One summer's morning, I suppose there was an earthquake. All I really remember was being half-asleep when my bed was shaking. I was still asleep enough to think it was Laslow playing with something under the bed that was causing it to shake.
When I went to feed Laslow that morning, he ran up to the food bowl, and I was literally like "Did you find a mouse under my bed last night, buddy?" I'm half-convinced he gave me this look of "What in Yoba's name are you talking about, woman?"
I only realized it was an earthquake when two different people told me about it, not at the same time.
I had just cast my line when I heard and felt unfamiliar footsteps on the pier.
Sometimes, especially when it rained, Sebastian would come out to have a smoke and get away from everything else, but his footsteps were generally pretty slow, and he stood out on another part of the pier that wasn't that close to mine. I often wondered if he'd ever say hello. He seemed to be so much of a loner that I was scared to do it myself.
Aside from that, Willy was around, but considering he lived in that little fish shop, he didn't really go that far from it. If this had been him, I would have known. And his footsteps also weren't that quick.
Now, I'm not saying whoever this was was doing a freakin' power walk onto the pier. Their steps just seemed to be a bit quicker. Just a tad.
They stopped directly to my right. I looked, and standing there was Sam.
I think this was when another thing began. I saw him there, and some mixture of sedation and excitement, an oxymoron in my blood, originated from my chest for a brief moment. Nothing major, but 'ey, neither were the sunflower seeds I'd planted that, even without blooming, were already almost as tall as I was.
"Did your place get rocked by that earthquake, too?" he asked.
"Wait, earthquake?" I asked. I felt a tug from my fishing pole, and I proceeded to start reeling it in.
"Don't tell me you didn't feel it!" Sam exclaimed, sitting down beside me.
"No!" I said. "…Wait, THAT'S what that was?!"
The bed shaking. It all came back to me. I was trying to figure out how I hadn't heard or seen anything else out of the ordinary. Nothing had been knocked over, I hadn't heard any rumbling… Was my bed just that flimsy?
"What what was?" asked Sam.
I reeled in a tilapia and put it away.
"My bed was shaking early this morning," I said, deciding to drop my line in the water right by the pier.
"Got'cha," said Sam.
"Dude, I thought it was my cat," I laughed. Sam laughed as well. "I… Look, I was barely awake. I thought he was playing around under my bed or… or found a mouse or something. That was a freakin' earthquake, then, wasn't it?"
"Yeah," said Sam before laughing again. "Yeah, it was an earthquake."
I was suddenly bummed out that I missed an earthquake due to pure oblivion. I was the type to be strangely excited about natural disasters, as long as they weren't endangering me or those I cared about. If there was a tornado nearby, you know I'd be out in my yard looking for that fucker.
We sat there in silence for a moment, the moment leading up to my reeling in a halibut.
"So… is this what you do?" asked Sam. "Fishing day in and day out?"
I hadn't really paid much mind to it until he asked, but… yeah. When I really thought about it, I'd essentially found this to be the best way to make money here. Perhaps not the most profitable, but the one that brought me the most joy.
"I guess so," I answered with a bit of a laugh. "I found out I like doing it. It allows you to think about things while simultaneously focusing your attention on something on the outside. Lets your mind wander on its own, without you having to force it to do so, if that makes sense. If… If nothing else, that alone made coming to Stardew Valley completely worth it."
That and Laslow, I supposed. He was the sweetest little creature I had ever had the pleasure of encountering.
It was one of those things I realized as I was saying it, though. I was suddenly really happy.
I'd made a move, and it was worth it. That's perhaps one of the best things that could happen to anyone, really, and I had that fortune.
My life was better now.
"I'm happy you think that," Sam smiled.
We sat together for another minute or so. Just as I felt the tug of my next catch, Sam stood up.
"I have to go," he said simply. "I'll see you around, yeah?"
"Absolutely," I nodded. "Have a good day!"
"You too!" he waved as he walked away.
The second person to tell me about the earthquake was Willy, who walked out of his shop later in the day.
"Did you feel the earthquake this morning?" he asked as he found his own fishing spot. "That thing was massive!"
"Yeah, I suppose I did," I said with a bit of a laugh. "Here's the thing, though; I was still so asleep at the time, I thought it was my cat shaking the bed."
Willy laughed in response, and we both fished to ourselves. I did so until the clock struck midnight. As per usual. My newfound usual.