On Horseback

Chapter 13: Under The Moonlight

Jack and I began spending more and more time together ever since he spit up the gold coin at the Harvest Festival. We talked about what we were going to do in the Winter, which was fast approaching.

"I want to go skiing in the mountains!" I exclaimed. "I haven't done that in a long time!"

Jack nodded and said, "I want to try something intense. But nothing too intense."

We agreed that during the Winter, the two of us would have all sorts of fun and do many activities that weren't too intense. He said that skating was too intense for him. I gave him a weird look and said, "Skating?" Strangely enough, he wasn't joking with me. He truly did not want to go skating. Oh, well. There was still a bunch of other things that we would be doing.

The date was Autumn (or Fall, whatever) 21st. It was the day after the sports meet Egg Festival where the villagers go hunting for eggs. The person who brought back the most eggs with the same colours as the Mayor displays, wins, or something like that. I'd never gone; I found it too awkward.

I was over at Karen's vineyard, harvesting the grapes with her. She was unbelievably astatic, though, because this was the first year in many that the vineyard was giving good grapes, and she was doing back flips, calling for her parents every ten minutes.

"Look at this one!" she cried, holding up a big, plump, purple grape. "It looks great! I wonder why the vineyard's doing so well this year!"

"Yeah," I said, sounding bored.

Kai exited the shack that contained the wine cellar beneath it. "Karen! You're never going to believe this!" he hollered, running towards us. Karen's head shifted towards her friend, a smile on her face. Kai stopped in front of Karen and said, "We can make Heaven's Gate again! The grapes...ahh, we can make it again!"

Sasha came running out of the house with Karen's father, and they all gathered together hugging. I was a little scared. I'd never seen Karen so cheerful in her life. Actually, maybe I had. That would have been the day we finished high school. Did I mention that already? Hmm...

Karen payed me 1000G for my troubles, and said that there was going to be a huge party at the bar tonight! She invited me, too.

"Um, Karen, I've never even stepped into that bar before. You've been in there most of your life. Heck, you were in there when your father worked there as a busboy." Karen giggled. "If you don't come, that's okay."

I stopped by Jack's farm on the way home. He wasn't in the fields or in his barn or chicken coop, so I decided to knock on the door. A few seconds later, Jack exited the house. "Good afternoon, Ann," he greeted me, "I was just rolling out a new carpet that I ordered from Rick's. Care to see it?"

I stepped into Jack's house. It hadn't really changed since the day that he and I had breakfast, but there was a carpet rolled out on the ground. He also had a staircase descending to the roof. He also had a baby bed in front of his bed.

"Why do you have a baby bed? You're not married. Are you adopting or something?" I asked him.

Jack smiled at me and answered, "No, no, no, Ann. I just have that in case I have a future with one of you five eligible women in this town." I blushed. He did have a crush on me. It just looked like he didn't know how to express it well enough. I decided to play with him a bit, then, telling him he had a future with Elli.

"Elli?!" he gasped. "Are you out of your mind? Elli and Jeff are heavily in love! I can't be with Maria. I do like her, though, but not that kind of like! She's infatuated with Harris! You know that! Popuri is with Gray and Karen is with Kai!"

That left him with me. I grinned.

"One of us? What do you mean?" I questioned him. "If you meant one of the five of us, why did you turn all the others down? I'm the only one left, you know." Jack smiled. "Oh...you've got Cliff."

Either he really meant that, or he didn't want me anymore. I was a little stunned too about him mentioning Cliff's name. I hadn't been with him for a while now, so I was a little shocked about him saying that. Did Jack really love me? Did he want to spend the rest of his life with me?

Jack started humming the song that was played at the Flower Festival all of a sudden.

"Why are you humming that all of a sudden?" I asked him with a worried look on my face. Jack shrugged. "It makes me think about something that happened to me a long time ago in a town far away. God, the thought keeps coming back whenever I look at you, Ann." I had my mouth open by now. Where was this conversation going?

"Um, Jack, do you want to go to the Square? I want to talk. I haven't really anything else to do right now." Jack scratched his chin for a moment and answered, "Yeah. I suppose. There's really nothing else to do around here anymore. Well, until tomorrow, of course."

Jack and I headed off towards the Square. It was a cool, crisp autumn day and I head to snuggle up to him a bit.

Upon arriving at the Square, the two of us saw Maria making posters and flyers for the Star Night Festival, which was held on Winter 24th. It was the day that the stars in the sky would be the brightest of the year. The sky was always clear on that night, too, which seemed very suspicious, but no one had to time to ponder and juggle that thought.

"Maria, need any help?" I asked my new friend as Jack and I walked towards her. We must have frightened her, because she made a quick jump to her feet and replied, "Oh, it's only you guys. Of course I could."

While making a bunch of posters (my drawing was, like, chicken scratch), the three of us talked about our social lives and such.

"Are you dating Harris, yet, Maria?" Jack asked her. That was the last question that I was expecting Jack to ask my ex-enemy. But he did. I was curious, too. My face just didn't show it.

The bookworm looked up at the two of us. "No, not exactly, but he has a major crush on me." I scratched my ear and picked up a green pencil crayon. "How do you know that he has a major crush on you?" I asked. Maria blushed for a second and then said, "Well, err, while we were dancing last week at the HF, he tried to kiss me several times, but I'd duck out of the way, and peck him back first. I didn't want him kissing me, as my father would be watching and he would be teasing me. So, I delivered instead."

"He'll propose soon," I assured her. Maria laughed. "I'm sure he will. After that he'll just move into our house, get a load of all of our money, give me six children, divorce me, and leave me on..." Maria stopped. Tears formed in her eyes and were released like geysers flying towards the ground.

Jack quickly cuddled the brawling librarian, who had obviously pushed her thoughts over a cliff. Maria pushed Jack away from her and screamed, "I'm just a useless tramp! You've said it Ann! I can't believe we became friends just from you and I dancing at the Harvest Festival! ARRGH! Harris is just using me! Why am I living my life like this? WHAT AM I GOOD FOR? SORTING BOOKS?!!"

Maria let loose the most anger I'd ever seen from her and she stormed off from the Square, leaving us alone with all of the posters and crayons and such.

"Wow," Jack said.

I was heartbroken. I never knew that all of the crude and mean things that I'd said to Maria over the years had finally caught up with her. It was a strange sight, and I have to admit that it was a tad bit entertaining, but I felt like a fool. I started to cry, too.

Jack put his arms around me and I just cried and cried and cried. I felt awful. "Do you regret what you've said to Maria?" he asked me after a few minutes. Through a few sobs I replied, "I never knew that Maria felt that way. I wish she'd have told me that was the way that she felt all of those years ago. I teased her from the day I met my first friend to the day that you were crowned Harvest king. I feel like such a fool."

Telling the story was not difficult. I explained everything that I'd done to Maria to Jack. He didn't seem impressed, but that was what I'd predicted. He did not like me calling the other girls tramps or hoes or any other nasty words that would make them feel down in the dumps or just plain mad at me or even themselves.

After I told the story, I looked at the table with poster paper and flyer paper all over it. I figured the best way that I could currently repay Maria was to finish her work for her. I grabbed a piece of poster paper and began drawing away.

The two of us drew and drew and wrote and wrote until far past dusk.

At around 11 o' clock that evening, Jack checked his watch and informed me of the time. I didn't care about it, though, because we still had three pieces of paper left, and we weren't leaving without completing them, too.

I neatly hand-wrote the words: "Winter 24th. Come to the church and hear some spectacular hymns and organ music to celebrate the night that the stars shine the brightest. The Star Night Festival held at the church from 7:00 p.m. until midnight. Attend for much activity." On the second last piece of paper, I wrote: "Winter 24th. The reflections of the stars on the water is enchanting. If you enjoy the brisk evening breeze in front of a large body of water, then attend the Star Night Festival at the beach."

We had finally run out of messages, invitations and other forms of writing to put down on the posters and flyers, so we didn't know what we were going to do with the last piece of paper.

"Why don't we draw a picture of Maria and Harris?" I asked Jack.

The farmer shook his head.

"Let's draw a picture of Maria, Karen, Harris you and me."

I decided that Jack's idea was a bit better, so I decided to go along with his drawing. Plus, he would be drawing it, so I didn't have to worry about chicken-scratch drawing on a picture that was going to (or so we hoped) look real pretty.

The picture turned out to look half-decent. I was in the top right corner, swinging a lasso. Karen was in the top left corner drinking a glass of wine. Harris was in the bottom right corner with an envelope in his hand. Jack was in the bottom left corner juggling a corn, a strawberry and a cabbage. Maria was in the mail, holding a book and a pen.

I grabbed Jack's arm and looked at his watch.

"Midnight," I said. "I hope that my father doesn't think that I got drunk or high for the first time or anything." I giggled at my stupid remark and picked up the picture. I would deliver it to Maria the next day. She would appreciate that we took time to draw such a thing for her, and even finish off the flyers and posters!

All of a sudden, Maria appeared out of nowhere. "MARIA!" I bellowed. Maria looked stunned as I ran over to her, holding the picture. "Jack and I drew this for you, we hope you like it!" Maria accepted our little gift and looked at it. "Pretty. Thank you, guys. Thanks for this and thanks for finishing the posters and flyers."

I looked next to me and saw Jack holding all of our artwork.

"We were a little surprised to see you run off like that all of a sudden, Maria, so we decided to do the work for you. We are truly sorry if we were responsible for your sudden temper earlier this afternoon."

Maria got out a pocket mirror and looked at her face for a moment. "Yeah, I know. I kinda just flipped out for no reason. You guys are not held responsible for anything, but" -Maria turned and faced me- "I would appreciate it even more if you and I, Ann, were not friends and just people who don't know each other."

A frown came to my face. "Maria, the past is done with. Just worry about what will come in the future." Maria looked at me and an angry expression was drawn on her face all of a sudden. "Ann...don't talk to me anymore. I don't want to be your friend; amiga, whatever you call it. I'm too angry at you. One dance couldn't fix a broken friendship between two friends. One dance would certainly not make two enemies good friends all of a sudden. I'm sorry, Ann."

Jack did not look too surprised for some reason.

I held my head. I felt awful for continuously verbally harassing Maria over the years. School was bad but us as adults wasn't working out either. I looked up at Maria and said, "Fair is fair. All's fair in love and war. Fine. Goodbye to you too."

Walking out of the Square, I felt a grin come to my face. For some reason, I was content about the idea. Leaving Maria behind to sulk felt good. I hope that she'd choke one day on her own ego, which I was pleading would soon die.

After arriving at Jack's farm, I let his arm go, and walked off towards the Green Ranch. I didn't hear Jack trying to stop me. He probably understood my feelings or knew that I'd be too much of a selfish girl to talk to at the moment. I just continued to walk.

I slammed the door to my house once I had entered it, and a postcard from Popuri. She said that her and Gray were getting married in the Spring, and they wanted us to go to the city for the wedding. I cried while reading the postcard. Gray wasn't coming back, that meant. What if I married Jack? I'd most likely move into the farm with him. That meant my father would be lonely running the ranch on his own. I started to re-consider my feelings towards Jack.

Thirty tissues were thrown into my trash can before I went to bed. I'd been drying my eyes for quite the while that night.

I couldn't stand the life that I was living anymore.

Gray and Popuri were gone, Maria expressed her true hate toward me...

I was falling in love with two of my best friends.