4.
There was a polite knock on her door around 7 in the morning. Rei was normally a morning person, usually up and doing yoga or going to a spin class before the day started. These last few weeks on the farm however had her sleeping more as her body demanded rest for the work she had been putting in. So it was with difficulty that she rose out of her bed to put on a sweatshirt and pad towards the front door.
Outside a middle- aged woman was holding a small fluffy cat. Rei's first thought went immediately to the cat lady stoop crones in the city who used to lament the loss of the neighborhoods to the high rise skyscrapers. This lady however didn't have a smoker's voice.
"Hi dearie, I'm Marnie. I live just 10 minutes from your property towards the Cindersap Forest. I take care of animals, and found this one here just wandering aimlessly about. "
Before Rei could deny ever owning a cat, Marnie continued.
"I think it's a stray, and I have absolutely no room on my ranch to take care of it. Would you consider taking it in? I want to find this little angel a home!"
She didn't know if it was the big round eyes the kitten had, or her desire to make all of the townspeople happy, but Rei found herself holding her arms out for the little grey kitten.
"Oh you are a dear! Come by the ranch sometime today and we'll get you some supplies for the poor thing!" And with that, Marnie ambled away, leaving Rei with the cat.
That was first thing in the morning! Rei had set the kitten up inside the farmhouse, afraid that maybe it might sneak away and get eaten by a wolf or something while she was working. As she watered her crops, she thought of names for her. The lists she ran through her head made her laugh, realizing that she had never owned a pet before. How would she care for it? She had always wanted a pet as a little girl, but her father never allowed it. She would have to make sure this little cat lived a happy life.
She also realized that Pierre (or Abigail really) must've started to talk positive things about her to the rest of the townspeople. As she made her way to Marnie's ranch to pick up supplies, she bumped into another young woman walking by with her sketchbook.
"Hi! I'm Leah! Welcome to the valley, the spring is the best season to move here." She was the type of pretty that girls back in the city envied. Wirey frame, nice complexion and long eyelashes. Rei knew tons of girls who tried to make themselves look "naturally beautiful" but their efforts couldn't hold a candle to Leah.
"Do you like drawing and painting?" Rei asked, gesturing to the sketchbook.
"Oh, yes! I moved here to focus on my art. This place has so much inspiration."
Rei smiled, she loved art and talking about art. "I'd love to see some of your work sometime!" And felt her own surprise when she genuinely meant it.
Back in the city, artists had always invited her to gallery openings. But so many of those shows were filled to the brim of people who were full of themselves, high on their own egos and trust funds. She remembered staring at pieces, attempting to understand them, when really wishing she could go to a museum and look at a classical impressionist piece instead. But whenever she brought something like that up to her ex, he would scoff at her. "What, like you're an expert on classical art now?"
"I'd love for you to see it sometimes! I work mainly with sculptures, however I've been really interested in watercolor landscapes lately!" Leah's voice brought her back and Rei found herself enthusiastically agreeing to go sketching with her sometime.
After waving Leah off, she knocked on Marnie's door. A man her age answered it.
"Marnie's closed for the night." He said, gruff voice, and she couldn't escape the scent of beer on his person.
"She told me to come by to pick up some stuff for the kitten."
His gaze softened a little at that. For whatever reason, she really had no desire to know. This was Shane. She had met him at the Saloon once, where he promptly told her to move her "princess ass" away from his spot. Since then, she really didn't care to see him outside of the bar, and even thought about how amusing it would be to take his seat more often just to mess with him. But he swung the door open nonetheless.
"Marnie just ran off to town for…something, but she left these here for you." He handed Rei a litter box, a bag of cat food and a small cushion.
"When the cat gets old enough she could probably be let outside and she won't need the litter box anymore. Also, I recommend giving her a little bit of wet food for the first few weeks, then mixing with dry to start her on that."
"You don't really seem like the type to know all of this stuff." She didn't even care if she sounded rude. Shane was rude to her first.
"And you don't really seem like the type to know anything about anything, but here we are." He even had the gall to smirk at her. Huffing, she took the stuff from his arms and turned to leave.
"Remember to feed her!" he called out as she walked away, rolling her eyes.
Still, even with his abrasive words, she felt a strange sense of respect coming from him. Maybe no one in town had recognized his animal senses. That, or no one called him out on it.
Musing on that, she arrived home to find Mayor Lewis on her doorstep. What was with these villagers just arriving on her farm all the time?