Junimo Kart.
The words rang through my head like church bells, waking me up the next morning.
That's why the creatures we'd encountered last night felt so familiar only after I'd walked away from them. Had they cast an oblivion spell, or was I just so dumbfounded by the whole thing that "Junimo" didn't even cross my mind?
Junimos were fictional, though… right? They were in a video game that was created by someone's creative design and nothing more… right?
If that's the case, why could both Abigail and I see them clear as day? It would have been one thing if I was the only one seeing them, but there was a second pair of eyes with me that saw these things exactly as I did. I even felt it touch my boot!
…How could I even begin to search for the answer to all this?
…Playing some Junimo Kart, maybe? Had the game changed? Maybe if I and/or Abigail approached it, it would give us some kind of message?
That would be my first step, then. I'd approach Abigail with the idea of us playing Junimo Kart together to see if we could glean anything from it. I'd have to wait for the next best moment, though; not only did I not want to bother her, but something told me the whole debacle was a secret best kept between us, so I couldn't just say "Let's play Junimo Kart to see if Junimos are real" willy-nilly.
I sat up, sighed, and looked at all the quartz piled up by my furnace. I supposed today was a roast-quartz-and-go-fishing kinda day.
That's precisely what happened. When the sun touched the horizon to end the day, I was at my usual perch on the beach pier.
It seemed like it was just as the last bit of the sun disappeared that I heard familiar footsteps come around the corner. Perhaps the most familiar of all.
"Hey!" Sam's cheery voice greeted me from above.
"Oh, hi!" I said, looking up at him and feeling instant happiness. "What's up?"
It was then that I noticed he had a plastic bag in his hand that seemed to have something in it.
"Are you watching the meteor shower tonight?" he asked, sitting down beside me.
"Meteor shower?" I asked.
"Everyone's been saying there's supposed to be a bunch of meteors tonight," he answered. "The planet's passing through a comet belt or something."
"Oh, wow," I marveled.
I looked up. As soon as I did, one of the brightest comets I'd ever seen streaked across the sky, almost seeming to leave a smoke trail behind.
"You weren't kidding," I reacted.
"Nope," said Sam, reaching into the bag he'd brought. "I, um, brought some food from the saloon if you want some."
"Aww, thank you!" I smiled. "What'cha got?"
"I got some pizza, cookies… That's about it," he answered. "Oh, and a few cans of Joja Cola."
"I'll just have some cookies and a cola," I said.
We both reached into the bag to grab things at the same time. Inevitably, as a result, our hands touched a couple of times, even if it was just at the knuckle, and I'm not kidding when I say I felt some kind of comforting warmth course through my body whenever it happened. It was something I thought only happened in romance novels, but it really happened to me. It was as if he held my hand, but in millisecond-long bursts, I guess.
He soon had a bag of cookies, three slices of pizza wrapped together in aluminum foil (they smelled fantastic), and a Joja Cola on his lap.
I first cracked open a Joja Cola and took a sip. My face immediately scrunched up; if something could taste sticky, this stuff fit the bill perfectly. It tasted like molten aspartame, like molten glass if it was fake sugar. It honestly kinda hurt my head.
I heard Sam laugh a couple times.
"Dang, I was kinda hoping I wouldn't be the only one in town who likes this stuff anymore," he said. "Can't win them all, I guess."
I set the Joja Cola down and opened the pack of cookies I'd gotten out, popping one in my mouth and looking up at the sky. Well, the cookies were divine, at least. The bag was just a clear plastic one. I wondered who made them.
A few seconds later, another meteor shot across the sky. Then another. That sort of thing, I'd never seen in my life.
I took note of how there was barely any artificial light out here. Before I'd moved here, I'd have to make an active effort to be out in the country, on a barren road, to see anything resembling a meteor. But now, it was just a perk of life. It was just the moonlight, and I didn't have to do a single thing different.
I also realized I could see the complete sky. Even in the country in the past, the corn in the fields would often obscure the horizon. Here, though, Willy's shop and the trees by the city were the only things preventing me from being able to see the entire sky as if I was in a globe.
It took my pole moving to even remember I was fishing. I reeled in a halibut and put it away. I then went to get another cookie before realizing my hands were all wet and fishy, then elected to simply pick up the bag and shake the cookies into my mouth. It felt weird realizing that not being able to pick up a cookie due to fishy hands was the closest thing to a problem I'd encountered all day.
Well, there was also the Junimo matter. Did Junimos exist? Were they dangerous? Did I have to fear for my life?
There was also Sam in addition to that. I couldn't have come up with a more romantic scenario if I tried; the moonlight shone in Sam's eyes and made them look alive with wonder as he looked at the sky. I felt like getting out a notebook and writing poetry right then and there, it was such a beautiful sight.
I plopped my line into the water in front of me and shook another cookie into my mouth at the same time. I heard him crack open a Cola.
I looked up. It was three this time, three meteors that danced across the sky in the span of a couple of seconds. My first impulse when watching meteors with someone is to ask them if they saw the meteor I saw, but by the time I opened my mouth, another one would appear. This was otherworldly.
"Have you seen anything like this before?" I asked. "'Cause I haven't."
"We get good meteor showers out here in the sticks, but nothing like this," Sam answered, about as surprised as I was.
It's not often I don't want time to pass… but I legitimately didn't this time. I would have wanted to stay fishing under a thousand falling comets alone, but having Sam there, and seeming to enjoy himself, made it twice as magical.
By the time I'd reeled in my tenth or so fish of the night, I finally noticed that I had to look for a good few minutes before seeing another comet fall. Things were dying down. Sam had eaten pretty much all his food, but I still had a full can of Joja Cola sitting there that was going to be drank by the soil rather than me later.
As my line fell in the water in front of me again, I heard Sam sigh. It was a short one.
Another few seconds went by before he said "Hey… can I… ask you something?"
My heart skipping a beat, I answered "Shoot."
"Do you think our band will go anywhere?" he asked. "Like… do you think we'll make it?"
My heart broke a little. He sounded so defeated, almost like he was about to give up. I knew that tone of voice.
"I can't see into the future," I replied with a sigh. "I'm not sure what others think of your music." It hurt having to be honest at first, but my honesty soon turned positive. "But if my opinion of it is any indicator, you just need the right people to hear it. People who are into your genre."
A pause. When Sam didn't say anything, I continued to speak.
"I've heard you guys play from outside," I said. "I'm not kidding; your music is awesome. So, guaranteed, you've got at least one fan."
"T-Thanks," Sam said with a smile, seeming a bit flustered. I mean, if I'd been told what I'd just said, I'd be sorta flustered, too.
"I understand you need more than me, though, to be famous," I said. "But none of the famous ones got there overnight. They had to work for years to get where they are."
"…Yeah, you're right," Sam nodding. "We haven't really even had a concert yet."
"Right!" I said. "You guys are just getting started, but I'm confident you'll go really far once you get out there."
"You're right, you're right," said Sam. "It's just… I dunno. It can be hard sometimes. Sometimes I really wonder if all my work with this is gonna go anywhere."
"That's completely valid," I said. "Making it in entertainment is a super long road. When you don't immediately see any results, it can be discouraging. I imagine it's sort of a natural psychological response to feel down when you put in all this hard work and don't get anything for it immediately."
I paused, stopping myself from getting off on a tangent about reinforcement and stuff.
"It's the little victories," I said without thinking. "Even taking the leap and starting a band is a huge accomplishment. I'd personally be too afraid to do something that big."
"Yeah?" Sam asked.
"I think so," I nodded, getting myself to look him square in the eyes. "You know… You have a dream, and you're chasing after it. That in and of itself is amazing. Er, if it's not too forward…" I looked down at the water. "You're amazing for it."
I almost said he was amazing in general, but that for sure would have been too forward.
I stared down at the water, realizing what I'd just done. I'd just spouted off, giving my take on a situation that someone else was going through. I seriously needed to quit doing that. And now, I'd just done it to Sam.
"I'm sorry," I sighed. "You probably just needed a listening ear, and I just talked your own ear off."
"…I mean… I asked, didn't I?" Sam answered. "Besides…"
I wasn't expecting him to put his hand on my shoulder. It jolted me and made me look back up at him. I can't describe the look on his face with any better word than "sincere."
"I needed to hear all that," he said, gently and with a smile that made me feel warm. "It… It feels nice."
His voice was soft. Affectionate. It drove me crazy.
"Well… you're welcome," I said, fully aware that I was blushing and internally screaming for my face to stop doing that.
He pulled away… but it took a couple seconds. So there was just a couple of seconds where he and I legitimately stared into each other's eyes. I savored every millisecond of it.
When he pulled away, my shoulder froze over. He'd also pulled away just in time, right before my heart boiled over and made me have to look away, close my eyes, and stifle a nervous laugh by smiling so wide it hurt.
To help get my composure back, I reached for my bag of cookies and shook the last of them into my mouth. I heard Sam take a sip of his cola.
We sat for a few more minutes before I saw him check the time.
"Dang," he said. "It's late. I hope I haven't worried my mom."
So much for the night never ending, I guess.
"I take it that means you gotta go?" I said, not even concerned that I sounded a bit sad.
He paused for a couple seconds, then said "Yeah, I guess so." I assumed it was my imagination that made him sound perhaps just as sad as I was.
"I'll see ya around," I said with a smile.
"Of course," he said.
He gathered his trash from the food and put it in the plastic bag, then took it in his hand and stood.
"See ya," he said. "Oh, and… thanks. Thanks for what you said."
"Of course," I replied. "Let me know if you need anything, anything at all, okay?"
"…Yeah," Sam nodded.
And he walked away.
The moon was nearing the horizon at this point. It bathed the water in its light (well, the light the sun had given it, but whatever), to where it was quite beautiful.
I had to thank meteors everywhere for allowing me to experience this night. If the entirety of space had an address, I'd be writing it a thank-you note right away.