In My Life—The Chapter with Exploding Thingies
Well, before I start the next chapter of In My Life, I'm giving a recap.
Sgt. Makoto Ogawa- Leading player. He came to MineralTown searching for his only friend in the world, who turns out to be dead. Now taking care of the dead man's farm for three years, he's decided that he'll bide his time doing that. Seems to be hiding from the military. He's come to mostly hate MineralTown. He's not exactly sociable, and never really took to liking anyone, although inside he's hurting and really just wants somebody.
The somebody he wants is Elli, whose dry sense of humor eventually led to open Makoto up to her a bit. Makoto realized that he didn't want her getting close to him, because after some first impressions, Makoto thought himself due to leave MineralTown come three years! He's tried pushing her away, but that didn't work too well. Now they're becoming pretty good friends, but Makoto's love remains unrequited. Elli drop dead hot over the town Doctor, and her love remains unrequited too.
Amongst all this angsty-drama crap, many people hate Makoto, while the rest are rather scared of him. A few talk to him, like the non-judgmental Cliff. Duke, the sewer-mouth of MineralTown, wishes Makoto was dead five ways from hell, if his sewer brain could conjure up such a thought.
Then there were some other little fun occurrences that you're going to just have to read through sooner or later.
And now, after sitting through this pathetic attempt at a recap, let's go!
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Now, when Makoto was forced to do community service, there was no established limit to what he could or couldn't do. In two days, he had already been the overworked slave to the Inn, the Clinic (well, the basement of the Clinic), did shopping for Anna, and was left to keep a watch over May. Just a little more nitty-gritty work for Makoto.
At the end of his second day of slaving, and having to take May everywhere to get her out while Barley tended to all the brushing, feeding, and milking he had to do down at the Yodel Ranch.
"So, May, were you a good girl for Makoto today?" Barley asked, bending his knees to absorb a good look at his granddaughter's shimmering eye contact.
"Yeah!" May beamed, latching her tiny hand onto Makoto's. She didn't notice as Makoto's eyes were shocked wide and staring down at her. "Makoto was so nice to me! He let me play with Ein, and he bought me lunch at the Inn!" Makoto looked up to Barley, deer in the headlights.
Barley reached forward and tousled May's braided hair with a warm smile on his face. May giggled a bit, letting loose a smile herself.
"That's a good girl!"
With another loose and an almost jaunty giggle, May took her praise as her little smile phased in. Barley got caught up in her moment and wound up smiling himself. And even Makoto was stuck in the moment, arms crossed and waiting the moment out. With a chuckle, Barley looked to him.
"Thanks a lot, m'boy," he said to him with a nod. Makoto nodded back, and Barley looked to May. "Wanna start on home May? I need to talk to Makoto for a minute."
May smiled and nodded, turning to take off with a wave to her grandfather. As she moved on out, Barley watched her go with his eyes reflecting warmth and affection.
"She's such a good girl," he said to Makoto. Makoto nodded, and Barley turned to him. "Can I ask you a favor?"
"No."
"I need you to run an errand for me. Could you do that?"
Makoto nodded slowly.
"Yeah, if I know what it is," he mumbled in reply, shoving his hands in his jeans pockets.
"How do I begin...?" Barley wondered out loud. He put his hand to his bearded chin, hanging around for a minute in a relaxed contemplation. Finally, he turned to Makoto. "I need you to retrieve a sheep for me."
"A sheep? That's certainly the weirdest…" Makoto trailed. "Wait, no… it's not." After all, there was that body down in the Clinic's basement a couple days back.
Barley gave him a nod, holding his arms behind his back.
"All you need to do is take the ferry, get on the bus, and head over Miss Bo Peep's ranch," Barley explained. "And pick up the sheep she wants me to take."
"Miss Bo Peep?" Makoto echoed flatly.
"Yep, she was a… foxy little acquaintance of the old man's in the day," Barley immediately replied with a naughtily fun chuckle.
Makoto turned to himself for a moment, biding his time either way.
"Yeah, whatever, I'll go. As long as nothing around here croaks."
I hate my life.
Left almost immediately. Paid Cliff to keep those spiteful chickens alive and do other tasks. Bought Cup-O-Noodles for Ein. Now at some boardwalk, sitting on a bench. Bleh.
It's a good thing to get out of town for a couple days. But… and this is a first, I'm actually missing someone. Besides Ein.
Man, I didn't even tell her I was going.
-From Makoto's Journal
As he slipped his journal back into his backpack, Makoto finally looked up and around at his surroundings. It was one of those perfect boardwalk days, a colorful array of scantily clad, excited tourists moved while trying to manipulate globs of taffy off the roofs of their mouths. Couples were full of passion at every bench, flip-flops flopped, and children frolicked about as ice cream dribbled down their chins. Makoto got up from his bench, never to be declared a sanctuary anyway, and began his walk down the planks.
He was out of place, as always, in his jeans and demeanor. Nothing was quite fresh for Makoto, save for an actual liking for another person.
The souvenirs meddled about in Makoto's way from all around, but his bit of cash was reserved for his bus fare and the periodic cup of black coffee. Brushing past the ambiance of sites and sounds, the detached Makoto continued on his way.
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For hours stretching into what could develop into seemingly perpetual boredom, Makoto kept his post from his right hand window seat at the back of the bus as he stared out to the same occasional bush among the endless grass in green and blue. With a plunk of his head on the window, Makoto tried to doze off. After all, there was time to be passed and a few gawking passengers to be avoided.
More bushes. More grass. No such luck. The sheer amount of caffeine running through Makoto's bloodstream was enough to give a cheetah a heart attack. He leaned his head against the back of the seat instead, his mind wandering and finding a thought.
Elli would probably tell him to cut the caffeine and get some sleep.
Turning to the window again, Makoto noticed an old blue station wagon swerve to the side bank of the road, zooming off again through the grass. He arched his eyebrow, and that was when a violent bomb of an explosion shook out from under the floor of the bus.
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From the peak of a tree off somewhere, a caw of a crow rang out in the heavy summer air. It made some attempt to catch the attention of any entity around as a means to bring something back to reality.
Makoto half-consciously muttered to himself, groaning flat on his face. With a strain, he slowly lifted his head, his body following as he maneuvered his completely numb limbs. Finally, he dragged himself to his feet, standing and surveying the land for a moment. There was nothing around for miles, or nothing that Makoto could remember he had to look for. With his dirty wrist, he mopped his sweaty and dusty brow in a feeble attempt to clean off the grime that had stuck to every square inch of him possible.
And with no other choice, he continued down the road on foot, reaching down to grab his backpack as his feet brushed over it.
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Just as he was before, Makoto was just following the road under his feet to wherever it would bring him. The sun had been setting out ahead of him as he continued down his path, just hoping to find Miss Bo Peep's ranch as soon as he possibly could. Grimy and drained as possible, he began to stagger left and right, taking to a slight limp. Yet being Makoto, he trucked on until he found a fork in the road, and a light on in the diner at the end of it.
He could've used some coffee right about then, so he took to the fork and the diner. It was small, square, and all the more a typical looking diner with its large windows, rectangular, silver eaves, and neon red sign standing alone on top that read "Joe's" in cursive.
It didn't make a difference to Makoto. Coffee was coffee.
The brief ring-a-ling of the little bell above the door seemed to ring like church bells, catching the attention of every last soul inside the diner as they turned to stare at Makoto from everywhere possible. They were a colorful bunch, plaid-clad truckers with assortments of tattoos wrapping around their arms and down their sleeves. Smoke dissipated into the tense atmosphere as their eyes watched the indifferent Makoto as he sulked over to the last booth in the diner.
All was alleviated when the drab voice of "Act Naturally" spilled into the room from the radio perched on a high cabinet. The clattering resumed, along with the chain smoking, arm wrestling, and small talk.
Makoto took a look outside, the row of trucks staring back at him. With a shrug, he turned back to stare at the gray, something-veneered table. That is, until a huge shade came to distract him.
"Whaddya want, dawlin'?" asked a less-than enthusiastic, raspy voice.
Makoto couldn't help but choke on the puff of smoke that blew over to him before replying. After getting the last cough out, he raised his head only to have it stopped by something large and squishy. With a twitch of realization from his eye, he moved his head back as he scooted further into the booth, looking up to see the fifty-something waitress above him.
"Ermmm…" he began, fidgeting in his seat. The waitress's gargantuan chest was rather obtrusive, not to mention figuring out what her rust red hair was made of was equally distracting for Makoto. Her name tag was pushed right in his face, but it looked too small to read.
With a drag on her cigarette, the waitress bided her time with a huge puff of smoke in Makoto's direction. The nasty farmer boy hacked again, once, twice, thrice.
"I don't got all night, dawlin'. Order somethin', will ya??" she murmured flatly, taking another drag on her cig.
With another cough, Makoto choked on his words.
"Eggs…" he hacked. "And coffee."'
"Howda ya wan' 'em??"
A bizarre, stale smell wafted over in his direction, and his gratuitously painful coughs were able to pass off as symptoms of emphysema.
"Sunny side and black!" he blurted out quickly, and then returned to his dying.
As the waitress shuffled her way back to the kitchen, she flicked her cigarette butt in Makoto's direction with a raspy "Comin' right up, dawlin'!". It took Makoto a good minute to pick the cig out of his mop top, and another moment to stare at it between his fingers and groan.
And when the huge waitress moved out of view, the gawking faces of the unkempt patrons met Makoto's homely gaze. One of them, a balding man in a pair of overalls and a tattooed shirt gave Makoto constant chuckle and a toothy grin, minus the teeth.
And the only thing Makoto could think of was how important it was to brush your dang teeth.
The puff of smoke returned, and the waitress appeared over Makoto with a raspy sigh. With his eyes squeezed shut and one hand over his mouth, Makoto took the plate and nodded quickly. The waitress waited for Makoto, serving hand searching for a prime scratching spot on her buttocks.
Makoto opened up his eyes, but one look of the green eggs and ham and watery coffee drained his face into a wan white.
"Ummm…" he began, meeting up with another puff of smoke. With his hand, he brushed it away. "Could you tell me where Miss Bo Peep's ranch is?"
The waitress found her spot, and for a minute was in total ecstasy. Makoto let out a sagging groan.
"Dawlin'..." she drawled into a trail. "It's about two miles down the road from 'ere."
Makoto immediately nodded.
"Check please."
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And while Makoto was traipsing the countryside for Mother Goose characters and coming up with some of the ugliest little ducklings anyone would want to see, Strawberry Fields was safe in the hands of a hard worker. For good pay, including unlimited Cup-O-Noodles cup's and Makoto's bed, Cliff took on the job of maintaining the farm for Makoto for any given stretch of time with glee.
Cliff was well at work, a bead of sweat running down his brow underneath the noontime sun. In front of him, Won stood proudly with an open crate full of little yellow bags of seeds.
"These, kind sir, are pineapple seeds," Won explained, looking to Cliff's curious eye. "If you plant them on your farm now, you will have a handsome profit at the end of summer harvest."
Cliff rubbed his smooth chin with his callused fingers in contemplation.
"Hmm… handsome profit, eh?"
"Oh yes, kind sir! The handsomest profit you could ever imagine!"
"How much?"
"1000 gold per bag," Won informed him. Cliff nodded, his doubt shaking Won a little. "But, kind sir, you can sell each crop for five-hundred gold each!"
Cliff nodded again, and with a little smile said:
"Bring on the pineapples!"
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Two miles, twenty miles, just about the same thing.
Makoto had no idea what time it was, but the sun was burning and rising behind him as he dragged his leaden expression and heavy feet down the dusty trail. Above him read the glorious wooden sign "Miss Bo Peep's Little Sheep Ranch". And all around, grass as far as the eye would want to see, and a little house at the end of the trail.
From the top window of the quaint white wooden house, a bonnet-clad old lady peered from her perch. Underneath her bonnet, a nefarious little grin spread onto her face.
"There he is…" she murmured under her breath. "Time to take you down, Casanova Farmer Fuck…"
And as Makoto brushed up against a little fluffy sheep, a quick flick of her thumb blew the adorable little sheep, and the nasty farmer boy, to smithereens.
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Well now, that's a doozy.
The next chapter will feature MineralTown—without Makoto! Cliff is left to take over the farm… and whatever other insanities and chicken fights may come his way. And Makoto… may or may not be dead. Guess you'll just have to wait and see! Reviews go in the drop-box, thank you! Until next time.
Shout-outs!
PacificTwist- Since you've joined in late, I'm really grateful you read through all of that. Doing that made me decide on an intermittent recap. Thanks on that, kudos kudos. Thanks for reading!
anime26angel- I'm glad you really like the story… woodwind instruments aren't evil! I play the sax myself, but anyway, thanks for being such a cool reader!
Kirjava Deamon- Yep, ain't it cool that George… cough Cliff is now in the story? I'm sure you'll like the next chapter, he takes the spotlight for a while! Thanks for reading!
Zomaelgustar the Wanker- Noooo… need more CHL and CLA… Thanks again and again for all the support you've given me!