In My Life- In 3-D
So last time, Makoto saw a... yeah, for the very first time, Cliff moped, and Elvis landed somewhere in New Zealand. So this one's just a short chapter. I think that's all I have to say. Hope you enjoy it.
XxXxXxXx
Having completed his tasks around the farm for the day, Makoto lay with his feet kicked up on his couch, reading a well-worn copy of In His Own Write he found stuck between the shelves of the library the other day. Even while padded by the cushions, the cold that accompanied the heavy rain still crept into the house. The rain would cease soon, or so he hoped, and it would end before his upcoming rice harvest, or so he also hoped. Other than that, he wallowed in the pits of boredom, with his only savior in the form of the writings of some dead guy who could twist and shout and sing falsetto.
He did many other things to alleviate his boredom that afternoon, moving around from practicing his etudes to making noodles in the hot plate to tucking in the bed sheets as tight as he could. With a bit of curiosity, he took a coin out of his pocket and chucked it onto the bed, watching it rocket at the ceiling. Standing for a moment, he nodded at the sight of it wedged in the plaster.
"Wow. I didn't think that worked," he said to Ein, who licked himself at his human's feet.
Makoto found himself faced with his last resort early in the evening: flipping through the channels. Even the anchormen looked bored as they droned on about events in the area. The woman mentioned the upcoming Cow and Sheep Festival, the man replied with a "Well, that sounds interesting.", the woman went on with the details, and then the man said: "Well, I passed through Mineral Town once. I can't imagine what they do for fun around there."
Something Stu mentioned in passing came back to Makoto, but he forgot about it before. He looked over to his calendar, the 16th of Fall, and wondered why Barley never mentioned he would need to have Pixy Dust ready by three days from then. He figured Barley would give him the information later, mostly figuring that as another thought in his mind came out of the dim light.
The next day would be his eighteenth birthday.
His mind told him some preparations had to be made to accept the dreaded one-eight. But he argued with himself to push it aside and return his other library book before Mary began charging him. Then he had to be able to come back in time to ready for his date with Elli. Thankfully, the rain gradually ceased as he rolled off the sofa and left the house.
XxXxXxXx
He found himself in the somewhat cold library with Mucho Money tucked under his arm and Mary nowhere in sight. Either she left a day's worth of books she pulled from the shelves on the return cart, or hadn't put the books away for a few days, but in either case Makoto decided to put the book where it belonged. He headed for the back of the library but still couldn't find Mary, so he stuck the book on the eye level shelf and turned to head back.
But something caught him, and he found himself lured to the perpendicular shelf. A collection of old, small books slumped in the shelf with their cracked spines. He stood in front and walked his eyes back and forth along the shelf until his hand reached up and gingerly pulled on the one almost at the center.
"Those are diaries of some of Mineral Town's villagers," a small voice said from behind. He looked over his shoulder and saw Mary trembling under the weight of a stack of books nearly half her height. Makoto ducked and took enough books away to leave her with a few.
"Sounds interesting," he said, looking back at the book he pulled out. Mary looked up at the book as well, and said:
"That's the old man's diary," she told him. A thoughtful look rested on her face, and she said: "You might be interested in reading it, actually."
Makoto nodded, wondering what rested inside the book.
"Can I take it out?"
He looked at Mary.
"Hmm… well… I usually don't let these go since they're really valuable to our town's history," she said. "But I'll make an exception for you. You could probably learn a lot about farming from reading it."
"You read it?" Makoto asked. Mary shook her head.
"No," she said. "I don't think anyone has yet." She shrugged. "I guess they figure they know everything about the old man." After that, she got down to lay the books on the floor, telling Makoto he could leave his stack down too. With nothing left to say, Makoto gave her a polite goodbye and headed for the door as the book began occupying his focus. He pulled it open, carefully thumbing through the pages until he noticed something amiss.
From the looks of the extra-wide spine, the book seemed about twenty pages short.
As Makoto realized while he walked, the book contained nothing unusual. The old man usually gave straightforward recount of his day in relaxed handwriting, including everything from his routine to festivals to precise accounts on deaths and births. Makoto idly flopped onto a bench in the town square, randomly choosing dates and carefully reading each page.
Manna, Sasha, and Anna cocked their heads at the boy, leaving their chatter to trail and dissipate. Anyone in town could recognize the book in a second. Manna led Sasha and a reluctant Anna to sneak up on the oblivious boy, and initiated the conversation.
"He was a real man," she half-told Makoto. Makoto finished a sentence and turned his attention to the three with a nod. She continued. "He inherited the farm and started by himself when he was about your age, Makoto. It's a lot to measure up to."
Makoto nodded with a "Yeah."
"It's a shame he never had kids," Anna commented, throwing a look to Makoto. But again, he nodded.
"It's amazing how he ran a farm by himself," Sasha added. "Just a few hired hands, but the majority of that work was him. And the financial matters were all handled by him."
"He…" Makoto began, not sure if he could say anything about a man he hardly knew. "He must've been smart, and really strong." They nodded. "I only really knew him through letters, but I knew he was kind." He stopped.
"That's for sure," Sasha said, and the others agreed. Makoto looked up to see Anna still watching him. The look bored into him until he couldn't stay put any longer. He sprung out of his seat with a lame excuse under his tongue, and made his escape.
XxXxXxXx
The autumn day shimmered in a golden glow as the cool, gentle breezes whooshed around the almost bare trees. The air at that time of year in Mineral Town brought and exhilaratingly cleans scent, enough to really keep the outside prowlers feeling energized and completely conscious. A gaggle of villagers gathered in the town square chattered about who said what where and who did what when. But each conversation found an interruption as an older man passed through with greetings for each villager. The blurry faces turned their gazes on the older man to make small talk with him. Then he bent down on a knee to talk with two small kids- a redheaded, bespectacled boy and a brunette, green-eyed girl with pigtails.
The kids gushed to him about all sorts of things- Halloween, the cow and sheep festival, among other things on their minds. Then the girl mentioned the coming of the monkeys for the winter and the boy scowled and whined at her.
The older man chuckled and suggested something about the nature of monkeys, but the boy frowned and said something that sounded like "Monkeys fling poo.".The older man chuckled again and tousled his hair a bit before moving to talk with whoever spoke to him next.
The man seemed urgent to leave but still stopped to make small talk with everyone until the edge of the town square leading to the Inn. He turned, waved, waited for the waves in return. Then he turned to make his exit.
Startled, Makoto snapped his eyes open and shot them in the direction of the clock. He let out a sigh of relief when he realized he only nodded off for an hour. As he settled back down, his scavenger hand wandered off to scuttle around the floor and found Makoto's prey: the journal. He brought it up to his burning eyes and instinctively flipped it open to the exact point he left off, somewhere after the twenty page gap. With a heaving sigh, he leaned back to begin absorbing the scraps of information about the winter of 1987.
Hit the big one-eight today. I'm supposed to be an adult now or something, but I think an adult should be able to prove himself in some sort of positive way. Like I'm supposed to successfully carry a great deal of responsibility, but I can't even maintain this farm. Reading about the old man makes it no better. He managed to do everything by himself since he was my age. I can't even grow a pineapple.
--From Makoto's Journal
Makoto's birthday came and went. He flopped onto his sofa after finishing his chores on the next rainy day. Letting his eyes wander to the coffee table, he caught another glimpse of the book just as he thought it stared him down. The gentle pattering of the rain outside relaxed him, and he stretched his long legs out over the edge of the loveseat.
Just as he found comfort, a rapping at the door shook him. He contemplated telling the person to go away, but knew that wouldn't earn him points if the villagers found out. Sleepily, he instead muttered:
"Come in!"
A few moments passed as his eyes fluttered shut again. He heard someone put something on the counter, but after that didn't know where the guest was.
"Sleeping in the middle of the day, Makoto?"
Makoto groaned.
"Lemme sleep if I wanna, Elli," he muttered.
"Don't worry," she said. Makoto decided to open his eyes just as she sat on the arm of the sofa his legs didn't occupy. "Your gift will keep you up all day from now on."
Makoto groggily lifted his head and saw the wrapped gift sitting on the counter.
"What's the occasion?" he asked deliberately, turning his gaze upon her.
"I'll put it this way," she replied. "You're not the only sneaky one in this relationship. And I have legitimate access to those med files."
"I'm not sneaky," Makoto deadpanned. "You were off-guard." He sat up, throwing his legs on the floor as Elli scooted from the arm to sit on the sofa. "I've got my eye on you," he said, pointing to his eye and then at her.
"Yeah, the ones you need to get a check-up on," Elli replied.
"I'm only nearsighted," Makoto told her. "I can still watch you."
"Watch this."
"Watch what?"
With that, Elli moved in with a kiss. Only feeling each other, Makoto reached out and entwined his fingers with hers and Elli reached out for his other hand. When they broke away, Makoto gave her a smile and said.
"I can catch you off guard plenty well."
He took his turn and led her into another kiss. They still held each other's hands as the connection grew deeper. The parting occurred a little more slowly, but as always the feeling lasted.
"C'mon," Elli finally said, motioning to the counter. "Let's set it up."
"Set what up?"
"Your coffeemaker."
Makoto's eyes brightened as a crack of a smile came up on his face.
"Coffee?" he asked with a childish charm. "You're the best."
Elli smiled and let out a chuckle.
"And then my grandma wants you over for dinner, so clean up and gets changed when we're done."
"Clean up and get changed," Makoto echoed, giving her a slight eye roll.
"Unless you don't want dinner," she shot back, giving him a look from somewhere between unclean and dirty.
In retaliation, Makoto gave her his own unclean look, and said:
"Don't be silly now."
XxXxXxXx
Later that night as Makoto trudged home from Elli's house, savoring the thought of hitting his bed. He walked, stopping too late to avoid something in the road. Veering to the side didn't save him either.
Groaning and looking from his skewed view of the ground, he realized the something was a someone. Barley got up from tying his sneakers as May attempted to help Makoto up.
"Thanks, May," Makoto said as he pulled himself up. May handed up his coffeemaker, which he took before turning to head on his way.
"Wait," Barley said, and Makoto stopped. "It's a good thing I bumped into you."
"I bumped into you," Makoto deadpanned.
Barley chuckled.
"Yeah, you did. But anyway, I never told you about the sheep festival, right?
Makoto shook his head.
"Yep," Barley said. "I forgot you weren't here for the chicken sumo festival." A groan rose up from somewhere in the back of Makoto's mind, but he didn't show dismay towards Barley. "But we have a chicken festival, a horse race, once in a while a dog race, and a cow and sheep festival. And the best part is we invite farmers from all over to compete."
"You don't race the cows and sheep?" Makoto asked.
Barley let out another laugh, leaning on the fence post.
"No, never," he told him. "They're sweet animals, but they're really pretty dim. If one went off in another direction, they'd all follow that one to wherever it decides to go."
"Has that ever happened?" Makoto asked. "You know, at one of these festivals or something?"
Barley thought about it for a moment as Makoto waited. Finally, he shook his head and said: "Nope. Never. Never once whatsoever."
Makoto let out a sigh.
"Anyway," he said. "It sounds like a good idea for Pixy Dust."
"It's a great thing for her," Barley told him. "She's got a great disposition. I think she'll do well."
"I dunno," Makoto said. "I'm not that good at what I do."
Barley gave him a friendly smile.
"Give it time," he said. "Why, I bet farming's in your blood and you don't even know it."
Makoto shrugged.
"My father is a military man, and so was his father and his grandfather," he replied. "So I don't think I've had any farming ancestors. Nor a blood transfusion from the old man."
"You'll do well, Makoto," Barley told him. He looked about ready to turn and say goodnight, and almost as if on cue, May let out a long yawn and mumbled an 'I'm sleepy'. Barley took her by the hand and said: "Well, I better get her up to bed. You take it easy now, okay Makoto?"
"G'night then," he said, and waved to May. "Goodnight, May."
She let out another yawn as she said:
"Goodnight, Makoto."
As they made their way inside, Makoto turned and made his way to his house.
XxXxXxXx
The thought of the missing pages festered in Makoto's mind long enough to keep him awake late into the night. When the words didn't engross him and suck away his hours, he flipped the book in every direction to scrutinize messy rips of the pages. As his examination wore on, he found himself plagued with the gut feeling to delve into the mystery. He kept wondering what the old man had to hide if the town knew he kept no secrets.
The next day, he walked into the clinic with the journal in hand. Just in time, Elli turned from the file cabinet behind the desk, and looking pleasantly surprised, said:
"Hey, Makoto! What are you doing here so early?"
Makoto didn't initially say anything, but dropped the journal on the desk.
"What's that?" Elli asked, examining the book. Her eyebrows furrowed when she half-said: "The old man's journal?"
"It's missing pages," Makoto said curtly in a low voice. He caught Elli's attention, and she waited for him to continue. "There's at least a chunk of twenty missing, and you don't start pulling apart a lace journal for stationary."
Elli looked up at him and realized from the weight around his eyes he stayed up all night. She turned her focus and her hands, examined the journal for herself, and finally nodded in agreement. "There wouldn't be a reason he'd keep anything from us," she said. She looked back up at him just in time for him to reply.
"He must have a secret," he said.
XxXxXxXx
Hope you guys liked it. Thanks to everyone who read!
Lemurian 04- That I'll do. Can't wait to see the rest of the nightmares. Thanks for reading!
EvanescentShadow- It's all about Bogglement-ness. Yeah, thankfully summer's here. Not cos of the nasty heat or the Jersey smell, but for the extra little bit of free time. Spiffy new psuedonym too. Thanks for reading!
Quack-Wabbit- You know, I really like your idea of the interlude. I think it sets a great transition. You know where this is going, right? I'd like to utilize the concept myself. You know I'm proud of you too, and I know you can keep Mineral Town Chronicles up as long as you need to. As for finishing this, I have no idea. Fifty Harvest Moon games and two Animal Crossings later? Thanks for reading!
...- Anna scared me too, Enigmatic One. I actually found someone I know who I could base Duke off of, so I hope it's working. Thanks for reading!
werewolfycan- Ahh... good thing finals are over. Hope you did well. Yay! Dancing kittens! ... ... ... You didn't hear that from me... ... ... I think guys named Bob make the best sushi in the best dirty joints. I bet that's somewhere on the dirty street known as B-line. Thanks for reading!
Hi Mango!
Until next time, take care!