked around, noting that Cam was still on the property, this time carefully examining the shoots that were planted.
He walked over to where the guy crouched… was he talking… to them? His curiosity got the better of him and decided to stop giving the taller guy the silent treatment.
"What are you doing?"
"Plants need tenderness, just like people do. I'm talking to them, it helps them grow quicker." The villager replied, matter-of-fact.
"I thought watering them twice a day helped them grow quicker." Phillip said sardonically.
Cam caught his tone and turned took at him, offering one of his trademark expressions of polite tolerance. "That helps too. Are you done for now?" He asked, changing the subject.
"Done as I'll be today. Thought I'd go check out the request board."
"I'll go with you."
Phillip raised an eyebrow. "You know, I did agree to stay and help Bluebell out. Hasn't it been a few days since you last opened your flower stand?" He asked.
Cam shrugged under his hat as they passed the shipping bin, his eyes surveying the surrounding flora while they walked several more paces.
No answer, again…? Phillip thought. Of course not.
"Today's Friday, tomorrow's a festival. I'll have it open again on Sunday." He finally said.
"Oh. The cooking… right. I think Rutger expects me to enter." Phillip looked over to Georgia's ranch as they approached it, habitually. The first few times he walked the village he hadn't known this was her place and her sudden appearance from the barn or walking next to the little white fence had nearly stopped his heart. It was like being alone in a jungle and discovering a tiger had been tracking your every move as you went.
There she was now, under her umbrella, watching the pasture in the rain. She looked peaceful among her horses, and something told him that this was the only place she truly felt safe. He waived nonchalantly to her, pretending he didn't find her obnoxious and repellant. "Hey, Geo!" He forced a note of cheer into his voice.
"Don't call me that!" She shot back, looking away in a huff, her red ringlets covering her face.
Phillip couldn't stop the slow spread of a grin. At least she wasn't completely impervious. His face darkened when he remembered how his hands had been bound and tied to the side of her saddle for the walk back to Bluebell, and he rubbed his writs, suddenly wanting nothing to do with her again. "Request board…" He said as if to remind himself, heading off in that direction.
They passed Ash on the way but didn't stop to say hi (he was busy playing 'airplane' with Cheryl).
…
Cam had to give the new guy some credit.
Phillip had been here a little over a week and was making every effort to get along with the local people, despite what he faced in not being able to see his sister or live as he wished. He also had the guts to negotiate the terms of his cooperation with Howard, and that went a long way for him in terms of earning respect. Howard was not an easy man to negotiate with, and was used to getting whatever he wanted.
The wild look in his gray eyes from those first days had ebbed away slowly, and it looked like now he was channeling his anger into some sort of frustrated patience.
Cam thought back to his own arrival here so many years ago and wondered… would there have been a difference if his family were still alive? Would he have tried to get away?
He didn't know. Probably because he had been so young, he had just been glad to have a home. He knew he didn't belong in Bluebell and that something went wrong for his parents that they ended up coming here, but once they had died and he was taken into the café and Howard and his daughter's lives, he felt he had something to live for again.
Bluebell needed him.
He glanced over and saw the way Phillip's expression changed after greeting Geo, and knew that he wasn't handling the change as well as everyone thought.
Actually, what was the original purpose of Phillip and Lillian's visit to this area in the first place? Wouldn't it be terribly ironic if they were here to because they'd heard about all the vacant properties and were ready to commit to a new life somewhere? He wanted to ask, but conversations with the kid were usually pretty frosty and he wasn't so great at talking, so he resolved not to bother him about it.
Once at the request board he saw that there were limited options; Eileen was asking for a few mint, and Howard needed more lumber to fix the leaky roof.
He looked over again at the storm clouds raging in Phillip's gaze and wondered if he could take him further up the mountain today- would anyone notice if they were gone longer than usual? As the person charged with searching the mountain Cam had seen no more signs of what happened that day, and they did have the summit and Konohana high as their extended boarder for the new day or two. He owed some results to Phillip for having faith in him, didn't he? And if they lost the next contest and more territory, it would become impossible to get close enough to Konohana to find out what really had happened.
What would he do if the kid bolted, could he trust him? He pressed his fingertips into his temple as if putting pressure on his mind would force answers to come to the surface, but it didn't do too much.
"Well, let's at least go get the mint." The kid said to his side. "If I have to go back to that ranch right now I'm going to go crazy."
Cam smiled a bit, deciding. "Yeah, I agree. I'll grab us a snack from the café first. Do you want anything?"
Phillip raised an eyebrow. "What, like more sponge cake? Never mind that, I'll go there with you."
Georgia watched the two from the safety of her pasture, eyes smoldering despite the surrounding rain. There was something about their blooming friendship that she didn't like, and she couldn't pin it down to figure it out.
