A Dream. A Hope. A Scar. A Mission.
Chapter 13: Here I Go Again
The day seemed pleasantly cool as I stepped out from my ever –improving cottage. I quickly stepped inside again however, to wash myself down and consider the events of the previous night. I was covered in cold sweat still since I awoke. It was an unpleasant feeling to say the least.
I prepared myself a breakfast of eggs and toast as I gazed silently into nothingness. Had I seen a ghost last night? What was going on? I figured I was hallucinating, but then why did I have the awful flashback? The Potion Master seemed like the obvious go-to man. But first I needed to go up to Karen's house. I wasn't sure if she was really gone or not either. Truth be told, I wasn't really sure about pretty much everything going on at that moment. For the first time since I came to Flowerbud I'd wished I was back in Edge Water, putting in my punch card, logging in my hours, and going home to watch TV silently with dad and yell at the politicians on CNN.
I shoved the thought quickly out of my mind as I remembered how busy the day would be. I did have to order a new batch of seeds as well as plant them into the ground. Dreaming of toiling away in the spring sunlight once again without any cares in the world sounded very appealing to me at that moment.
The trudge up to the old vineyard was bittersweet at best. I recalled the first time I saw Karen walking down this very path that I was carrying myself up. She had yelled at her father for invading her concerns. Perhaps then she would no longer have to worry about old Donavan meddling in her affairs. Then recalling the second time I saw the vineyard I was struck with more sadness than the first. It was when Karen had twisted her ankle making her way up to Cliff's cavern. The emotions brought up that night were ever painful, and seeing the pain I struck into Kai seemed to burn my heart. I never meant to hurt him like that. I never wanted to hurt anyone.
While knocking on the door I gazed over into the vineyard where the grapes were grown. It was a sad site to see. I half expected tumbleweed to roll across the scene as the wind picked up. The vines were in a sorry state of wilting, looking unfit to grow the most meager of grapes.
"Yes?" came a growling voice as the door opened.
" Greetings Donavan" I said as I peered past his shoulder to see into the living room. "Is Karen here?"
"No, you had best tend to your farm and little else from now on" Donavan warned.
"Where is she then?" I asked.
"You know damn well where my daughter went, you spoiled brat!" Donovan roared. "You filled her head with crazy stories of Edge Water, telling her of a world where everyone is free to do as they wish and no one has to work for what they have."
"I had also come to repay old debts to you, but it seems that you have little interest in my wishes" I shot back as I felt my temper rise. "And I never told your daughter any fanciful stories of the city. Why would I tell her to go live in hell on Earth?" I questioned.
"Because you're the only one around this entire island that knows anything about the city" Donavan blasted back at me.
"Maybe it's that no one ever told her of the city perhaps? Maybe its that no one ever educated her, only shielded her from the outside world, suppressed her?" I bit. "Maybe she left because you never gave her a chance come into her own? Maybe she left because you never gave her that option, so she wanted to just because you didn't want that?"
Hearing my cold words Donavan reached his hands out quite quickly for an old guy, grabbing my collar and swinging me around, pushing me up against the outer wall of his house. "You listen to me boy!" he roared. He held onto my shirt with amazing force. For an old guy, that is.
"May the stars forbid it, but should you ever have children, then tell me how to raise them! But until that day, you have no right to incriminate on my parenting capabilities!" Donavan roared into my face.
"And you have no right to touch me" I snapped as I swiftly grabbed onto his collar. With equally deadly swiftness I threw the aging man to the ground. " Your daughter acts just like you, don't you realize that? I can't blame her for leaving here and manipulating people, because she just learned it all from you!"
"How dare you come onto my own land and instigate a fight!" Donavan growled as he got up, dusting his pants off.
"Both of you, stop talking, just please try and act like decent human beings." shot a voice very unfamiliar to me.
"Kathryn, get back inside!" Donavan shouted into the doorway. "Stay out of this!"
Looking through the oak door's silhouette stood a woman that I had seen before, but had rarely heard speak. She had red hair that was starting to show it's age and seemed lithe with a light complexion. It seemed that she was in her early fifties. It was Karen's mother.
"Donavan, leave Jack be, please" Kathryn pleaded.
"Kathryn, what did I say?" Donavan questioned.
"But..." Kathryn attempted to argue.
"Kathryn!" Donavan raised his voice.
Kathryn slowly retreated back into the house.
"Now boy, get off my land before I get angry" Donavan ordered.
"As you wish Donavan. I've got bigger fish to fry" I nagged as I began walking back down the dusty road into town.
"You're lucky I didn't lay you flat!" Donavan yelled after me.
I didn't look back, taking assurance in myself that I had just won that argument. It was no wonder Karen acted like she did though when her father treated her with his iron fist parenting. What was discouraging about that household was also Karen's mother. An intense sadness seemed to radiate from her, as if she was helpless. She hardly even tried to fight back when Donavan ordered her back into the house. Indeed, Donavan tried to control every aspect of his life, especially his family, just like how Karen tried to control Kai and I.
The botanist shop was a mess of fresh grown spring flowers. This was obviously Popuri's work. As I entered the shop everything was quiet, except for the sound of a radio being emitted from behind a closed door in the corner of the store. I approached the door and began to knock and wait. No response. I figured the radio, which was playing some weird flighty romantic music, must have been too loud for whoever was inside to hear my cautious knocking. I cracked open the door ever so quietly to find the quarters to be a bedroom garnished with flowers everywhere. And when I say everywhere, I mean foldout posters of flowers on the wall and flower boxes circling the sitting on every possible flat surface save the bed, which was of floral print, and the narrow path between flower pots on the tile flower, which had a flower design inscribed on it, too.
A most peculiar sound came from the connecting room, which had a door that was left wide open. It sounded like raindrops pattering on a vinyl floor. Gazing in, it was apparent that it was a bathroom, and a bathroom in use indeed. The shower was running, and with a running shower comes a person showering. I pulled on my collar as sweat started to roll down me. For within the shower was an attractive pink haired girl. While her personality was rather spoiled and girlish, I had never neglected the features of who I presumed the form was in the shower. Well, at least I was hoping it was Popuri anyways. The sliding glass door to the shower was blurred, which didn't allow me to make out any specific "details."
Quietly excusing myself from the room, I took all the turnip and potato seed I needed from the cabinets and bins and left the appropriate amount due on the counter, held down with a small rock so that the wind could not blow my payment away. Wiping the sweat from my brow I quickly exited to make for the Potion Master's cottage.
The walk seemed to take ages from the botanist shop to my non-genetic grandfather's cottage. I felt like a savage to have been gawking at a young girl while she was bathing. I was an adult, a responsible one at that, trying to make a decent living, not some hormonal kid in high school that had to get his hands in on any decent looking girl he knew. The guilt sank in even deeper as I passed Lillia, Popuri's mother, on the road as she headed back to the botanist shop. I couldn't bear to look into her eyes.
The Potion Master's hamlet was but a simple cottage, much smaller than my farmhouse. I opened the wood door to be tackled by two bouncing young boys and a dog. I knew the boys and the dog well enough as friends in addition to rivals.
"Nice to see you Jack!" called the smaller dark haired on the two boys.
"What's going on Stu?" I asked as I picked the two boys and the dog, along with myself, up from the floor. "And what about you Kent?"
"We're doing alright" chimed in Kent.
"Yeah, but Grandpa isn't looking the best" Stu said with a note of sadness in his voice.
"Why, what's wrong?" I questioned with deep concern.
"He is feeling very sick right now" Kent explained. "But he says that none of his medicine can help him."
"Will Grandpa get better Jack?" Stu asked, only wanting to hear one answer.
"Of course he will" I assured, unknowing of what was really wrong with him. "Just let me see him."
I set the three down and followed them through the living room, which was an obscure mess of ovens for heating of medicines as well as tables covered in alchemical instruments and medicines. Pulling through the next door I saw a bed stricken old man with a horrible cough, which I immediately identified as the Potion Master, accompanied by a second elderly man I had never seen before.
"Greetings Jack" chocked the elderly man I recently began identifying with as Grandpa.
"Hello Grandpa" I said as I choked to see him in such pain. He was quite pale with a wheezing cough.
"I do not believe you have met Saibara" The Potion Master managed.
"Saibara?" I asked, suddenly startled at recalling the name from the dream. Perhaps it was more than just a dream now though.
"Hmph, is there a problem with my name young one?" the man going by the name of Saibara questioned.
"No it's just... déjà vu' I suppose" I explained.
"Or something.." the Potion Master coughed. "Something more than just a feeling in the pit of your stomach?"
"Look Grandpa, I came here because I had this strange hallucination on New Year's Eve" I rolled out. "I thought it was a nightmare. You were there."
"Ah yes... go on" The Potion Master beckoned.
"And then I had this flashback. I was seventeen..." I said, but stopping myself there as to not go any further with the story.
"What else did you see Jack" The Potion Master questioned.
"There was my Grandfather, and he spoke to me, but he was a ghost, and he mentioned your name," I said as I pointed to Saibara. The Potion Master and Saibara merely shot concerned glances back at each other. They probably thought I was crazy.
"And did Hess tell you anything of Moon Mountain?" Saibara asked.
"He mentioned the small creatures inside of it, telling me that they cursed the land because my Grandpa betrayed their trust until a newcomer took up his land" I answered.
"This is good and bad," the Potion Master declared.
"The earth shouldn't be cursed any longer, correct?" Saibara pondered aloud.
The Potion Master coughed again. Regaining his breath, "Perhaps not entirely. The grandson of Hess Munich still farms the land."
"How well does Hess's old land grow then?" Saibara questioned.
"I haven't had any problem with it. It's not the greatest soil I've ever seen, but it works" I answered.
"Jack, go to the library some time and look up the history of the village. Find out what your Grandfather's land was like before you knew it." The Potion Master asked of me.
" Did Hess tell you anything else in your dream?" Saibara asked.
" He told me that I had to dig up the past," I told.
" Intriguing. Perhaps going to the library is only the first step of a much greater scheme already set in motion" The Potion Master answered with a winded cough. "Now Jack, please go, Saibara and I must converge with these new facts you have given us."
" Yes sir" I answered as I found my own way to the door. Walking back home even more puzzled, The Potion Master and Saibara seemed sure that it was more than just a dream. First things first, before digging up a book of village history, I had a hot air balloon to catch for the Planting Festival.
The Planting Festival was a bit of a thrill, but only for the hot air balloon. One year ago on that day Grandpa Potion Master flew up into the air in the same balloon, sewing seeds all over the island. Now I was in his position, as if I was replacing him. If only I knew how true that would become. For the time being I was content to live out my life with little worry, leisurely making my way to the library to pick up the single book on village history from Maria. I had yet to touch the hardbound book that was barely strung together any longer, apparently having gone through quite a bit of abuse. While I had checked the book out I had not read any of it. I was intimidated by its size, seemingly as thick as a dictionary. How could one little village have so much history to it? Oh well, that was one question that would wait for a different day, a different day indeed.
I didn't both going to the Horse races this year at all, preferring to stay home and analyze the soil. Grandpa Potion Master and Saibara seemed very interested in the condition of land, so through my crops I continued to investigate the condition of the earth I was tilling.
Unfortunately for me, fate would have other ideas than leaving me to my lonesome on my farm to till and raise to my heart's content. I had another mandatory festival to attend, seeing as I was king. Using my privilege to vote, I approached the ballot box for the Queen of Flowers. As I grabbed a ballot and a pen I realized something. I would have to dance with whoever the queen was. I also realized that Karen was no longer on the ballot, having left the island. This made things difficult. I had a vote between four girls, all my age. There was Ann, but she was my best friend's girl. Then there was Elli. While her pies were delicious I was not in the least attracted to her. Maria was the third choice. I seldom talked to her, and would be quite awkward to dance with her, even though I had with her in the past. Then Popuri was the fourth choice. A nice body with a limited amount of thought power to wield beyond that of which directly concerned her. I knew there was only one choice. I wrote down my thoughts on the ballot and slipped it into the box.
Back at home I finally began to peer into the village history book, for lack of better things to do. An intricate family web was made for the entire village, but only cited those that remained in the village until their deaths, unless someone had returned to the village a few generations later. Oddly enough, I was written into the book. I had traced my name up the chart, through Arnold Munich, and up to the very top to Hess Munich. It was strange, my grandfather sat at the very top, along with three other men. One was Saibara Indigo, along with Korington Brown. The third's name was Ori Westchester. Saibara Indigo would have been the man I had just met at the Potion Master's house, and Korington was Pastor Brown's first name. The village seemed surprisingly young, having been settled in 1945. I did not recognize this Ori Westchester however.
There were some other points of notice to the historic village tree. The Potion Master, otherwise known as Samuel Devington, was one of the first men to move to the island after it's creation. Also, Karen was nowhere to be found on the tree. Someone must have changed the records quite recently. I was curious to find out who changed the records, as well as more curious to keep diving in to see what secrets the next pages held, but I would be abruptly cut short. Gazing out into the setting sun outside, a loud bang sounded on my front door.
"Munich, I want you out here right now!" sounded the commanding voice. I assumed it was Donavan, but the voice didn't sound like his. It was still loud, booming, and gruff, but a different octave. I slowly began to open the door to see my restless neighbor.
AN: Ah yes, chapter 13 was a very fun one to write indeed. I hope you folks enjoy it. It seems the story is going to take an unexpected twist from what I originally planned. I had figured on seven more chapters to finish up the story, but now I'm thinking more like eleven chapters now. The story is going to kick off more into a sci-fi direction now, but no more sci-fi than pvc's "A Haven from the Storm." I do hope you enjoyed this chapter once again, and if you have time, please write a review. They're motivational.