The summer flew by like a fleeting breeze. Once the crops had started to reach their final harvest stage, they very rapidly grew back being nurtured by the light of the sun. Happy Mr. Sun did a good job at evaporating all of their water, too, so keeping my crops nice and hydrated was a round-the-clock job. It was exhausting being a farmer, there was no denying that – but honestly, seeing your crops grow to fruition after weeks upon weeks of hard labour, knowing that the townspeople will be buying and enjoying them – no feeling in the world compares to that. I wiped the sweat off my brow after having finished giving my crops their evening round of watering, and headed into the chicken coop. Lyra had grown a lot since the start of summer, her fluffy yellow chick feathers now faded into a lovely white down blanket. As soon as she laid her first egg (after very excitedly dancing around with her little wings in my hands), I had Robin build me an incubator extension and put the egg straight in. Maybe I'd even get a barn built and invest in a cow or a sheep, I thought. Either way, the final day of Summer had finally arrived, but the heat was barely letting up at all. Marnie told me that I might even get a few more summer harvests yet because of the weather! More than anything, though, I was looking forward to growing some pumpkins. Fall was such a great time of year. Before any of that, though, I had to head down to the beach – the sun was finally beginning to descend, and there was one more festival to attend before summertime was over – the dance of the moonlight jellies.

I stepped onto the beach hesitantly. I knew that my friends would be present, and that they'd want me to watch with them… And, you know, Haley especially was always very difficult to say 'no' to. I always felt like I needed an excuse, and whilst harvesting my crops was a great alibi for not going out on the town with them, I obviously wasn't going to be doing much farming at a festival. "Mira!" Right on cue, the eccentric blonde bounced over to me. She was wearing a floaty pink dress with little rhinestones attached to it – probably trying to show off to Alex. Those two confuse me. "You're totally watching the octopus migration or whatever it is with us, right?" I glanced behind her and saw all of my friends looking at me expectantly. Even Sebastian had turned up. I smirked to myself covertly under the cover of night, knowing I already had my excuse lined up. "Ah, sorry," I feigned waving my hands apologetically, "I promised Marnie that I'd watch with her and Jas. I don't want to let them down."

"Oh." Haley's face went blank. "Well, whatever. Come by my place for, like, drinks and stuff later though!"

"Sure, sure," I smiled awkwardly before slipping away down the beach. After Shane and I made up, things with my friends were, of course, pretty hostile at first. They gradually got better with it over time, but I knew they still didn't approve and that it was hanging in the air. I didn't like it. Not at all. It's not like I lied to her, anyway – Marnie actually did ask me if I wanted to watch the migration with them. Maybe I was a little too happy about having that alibi, though.

The beach buzzed softly with quiet conversation, the crickets in the brushes joining in too. None of the other festivals in the valley felt quite like this one – the excitable chattering was replaced with an air of tranquillity. I calmly wandered down to the docks, where Marnie was managing an impatient Jas. "But I wanna see the jellyfish!"

"They're on their way, dear," Marnie pleaded, as if she'd already said it ten times. Sitting down on the edge of the dock beside them was, to my surprise, Shane. There wasn't a buffet table in sight so part of me didn't expect him to turn up. I walked onto the dock, and upon noticing me, Jas excitedly ran over. "Mira's here! Mira's here!" she danced around me. Marnie hurriedly jogged over, too. "Jas, be careful! Don't run so close to the edge!"

"Hi, Marnie!" I waved, making sure to chauffer Jas away from the edge of the pier with my spare hand. Marnie flashed me her motherly smile through a veil of unease. "Oh, hello, Mira dear!" she took Jas by the hand. "I was actually just heading back up to the beach."

"Huh? Why?"

"Truth be told, I don't trust these old docks…" she shuddered, pointing to the other dock to the left of us where everyone else had gathered. "And look at that one. All those people on one piece of old driftwood… I'll be surprised if no one ends up migrating with the jellies!" she laughed, but I could tell she meant it. I giggled awkwardly at the prospect of Mayor Lewis floating across the sea on the back of a giant jellyfish. I looked over at Shane, who showed no intention of moving. He was sat staring out at the sea, his legs dangling precariously over the edge of the pier. The light from Willy's shack illuminated the back of his head, but I couldn't see his face. I turned to Marnie, a little hesitant. "So… Are we all moving back up to the beach?" My voice pretty much gave it away – I really didn't want to. I'd just managed to escape from Haley and I wasn't about to willingly walk back into her.

"Well, you could stay here and keep Shane company, if you wanted to." She said with a cautious tone, as if she wasn't sure whether or not that was overstepping the mark. It was probably pretty clear to everyone in town by that point that we'd made up, but since she didn't know the details, I could hardly blame her for tiptoeing around the issue. I reassured her with a smile. "Sure!"

As Marnie and Jas walked away I sat beside Shane, who showed no signs of noticing me. This wasn't like his drunken stupor that I'd seen so often, though – his face was peaceful, a soft glimmer of wonder in his eyes as he stared out at the black sea. "The jellies were here a year ago, and they'll be here a year from now…" Shane turned to me, sensing my presence, the floating candle's warm glow illuminating his wonder filled face. "Nature is amazing."

"You like the jellies?" I asked, trying not to sound surprised that he enjoyed a festival that didn't involve any food or alcohol.

"…It's my favourite event of the year. Don't tell anyone, though."

"Sure, sure," I laughed. A blue glimmer appeared at the edge of the visible horizon. Shane gasped excitedly. "They're here."

"I see one! Everyone, they're here!" Mayor Lewis' voice echoed over the beach. Everyone was quiet save for the occasional gasp of awe as a huge blue jellyfish came into view, drifting along on the current. "That's the alpha jellyfish," Shane said to me, "that's why it's so big. It leads all the others."

"O-oh, right…" I'd never heard of anything like that, so I wasn't sure if he was just making it up. True to the story, though, many more jellyfish started to appear, but they were all much smaller. The neon glow of the water flowed blue into green and then into a soft violet. It was incredible – it felt like magic. "Wow…" I sighed. "Seeing this makes me feel like I was born to move here."

"Pff, you really believe in that 'meant to be' stuff?" Shane teased. "Though I guess with a country name like Mirabelle you were born to be a farmer, huh?"

"Hey…" I puffed my cheeks. Shane laughed apologetically. "Maybe you're right, though. My Grandpa named me, and he was a farmer." I beamed. I looked back at the dancing jellies and my face dropped into a serious expression. "…I owe that man everything."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. I guess you could say he saved me."

"How so?" Shane tensed a little. "I-if you want to talk about it, that is. I mean, I'm not gonna ask you any personal questions or anyth—"

"It's fine," I laughed, interrupting his stammering.

"Are you sure?" he frowned, the neon glow reflecting off of his nervous eyes.

"What, are you expecting some sort of tragic back story?" I chuckled. "Sorry, but it's not like that." I watched the giant jellyfish's frills contract and unfurl in the dim violet glow, its companions following close behind, almost close enough to the peer to touch. "I struggled my way through school. I was never the smartest or most charismatic, and I definitely wasn't the prettiest. I was awful at sports, I wasn't artsy at all, and… Well, you get the picture. In my teen years I immersed myself in video games and the like to escape the feeling of being such a failure. When I played games, I felt successful. I felt powerful. It became my life. I got bullied pretty much every day at high school because of that – the other kids thought I was weird and since I've never been tall or strong, I couldn't do anything about it. The teachers didn't care either, and my parents had pretty much disowned me at this point because of my grades and lifestyle… I was so lonely." My throat was drying up with the memories as I thought back. Shane stayed silent, his eyes on the jellies, but I could tell he was taking in every word. The glow of the little sea travellers somehow compelled me to go on, as if they were listening too. "I finished school. Poor grades, no connections, and only myself to hold me up. My parents wanted me gone. I was desperate for a job so that I could get a place of my own, and pretty soon after I heard about Joja Corp's call centre employment scheme at a job fair. They promised me a 'bright future' in the industry, in a place where the employees are always put first. I signed up and moved to the other side of the city, only to find that all of their 'Joja Promises' were full of shit… Excuse the language."

"No, no," Shane scoffed, "I'm well aware that Joja are full of crap. They deserve much worse than that."

"I guess so," I chucked quietly. "During this whole time, I'd forgotten. My Grandpa wrote me a letter just before he died – I was only five at the time. I went back to my apartment one day after work, desperate to find another job – any other job. I couldn't take it anymore. I was rummaging through papers to see if I had any leftover job leaflets when a blue envelope slipped out from between them. Grandpa's letter. I'd completely forgotten, but I must've been carrying it around the whole time – like he was by my side all along. When I picked it up I remembered being at his bed side… The last time I saw him." I clenched my fists, fighting back tears. I barely had a chance to get to know my Grandpa, but he meant so much to me – especially then. "He told me not to open it straight away. He said one day I might reach a point where I'm desperate to get away, and that I should only open it when that happens. Honestly, I was sceptical when I found it. I was in a dead end job with no personal merits – whatever Grandpa had planned for me, I probably wouldn't be qualified for. I'm still not sure I am…"

"You underestimate yourself, I think." Shane said candidly. "So what then? You cracked open that geezer's letter and hightailed it over here?"

"Well, not exactly," I responded, giggling at Shane's tone. "I guess I felt like maybe, whatever was inside could be my last lifeline, you know? So I was hesitant to open it. I was scared of being disappointed, or unworthy. So I kept it sealed and I took it to work with me. I locked it in the top drawer of my desk."

"Didn't it kill you inside knowing it was there?"

"Of course," I sighed, "it was never not on my mind. I told myself I'd hold out until I seriously couldn't handle being at Joja anymore, though, and that day came pretty quick. I was on the phone to a particularly difficult customer, who then decided to report me to a higher-up. It's not like I could have prevented it. In a Joja call centre, you're instructed to read off of the sheet you're given, and that's exactly what I did. Adding your own responses to customers is a suspendable offence. Even so, my boss came and railed me for what happened. He told me I could face suspension, and off he went to discuss it with some of his other cronies. I was sick to death of it. It was so unfair… I unlocked the top drawer and tore open the letter." I laughed to myself knowingly. "A farm, I thought. What the hell could I possibly do on a farm? I wasn't cut out for manual labour. I knew nothing about crops or animals. Sorry, Grandpa, but you can't be serious – that's what I thought at the time. I shook my head and rejected the idea completely. Then my boss came back."

"…So you got fired and then had no choice but to take up your grandfather's offer?"

"Not quite," I grinned, "he said my wages were being cut because the customer threatened to never shop at Joja again. Good riddance, I'd say, but I digress. I was so mad. I clenched the letter in my fist, stood up, and told him to shove his job up his ass and marched out of there. Everyone was staring, but it felt good. My boss' face was a fantastic shade of red, too." I laughed proudly, savouring the memory. My smile faded slightly as I continued. "I decided to trust in Grandpa and I came here to inherit his farm."

"So that was his farm?" Shane asked, eyebrows raised. "He lived here too?"

"Yeah, he got sucked into some awful corporation just like me. But he was different – he'd always loved nature. Freedom. A simpler life than what the city could offer him. So he invested in building up his farmland. He even met my Grandma here… I guess his story gave me hope that I could find happiness here, too." Things went quiet for a while after that. The rounded tops of the jellies skimmed across the surface of the water in little ripples, the beach in silent awe. "And?" Shane said at last. "Did you?"

"Yeah… I mean…" I sighed. "When I first moved here I was so adamant not to end up isolated again so I put on a big smile and tried to get along with everyone. I never smiled or even spoke so much before I moved here… If I showed any of my friends here my school photos I doubt they'd even recognise me. It just feels like I got myself stuck in a façade that I'd risk losing everything over if I stopped doing it now."

"I dunno," Shane mused, "sure, it might ruffle a few feathers. But you'll always have Marnie and Jas. And me." His face suddenly pinked and he started to stutter. "I-I mean, as a friend. You know."

"I know," I laughed, staring out at the lit-up sea. "I'm really glad to know you guys." I wasn't sure whether I should have told Shane everything. We agreed to start over, but I couldn't help trusting him – besides, I knew all about his past before the valley. It was only fair, after all.

We watched in peaceful silence as the jellies gently floated past us, the glow slowly fading over the south horizon. Soon the beach was pitch dark, the flames of the candles burned out into warm cinders. Summer was officially over. "Looks like that's it," Shane exhaled, standing up with his hands still in his pockets. "What now?"

"Well apparently I'm supposed to be going to some after party at Haley's house…" I lamented.

"Sounds lame."

"Yeah."

"Wanna bail to the Saloon instead?"

"Sounds good to me," I smiled, and we made our way back up the beach.

Author's Note: Hey guys, thanks for reading! Sorry that this one was heavy on the monologue.

Stream news! In a few hours I'll (hopefully) be streaming Stardew Valley! I say hopefully because it depends what time the 1.1 update comes out :3 I will of course be pursuing Shane~ so if you're interested search for Nyannygiri on Twitch :) I'll also be uploading the streams as episodes to my YouTube (which is linked on my Twitch).

Okay! See you soon! ~Nyannygiri