Chelsea and I instantly started to shout at the raft out in the distance to draw it towards us but our efforts seemed pointless as it already appeared to be heading towards the island anyway. As it grew closer to the shore it became easier to identify the four passengers aboard. It appeared to be a small family made up of a girl, a boy, and a middle aged woman, all with pink hair, and a much older looking man who was carrying a rather large stick. A small wave from the ocean brought the raft into the sand a few feet away from us and to my surprise the old man jumped out of the raft began to approach us. The boy and girl stayed behind to help the woman out of the raft.
"Hello there." The old man greeted once he stood in front of us.
"Hello." Both Chelsea and I say almost in unison.
I watched as his eyes scanned the beach and became fixed on the shack off in the distance behind us. "Strange house you got there."
"Oh, that's not our house." I told him.
"Yeah, we washed up on the shore here last night after we got knocked overboard off out boat." Chelsea explained.
"Oh? So you don't live here?" The woman asked as her and the other two joined us, obviously having heard our brief remark.
"No, and as far as we can tell we're the only ones on this island." I explain.
"That's too bad." She said before pausing for a moment. "Oh, where are our manners, we haven't introduced ourselves yet. My name's Felicia."
"Hello Felicia." Chelsea and I greet in near unison again.
"This is my father Taro, and my two kids, Natalie and Elliot." Felicia told us as she motioned to each of them.
"Hello there, nice to meet you two." Elliot greeted quiet cheerful.
Natalie crossed her arms and looked off into the distance. "Hi."
"It's nice to meet you all." Chelsea began as she clasped her hands together. "My name's Chelsea."
"Mine's Mark." I told them.
"It's nice to meet you both." Felicia said with a smile.
Taro cleared his throat in order to draw all of our attention towards him. "Well, now that we've all introduced ourselves I think we should all focus on the issue of what we're going to do now."
"Well Chelsea and I were hoping that we'd be able to use that raft of yours to get back to the mainland." I explained.
Taro shook his head. "I wish that were possible."
"What do you mean?" I ask.
"Well there are quite a few holes in it that we just barely managed to keep clogged on our way here so there's that. Plus we have no idea where the mainland is." Elliot explained.
"Well there's not much we can do here." I replied. "There's a bunch of houses further down the road but they're all boarded up. I tried to get one of them open but it was no use"
"Well don't lose faith already. I'm sure we can find a way to get inside these houses you speak of." Taro said.
"Yeah, I bet if we try now we can get in one of them." Chelsea began before she started to walk towards the trail behind us. "Come on, we'll show you where they are."
I began to follow Chelsea before turning around and motioning for Taro and them to follow us. When I caught up to Chelsea in the middle of the crossroads in the center of the town I noticed that she was eyeing the house near the valley leading to the farm area
"Let's try this one first." She said after a moment as she pointed at it.
I cracked my knuckles since it seemed like an appropriate time to do so. "Alright, let's give it a shot."
The two of us walked up to the doorway and began to tug with all our might on one of the planks that block it. Seeing as we we're struggling, Elliot came up and joined us in pulling on it and after another moment we began to hear the board creak it began to come off. We all let up for a second before giving it one final tug, forcing it off the door.
"See? We can do this." Chelsea declared triumphantly with a laugh before stopping to catch her breath.
After a quick breather, the three of us grabbed another one of the remaining planks and began to tug on it, doing the same to the last one once it was off. Once the door was no longer barricaded the six of us headed inside. While there was no light except from the sunlight coming in from the doorway and the openings in the boarded up windows we we're pleasantly surprised to find that whoever lived here before had left behind all there furnishings, even if they were all dusty and old. I hope they know how thankful we are.
"Well that's odd." Chelsea murmured as approached the table sitting in the middle of the room and brushed her finger on it, examining the dust that accumulated on it afterwards.
Felicia wandered off into the back room of the house before reentering the main room. "Well there's some beds back there but there isn't enough for all of us."
"How many are there?" I asked.
"Four." Felicia answered as she held up the same amount of fingers.
"Oh, well that's ok. Mark and I can go and find another place to stay." Chelsea said as she looked over her shoulder at me. "Right?"
She could probably see how uneasy I got at that idea. "Yeah, of course we can find our own place to stay."
"Elliot, Natalie, why don't you two go with them to incase they need some help getting into one of these old houses." Felicia suggested.
"Alright, sure thing mom." Elliot replied.
Natalie just stood there with her arms still crossed and rolled her eyes.
The four of us exited the house while Felicia and Taro continued to examine what its previous owners had left behind.
Once we stood in the crossroad again I looked over at Chelsea. "So what house are we going to take?"
"How about the one that's just up the trail?" She asked.
"Sounds good." I replied before turning to Natalie and Elliot. "Follow us."
Elliot nodded his head. "Alright."
"Whatever." Natalie muttered
We led them up the trail to the farm and once we arrived at the house Chelsea, Elliot and I began to try and pull off the boards blocking the door only to find the ones here are nailed in much better.
"Can you give us a hand here Natalie?" Elliot finally asked his sister when it became obvious we wouldn't be able to get it off ourselves.
She just stared off in the distance as if she was bored. "Come on, I'm sure you guys can get it just fine without me."
"We could really use your help here." I requested, struggling between every other words as I continued to pull on the plank with all my strength.
She rolled her eyes once more and groaned. "Fine."
She was practically stomping the ground as she approached us. In one swift motion she then placed her hands on the board and gave a quick tug causing it instantly comes off the door, the three of us falling to the ground as a result.
"There. Was that so hard?" She scolded as she tossed the board aside.
Chelsea and I just stared at her in surprise for a moment before getting up to help her with the remaining planks. With the doorway cleared Natalie wasted no time heading back towards town as Elliot stayed back to accept our thanks. Once he began to leave Chelsea and I decided it was time to see what was in store for us in our own new home. In contrast with their house there was only one room in ours with table, cabinet, tool box, and fridge scattered about the house. What really drew our attention, however, was the single queen sized bed sitting opposite of the door.
"Well, this is a little interesting." I noted as I began to rub my head nervously.
Though she simply smiled as she continued to remain fixed on it I could tell she was just trying to hide the fact she felt the same way. An A for effort I suppose.
"I-If you want I can go and find another house, or something." I suggested.
She turned to me with that smile still on her face. "It's alright Mark. I'm sure we can handle… you know… sleeping together… Right?"
"Yeah… we can handle it… I hope…" I replied, muttering that last bit of course.
She smiled at me again before going over to the tool box at the foot of the bed. "So let's see what's inside here."
I stood beside her as she opened it up to reveal a hammer, sickle, fishing pole, hoe, and an axe.
"Looks like this really was a farm before." She commented.
While she continued to search the tool box for anything else I headed over to the cabinet and opened it to find a large assortment of seeds sitting inside.
"Finally, some food!" I shouted happily.
"Um, there's just one problem there Mark." Chelsea began as she approached me. "Those are seeds, we have to plant those first."
My expression quickly changed as the revelation hit me. "You're right, and I don't know even know the first thing about farming."
"Neither do I." She added.
I turned to her as I began to think. "Let's go find Taro and them. I'm sure they can help."
She nodded her head and we left what could now safely be called the farm house and walked back over to Taro's house. We entered through the still open doorway to find that they were all sitting at the table in the center of the room. They appeared to be tired.
"So how'd things go over at your new house?" Taro asked. "You two find anything?"
"Well we found some farming tools and a fishing rod along with some seeds but neither of us really knows how to use any of them." I answered.
He chuckled. "I think I can be of help there. I used to be a rancher back in my day and can teach the both of you how to farm."
Chelsea clapped her hands together happily. "Really? That would be great."
"Yeah, if we can get some food out of those seeds I'm sure we could manage living here." I remarked.
"Then it's settled, tomorrow I'll start teaching you two how to farm." Taro announced.
Felicia and Elliot joined Chelsea in smiling as Natalie remained unfazed by the good news.
"Wait, tomorrow?" I asked "What are we supposed to do for food today then?"
"You said you had a fishing pole didn't you?" Taro asked as Chelsea and I nod our heads. "I taught Elliot how to fish before. Go and get that pole of yours over here and I'm sure he can catch us something to eat. Besides, even if started farming today we still wouldn't be able to eat for a while." He turned to face Elliot. "So think you remember enough to get us some dinner?"
"Well it's been a while since I fished but I'm sure I can manage to get something by the end of the day." He replied.
"Alright, then I guess I'll be right back." I told them all before stepping back outside to retrieve the fishing pole.
Sure enough Elliot was able to pull through for us and by the end of the day he managed to catch a few fish which Felicia was able to cook nicely in a fire that Chelsea and I built with Taro's help. While their house did have an oven none of us were sure if it worked and decided it would be best to try it out on a later day. We discussed our plans for the following day over dinner with the gist of it being that Taro would come teach us the basics of farming while Felicia, Elliot, and Natalie would work on fixing up their house. Once we were done, Chelsea and I said our goodbyes and headed back to our new home.
As we prepared for bed I removed my hat and placed it on a rack situated beside the door, taking my backpack off as well and placing it underneath it. Chelsea did the same with hers before untying her headband and placing it on the table in the center of the room.
"Well I guess it's time for bed…" I practically announced, albeit nervously.
"Come on Mark, we agreed we could handle this." She reminded me.
"I know, I know." I muttered loudly as I walked up to the left side of the bed and began to climb in, Chelsea doing the same on the other side.
Once we were settled we simply stared at each other, basically gazing into one another's eyes.
"So this is a pretty exciting experience huh?" She asked, breaking the silence between us.
"Yeah, I guess things could have been much worse." I agreed.
She laughed. "Yeah, and to think it's all because you managed to take me overboard with you."
I began to laugh as well. "I'm still sorry about that."
"I told you it's alright Mark. Besides, I still think you're a good friend." She told me.
Something about that comment managed to make me even more nervous. "You think of me as a friend already?"
"Well, of course I do. I mean we're going to be farmers together now and we do live together." She explained. "Even if we we're still on the boat we would have been living together for a while, plus you did promise you'd travel with me afterwards…"
I looked away as to hide my blush. I guess I had forgotten how much time we'd be spending together, it made sense she'd want to be on good terms with me.
She started to laugh again only this time it was at my expense. "We better get to sleep. We have a busy day tomorrow."
I looked back at her again, hoping she would notice if my cheeks were still red. "You're right. I guess I'll see you in the morning then."
