A Dream. A Hope. A Scar. A Mission
Chapter 6: Not Enough
What I saw was surely not Cliff, or at least I hoped not. A small creature measuring up to two feet tall was dancing around a fire. It took a few minutes for the little guy to realize I was there, but once he did he let out a blood-curdling yell.
" UN-RAY!!!" the frightened creature screamed out.
" Wait!" I yelled after the little fellow.
The creature ran down into a small hole and out of view.
" It's not like I'm going to eat you!" I wasn't really sure what was going on, but the poor little guy was afraid of me. Unknown to me, someone else was moving around in the shadows.
" Jack? Is that you?" came a familiar voice.
I whirled around to see Cliff illuminated by the fire.
" Why are you here? How'd you find this place?" Cliff kept questioning me. It was almost like he didn't want me here.
" Harris showed me. It took awhile to manage this cave though," I answered.
" Well, no matter I guess. You're here, so what's up?" Cliff was just full of questions today.
" I was wondering about your cousin, Karen. What's up with her? Anytime I talk to her she acts like a-" Cliff decided to cut me off.
" Sit down Jack, this will take us a moment or two." Cliff let out a big sigh as he sat down on a nearby rock, and by a 'moment or two' I assumed he meant a good twenty minutes. No matter, I had time.
" My cousin Karen seems rough on the outside" Cliff began.
" Yes, we've established that on multiple occasions" I reminded him.
" She has some problems with her parents that you can't even begin to imagine" Cliff started again. " Lets start with her father. That will be best. You've seen that they don't get along, right?" Cliff questioned.
" Yeah, I don't think I'd get along with him either" I told Cliff.
" I doubt anyone could. You see, he's a bit of a drinker. By a bit I mean he drinks all his troubles away. Regularly." Cliff said with a sad look on his face. " He prides himself on taking over the vineyard from his father and mother, but he was and never will be the worker his parents were. He sees his vineyard dying because of it, but he's so proud he's blind to his own actions. He doesn't realize he's the one killing it." Cliff looked like he'd never be happy again.
" But how does that affect his daughter?" I asked.
" Karen sees the problem, but she wants to get out of it. She's always wondered about the big city, and with the dying vineyard she seems to not have much reason to stay. The only other reason would be her family" Cliff continued. " But her family isn't strong enough to keep her here. Her father is ashamed that she wants to move to the city and will do anything to stop her. He's even resorted to physically trying to put her down."
" Well what about her mother?" I asked.
" I'm getting to it" Cliff said, slightly taken back by my comment. " Now, recall about her father being a drinker. Well, Karen's Dad thinks even less of what he's doing when he's drunk, so there have been some real bad experiences. Also I think an issue is that Karen's father wanted a boy to take over the vineyard, but Karen obviously isn't a boy. I figure that's where Kai comes in. Kai is a hard worker that's loyal to the family. But he's filling Karen's head with stories about the big city and how wonderful it can be." Cliff was finally starting to get somewhere. "Her mother is dead as well."
" What are you talking about Cliff? I saw her at the Firefly Festival" I informed him.
" Dead on the inside Jack. Dead on the inside." Cliff had a sad, yet angry, look to him now. He was shaking and trembling, but he probably didn't realize it. " My uncle killed her. He turned her into a docile watcher, a shell of what she used to be. He never meant it, but he crafted her into something..no, nothing. She is almost like nothing now. Karen is a lot like my aunt used to be. I'm afraid if she's stuck around her dad much longer the same will happen to her. She needs to get out of her house, but she sees the only way of escape is the big city." Cliff gave out a sigh. " That's about all I know, I'm afraid."
" That's plenty Cliff. Thank You a million" I praised him, and with that I left, completely forgetting about the small elf-like creature.
...
My mind wasn't on my chores for the next few days. Even while harvesting my corn, which I took great pleasure in, my mind was on what Cliff talked to me about. My mind was rarely on my crops lately, as I realized. What Karen had to put up with everyday began to bother me to the point where I was losing sleep. It was driving me mad. I had to find a way to get my mind off her and her problems. I had to find an outlet.
Fortunately, that outlet would arrive in the way of a festival. A real festival. A man's festival. A competition. A swimming race, to be precise, and I intended to win.
I was always a good swimmer in High School. I was never on the swim team, but I could give some of them a run for their money. I was always to busy training for track to swim competitively, however.
The day of the festival, the 24th of the Summer, sort of snuck up on me even though I was anticipating it. When I arrived to the beach I was startled by a funny sight. Cliff was there in a swimsuit! I never thought I'd see that guy loosen up enough to come here, but then again he probably just got in an argument with Grey at the Inn over who was better at something.
" Hey Hobo Bob, this is the last place I'd expect to see you on the dying days of Summer" I laughed as I walked towards Cliff.
" Cut the crap Farmer John, I'm going to take you to town!" Cliff laughed with a friendly competitive look on his face. He was all buisness today, no doubt.
The other swimmers that were there were Jeff the bakery master, Kai, Harris, and of course, Grey. All of them looked eager for a good competition, which I planned on giving them. Well, except maybe Grey. He didn't look too excited to be here.
" Line up gentlemen along the tape here" the mayor informed us. " I want this to be clean, you hear me? Good." The mayor answered his own question.
After filling in my positition in the 'box' labeled number 5, in between Cliff and Kai, the mayor spoke up again.
" At the sound of the gun you'll run into the water and swim your way to the red buoy out there, which is approximately 150 yards away. There are markers at every fifty yards to tell you how far you've swum. God luck and may the best swimmer win!" the mayor shouted with some flair to his voice.
I turned around one last time to see the whole village behind me, cheering, but none was for me. That just gave me all the more reason to beat all these people. I turned back around with a stern eye to view my destination and cleared out everyone's voices. The mayor was about ready to fire the gun.
Kapow!!! Off went the gun, and so was I. I got far enough until my calves were almost completely covered in water and then I made a forceful dive. As I emerged from the blue I saw that Cliff was right with me, but I saw no one else anywhere near. I was doing the best front crawl I could, but every time I brought my head out of the water I saw Kai to my right pull a little closer to me. By the time we reached the 100-yard marker we were neck and neck, but he was slowly pulling ahead of me. I started to feel the drive of anger rush up in me, but I knew I had to keep my cool. Cliff was right behind me, and one false move could easily put me in third. I just steadied my pace for one final surge in the last ten yards to gank the lead from Kai. Soon the magic ten came up, and off I went. I pushed my self to what seemed to be the envelope of human capability in water. Soon I heard the mayor screaming at me about going to far, so I looked up and realized I was already 5 feet past the buoy, and I had to face the inevitable. I had lost. Kai was thrusting his arms up in victory. I had lost yet again.
As I made my way up shore I saw Cliff strolling over my way, although he, like me, looked as if he would never be able to walk again on his own two legs.
" Well Farmer John" Cliff began as he sat down next to me. " I was catching up to you. I would have had you beat if we had another fifty to swim. No, don't argue, you know it's the truth. You can't tell me otherwise." With that Cliff just left after having an argument with himself. I humored myself with the idea of Cliff having split personalities, but figured that it was just his way of saying good-bye. I dried myself off and just left, and I didn't care what anyone else thought or said. I was almost glad I didn't win. Rick kept boring Kai with the great prize he had gotten for winning first place. I left alone, just as I had come, but all the more thrilled. It was not enough to win, but I honestly didn't care.
...
The ending days of Summer would be an odd time for me. I was determined to figure out what festivals would be coming up so that I could keep in practice for them. The news wouldn't tell me that far in advanced, so I decided the Inn would be the next best place to find out.
It was crowded that night at the Inn, but not enough to remind me of the city. The calendar of events for Fall comprised of many promising festivals. First there was the Cow Festival that, while interesting, would be hard for me to enter without a cow. I could learn a lot about cows from it anyways. There was the Harvest Festival that reflected on the growing season of the year, which would be interesting as well.
But I was looking for something athletic. Something fresh. Something eggy. The Egg Festival was what I was looking for. A test of speed and reasoning to find the correct egg at the right time. Perfect. It would be small step, but a step none the less.
Much to my excitement, on the waning days of Fall would be another horse race that I could actually enter. I realized that my chances were slim with having such a young horse and such little time for training, but I could see what I was made of none the less.
I saw that the night was still young, so I sat down to have a barley malt when I noticed Rick sitting at a table with Ann.
" Hey guys, what's going on?" I asked as I approached them.
" Ah, nothing. Just talking about this and that, you know" Rick informed me.
" What's been going on with you Jack?" Ann asked.
" About the same as you guys. Just checking out what's coming up during the Fall," I told them.
" You were great at the Swimming Festival the other day, you know that?" Ann prided me. " I was cheering for you, and so was Rick. Weren't cha' Rick?" Ann asked her cousin with a piercing look.
" Sure was. I was hoping you would win Jack. Maybe then you could be respected a little more, you know what I mean? I know you don't hear much about it, but a lot of people have doubt in you even yet. They say you can't settle down here, that you're too much of city folk. I try to tell em' all otherwise, but most don't want to listen." Rick was really hammering out the truth.
" The Potion Master keeps telling me that too, but he's actually trying to help. He's getting all the estimates to have a kitchen added to the house now." I was feeling a rush of pride and gratitude in him.
" I don't think people will think that you're serious about this farm until you actually try to settle down with someone though Jack." Rick gave me a sneering look.
I felt some gloom set down in me. " The Potion Master says that too."
" Why don't you try asking someone out then Jack?" Ann asked as innocently as possible.
" Easier said then done, for me anyways. I saw you and Cliff though before. Apparently he doesn't have the problems with this sort of thing like I do," I told Ann with a friendly grin.
Ann turned as red as an apple. " Well. that's different!" Ann said with a blush.
I laughed at how it could be any different. " Well what do you expect me to do in a situation like this then? It's not like I really know any of the girls around the village that are twenty years old besides you."
" Ask Karen" Ann implied as simply as possible.
" What?! Are you insane Ann? I value my life!" I was in utter shock.
" Ok Jack, but you might regret it. You never know, she might say yes," Ann told me with a wink.
" Here's what I'll do for ya' buddy. I'll ask her for you in the way of a hypothetical question. She probably doesn't even realize you're in here," Rick said with a devious grin. " Then you can take it from there."
" If you say so Rick," I reluctantly agreed.
Rick strolled over to Karen at her usual post in the center of the room in his usual step and began a mumbled conversation with her. It was always so hard to hear anything in here, especially on busy nights like tonight. Yet out of all noise pollution I heard a solid and stable "No!" come from Karen's direction.
Rick slugged back to the table and sat down. " Well, so much for that idea" Rick shot up with a note of disappointment in his voice.
" I figure I'll just head on home," I declared as I finished my barley malt.
As I said my good byes I figured that I owed Cliff another visit on this one. But not just yet. He seemed very troubled over the last talk. I didn't want to stir up any bad blood. But I wanted to learn more, and I wanted to know about those little elf creatures most of all.
Chapter 6: Not Enough
What I saw was surely not Cliff, or at least I hoped not. A small creature measuring up to two feet tall was dancing around a fire. It took a few minutes for the little guy to realize I was there, but once he did he let out a blood-curdling yell.
" UN-RAY!!!" the frightened creature screamed out.
" Wait!" I yelled after the little fellow.
The creature ran down into a small hole and out of view.
" It's not like I'm going to eat you!" I wasn't really sure what was going on, but the poor little guy was afraid of me. Unknown to me, someone else was moving around in the shadows.
" Jack? Is that you?" came a familiar voice.
I whirled around to see Cliff illuminated by the fire.
" Why are you here? How'd you find this place?" Cliff kept questioning me. It was almost like he didn't want me here.
" Harris showed me. It took awhile to manage this cave though," I answered.
" Well, no matter I guess. You're here, so what's up?" Cliff was just full of questions today.
" I was wondering about your cousin, Karen. What's up with her? Anytime I talk to her she acts like a-" Cliff decided to cut me off.
" Sit down Jack, this will take us a moment or two." Cliff let out a big sigh as he sat down on a nearby rock, and by a 'moment or two' I assumed he meant a good twenty minutes. No matter, I had time.
" My cousin Karen seems rough on the outside" Cliff began.
" Yes, we've established that on multiple occasions" I reminded him.
" She has some problems with her parents that you can't even begin to imagine" Cliff started again. " Lets start with her father. That will be best. You've seen that they don't get along, right?" Cliff questioned.
" Yeah, I don't think I'd get along with him either" I told Cliff.
" I doubt anyone could. You see, he's a bit of a drinker. By a bit I mean he drinks all his troubles away. Regularly." Cliff said with a sad look on his face. " He prides himself on taking over the vineyard from his father and mother, but he was and never will be the worker his parents were. He sees his vineyard dying because of it, but he's so proud he's blind to his own actions. He doesn't realize he's the one killing it." Cliff looked like he'd never be happy again.
" But how does that affect his daughter?" I asked.
" Karen sees the problem, but she wants to get out of it. She's always wondered about the big city, and with the dying vineyard she seems to not have much reason to stay. The only other reason would be her family" Cliff continued. " But her family isn't strong enough to keep her here. Her father is ashamed that she wants to move to the city and will do anything to stop her. He's even resorted to physically trying to put her down."
" Well what about her mother?" I asked.
" I'm getting to it" Cliff said, slightly taken back by my comment. " Now, recall about her father being a drinker. Well, Karen's Dad thinks even less of what he's doing when he's drunk, so there have been some real bad experiences. Also I think an issue is that Karen's father wanted a boy to take over the vineyard, but Karen obviously isn't a boy. I figure that's where Kai comes in. Kai is a hard worker that's loyal to the family. But he's filling Karen's head with stories about the big city and how wonderful it can be." Cliff was finally starting to get somewhere. "Her mother is dead as well."
" What are you talking about Cliff? I saw her at the Firefly Festival" I informed him.
" Dead on the inside Jack. Dead on the inside." Cliff had a sad, yet angry, look to him now. He was shaking and trembling, but he probably didn't realize it. " My uncle killed her. He turned her into a docile watcher, a shell of what she used to be. He never meant it, but he crafted her into something..no, nothing. She is almost like nothing now. Karen is a lot like my aunt used to be. I'm afraid if she's stuck around her dad much longer the same will happen to her. She needs to get out of her house, but she sees the only way of escape is the big city." Cliff gave out a sigh. " That's about all I know, I'm afraid."
" That's plenty Cliff. Thank You a million" I praised him, and with that I left, completely forgetting about the small elf-like creature.
...
My mind wasn't on my chores for the next few days. Even while harvesting my corn, which I took great pleasure in, my mind was on what Cliff talked to me about. My mind was rarely on my crops lately, as I realized. What Karen had to put up with everyday began to bother me to the point where I was losing sleep. It was driving me mad. I had to find a way to get my mind off her and her problems. I had to find an outlet.
Fortunately, that outlet would arrive in the way of a festival. A real festival. A man's festival. A competition. A swimming race, to be precise, and I intended to win.
I was always a good swimmer in High School. I was never on the swim team, but I could give some of them a run for their money. I was always to busy training for track to swim competitively, however.
The day of the festival, the 24th of the Summer, sort of snuck up on me even though I was anticipating it. When I arrived to the beach I was startled by a funny sight. Cliff was there in a swimsuit! I never thought I'd see that guy loosen up enough to come here, but then again he probably just got in an argument with Grey at the Inn over who was better at something.
" Hey Hobo Bob, this is the last place I'd expect to see you on the dying days of Summer" I laughed as I walked towards Cliff.
" Cut the crap Farmer John, I'm going to take you to town!" Cliff laughed with a friendly competitive look on his face. He was all buisness today, no doubt.
The other swimmers that were there were Jeff the bakery master, Kai, Harris, and of course, Grey. All of them looked eager for a good competition, which I planned on giving them. Well, except maybe Grey. He didn't look too excited to be here.
" Line up gentlemen along the tape here" the mayor informed us. " I want this to be clean, you hear me? Good." The mayor answered his own question.
After filling in my positition in the 'box' labeled number 5, in between Cliff and Kai, the mayor spoke up again.
" At the sound of the gun you'll run into the water and swim your way to the red buoy out there, which is approximately 150 yards away. There are markers at every fifty yards to tell you how far you've swum. God luck and may the best swimmer win!" the mayor shouted with some flair to his voice.
I turned around one last time to see the whole village behind me, cheering, but none was for me. That just gave me all the more reason to beat all these people. I turned back around with a stern eye to view my destination and cleared out everyone's voices. The mayor was about ready to fire the gun.
Kapow!!! Off went the gun, and so was I. I got far enough until my calves were almost completely covered in water and then I made a forceful dive. As I emerged from the blue I saw that Cliff was right with me, but I saw no one else anywhere near. I was doing the best front crawl I could, but every time I brought my head out of the water I saw Kai to my right pull a little closer to me. By the time we reached the 100-yard marker we were neck and neck, but he was slowly pulling ahead of me. I started to feel the drive of anger rush up in me, but I knew I had to keep my cool. Cliff was right behind me, and one false move could easily put me in third. I just steadied my pace for one final surge in the last ten yards to gank the lead from Kai. Soon the magic ten came up, and off I went. I pushed my self to what seemed to be the envelope of human capability in water. Soon I heard the mayor screaming at me about going to far, so I looked up and realized I was already 5 feet past the buoy, and I had to face the inevitable. I had lost. Kai was thrusting his arms up in victory. I had lost yet again.
As I made my way up shore I saw Cliff strolling over my way, although he, like me, looked as if he would never be able to walk again on his own two legs.
" Well Farmer John" Cliff began as he sat down next to me. " I was catching up to you. I would have had you beat if we had another fifty to swim. No, don't argue, you know it's the truth. You can't tell me otherwise." With that Cliff just left after having an argument with himself. I humored myself with the idea of Cliff having split personalities, but figured that it was just his way of saying good-bye. I dried myself off and just left, and I didn't care what anyone else thought or said. I was almost glad I didn't win. Rick kept boring Kai with the great prize he had gotten for winning first place. I left alone, just as I had come, but all the more thrilled. It was not enough to win, but I honestly didn't care.
...
The ending days of Summer would be an odd time for me. I was determined to figure out what festivals would be coming up so that I could keep in practice for them. The news wouldn't tell me that far in advanced, so I decided the Inn would be the next best place to find out.
It was crowded that night at the Inn, but not enough to remind me of the city. The calendar of events for Fall comprised of many promising festivals. First there was the Cow Festival that, while interesting, would be hard for me to enter without a cow. I could learn a lot about cows from it anyways. There was the Harvest Festival that reflected on the growing season of the year, which would be interesting as well.
But I was looking for something athletic. Something fresh. Something eggy. The Egg Festival was what I was looking for. A test of speed and reasoning to find the correct egg at the right time. Perfect. It would be small step, but a step none the less.
Much to my excitement, on the waning days of Fall would be another horse race that I could actually enter. I realized that my chances were slim with having such a young horse and such little time for training, but I could see what I was made of none the less.
I saw that the night was still young, so I sat down to have a barley malt when I noticed Rick sitting at a table with Ann.
" Hey guys, what's going on?" I asked as I approached them.
" Ah, nothing. Just talking about this and that, you know" Rick informed me.
" What's been going on with you Jack?" Ann asked.
" About the same as you guys. Just checking out what's coming up during the Fall," I told them.
" You were great at the Swimming Festival the other day, you know that?" Ann prided me. " I was cheering for you, and so was Rick. Weren't cha' Rick?" Ann asked her cousin with a piercing look.
" Sure was. I was hoping you would win Jack. Maybe then you could be respected a little more, you know what I mean? I know you don't hear much about it, but a lot of people have doubt in you even yet. They say you can't settle down here, that you're too much of city folk. I try to tell em' all otherwise, but most don't want to listen." Rick was really hammering out the truth.
" The Potion Master keeps telling me that too, but he's actually trying to help. He's getting all the estimates to have a kitchen added to the house now." I was feeling a rush of pride and gratitude in him.
" I don't think people will think that you're serious about this farm until you actually try to settle down with someone though Jack." Rick gave me a sneering look.
I felt some gloom set down in me. " The Potion Master says that too."
" Why don't you try asking someone out then Jack?" Ann asked as innocently as possible.
" Easier said then done, for me anyways. I saw you and Cliff though before. Apparently he doesn't have the problems with this sort of thing like I do," I told Ann with a friendly grin.
Ann turned as red as an apple. " Well. that's different!" Ann said with a blush.
I laughed at how it could be any different. " Well what do you expect me to do in a situation like this then? It's not like I really know any of the girls around the village that are twenty years old besides you."
" Ask Karen" Ann implied as simply as possible.
" What?! Are you insane Ann? I value my life!" I was in utter shock.
" Ok Jack, but you might regret it. You never know, she might say yes," Ann told me with a wink.
" Here's what I'll do for ya' buddy. I'll ask her for you in the way of a hypothetical question. She probably doesn't even realize you're in here," Rick said with a devious grin. " Then you can take it from there."
" If you say so Rick," I reluctantly agreed.
Rick strolled over to Karen at her usual post in the center of the room in his usual step and began a mumbled conversation with her. It was always so hard to hear anything in here, especially on busy nights like tonight. Yet out of all noise pollution I heard a solid and stable "No!" come from Karen's direction.
Rick slugged back to the table and sat down. " Well, so much for that idea" Rick shot up with a note of disappointment in his voice.
" I figure I'll just head on home," I declared as I finished my barley malt.
As I said my good byes I figured that I owed Cliff another visit on this one. But not just yet. He seemed very troubled over the last talk. I didn't want to stir up any bad blood. But I wanted to learn more, and I wanted to know about those little elf creatures most of all.