I tried not to make it so that I'd need to write Notes from the Author, but I thought I'd just mention that this was the last chapter I wrote in 2003. Now that 2005 is almost here and I found that I had written about three chapters after this one, the least I can do is add this one. Thanks for everyone's patience. I promise I'll try hard to keep everything up and going again at decent time intervals.
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Ann discovered the next morning that she had been spending way too much time mulling over the past since she had met Cliff and Jack; never had she taken up that habit before then, and for this reason she was ill at ease. She knew it would be hard to re-obtain her peace of mind, but a phone call from Karen opened up her eyes to see what she had to do. And this rested only in her hands.
As much as she really liked Jack, there were too many external forces turning themselves into major factors of her personal life. In her mind she compiled a list of things that benefitted her in being enamored of Jack, and another list of what wasn't in her favor. To her misfortune, this second list was longer. If she found a way to get her mind off Jack and give up even trying, she would only have Cliff to worry about, and that was a much smaller problem all its own.
When she received the phone call from Karen, she took into mind that her calls were rare events, and it was therefore important to listen. Not only for that reason, but also because Karen really needed her best friend. Karen had called to tell Ann she didn't know how long she would be able to bear living under the same roof with a father who never wanted her, a useless mother who didn't make any attempts to solve anything, and a worker on the vineyard who didn't offer to even hear her out, in fear that he would get fired and dismissed. It was after Ann hung up the phone in her father's office that she came to the conclusion, with a heavy heart, that she needed to focus her mind on helping her best friend, and the only way she could think to do so was to make serious attempts to set Karen up with Jack.
If Ann knew Jack very well, which she did, he would take care of Karen and treat her the way Karen needed to be treated. Ann had already had her happiness just being secretly in love without risking anything, and she felt it was time Karen knew the happiness she had known these past months. If she had been a man she definitely would have married Karen, but to send Jack to her would be the least she could do for her. Karen's friendship had been forever, and she had only known Jack since spring.
The last snowfall of the season crept its way in from the north and fluttered around her as she went out into the biting, harsh cold. It was too late for snow, and as Ann was walking down the path correspondent to the Harvest Farm, she couldn't help but wonder inside if it was too late for something else, too.
That's when she realized it. Popuri had danced with him at the Harvest Festival in the fall. Unless she could get an answer to this one burning question she formulated inside her mind, it would be too late to save anything.
"Ann!!!" Jack's voice called out to her when she was nearing the gate of the farm, and she turned her head to see him waving an arm high in the air. "Come over!! Are you busy?"
"You mustn't shout like that!!" she screamed back and went running up to him joyfully. Off in the distance he was sitting down in the middle of the snow, and when she reached him, her heart stopped involuntarily as she saw that he wasn't able to get up on his feet again.
"What's happened??" she gasped. "Are you okay?" Jack was looking up at her and smiling boyishly. He was out here with his ears red as cherry tomatoes and without gloves or a scarf or anything, smiling like nothing was wrong.
"I came out here just for a breath of fresh air, and as I was running I tripped over something hard in the snow. Look," Jack pointed a dark brown point sticking out of the ground. Whatever the artifact was, it had been buried in the snow for quite awhile. "I don't know what it is, but I figured maybe we could dig it up and turn it in to Saibara; he'll know what to do with it."
"Oh, no you don't," Ann scolded him as if she were his mother. "You're hurt. Don't think I can't tell! And look at you, trying to be all brave by hiding it." Suddenly her face broke into a smile and she laughed, her cheeks as rosy as his. There was no way she could have a serious conversation with him after this. "Let me see something." Ann squatted and removed his left shoe.
"What are you doing!?" Jack burst until he realized exactly what she was doing.
"Push against my hand." Ann came to the conclusion that his ankle was sprained, and he must have been running for him to have tripped over something so small. "I'm gonna help you up, okay? Then let's see if we can get you inside."
"Yes, Mom," Jack said jokingly, as he draped an arm around Ann and got up with her assistance.
"Now is not the time for that," she snapped, although she could not help chuckling.
Ann didn't have the time to see all of his house when she last came inside, but now that she had him seated comfortably on his handmade bed, she walked into the kitchen to see if she could prepare him something, despite Jack's childish protests. For the first time she felt like she had a responsibility as a wife or a mother, opening the freezer in search for a tomato he might have kept. She was a horrible cook but wanted to do something anyway, and to her fortune he kept a packet of recipes hanging on the adjacent wall, next to an odd painting of an apple tree. Tomato soup, she figured, couldn't really be as hard as it seemed.
"Ann? Do you need help in there?" he hollered from the bedroom.
"Jack, don't you DARE get up!!!" she yelled back, reading the recipe and following everything as it said.
Cooking was the last thing that she expected to be a restorative of her peace of mind, but it did work and she felt calm and collected when she was doing so. Stirring with a large wooden spoon, she thought of this new dish as a mission; that she was taking on a new way to help mankind.
"This is really good! You liar, I thought you said you didn't cook well," Jack beamed up at her when she presented him the bowl. "Or did you suddenly become a miracle overnight?"
Ann nudged him hard with her shoulder. "Oh, you.... Actually I just followed the recipe. Do you really think it's good?"
"Yeah!"
"Do you swear?"
"Yes. I think you've saved my life, Ann." Jack reached up and ruffled the hair on her crown with his fingers.
"You exaggerate."
"No, I mean it!.... Ann? Was there something that I was dragging you away from? I thought you might have been heading into town when I saw you walking."
"Actually, I did want to come here. I was going to mention that there is a New Year's Festival in a couple days, and I came here to say that it's imperative that you come." Imperative.That was a good word. It was good to be Maria's friend. She learned words like that when she came to see her.
"Well, if it's imperative that I come I suppose there's no escaping you," Jack smiled. "Thank you, Ann, I'll most definitely be there. I was hoping I would get the chance to see you again soon, anyway."
Ann bade him farewell after that and left his house holding a fist to her heart. No, there was no way she could give him up to Karen. Her plan when coming was that, if he accepted the invitation, there was a chance he liked her and that he was available. If he declined, well, there was reason to believe he was caught up in more important affairs.
For a moment Ann thought all her problems were solved, but when she remembered what she had invited him to, it dawned on her that there was pretty much nothing she had prepared to say to him or do with him when he came to see her at the upcoming Festival. Was it enough just to be in her presence? She immersed into thinking about what needed to be said and done, and what she wanted there to be said and done.