Disclaimer: I do not own anything Harvest Moon

Having Cliff working on the farm with me turned out to be both good and bad. Good because with his help we were able to plant, maintain, and harvest almost three times the number of crops that I could handle on my own. Bad because that meant that I almost never left the farm. Still, Karen did visit every Sunday, and that made it easier to handle.

When the 17th of Summer and the Firefly Festival rolled around, Cliff and I stayed at the farm to put in some extra work because the swimming festival was coming up on the 24th. The farm needed the work; we were making 3,360 gold every three days or so off of the corn and tomato harvests. I used some of the profits to pay Cliff and to have the carpenters build a little shack behind my house that Cliff could move into, and saved the rest to go towards building a greenhouse so that we could continue to make money during the winter.

When I saw Kai at the bar the nights that I went there, he seemed to be drinking more and more. Listening to him talk revealed that he felt that things between him and Karen were getting worse, and I honestly felt bad for him. Harris, on the other hand, was drinking less and saying flowering things about Maria. Gray could be caught smiling, and Jeff wore a constant blush. Cliff, even, spent the evening sitting next to Ann and talking in quiet voices. Meanwhile, all I could do was listen to Kai complain and share secretive glances with Karen as she bussed the tables.

The end of Summer found Cliff and I with a barn full of grown cows, a coop full of grown chickens, and twenty-five thousand of the thirty thousand gold I needed to get a greenhouse. We planted forty squares worth of eggplants on the first day of fall knowing that the profits from those would finish paying for the greenhouse.

Before that could happen, the fourth of Fall rolled around and with it the Cow Festival. On the third, Hal came over from Greene Ranch to pick up my oldest cow for the competition. Everyone in the village, as well as many people from other places, were gathered around the fields of Greene Ranch to see whose cow would win first place.

Cliff and I were feeling pretty intimidated as we made our rounds, tasting all of the milk and looking over the cows themselves. I was embarrassed to have actually entered the competition, since I was entirely new to the whole farming thing.

When the awards were called, an out of town ranch named Azalea Ranch won third place. Second place was awarded to Greene Ranch, and everyone attending held their breath as they waited to hear the name of the winner.

The mayor was standing up on a small stage with a gourmet judge. "And the winner of this year's Cow Festival is . . . ." He took a deep breath, pausing for the drama. "Jack!"

My jaw dropped, but nobody seemed to notice my shock. Instead, there was a round of applause. The gourmet judge was nodding his agreement. "The milk is full of vitamins, delicious, and very nutritious. A true winner!"

Woodenly, I made my way up to stand next to my prize winning cow. Cliff came up to stand on the other side, and a photographer snapped a photo of us. As soon as the photographer headed away, Hal was there to say that he'd take the cow back to my farm.

Ann rushed up to throw her arms around Cliff's neck and covered his face in congratulatory kisses. She was followed by Kai, who was holding Karen's hand. Kai shook my hand and said congratulations. "You are formally invited," he told me with a smile, "to the bar for a round of drinks on everyone else. As winner, you get all your drinks bought for you tonight."

"I'll be there," I promised. I didn't really want to go to the bar tonight, because I was dead tired, but if they all wanted to do this for me, I could at least put in an appearance. For the couple of hours I was at the bar, it was more of the same: Harris talking about Maria, Jeff talking about Elli, and Gray quietly smiling whenever anyone mentioned Popuri. Cliff and Ann threw their own little party in the corner.

Since Cliff and I only had to take care of my livestock and water the plants on the next day, I headed into town to get some lunch at the bakery. I ordered a sandwich and a piece of apple pie, and Jeff sat down across from me with a cup of tea.

"You know, it's weird," he told me after a few minutes. "Karen's now my number one customer. She started coming in last week, and she goes through almost a whole cake every two days."

I shrugged. "So Karen likes cake. What's weird about that?" I asked around a mouthful of egg salad.

Jeff rolled his eyes. "Karen hates cake. I only saw her in here a couple of times before last week." I stared at him, silently chewing my sandwich for a few moments. Finally, I asked him how Elli was doing, just to talk about something that made sense.

The next two days went by fairly quick as well. The eggplants were nearly ready for harvest, so I made sure to get plenty of sleep on the night of the sixth. On the seventh of Fall, Cliff and I were barely able to get all of the eggplants harvest and into the shipping bin before Zack came by to pick them up early. He gave me the money, which I turned and handed to Cliff. My helper took all of the thirty thousand gold we had saved, and rushed to the carpenter's house to order the greenhouse for the farm.

Cliff had hardly been gone for five minutes before Karen came rushing onto the farm. "Jack, you have to come with me," she gushed excitedly, pulling at the arm of my shirt. "Come on, Jack! Hurry!"

I gave up with a sigh and followed her to the vineyard at nearly a dead run. When we came within sight of the grapevines, I had to stop in shock. Karen ran ahead of me, and began dancing with the millions of balls of light that were flitting around the vines. The air seemed to sparkle, and you could practically see the grapes plumping up.

Karen came dancing back to me. "It's the Kiefu Fairies, Jack!" she told me, thrilled. "I haven't seen them since Grandma died, but they're back! Now we can start to make some really good wine!"

From behind me came the click of a camera, and I turned to see Gotz and Sasha standing there. "I can hardly believe it," the giant man murmured, watching his daughter dance with tear filled eyes.

Kai came walking up to the three of us from the wine cellar and stood with us in silence for several minutes before letting out a deep sigh and turning to walk to the shed that he lived in. I tore my eyes off of Karen and jogged to catch up with the young, bandana wearing man. "What is the sigh for?" I asked. "Everyone else seems pretty happy."

He stopped walking and turned to look at me. "This means the vineyard is back on its feet. I'm going to head back home soon, and see my family."

I followed the younger man into his shack. "The vineyard is gonna do better, so you're just going to pack up and leave? I would have thought that you would want to stay and cash in on some of the profits."

Kai pulled his purple bandana off and flopped back onto the bed. "The Master told me that my contract was up when the vineyard started doing better. But he said that he would send me a quarter of the first years profits when it happened. That should be enough to support my mom and sisters for a while."

"What about Karen?" I asked after a pause. "Aren't you going to ask her to come with you?

He was staring up at the ceiling. "I'll stay long enough to help them bring in the harvest," he mused. "But Karen wouldn't want to come with me. She always said that she wanted to go to the city, but she loves it here too much; even in spite of her relationship with her father." Kai shook his head. "I don't think I'll even ask her."

When Kai fell silent, I quietly walked back outside. I felt buoyed, happy, and yet at the same time I felt bad for Kai. He honestly liked her, and I knew Karen had feelings for him, even though she would never admit it.

I still couldn't help but be amazed at the little blobs of light that were flying around the vineyard. The giant tree in the back corner, I could see, no longer looked as though it were dying. Its branches were now sprouting leaves, and the bark was turning a more natural color. I sent my eyes skyward and said a little prayer to the Goddess, resolving to visit her pond more often.

Gotz and Sasha were embracing, watching the dancing lights and Karen as they all floated around the vines. I watched for a couple of minutes longer, then headed home. I had a lot of work to do the next day: a farmer was never without anything to do.