Another Perfect Day
Disclaimer: I do not own Harvest Moon or anything associated with the games and merchandise from Marvelous/Natsume. Otherwise this story is my original work and any similarities between it and any real people or events are coincidental. Please note that this story is based off of the Harvest Moon: Back to Nature and Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town video game titles.
Chapter 2: Bending Over Backwards
Jack collapsed onto his shipping bin and a few forgotten weeds fell from his now-feeble fingers. His new 'farmer' clothes were stained by more dust devils than Jack knew existed, and you could see an outline of his knees through the mud spots he got from kneeling. Enough sweat cascaded down his brow to turn the Nile River into a body of salt water.
"Ahaha… I did it… Timmy! I… cleared the field." His arm strength gave out and he fell onto the grass by the bin. "'Cept for Mt. Everest… and the Himalayas over there," he panted, weakly indicating the huge, stony crags still dotting the field.
The puppy made water on a corner of the shipping bin and then ran off to the far side of the farm.
It was a pretty good job for someone with only four days of farm experience and no previous physical work record. The wood from the numerous stumps he had chopped was piled neatly in his lumber shed, and the gargantuan pile of pulled weeds had been trash-bagged and transferred into the shipper's care the day before.
In short, Jack had finally cleared the field enough to finally start the tilling and planting process.
"Nothing to sell today, Jack?" came a deep voice from behind.
Jack quickly hoisted himself up against the shipping bin and turned around to face the shipper, Zack. Zack was the only villager besides the mayor that he had met, but that was mainly because he came out to the farm every day at five p.m. sharp to pick up any produce Jack wanted ship. So far, Jack hadn't shipped a single thing, but that didn't stop the big man from making his rounds everyday.
"Nope… sorry," he wheezed, wiping some of the sweat off of his cheek at the same time.
"Eh, alright. Not a big deal." Zack smiled. "Looks like you've been working hard. Think you'll be ready to start planting crops by tomorrow?"
"Oh sure… crops… fun…" Jack went down, hard. Zack watched the whole sequence semi-impassively (partly out of disbelief), then bent to check out the farmer's condition.
He was out cold.
"Shouldn't you have taken him to the clinic instead of the bar?" asked Ann, the Mineral Inn's bar and restaurant waitress.
"He's not sick or anything. Just not used to working hard yet, is all." Zack had planted the unconscious Jack into a seat at one of the tables near the bar and was trying to revive him with a glass of cold water. "Besides, he hasn't gotten out of the farm yet and I thought the bar is the best place to meet people." He threw the water into Jack's face.
Jack woke up, spluttering in surprise. Taking in his surroundings for a split second, he decided that he'd rather be unconscious than deal with location confusion. He fell back to sleep almost immediately.
A shaggy-haired old man sitting at a wooden table near the front of the bar nodded in agreement with Zack. "Gray was the same way when he first came out here. Hadn't worked a day in his life. City-life makes men go soft." The old man took a swig of the beer in his mug. "'Course, two days with me toughened him up a bit," he added with a surprisingly-hardy chuckle which no one else joined in on.
Realizing that any further revival efforts were going to be in vain, Zack stood up and handed the now-empty glass back to a very annoyed Ann. "Well, I gotta go guys. I have another early day tomorrow with some new shipping contracts to look over." He started for the bar doors.
"Hold it!" yelled Ann. "Who's gonna carry sleeping beauty home, gorilla-man? In case you haven't noticed, I haven't been working out as much as you!"
The red-headed waitress had a point. Zack was built like a gorilla, so for him lifting little Jack was nothing. He frowned, but the shaggy-haired old man spoke up before he could.
"I'll take him home. We're neighbors, you know."
"Thanks, Saibara," said Zack as he ran out the door before Ann could stop him.
Ann let out a magnificent sigh. "As long as he gets back to his own house. Something tells me he couldn't pay for a room here."
Saibara nodded sagely and returned his attention to his mug of beer. He was the village's blacksmith and was solely responsible for the creation of Ben's, and now Jack's, tools. He lived in the forge across the road from the farm's entrance.
"Hey, Ann! Pour me another glass of last year's wild grape stock!" bellowed the slightly-baked winery owner, Duke.
"I'll be right there," she said, trying to remember how many he'd had so far that night. It was her job to cut him off since Duke had a tendency to get wasted before the bar "officially" opened at eight, when her dad took over.
The Next Morning
Jack was almost surprised to be in his bed when he woke up, as the last thing he remembered was grabbing onto the shipping bin for support. Of course, he had no conscious recollection of his first Mineral Town bar experience, or of Saibara carrying him home like a babe. Perhaps some things are naturally for the better.
Jack simply convinced himself that he must've gone to bed on his own, and even contrived a few memories in those regards.
He absent-mindedly checked the weather report for tomorrow (clear skies as usual) and was about to pop a few store-bought rice cakes into his mouth when he noticed a note and a few seed packets on the table.
Dear Jack:
Zack and I decided to help you get a head start by getting these seeds for you. The two grey packets are turnip seeds and the brown one contains potato seeds. Sow them in some tilled soil and water them every day.
-Ann
P.S. Stop in at the Mineral Inn and say hi once in a while! Oh, and if you have anymore questions about seeds, head over to the supermarket and ask either Karen or Jeff.
"Who the hell is Ann?" he asked himself. The obvious questions, like how the note got in his house in the first place, never even occurred to Jack.
Shaking his head in confusion, he grabbed the seed packets, his hoe, and the green watering can before going outside…
Where another surprising spectacle greeted the mentally-beleaguered farmer. A young man wearing a blue cap and what appeared to be tan army fatigues was angrily beating the soil in Jack's field with his own hoe.
At Jack's appearance, the young man glared at him icily. "I'm almost finished with the third plot. I hope you're satisfied." His voice was so soft it was almost a whisper.
Jack's jaw dropped. "Satisfied? Why would I be satisfied? I never asked you to do this!"
The other man took one more swing at the dirt before laying his hoe to rest. "Grandpa said you're still too weak to handle too much work, so he had me come here and till you three c-shaped plots for growing vegetables." He tipped the blue cap down over his eyes. "It's really just a punishment for screwing up another horseshoe, though."
"Grandpa? Horsehoe?" stammered Jack, completely lost.
"Yeah, my grandpa: Saibara the blacksmith. He's your neighbor." The man began to stalk off. He stopped suddenly and turned around. "Oh, and my name's Gray. I'm his apprentice." He stomped off again.
"This is getting kinda weird," mumbled Jack before opening the first packet of turnips.
Jack's Diary, Spring 6 of his first year on the farm
So not everyone here is as friendly as I thought, but at least I met a few people. I think. I still don't know who the heck this "Ann" is (or this "Jeff" or "Karen"), but she seems to know who I am. God, I hope I didn't do anything stupid while I was drunk…
Anyways, I finally planted my first seeds. That Gray guy did a pretty good job with the vegetable plots, even if he did seem a bit… angry. He sorta reminds me of the people I used to know back in Detroit…
At least the most hellish work is behind me. My stupid hammer won't break those crags, sp I think I'll go see this Saibara about making it stronger. Blacksmiths do that kind of stuff, don't they? Even if they don't, all the hard stuff is behind me so I can finally get some time to go into town. Meet some of the locales and what not.
Another thing I noticed is how small and cramped this house is. Didn't the mayor say I could expand it by talking to the woodcutter? Well, I do have lots of wood now; maybe I should talk to the guy.
Before I go to bed, let me just say one more thing: farming is nothing like gardening! Here I was, thinking it would be relaxing and simple! Well, it's simple alright; simple work, sweat, and pain, that's what!
AN: Another chapter finished! I'm really getting used to writing with Mineral Town as a setting; lot's of material to go on and what not. Anyways, this is now officially my longest-running fic! I don't know whether to be proud or kind of sad…