Disclaimer: I do not own anything Harvest Moon

The evening after Karen broke her ankle found me in the bar. It was a particularly quiet night: other than me, Gotz was the only customer. He had been there drinking long before I had arrived, and kept giving me suspicious looks from across the room for the hour that we were there together.

Duke pulled out a chair at my table and set two glasses of beer down. "You know," he began idly in his deep voice as he sat down, "when you work in a social setting like this, you can see how things change. And things have been changing."

I took a long drink out of my fresh mug of beer. A tingly sensation running up and down my spine was screaming "Danger!" "Oh?" I asked cautiously.

The older man crooked an eyebrow, but showed no other evidence of anything on his face. "It was commented to me a couple of nights ago how Karen is starting to act friendlier and be nicer to everyone in here." He leaned back in his seat and crossed his arms, studying me for my reaction. He lowered his voice to be sure that Gotz couldn't hear us. "I must admit to having noticed it myself. But that wouldn't be all I've noticed."

Taking another drink of my beer, I tried to steel myself. This could be bad. "Oh." This time it came out sounding rather weak.

Duke sat across from me silently for a minute and then leaned forward to take his first drink from his mug. "I noticed her giving someone some rather, ah, pointed looks on several occasions."

My eyes widened and I started to panic. It was obvious from how Duke was talking that he knew exactly what was going on. This was the last thing that needed to get out. My mouth opened, but no words came out. Behind Duke, I could see Gotz getting up out of his chair and stumbling towards us. Now I began to panic in earnest, my eyes darting around and looking for someplace that I could run. Duke reached across the table and clamped down on my arm with a steadying hand. Gotz walked past us with a slurred "G'night" and left.

I chugged the last of my beer, and almost dropped the glass down on the table. Duke simply watched me for several silent moments, slowly draining his own drink. He smiled at me. "Don't misunderstand me, young Jack. I know Karen better than anyone else does. She has always turned to me as a father, and I love her like the daughter I never had. I know what she's involved in, and I know who she's involved with. Also, I know how her attitude, her outlook, and even her health are improving. I know who's responsible." Duke got up and picked up our empty glasses. "Come back behind the bar for a moment."

My knees were rubber as I followed him. I wasn't sure yet whether to be relieved, or if I should still be scared. Duke set the dirty glasses down and reached under the bar to grab something. When his hand came out, it was clutching an old bottle of wine. "I want you to try this," he told me, pouring a small bit of wine into two fresh glasses. "Tell me what you think."

Obediently, I clutched the glass. When the wine hit my tongue, it was like an explosion of flavor that I couldn't explain. Just the taste of the wine brought tears to my eyes, and made me forget all of the problems I was involved in and dealing with. I stared at the glass in wonder, and gaped at Duke.

"It's called 'Door to Heaven,'" the distinguished old man told me in a quiet voice. "When Gotz's mother ran the vineyard, this is the wine she produced. It's so rare now that this is the only bottle that I know of. She always told people that it would help them feel better no matter what. She always said that it was made of magic." I nodded my agreement to the description, still feeling almost euphoric. Duke re-corked the bottle and held it out to me. "I want you to have this, as a thank you."

My mouth was hanging open. "But . . . I . . . . You . . . If this stuff is that rare, you shouldn't give it to me! It's valuable!"

Duke shook his head and pushed the bottle into my hands. "Seeing Karen happier is all of the value I need," he told me softly. "Take it."

I carefully cradled the bottle in my hands. "I don't know what to say. Thank you."

"There isn't anything you can say," Duke answered with a smile, pulling a wet rag out from under the bar and beginning to clean the dirty glasses. "I visited Karen today. She's pretty out of sorts, what with being cooped up in her bedroom all the time. If one of her childhood friends came and paid her a visit, it would probably raise her spirits immensely." He punctuated the statement by raising an eyebrow again.

I left the bar blushing, allowing Duke to lock the doors and get some sleep. The next morning, I breezed through my chores. It was getting to be late spring already; the weather forecast called for rain the next day so I made a mental note to put the cows in the barn and the chicken into the chicken coop before I went to bed. Outside, the single egg the chicken laid found its way into my incubator and the calves were all too eager to be brushed.

It was about one o'clock when I managed to make it up to the vineyard with the bottle of "Door to Heaven" wrapped in a paper bag and tucked under my arm. I knocked on the door of the house, and after a few moments it was answered by Karen's mom, Sasha. Her hair was a much lighter color than Karen's and she was much taller than her daughter. Sasha's eyes and face, however, seemed to be stuck looking sad. As though there was nothing that made her happy anymore.

"I was wondering when you would show up, Jonathon," she told me with a sad smile, gesturing that I was to enter.

"It's Jack now," I corrected her. She frowned at me, prompting me to explain. "'John' is short for 'Jonathon', and 'Jack' is a nickname for 'John'. 'Jack' just sounds friendlier."

Sasha nodded her understanding then raised her hand to indicate the stairs. "Karen's room is the first door on the left," she told me. Her smile seemed to lose some of its sadness. "Gotz and Kai just finished lunch, so they will be out among the vines for the next few hours. I've got to start preparing some stuff for the Flower Festival next week."

I made my way up the stairs and knocked on the first door on the left. "Come in," Karen's voice sounded utterly bored. Pushing the door open revealed the young woman sitting on her bed and looking out the window. Her hair—with the exception of her bleached bangs—was pulled back into a ponytail, allowing her bangs to frame her face. When she looked at me, I could see some life spark into her eyes.

"It took you long enough to come visit," she griped as I kicked the door closed. Her eyes stopped on the package in my arms. "I hope that's something to drink."

I grinned. "That depends. Is there a couple of glasses in the room?"

She pointed over at a cupboard that had a handful of empty wine bottles under it. I pulled two glasses out and, making sure she couldn't see what I was pouring into them, filled them half full. I re-corked the bottle in its bag, and set it down on her bedside table. I handed Karen one of the glasses and sat next to her on the bed.

"Sorry I'm so late," I apologized, leaning forward to plant a kiss on her forehead. "I heard you're miserable up here, so I brought this for you. I guarantee it will make you feel better. To us," I finished holding my glass up in a toast. Karen smirked and matched my movement, then took a sip from her glass.

Her bright green eyes widened. "This is . . . Where did you get this?" She demanded. "This is the wine that Grandma made. How did you get some?"

I could tell that the wine was already working, and she was feeling better. She had an excited smile on her face, and was much more animated than she had been when I had come in.

"Duke gave it to me," I explained. "He said that he wanted to say 'Thank you' for making you happier."

Karen's face flushed a bright red. "So he noticed, huh?"

The two of us drank two or three more glasses and sat around talking until we heard Gotz and Kai heading back towards the house. I hopped up and grabbed the bottle of wine so I could head out before Gotz caught me and decided to lecture me.

"Jack, do me a favor," Karen called out as I was grabbing the doorknob.

"Sure."

"She took a deep breath. "Kai is the Harvest King this year. Everyone votes for the Harvest Goddess, but the Goddess has to dance with the King. Popuri is going to vote for Elli and Maria will probably vote for me. Elli will probably vote for me, too. They seem to like the idea of a 'boyfriend/girlfriend' pair doing the job. I was wondering if you could see about making sure I'm not voted into the Goddess job. I hate that dress."

I blew her a kiss. "Sure. I'll see you later."

I was barely out of sight of the house when Gotz got to the front door, thinking about what Karen had said. After a little bit of thought, I determined that I would have to ask Ann for help. I stopped back by my house to drop off the bottle of wine, and threw a saddle on Adonis. Even though he was still technically a colt, he was huge enough that Ann had brought me some tack to use for riding him.

The trip to Greene Ranch was a quick one on horseback. Ann, not surprisingly, was out in the field playing with the animals. When asked if she wanted to go for a ride, she quickly agreed. We made our way up onto the mountain where we were alone, and I passed along Karen's request.

Ann looked thoughtful for a moment then laughed. "No problem!" she assured me. "I'll step up and take one for the team. I'll convince my dad and brother to vote for me. If you add your vote to theirs, then there's no way Karen'll have to wear that dress."

I frowned, guiding Adonis around a fallen tree. "What do you mean, 'take one for the team?'" I asked.

The redhead laughed. "You think I want to dance with Kai?" she giggled. "Do I look crazy?"

Tugging on the reins to turn Adonis around, I smiled and shrugged. That made Ann laugh even harder. "If that's what we're going to do," I suggested, "let's head back. I want to get my vote for you in while I still remember."