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 15: Having Your Cake and Eating It Too
**********
Thanksgiving festival.
Pteh.
Okay, okay, I'm done, you know what I think. It's a pain--a festival entirely about bringing cakes to guys. Which is pretty stupid, when you think about it. None of us can cook, so we all just buy our cakes from the bakery anyway, and if you take a look around, most of these guys really don't need any more cake than they're already eating.
Mom got up early to bake a cake for Dad, and I was sprawled on the sofa watching her when it occured to me that this year I had a boyfriend, which meant that sometime in the next five hours, I had to find and procure an edible cake for him. I was really tempted to run out early and buy one from Elli, but then I realized that she'd show up at the farm with a homemade cake, and I might as well get cracking. So I got out the ingredients, followed Mom's recipe, and came out with a light, fluffy cylindrical thing that looked something like a cake is supposed to. I thought a minute, then added a strawberry on top.
I wanted to get to the farm, but I knew Jack'd be too busy with the animals to talk, so I headed for the beach to wait. On the way I passed Ann, who was sprinting around with a box tucked under her arm.
"Hey, Karen, have you seen Cliff?!" she called.
It was snowing lightly. "Checked the carpenter's shop yet? Maybe the cave?"
She shook her head and said, "I'll go do that." She started running again in the direction of Moon Mountain.
"Hey, Ann!" I yelled. "What kind of cake is it?!"
Even in the distance, I could see her blushing. "Chocolate!" she yelled back.
Good choice; Cliff liked chocolate. I smiled and kept walking.
It was kinda cold with the snow falling, and I was starting to be glad I'd worn jeans. I'd had to leave without a jacket, though, because the only one I had was hanging over a chair by the fireplace drying. I rubbed my arms and started to hope that Jack would finish the farm work soon.
Eventually I got back closer to the rock overhang to keep some of the snow off me, and then I started dancing to try to keep warm. There is nothing more stupid than sitting down in half-frozen sand at the beach, getting damp and even colder than normal from the sea breeze and the snow, just because you're waiting for some moron to finish milking the cows or whatever the hell it is he does over there.
I'm not sure how long I waited there, dancing in the snow, but it must've been a while because eventually Jack showed up.
"Karen, you gotta be more careful. I could see you from the farm. You're gonna get the worst cold," he told me. "Here." He took his jacket off and draped it around my shoulders.
I slipped my arms into it and zipped it all the way up. "Thanks," I said.
"So how are things going at the vineyard?" he asked, leaning back against the cliff face next to me.
I was huffing on my fingers, trying to breathe life back into them. "It's--boring--in Winter." He took my hands in his gloved ones and rubbed them. I straightened up and kept talking. "There are almost no chores to do, so we're mostly just wandering around. On days like today, we work in the wine cellar."
"When is the first new wine going to be done?"
I shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine. Usually the first of it is ready as early as one season after being harvested and put into the barrels, and we started aging the first grapes as soon as we harvested them. We might get the first of it in a few weeks. Until then, though, we're just sitting around playing cards and eating cake."
"Hey, speaking of cake, what's the deal with this Thanksgiving Festival thing? Ann and Cliff were coming down from Moon Mountain with a bunch of cake, but I didn't really get what they were saying."
"Yeah, she does talk fast when she's happy." So Cliff had liked the cake. Well, good for them. I'd go talk to Ann later. "Basically all the women have to bake cakes and give them to the guys. And if you like the person who gave you the cake, you give her some chocolate or something in the Spring." Okay, I'd just made that part up. If I had my way, we'd have some real festivals around here, like chicken sumo or tomato-flinging, but then again I don't get to make the festivals, and it seemed like a good way to get some chocolate.
"So did you make any cake?" he asked.
"Me? Thanksgiving Festival cake?" I grinned. "Don't need it. Mom is baking one for Dad." He looked kind of downcast, so I took pity on him. "Oh, do you want some?"
"Just a little," he answered.
I laughed. "You're honest." He looked kind of embarrassed. "Don't worry about it, I was going to come bring you some anyway. Okay, here, I'll share with you." I broke off half the cake and handed it to him. The rest I slipped into a little wooden box I'd gotten from the kitchen so he could carry it to his fridge.
"Thanks," he said gratefully. Then, chewing, "This doesn't taste like the bakery cake. Did you bake this yourself?"
"Yeah...it's my mom's strawberry shortcake recipe. Why? Is it that bad?"
He shook his head. "It's good! I thought you said you couldn't cook."
I rolled my eyes. "Well, if you listen to Elli, anything you put all your energy into will turn out good." He laughed and broke a little off his. "You didn't get any of your own cake. Try it. It's better than I think you're thinking it is."
I ate it, and it actually was really good. Wow. That brought the list of non-alcoholic food items I could cook up to about two. Good thing Mom stopped me from dumping in all that sugar.
"Oh, there you are! Hi, Jack!" Elli was coming down the path to the beach, her arms loaded with a heavy-looking box. The warm scent of cake was already drifting from it. "I was baking all morning. Here, I saved my best cake for you." The breeze ruffled her hair and made her long skirt sway. In the light snowfall, she looked like the picture of gentle, kind, feminine warmth. I'd bet ten to one she was batting her eyelashes at him, too. It was enough to make your stomach turn.
"Thanks, Elli," Jack was saying, hefting the large box in his arms and standing there, holding it awkwardly. "I'm sure it tastes great."
"Oh, you know..." she was blushing. "I just know you've only been here for a year and I wasn't sure how much cake you'd get. I wanted to make sure you felt at home here. Well, see you later!" She leaned forward to give him a peck on the cheek, then scampered off like a terrier.
I'm okay with Elli, but jeez, she and Popuri get on my nerves sometimes. She probably did really like Jack, but how oblivious--or catty--do you have to be to try to steal a guy right out from under his girlfriend's nose? What's really sad is that sometimes it works.
Not today, though.
When she was out of earshot, Jack opened the box, broke off two pieces, and handed me one. "Here's to a sugar high."
"And calories galore," I agreed. Cheesecake. It was incredibly rich. I could feel the extra pounds rolling down my stomach to my hips.
Jack finished chewing, looked at the rest of the cake in his hand, and set it down in the box. "I liked your cake better," he said.
I agreed.
I was bored and restless a lot. In the beginning of Winter, there's nothing to do. The end of Winter is one of the best times of the year, but before that nothing happens. I went to the mine when it was snowing. We were still living off the wine from the year before, so I figured a little extra take wouldn't be a bad thing.
I went down to the farm most days. A few days after the Thanksgiving Festival, Jack took me inside the house to show off his new kitchen. There was nothing to harvest, so I helped with the animals. From hanging out with Ann, I knew how to do most of the easy stuff, from brushing and milking the cows to collecting the eggs from the chicken coop. We had just finished all the work one morning and were splitting a basket of strawberries Popuri had brought over when his cow finally gave birth. There is nothing more romantic than helping your boyfriend while he reaches up inside a cow and carefully, gently pulls out a brand-new calf. We cleaned her off together and fed her, leaving her curled up next to her mother in the warm pile of hay. "I think she has my eyes," I joked, so Jack named her Karen.
I spent a lot of time at the ranch, too. There were even more animals that needed to be cared for there. Eventually we split up the work to make it easier. I carried the fodder and fed all the animals, Ann brushed and talked to them, Gray collected milk, eggs, and wool, and Cliff checked all the animals to make sure they were healthy and then went off to sell everything. We got the system down to an art, and after a week or so we made a pretty good team.
Ann and I hung out in the barn most of the time. She was even more comfortable there than in her room, and she liked to be near the animals, especially when it was snowing.
One day I was practicing posting around the stable on Cliff when she burst in, her eyes shining. "Karen!" she yelled. "Cliff--he just told me he loves me!"
I jumped off the horse, got a sugar cube from the box in the corner where Ann keeps them, and set it flat on the palm of my hand so he could take it. "Say that again, slowly," I told her.
"We were walking out by the river, and we'd just seen the Pika bunny-- "
"What?" I asked.
"The Pika bunny? Remember?" She waved her hand in front of my face. "It's that rare snow rabbit that can only be seen by a couple walking in the snow. They say if you see it, you'll be together forever." She sighed romantically. I made a mental note to check the weather reports when I got home to see when it was going to snow again. "ANYHOW," she shouted, startling me out of my daydream, "I said 'look at the river, I love the way it looks in the snow' and he said 'I love you.' So I told him I loved him too, and we sat and watched the Pika bunny until it went away and then we came back here and here I am!" She breathed again for the first time since the whole speech started. "Do you think he's going to give me a blue feather?"
"Do you want him to?" I asked.
She jumped up and down. "Of course!"
"Then definitely," I told her. "See you later."
"What? Where are you going?" she cried, batting her braid back and forth.
"I...um..." I felt myself turning red and decided to use it. "I'm gonna go ask Jack to go for a walk with me."
She grinned and poked me. I left.
"The Pika bunny, huh?" I asked Cliff. We had been sitting on the floor of the cave until one of the Harvest Sprites took pity on us and invited us in. So we ducked through the hole in the cave wall and half-crawled into their house. All three of them were very friendly and seemed sympathetic to the way we were shivering, giving us hot tea and cookies. You can't grow up around here without making friends with the Harvest Sprites. I try to throw in an offering to the Goddess of the wood every now and then, too, because if the spirits around here don't like you, you can forget about having anything go your way. Reference the vineyard.
My cousin nodded, looking a little embarassed. "Yeah. It looked a little like that yellow thing I saw in Japan. What was it called...?"
"Stop trying to change the subject," I snapped. "You know what I'm asking. You're in love with Ann, right?"
He nodded, miserably. "But I don't know what to do. I mean, her father would never let her marry a guy like me. I'm just a drifter. I don't know anything about how to be a good husband."
"Ooh! Love!" cackled one of the Harvest Sprites. "You should pray to the Goddess for divine guidance!"
I ignored him. "Cliff! What are you talking about? You love her, right?" He nodded. "And she loves you, riiiight?"
He nodded again. "She said she does..."
"That's all you need!" I banged my fist down on the table for emphasis. "Doug has some time still left in him, but when he dies, Ann and Gray will inherit the ranch. You won't ever have to worry about being able to make ends meet. And he's been trying to get her married off for years. Our parents all hear Lillia going on about how she was married and had Popuri already when she was our age, and they all think there's something wrong with us if we're not married by the time we turn twenty. Which, incidentally, will happen to me on the twenty- ninth, and you'd better have a present for me. I'm the second-oldest girl here." Maria was, what? Two weeks older? At least she never held it over my head.
Cliff spoke hesitantly, snapping my thoughts back to the room. "Do you think she'd say yes if I asked her to marry me?" he asked.
"I know she would. She was just telling me she wanted you to ask her."
"Really?" His eyes were hopeful. He looked like the little calf I'd just delivered.
I dragged him up and shoved him to the door. "Go for it, Cliff!"
He punched me. "Thanks for the encouragement." Then he got down on his hands and knees and started to crawl out into the cave. "I'm gonna go see if Rick's shop is still open!"
Wine Red no Kokoro
by flame mage
Part 15: Having Your Cake and Eating It Too
**********
Thanksgiving festival.
Pteh.
Okay, okay, I'm done, you know what I think. It's a pain--a festival entirely about bringing cakes to guys. Which is pretty stupid, when you think about it. None of us can cook, so we all just buy our cakes from the bakery anyway, and if you take a look around, most of these guys really don't need any more cake than they're already eating.
Mom got up early to bake a cake for Dad, and I was sprawled on the sofa watching her when it occured to me that this year I had a boyfriend, which meant that sometime in the next five hours, I had to find and procure an edible cake for him. I was really tempted to run out early and buy one from Elli, but then I realized that she'd show up at the farm with a homemade cake, and I might as well get cracking. So I got out the ingredients, followed Mom's recipe, and came out with a light, fluffy cylindrical thing that looked something like a cake is supposed to. I thought a minute, then added a strawberry on top.
I wanted to get to the farm, but I knew Jack'd be too busy with the animals to talk, so I headed for the beach to wait. On the way I passed Ann, who was sprinting around with a box tucked under her arm.
"Hey, Karen, have you seen Cliff?!" she called.
It was snowing lightly. "Checked the carpenter's shop yet? Maybe the cave?"
She shook her head and said, "I'll go do that." She started running again in the direction of Moon Mountain.
"Hey, Ann!" I yelled. "What kind of cake is it?!"
Even in the distance, I could see her blushing. "Chocolate!" she yelled back.
Good choice; Cliff liked chocolate. I smiled and kept walking.
It was kinda cold with the snow falling, and I was starting to be glad I'd worn jeans. I'd had to leave without a jacket, though, because the only one I had was hanging over a chair by the fireplace drying. I rubbed my arms and started to hope that Jack would finish the farm work soon.
Eventually I got back closer to the rock overhang to keep some of the snow off me, and then I started dancing to try to keep warm. There is nothing more stupid than sitting down in half-frozen sand at the beach, getting damp and even colder than normal from the sea breeze and the snow, just because you're waiting for some moron to finish milking the cows or whatever the hell it is he does over there.
I'm not sure how long I waited there, dancing in the snow, but it must've been a while because eventually Jack showed up.
"Karen, you gotta be more careful. I could see you from the farm. You're gonna get the worst cold," he told me. "Here." He took his jacket off and draped it around my shoulders.
I slipped my arms into it and zipped it all the way up. "Thanks," I said.
"So how are things going at the vineyard?" he asked, leaning back against the cliff face next to me.
I was huffing on my fingers, trying to breathe life back into them. "It's--boring--in Winter." He took my hands in his gloved ones and rubbed them. I straightened up and kept talking. "There are almost no chores to do, so we're mostly just wandering around. On days like today, we work in the wine cellar."
"When is the first new wine going to be done?"
I shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine. Usually the first of it is ready as early as one season after being harvested and put into the barrels, and we started aging the first grapes as soon as we harvested them. We might get the first of it in a few weeks. Until then, though, we're just sitting around playing cards and eating cake."
"Hey, speaking of cake, what's the deal with this Thanksgiving Festival thing? Ann and Cliff were coming down from Moon Mountain with a bunch of cake, but I didn't really get what they were saying."
"Yeah, she does talk fast when she's happy." So Cliff had liked the cake. Well, good for them. I'd go talk to Ann later. "Basically all the women have to bake cakes and give them to the guys. And if you like the person who gave you the cake, you give her some chocolate or something in the Spring." Okay, I'd just made that part up. If I had my way, we'd have some real festivals around here, like chicken sumo or tomato-flinging, but then again I don't get to make the festivals, and it seemed like a good way to get some chocolate.
"So did you make any cake?" he asked.
"Me? Thanksgiving Festival cake?" I grinned. "Don't need it. Mom is baking one for Dad." He looked kind of downcast, so I took pity on him. "Oh, do you want some?"
"Just a little," he answered.
I laughed. "You're honest." He looked kind of embarrassed. "Don't worry about it, I was going to come bring you some anyway. Okay, here, I'll share with you." I broke off half the cake and handed it to him. The rest I slipped into a little wooden box I'd gotten from the kitchen so he could carry it to his fridge.
"Thanks," he said gratefully. Then, chewing, "This doesn't taste like the bakery cake. Did you bake this yourself?"
"Yeah...it's my mom's strawberry shortcake recipe. Why? Is it that bad?"
He shook his head. "It's good! I thought you said you couldn't cook."
I rolled my eyes. "Well, if you listen to Elli, anything you put all your energy into will turn out good." He laughed and broke a little off his. "You didn't get any of your own cake. Try it. It's better than I think you're thinking it is."
I ate it, and it actually was really good. Wow. That brought the list of non-alcoholic food items I could cook up to about two. Good thing Mom stopped me from dumping in all that sugar.
"Oh, there you are! Hi, Jack!" Elli was coming down the path to the beach, her arms loaded with a heavy-looking box. The warm scent of cake was already drifting from it. "I was baking all morning. Here, I saved my best cake for you." The breeze ruffled her hair and made her long skirt sway. In the light snowfall, she looked like the picture of gentle, kind, feminine warmth. I'd bet ten to one she was batting her eyelashes at him, too. It was enough to make your stomach turn.
"Thanks, Elli," Jack was saying, hefting the large box in his arms and standing there, holding it awkwardly. "I'm sure it tastes great."
"Oh, you know..." she was blushing. "I just know you've only been here for a year and I wasn't sure how much cake you'd get. I wanted to make sure you felt at home here. Well, see you later!" She leaned forward to give him a peck on the cheek, then scampered off like a terrier.
I'm okay with Elli, but jeez, she and Popuri get on my nerves sometimes. She probably did really like Jack, but how oblivious--or catty--do you have to be to try to steal a guy right out from under his girlfriend's nose? What's really sad is that sometimes it works.
Not today, though.
When she was out of earshot, Jack opened the box, broke off two pieces, and handed me one. "Here's to a sugar high."
"And calories galore," I agreed. Cheesecake. It was incredibly rich. I could feel the extra pounds rolling down my stomach to my hips.
Jack finished chewing, looked at the rest of the cake in his hand, and set it down in the box. "I liked your cake better," he said.
I agreed.
I was bored and restless a lot. In the beginning of Winter, there's nothing to do. The end of Winter is one of the best times of the year, but before that nothing happens. I went to the mine when it was snowing. We were still living off the wine from the year before, so I figured a little extra take wouldn't be a bad thing.
I went down to the farm most days. A few days after the Thanksgiving Festival, Jack took me inside the house to show off his new kitchen. There was nothing to harvest, so I helped with the animals. From hanging out with Ann, I knew how to do most of the easy stuff, from brushing and milking the cows to collecting the eggs from the chicken coop. We had just finished all the work one morning and were splitting a basket of strawberries Popuri had brought over when his cow finally gave birth. There is nothing more romantic than helping your boyfriend while he reaches up inside a cow and carefully, gently pulls out a brand-new calf. We cleaned her off together and fed her, leaving her curled up next to her mother in the warm pile of hay. "I think she has my eyes," I joked, so Jack named her Karen.
I spent a lot of time at the ranch, too. There were even more animals that needed to be cared for there. Eventually we split up the work to make it easier. I carried the fodder and fed all the animals, Ann brushed and talked to them, Gray collected milk, eggs, and wool, and Cliff checked all the animals to make sure they were healthy and then went off to sell everything. We got the system down to an art, and after a week or so we made a pretty good team.
Ann and I hung out in the barn most of the time. She was even more comfortable there than in her room, and she liked to be near the animals, especially when it was snowing.
One day I was practicing posting around the stable on Cliff when she burst in, her eyes shining. "Karen!" she yelled. "Cliff--he just told me he loves me!"
I jumped off the horse, got a sugar cube from the box in the corner where Ann keeps them, and set it flat on the palm of my hand so he could take it. "Say that again, slowly," I told her.
"We were walking out by the river, and we'd just seen the Pika bunny-- "
"What?" I asked.
"The Pika bunny? Remember?" She waved her hand in front of my face. "It's that rare snow rabbit that can only be seen by a couple walking in the snow. They say if you see it, you'll be together forever." She sighed romantically. I made a mental note to check the weather reports when I got home to see when it was going to snow again. "ANYHOW," she shouted, startling me out of my daydream, "I said 'look at the river, I love the way it looks in the snow' and he said 'I love you.' So I told him I loved him too, and we sat and watched the Pika bunny until it went away and then we came back here and here I am!" She breathed again for the first time since the whole speech started. "Do you think he's going to give me a blue feather?"
"Do you want him to?" I asked.
She jumped up and down. "Of course!"
"Then definitely," I told her. "See you later."
"What? Where are you going?" she cried, batting her braid back and forth.
"I...um..." I felt myself turning red and decided to use it. "I'm gonna go ask Jack to go for a walk with me."
She grinned and poked me. I left.
"The Pika bunny, huh?" I asked Cliff. We had been sitting on the floor of the cave until one of the Harvest Sprites took pity on us and invited us in. So we ducked through the hole in the cave wall and half-crawled into their house. All three of them were very friendly and seemed sympathetic to the way we were shivering, giving us hot tea and cookies. You can't grow up around here without making friends with the Harvest Sprites. I try to throw in an offering to the Goddess of the wood every now and then, too, because if the spirits around here don't like you, you can forget about having anything go your way. Reference the vineyard.
My cousin nodded, looking a little embarassed. "Yeah. It looked a little like that yellow thing I saw in Japan. What was it called...?"
"Stop trying to change the subject," I snapped. "You know what I'm asking. You're in love with Ann, right?"
He nodded, miserably. "But I don't know what to do. I mean, her father would never let her marry a guy like me. I'm just a drifter. I don't know anything about how to be a good husband."
"Ooh! Love!" cackled one of the Harvest Sprites. "You should pray to the Goddess for divine guidance!"
I ignored him. "Cliff! What are you talking about? You love her, right?" He nodded. "And she loves you, riiiight?"
He nodded again. "She said she does..."
"That's all you need!" I banged my fist down on the table for emphasis. "Doug has some time still left in him, but when he dies, Ann and Gray will inherit the ranch. You won't ever have to worry about being able to make ends meet. And he's been trying to get her married off for years. Our parents all hear Lillia going on about how she was married and had Popuri already when she was our age, and they all think there's something wrong with us if we're not married by the time we turn twenty. Which, incidentally, will happen to me on the twenty- ninth, and you'd better have a present for me. I'm the second-oldest girl here." Maria was, what? Two weeks older? At least she never held it over my head.
Cliff spoke hesitantly, snapping my thoughts back to the room. "Do you think she'd say yes if I asked her to marry me?" he asked.
"I know she would. She was just telling me she wanted you to ask her."
"Really?" His eyes were hopeful. He looked like the little calf I'd just delivered.
I dragged him up and shoved him to the door. "Go for it, Cliff!"
He punched me. "Thanks for the encouragement." Then he got down on his hands and knees and started to crawl out into the cave. "I'm gonna go see if Rick's shop is still open!"