A Chaotic Experience
Chapter 37: Aftermath
It was now the next day and there was a negative loom over Flower Bud Village. By this point, everyone in the village knew about what had 'happened', although it was obviously a fluke. Ewan and Popuri, even though divided, felt the worst from it. Ewan didn't even leave the spot where he sat down on Moon Mountain to go inside the old couple's home.
"He needs to come in… even though it's Summer, he'll still get sick." Sue worried about him and paced around outside. Barley began to stroke his white beard a little and pondered the issue.
"I don't think he will budge… I worry about him getting sick too, but I don't think we can do anything." he explained. The two walked up the small lift that separated their little home area from the summit.
"Ewan? We made you some food." offered Sue warmly, putting a plate with rice and curry on it in front of him. He didn't move or say anything.
"We know that you like this!" Barley said with a small smile. Ewan lifted his arm a little to scratch his head a little. The old couple sighed and Barley slowly paced himself back towards the house.
"I'll leave this out for you…" whispered the old lady a little before following her husband. Again, Ewan still didn't move or say anything.
Meanwhile, everything in town was super somber. No one could quite believe that Ewan would do something such as this, but all the evidence did point to him. There was a small group who were firmly certain that Ewan had no part in this: Raffi, Joe, Kai, Karen, Maria, and Harris.
"He couldn't have done it. He couldn't have!" Raffi kept saying.
"For crying out loud, Ewan wears a bandana! Nothing bad could come out from someone who wears a bandana." insisted Joe, crossing his arms. They were all sat in Ewan's house. Karen sat in the corner holding and petting Rosie.
"Well we're going to have to postpone our wedding until happier times…" the winery worker said, looking at the Purple Feather that she kept with her and sighing, "Damn it all…"
"I wrote to Alex about the incident. Just to keep her in the loop." explained Maria, but then she thought back about her and Rick, "Although, I think her and Rick are starting to get closer and closer…"
"Here, let's all do Ewan's farm work." decided Kai, "Poor animals… they don't even know about their master." he led the animals to graze outside and began to pet them all. Joe and Raffi went to water the crops inside the greenhouse while Maria and Harris dealt with the crops outside. Afterwards, they all met back inside Ewan's house, only in his kitchen.
"Um… I think that we have another problem that we're going to have to deal with…" muttered the mailman out loud.
"Another problem? What on earth could that be?" wondered Raffi in quite an exhausted manner.
"Popuri." Harris told her. They all got quiet and then felt very awkward.
"Yeah… can you imagine how awful she's feeling? I mean, I know we all feel really bad, but Popuri probably feels destroyed." Joe scratched his neck a little nervously.
"I don't even want to think about how sad she's feeling…" muttered Maria as she set her hands in her lap.
Meanwhile, Popuri sat at home, looking outside in the darkness that was created by the clouds. She closed her eyes and thought back at all that had happened. The meeting of Ewan, the festivals, her birthday, the Flower Festival, the first Fireworks, swimming, the Harvest Festival and Ewan becoming Harvest King, Ewan's birthday, the romantic Winter festivals, Ewan and Popuri becoming boyfriend and girlfriend, the first marriage in Flower Bud that Ewan saw, the second Flower Festival, the horrible incident… to now. Popuri sighed and opened up her eyes, hoping that it was a nightmare. There was a knock on her door and Gray came in.
"Popuri?" he asked her. Popuri turned around, but didn't say anything. Gray flashed a small smile and held out his arm, Popuri taking his hand. The two left the flower shop and went up to the town square to sit down together on a bench. It was a very awkward moment, as both were being very quiet. Gray was obviously naturally quiet, but Popuri was still afflicted by the incident.
"Do you want something to eat…?" asked Gray, sort of shuffling on the bench to try and get something out of his pocket and then pull out some cakes from his rucksack.
"No thank you." Popuri's voice was very monotonous, as one's voice would be after you suffer some sort of horrible event. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes before Gray decided to have a little taste of his cake. However, he wasn't really hungry, he just hoped that Popuri would have her portion of the cake.
"Would you like to go back to Green Ranch and see the animals?" wondered Gray. Popuri slowly opened her eyes and nodded her head slowly. Gray got up and then helped Popuri up before he led her back to the ranch, where they waved to Ann and Hall. Popuri's wave was obviously very small.
"It's good to see Gray being active again." muttered Hall, fixing some lunch for himself and Ann. She looked outside the window at Popuri as they headed towards the barn.
"She doesn't look much happy…" murmured Ann, placing her head on her hand.
"Is that an insult to your brother?" her dad raised an eyebrow, curious to see if Ann was doing her typical roast of her brother. Ann shook her head and decided to turn back and have the food. Meanwhile, in the barn, Gray pulled out a brush and started carefully brushing a horse. Popuri looked up and watched this for a little.
"Speedy…" she slightly mumbled, but Gray couldn't hear her, as he was way too focused on petting the horse. Popuri slightly stumbled around the barn to look at other animals. Gray still hadn't noticed.
"Don't worry, Cliffgard, you'll have a shiny coat soon…" muttered Gray, half-smiling. Popuri came across a cow now, who let out a gentle 'moo' sound at her.
"Ermintrude…" she looked away, only to find the gaze of a sheep watching her as it ate some fodder, "Fluffy…" Popuri was lucky that no other farm animals were inside the barn. A tear passed out of her eye, but she quickly wiped it away and dismissed it. She walked over to Gray and tapped him on the shoulder.
"Hold on, I'm nearly done." the rancher told Popuri, getting Cliffgard's coat to be perfect. He was washing the thing for hours. When he finally did turn around, Popuri requested to be walked home, "Why?"
"I'm quite tired… I just want some rest." replied Popuri, her head nodding a little. It seemed to be out of sleepiness, but it was obviously a lot more.
"Oh, alright." Gray said, holding Popuri's chin to stabilize her head and then kissing her on the cheek. Popuri closed her eyes when he did so and then properly stood up straight to be led back to the flower shop.
Night had fallen again and untouched food was left out by Ewan. Sue and Barley were unable to leave the food out all night, as animals would pilfer for it, which would not bode well for Ewan.
"Please just think about coming in." Sue pleaded with him. Once again, no response. The old couple could do absolutely nothing to get Ewan inside and had no choice but to go in and hope that Ewan would eventually come in. Many more days continued like this and eventually Ewan turned from sitting in one position to collapsed most of the day. Sue and Barley constantly tried to get Ewan up, but it seemed like he weighed the entire world.
"We're going to have to get a doctor…" muttered Barley, asking his wife to look after Ewan, who was collapsed over, but not asleep. Sue was trying to fix Ewan's hair out of his face, but it kept falling over. After a small while, Barley returned with Trent, who diagnosed that Ewan had a bad cold and that he get inside. Finally, the three were able to move Ewan inside, unaware that his red bandana had flown off of the top of his head and went flying down the mountain.
"So we can't let him outside anymore, I'm assuming." Sue asked the doctor, who nodded and then turned to Ewan, who had his sky blue hair nearly completely covering his eyes.
"Yes… but I doubt that he would be able to make it outside." replied Trent, leaving afterwards and mumbling something about still paying for hospital damages. If Ewan were able to actually pay attention, that comment would have stung.
Back in the gathering of the Hopefuls, as they were labeled by certain townspeople, Raffi walked into Ewan's house with his red bandana in his hand. The chores were all done, so they were having their conversations inside his house.
"Raffi… that's his bandana, isn't it?" asked Kai, taking the red bandana. Raffi let out a large sigh and nodded her head.
"I have other news, too." the brunette told the group, deciding to sit down on Ewan's bed, where Joe was lying down. He touched Raffi's arm a little before she explained Ewan's illness.
"Well… how sick is he? I mean, Cliff lives out in nature and it's not always the worst…" muttered Harris, thinking back on stories about when Cliff said he was sick, as he was still homeless.
"Trent didn't say. I know that he's still got bitter feelings towards Ewan." she sighed again, "I don't like this…" Raffi muttered.
"None of us do." Karen said, holding her head, "I really don't think that any of us are getting proper sleep at night."
"I know that I haven't…" muttered Maria, holding onto Harris as the two sat on the floor. Joe stirred a little in bed and then got up.
"Look… we're going to have to visit Ewan up at Moon Mountain." he decided, "I know there's going to be some protest, but it's been 10 days!" this implied that the Vegetable Festival had already miserably passed.
"But I'm sure that the old couple are keeping him fine up there." Kai said, looking back at Ewan's red bandana.
"Well he's got to know that he does have friends down here." Joe told the group. They all agreed on this slightly and decided to leave Ewan's home, making sure that Rosie was well-fed before doing so. Sue and Barley greeted the small group at the door and happily ushered them in. Ewan had finally fallen asleep and was quietly lying down on the couch, his hair mostly covering his face.
"Wow. Never seen him without his bandana." muttered Karen, lifting his sky blue hair up to actually make sure that he was sleeping.
"Can I offer you some dumplings?" Sue offered the group some food. They all embraced the kindness, but said that they weren't hungry, which was slight of a disappointment to Joe. Finally, Ewan stirred a little and woke up, but it was quite hard to tell that he had done so.
"Ewan? It's us, your friends!" Raffi asked Ewan and then replied in quite a happy tone. Ewan weakly sat up and very slightly pushed his hair out of the way. Although, this didn't really do anything.
"Friends…?" he wondered, obviously flabbergasted by the thought of still having friends. His tone didn't really show this.
"Yes, friends." Maria said, smiling a little.
"Your other friend, Alex, also said that she's coming back to Flower Bud in Autumn instead of Winter!" Harris told Ewan. They had received a letter from Alex about this message sometime during the 10 days. The idea was to come home mainly to see how Ewan was doing, but also because she simply wanted to return with Rick to Flower Bud earlier than usual.
(A/N: And Alex really needs to work on her fic with the events that lead up from Alex and Rick leaving to when they come back. XD)
"Oh." Ewan wasn't even able to say something along the lines of 'that's nice' or anything. It was quite a shame, really.
"Ewan, you are never like this. You've just got to snap out of it and come back down to society." suggested Kai, annoyed at Ewan's behavior.
"No thanks. I'm meant to be up here." Ewan very slightly lifted his shoulders.
"It's been enough days to let people in the village not care for what you've done." muttered Joe a little, scratching his chin.
"Well not the important people…" everyone knew who Ewan was talking about and he decided to lie back down.
"Ewan, you're coming down." eventually, Karen decided that this was final. Ewan took a deep breath, and then began to cough a little. Everyone else agreed that Ewan would eventually come down for a day to see how it goes.
"Just make sure there are no rocks to pelt me with." Ewan mused. It seemed like he was joking, but he didn't smile or laugh, as he usually did when he joked. His emotions were all very strange now. The group bid him a good-bye and he just mumbled a little and started coughing again.
The days progressed on and on, the Hopefuls anxiously awaiting the 17th, where Ewan would come down for the Firefly Festival. They kept his farm in good working order, although it was a bit hectic with the need of having so many people to work on the farm.
"I never want to run a farm." Raffi said quite bluntly, crossing her arms after wiping some dirt off of her forehead, "I have no idea why I wanted to do so when I was younger."
"I never wanted to run a farm." sighed Maria as they went inside Ewan's house, holding onto a book. Every time that the Hopefuls all had their little get-togethers, Maria was always working on her novel and sometimes read out parts of it to the group.
"You know, you've really gotten a lot more confident around people, Maria." realized Joe as the group were all hanging around in the kitchen to have food. Everyone agreed and Maria told them to stop, as she was blushing.
"I think getting married to Harris kind of got you out of your shell." noted the purple bandana wearer, "Although, the situation that we're in also kind of helped." Kai added.
"It's a really good thing." her husband said, putting his arm around Maria. She blushed again and giggled, pushing her glasses in place. Meanwhile, back up in the mountains, things were really not looking better for Ewan. One day when Sue and Barley had gone outside for just a moment, Ewan rushed to the bathroom and threw up in the sink, due to his illness getting worse.
"Ugh… P… Popuri…" he muttered as he held onto the sides of the sink before his legs suddenly gave way and he collapsed onto the floor.
Popuri walked home one day from Green Ranch by herself, quite more weakly than she did previous days. There was not a particular reason behind it; she was just in one of those moods. While it was a regular night, there were some murky clouds in the sky. She walked to her door and found something in the door. Carefully untying what was on the door handle, Popuri lifted what she had. She was unable to see it due to the moon being covered, but she didn't really try to find out what it was.
"Hmm…" breathed Popuri, holding onto the thing as she decided to walk off to the Goddess Pond, as she wasn't in the mood to return home just yet. She sat down on a stump and sort of looked into the water nearby, noticing the reflection of the moon in the water. Noticing the moonlight now being visible, Popuri looked down at what was on her door and gasped.
"Ewan…" horrified, she grasped onto the red bandana that was Ewan's and wanted to do something like throw it into the water or rip it up… but she didn't. Popuri only held it with one hand as she buried her face in her knees and sobbed louder than she did any other time. Once Popuri was able to finally get up, she finally wobbled home and into her room, opening up a box that contained Ewan's birthday gift to her from the year that they met.
"Stop… haunting me…" she wept quietly, bundling the necklace inside Ewan's bandana. For a while, Popuri held the wrapped item near her heart, quietly letting tears fall down her face. Eventually, though, she set the items in her box, slowly shut the box, and put it away in a drawer far away from her bed and from her starlight shell.
Another couple of miserable days and the 17th rolled around. The Hopefuls were able to get Thomas' help in getting Ewan down from the mountain for the day and forever, depending on how he was in town.
"I don't like to admit it, but I still have faith in him…" the mayor said. Maria happily gave her father a hug and a kiss. Thomas and Anna were the only people who the Hopefuls knew still had hope in Ewan. It was quite unnerving, but as long as one person kept faith, it was fine. The Hopefuls all found their way up the mountain and smiled when Ewan, Sue, and Barley were outside.
"Ewan, make sure that you behave down there." Sue told Ewan, fixing his hair a little, even though it matted over his face again.
"Thank you." he told Sue. Ewan seemed to be getting better with his illness, but it wasn't like he was completely safe.
"Keep your wits about you, Ewan." Barley told Ewan with a smile, giving him a light punch on the shoulder. Ewan repeated the same thanks and then gave them both a hug.
"Bye, guys." Ewan lifted his arm up in a wave and followed along with the group. He turned to the old couple and actually flashed them a smile before looking ahead and walking with the others. They got back to the Rancho Farm and looked around at the grazing animals and Ewan smiled again, "Home." he muttered.
"Yep, you're home. We kept everything good." explained Harris, "Mail's on your table." he laughed a little. Ewan slowly walked up to his house and went inside to see his cat meowing at him and happily rubbing his leg.
"Hi, Rosie." he said, lifting her for a moment and petting her before going over to her food dish to give her food, only to find that she had already been fed, "Time to see the animals." Ewan said, giving Rosie another pat on the head before going outside.
"I'll get some lunch ready." Raffi said before walking into the kitchen. The others followed Ewan outside as he tended to his animals, who were eager to see him.
"Good thing no one's told them why I've been gone." Ewan said, brushing Speedy's mane and then turning to his cows to milk them, "I assume no one's told them." he said. This was another case where it was difficult to tell whether or not he was joking.
"No?" Karen said, lifting her hands up in a shrug and giving a cheeky smile. Ewan smiled back and then went back to brushing and tending to his animals.
"Oh, we've made sure that your crops have been in good shape and that all grown crops have been shipped. We just had Zack hold onto the money until you… you know, came around." explained Kai, putting his arm around his fiancé's neck and grinning.
"Great stuff." nodded Ewan, turning back to the house when Raffi called for them to all have their lunch of grilled cheese. The rest of the day was spent on top of Ewan's roof, just chatting the day away.
"The Hopefuls?" Ewan wondered, turning to them, wondering if they were joking, which they weren't. Made him want to laugh, "So who's on this little Hopefuls list besides you and Thomas?"
"Zack is…" Joe said with a small nod, but he couldn't quite remember who else, "Hmm, is there… really anyone else?" he said in a little worried manner.
"No, you've got the kids." Maria said, "I hear them talk about you all the time when I go play the organ at church when they're being taught." she told Ewan with a little nod.
"Uh-huh…" he muttered, "And the rest are either indifferent or just don't like me at all." Ewan said quite bluntly, making them all nod a little. The sun set eventually and they all got off of the roof and began walking off Rancho Farm. Ewan felt a little bit weaker leaving his farm.
"Ewan, you okay?" wondered Harris, helping him up after he nearly fell.
"I'm fine, thank you." he said, brushing his hair out of his face, only for it to fall down again, "I'm just chained to the farm, I think. I don't know why." Ewan said, stumbling again and pushing his hair back again.
"We have got to get your hair cut." Kai decided with a small laugh. Ewan started walking a little bit again.
"No one is touching my hair."
To Ewan's chagrin, more people were attending the Firefly Festival than they did last year. This seemed to be happening with all festivals ever since Ewan arrived into town. How ironic.
"Maybe we shouldn't have come in as such a big group." realized Karen when it was obvious that people turned to look at them.
"Um…" murmured Ewan, kind of hiding in the middle of the group. Everyone was already here, so the beach was quite packed, "I can't do it… I have to leave…" he said quite weakly.
"Don't worry, Ewan, we'll stay with you." Raffi said with a smile. They went off to the corner where Popuri stood last year (she was down by the coast this year with Gray) and sort of watched the festivities.
"Everyone got your Firefly Lights?" asked Maria, holding her own. Everyone else had theirs and then turned to the beach. The group went off to the pier and looked around, waiting for everyone else to send off their lights.
"How did we manage to get some many lights without Rick?" wondered Kai, as he knew that Rick did most of the work on these.
"Rick always keeps spares of things, I'm fairly certain." explained the other bandana wearer, laughing a little, "It seems like the type of thing for Rick to do." Joe shrugged his shoulders and turned to the water.
"Shame that Rick isn't here." the mailman said, setting down his Firefly Light for a moment as he spoke, "He loves this festival. And these things." Harris lifted his light again.
"I'm sure that he and Alex are having fun over in Forget-Me-Not." Maria replied, looking across the ocean, as if she were looking for them.
"Have you seen the way Alex acts around Rick?" Ewan asked her.
"I'm sure that's changed a little." Raffi said with a small nod.
"Yeah, he did have an Orange Feather with him." added Kai, looking out to where Maria had set her eyes, "I wonder when that guy's gonna propose…"
"Knowing Rick, in about 60 years." Karen giggled and the others, minus Ewan, laughed with her. They turned to hear Thomas say something about the lights and then they watched most of the people casting out their Firefly Lights out into the ocean.
"Oh, grandma…" sighed Popuri as she closed her eyes and started crying a little, holding onto the Firefly Light. Her tears fell into the flower, but the light didn't go out. Popuri set out her Firefly Light after her wishes and then walked away a little from the coast. Ewan had been watching this, careful to not let Popuri see him in return and shed a couple of tears that fell into his flower, too.
"Ewan, you ready?" wondered Joe, as Ewan was the last one to cast out his Firefly Light.
"Yeah, I'm fine, shut up…" muttered Ewan, holding his Firefly Light a little bit higher and slowly setting it down onto the ocean water and letting the current carry it away. Everyone sniffed a little or let a tear shed before the lanterns were gone from sight and people began to go home. They helped get Ewan home and when he got onto the farm, he seemed fine again.
"You good?" asked Joe, "Cause you know, me and Kai could stay over and we could have a sleep-over and that would just be so much fun." he joked.
"Oh stop it, he needs alcohol!" Karen joked now, laughing a little.
"Well good night, Ewan." Maria said before leaving with her husband and then the others disbanded for the time being. Ewan went inside quickly and got ready for bed, enjoying the feeling of being back in his own bed.