(Author's Note: First of all, if you've come this far, thanks for your dedication! This is a slightly longer chapter that probably contains uncaught typos or grammatical errors somewhere. I've been swamped with school lately and have only now been able to crank this chapter out. It's a tad rushed, but I wanted to compromise on the side of releasing it rushed rather than prolonging it because it's late anyway and all of you who have been reading deserve to be rewarded.
Secondly, I've totally forgotten to include the legalese that should have been established up front. So, here it is: Animal Crossing and its characters are the intellectual property of Nintendo, borrowed here by me with all due respect and humility. Nintendo provided the canvas with their great game and awesome characters, and I hope to provide a different portrait here with my fanfic.
And most of all, enjoy! I love hearing comments, but what I love most is the feeling that someone out there is entertained by this.)
Episode 3: The Rosy-Cheeked Girl
At about 5:57 a.m., sunlight infiltrated the interior of my house through the blinds. I knew the exact time because I was peering at the alarm clock through the small sliver of my eyesight. The digits distorted themselves as I began to close my eyes completely. I felt sleep finally overtaking me when a sound jarred me back into reality.
"Dekkoid!"
Dekkoid...oh, how I rue the day you came into my life. I threw my blankets off and stood up, swaying like a flower whose stem is broken by the wind as my feet struggled to remember their function. Shaking my head, I eventually brought the slowly- waking world back into view. "Coffee," I muttered to myself, the first profound thought of my day.
"Dekkoid?" I looked down at the gyroid on the floor; it looked up at me with a blank stare.
"Cof-fee," I said to it.
"Dekk-oid?"
"Cof-fee!" I repeated in frustration, reaching out to tap the gyroid on its nose. As I touched the cold surface of its nose, it promptly stiffened and soon stopped moving entirely. I stared at its inert form for a few moments, first blinking rapidly and then feeling a full eye twitch coming on.
An off switch...of course it came with an off switch...
Before I could damage my mind any further, I decided to get down to business. Tom Nook had graciously left me a map of Fluffytown; I picked it up and saw that there was a coffee shop attached to the museum to the north. As I stepped outside, I heard the hour chime, an odd-sounding ditty that made my ears want to bleed. The smell of dew dripping off the grass struck me as I began my trek north, but it was the idea of freshly-brewed coffee that gave me the power to wobble into the museum. There was an owl sleeping in the center of the lobby; beyond him were the exhibits. As I slipped past him, I heard him muttering fitfully. It was something about ladybugs. I quickly went downstairs.
As the coffee shop came into view, the smell of the coffee as it dripped slowly into the pot was so overwhelming that my eyes perked open with a will of their own. I drifted toward the only open stool with the gait of a zombie and claimed it as my own. The soft music from the player piano instantly calmed me down and sleep threatened once more.
"You look like you could use some coffee," said the pigeon behind the counter. "Fortunately, I've got my special Brewster blend today. Named after me. Want a cup?"
I nodded several times and handed him a pouch of bells from my pocket. He took it, counted the bells, and jumped up slightly.
"Wow," he said, "this is quite gracious, Mr...?"
"Edgar," I said. "And don't worry about it. From the smell of your coffee, I know it'll be worth it." What I didn't tell him was that I'd given him a quarter of the spending money I'd stashed for the trip. The money Nook didn't even find.
With a shrug, Brewster put the bells in the register and went to pour the coffee. I looked around and saw more zombified faces around me. To my left was a pelican drooped so low her neatly manicured beak was touching the tip of her coffee cup, threatening to knock it over.
"I guess you need coffee, too," I said with a chuckle.
"No, I really just need courage," she replied with a weak smile. "You see, I work at town hall, and there's this colleague of mine who delivers mail..."
"Ahh, so you have a crush?"
"What?" She perked up, her long eyelashes shooting outwards. "How could you tell?"
At that moment, my coffee arrived, and I stirred it slowly before taking the first sip, letting the coffee burn my tongue.
"That's always the subject of any sentence that begins 'There's this person...' It's just something I noticed."
"You seem like a wise person," she said, "so maybe you can tell me what I should do."
"I can't," I said, trying to sound as cheerful as possible. "I've never gone past the 'There's this person...' stage myself." I saw her shoulders sag, but decided to continue anyway. "You seem to like this place, though, so maybe you could ask if he wants to come here after a delivery or something. Just start small." I picked up my cup and drank some more of the coffee, breathing in its aroma through my nose.
"You know, I was thinking the same thing," she said, "but it seemed so hard when I said it. Maybe I just needed to hear it from someone else." She straightened up and a hint of color came across her cheeks. "Thank you, Edgar. My name is Pelly, and it's a pleasure to meet you." She took my hand and shook it softly. "Is there anything I can do for you?"
"Actually..." I stirred my coffee again. "I'm an investigator from SPOOK International. Have you ever heard of them?"
"SPOOK International..." Pelly tapped her beak. "As I recall, we've had visitors from SPOOK before. Apparently, we drove them insane."
"Insane would be an understatement." I chuckled. "We got another tip, though, and this one seems to be legitimate." I drank some more coffee. "Have you noticed anything odd about the residents of this town recently? Any...violent tendencies?"
"Violent tendencies?" Pelly laughed. "Edgar, I'm a clerk at town hall. People are always angry with me. Sometimes it's the speed of the delivery system. Other times it's the environment. Mostly, people are bothered by that bloody town tune we have." She clenched her fist. "Oh, it's so awful! I want to find whoever made that town tune and--" She stopped, looked around suddenly, and then straightened up in her seat. "Oh, dear, did I say that out loud?"
"Yes. Yes, you did." I nodded gravely. "I think this is typical of the problem that Fluffytown has been experiencing. I have special equipment that I can use to check the air and water for harmful chemicals, but I need to obtain permission from your mayor to do the water analysis."
Brewster stopped, the glass in his hand emitting a screech as he abruptly stopped rubbing its inside with his rag. "Did you say...water analysis?" he asked slowly, feathers perking up. He shot an involuntary glance at the coffee pot. I looked from him down to my coffee cup and suddenly felt a tight knot in my stomach.
"Oh, don't worry," I said, cracking a nervous smile, "it's just procedure. They hardly ever amount to anything." I kept the smile up while I stared down at my coffee, suddenly losing any desire to finish it. Looking away, I gripped the saucer with my hand and slid it slowly back to Brewster.
"I understand," Brewster said, taking it with a somber look on his face. "Good coffee mustn't be tainted."
"Until we meet again, friend." I nodded to Brewster and rose from my stool. As I left the museum, daylight from the rising sun struck my face. I looked back, seeking refuge from the rays, and saw Pelly leaving as well.
"I'd better get to work," she explained. "I'll get those papers filed and on Mayor Tortimer's desk right away. He'll sign anything that gets thrown in front of him, so consider it done."
"Thank you." I felt my smile spread. Finally, someone on my side. "And good luck with that other thing, too." I noticed her cheeks were flush again.
"Thank you for everything, Edgar," Pelly replied quickly as she strolled off toward town hall. After she was gone, I slowly retraced my steps back to my place and, before I really knew what I was doing, flopped onto the bed and began to slip out of consciousness...
Ring. The sound penetrated the edge of my mind to where I knew any hope of sleep was gone anyway. I opened my eyes slowly and the digits came into view, reading 11:00.
Ring. I groaned and went to pick it up. "Hello?" I said groggily into the receiver.
"Edgar!" I yanked the phone back. "You'd better have some progress on this Fluffytown thing."
"Y-yes, sir," I stammered, "I'm getting ready to run some tests--"
"Getting ready?" Big Eddie yelled. "Getting ready! I know this job is considered a big joke, but that doesn't give you the right to slack off!" Cringing, I yanked the phone away from my ear while the scolding continued. Some people say Big Eddie is only intimidating in person. Certainly, the sight of a giant enraged moose might be enough to chill anyone's blood. Still, anyone who says that has never spoken to Big Eddie over the phone.
"Yes sir! I'll do my best, sir!" I shouted through Big Eddie's rant and promptly hung up. Knowing I would pay for that later, I decided to at least have some work done when the reaper came. Grabbing my suitcase, I opened it and rummaged through wrinkly changes of clothes and endured the minty smell of the busted tube of toothpaste to find my water analysis kit. Hefting it in my arms, I went outside and set it down by the brook. It consisted of a console with a ball attached to it through a long piece of wire. I picked up the ball and squeezed it to check that it would still work out, marveling briefly in the cleverness of the technology. The ball was made of a compound heavy enough to sink, but porous enough that it could act like a sponge. It would collect the water into the system, where the console unit would perform tests on it for various different chemicals and pathogens. In short, it was a neat little gadget.
"Here goes nothing," I muttered to myself as I shoved the ball into the brook. Testing the water was my first hunch, and I don't have much else to go off of...
"Howdy, neighbor!" came a voice behind me. I turned and saw Big Top the elephant sitting beside me. "What's shakin', villain?"
"Oh, uhh...just running some tests."
"Tests?" Big Top's ears flopped up. "Is that the big city term for fishing? 'Cause that's the weirdest pole I've ever seen." He picked up the console and shook it, causing its warning alarm to go off. "Does that mean you're catching something?"
"Let go of that!" I shouted, snatching it from his hands. "It's very sensitive equipment." I set it down into the muddy ground and breathed a sigh of relief as its warning wails subsided. "I don't mean to be rude, but this is very important."
"Hmph," Big Top grunted by way of reply, folding his arms. "I see what's going on." He turned and began to walk away.
"Big Top...I didn't mean to--"
"This is all part of your evil plan!" he said, turning at breakneck speed and stabbing one finger out at me. "You're trying to put a mind control device into the water of Fluffytown so you can, uhh...err...dominate the world somehow!" He clenched his hand into a fist and held it high. "I don't know exactly how you plan to do this, villain, but you will not succeed!"
He lunged at me, grabbing my chest and pinning me to the ground. Looking away, I could see the console swaying slightly, but holding its position. I threw up my arms to try and get Big Top off of me, but he kept me pinned as he leaned over me and grabbed for the console.
"No!" I screamed as he hit the console and sent it careening toward the water, where it would short out and ruin all my work. I lunged past Big Top and flung out my hand, batting the console away as it neared the water. I breathed a sigh of relief over the console just as my body hit water. When I resurfaced, a girl was standing near the brook, holding the console in both hands. Big Top was sitting on the bank, shaking his head.
"You're not the paranormal investigator, are you?" she inquired, holding up the kit. Feeling a sudden flush of embrassment, I looked up at her, water droplets stinging my eyes, and nodded slowly. To my surprise, she smiled and clasped her hands together.
"I'd hug you, but you're a little wet," she said, extending her hand. "It is nice to see you here in Fluffytown, though. I'm Rei, the one who called in the report." As I took her hand and let her pull me onto land, Big Top stood up.
"I'm sorry, guys," he said slowly, as if dazed, "I don't know what came over me."
"I think I know what did," I said, pointing down at the console in Rei's hand.
Five teeth-chattering minutes later, I sat in the grass near town hall with several of Rei's towels wrapped around me. The gentle late morning breeze would have been a wonderful thing on a day like this had I not just gone swimming. Instead of soothing my nerves, the breeze cut through me like a frozen knife, causing me to lurch over and pull the towels closer for warmth.
"Thanks for getting these," I managed to say to Rei as she looked back with concern filling her wide eyes. "Don't worry, I'll be fine. We paranormal investigators are trained for this type of work."
"Somehow, I'm not too sure of that." Rei rolled her eyes. "I'm not sure I would have thought of the water, though." She pulled a strand of her long, brown hair out of her eyes with one hand as she lifted up the kit in the other. "This thing isn't broken, is it?"
"It shouldn't be," I said, taking it from her and examining the readout on the screen. When my eyes found the bottom line, I jumped back.
"What is it?"
"Well..." I looked from the readout to her, "either it is broken, or we definitely have something." I pointed to the last line of the readout:
"Trace amount, 7 parts per 1 million particles: Substance unknown. Effects on water quality unknown."
"Unknown?" Rei blinked, her long lashes fluttering. "If your equipment can't figure out what it is, then it has to be what's making my friends act this way. We don't know of any other substance that can do that, right?"
"Right," I said as a chill passed through me. This one had nothing to do with the breeze. "You don't know where I can get a wet suit, do you?"
"Wet suit?" Her eyes widened. "You mean, you're going to dive in?"
"It doesn't look like I have a choice," I replied, "not if I want to get to the bottom of this. Literally." I stood up, unwrapped the towels, and handed them back to Rei. "Thanks for your help."
"Anytime," Rei shot back, squeezing the water out of the towels. "Anyway, you look dry enough now, so..." She threw her arms around me. "Thank you for coming. It really means a lot to me." She broke off the embrace. "I know you guys probably laugh about this place all the time, but I really do think something big is happening here. It's just this feeling I have."
"Whatever it is," I said, nodding solemnly, "I'll take care of it." As a reply, she nodded and I caught a hint of color rising in her cheeks.
"Anyway, I've got to go," she said, patting my hand. "My friend Tom is moving in and I have to go help him. Good luck with everything!" She started to walk away, then turned back. "Oh, and I'll get started on that wet suit. I know a very talented seamstress!" With that, she skipped away, leaving me alone with drippy clothes, a water analysis kit, and the early afternoon breeze.
On my way home, I spotted Pelly and waved to her. "How'd it go with you-know-who?" I asked as she approached.
"Funny you should ask," she said, stabbing the ground with her foot. "I'm meeting him for coffee right now during my lunch break!" she quickly burst out. "I'm so excited! And it's all thanks to you."
"I wouldn't say that. You did all the hard work; I just shoved you out the door."
"If you say so." Pelly clasped her hands together, trying to conceal her excitement. "Anyway, how's your morning been?"
"Oh, I'm doing all right," I replied, failing to hold back a grin. "You see, there's this girl..."
