It was sort of jarring to have only been here a year, but for fall to be exactly what I had expected. I had expected warm-colored leaves and grass, and chilly air, and that's exactly what I got.

Crystal paths sat in a big stack by my furnace, ready to fulfill their purpose of being stepped on until the end of time. I picked them up and went outside.

I hadn't taken one step off my porch, though, before I noticed someone coming down the path from town. I could instantly identify them as Abigail. Well, this was unusual. I almost worried that something bad had happened.

I set down the paths in my arms, which were starting to dig into my skin, and called out "Hey! How are you doing?"

Abigail, who was almost to the farm at this point, looked up at me and said a cheerful "Hey!" back.

I quickly left my porch and approached her. She didn't seem sad or anything, which was good.

"What's up?" I asked.

"My online class got cancelled, and I wasn't sure what to do with the time I had," she answered. "Then… I sorta… remembered Sam told me you had a cat."

"…I do," I said.

"It's… sorta been ages since I've gotten to interact with anything close to a cat," she said sheepishly. "There's Dusty, Alex's dog, but he's a dog. And dogs are great and all, but cats are just… more comforting, I guess."

"Agreed," I nodded. "I'm probably a biased cat person, but there are ways in which cats are just… better."

"I've always wanted one, but my dad's allergic to pretty much everything," she said with a sigh.

"That's rough," I said. "…So I'm guessing you're here to see Laslow?"

"That was his name!" said Abigail. "Sam told me it was Laslow, but all I could remember was that it was something knight-like. Like… Laslow the Great, who saves the princess from the cursed tower or something."

"I actually named him after someone who would be happy to do just that," I said with a bit of a laugh. "He'd then invite the princess to tea, call her a 'miracle of beauty' or something like that… You get the picture."

Now that I thought about it, Laslow… my Laslow, that is… had won my heart over upon our meeting when he looked at me with a certain confidence even after having just been rescued from the rain… and when I'd had him neutered, I thought I could see rain clouds in his eyes… but really, beyond that, I couldn't call him a womanizer. Then again, there were no females around to even, er, womanize with.

I went back into the house, without closing the door, to confirm that Laslow was drinking from his water bowl.

"You're free to go in and spend some time with him, if you want," I offered. "He's drinking water right now, but he'll be done in a moment."

"Are you sure?" Abigail asked.

"I'm sure," I nodded. "I trust you."

"Oh, thank you!" she said, borderline squeaking with glee.

She then went inside. I had to laugh, because I'd probably react the same way. Cats were angels, the way I saw it.

As I heard her say "Hi, Laslow," gently, I picked up some pathing from the top of the stack on the porch, then went back down to begin laying it out.

I was about halfway through the stack when I heard her come back out. I looked to see that she was holding Laslow in her arms. He looked as mellow as ever.

"He's so sweet," she said quietly, almost as if Laslow's cuteness had made her emotional. Well, if I'd done nothing else today, I'd made a friend happy. It made me smile.

"Isn't he?" I asked. "I am so blessed to have had him show up on my doorstep, let alone in my life."

"Yeah," Abigail said, scratching Laslow behind the ears.

I placed the last of the pathing in my arms down, then went to the porch for more.

"How have you been?" she then asked. "I don't want it to seem like I'm just here for your cat."

"Honestly, it's fine," I laughed. "We all need some cat in our lives."

"Yeah, but still," she laughed in response. "How are things?"

Then, something clicked in me. This would be the perfect time for some girl talk, wouldn't it? Just two chicks out in the middle of nowhere? And I could consider Abigail a friend at this point. She was probably the best female friend I'd ever had.

I opened my mouth to talk about the horrors I was put through the previous night, but closed my mouth when I realized that doing so could expose what was Alex's previously secret relationship. I didn't want to do that to him.

Then, I discovered a roundabout way to do so.

"What?" Abigail asked. "What were you about to say?"

"…I just had to figure out a way to say it without outing someone's secret," I replied.

"Oooh, a scandal," she reacted. "Spill the beans. Now."

"Well… long story short, I almost had to watch a couple's sex scene last night," I explained. "Short story long, I had watched the moonlight jellies from a spot way down the beach."

"Sebastian and I were wondering where you were," said Abigail.

"Heh, sorry about that," I said. "Anyway, though, not knowing I was there, a young couple sat a ways down the beach as well. They weren't close, but they… they weren't far enough away from me."

"Far enough?" she asked.

"Far enough away for me not to eventually catch the girl straddling the guy in a heated makeout session," I said. "I… ugh… I even heard the guy moan once or twice. Those two were going to get sexual if some force of Yoba hadn't made them decide to take it back to the guy's place."

"…I am so sorry," Abigail reacted. "I wish I could have helped you out of that."

"Don't worry about it," I said. "Now that the mental scar has started to heal, it's becoming more of an entertaining memory."

"Two people nearly banging in front of you is an entertaining memory?" she asked.

"Well, when you put it like that…" I said. "Maybe 'anecdote' is a better word."

"…You sure you don't want to give out names?" she asked. "I mean, it's probably a good thing you're preserving their privacy, but… they did make you see them sucking each other's faces off."

"Gossiper much?" I asked. "I kid, I kid. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't tempted at all. But yeah, it probably will be better to keep my mouth shut on that."

"But you do know who they were?" asked Abigail.

"I know who the guy was," I said. "I know the girl lives here, but I don't know her name."

"Which girls' names do you know?" asked Abigail.

"Pretty much just you, Maru, and Penny," I answered.

"Okay, so that leaves Emily, Haley, and Leah," Abigail said. "The girl you saw must have been one of those three. Well, there's also Marnie, Pam… how old were these people?"

"They were young, about our age," I answered. "If not younger."

"So yeah, the girl was either Emily, Haley, or Leah," said Abigail.

"…You're crafty," I said, realizing the trap I'd walked into. "But seriously…"

"Yeah, yeah, you're right," she said. "I'll stop."

Another important subject popped into my mind. I grabbed more pathing and went back down to the farm, but not before doing an entire 360 of the premises to make sure it was just the two of us.

"Uh, what's wrong?" asked Abigail.

"Say…" I said. "Would you… happen to have played Junimo Kart since… you know?"

"What?" she replied. "…Oh, the Junimo thing that happened."

"So those are Junimos!" I said.

"Yeah, actually, I did," she answered.

"Did anything different happen?" I asked.

"No, not really," she said.

"Hmm…" I said. "I dunno, I just… I wondered if maybe, the Junimos wouldn't want to communicate with us through that game. I wonder if anything different would happen if we played it together."

"It's single-player, though," said Abigail.

"Maybe one of us could play while the other watches," I suggested.

"I see where you're going with this, though," she said. "…Do you want to go play it and see what happens?"

I looked at my watch. It was only noon.

"Doesn't the saloon not open for a bit?" I asked.

"What time is it?" Abigail asked, checking her phone. "No, it's open."

I placed down the last of the pathing in my arms and said "Well, let's go, then."

I'll spare you the details: Abigail and I, we tried. I actually watched her beat Junimo Kart, and while I hadn't seen the ending before, she said nothing seemed off.

Maybe I needed to beat it, too? Nobody was playing pool behind us, so it's not like there were any unwanted witnesses.

I thought of all sorts of possibilities, but didn't really want to try them all. Playing when absolutely nobody was in the bar somehow, taking the machine somewhere else somehow, feeding it some kind of item… singing it a song, maybe the song we'd performed together that night…

Abigail and I essentially gave up on trying to pry any more answers from the world. We did know one thing for sure, though: we'd seen Junimos. We'd been guest performers in a Junimo symphony. Nobody would believe us, but we believed each other, and for the time being, that was enough.