It was on the second day of Spring when the farming duo began their journey into the hell of physical labor.
Actually, it was Eli's journey alone.
The young man loosened his grip on the old yet sturdy sickle and wiped a bead of sweat from his burning forehead. The lower part of his back ached, his palm prickled from the friction between his skin and the wooden handle of the farming tool, and his fingers wouldn't be able to take the task of holding the sickle much longer if Eli kept this up. However, after scanning his work of killing off the numerous weeds on the farmland, it looked as though he hadn't made much progress since eight o'clock this very morning. In fact, planted stubbornly there in the soil, the gentle breeze blowing by made the weeds wave mockingly at the inexperienced Eli. He felt as though he was being taunted by them.
Puffing out a brief sigh, Eli pulled at his sticky, light grey t-shirt and tossed it onto the grass away from the field, revealing a stark white tank top underneath. By now, the man appreciated the breeze much more, and he ruffled his hair for a moment before setting himself back to the task. The first few times, Eli had handled the sickle awkwardly enough so that it took several tries to cut down a weed and pull it out. After the first hour passed by, he became a bit more comfortable with the tool. It had a dull blade, and was beginning to rust just along the edge, but there was nothing he could do to fix it up without the proper materials. He wondered how old it was. With each swift awkward cut followed by pulling out the roots, Eli's mind shifted focus. How prosperous had the previous owner been? What had "Will" been like? Had he started like Eli and his sister, venturing recklessly headfirst into the unknown, or did he know what he was doing from the start?
Cut, pull, and throw it amongst its fellow weed corpses. Cut, pull, throw. Cut, pull, throw. Eli had a bit of a process going and didn't notice the first bark of a dog that ventured towards him. The domesticated animal waited patiently for another moment before barking once more, louder than the first. It wagged its shaggy tail in a friendly manner and licked its nose before Eli finally took notice of it.
Eli set down the sickle carefully onto the soil and wiped his sweaty palms on his jeans. Where had the dog come from? He walked a little cautiously towards it and saw it had a bright red collar around its neck, attached to a leash with the handle dragging carelessly on the ground. Perhaps it was lost?
"Hey…" Eli ducked for a second to see if there was a tag with its name on it. It was a simple tag in a golden color, and stamped upon its surface was the name…
"Sandy! Come," called out a soft, female voice.
She clapped her hands twice, but Sandy already obeyed her at the sound of his name. He abruptly turned and ran over towards his owner, panting in approval when she bent down and stroked his soft fur. Tucking a strand of short dark brown hair behind her ear, the mystery woman, in a white flowing shirt and long brown skirt, approached Eli eagerly with a small wrapped package in her arms.
"Are you the new owner of the farm?"
"Yeah… Actually, one of the owners. I'm Eli. My sister Aly is… uh, out right now," he replied sheepishly. There was something about the woman's speech that was different than Eli was normally used to hearing, but he couldn't quite put his finger on what the difference was.
Her shy smile widened a little as her brown eyes showed warmth. "My name is Sophie. This is a housewarming gift for the both of you. I heard you moved in yesterday, so I made a little something." Her speech was slightly altered, with a pause every few words, the pronunciation a bit slow at times.
Sophie handed over the package, which Eli accepted with gratitude and surprise. A housewarming gift? From a pretty stranger? This was something totally new.
"Thanks… Thanks so much, Sophie," Eli grinned. "We appreciate it."
"No, no, the pleasure is all mine. Think of it as a welcome to the village. Well, I won't keep you from your work. I'll see you and Aly around sometime," Sophie smiled softly. She leisurely walked away from Eli with Sandy in tow and gave one last wave of goodbye before disappearing out of sight.
"Huh. Wonder what it could be?" Eli mused to himself. He turned the package over once before setting it down next to his abandoned t-shirt. He'd open it later, Eli supposed, but what was taking Aly so long?
"You say that again!"
"I told you," said the little girl loftily. "You must be quite a retard to get lost from the single forest path there is." Her sharp golden orbs looked up haughtily at the unfortunately lost blonde carrying a large wicker basket. "I mean, seriously. If I hadn't pointed out the edge of that cliff, you would've been dead by now, tragically from your own hapless stupidity," Matilda reasoned. She tossed her long, lavender hair. "You only have me to thank. It's impolite to not thank your savior, you know."
Aly grinded her jaw at this little kid. What was she, ten? With that stupid little bow in her hair and her arms crossed calmly in front of her in that stupid girly dress, every second Aly glared at her in defiance made no difference.
"Fine," Matilda said. "So be it. I'll let you wander around until you give up trying to find the way out, because unlike me, you don't know anything about the woods at all. You might as well let yourself become fresh meat for the bears. I certainly wouldn't miss you."
"For your information, little girl," Aly huffed, "It's my first time. Gimme a break! And I was not going to fall to my death. I already knew it was a cliff."
"You were running after butterflies in a field of flowers."
Aly just shut up.
"Don't worry," Matilda smiled thinly. "Your secret is safe with me."
The woman mumbled incoherently.
"What was that?" Matilda piped up in a voice as innocent as poisoned honey. "I didn't quite hear you. You'll have to speak up like a big girl!"
"… Thank… You," Aly muttered, her face pointed to the ground to avoid any eye contact with this evil little girl.
Matilda reached up on her tiptoes and patted Aly's shoulder in sympathy.
"There, there. Now I'll lead you out." With that, Matilda cheerfully led the way and Aly complied. Matilda struck up a one-sided conversation with the new farmer.
"You know, I heard there were two farmers who moved in yesterday, and Mama wanted me to come by and bring a present, but I didn't want to. Oh, those are safe to pick… I mean, really, I think learning about mechanisms of xylem embolism repair in seed plants and Bayesian semi-parametric methods from bio stats is a lot more interesting than meeting a new neighbor, don't you think? You'll want to avoid those; the stems will give you an itchy rash for a week. Mama doesn't really approve of my wealth of learning, but I think that knowledge from such limited resources like her prayer book just isn't practical!"
'I hate you, little girl,' Aly thought bitterly. She stuffed a few white mushrooms in her wicker basket and kept up with Matilda at a steady pace.
"What took you so long?"
He backed off from further concerned inquiry upon seeing the impudent anger etched on Aly's face.
"Go shower! You stink!" She barked at him, dumping some of the contents of her wicker basket in the sink to wash in preparation for lunch. A few mushrooms and wild assorted berries tumbled to the floor.
"Okay. I won't ask," Eli avoided her like the plague and loped off to the bathroom.
With each chop of the kitchen knife, Aly stewed in her own humiliation.
'How could a kid like her possibly exist?' She dumped the mushrooms in the beaten egg yolks and then sloppily dropped the whole thing into the waiting frying pan. In a sour mood, Aly found a cloth and mopped up the egg yolks that had not made it to the pan vigorously.
The blonde was still in a sour mood when lunch was served.
"Oh, come on! At least you really didn't get lost!" Eli laughed over mouthfuls of mushroom and ham omelet. "What if you got attacked by those butterflies instead?"
Aly dropped her first forkful of omelet onto her plate and covered her ears tight. "Don't make me think about it! She's the most evil little person ever! "
Her brother scoffed at this juvenile declaration, but chose not to retaliate. He swiped the remaining omelet from the girl's plate. "If you're not gonna eat your share, then I'll have it!"
"Go ahead, I'll just have something else." Aly stood up from the table and took the necessary steps to make herself a cup of instant noodles (shrimp flavor). "Seriously, I thought it'd be fun to go picking mushrooms and berries and stuff, but she ruined everything. So go and pig out," she called from the little kitchen while Eli wolfed down the rest of the omelet with gusto.
After the brief lunch, the twins set out into the field after putting whatever was left in the wicker basket into the shipping bin. Since there was only one sickle to share between them, Eli chose to pull out the roots while Aly awkwardly cut the weeds down. The task itself was mundane, but the two worked diligently as the sun slowly moved across the clear cerulean sky.
The remaining survivors clung to the soil desperately. Eli was having a hard time with one in particular. Again and again, he pulled upwards with all his might until his palm burned, but it wouldn't budge.
"Oh, lemme try!" Aly rolled up her sleeves, dug her heels into the soil, and yanked the weed upwards with surprising ease. The momentum carried over and the girl tumbled into the soil bottom first.
"Ha! I got it!" She held up the defeated roots triumphantly in the still air and looked over at Eli who had his hands on hips, bent over and panting.
"Aly… I'm gonna take a break," Eli admitted, wiping his brow. "You mind finishing up?"
Enthusiastic to defeat the rest of the weeds, she called out, "Sure! I'll beat 'em all!" Aly then made a ridiculous pose with her sickle in hand and eyed her next unfortunate opponent like a cat ready to pounce on a cornered mouse.
The last four weeds inevitably bowed to their demise.
Just as the sun was beginning to set, Aly carefully set the sickle back into the tool box for another day and snapped the lid shut. She then bolted off to the bathroom.
"Oh my god, I gotta pee..!" She muttered to herself and frantically pulled open the bathroom door.
His unconscious form, crouched on the toilet, flooded Aly's vision. Eli did not respond to her terrified shriek.
((What's worse, a genius girl or a devil mayor? 8D ))