Once more Chelsea and I found ourselves waking up to the sound of Taro banging his cane against the door. Thankfully going to sleep so early the previous day meant I didn't feel that tired. Granted, I still felt a little tired but just not as much as I did before.
"Is that Taro again?" Chelsea asked in a tired voice as she sat up in the bed rubbed her eyes.
"Sounds like it." I replied as began to get out of bed.
Once up, I walked to the door and fetched my hat of the rack and placed it on my head before opening the door. Sure enough it was Taro.
"Good morning Taro." I greeted.
"Come on you two, it's time to get to work." He bluntly ordered before turning around and heading off to the field.
I turned around as Chelsea walked up to me with her bandanna already in her hair.
"Let's get going Mark." She said before flashing me a cute smile as she stepped outside.
I began to blush as I watched her walk away. It's only been a few days since we've met and already I'm glad that she was the one I got washed ashore with.
Suddenly I felt as Taro once again brought that cane of his down on my head, it seems he wanted to waste no time today.
"Come on slacker, get a move one." He demanded.
I rubbed my head where he had struck "Alright, alright I'm coming."
I followed closely behind Taro as he walked back out to the field and began to stare out at it silently. About two minutes passed and he continued to remain silent, prompting Chelsea to speak up.
"So what are we suppose to be doing here?" She asked.
I can't help but feel just a little bit conflicted as I watched Taro give her a whack on the top of her head with his cane for once. While I was glad that it wasn't me he was hitting for once I couldn't help but feel that hitting her was a little uncalled for.
"What do you think you're doing Taro?" I asked a little angrily.
He quickly turned around and gave me another whack on the head. "I'm trying to get you two to start thinking straight."
"What?" I asked, sounding even angrier than before as I rub my head along with Chelsea. I swear one day I'll break that cane of his. Goddess knows how many brain cells of mine he's managed to kill off so far.
"Isn't it obvious that you two have to water the crops once again?" He asked sounding just as aggravated.
"It wasn't that obvious…" Chelsea muttered quietly as she continued to rub her head.
"If we're done arguing I'd like to see you two get to work now." He told us..
Sighing, I began to walk back in the direction of the house but Chelsea quickly ran ahead of me
"It's ok Mark; I'll get the watering can." She said as she turned to face me before continuing towards the house.
She returned about a minute later with the can and without instruction went about watering all the mounds of dirt in the field where we had planted the seeds. It didn't take her long to finish the simple task and once she was done she came back over by Taro and me.
"So I take it we're done for the day?" I asked.
I felt his cane come down on my head, giving me what I guess should have been an obvious answer.
"Of course not!" Taro shouted before he turned back to the field. "I want you two to clean up the rest of this field like you should have yesterday."
"Alright, I guess we can manage that, right Mark?" Chelsea asked.
I rubbed my head, again, and let out a grunt. "Yeah, that's if I can remember how to clean though. I might have forgotten how to after suffering all of this head trauma."
Taro's expression once again became angry. He raised his cane up and I began to shield my head but to my surprise he simply took a deep breath before bringing his raised arm back to his side.
"When you're finished come and find me." He said calmly before walking away, stopping briefly as he did. "And no breaks this time."
Once he was out of sight Chelsea turned to me. "Your head feeling alright?"
"Yeah, I'm fine." I replied as I took my hand off it.
"Good, I was starting to think I would have to do all this work by myself." She laughed.
I smiled. "Don't worry; I wouldn't let you clean this whole field alone."
"Good." She said as began to head for the messy part of the field. "Now let's get started."
Surprisingly enough, Chelsea and I decided to obey Taro and managed to not take even a single break as we cleaned the field. It took us about the whole day but by the time the sun was about to touch the horizon we removed the last obstruction from the field. Satisfied that our task was finally done, I walked back over to the shady tree the two of us sat under the day before and just as before seated myself underneath it. I removed my cap and wiped the sweat from my brow as I leaned against it.
"We finally finished." Chelsea announced happily as she walked up to me
She removed her headband and used it to wipe the sweat on her face.
"Yeah, it was hard but it was worth it." I replied as I look down at my hat in my hand and scratched the back of my head.
I looked back at her noticed how she seemed a little uneasy about putting her now sweat stained bandana back in her hair, her bangs blocking her view without it in place. I have to admit she looked a little cute as she struggles with her little dilemma. Oh Goddess what am I saying?
I leaned over towards her. "Here."
She pushed aside the hairs blocking her view and watched as I took my hat and placed it on her head.
"That'll keep your bangs out of your eyes until your bandana dries off." I told her.
She started to blush and giggled. "Awe, that's so nice of you to give me your hat."
"It's no trouble." I replied.
She began to adjust my hat how she wanted it before turning it backwards.
"So do I look like you now?" She asked with a laugh.
I laughed back. "No, there's no way you can look like me. You're too cute."
Wait, what did I just say?
She stopped laughing and blushed as she turned my hat back around and tipped it down to try and cover her face. "Do you really mean that Mark?"
I started to blush as well. "Well, I… um…"
She listened to me for what felt like eternity as I fumbled with my words, constantly repeating "um" and "well" as I tried to form an answer. The entire time she watched me her blush and nervous smile refused to leave her face. Come on Mark find a way out of this.
"We, we should probably go and find Taro now." I said quickly in order to change the subject.
She laughed a little and flipped my hat back around. "Yeah, we probably should."
We both got up from our spot under the tree and headed down the path towards Taros house. When we arrived we knocked on the door and were "greeted" by Natalie.
"Mark, Chelsea, what do you two want?" She asked coldly.
"We're looking for Taro. Is he here?" I asked.
"No, he's not here." She answered.
"Well do you know where he is?" Chelsea asked.
"No, I don't know where that old man went." Natalie answered.
"I think he's down by the beach." Elliot said as he walked up to the door from behind Natalie.
"What do you think you're doing interrupting my conversation?" Natalie asked Elliot harshly.
"I'm only trying to help…" Elliot replied a little nervously.
Natalie stared at him angrily for a moment before turning back to me and Chelsea.
"You heard my brother, he's at the beach right now." She snapped.
Chelsea and I quickly became just as nervous as Elliot.
"Alright, I guess we'll go and check the beach then." I told her.
Without even as much as a goodbye Natalie shut the door in our faces.
"I wonder what her problem is." Chelsea quietly asked herself as we started to head towards the beach.
Once we got there we easily spotted Taro standing out near the shore looking at some clouds off in the distance.
"Hey Taro!" I shouted as we approach him. "We've finished cleaning the field."
He continued to stare out into the ocean.
"Um, Taro? You there?" I asked.
After a moment he finally turned around with a serious look on his face as his right eyebrow is constantly moved up and down. Either he had a really bad twitch or I somehow seriously offended him again.
"Is something wrong?" Chelsea asked.
"You see this twitch?" He asked us as he pointed towards his eyebrow.
I wanted to be sarcastic and tell him no but when I remembered he'd probably hit me for that again I chose to nod my head instead.
He looked up towards the sky. "It means there's a storm coming… I can feel it." Oh Goddess here we go again...
"A storm?" Chelsea asked.
He nodded his head. "Another large one like that one that sunk that ship we were all on."
"What should we do? Should we prepare or something?" I asked.
"Nothing, just stay indoors till it passes over." He answered before becoming less tense. "So you two finished clearing the field?"
"Yeah, it's all finally cleared up." I replied.
He nodded his head again. "Good, I think you two have earned some dinner."
Chelsea placed her hands on her stomach as it began to growl. "Finally, I'm starving."
"Yeah, I could use some food too." I added.
The three of us began to walk back towards Taro's house ready to eat while the clouds off in the distance continued to grow closer.
