hello! welcome to the story jet pack blues, i was previously under another name on here but the story was titled how to save a life, i'll be continue the story here with some definite spruce ups, but i hope you enjoy!
disclaimer: i don't own harvest moon or any of its characters.
Every Sunday afternoon, according to family tradition, was spent at the Ocarina Inn. It was a place where a happy family could continue to be happy while indulging in Yolanda and Colleen's fine cooking while chatting here and there with Jake when he wasn't busy dealing with customers. Maya toddled around, trying to keep up with Gill and Chase's shenanigans while another little girl, sat off to the side and watched lazily with her head between her hands as the boys and girl played. A promise had been made earlier that day that she wouldn't partake in any of today's activities, Gill had been worried about his friend's pain and nausea, but it all meant something so much more. Something he wouldn't ever comprehend. Her time with him was ending and she'd transfer to another children, someone in dire need of a friend like Gill had been before finally breaking out of the hard shell that had encased him.
The Wizard knew and understood her predicament, they were one in the same as he liked to say although it always took him a minute or two to get it out, and they just had different occupations when it came to their magic. He was the fortune teller of Castanet and she was coined an Imaginary Friend, real to the children and unreal to the adults that surrounded them. It pained her to watch him, smiling and running as Maya tried to keep up with him and Chase – the peach-haired child had been in need of a friend too, at such a young age, Chase was already bursting at the seams with sarcasm and pessimism. Traits, she hoped wouldn't be passed on to Gill through their continued friendship.
Hamilton and Elizabeth were seated, chatting amongst themselves and casting loving glances every now and again to their son and his friends. Making sure he was safe, they were lovely parents, Gill looked just like his mother who was so beloved by the people of the island. It was the same with his father, a Mayor that ran this place with a sufficient hand, but unlike Elizabeth – he didn't share anything in common with his son other than his smile and laugh. They had taught him everything that they could to mold him into a good person, a better mayor, and as she had heard his mother say; a more splendid husband than his father. It brought a smile to her face to see him happy, looking her way every now and again, making sure that she felt already even though she felt like she had swallowed a thousand needles.
Gill Hamilton, the golden boy of Harmonica Town, was nearing the end of his childhood. In less than a month, actually, in less than a week, the twelve-year-old boy would be turning thirteen. The end of childhood and the beginning of something bigger and better for him, and he honestly couldn't wait for it to happen. He had been acting brattier than usual to everyone, including his best friend that sat off to the side, but he was trying to act big and bag. He often dismissed her from his company nowadays, spreading his time between Chase and Luna, and the other children that inhabited Castanet. She had tried, he knew, to tell her something over the past couple of weeks but he hadn't found the time to listen. It couldn't be anything incredibly serious, he told himself, they were just kids and nothing serious ever happened to them. Especially if you lived on Castanet, it was the same routine, over and over again.
"Gill, sweetheart. Come and eat your ice cream, it'll melt if you don't," Elizabeth Hamilton's voice dragged him from his thoughts, he was on the floor, eyes fixated on the ceiling, breathing heavily as Chase and Maya laid off to his sides. They were never treated like he was, the Mama's Boy as many had dubbed him, he got up and hurried over, plopping himself in the chair beside his mother and began to stuff his face. An unsophisticated way of acting, but he supposed he could be forgiven for now. He had suspected that she would still be there when he looked up from his bowl but she hasn't, she had disappeared without even saying goodbye, and he would just have to confront her about it later on that night at the bonfire.
The day faded into night, the warmth of summer had disappeared long ago and the chillness of winter was beginning to settle in. It was the perfect place to have a bonfire, the sand beneath their feet and bodies, and it seemed like the warmth of the fire was ten times better than anywhere else. The dark blue, nearly black sky was painted over with stars and a nearly full moon with a gentle but chilly breeze rolling over the land as the children enjoyed their last bonfire until the springtime. Everyone was there, laughing and playing, making smores or whatever they felt like doing because they could.
Gill hadn't seen her once tonight; his eyes had roamed over the familiar faces of his peers but had yet to land on her. She didn't stand these sort of things up, ever since they were little, she had loved the bonfires and now, all of a sudden, she was standing them up? It made the already irritated boy more irritated as he fell back onto the ground, arms crossing over his chest and huffing. It was all incredibly unfair, he didn't deserve to be stood up, he was Gill Hamilton and they were best friends. Best friends didn't do this sort of thing but then again, he hadn't really been acting like her friend and maybe, she was upset over that. He believed it to be stupid, complaining to an exasperated Chase, who had finally escaped the grip of Maya.
"She can't just stand me up, we're best friends and we've always come to these things together!" he groaned, his pale cheeks growing redder from the cold and from the anger.
"Well, go tell her that. She likes on that dinky little farm, doesn't she?"
Chase had never been more right in his entire life, Gill nodded his head and slapped the peach-haired, violet-eyed on the back and murmured a quick "thank you" before darting off. He had been there a hundred times and more, the way to her house was engrained in his mind and was probably as familiar as the feeling of his parents under the same roof, in the room right next to his. There wasn't much variety in the scenery that he passed, most of the plants were dying or already dead, but would sprout again in the spring. He could remember the times they had played hide-and-seek, pretended to be king and queen of the world, and things that he could no longer partake in after his birthday. He would be a man and a man didn't do childish things.
The plot of land was decent, the fall crops had already been harvested and shipped off, but the fields hadn't been plowed or weeded for the next season's crops. Quite an eyesore, he admitted to himself as he grimaced over the state of the land. It was a decently sized house, enough to fit the three measly people that inhabited it; it was a homey little place. Gill had spent most days here when she had been his only friend, they were practically like family but recently that had begun to change along with everything else. Being the perceptive boy that he was known for being, he noticed the changes in his mother's demeanor, everything seemed a little forced and his father appeared to be the same way. Where there hadn't been lines or creases in his skin, they had begun to appear two seasons ago, a bit prematurely as Gill would add. He'd just have to talk to them, figure out what was the big secret they were keeping from their one and only son, their pride and joy as they told him often as they planted kisses on his cheeks and ruffled his white-blonde hair.
The wooden door to the front was already cracked, someone must have forgotten to close and lock it or had recently come in from whatever chores that had done that evening. The lights were shut off and the building seemed almost foreboding, it didn't strike him as the house that he remembered. He didn't want to waste anymore time, things needed to be settled and he needed to get whatever he was feeling off of his chest. Barreling forward and through the door, Gill suspected someone would awake and flick on the lights to see what creature had gotten into their, and yet nothing came on and his eyes opened after being squeezed shut in fear that someone would shout at him. His mouth had fallen open as he took in his surroundings, the furniture was gone and it looked as if everything had aged ten years over night. The Harmon family was no longer there; in fact, it looked like they had never been there at all.
He wasn't sure what happened next, what he could remember before waking up at home in his own bed with his parents worried faces coming into view, was running around the one-storied house like a crazed man. Screaming at the top of his lungs for her to quit playing him and come out, that the joke that she was playing wasn't funny and he was getting worried. They were still friends, he still cared and didn't like the feeling that his heart had been kicked out of his chest. Nothing seemed to work because she wasn't coming, he had fallen to the floor, curling himself up and cried and screamed until he couldn't do either anymore. Waking up was no relief to him, his parents couldn't get him to talk and he could hear his mother weeping in the other room, asking his father what could have possibly happened to her baby.
A letter was waiting for him, his father brought it in with a solemn expression on his face as he whispered he might want to read it. The familiar handwriting was the thing that made him jolt upright, snatching it from its place on his bedside table where his father had put it and ripped it open feverously. The contents weren't exactly what he had wanted to hear, the once hopeful expression dissolved into what the world would probably deem the most pathetic expression as the tears returned, and all he could for the next week was cry. He had lost a friend, and he would never be able to say goodbye or apologize for his actions.