I've been inactive for a while due to technical difficulties with life. But now I'm back and ready to write. Currently I'm looking for a beta reader because quite frankly i miss a lot of things. This will be the last of my Author Notes till the end. Enjoy.
-TheMeltingBoy�
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As The Seasons Change
Chapter Two
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"Don't be fooled by the warm greetings and beautiful scenery my son, this town's hell."
The old man had told me that once. I couldn't help but smile as I started down the sandy beach towards the docks; he had got the first part right, however, it wasn't the town that was hell, it was that godforsaken farm. How on earth was I going to sell that property? Any sane person could see that there was nothing salvageable in that dump.
I forced myself to change the subject – why dwell on such sadness? Now I thought about how majestic the ocean looked; its clear blue water sparkling from the sun's bright rays, the gentle waves breaking softly at the edge of the shore, not to mention from where I stood I could see all the way to the mainland.
Maybe I should stay a bit longer, check out the sunset.
Somewhere in the massive library of memories located in my head, I recalled a lesson from my freshman year of High School English: The Odyssey; something about an island with Lotus Flowers. If I recalled correctly, anyone who ate the lotus flowers on that island never wanted to leave, as if the plant were some sort of drug. Already this town felt as though it were trying to keep me from leaving.
Somewhere above my head a seagull let out a cry and I turned all my focus to the clear blue sky – living on the city I had never seen the air so clean. I finally spotted the bird flying over the sea to the mainland; it was gliding along, the wind beneath its wings.
Why was I leaving?
I blinked. The answer seemed easy: I lived in the big city, far away from small towns like this; that was where my home was, not here.
Technically I did own a home in the town, but that was beside the point. Small towns like this place have close knit communities, and while they welcomed visitors with open arms, to new residents they were sure to be wary. The fact of the matter was this: I'm a city slicker, I don't know the first thing about farming, and I sure as hell don't know how to rebuild a run-down, dead, no-hope-for-the-future farm.
If that was true, then why was I even considering staying?
She held my hand.
I felt the nostalgia creeping up on me like ivy on a terrace. Present time had begun to mix with memories of twenty years earlier; no longer was I standing on the beach during a clear spring day, now I sat cross legged at the edge of the shore watching the sun lower itself towards the horizon. I remembered it like yesterday: We had watched the sun set on this beach, me and that girl from long ago. Both of us sat there with our eyes unmoving, admiring the orange ball of fire lower itself beneath the mountains of the mainland. We stayed there even after the sun was gone completely from sight; we then watched the stars twinkle in the night sky. The sand beneath me was cool and so was the breeze that blew down from the hills; I was startled when I felt the warmth of her hand on mine.
The memory began to fade and current reality started to set back in, but the warmth of her hand on mine lingered. My gaze drifted from the spot where my memory took place over to the dock; the ferry that had taken me to the island rocked back and forth in the water.
I had to leave, I just had to. This town was doing something to me and I didn't like it. I hurried over to the ferry-master's cottage.
Before the sun came close to setting, the ferry had taken off for the mainland with me on it. I didn't want to look back but I couldn't help it, Mineral Town had that magical quality about it – the very magical quality that frightened me on the beach.
I watched it for some time. A spell had been cast on me and now my thoughts were riddled with what ifs.
What if you discover you have a knack for farming, or what if you just gave it a trial run? What if…
The 'what ifs' spoke loudly in my head, but none of them more loudly than one in particular: What if she's waiting for you?
When I got back to my small apartment building in the upper east side of the city it was already nine o'clock. While I usually found myself leaving the apartment at this time – usually to meet a few friends at a local bar – I decided to call it an early night. The events of the day rested heavily on my mind as I crawled beneath the sheets of my twin sized bed. It wasn't long before I drifted off to sleep.
Nothing was as I remembered it.
I stood beneath the welcoming arch of the farm; no longer was it aged and faded, someone had replaced it with a brand new one. Amazed, I walked forward, further into the farm. No longer was it hell, but now it was some sort of farmers paradise.
Green grass blew in the wind as a few cows and sheep grazed lazily beneath the sun, chickens clucked happily in front of their white chicken coop, a couple of birds chirped from their nests in the green apple tree. I turned to look at the house which had previously been in an indescribable condition; it stood there wrapped in an atmosphere of welcoming, maybe it was the newly painted roof, the windows with yellow drapes, or even the flowers planted along the front of it. Whatever it was it screamed "Come on in and stay awhile."
Somehow I ended up walking up to the front door and turning the doorknob; before I was even fully in the house the smell of freshly baked cookies attacked me. I closed my eyes let the aroma take me over.
"Honey, is that you?" a sweet voice chimed from somewhere in the house. My eyes sprung open and I wandered further into the house searching for the woman who that voice belonged to.
The inside was just as welcoming as the outside; it defiantly had a woman's touch to it. I heard the sound of soft footsteps walk across the wooden floor towards me and before I could turn around two gentle hands were covering my eyes.
"Welcome home honey," she whispered into my ear as she turned me around; her hands sliding down from my eyes and now caressing my cheeks.
I woke up in an instant, the dream already fading way. The sun was shinning through my small bedroom window and I could hear the sounds of cars honking from the street below. My hand went up to my cheek; the warmth of her hands was still there.
Her hands…
Within an hour my bags were packed, I slid the month's rent beneath the door of my landlord and caught a taxi to the docks. Not once did I look back at the busy mainland, my gaze was focused dead ahead at ferry's destination: Mineral Town.
"I'll come back,"
It took me twenty years but I was finally going back.
"And then we'll get married!"
Yes, just like I promised.