"Good Morning, Jack!"
The voice may have been friendly, but Jack almost fell back into his house when the old man greeted him as soon as he walked out in the morning. Duke noticed Jack in shock for a bit, but didn't think anything of it. That boy was always strange; he hardly talked, and he worked five times more than anyone else in Mineral Town.
"We're going to harvest the grapes on our orchard for wine starting tomorrow," The man reached up and fiddled with his bow tie, "And I wanted to know if you would give us a hand."
The strange farmer nodded, the large wad of hair sticking out from his hat bouncing around his head. Duke guessed this was a confirmation and started to walk away. He reached the entrance to his farm and turned back to find that the boy was still staring in the same direction, doing nothing at all. Hesitantly, the older man blinked, cleared his throat, and added, "Oh, and if you know anyone else that wants work, let them know we could use the help."
Something about that kid made him a bit nervous when talking, but he didn't mind. The boy was a friendly boy, and he often stopped by to grab grape juice or wine from Manna. More money is less trouble.
It was a sunny day in Mineral Town. Duke smiled as he paced home, ready to start another day of work. He smiled at the quiet, peaceful morning. Living the life of a wine-maker was quite pleasurable. Before he could think another thought, he was in front of his beautiful vinyard. The grapes glistened as the the sun's bright rays were trapped in the dew, being shone in all directions.
Duke's smile grew even wider as he took a deep breath of the fresh air and stretched his arms out and embraced the day. Life was good in this town. The air was clean and there was always the best wine -- made by himself of course.
His hand was about to grab the handle to the cellar door when he heard a thud from the front of his house.
What is it now...? He thought to himself.
"Dear!" The woman called as she swiftly stepped over to the entrance of the cellar, "Could you please stay home tonight?"
Her husband stared at her as a demand for more explanation.
Manna looked at Duke's polished black shoes, her face flushing with fear of his response, "Let's just stay home and talk instead."
"Talk!" He turned the handle to the door, "All you ever do is talk! I'll go to the bar if I feel like it."
The cellar door slammed shut and Manna could swear she felt the world shake along with it.
"But you always feel like it," she whispered to the image of her his back that she could still she turned to her.
As if she could see anything behind the tears filling her eyes.
This is nothing to be upset about, She tried to logically work her way out of this one, I shouldn't have tried to do something controlling like that. I should've just let him come home or go where he wanted. Maybe if Aja were here, things would be different. Maybe if...
She shook her thoughts out of her head and hurried back into the house. She kept herself busy cleaning the counter, cleaning again and again. Maybe it would shine more if she wiped it over just one more time. Eventually it came time to open the winery, and she unlocked the front door, ready for customers. Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath and tried to forget about her troubles.
She had barely made it back to the counter when her first customer of the day came through the front door. She caughed to ready herself for talking and pulled back the corners of her mouth to form what seemed like a smile.
"Oh it's you, Jack," She greeted without thinking, "How are you? Did you know... I have a daughter named Aja who left us a long time ago... but she used to live here, just me, her, and Duke... here in the winery. She moved away to start a city life, I guess. I miss her a lot; I really wish she would come visit. Did you know Duke calls Aja from the inn every night? Think of what that must do to their phone bill. I know it only costs ten gold to use the phone, but I insist on paying poor Doug more, since it must cost a lot for the long distance calling, you know? He was hesitant to accept the money at first, but now he takes it easily, because I insisted... I really think it's the right thing to do. Duke would be so angry with me if he knew I did this, though -- he doesn't want any of our money going to waste..."
She stared at the funny boy in blue clothes as her voice trailed off, still not realizing she had said so much.
"Grape Juice!" Jack chimed, handing over 200 gold.
She cocked her head and arched her eyes, trying to be friendly, just beginning to notice that she had talked for quite a while to a stranger. She grabbed a bottle of grape juice from her counter and put the money into her money drawer. The boy lifted the juice over his head, smiled, and hobbled off.