RING! RING! RING!
"Mark… get the alarm…"
"…"
"Mark…"
RING! RING!
"…"
"Ugh, Mark…!"
SMACK!
I found myself being woken up by a rather painful sensation only it wasn't in the ears like I would have figured but rather right upon my cheek. I sat up from my spot next to Chelsea and held my hand against the stinging part of my face as I tried to make sense of what exactly was going on.
"Ow. What was that for?" I asked Chelsea as I looked down at her.
Her hands seemed to have a death grip on her pillow as she pulled it down against her face, only removing one of them to answer my question as she pointed to the nightstand.
"The… alarm…" She replied. Her voice was so muffled I couldn't tell if she sounded like she was about to hit me again for having possibly having to repeat herself or was just too tired to form a more complete sentence.
My eyes drifted about the room for a moment as the sound of the alarm finally managed began to fill my ears. Chelsea sighed and flipped the pillow off of her face and onto my chest as she extended her arm out towards the clock.
"Please…" She uttered.
If I had been more awake I probably would have taken quicker note of her less than healthy sounding voice but given that she had already given me a light slap over this turning off that infernal noise was my top priority at the moment. Quickly, I hopped out of bed and tapped the button on the back of the clock bringing silence back to the room. Chelsea had sat up from her position in bed to watch me as I did so and after taking in the peace and quiet for a moment collapsed her head back onto the mattress.
"Tired?" I chuckled as returned back to the bedside.
She mumbled something as she rolled around in her spot and threw her arms about the bed in an effort to find her pillow. I bent over and picked it up since it had fallen off of me when I had gotten up a moment prior and placed it in her hand.
She placed it on her lap and coughed. "Thanks…"
My eyebrows lowered as I looked at her with more concern than was probably needed. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah I'm fine." She answered with a smile before another cough broke it. "Just a little headache that's all."
I brushed her bangs out of the way and gently laid my hand on her forehead. I really had no idea how to accurately do that whole temperature check thing so I assumed that the heat I picked up from her was a result of some sort of illness and not a reaction to my gesture as her sudden blushing seemed to indicate.
"Well, you feel hot." I said before freezing up at the possible implications such a statement might have.
She giggled, hopefully just at the gesture. "I could have told you that."
I'm sure she was referring to her temperature but my mind wouldn't let me fully believe that.
She coughed a few more times as she laid back down.
"Well how do you feel? What's wrong, I mean?" I asked.
"Just a little cough… slight headache… and I guess a fever." She answered.
"You should get some rest; see if that clears you up." I told her, stating the obvious.
She rolled over onto her side and laughed. "Way ahead of you, Mark. You gonna take care of the plants then?"
I paused for a moment before realizing I had completely forgotten the whole purpose of the alarm was to remind us to water our crops. I quickly sprang into action and scurried over to the toolbox in search of the watering can only to find it was strangely absent. From behind me Chelsea's light snoring began to fill my ears as I turned back towards her. Looks like I'm on my own in solving this mystery.
Attempting to recall the early events of the previous day I paced around the front of the room in thought.
Taro stopped by… watered the plants… finished and put it back… wait, no, I filled it up… and then…
"The river!" I blurted out pretty loudly before quickly covering my mouth with both hands.
Slowly, I turned around to see if I had woken Chelsea up. Her response, however, was simply coughing before turning onto her other side, away from me with so much as a mumble. I delicately snatched my hat off the nearby rack and spun it around before nimbly tiptoeing out the door. It shut without so much as a creak and I sighed with relief before heading off to make my way to the riverbank but tripped after taking not even two steps. Water began to splash out of whatever it was I tripped on and onto the legs of my overalls. I flailed my legs about to try and remove the same object that had snared itself around my right foot as I flipped onto my back to get a better view of it as it successfully detached itself and rolled a short distance away.
It was the watering can.
"But, how did it get here?" I wondered to myself as I finally stood and picked it up. "Did Taro or someone drop it off?"
Whatever the answer was I decided it wasn't too important to dwell on since it wasn't too big a deal. I needed the can and I got it. Seeing as it was empty though meant I had to take another short trip off to the river to fill it up. I headed off to the riverbank and filled it up much like I did yesterday but as I began to turn around I felt a sudden chill right down my spine. It wasn't the wind.
No, it was as if I was being watched.
With the mysteries of the unexplored forest being the only thing that sat behind me I took a deep breath before facing whatever lied out there. Out in the shadows of the trees yet again stood that mysterious red eyed figure, its gaze seemingly fixated on me. To be honest, I kind of expected that it was what was going to be out there waiting for me. I stared back and the two of us seemed to once more enter an eternal staring contest as I hoped that for once someone wouldn't come and interrupt us. The figures gaze soon transferred to the watering can in my hands and back at me.
Was it the one who returned it to the house?
I held my position as I tried to consider a way of asking. Do I simply just shout the question to them? Ask them to come closer first? I glanced down at the pail and slightly raised it, hoping the gesture was clear despite the distance between us. They seemed to tilt their head but it wasn't a drastic enough movement for me to understand what they meant. I lifted it up again only this time I pointed to the can as well.
"Did… did you bring this back…?" I asked. I didn't speak too loud out of risk of possibly frightening it but I didn't whisper it either.
I couldn't tell if they heard me or not but they pointed to themselves in response. It then took a small step forward before stepping right back to its original spot and nodding.
"What… or who are you…?" I whispered.
I attempted to step forward but a strong caused of wind flew by. The tangling branches of the trees out in the woods started to cover the figure as I shielded my face with my forearm. As anyone might expect once the wind died down and I returned my view to the area before me the figure had vanished.
The breeze that followed seemed to carry the sound of a feminine laugh. It was faint, but there.
I slowly backed away into the field behind me, my eyes fixated on where the figure had once stood. I couldn't tear myself it and when I finally manged to I half expected whatever was out there to be standing behind me, poised to attack. Thankfully there was nothing there but the dirt of the farmland.
With the filled watering can in hand I jogged over to where are crops were and quickly got to work to try and forget about what I had just experienced. My line of reasoning seemed to be that if I didn't think about it, it couldn't hurt me. Kind of like a ghost, though I can't be entirely sure that's what I had just encountered. Relief came to me when I noticed a touch of red in the strawberry sprouts we had planted. A closer inspection also revealed that our potatoes were also about to come in. Our plants were actually growing and ready to be harvested!
A rush of happiness came over me and even with the watering can in my hand I leapt for joy.
"Woohoo!" I cheered. "We did it!"
I leapt again and almost froze in midair as someone from behind me began to speak.
"Someone's sure excited." It said, sounding distinctly like a girl.
"C-Chelsea?" I asked, my embarrassment fully evident.
Turning around I found that it wasn't Chelsea but instead Julia who stood behind me. It made sense since Chelsea was still probably asleep in bed and if I had to guess Natalie couldn't even try to sound that girly if she tried, leaving Julia as the only other option. Well, her or that person from the woods, assuming that was their voice I heard.
"O-Oh, Julia. What brings you out this way?" I asked, still sounding a bit nervous.
"My mom thought it'd be best if we got a look at what kind of animal housing you guys have here so we can figure out what we'll need to keep in stock, so to speak." She answered before smiling. "Though, I'm much more curious now as to what's got you all excited."
My cheeks grew red as I removed my hat to rub the back of my head. "O-O-Oh, t-that? Well, I just noticed that our first crops are finally coming in and got a little too excited that we actually managed to make it work."
"Oh? So you're not an experienced farmer?" She asked in surprise.
"No, not at all." I admitted as I placed my hat back on. "Chelsea and I are completely new to this whole farming routine stuff. Thankfully Taro has plenty of experience with all of this and has been helping us along the way."
"Well, if that's the case if you have any questions concerning any animals you just let me know, k?" She said with a wink. If my blush had managed to fade away I'm sure it came running back right then.
"So you wanted to see our barn?" I quickly asked.
"Oh, right. Yeah, if you don't mind." She replied.
I motioned for her to follow me as I turned around. "Well right this way then."
She quickly skipped across the field to my side.
"So, where's your friend Chelsea?" She asked.
"She wasn't feeling too well so she's back in bed resting." I answered.
"It's nothing serious is it?" She asked.
"Shouldn't be, she just has a bit of a fever and a cough, that's all." I replied before stopping, my gaze wondering back towards the house. "I should probably check up on her soon to see if she needs anything."
"Tell you what, we'll get this barn stuff sorted out real fast and then I'll help you out. Sound good?" She asked. "I might not be a doctor but I am a bit of a veterinarian, as long as it isn't something extreme I might be able to help in some way."
"You'd do that?" I asked as she nodded. "Alright, sounds like a plan then."
She smiled at me and looked forward at the barn that now sat before us.
"Well, it isn't much of a looker." She noted as she examined the red paint that had begun to chip off in multiple locations across the front.
"Gotta make do with what you get." I shrugged.
"How's the inside? It's not going to fall apart if I try to open the door is it?" She joked with a laugh.
I grinned as I placed my hand on the door and pushed it open. "Only one way to find out."
Of course, just like last time, the structure held together despite the plethora of moans coming from its various wooden joints. Julia stepped inside and surveyed the room as I stood by and kept the door open to allow light inside.
"Well, you've got some feed boxes and a storage area so that's all good." She noted before glancing at the ceiling. "Some lights might help though."
"So are we in good shape?" I asked.
"Well aside from the lighting problem I don't see anything wrong with what you got here." She answered. "Though, all the creaking has me a bit worried about if it'll hold up much longer. I suppose there isn't too much we can do about that now though."
"Well I'm sure Chen can look into getting us some lights for this place, he seems to have a way of getting everything." I replied.
"Yeah, he's got a lot of connections back in the city." She laughed as we exited the barn.
We made our way back to house and entered, the sound of the door opening seeming to wake up Chelsea.
"Mark? Is that you?" She asked as she sat up and rubbed her eyes.
I smiled as I approached the bedside. "Yeah it's me, Julia too."
She coughed. "Oh, hello there Julia."
Julia smiled back at her. "Hey, Mark say's you're feeling a little under the weather. How are you doing?"
"A little better I guess." She answered. "My headache feels like it's gone away at least."
"Do you want something to eat?" I asked as I headed over to the fridge. "We haven't had breakfast yet."
"I'll just have some bread." She answered. "If you don't mind."
I grabbed one of the loaves sitting on one of the shelves and broke it in half, giving her one of the halves as I returned to her. "Not at all. Julia, you want anything?"
"No thanks." She answered as she shook her head. "I ate with my mom this morning before she left."
Chelsea had just taken a bite out of her piece and covered her mouth before speaking. "You mean you're mom's not here. Well, here?"
She shook her head again. "My mom headed out the city this morning with Chen and, who was it… oh yeah, Felicia. My mom wanted a few more things for around the house while Chen took Felicia to help organize some trader routes over here. She's apparently super business savvy."
"Trade routes?" I asked.
"Yeah, you know, so that we can ship things out of here daily. Taro was apparently talking about how you guys should be producing some crops pretty soon and they felt it should be gotten out of the way soon."
"Everything's just coming along so nicely." Chelsea chirped before coughing.
"That cough's still sticking around huh?" I asked.
"Yeah, it doesn't seem like anything bad though." She replied. "It'll probably be gone tomorrow."
Julia in the meantime continued to exam our small home from her spot in the doorway. She seemed to be surprisingly taking interest in what little we had scattered about.
"Nice little place you guys got here." She finally said. "Let me guess, Chen provided most of this stuff?"
"Well just some of the smaller things, the bed, fridge, and tools were all here when we found it." I answered.
"Strange… how it seems like whoever used to live here all just up and left…" Julia began to wonder. "There was quite a bit of stuff left behind in our home too. Makes you think about what could have possibly made everyone just decide to get up and leave without possibly packing."
I thought back to whoever we've been seeing out in the forest since we've arrived. Did they have something to possibly do with any of that? Or did they at least know about what happened here?
"Well whatever it was I'm glad they were able to at least leave these homes for us." Chelsea said. "If not for them I'm sure we would have had Chen take us back to the city when he arrived and well, so much for the adventure of it all." She coughed. "You alright Mark?"
I shook my head to snap myself out of my thoughts and back to reality.
"Yeah, I'm good." I answered.
Laughing, Julia placed her hand on the door and opened it. "Well, I'd love to stay and chat with you guys but I should probably head home. I should at least try to have some of our things unpacked for when my mom gets back."
"Why don't you go with her Mark?" Chelsea suggested.
"W-What?" I asked, my tone a mixture of surprise at being caught off guard by such a suggestion, slight nervousness, and a hint of confrontation.
"I mean there isn't much to do around here and I wouldn't want you catching whatever it is I have if you stick around here." She answered innocently.
"That's not a bad idea at all." Julia assured her. "What do you say Mark? Care to give a girl a hand?"
"But what about you?" I asked Chelsea. "Are you feeling alright enough for me to leave?"
She put on her typical reassuring smile. "Don't worry about me. I'll be fine."
My eyes briefly bounced back and forth between the two as if this was some sort of intense tennis match. Chelsea was right in that there really wasn't much better things for me to be doing with my time today and I guess as long as I didn't do anything extremely embarrassing in any way I had nothing to really lose.
"Alright, sounds good to me." I answered with a shrug.
Julia giggled and motioned for me to follow her out the door. "Then let's head off."
Following her instruction I walked past her and out the door, noting as she momently turned to Chelsea and winked.
"Don't worry, I won't keep him long." She laughed.
My body heated up as I tried to consider what possible implications she could have intended that to mean. Chelsea gave no audible response back from inside before the door shut which only left me wondering if she even knew what Julia had meant by that.
"Shall we?" She simply asked.
I motioned towards the dirt road ahead. "Lead the way."
She smiled and took the lead towards her house, turning her head back to address me as she did so. "You're awfully worried about Chelsea aren't you?" She laughed.
I took to blushing as you probably could guess by this point. "W-Well I mean I just want to be sure she isn't terrible sick out here, that's all. I mean, we're all the way out here on this remote island without a doctor and if something was wrong who knows what we'd do and-"
She managed to cut off my incoherent rambling by resuming her laughter. "Calm down there Mark, she didn't seem that bad. Besides, the city isn't actually that far so if we needed a doctor it wouldn't be too hard to either get one here or move someone out there."
Seems my plan of not embarrassing myself is off to a great start.
"Yeah, you're right." I admitted sounding awfully defeated.
"It's sweet that you care so much about her though." She smiled. "Girls like that in a guy."
"W-W-What?" I stuttered. Just barely into town and already I felt like I was going to die from embarrassment.
"So what's the story between you two?" She asked. "She just a friend? Your girlfriend? …Sister?"
"Uh… uh…" I repeatedly stammered as I both literally and figuratively looked for a way out of answering her question. "T-This is your house isn't it?" I asked as I pointed to the building a few feet away.
She looked ahead and let out a quiet gasp. "Oh! What do you know."
She hurried over to the door and opened the house up. Inside it was about as dark as Chelsea and I's house used to be since they didn't appear to have any lights installed, whether it was because they didn't have any or they hadn't put them up yet. The main room seemed decent enough with a counter off to the left of the door and a few shelves lined up against the wall leading into the next room. The boxes from the previous day were piled up in the center of the room with one of them already opened and knocked over on its side, visibly empty.
"We managed to at least get our clothes and bed stuff all sorted out." Julia said as she approached the pile scratching her head. "Can't say I remember what's exactly in the rest of these though. One of them has store equipment and the others are just a mess of other stuff like cooking equipment and the like."
"Only one way to find out." I stated with a crack of my knuckles. Opening the first box I found an assortment of different colored binders atop a small register, amongst other things.
"Looks like the stuff for the store." Julia said as she peered over my shoulder. "You can set that over on the counter. I'll deal with it once my mom gets back."
I nodded and set the box on the edge of the counter as directed and returned to her as she opened one of the other boxes up.
"Looks like all our miscellaneous stuff." She said as she knelt down and began to rummage through the contents.
"Need any help with that?" I asked.
"Uh, yeah, hang on, lemme just… try and find… that, one…" She muttered back. "Argh, where is it…?"
The rate at which she shuffled through whatever lied in the box increased with each second as she seemed fixated on finding whatever valuable item lied within. It looked as if had another second without results passed she might have broken down and cried but relief came over her face as she seemed to locate whatever she had intended to find.
"Here we are." She exclaimed happily as she removed a wooden oval shaped frame from the box. She stood up and walked over to the counter and set the photo down beside the box. I leaned over beside her and took a peek at it as she stared longingly at it. It was an old photo of a young blonde haired girl who I assumed was Julia with a black Labrador seated in their lap.
She let out a longing sigh. "I knew I didn't leave it behind."
"What's the story behind the photo?" I asked, unintentionally quoting her from early.
Seeming to have noticed how I used her words she glanced at me with a smirk. "You know, you never did answer my question from earlier."
I might as well have gone back in time because I began to feel exactly the same as I did right then when she had first asked me.
"Tell you what," She said noticing my visible change in attitude. "You answer my question and I'll answer yours. Sound like a plan?"
Nothing to lose Mark, nothing to lose.
I sighed and rubbed the scratched my head. "Alright, alright, fair enough."
She giggled. "You first then."
"Well… Chelsea… and I… are good friends!" I told her, blurting out that last part.
"Just good friends?" She asked with a raised eyebrow. I could tell that she had been hoping for a slightly more detailed answer than that.
"Well… I mean we didn't exactly plan to end up here." I began. "We were on this boat that was going to… well, I don't really remember, but we wound up being shipmates but on the first night this massive storm sunk the ship and we managed to both wind up here."
"Sounds like a bit of luck there huh?" She asked.
"Well not exactly… I kind of… accidently dragged Chelsea off the boat when I feel off." I explained causing her to look at me with surprise. "She managed to save me out in the water though and that's how we managed to stick together and well… here we are… roommates."
Her expression told me that she seemed to pick up on the hint of uncertainty I placed in that last word but thankfully she didn't address it. I mean, sure we had that talk just yesterday about how there was nothing serious going on between us but that didn't mean I was left to wonder about what might be there. I mean, I still do like her. I mean, like her.
"Well, with the amount of concern you seem to have for her even when she's just a tad under the weather I'm sure she's happy to have wound up here with someone as nice as you." She replied. Though obviously not her intent her words couldn't help but remind me of the whole little episode we had just a few days ago while alone.
"So… what about this dog of yours?" I asked to keep my mind off of it.
"Chester?" She asked as she seemed to have briefly forgotten about the picture. "Oh, right. Well you see when I was really young my father passed away. My mom and I were devastated and to help us cope she decided to get us a dog." She explained as she stepped over to the picture and picked it up before laughing a bit under breath. "I can't really say he replaced my dad but he did manage to keep me happy… something to keep my mind off it all you know? I guess he was like a dad in some instance with how he'd always look out for me and try to protect me from any sort of danger and that's all he really needed to do. He's what taught me to like animals and treat all of them as if they were family…"
I heard her sniffle as she started to rub her eyes. I looked away at the ceiling and took a deep breath. I definitely wasn't ready for that. Plus, if I had known she was going to get that personal with her story I probably would have been a bit more detailed about my relationship with Chelsea, or at least just about how I felt about her. I'm not sure if Chelsea would approve of me spreading word about our intimate little moment so soon without her.
The sound of the frame returning to counter brought my focus back to Julia who turned around to face me, her eyes were a little red.
"Well then, let's get to it."
We made small talk as we got back to sorting through all of the possessions her and Mirabelle had managed to pack up. We talked about where we came from specifically and what we've done in our time before winding up here. Apparently Julia's love for animals lead to her wanting to go to school to be a veterinarian but the bills back home began to pile up and she left that dream behind to help her mother with her job of managing her animal shop. Of course I told her about how I was practically the opposite in that I had no real set direction for myself and took that trip on the boat with hopes of finding an opportunity to apply myself to something though it didn't seem to change her opinion of me in any visible way.
We were both eventually caught off guard by the sound of the door opening only to luckily find that it was simply Mirabelle arriving back with Chen and small assortment of extra goods. She felt their home needed some extra sprucing up and brought with her a few rugs and plants from back home along with some much needed lights. At her request Chen had also been able to get in contact with an old carpenter friend of his who was set to arrive the next day in order to examine our homes and check for any possible faults in them in addition to giving some estimates at any possible fixups we felt were needed or wanted.
All in all a good day if you ask me.
Things got a little rough when dinner came around as Julia nearly had a heart attack when she found out we've been surviving on cooked fish this whole time. She managed to convince Mirabelle to eat back at their place for the night though quite honestly Mirabelle didn't seem all too pleased with the idea. Maybe she wanted to get to know everyone better over dinner or something.
I used their separation from the group as an excuse for myself to head back home and finally check on Chelsea. At the house I noticed as some rice grains and a half eaten loaf of bread sat scattered about the table telling me that she had at least eaten but she however was nowhere to be found. I snagged the leftover bread off the table and nibbled on it as I headed back outside to search for her but she seemed two steps ahead of me.
"Mark!" She called from the field behind the house. "Over here."
I looked back to see as she stood out amongst the crops, her usual attire matching the colors of the sunset sky above.
"There you are." I said as I quickly ran out to her. "I was just about to go searching."
She covered her mouth as she laughed. "Aw, still worried about me?"
I smiled nervously. "Yeah… I guess."
"Well it's sweet that you're so concerned. I'm feeling much better now though." She told me with a smile before turning to the sprouts at our feet. "Did you see our crops are finally coming in?"
"Yeah, I noticed this morning. I think we finally might be ready for our first harvest."
"I bet the others can't wait. We'll probably have to decide how much we want to ship out and how much we want to keep for food though." She said.
"Yeah… that'll be a tough call." I replied.
"So how were things with Julia today? Did you two have fun?" She asked.
"Well we managed to get most of their stuff unpacked at set up. She wanted her mom to be around for when they go through their business stuff but everything else seems to be in order." I answered.
"Well that's good. I'm sure she was glad you could help. After all, it was probably better than if you had hung around with me coughing most of the day." She laughed.
"I wouldn't have minded sticking around to make sure you were okay." I told her. "I was a bit… well, worried."
She smiled and surprised me with a brief hug. "I know. Thanks for caring about me today."
I attempted to bring my arm up to return the gesture but by the time I had it slightly raised she had already pulled away.
"Well… I mean… I c-care about you any day…" I told her nervously.
She just laughed. "I know, and I appreciate it Oh! And before I forget..." She began as she removed her backpack and pulled the watering can out of it. "I think you left this in the field earlier today."
Guess in all the excitement early I must have dropped it down and forgot about it.
"Oh, what do you know? Thanks." I said.
"I had to empty it out to keep it in my backpack, wanna go fill it up real fast?" She asked as she offered the can out to me.
My body froze up at the thought of returning to the riverside and encountering whoever was out in the forest again.
"Well I'd actually rather go and finally eat… I'll fill it up later." I replied.
With yet another quick laugh she patted me on the shoulder and walked off to the river. "You go and eat, I'll take care of it."
I reached out to try and stop, or at least warn her, but she was simply too fast and already out of the field before I had the chance. My view remained fixed on her for a moment before I decided to simply return to the house and await her inevitable return. She ended up coming back about a moment after I did and didn't appear to be visibly shaken up by anything like I had feared.
I guess I really am a little too concerned for her wellbeing but… Julia said she liked that, right?
