In My Life… Now updated!
Yeah, umm… here it is! Shout-outs afterwards!
--------
Sitting in an English garden, waiting for the sun... yeah, I was bored.
-From Makoto's Journal
In the last living days of Spring, Makoto continued to prove to be the most misanthropic character the townies had known, leaving the grumbling Gotz and the cankerous Saibara at his second. It was unanimous.
Some still found some inkling of kindness in him, somewhere, like the kindly old Ellen did. Many weren't quite sure how to perceive him; he was kind of there and that was that. And then there were the ones who spited him for just being Misanthropic Makoto, with too many members to choose from.
-------
The harvest was over and the days were getting short as the days were getting longer, and Makoto was preparing for the summer planting. He returned to Strawberry Fields after purchasing seeds from Jeff, a soon to be colorful array of corn, tomato, and onion seeds to see an exotic yellow clad man in a tunic and brimless cap hanging around front door. Now either the man was waiting to eagerly bother Makoto or taking refuge in the shade of the porch, either way he certainly looked to be a character, pushing up his square shades as he turned to follow Makoto and stroke his long, fine black moustache.
Makoto ascended the stairs to the porch, passing the man to open the busted door that couldn't lock in the first place. He went inside, closing the door behind him with his leg.
The man stood there, waiting for Makoto to come out. With a few moments came a garbled scream that eventually smoothed out into intriguing music from a dark string quartet and Paul McCartney's sweet voice. The song faded out, and the man went to the window to see Makoto eating a less than sufficient looking sandwich at the lonely table.
The man pushed himself, palm and cheek, to the window, rubbing himself against the pane. Makoto gritted his teeth for a moment, but got back to eating, Still, after a few more disturbed bites, Makoto got up from his finished dinner to push the next intruder from his life, bursting out from the rickety front door with a glare and a grab at the man's excitement. The man faced him.
"Kind, kind sir," he began as he brought his hands together. "I am Won, and I have come a long way to your humble village." He seemed to have slight trouble in word choice, fumbling on to form the next sentence in his mind while Makoto slowly nodded. "I am… hoping, kind sir, if you would allow me to rest here on your… wonderful… farm."
Makoto again slowly nodded.
"Uh-huh… do whatever."
With a deep bow of his head, Won said.
"Thank you very much, kind sir."
With a half-nod, Makoto went back into the house for the last portion of the day.
--------
Makoto woke up to a quirky scenario the next morning, coming outside to see more intruders on Strawberry Fields. Standing and squinting from his porch, he could make out a fuming red Duke screaming something at an enthusiastic seeming Officer Harris and Jeff huddling in a corner, sketchbook open and pencil out. If only he had any idea why. He arched an eyebrow, staying around in the shade of the porch. Finally, he realized he had to eventually start the day, turning from the porch to head to the chicken coop.
"Aaahhh-HEM!!" Officer Harris forced out. Makoto stopped, slowly turning his head.
"Ah, yes, good morning," he quickly mumbled over his shoulder. Before he could walk off again, Harris stopped him.
"Come here for a moment, Makoto."
Makoto turned around, walking up to the dirty looks from Harris and Duke. He looked to Jeff, who kind of cowered behind his sketch book, and turned his gaze back to Harris and Duke.
"Yes?" he asked flatly.
Harris turned around briefly, bent down with a scoop, and turned back to Makoto with two navy blue duffle bags bursting to capacity, holding them to Makoto's eyes.
"What, Sergeant Ogawa, is the meaning of this??"
"Umm… you carry stuff in those," Makoto nonchalantly replied with a shrug.
Harris put one bag down, slinging the other into his arm and ripping the zipper open to reveal bottles upon bottles of shiny, antique wine of red and white.
"And?" Makoto asked, eyebrow once again arched.
"We found them behind the silo," Harris informed Makoto oh-so-professionally with a firm nod. He furrowed his brow at him quickly, and then turned to Duke with that glare solidified. "Duke, would you describe the suspect to Jeff, please?"
"Of course," Duke replied, a stupid smirk on his face. He turned to Jeff, hands at his sides. "He ran off lugging both of those bags pretty quickly, but from what I saw he was tall, lanky, had a stupid mop of hair, a cast covering his right arm down to the hand, and was possibly a Russian Nip."
Jeff gave a blatant sigh but sketched on anyway, soon finishing and staring at the finished product until further orders. Duke stood there, looming over the easily dominated Jeff with that smirk still tacked onto his face.
"And who does that look like to you?"
Jeff grimaced, but replied.
"Umm… John Lennon??"
"NO!!" Duke shot his face into Jeff's, veins popping out of his huge neck. He pointed his stubby finger into the trembling man's face. "John Lennon did NOT come back from the grave to steal my wine!!"
Makoto shrugged over from where he was.
"It could have been George," he muttered.
Duke spun around, finger in Makoto's face.
"It was YOU!!"
Makoto slapped his face with a slow wipe.
"No…" he muttered through gritted teeth and squeezed eyes. He groaned, taking sideways glance at Duke
Harris let out a sigh, turning to Makoto.
"I'm going to talk with Duke about this. Wait here for a moment."
He looked over to Jeff and then to Duke, and they proceeded to talk near the silo, leaving the duffle bags behind. They got on to muttering something or another, leaving Makoto staring at them. He stroked his chin for a moment, and then got down onto his knees to open the duffle bag, helping himself to some goods. As he got up and proceeded to his house, he heard Harris mutter something about a suspected con artist in a yellow coat.
--------
Sunday mornings called for a quite breakfast by himself at the Inn, and especially after what had happened the day before. Makoto stared blankly at the menu, knowing what he wanted as he waited for the red-headed waitress to come by and take down his order. She did come out of the swinging kitchen door, notepad tucked in her worn red apron, and strode up to Makoto.
"So, what'll it be today, Makoto?" she asked with a cheerful morning smile as she took out the notepad and pencil.
"Eggs, sunny side. Sausage. And some coffee."
"Anything in it?"
"Black."
Ann nodded, scribbling down the order. She tucked away the notepad while she picked up the menu. And with another cheery smile in Makoto's direction, she took off to the kitchen.
And when she whisked herself away came up a slyly smiling Won, stroking his fine moustache as he walked up to the oblivious Makoto. Makoto quickly spun around, catching Won about three feet from his chair.
"What do YOU want??"
Won jumped back a bit, grabbing his cap as he clapped his hands together once again for a collected greeting.
"Hello once again, kind sir," he began with the bowing of his head.
"Don't give me that 'kind sir' bull crap," Makoto muttered as he turned back to the table, leaning his face on his hand.
"What's the matter, kind sir?" Won asked with a half curious tone.
Makoto briefly looked up at the yellow-clad man, and turning back he groaned.
"You…"
Won stood there, shades drooping down to the tip of his small nose.
"You know, kind sir, my face still hurts…"
Makoto wasn't amused. He glared back up to Won.
"Now thanks to your game, I have to do community service all summer."
--------
Makoto came back outside after a brief moment in his house to see Harris, Duke and Jeff still deliberating.
"Get him OUT OF THIS TOWN!!" Duke screamed at Harris. Poor Jeff stood tense, cowering off to the side.
Harris stood his ground.
"No Duke. We'll have the town vote on what to do with him."
And that was the case, so at 8 PM on Saturday night, the entire town gathered in the Inn to decide the appropriate punishment for Makoto. He sat in the hot seat, in view of the entire wave of scowls and indifferent faces from all the townsfolk.
"He MUST return the wine!" Mayor Thomas declared from his beloved soapbox, right next to the hot seat.
"He already did, Mayor," Manna replied from the adjacent table with a nod.
"Every bottle?" Thomas asked, holding up his shoulders.
"Yes," Duke replied. "Every single one."
Makoto couldn't help but wipe his face with his hand. Those damn defects…
"But I still say we kick him out of town!" Duke continued. "He's no good!"
Thomas tilted his head, staring at Duke.
"I think he's doing a good job so far…"
Makoto sighed as they continued to deliberate his punishment, sitting back to imagine himself pushing a boulder up a hill. Or perhaps they'd skip the boulder and jump right to the flogging. After all, Mineral Town seemed to be outside the limits of the law.
He shook his head briefly, those gray eyes of his wandering off in another direction as his flogging or lynching or drawing and quartering was being decided upon. He didn't know why, and the arguments continued around him.
Doug rose to his feet, high above everyone else from around the tables as he began.
"Have him serve the community," he said, looking to Thomas and to all his onlookers.
Thomas rubbed his chin for a moment.
"Yes… that's a brilliant idea, Doug! He can perform a summer of community service." He turned to Makoto, who was sitting and staring with a straight face in some kind of "la-dee-da dingle berry" land.
A wave of his small hand. A snap of his fingers. No response.
"MAKOTO!!!"
Slowly, Makoto turned to look up at Thomas.
"Yes?"
Thomas looked down at him.
"For the next week, you do service for the community. And that means you do anything anyone asks you to do."
"Making deliveries," Doug piped up.
"Doing my Monday shopping," Anna said with a snooty swipe of her nose.
"Watching my granddaughter," Barley said, flopping around his flip-flops.
"Trimming my moustache…" Won said from the back.
Everyone turned to find the moron who had let out the ridiculous suggestion. Won stood in the back near the doors looking around to bow his head to everyone. And from next to Thomas was Harris, standing with his arms folded across his chest. He tilted his hat upwards, stroking his chin as he tried to discern something familiar about the man in the yellow coat.
"Welcome," Harris announced. "Take a seat."
Nope. Not a damn diddly squat thing.
Won looked to Makoto, politely bowing his head at the boy in the hot seat. Makoto jumped to his feet.
"He stole the wine," he began. "And left it behind the silo."
Won was taken aback, getting defensive as he let off a huge shrug, looking to Makoto.
"But sir, why would you accuse me of such a thing??"
From his post, Harris scoffed.
"Mr. Ogawa, don't make false accusations."
"Officer Harris," Makoto began sternly, turning his head to the constable. "That man is the con artist you were talking about."
Harris huffed, adjusting the brim of his cap until he attained an intimidating shadow over his eyes.
"Mr. Ogawa, for making an innocent townsfolk to be the villain, you…" He trailed off for a moment, looking to Mayor "Dad" Thomas for a moment. Thomas whispered something to him, and clearing his throat, he continued. "Community service for the whole summer!"
"He's not a townsfolk," Makoto muttered, folding his arms across his chest.
"Neither are you," a voice chimed up from across the room.
Everyone snapped their heads around to find the source of the voice. And one by one, everyone's eyes fell upon the good girl Elli. Makoto sat from his chair, nodding slowly from her words.
"Hey, don't be so caustic, Elli!" Karen hissed from the next table.
Makoto stood up.
"She's not being caustic, Karen," he spoke out. "She's right."
He looked over at Elli, who gave him her cock-eyed glare in return. So he turned away, stepping away from the hot seat and onto the floor of the Inn, much to everyone's bewilderment as he walked towards the door. He stopped in front of Won, turned to him, and gave his long, fine moustache a rough tug.
"Real…" he muttered to himself, pushing his way towards the door and opening up into the lonely night.
--------
Ann came around to the table, stopping to hand Makoto's breakfast down from a tray and set it in front of Makoto.
"Thanks," he muttered out.
"No problem, Makoto!" Ann replied. She proceeded to go into the kitchen, but came back to the table in a swing. "Makoto!"
Makoto looked up from his coffee. "Yes?"
"Can I get you to deliver breakfast to Zack?"
He nodded, and grabbing the mug and bringing it to his lips, he tossed back the caffeine loaded liquid. It so painfully steamed its way down his esophagus for at least twenty whole seconds while Ann watched on. Her face contorted in all the pain Makoto should've been in, spilling over when he finished the mug and placed it back down on the table.
"I'll take my breakfast later," he muttered.
Ann shook her head.
"Well… you can finish now, you know, it's no big one, really…"
Makoto sat back down, proceeding to grab the salt shaker for his eggs when Ann stopped him.
"You could mess up your throat… you should go to the clinic." She nodded firmly, stepping back to cross her arms over her chest. Makoto looked to her for a moment, and then turned back to shake his head.
"I have an appointment later."
"Why wouldn't you want to go right now, Makoto?" Ann asked, drawing up a sweet smile in his direction. And right back, Makoto quickly snapped his deer in headlights eyes over to her as she spun around and tossed her braid over her shoulder.
"And… and what do you mean by that??" Makoto demanded, his voice cracking under the rising intonation.
Ann walked over to her dad, grabbing a white doggie bag from him.
"If I wasn't your slave, I'd leave right now!" Makoto piped up from behind.
And when she came back to give the food to her slave.
"Do this well and in some time you'll get a bike, you slave you!"
--------
The weather certainly was getting hotter as Spring tapered off to close into Summer. Down by the beach, someone had set out colorful summery red and white umbrellas, floating balloons speckling confetti color all around. And from out of the Spring blue seemed to sprout a new building that everyone knew was there.
It was all white, singing and ringing out in the name of summer fun. And up on the small roof was a guy fixing up the shingles. He casually glanced over and noticed Makoto approaching, turning to meet the newcomer as he rose to his feet.
"G'day there!" he shouted out, a slick smile on his pretty face. His eyes gleamed in the color of sexuality, his body set in the position of poise, all with a cute tanned complexion and a purple bandana. Slick smile turning into a sly grin, he backed his view up a bit from Makoto. "You're a new guy around here, eh?"
Makoto nodded.
"You have a name?" the guy asked.
Makoto lifted his head up as a sea breeze gusted through his mop of hair.
"Ogawa," he announced. "Makoto Ogawa."
"I'm Kai," the guy said with a bow. He returned to his poised stance. "And this is my Seaside Lounge." He gave a little wave of his hand to the humble wooden sign that read 'Kai's Seaside Lounge'.
"Grand," Makoto replied. Kai gave a little chuckle, taking a look at his broken arm.
"Guess you're not gonna be a shoo-in for the swimming contest tomorrow, eh?"
"A shoo-in to drown..." Makoto muttered under his breath.
And completely off-cue came Manna scuttling onto the beach as she shifted around to the Seaside Lounge.
"Kai!" she cheered. "How are you doing?? Oh wow, have I got a lot to tell you!! You know, this new guy moved into town..." Makoto barely had time to shoot her a glare on that cue. "Yeah, he's totally psychotic!! He even stole wine from me and Duke! Though I take inventory everyday and I know he returned it, but the funny thing is, ha ha, he has to do community service for the whole summer! And did you hear what's been between Rick and Popuri?? Yeah, they've been fighting a whole lot about their dad and the whole nine yards!! I can't believe you're here again, wow, and there's just so much to talk about!!"
Kai was half nodding, and he piped up.
"Manna," he said. "Anna just came by looking for you. She wants you over for tea!"
"Really?" Manna asked. "Well, I'm sorry, I'd love to stay and chat, but hey! Look at the time just whiz by! It's like that a lot, isn't it? Well, I must be off!"
"Mustn't keep her waiting, ma'am!" Kai told her.
"You're so right, Kai, you wonderful young man!"
And thankfully, she scuttled far away. Kai let out a sigh, coming down from a ladder on the side of the building and heading over to Makoto.
"You stole wine?" he asked, eyebrow arched.
Makoto nodded.
"Yes, but only because they're morons."
Kai looked very solemn for a moment, as did Makoto. But with a sudden upturn of his cute face, he let out a strong laugh.
"Great!" he grinned, flashing Makoto a victory sign with his fingers.
Makoto sighed, nodding slowly.
"Well, it was stolen for me, and I don't know why," he continued with a shrug. "But since the work was done, I helped myself to a bottle or two."
He held up the doggie bag for Kai to take for a moment, and Kai did. Makoto slung his bag over his shoulder, opening it up to reveal two necks of wine bottles.
"Enjoy," Makoto said with a nod, pushing the bag forward to offer Kai one. Kai took his pick, looking up at Makoto with a nodding grin just as Zack came by from the town to head to his house.
--------
And it was unavoidable. Makoto stood outside the clinic door, and let out a heave of a sigh and brought his head down with his heart.
Ummm… yeah… well, here are the shout-outs!
Thanking everyone for reviews, of course!
Anime26Angel- Oh, those crazy predicaments… that sounds a tad familiar… of course, thank you!
Kirjava Deamon- Hell yeah! Thank you!
Starlight- Yeah, they're damn little sluts! Thank you!
KuRiSuKun- 00 But you just did review… Thank you!
mJulieYearoftheMillenium- Especially the crazy predicament that could ensue! Thank you!
Zomaelgustar the Wanker- Thanks for your review and all the support you've given me! Porno music!
See you next time, which won't be in a month.