The morning of Summer 11 was a chilly one, with the sun already having risen in a completely blue sky. There was dew everywhere, and the birds were singing their "good morning"s to each other. Most of those chirps were probably mating calls, realistically, but whatever.
I stood on my porch, hanging onto the handle of my rolling luggage. I stood there for a bit because I thought I could hear some noise off in the distance, over in the direction of Cindersap Forest. It almost sounded like a skateboard on a ramp; I'd hear wheels on wood for a few seconds before a second's pause, before the sound of wood grinding on wood, and lather, rinse, repeat.
If Sam really was there, I was glad he was enjoying his ramp. The thought warmed my heart up and made the morning air a little less chilly.
I replayed the morning in my head to make sure I'd done everything I had to; there were at least two huge bags of cat food sitting against the wall by Laslow's bowl, and just seconds ago, I'd slipped the key to the house under the mat on the porch.
Then, I went down my stairs and turned left to head to the bus stop. The train I had the ticket for was going to arrive at the ZuZu station in two hours, and I had to grab a bite to eat somewhere in the city beforehand. There was a sandwich shop close to the station, fortunately. My mouth started to water at the thought of the delicious sandwich that had yet to be made.
I was just about to step foot off my property when that familiar voice called "Hey!" from somewhere in the distance. I also noticed that the skateboard noises had stopped.
I stopped and turned around, waiting for the voice's beholder to show up. It had been a cheerful "Hey!," but it was also laced with a little urgency, as if the one that'd called it had a need to catch me before I left Stardew Valley. And soon enough, the Sam of the hour was bolting over to me, his beloved skateboard under his arm.
"Hi!" I said, my morning having instantly gotten better. "The key to the house is under the mat on the porch, so you and Abigail can go see Laslow as you please."
"Abigail?" Sam asked a little confused.
"…Oh, I probably didn't tell you," I replied. "She came up to me a couple of days ago and practically begged for me to let her take care of him, too. So I guess this'll be a team effort."
"I'm not surprised," Sam said with a bit of a laugh. "She's always talking about how precious your cat is."
I couldn't help but laugh. He really had become her cat, too.
I then said "I bought plenty of food, and it's right by his bowl, so there should be no problem there."
"Sweet," he replied.
"And thank you so much again for doing this," I said. "For taking time out of your day to make sure my cat's okay."
"Don't mention it," he replied with a smile. "I'm happy to see the little guy."
There was a lull in the conversation then. I checked my watch, seeing that if the bus schedule was right, I still had a good few minutes to kill. Was I sure I had everything I needed in this single luggage bag? There was my dress, some toiletries, a few changes of clothes… No matter how many times I thought about it, that was all I really needed. Aside from the luggage, the key was available to those who were to feed Laslow, and there was enough food there to last a few weeks, let alone this upcoming one…
"So…" Sam then said, bringing me back to reality. "The mountain resort, huh?"
"Yeah," I nodded. "I'm still wondering if this is all a dream. I never guessed I'd be rich enough to even see the place in person, but I'm staying there for free."
"My mom says she's been there before," he said. "My dad took her there when they were first dating. She said the view of the mountains is nothing short of magical no matter what time of day it is, but that you'll never experience a better sunset or sunrise."
My mind briefly ran by me the hypothetical of what taking Sam there would be like. Even after making my mind put that crazy image away, I developed this desire for him to get to go, not necessarily right now, but at some point in his life. And I hadn't even gotten there yet.
"Well," I reacted. "Now, I'm extra excited to get there. Sunrises and sunsets are awesome enough."
"Yeah," Sam agreed.
I checked my watch again. The bus was due to arrive in about a minute.
"Well, I gotta get going," I sighed. "The bus'll be here soon."
"Oh, yeah?" asked Sam. His tone of voice wasn't exactly as… bright as it had just been.
"Yup," I nodded, unconsciously mirroring his tone.
I turned to walk over to the bus stop, and noticed that Sam intended on following me.
"I'll be back in a week or so, around the 18th," I said, starting to walk.
"Sweet," Sam said, indeed following me. "…Have you confirmed that Elliott's going to this same wedding?"
"Not anything beyond what Willy said," I replied, going to cross the street to the side with the stop. "Though, what are the odds there's another couple named Eric and Amy getting married at this exact time?"
"Right, right," said Sam. "That's still an insane coincidence."
"Seriously," I nodded.
I then heard what sounded like a large vehicle, and looked down the street to my right to see the headlights of what was indeed the bus to the city. I dug into my purse to find my bus fare.
"Well, uh… have fun," said Sam, not as confidently as I would have expected.
Grasping the gold I needed in my fingers, I looked up at him, prepared to ask if he was okay. Unfortunately, though, I knew I wouldn't have enough time to hear his whole answer.
"Yeah," I said, taking my hand out of my purse. "And thank you again for taking care of Laslow."
"Of course," Sam smiled.
The bus came to a stop right by me, and the doors opened. I hoisted my luggage up the steps, put the gold into the fare machine by the driver, and turned back around.
"See ya," I said.
"See ya," he said back, waving.
After a wave of my own, I turned to find a seat.
An hour before the train was due to arrive, I sat in the train station, eating a sandwich as planned.
I had that whole if-I'd-done-one-thing-even-slightly-differently train of thought again. Heh… train of thought… Never mind. Point is, because I'd done everything exactly as I had, I was in a train station, eating a sandwich, waiting for a train that would take me to a mountain resort.
The fact that there was only one other person here that wasn't an employee, meaning the station was fairly empty, made things strangely peaceful. I felt like I was going on an adventure.
…The entire time I'd spent at Stardew Valley felt like an even bigger adventure, though, and not because it had lasted two years and counting. I'd come there in a desperate escape from a cold hell with Joja, and I easily could have succumbed to that hell instead, not even thinking about finding a way out. I felt super grateful that I'd had the courage to move away from the certain to chase the uncertain. I was even a little scared of what would have become of me had I not escaped, if I'd let that horrible office job scrape away at me little by little for the rest of my life.
And then, there was Sam.
I only had time to think about him, though, for around a second. The door to the station opened, and I could hear footsteps and luggage wheels come in through it. Because there was barely anyone here, I gave in to the impulse to look up.
And when I looked up, my eyes met Elliott's.
I thought I was hallucinating for a solid few seconds. There was already no way in hell this man was going to the same wedding as me; there was a snowball's chance in hell he'd booked the same train to the resort. There had to be… right?
"R-Rachael, is it?" he asked, his voice the quietest I'd ever heard it. "Fancy meeting you here."
It was real. The sound of his voice made me accept it.
"Yeah, uh… great seeing you here, too," I replied. "Where are you going?"
He took a seat across from me and replied "I'm currently waiting on the train to the mountain resort for my family friend's wedding."
Logically, what other train would he be boarding, right? Nonetheless, it still felt like a huge shock to hear him say this, probably because if this didn't confirm we had the same train, I didn't know what would.
"So… funny story…" I replied. "Same here."
Elliott's face instantly widened. The whole package: his eyes got super wide, his eyebrows went about as high as physically possible, and his jaw even dropped.
"E-Eric and Amy's?" he asked.
"That's the one," I said. "Amy's one of my distant cousins."
"How… marvelous…" he seemed to say without thinking.
"I know," I replied. "What do the odds have to be, right? That two people who know each other would be going to the same wedding without knowing it?"
A pause. Then, he was practically ripping the zipper to his luggage open, and in seconds, he withdrew a yellow notepad and a black pen from it. Just as quickly, he was frantically scribbling something into it. Then, after a few seconds, he put it away.
"My apologies," he said with a sheepish chuckle. "Inspiration struck just there, and I had to get it down on paper before it escaped me."
"Ah," I nodded, understanding him. "You're a writer, aren't you?"
"Why, yes, I am," he nodded. "How did you know?"
"Oh, I've learned a little about everyone in Stardew Valley," I shrugged. "If I remember correctly, I didn't move in much later than you."
"That is true," he confirmed. "Only about a year after me."
"What brought you there?" I asked.
"To be honest, I was hoping some new scenery would give me the inspiration I've needed to write a novel," he sighed. "I can't say it's been too effective, though."
"Hm," I said. "Sound strategy, though. Some of my biggest moments of inspiration have come when I was somewhere new, or somewhere I didn't get to go often. It's ironic. You'd think that if you were in a new place, you'd be too focused on the new place to think about anything else, and being in a place that you're always at would make your mind think about other things… like ideas, for instance."
"I couldn't have said it better myself," he agreed. "It's almost as if the bleakness of everyday life fogs our minds more than the sight of something new would."
"Yeah," I nodded.
It was here that I realized that I could probably have some deep conversations with this guy. And hey… maybe I needed a friend like that, to dive into the philosophy of the world around us with.
Elliott turned toward the front counter. He was looking at the clock on the wall behind it.
"If you don't mind, I think I may get a bite to eat before the train arrives," he said. "It didn't occur to me that that may be a good idea until I looked at your sandwich and saw how delectable it looks."
I had been taking smaller bites of my sandwich since we'd started talking.
"Yeah, that may be good," I nodded. "Train food is outrageously expensive."
"Agreed," he said, opening his luggage and withdrawing a coin pouch. "Would you do me a favor and watch my luggage while I'm gone?"
"Gladly," I nodded.
"Fantastic," he said, standing up. "I will see you when I get back."
"Yup," I nodded.
Maybe twenty minutes went by. And for those twenty minutes, I was able to think about Sam again.
I mainly pondered what he saw in me. Weirdly enough, it was in less of a why-does-he-want-to-talk-to-a-piece-of-dog-shit-like-me way, but… more in a genuine "How?" way. I was genuinely puzzled. How did he, someone so musically talented and who seemed to see the world in everyone, want to spend as much time with me as he did? He was a bright and tall and sunshiny sunflower, and he wanted to spend time with someone with infinitely less sunshine in their soul?
By the time I could start getting into the realm of "He deserves Penny," Elliott returned… with a gigantic sub tucked under his arm.
"Woah," I reacted as he sat down again. "What kind of sandwich is that?"
"Ah, a simple meatball sub, beefy meatballs covered in marinara," he elaborated.
He then opened it. Damn, his sandwich almost looked like it was ripped right from the commercials; the meatballs were perfectly round, and the marinara was neatly applied. Was the person working at the sandwich shop an artist on the side?
We sat in silence for a bit as he ate his sandwich. By the time it was gone, I'd gotten the curiosity to walk over to the shelf with all the tourism pamphlets and grab a few. They had one or two brochures or books per stop that the trains had, which turned out to be a variety of places. One appeared to be a small town that had a ton of Winter attractions.
"This place has a cheese shop," I said, looking at that town's pamphlet. "They let you watch just about every stage of the cheese-making process, for a variety of different cheeses."
"How interesting," Elliott replied. "I wonder how gouda is made differently from other cheeses."
"Gouda is delicious," I nodded. "That would be interesting."
Until the announcement that our train would be there in five minutes, Elliott and I talked mostly about the destinations I'd picked up pamphlets for (turned out, to try to gather inspiration for his novel, he'd attempted one of the more difficult hiking trails along the forest by the mountains, and it didn't go too well).
Soon, the train was there, and there was a decent crowd of people intending to board it. I'd have to hurry if I wanted a good seat, maybe even an aisle to myself.
Elliott and I managed to be the second and third people to board the train. I spotted a clear aisle and quickly stuffed my luggage in the compartment above, then went to dive for the window seat so quickly that I whacked my head on said compartment. I'd only hit it hard enough to cause a reasonable amount of pain and shock for a few seconds, so the pain was gone by the time I was seated.
Soon, Elliott stopped by the seat beside me.
"Do you mind if I take this seat, milady?" he asked.
It hadn't even occurred to me that there could be anything better than having the aisle to myself… but someone as interesting and potentially-friend-like as Elliott?
"Go for it," I nodded with a smile.
And he sat. And I felt this weird rush of comfort, like this whole vacation was going to be entirely awesome. I'd done awesome things before, but every experience always had this void because I didn't have anyone I really liked to share it with.
While I couldn't quite call Elliott a friend yet, though, he was looking to get there pretty quickly. At the very least, he'd be enough to fill the void.
As the train began to move, I thought about how different things would be if Sam was currently in Elliott's spot. Well, it would be no question that things would definitely be different. It wasn't Elliott I had a huge crush on, after all.
My next, almost unrelated thought, I voiced to Elliott.
"This vacation's going to be all about sight-seeing," I said. "Taking in the sight of what this planet, without man's assistance, has put together."
"Indeed," he agreed. "Nature is absolutely amazing, and it wasn't put together for our eyes. It's just there, for its own purposes. There's no rhyme or reason for things like mountains, and yet they can amaze humanity such as us, even changing our lives entirely."
"We're amazed by something that wasn't created for our amazement," I added, looking out at the greenery speeding by the window. "Some nature does sustain us, yes, but most of it only sustains itself. But we're amazed by it all the same."
"Yes," said Elliott. "It's astonishing."
What I didn't tell Elliott was how that related to Sam. He'd probably be interested in everything, yeah. He'd probably be amazed by the sight of the mountains and everything.
The conversation I'd just had with Elliott, though… Could I have had that with Sam? Could Sam and I ponder aloud the intricacies of life and nature?
When I thought about it… maybe. But not quite in the same way.
A few minutes later, I noticed Elliott putting a notepad (was this one different?) back in his pocket.
"What made you want to be a writer?" I asked.
"I write in hopes of connecting with others through time and space," he answered.
"Ah," I answered. "Like sharing experiences? Maybe sharing a little of your soul with the world?"
"Yes," he nodded. He then sighed. "Times are changing, though. People don't read anymore."
"I dunno about that," I tried to assure him. "Reading is definitely a dying art… but I don't think you could ever replace the hobby of taking a book in your hands, finding a beautiful and quiet place, and kicking back with it. I mean, take Penny. You see her reading all the time."
"You are right," said Elliott.
"I used to be the biggest bookworm ever," I said. "Only reason I dropped that hobby is because I could never find an interesting book anymore. Today, I'll once in a while find one I like, and I won't be able to put it down… but it still doesn't happen as often as it used to."
"Hm…" Elliott hummed, seeming to ponder something for a second.
There was a lull in the conversation up until the next stop was announced, a small town. After the train left this stop, the stop by the mountain resort would be next.
As people left the train, and as people got on the train to replace those that had gotten off, I noticed that Elliott once again was scribbling in his notepad. Not wanting to pry, I looked out the window at the train station.
It stood seemingly out in the middle of nowhere, a lone brick building with dusty windows and abandoned office rooms.
"Places like this…" I said, half to myself. "They bring me a strange sense of nostalgia. I mean, I've experienced a dusty and abandoned building or two in my day, but…"
"Could it be that the dusty and abandoned building you're looking at is one that was supposed to represent adventure?" asked Elliott. He then sighed again. "If that is so, it's sad. People don't like adventures anymore. Any travel seems to be for work, or some sort of pre-defined purpose that doesn't allow for any freedom. This can be represented in how a once thriving train station is now in such a dilapidated state."
"Hm…" I said. "I think there's also a… serene sense of exploration there, if that makes any sense. There's something strangely peaceful about a darkened room where dust lingers in the sunlight that makes it in through the window. Also, can you imagine what's in there, and the history behind it? What if you dug through everything? It's hard to imagine all the relics you'd find."
"You have an odd way of making any narrative a positive one," Elliott remarked. "It's… amazing, if you don't mind my saying so."
"Aww," I laughed a bit. "I dunno. There's a positive light in everything. Sometimes, I need that positivity to stay sane in such a crazy world, you know?"
"I can't argue with you there," he replied.
Eventually, the train made it to the resort.
I will never forget the overwhelming aura the area around the station gave off. At night, maybe with some volcanoes erupting in the background, this would have been the perfect backdrop for a final boss of a video game. I felt completely removed from the rest of the world, in a seriously good way.
I supposed that was the goal of the resort, to remove you from everything else. I saw it half a mile in the distance, a block of pristine white marble and windows clearer than water.
I suddenly wished Sam could have at least been able to stand here, to see the resort with his own eyes. As I'd said, usually, only the rich even got that much.
I was almost overwhelmed when I remembered I was going to be staying here for an entire week.
"Wow," I heard Elliott say as he came up behind me, having gotten off the train behind me.
"Right?" I replied.
The other people getting off this train were headed toward the resort. Some were already in formal attire, even though the wedding wasn't until tomorrow. Maybe there was a last-minute rehearsal or photoshoot or something.
Even the lobby of this place was something else. It was wide open, the entire floor was carpeted in red, and there were tapestries hanging from the walls I was convinced must have been excavated from ancient castles.
Elliott checked in and got his room key right before me, so we said our goodbyes for the day when he went to find his room.
I was roomed with my mother, I found out. There were definitely worse people I could have been roomed with, so I breathed a sigh of relief as I took my room key.
Heading away from the front desk, the next week loomed over me like the murals on the ceiling… in a good way. I almost wondered if I wasn't going to return to Stardew Valley a changed woman.