Chapter 3. Lost
That day, to my surprise, dawned without a trace of snow falling from the sky, which was free of clouds for the first time in weeks. The sun was shining strongly, and the atmosphere was different from what I was used to lately. It wasn't as cold as the previous days, and you could even breathe in the happiness of the villagers in the air. Even I seemed in a better mood. Everything would be perfect if it weren't for the relentless pain that attacked my head. Although it had already past a couple of days since Chelsea decided to "attack" me suddenly - at discrepancy of Mirabelle and Julia, still claiming it was an accident - my situation had not improved very much. I no longer felt dizzy or lost vision, but was unable to perform physical labor and heavy tasks. For this reason, Mirabelle commissioned me the tedious task of looking after the cattle while she travelled to the city in search of food and other supplies for the store, a task that I used to take care of.
The snow had melted a bit and some areas of grass were emerging from it, so we let the animals out to give them some fresh air, taking advantage of the good weather. I just sat there watching the cows mooing as they ate the grass at high speed, and how chickens fought over the grain that I threw at them occasionally. Definitely, I preferred to deal with animals rather than people. They really were my only company. My shelter in the bad times. The only ones who seemed to understand me. Without judging me. Without looking at me with those accusing eyes. But above all, they were the motivation that led me where I was.
However, while I liked animals, I hated this task. I needed something to keep me busier, me and my mind. Otherwise, it tended to recall the past and forced myself to revive it all. Again and again. Would that haunt me all my life?
Occasionally, Julia appeared between flirting and flirting with that guy with glasses, Elliot, to make sure I hadn't escaped - Certainly, I would do it gladly.
"Are you okay?" Always the same question. "I'm fine." Always the same lie.
Eventually, although the day was warmer than usual, I started to get cold and, yet I didn't want to enter and interrupt the endless exchange of compliments and smiles, my attempts to suppress those desires to enter the warm shop were losing strength, as well as decreased my body temperature. Eventually, I felt forced to go to pick up a coat or something.
Still without wanting to interrupt, I decided to stay on a corner to watch the scene for a while. It was funny how this weakly boy barely carried all those heavy boxes just to impress Julia.
"Shoot... How did I wind up with so much work to do?" asked Julia in a depressing tone.
"It's okay Julia. Mirabelle isn't here, so it's normal there's so much work. I don't mind helping, really," replied Elliot as he tried to move while carrying so many heavy boxes.
"No Elliot, I can't ask for help. It's my fault that I got so far behind on my work." She took some of the boxes Elliot was carrying so he could walk properly. But he stopped and looked at her with a gentle look.
"Come on, now. What kind of attitude is that? We're all on this island together, so we need to help each other whenever we can! Stop feeling sorry for yourself and let me help you out."
He gave her a big bright smile. She stayed silent a few seconds thinking about what he'd just said and then she gave him another smile in response as her cheeks took a pinky color.
"Okay, okay. Elliot, are you sure you don't mind?"
"Let's get to work!" he said as he took back the boxes Julia had taken from him.
"Phew. Thanks for bailing me out, Elliot." The blush in her cheeks grew pinker. Elliot left the place while Julia took some more boxes.
"Have you two finished flirting yet?" I asked from the corner of the room, arms crossed. Julia, startled, stopped what she was doing and dropped down some boxes, making big noise and leaving the room a real mess. She slowly turned around to face me.
"V-Vaughn! Where you listening?" she asked embarrassed.
"Unfortunately, yes. That was odd. What do you see in that clumsy guy?"
"I don't see an... It's none of your business!" she shouted, her face getting redder and redder.
"In fact, I don't care at all. Just make sure next time you have a date, go somewhere more private."
"It wasn't a date! Whatever, I don't mind." With that said, she picked up everything that had been scattered on the floor and went towards the entrance door. Before leaving, she turned around one last time to say something. "Elliot is not as clumsy as you all think he is, he tries hard and he cares about me, I-I mean us. You should be nicer to him. Oh, and that wasn't a date!"
"Sure."
"Agh, you piss me off!" After that, she slammed the door and left. I snorted and continued my way to the wardrobe. I took a coat and a scarf and headed back to the door that leaded to where the animals were. When I was just about to open the door, I heard the entrance doorbell ring. A customer. Neither Mirabelle or Julia were there at the moment so it was my duty to assist him or her. It was no other than Chelsea. Oh, damn it...
"You." I growled.
"Oh, Vaughn... Hi..." she seemed confused. She looked all around, looking for something. "Where's Mirabelle? Or Julia?" she asked.
"Mirabelle's in town. Julia with the pink-headed boy with glasses."
"Oh..."
She stayed in silence for a long time. I was expecting a demand from her or something. But she didn't seem to be able to say anything. It was awkward. Therefore, I decided to intervene.
"So?" I asked, as politely as I could.
She didn't open her mouth for a little while more. It was as if she was considering whether to say something or not. It was tiring. Finally, she opened her mouth.
"How's your head?"
Really? That was everything she had to say? "Fine" – even if you tried to kill me-. A few moments passed with none of us saying anything. "If that's all, I'm very busy so..."
"Actually," she interrupted, "I wanted to buy an animal." I blinked at her response.
"Are you going to train it to attack me too?"
"No! Obviously I'm not!" She said a little bit exalted.
"I'm not that sure." This time she didn't answer. "Whatever." I moved towards the barn in order to show her some of the calfs and lambs that we had on sale. I noticed she was still there, in front of the entrance door. Really, what an infuriating girl.
"Are you coming now or are you waiting for a carriage to take you there?"
"Oh, y-yes, I'm coming."
Idiot. She walked behind me all the way to the barn, and we stopped at the door. I reached into my pocket to get the key, but I realized that it wasn't there. I searched everywhere on my clothes where I could have gotten the key, but it was still missing. Holly crap... Where did I put it?
"Huh? What's wrong?" she asked.
"Nothing." I continued searching for it, but it didn't appear. She waited patiently, not saying a word. The situation started to become desperate. "Okay, I lost something. But I'll take care of it."
"I'll look for it with you. What's lost?"
I didn't want her bothering around, but maybe if she helped we could settle this earlier and I wouldn't have to cope with this girl anymore for today. I sighed in despair.
"...Fine. It's the barn's key. I kept it in my pocket. It must have fallen somewhere. Why don't you look over there? I will search inside."
She nodded and we both started searching. She went towards the pasture where I had been before, looking after the animals. I went to the store and looked around and inside the wardrobe, but the key wasn't anywhere to be found. Time passed and, eventually, I heard Chelsea's voice.
"Vaughn! I've found the key!"
I rushed towards her position. When I arrived, she was standing there, triumphant, with a smirk drawn on her face. She giggled and held the key just in front of my face in order to boast of her achievement.
"I could've found it by myself," I hissed.
"Sure." She smirked.
I took the key from her and opened the barn's door. I went in and she followed me. I stopped in the middle of the location and turned around to find Chelsea absolutely amused by all the animals we had there. Her eyes shone with excitement. She sure seemed to love animals.
"Well, this is all we have. You can choose."
"Umm well, this is so difficult... I think I'll choose..." Before she finished talking, something rushed in front of us to the entrance of the barn at a surprisingly high speed. It was one of the calfs. I knew that calf, it was always making things a mess, disturbing me. It was evil. The calf looked at me with an evil smirk before leaving the place through the fence's open gate. Wait, what? Why was the gate open?
"Have you left the gate open? Are you stupid or something? Don't you know any animal could escape? Well, actually one has, and it's all your fault! Damn it, now I have to go and look for that evil animal!"
"Oh no, I'm sorry Vaughn, but don't worry, we'll find it, it can't have gone very far, it's only a calf after all."
Yes, it was only a calf. A ninja calf who would do anything to ruin my day. Just like you. "Whatever, let's search for it or Mirabelle will kill me."
We rushed outside and looked around to see if we found it, but it wasn't anywhere around the store. How can a simple calf be so fast?
"Mmm... where could have the poor animal gone?" wondered Chelsea.
"It's a ninja, it could be anywhere," I hissed.
Chelsea seemed a bit confused about my comment but she ignored it. We decided to ask the villagers if they had seen it, that way it would be faster. First, we went to see Taro, as he and his family were the nearest neighbors to the store. When we arrived Julia was with them. I noticed that everything was a mess. Many boxes had been thrown down to the floor and the items that were inside were scattered over it. Julia, Elliot and Taro were trying to collect it all. When Julia saw us approaching she ran towards me, her face boiling red in anger.
"VAUGHN! One of our calfs just went through here like crazy and has thrown away the work of an entire day! How could you let this happen? Mom will be very mad at us for this!"
"It wasn't my fault! That calf is pure evil!"
Before Julia could continue shouting at me, Chelsea interrupted. "I know you're angry Julia, but it's not time for this. Do you know where has it gone?"
"I think it went towards Chen's store," said Taro.
"Okay, thank you! Sorry for the trouble and don't worry Julia, we will find it and take it back to the store before Mirabelle comes back, I promise!" said Chelsea as we walked away.
Next, we rushed to Chen's store, only to find him collecting all the garbage that someone had scattered around.
"Hi Chen, have you seen a little calf around here? We're in a hurry," asked Chelsea nervously.
"Oh, yes, I was sweeping the entrance floor when a little animal came running and hit the trash can, throwing it and scattering its contents across the freshly swept floor." He sighed looking at the now dirty floor.
"Where's the calf?" I asked.
"It left immediately after everything happened, I had no time to stop it. It rushed towards Gannon's shop, I think."
"Thank you Chen, let's go Vaughn!"
I was tired and I started to feel a bit dizzy. I wasn't prepared for that much exercise yet. Suddenly I heard some laugher and the lowing of a cow.
"It has to be our calf!" screamed Chelsea as she ran towards the noise.
I followed her and what was my surprise when I discovered the reason of too much noise. There was the calf, wearing a hat, sunglasses, and what seemed to be a large jumper, while Eliza and Charlie tried to put the calf a pair of boots in its front paws.
"What the f…"
"Vaughn! There are kids around!" she scolded me. "What's happening here you two?"
"Hi Chelsea!" greeted Charlie.
"Look how pretty is our cow!" added Eliza.
"Why are you doing this?" asked Chelsea with a funny smile.
"Well," started Charlie, "we wanted to build a snowman but there's not enough snow today…"
"Yeah, and then appeared this little thing. It's so cute! She lets us do whatever we want with her!" continued Eliza.
"You have to be kidding me," I said.
"Vaughn, please…"
"No, look, this calf has nothing good, it's a demon," I replied as I glanced the animal.
"Come on Vaughn, look at it, she's acting normal, and the kids adore her. I think it's just your imagination."
"What? Have you forgotten the mess it has caused all around the town? Whatever, this cow is coming with me now."
"No please! We want to play more with her!" begged Eliza and Charlie with one voice.
I sighed in despair. I was about to tell the kids that the stupid calf had to return to the barn before it destroyed the whole town when Chelsea intervened.
"Okay, let's do this. I'll take care of this calf from now on. That way you two will be able to come along and play with it whenever you want." She looked at me. "Is that fine with you?"
The kids also looked at me with a blinding gleam in their eyes.
"So, you actually want to train it to attack me, right?"
"Maybe," she said with a smile. That stupid cute smile of hers. I sighed.
"Fine, it's your problem now."
"Is that a yes?" asked the kids.
"Yeah," I answered. "That way I won't have to see it anymore."
"Great!" shouted Charlie, excited.
"Have you heard that, Vaughnie? You're coming with us!" said Eliza.
"Vaughnie, uh? I like that name," said Chelsea as she laughed and looked at me.
"It's horrible," I replied.
"Like your attitude," answered Chelsea with a smirk, trying to tease me. Touché. "Well kids, can you help me take Vaughnie to her new home?"
The children nodded euphorically and started to guide the calf to Chelsea's farm.
"I'll come later to pay for it," said Chelsea. "And sorry, for everything, really."
I remained in silence a few seconds. "Take your time."
She smiled shyly. "See you later Vaughn."
"Yeah, bye…"
Chelsea ran to catch up the kids, who were happily playing with the calf. What a strange girl. Who would ever want an evil animal like that? Then I noticed that the calf was looking at me, with that glare that told me that this was not over yet.
Definitely, one of these two is going to kill me someday.
AUTHOR NOTE: Okay, okay, it's been MORE THAN A YEAR, I know and I'm sooooooo sorry. I have had a lot of problems with family and the start of university. I know that's not an excuse but I swear I'm going to publish more often from now on!
As always, sorry for the grammatical mistakes and all reviews are appreciated! Thank you guys!