The following morning Chelsea and I awoke to the sound of a loud banging noise on our door. Talk about a wakeup call. Groggily, I rolled out from my spot in the bed and walked over to the door to find Taro standing outside when I opened it.
"Good morning." He greeted.
"Good morning?" I asked as I leaned over outside and looked up into the sky to see that the sun was just barley beginning to rise. "Are you sure it still isn't night? The sun's not even up yet."
"Who is it Mark?" I heard Chelsea ask as she approached me from behind.
I yawned before answering. "It's Taro."
"Taro, what are you doing here?" She asked, now standing beside me.
"Well as I was about to tell Mark I'm here to teach you two how to farm." He answered.
"But it's so early." Chelsea complained. Glad to see I'm not the only one to think so.
"Then let this be your first lesson." Taro began. "If you want to have a successful farm you're going to have to get up this early every day."
I felt my jaw begin to drop down to the floor. "What? Do you even have any idea what time it is?"
Chelsea and I watched as Taro lowered his eyebrows and entered a deep state of concentration before looking up in the sky.
"It's only five forty nine, a.m. of course." He said as he looked back up at us.
"How the hell do we even know if you're right?" I asked.
He stared angrily at me for a moment before lightly bobbing me on the head with the end of his cane. "That doesn't matter right now. Besides, if been alive long enough to be able to know these things just by listening to nature."
Listening to nature? I should either feel really uneasy about that comment or be really happy that this guy wound up on this island.
I turned around to find that Chelsea had moved from my side and over to the table, tying her bandana back around her head. Once it was in place she headed back towards me and grabbed my hat of the rack.
"Here you go Mark." She said as she handed it to me.
I placed it on backwards on my head. "Thanks."
"Well now that we're ready let's get started." She proclaimed Taro and me, happily.
The two of us began to take a step outside but Taro turned his cane sideways and held it up against the doorway to block us.
"We can't start just yet." He informed us.
"Why not?" I asked.
"I believe you two are forgetting something." He answered.
Chelsea and I looked at each other for, her eyes lighting up a moment later.
"Oh! Where forgetting the seeds and equipment aren't we?" She asked to which Taro replied with a nod. Thank Goddess she's so aware, it's just too early for me.
Chelsea walked back to the cabinet that contains the seeds and opened it. "Would you mind getting the farming equipment Mark?" She asked as she turned her head. "I'll get the seeds."
"I'm on it." I replied before heading to the tool box.
"Be sure to only get spring crops." Taro told Chelsea.
"Spring crops? Which are those?" She asked sounding rather puzzled. "There are a lot of seeds here."
"Turnips, potatoes, strawberries, they can all only be harvested this season." Taro replied back.
"Oh! Here we are." Chelsea exclaimed as she began to pull out a few bags out of the cabinet. "There are some potato and strawberry seeds right here."
I joined Chelsea in walking back towards Taro with the hoe and watering can I retrieved from the tool box in my hands. Once we we're in front of him he lowered his eyebrows once more as he began to examine us. I smiled nervously at him, hoping we had everything we needed.
After allowing the suspense to build for a while he finally nodded his head. "Yes, it seems you got everything." He turned around and began to walk away. "Let's go."
We stepped out of the house and followed him out to the field. He paused suddenly and began to examine the rock, weed, and stick infested field.
He shook his head as he looked down at the ground. "No, no, no, this just won't do now."
I dropped the watering can and hoe down on the ground allowing my frustration to be seen. "What is it now?"
I could tell he was getting agitated by the way he looked at me as he turned around. "What's the problem? Just look at this field, it's a mess! There's no way you two can grow anything here."
Chelsea dropped the bags of seed in her hands. "You mean we got up this early for nothing?"
"Don't get too upset just yet." Taro began. "You two will just have to clean up this whole field first before I can teach you how to farm."
I felt as my jaw dropped to the ground again. Clean up this whole field? Is he serious? It's huge!
"Clean up this whole field? Are you serious? It's huge! It'll take hours." Chelsea exclaimed, stealing the words right out of my head.
"I'll be back later to check up on you two." Taro told us as he turned around. "I expect to see most of this place spotless when I return."
Chelsea and I watched with disbelief as he then left, leaving us with the whole field to clean up. Once he was out of view I picked up the stick at my feet and threw it into the distance.
"Well this is just great." I mumbled.
Chelsea sighed before looking at me with a reassuring smile though I could tell that she was partially faking it. "Well I guess we should've expected to do some hard work if we were going to be farmers. Or is it ranchers?"
"I don't really think it matters." I replied. No really, I don't think it does.
"Oh well." She muttered under her breath. "So, where should we start?"
"I don't know, how about I get the rocks out of the way while you get the sticks?" I suggested.
"Alright, I guess we can both get any of the weeds we come across too." She replied.
With that workload organized the two of us began to clean up the field to the best of our abilities. It didn't help that after what felt like a few hours we had only managed to clear around a third of the field and now had the blazing sun beginning to creep above us.
I wiped the sweat from my forehead after tossing another rock over into the pile I had made by the house before shouting over at Chelsea. "How are you holding up Chelsea?"
When she didn't reply I turned around and watched as she struggled to pull a weed out of the ground.
"I'm… just… fine..." She shouted back before finally uprooting the weed, falling backwards onto the ground with it in her hand afterwards.
I couldn't help but laugh as I walked over to her.
"Need a hand?" I asked as I extended my hand out to her.
"It's not funny Mark." She said trying to sound all serious.
I stopped laughing and just grinned at her.
She finally let out a little giggle as she accepted my gesture. "Ok, I guess it was a little funny."
"What do you say we take a little break?" I asked once she was on her feet.
"Sure, that sounds great." She replied.
The two of us headed over to one of the trees nearby the farm house and sat down in the shade underneath it. We sat in silence and relaxed as the cool spring breeze blew past us.
"You know it actually is kind of nice here." Chelsea said.
"Yeah, it's actually pretty peaceful when you don't have to do any work." I replied jokingly.
She giggled again. "Yeah, it is." She leaned further back against the tree. "I wonder what Felicia and all of them are up to now."
"Who knows?" I answered as I turned my hat around and tilt it down before leaning back further myself. "I know what I'm going to do though."
"You're going to sleep?" She guessed as she looked over at me.
"Why not?" I asked. "We've worked all morning and I think we deserve a little rest. Besides remember how early we had to get up?"
She placed her arms behind her head. "Well I guess we did earn at least an hour's worth of rest..."
The two of us shut our eyes and began to fall asleep.
I doubt we had been asleep for more than two hours when we began to hear Taro yelling at us.
"Sleeping on the job I see!" He shouted.
Though I opened my eyes slowly it was fast enough to watch as he brought the top of his cane down onto my head. For an old man he sure had a temper.
"Ah, cut that out!" I shouted as I covered my head to block any further hits.
"Get up you two." He ordered.
Chelsea and I wasted no time listening to him he turned around to looks observe our work.
"Look at this field. You two didn't even manage to get half of it cleared." He remarked. "What makes you two think you were allowed a break?"
"We worked so hard cleaning up what we did that we just thought we earned at least a little resting time." Chelsea told him.
"Yeah, and besides, I doubt we have enough seeds to cover half of what we cleared." I added. I mean we only had like six bags anyway.
Taro began to mumble to himself. "Fine, you two are beginners so I guess have to be a little forgiving every now and then."
Boy did that make me feel happy.
"So, where are those seed bags?" Taro asked.
"They're right here." Chelsea answered as she pulls them out of her backpack.
"And the hoe?" He asks.
I ran out into the field and pick it up where I left it. "Here it is." I shouted back.
"Good." He said as he walked over to me with Chelsea following closely behind him.
"So what do we do now?" She asked.
"Now that ground has been cleared we have to till the soil with the hoe." Taro explained as he looked at me.
"I guess that will be my job?" I asked, knowing the obvious answer.
Taro nodded his head at me. "We're going to need a row or two tilled so you better get started."
I nodded my head back and began to go to work in the field, continuing to listen to Taro as he talks to Chelsea.
"We're also going to need so water so you're going to have to fill up that watering can with some from the river nearby." He informed her.
As I worked I turned and watched as Chelsea ran over and grabbed the watering can before heading over to the river off in the distance.
I continued to till the field like Taro asked and once I had two rows done I walked back over to him and Chelsea.
"What now?" I asked.
"Now we plant the seeds and water them." Taro replied.
He walked over to the pile of seed bags sitting on the ground nearby and stood beside it.
"Mark your job will be to spread the seeds out evenly while Chelsea waters them." He explained.
Without replying I walked over to him and picked the seed bags up and walk towards the area of the field I worked. I opened the first bag of potato seeds and began to spread them around the first row of tilled soil while Chelsea, like Taro said, followed behind me and watered the seeds with the watering can. By the time we moved onto the second row I had run out of potato seeds and began to use the strawberry ones instead. I guessed it didn't matter as long as we'd be getting food out of it. Once I finish the last of the seeds I looked up at the now orange sky, we had been working all day and the sun was already beginning to set.
"So how long will it take for these seeds to grow?" I asked Taro.
"It'll take a few days for them to start sprouting and about a week for them after that to mature." He answered.
"Almost two weeks? What are we supposed to eat until then?" I asked.
"Whatever Elliot can catch us." He replied. "He's been fishing all day catching our meals for the next few days."
"Fish for every meal?" I asked, voicing my displeasure at the very idea.
"If you don't want any then don't eat." He retorted. "It's all we got here for now. Now come along then, it's actually probably about time to eat and I'm sure you could use some food, even if it is fish."
He started to walk off in the direction of his house as Chelsea approached me.
"It's not that bad Mark. Just think, in two weeks we'll have at least have some variety." She told me, trying to raise my spirits.
"Yeah, I guess you're right." I said before smiling at her as a thanks. "Come on, let's go eat."
The remainder of the evening was largely the same as the previous. As we ate our meal of fish Chelsea and I received some thanks from the rest of Taro's family due to the hard work we did, if only they knew. Afterwards Chelsea and I walked home and, just like the night before, removed our headgear and backpacks before crawling into our bed. I sat there silently for a while just staring at the ceiling before glancing over at her to find she had already fallen asleep. Poor girl, she was so tuckered out after our first hard day of work that she couldn't even stay up to chat.
At least she still managed to look cute.
Goddess what am I thinking. We met only a few days ago, I barely know her and already I'm calling her cute. Well, it is sort of true at least.
