Hey Guys!
So I wanted to redo this fanfic from the ground up, and now that I've got a lot of it done I feel comfortable uploading it for you guys! I hope you like it, and don't hesitate to leave a review! It really helps!
Chapter One
As the rickety gray bus rolled through the dense fog Alice Littleton felt her eyelids growing heavy behind her large, heart-shaped sunglasses. The bus had no heat to speak of so in an attempt to keep warm in the chilly spring morning Alice burrowed herself into the plushness of her black coat much like a turtle might stick their heads into their shells. She leaned her forehead on the cool glass and watched as the early morning gave way before her.
Sunrise had been at six forty-seven that morning and Alice saw it as she stood waiting for the bus with all of her worldly possessions crowded around her-which now, thanks to a bit of online selling and gifting that earned her some uneasy looks from friends and neighbors-amounted to what she could fit into one white suitcase, one pink suitcase, and a black backpack. that now sat occupied the seat beside her to discourage any fellow travelers from sitting beside her. City dwellers flooded to and fro around her on the cracked sidewalks of ZuZu City without a care about what she could possibly be doing. Though, perhaps, the context was enough that they didn't need to wonder.
The bus pulled up to the stop at seven-seventeen. A full forty minutes past when the schedule said it should've been there. Anxious as she boarded and found a seat near the back, Alice kept having to remind herself that if she was late it wasn't as though it was her fault. She'd been at the bus station on time-early, in fact! She couldn't honestly have been blamed if the driver picked that day of all days to be late. Would it matter if she was late? She wasn't on a schedule or anything, though she didn't want to make a bad first impression on Mayor Lewis by showing up just willy-nilly. Pelican Town would be her new home for the foreseeable future (and, hopefully, the rest of her life) so she hoped to get started on the right foot.
Again, though, it wasn't as though I didn't show up on time. My bus was late-though I have no way to prove it. Alice thought, two hours later, as she at last sat alone on the bus struggling to stay awake. She hadn't slept the night before. She spent too much time going over every little detail of her move out of the city, making sure she had what she needed for her new life, and simply unable to quiet her mind enough to sleep. She ended up pacing around her apartment until five thirty in the morning when at last she grabbed her carry-on luggage and locked her apartment door for the last time.
Of course there were things she intended to bring that she wasn't taking with her then-she'd asked her friend Megan if she could house a few of her boxes until she got to her new address, then ship them out. Despite the flash of irritation across her friend's face at being put to any task, especially one that required interaction with the postal service, Megan agreed. Alice made a mental note to be quick about getting her stuff. The less she had to do with the city the better.
She breathed a long sigh out of her nose as the sky lightened up around her. When she got on the bus it was full of people-but they had all been dropped off at various stops throughout the city, leaving Alice alone with the smell of exhaust that somehow found it's way inside the bus as well as outside. She tried not to notice the way it creaked as it moved along. If the bus broke down she would have no choice but to take it as a sign that this was a bad decision. That the universe didn't want her moving to Pelican Town.
But the bus didn't break down. It rolled on its merry way, the silence lulling Alice to a drifting sort of sleep that made her feel both within and without of consciousness. A soft compilations of piano and violin music from various Studio Ghibli movies poured through her wireless headphones. It made her feel as though she herself was Chihiro from Spirited Away on the spirit train to Zeniba's home, and a small part of her mind pretended that Noh Face sat next to her instead of just a simple black bag. Something about it calmed her nervous heart. Made it easier to venture into this world of the unknown. Made it easier to be brave.
You're twenty-eight years old and you still need to pretend stuff like this? Really, Alice, did we ever actually grow up?
No, perhaps not, but that was all right. What good was growing up anyway? She'd been a grown-up in ZuZu City and all she got in return was the urge for a short drop and a sudden stop. If growing up meant losing her heart, her happiness, then she would stay a child, thank-you-very-much-and-have-a-nice-day.
Despite her exhaustion-or, perhaps, in part, because of it-the soft whine of violins which swelled in the Kaze no Tani no Nausicca part of the song from Nausicca of the Valley of the Wind grabbed her heart and wrenched it to the point where she thought she might tear up a little. Maybe she should've listened to something a little more upbeat. Some Melanie Martinez perhaps? Or Marina and the Diamonds?
Ah, but this music felt right. Appropriate, somehow, in ways that Alice couldn't quite ascertain. So she listened on and struggled to keep awake. She really should've tried to sleep the night before. Of all days to be exhausted why did she have to pick this one?
Mountain ranges stretched on and on, far beyond what she could see. They seemed to be reaching up towards the clear pink and blue colored sky overhead. Alice brushed her long black hair over one shoulder and played the tips between her fingers just to have something to do. She could've grabbed a book out of her backpack, she supposed, but feared she didn't have the mental state for reading at the moment. Would she have even been able to focus with the whirlwind of nerves in her?
Instead of getting a book from her bag, Alice reached in and fished out the letter from her grandpa. Crumpled from too many handlings and having resided within the bag with all her other shifting belongings, Alice had to smooth the letter out on the seat in front of her before beginning what could have easily been the thousandth reading of the antique letter. How many more times would she be able to do this before it crumbled completely in her hands?
Her grandpa Harris had given it to her when she was just a child. He'd been too weak from age and sickness to move, having insisted on dying in his own home in Pelican Town. It seemed impossible to Alice at the time that her grandpa was dying-going to his farm every summer had been one of the few small joys of her childhood. A safe haven. A lighthouse in an unbearable storm.
She remembered crying the hardest out of everyone there. Her parents milled around with her father's siblings and grandpa Harris's remaining brothers and sisters as they all waited with an air of irritation for the old man to finally kick it. His farm had done well in its hay day and his already wealthy heirs couldn't wait to get their piece of it. In her memory, colored by the prejudices of childhood, she thought back on that day imagining herself as she was as she sat on the bus-but smaller. Everyone else had taken on monstrous, disproportionate heights and their identities disappeared behind veils of darkness. They were just dark trees and Alice was the only one unable to navigate the forest about her. She just wanted her grandpa-
Then he handed her the letter with a shaking hand all dressed in bulging, varicose veins. All sealed up in an envelope with purple wax on the back, embedded with a flourishing PT, Alice took it from his hand and clutched it tight. The fire in the hearth cracked and popped so much louder than it used to-or, perhaps, in her state of grief, Alice was just much more aware of it than she'd been before. The sword mounted against the smokestack of the fireplace gleamed in the dim orange light. A picture of her grandmother, who passed many years before, sat meekly next to a small glass figure of a little apple-shaped creature with arms and legs. Some art piece he must've gotten many years ago. He never explained to her what it was exactly. Now she knew he never would.
A whole life stood on display before her. A full life about to be snuffed out.
"I want you to have this sealed envelope," he'd croaked. "No, no, don't open it yet. Have patience. Now, listen close . . . there will come a day when you feel crushed by the burden of modern life. . . and your bright spirit will fade before a growing emptiness. When that happens, my dear, you'll be ready for this gift." He coughed, and a spittle of blood stained his lips red. Alice, only twelve at the time, couldn't help but jump back at the sight. "Now . . . let grandpa rest . . ."
Now, sixteen years later, Alice sat on a bus that stank of exhaust and body odor from past passengers that lingered like ghosts, and read the letter again. It seemed that since she fished it out of her desk at the Joja Corp corporate office and broke the seal it was the only thing she could bring herself to read anymore.
Dear Alice,
If you're reading this, you must be in dire need of a change.
The same thing happened to me, long ago. I'd lost sight of what mattered most in life . . . real connections with other people and nature. So I dropped everything and moved to the place I truely belong.
I've enclosed the deed to that place . . . my pride and joy: Littleton Farm. It's located in Stardew Valley, on the southern coast. It's the perfect place to start your new life.
This was my most precious gift of all, and now it's yours. I know you'll honor the family name, my dear. Good luck.
Love, Grandpa.
.P.S.: If Lewis is still alive say hi to the old guy for me, will ya?
Re-reading it now, Alice couldn't help but smile. A new start. A new life. A place where she truly belonged.
As nervous as she might have been at the prospect of starting over she was exhilarated too. She hadn't felt this happy or excited in years-and because of that realized just how bad things had gotten for her in the city. A person wasn't supposed to forget how it felt to have their hearts swell with anticipation, their minds play with a wild fantasy of what could be waiting for them in the future . . . right?
The bus slowed and released an exhausted gasp when it stopped. The driver wordlessly pulled open the creaking front doors. Alice hurried to turn off her music, gather her things, and leave. She resisted the urge to stop and thank the bus driver for bringing her to her new life. The sour expression etched into his face gave her the distinct impression that he wouldn't be in the mood to speak to anyone. So she just stepped off the bus without a word.
A slightly older woman with a mane of red hair pulled up into a pony-tail met Alice outside the bus. Wearing a lightweight orange puffer vest with white fur around the edge of the hood over a yellow t-shirt, Alice knew right away she was in a completely different world than ZuZu City. This was the kind of woman her friends would've gossiped about if they'd seen her on the street or buying coffee while they were in the same shop-asking, in giggling, hushed voices if maybe she was a lesbian by the way she dressed. The way the woman smiled at her made Alice's stomach sour at the thought. She was getting more and more glad she'd left the city by the minute.
"Hello! You must be Alice! I'm Robin, the local carpenter." She reached out a hand and Alice shook it. She immediately liked this woman. "Mayor Lewis asked me to fetch you and show you to your new home. He's there right now, tidying things up for your arrival." She grinned and made a grand, sweeping gesture to the path just beyond the clearing by the road. "The farm's right over here, if you'll follow me!"
"Of course," Alice said with a smile. "Thank you for showing me the way-its been so long, I'm not sure I could remember." This wasn't entirely true, since Alice was fairly confident that she could've found her way along the dirt path to her grandpa's farm blindfolded even after sixteen years. Still, it was nice of Robin to show her the way and she wasn't about to besmirch kindness from a new neighbor. That definitely would've been the kind of thing that would get everything off to a bad start.
Robin grinned. "Oh don't worry about it! I was excited to meet you! The whole town is simply buzzing about the new farmer!"
"Oh . . . yeah?" People were already talking about her?
"Absolutely! You live in a small town now, so you'll find that really all we've got to do to entertain ourselves is gossip!" She laughed as if the thought didn't shake Alice's nerves. Still, Alice held a smile on her face-and hoped to Yoba it didn't look as strained as it felt.
They walked along the dirt path together. It was still early enough in the morning that the blades of grass all around her and the leaves on the branches overhead were still overed in a fine wet dew. Alice couldn't help but gape at how green everything was. It was like being on an alien planet in a science fiction novel. Alice imagined she wouldn't have thought twice if some weird little creatures poked their heads out from behind the tree trunks to gape at her, this visitor from another world.
"Not used to the country, I take it?" Robin asked.
Alice shook her head. "It's been so long since I've been here-I guess I forgot what it was like. There's nothing like this in the city." She reached up and brushed her fingers along a soft pink petal of a cherry tree just beginning to bloom. It was soft and cold against her fingertips. "It's gorgeous."
In the distance a bird cried and the sound carried through the clear blue sky for miles. "I imagine not. I'd say try telling my son that-he wants to move to the city so badly-but I feel like it would just have the opposite effect."
"Oh? You have kids?"
She nodded. "A son and a daughter. Sebastian and Maru."
Alice hadn't imagined this woman old enough to have had kids, but that didn't mean she didn't. Once she said it, Alice could imagine a couple of little redheaded children playing outside of some workshop this woman built for herself that smelled of the earthy aroma of freshly cut wood.
This is what I want, Alice thought with an overwhelming sense of joyful calm. A quiet, happy life.
They arrived on the property and Alice couldn't believe her eyes.
The farm that had once been so lush with crops and animals was gone, buried beneath a jungle of overgrowth and trees with wide, unruly branches. Whatever parts of the earth the trees, grass, and weeds hadn't already claimed there were huge gray rocks and rotting stumps and boulders so big that Alice couldn't imagine how they'd gotten there in the first place. The only saving grace was that the cottage seemed to be in at least livable conditions-she imagined that there were probably a great number of repairs that would need to be done on it but it was a roof over her head anyway.
Sixteen years of neglect had washed away what remained of her childhood. Now all she had was the rotting corpse it left behind in the dirt.
Robin turned and faced the great wasteland around them. "This is Littleton Farm."
"B-But how?" Alice asked. Her voice came out in a breathy, gasping whisper. "There's nothing left!"
For a moment Robin regarded Alice's surprise. Then a big smile unfolded on her face, she postured with her fists on her hips and puffed out her chest as if she was some amazing superhero come to save the day. "What's the matter? Sure, it's a bit overgrown, but there's some good soil underneath that mess! With a little dedication, you'll have it cleaned up in no time!" She nodded over toward the house, and the two walked to the front steps of the porch. "And here we are! Your new home!"
Just as Alice began to mount the steps, the front door came open. Out shuffled a much older man with a gray handlebar mustache beneath a bulbous nose. He wiped dust from the sleeves of his green shirt and straightened his yellow tie. The straps of his brown suspenders seemed to strain just slightly over the burgeoning of what would likely become a rotund stomach if left unchecked. The old man looked up at Alice and smiled.
"Ah! The new farmer!" He wiped his hands on the pants of his brown slacks and reached forward to shake Alice's hand. "Welcome! I'm Lewis, Mayor of Pelican Town!"
Though internally she feared she'd hesitated too long, in truth she extended her own hand without missing a beat and shook his. "It's great to finally meet you, Mayor Lewis. My grandpa mentioned you in his note-he told me to tell you hi."
Lewis might have laughed and thanked her for passing along the message, but Alice thought she caught a flash of sadness in his eyes. He must've missed grandpa Harris very much. Were the two good friends? She made a note to ask about it when her time here didn't amount to about thirty minutes.
"You know," he said. "Everyone's been asking about you!"
"Oh, yeah." Alice chuckled softly. "I've heard."
"It's not every day someone new moves in! It's quite a big deal!" Lewis turned a soft gaze on the cottage behind him from over his shoulder. "So . . . you're moving into your grandfather's old cottage. It's a good house. Very . . . rustic."
They both turned and looked at the old place-and in that moment Alice felt herself flooded with memories from the past. Of sitting on the porch with her grandpa watching fireflies float lazily by on the warm summer breezes while he listened to soft, crooning music on the radio and rocked in his rocking chair. Of bouncing around the kitchen with her grandmother in what would end up being the later stages of her life as the two baked pies together and five-year-old Alice screamed with delight when her grandma flicked the excess flour into her hair as a joke. Of bouncing on her grandpa's knee while he told her stories of his own childhood, then announcing in no uncertain terms that someday she wanted to live on the farm just like him.
All of a sudden everything that had so shocked her when she arrived didn't seem quite as important anymore.
From her place at the foot of the porch steps, Robin rolled her eyes. She crossed her arms under her chest. "Rustic? That's . . . one way to put it." Alice looked over her shoulder at Robin to see her grinning darkly, throwing a look at Mayor Lewis. "More like crusty!"
Mayor Lewis spun around to face her. "Rude!" He turned his gaze over to Alice. "Don't listen to her. She just wants to make you dissatisfied so you'll buy one of her house upgrades!"
Robin's only response was an irritated "hmph!" and turning half away from both of them.
"Anyway . . . . you must be very tired from your journey," Mayor Lewis said to Alice with a much kinder, gentler tone. He put a hand on her shoulder, a kind of grandfatherly gesture that melted away some of the anxiety she'd nursed all the way from the city. "You should get some rest. Tomorrow you ought to explore the town a bit and introduce yourself." He smiled. "The townspeople would really appreciate that. Good luck, my dear."
Alice watched as Mayor Lewis took his leave of the farm, stopping only long enough to explain the shipping box located by the house. Robin smiled at her and followed behind him.