Chapter Ten:

Phone Call

Spring third, I got up with a mission: call Charlotte.

Immediately I went to my phone and dug through the mess of papers to try and find her number, but the best I could muster was a work number.

"Well, might as give it a shot," I said, hoping she wouldn't answer so I could just leave a message. Just as I was dialing the number, there was a knock on my door. I put down the receiver and went to answer.

"Hello," I greeted when I saw that the visitor was a stranger, a man with a brown ponytail and blonde tips, "Can I help you?"

"I—uh, just wanted to…er….introduce myself. But…but if this is a bad time…" he seemed to have trouble talking.

I tilted my head in question when I realized that I hadn't changed, I looked down and found I was in an extra-large t-shirt…and not much else.

I blushed, "Uh…excuse me," I said closing the door and scrambling around my home for something clean.

When I opened the door I was surprised to see he was still there. "I'm sorry about that," I apologized, "Please, come in. I'm Chelsea by the way."

"Thanks…uh, I already knew that," he said coming in, "And I'm Cliff."

"Well, Cliff, what brings you to the island?"

"Just visiting. I live in Mineral Town and we've heard a lot about the island and Chance Ranch over there, so I thought I'd come and check it out."

"Really? You've heard of my ranch?"

Shocker.

"Yeah, everyone there loves your crops."

I laughed. I wasn't the one caring for the crops, that was Mark most of the time. So I told Cliff. "You should tell him that, he'd be thrilled."

"So what do you do?" he asked.

"It isn't like I do desk work all day, I care for the animals."

"Oh, I don't hear much about the dairy products up there."

I rolled my eyes. I was quite proud of my animals' products we produced the best damn wool and milk you ever heard of.

"Maybe because we get a lot of that from the farm up there…maybe you should try secondary products?" Cliff said, he looked apologetic for saying anything.

"Uhhh…" I wanted to say something sarcastic, seeing as I wasn't in a state to take criticism gracefully, but it occurred to me: his idea was a good one, "I'll take it into consideration."

Cliff said his goodbyes after that, and I followed him out the door to do my work for the day. Afterwards, I went to see Gannon about Makers.

"Well, first you'll need a Maker Shed," he told me, "Than if ya bring me some Adamantite, than I can make the Makers easy."

"I see…well I can afford the Maker Shed now, so can I just make an order today?" I asked, "I'll go to the mines later and mine that Ada-whatsit stuff later."

"Adamantite."

"Yeah, that."

"Okay, that'll be 30,000 with your lumber."

Despite the steep price, I paid without complaint, and went home.

Once back inside, I decided to try and cook something with all the rice Pierre had given me. All I had in my fridge though was all that rice and a few bottles of milk.

"I could make porridge I guess…" I said aloud.

That's when it hit me. I left the fridge and rushed to my calendar to check the date. It was just as I thought; it was the third and Vaughn's birthday.

"Ugh, he's never here on his birthday!" I complained. The only reason I even knew the date was because I had to beat it out of him. It got me thinking about who he spent the occasion with.

I wondered if he was as lonely as Denny thought he was and if that meant he was alone. I decided to at least try and do something.

I figured Mirabelle and Julia would know where he was.

They were confused why I wanted to talk to him.

"We have one of the inns he stays at. He left it in case of emergency…is there something wrong with your animals, Chelsea?" Mirabelle asked.

I shook my head no, "It's his birthday today."

"Really?" Julia asked, "I didn't know that."

"Well, I suppose it wouldn't hurt to wish him a happy birthday, here's the phone number. Just tell him happy birthday for us," Mirabelle said handing me a slip of paper.

"Can do. Thanks guys."

"Your welcome."

I got home and called, the clerk of an inn answered.

"Hello, Green Hill Inn, how may I help you?" he asked.

"Uh, yes, I wanted to talk to one of your guests. His name is Vaughn…" I told him, suddenly nervous.

"Oh, yes I see him often. I'll connect him to you, may I ask for a name first?"

"It's Chelsea."

"Ohhh, well hold on just one sec, Chelsea," he said putting me on hold. Something about his tone of voice told me he knew something I didn't.

It wasn't long until I heard a voice on the other end again.

"Chelsea? Why are you calling?"

It was Vaughn.

"I…uh…" I couldn't respond right away, Vaughn's image from the day before was distracting me. I had to shake it away before getting back on track, "I wanted to say happy birthday!"

"Seriously?"

"Well, yeah! So how old are you anyways?"

"I thought you weren't supposed to ask that."

"Not to a girl, but its fine if you ask a guy," I laughed.

"I'm not telling," he blurted.

"Aw, why not?"

"'Cause it ain't your business."

"When it comes it you, it is."

It was meant to be a joke but I came across too strongly, it made me blush.

"Since, you know, you're my friend," I explained.

"Right…" he was either embarrassed or upset, I couldn't tell by his voice alone.

"Um…Mirabelle and Julia say happy birthday," I said.

"So that's how you got this number," he said putting two and two together.

"Yeah…oh and I'll give you your gift next week."

"You don't need to give me anything."

"I know, but I want to."

"Fine."

I laughed, "You act like you hate it but I know somewhere down there you like it when I'm nice to you."

"More than you know."

"Huh?"

"I'll talk to you later, Chelsea," he said quickly.

"What? Oh…um, okay. See you later, Vaughn," I said before hanging up.

I sighed and asked myself why our conversation was so rocky when I noticed the piece of paper with my sister's office number scrawled on it.

"I was supposed to call…" I remembered. I looked to see the clock; it was already 5:30, "I guess I could leave a message…" I reasoned picking the phone up again.

It only rang twice before a woman answered.

"Dr. Winter's office, how may I help you?" she asked.

"Can I speak with Dr. Winter please?" I asked my heart beating faster with every word.

"Name please?"

"Chelsea."

I heard muffled chatter on the other end before she got back to me, "I'm sorry, Chelsea, but she's with another patient right now, if you leave—"

"What? Chelsea?!" I heard a yell from the other end, "Give me the phone Luanne!"

Luanne must have put her hand over the receiver because her response was hard to hear, "But you need to go see Mr. Rivers."

"Just give me the damn phone!"

I heard a crash and a small yelp just before a new voice came over the phone.

"Chelsea? Chelsea Winter is that you?" asked the voice, it was at that point I knew it was Charlotte.

"Hey, sis. Yeah it is," I said, still getting over what I heard over the phone, "What's up?"

"What's up? What's up?!"

She didn't sound happy.

"I don't hear from you for over a year and all you can say is 'What's up?' What the hell, Chelsea?! You don't call any of us for a year after suddenly telling us that you were shipwrecked and all you can say is, 'what's up?'" Charlotte yelled. She defiantly wasn't happy.

"I know…I know, I'm sorry," I said.

"Oh, you better be sorry because I'm gonna, I'm gonna—!" my sister stopped yelling and I could hear her sigh, "Oh, Chelsea I'm just glad to hear your voice."

She sounded close to tears, and so was I.

"I'm so sorry, Charlotte! I should've called or something. I just—"

"Doesn't matter. Point is you called me, and this time you are giving us your number."

That's right I never gave my family my new phone number.

"I know, I'll give it to you just…don't you have to go see someone?"

"Huh?"

"A patient?"

"Patient…oh! Mr. Rivers! I completely forgot about him."

I laughed, "Go to work than. I'll leave your number with your sectary."

"She's a nurse," Charlotte corrected me.

"Whatever she is, I'll give it to her."

"Okay…you are going to give her the right number?"

"I promise."

"Okay…well then," Charlotte said, reluctant to leave, "I love you, Chelsea."

It had been a while since I heard those words from anyone. That made the tears spill over.

"Love you too," I said struggling to keep my voice steady.

"I'll call you as soon as I'm done with Mr. Rivers."

"Okay."

"I'm giving the phone to Luanne, now. She'll take your number," Charlotte explained, "Talk to you soon."

"Yeah, talk to you soon."

After giving Luanne my phone number I relaxed and hung up. And it wasn't even an hour before Charlotte and I were on the phone again, talking about the year we had missed. It was the best feeling to know that I could still talk to my sister like we had seen each other just the day before. I told her everything, everything besides chasing Denny, and she told me all about the office she was working in and how much she loved her job but hated her boss.

Soon, we were calling each other regularly, and it only took that one phone call to make us act like sisters again. And it made me happy I had unconditional love just one phone call away.

Author's Note: Okay, so hopefully I can get back to the daily updates now, since life has cooled off for the moment. I don't like adding original characters unless I feel it's absolutely necessary for a plot, so I'm sorry for adding Charlotte, but she's the only OC in this story. Promise. I also wanted to ask a favor of you all: do you think I have too much, or too little dialogue? It's always bee a problem with me and I'm still looking for a happy medium. Thank you in advance :)

Disclaimer: Harvest Moon and all characters belong to Natsume
Charlotte Winter belongs to Twilights Lily