Forget It

Chapter 8: Babysitting?

Jill was just starting her farm chores when Grant walked up, disheveled and dragging his daughter with him. The teen stood straight and tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear.

"Good morning, Grant, Kate."

"I'm sorry, but can you take care of Kate today? Nina has to visit a doctor in the city, and I can't take her to work today."

Jill grinned. "No problem. We'll have fun!"

Kate stared sullenly at Jill. "You're all dirty."

The teen giggled, barely noticing that Grant had left. "Of course, silly. That's what being a farmer is all about. Then after working for days, you finally get your reward!" Jill pulled an ear of corn from the plant she had been working with.

Kate giggled a little. "Can I help?"

"Sure. You can water the plants. Here's the watering can."

"It's heavy!"

"Of course it is. It has water in it."

Kate peeked into the light blue tool. "No, it doesn't."

Jill frowned. "That's right! I had Gray upgrade it to Mystrille. That's why it's heavy. It's got four layers of metal besides the original watering can."

Kate's brown eyes were wide. "You had Gray upgrade it? You must be really strong then!"

"Do you think you can still help me?"

"Of course!" Kate ran over to the watering hole on the farm to fill the tool.

Jill smiled, glad to have had the idea to have Kate help her.

---

It was 7:30 that evening. Grant had finally returned from work.

"Thanks so much, Jill. I don't think I've ever seen Kate this happy before when I picked her up from Nina's." Grant pulled something out of his pocket. "Here's something for your troubles. It's an extension to your bag."

Jill accepted the extension and then tried to put it together with her current bag. She struggled for a moment, then looked to Grant for help.

"Here, you connect this hook to that loop. Yeah, that loop. No, sorry, the loop over there."

After a few minutes of struggling to put it together, they finally got the rucksack all together. "Thanks, Grant. It'll come in handy."

"Have a good evening." Grant walked Kate off towards their house.

Jill sighed and looked at her kitty. The black cat had been quiet, not mewing or anything while Kate was here.

"I guess I'll get starting on cleaning up the weeds and wild grasses now." Syrup looked at Jill and blinked her green eyes. "I'll take that as you not wanting to come with me." The green eyes blinked again.

The brunette slung her newly enlarged bag over her head and arm so it hung at her hip. She walked toward the main part of the town, knowing that the land there would be pretty messy from not being able to attend it all day.

She managed to clean up the fields around the mines, Galen and Nina's house, and around Turtle Pond. It was going on midnight when she reached the Goddess Pond to clean. Her feet were dragging, and her eyes kept closing of their own accord.

Jill covered a yawn with her hand. She vaguely recalled Jackie mentioning something about a Harvest Goddess and throwing something in the pond. The sleepy girl pulled a flower out of her bag and chucked it into the pond, not noticing a pair of aquamarine eyes watching her.

A beautiful woman with green hair tied into buns emerged out of the water. "Thank you for the offering…" The Harvest Goddess stopped talking as soon as she saw that the person who offered the gift was curled up against a rock, drowsing. "Oh, Jill…"

Skye emerged from the bushes. "I'll take her home, Goddess."

The Harvest Goddess nodded. "Thanks."

The silver-haired gentleman picked Jill up gently, causing her to stir a little. She didn't move again until he had reached her home and was placing her in bed.

Her purple eyes opened suddenly, and she stared at Skye as he stood above her.