Disclaimer: I don't own Harvest Moon, Karen, or any related characters or
events; to the best of my knowledge, they're all owned by Natsume. Any
resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or events is purely
coincidental. This story is based primarily on the plot of Harvest Moon 64.
Wine Red no Kokoro
by flame mage
Part 2: Off to the Races
**********
Spring days seem to drag on forever. Get up. Do your chores all day. An hour off for lunch. No dinner break. Get to the bar by five-thirty, be ready to open at six, work until midnight. Six hours of sleep before you do it all again. Unlike Fall, though, I got a day or two off. The bar was closed Sunday nights, and I took off on the weekends. I spent most of my free time at the beach, watching the water. I fished some. Practiced my dancing.
All the days fade together, too. You can't remember whether you had eggs for breakfast this morning or yesterday, and then you remember you had eggs both mornings. And every morning you can remember before that. The only break in the pattern is rain, which farmers pray for and the rest of us loathe. Rain days are scramble days at the vineyard. Get things set up so the grapevines don't get waterlogged, check the wine cellar to make sure water isn't coming in anywhere. No one cares about the house: protect the wine at all costs. The wine and the grapevines are more important than anything else.
Even the Spring festivals aren't that interesting: half the time I don't even bother coming to the Sowing Festival, and the only reason I show up at the horse race is to cheer for Cliffguard. And it's usually an okay excuse to drink.
Ann and I split a big bucket of French fries, of which she ate almost none. She couldn't sit still. She was jumping up and down and running to the edge of the track and studying the racing forum and just generally making me nervous. I tried to get Gray to come over and make her sit still, but he just said, "Hmph" and went back to leaning on the railing, staring at the track. He looked so desolate that for a minute I felt like going over and giving him a hug. He'd really taken the accident hard. He loved riding more than anyone I knew, and now they were saying he'd never do it again. I knew we all wished we had a doctor in the village- -because we didn't, we'd been unable to save Ann's mother when she'd been sick, unable to help Gray.
I pushed those thoughts out of my mind and tried to calm Ann down (by dumping half a blue raspberry slushie out over her head, but hey, it was for a good cause). She was a total wreck by the time the first race started.
We watched it without too much interest--Pikls pulled ahead of Star.C coming around the bend for a photo finish, though--and I had time to slip out and get to the ticket counter to pick up a few tickets.
The guy in front of me in line stepped back suddenly, slamming into me. "Hey!" I barked. "Watch where you're going!" He turned around. Of course it was Farm Boy.
"Jeez, that was cold," he said, rubbing his back where my elbow had jammed into it.
"What are you doing here? I thought Ann gave you that pony so you could race on it," I snapped.
"It's not full grown enough yet. I figured I might as well play the odds a little while I'm here," he replied. "And what are you doing here? Should've figured a bar girl would be a gambler."
The uppercut caught him hard on the jaw. I followed with a sharper punch to the stomach. "You're a jerk, you know that?" I snarled. Then I stepped around him to the counter, put ten tickets on Cliff, and headed back to Ann.
Her nails were already bitten down to the quick, and her arms were wrapped around Gray's neck almost to the point of strangulation. "Ahh, look!" she yelled. "Cliff and Jake are down on the track!" Jake was the replacement jockey since Gray's accident. He was our age, but he would never be as good as Gray had been.
We were leaning over the railing about as far as we could get. Suddenly the gunshot sounded, and the horses were off. Cliff was losing most of the way, but at the last second, he came from behind and pulled ahead to win.
"Hah! YES!" all three of us shrieked us in unison. Ann vaulted down over the railing onto the track to congratulate the prize horse. I tore off in the other direction to claim my winnings. I love the sound of coins clinking together in the leather money bag. It's one of the most beautiful sounds on earth.
I won some more on the last race, and Ann was just ecstatic, so I was happy. I passed Farm Boy on the way out. He tried to talk to me, but I just kept walking.
"I'm sorry I was rude again," he said the next morning.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever." I refused to look at him. If he hadn't stood there tapping me on the shoulder for five minutes, I would've ignored his presence totally.
"Look, I know I can be a creep sometimes. I meant it as a joke. I'm sorry if it came off as an insult. I don't think of you that way."
"Keep going."
"Can I take you out to dinner some night or something to make up for it?" he asked.
My jaw dropped, but I recovered fast. "What?"
"I'm serious. I'd like a chance to prove that I'm not always a complete jerk, and I'd like to get to know you better."
"Drop dead," I suggested.
Farm Boy sighed. "All right. At least take this." He tried to hand me a small bag of checkered red cloth. I let it drop between our hands. He scooped it up and set it by the fence. "See you later," he said, waving, and took off.
I didn't say anything, just kept working until he was out of earshot. When I couldn't see him anymore, I opened the little bag. Inside were three Veryberries, a slice of strawberry cake, and a note that read: "I'm sorry for what happened yesterday. Please accept this as my apology." It was unsigned, so I still didn't know his name. Not that I cared.
I picked up one of the Veryberries and popped it into my mouth after making sure that no one was watching. It wasn't like I was caving in or anything. He was still a creep. But there's no reason to pass up free food, right?
Right?
**********
Author's Note:
In case anyone's wondering, the title "Wine Red no Kokoro" comes from a song sung by the Japanese band Anzen Chitai in the 1980s and later covered by popular singer and anime seiyuu (voice actress-of famous roles like Evangelion's Shinji) Megumi Ogata. It translates to something like "A Heart of Wine Red" or "A Wine Red-Colored Heart," which seemed appropriate for Karen.
Wine Red no Kokoro
by flame mage
Part 2: Off to the Races
**********
Spring days seem to drag on forever. Get up. Do your chores all day. An hour off for lunch. No dinner break. Get to the bar by five-thirty, be ready to open at six, work until midnight. Six hours of sleep before you do it all again. Unlike Fall, though, I got a day or two off. The bar was closed Sunday nights, and I took off on the weekends. I spent most of my free time at the beach, watching the water. I fished some. Practiced my dancing.
All the days fade together, too. You can't remember whether you had eggs for breakfast this morning or yesterday, and then you remember you had eggs both mornings. And every morning you can remember before that. The only break in the pattern is rain, which farmers pray for and the rest of us loathe. Rain days are scramble days at the vineyard. Get things set up so the grapevines don't get waterlogged, check the wine cellar to make sure water isn't coming in anywhere. No one cares about the house: protect the wine at all costs. The wine and the grapevines are more important than anything else.
Even the Spring festivals aren't that interesting: half the time I don't even bother coming to the Sowing Festival, and the only reason I show up at the horse race is to cheer for Cliffguard. And it's usually an okay excuse to drink.
Ann and I split a big bucket of French fries, of which she ate almost none. She couldn't sit still. She was jumping up and down and running to the edge of the track and studying the racing forum and just generally making me nervous. I tried to get Gray to come over and make her sit still, but he just said, "Hmph" and went back to leaning on the railing, staring at the track. He looked so desolate that for a minute I felt like going over and giving him a hug. He'd really taken the accident hard. He loved riding more than anyone I knew, and now they were saying he'd never do it again. I knew we all wished we had a doctor in the village- -because we didn't, we'd been unable to save Ann's mother when she'd been sick, unable to help Gray.
I pushed those thoughts out of my mind and tried to calm Ann down (by dumping half a blue raspberry slushie out over her head, but hey, it was for a good cause). She was a total wreck by the time the first race started.
We watched it without too much interest--Pikls pulled ahead of Star.C coming around the bend for a photo finish, though--and I had time to slip out and get to the ticket counter to pick up a few tickets.
The guy in front of me in line stepped back suddenly, slamming into me. "Hey!" I barked. "Watch where you're going!" He turned around. Of course it was Farm Boy.
"Jeez, that was cold," he said, rubbing his back where my elbow had jammed into it.
"What are you doing here? I thought Ann gave you that pony so you could race on it," I snapped.
"It's not full grown enough yet. I figured I might as well play the odds a little while I'm here," he replied. "And what are you doing here? Should've figured a bar girl would be a gambler."
The uppercut caught him hard on the jaw. I followed with a sharper punch to the stomach. "You're a jerk, you know that?" I snarled. Then I stepped around him to the counter, put ten tickets on Cliff, and headed back to Ann.
Her nails were already bitten down to the quick, and her arms were wrapped around Gray's neck almost to the point of strangulation. "Ahh, look!" she yelled. "Cliff and Jake are down on the track!" Jake was the replacement jockey since Gray's accident. He was our age, but he would never be as good as Gray had been.
We were leaning over the railing about as far as we could get. Suddenly the gunshot sounded, and the horses were off. Cliff was losing most of the way, but at the last second, he came from behind and pulled ahead to win.
"Hah! YES!" all three of us shrieked us in unison. Ann vaulted down over the railing onto the track to congratulate the prize horse. I tore off in the other direction to claim my winnings. I love the sound of coins clinking together in the leather money bag. It's one of the most beautiful sounds on earth.
I won some more on the last race, and Ann was just ecstatic, so I was happy. I passed Farm Boy on the way out. He tried to talk to me, but I just kept walking.
"I'm sorry I was rude again," he said the next morning.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever." I refused to look at him. If he hadn't stood there tapping me on the shoulder for five minutes, I would've ignored his presence totally.
"Look, I know I can be a creep sometimes. I meant it as a joke. I'm sorry if it came off as an insult. I don't think of you that way."
"Keep going."
"Can I take you out to dinner some night or something to make up for it?" he asked.
My jaw dropped, but I recovered fast. "What?"
"I'm serious. I'd like a chance to prove that I'm not always a complete jerk, and I'd like to get to know you better."
"Drop dead," I suggested.
Farm Boy sighed. "All right. At least take this." He tried to hand me a small bag of checkered red cloth. I let it drop between our hands. He scooped it up and set it by the fence. "See you later," he said, waving, and took off.
I didn't say anything, just kept working until he was out of earshot. When I couldn't see him anymore, I opened the little bag. Inside were three Veryberries, a slice of strawberry cake, and a note that read: "I'm sorry for what happened yesterday. Please accept this as my apology." It was unsigned, so I still didn't know his name. Not that I cared.
I picked up one of the Veryberries and popped it into my mouth after making sure that no one was watching. It wasn't like I was caving in or anything. He was still a creep. But there's no reason to pass up free food, right?
Right?
**********
Author's Note:
In case anyone's wondering, the title "Wine Red no Kokoro" comes from a song sung by the Japanese band Anzen Chitai in the 1980s and later covered by popular singer and anime seiyuu (voice actress-of famous roles like Evangelion's Shinji) Megumi Ogata. It translates to something like "A Heart of Wine Red" or "A Wine Red-Colored Heart," which seemed appropriate for Karen.