Characters Disclaimed Yo.
Gill woke up the next morning, his hair messed up and his mentality the same. He had to be insane. He just had to. It was just the moment that was all. She'd saved his life, so he was thankful. He was thankful, and there was no way he could hate her, but it couldn't have gone this far in such little time. Didn't he just hate her yesterday? Well.. maybe not hate.. but pretty close. Gill groaned and threw off his sheets, peeling the pajamas off of his body and slipping on his normal outfit. But soon, he decided the sweater vest was too stuffy, so he peeled it off and just wore the shirt under it. He combed his hair the way he liked it and made sure it would stay before stepping outside of his room.
There at the table was a breakfast of eggs, toast, and jelly. There was a small flower in the middle as well. In fact, it was a rose. There was a little card at the table, and Gill had to rub his eyes to make sure he wasn't still dreaming.
Gill walked over to the table and sat down, reading the small note that his father had written him before picking up a piece of toast and taking a tiny bite. He didn't like to admit it, but he was still paranoid from his little mishap. He didn't remember.. When Angela had saved him.. had it gone out or down? Did it even matter? Wishes were stupid things anyway. He didn't even know why he did such a thing. He almost got himself killed by making a wish, and he didn't intend to do it again. He would rely on pure fact, and that was it. Gill started taking bigger bites of his toast and started on his eggs. Soon the whole plate had been polished off. Gill walked back to his room and slipped on his sweater vest again before stepping outside.
It was nice and early. The sun was already fairly high in the sky, so he knew that he was technically late, but the people would understand if he was just a tad late. Heck, he bet they didn't even care. Didn't they know what filing the papers did for them? They probably didn't. He controlled the town on the first few basic levels. He controlled the businesses by handling what items needed to be shipped in or shipped out, he ordered everything for the festivals... And that being said, the Thanksgiving Festival was coming up. That one was easy... but another shipment of eggs would have to be brought in. And maybe one of milk if they were low on cows that year. He couldn't really remember for the life of him.
"I wonder what sort of cake I'll make." Gill said aloud before stopping in his tracks. Did he really just say that? Gill didn't make cake! He never made cake, for anybody in fact. And nobody gave him cake! Gill shook his head lightly and kept moving forward, his thoughts reeling.
'Did I really just think that? I must be going insane!'
Gill stepped onto the stairs and up to the square where there was a large group of people huddled at the door of Town Hall.
Gill stepped forward cautiously, approaching the scene and going around, trying to see what they were looking at.
What he saw was a near shock to him. Well, almost. The people were all huddled around somebody.. he couldn't quite see who, but he could tell it was a she. It looked like she had fainted, but on second glance, it looked like somebody was drawing on her. Suddenly, Owen stepped in front of Gill's view.
"Hey! You can't see this, it's not time yet!" Owen laughed.
"Time for what?" Gill questioned, trying to get a look over his shoulder to no avail.
'Damn shoulder muscles.' Gill cursed in his mind as he tried almost everything to get a peek. He jumped and dodged, but nothing was going to work. So finally, he gave up. Well, it looked like he had given up. Really, he was the only one who knew where he could see what they were doing without them being able to block. Gill went out of the square only to come back around the other way, to the back end of Town Hall.
Climbing the building had been easy, for he'd done it twice already. But, what he saw when he looked down was something he couldn't really comprehend. He scratched his head, his left eye twitching. What was this tomfoolery?
Down below Gill's gaze lay Kathy. She seemed relaxed as the townspeople gathered around her. For some reason, they were painting on her with dry paintbrushes. It didn't even make sense? As soon as they recognized that Gill was gone though, they stood up and waited, as if he were going to try to come back. Kathy sat up and yawned. What was it? Were they just trying to stop him from going to work? Well, he wasn't going to give them that satisfaction, even if they were only trying to be nice. Gill backed up slowly on his hands and knees so the townspeople wouldn't see him.
But then, Gill tensed up as he felt his rearend back into someone's hand. "I'd appreciate it if you kept that out of my face, thanks.."
Gill's face turned bright red and he froze, lowering his back end down. "What are you doing here?" Gill harshly whispered, his little mishap making him too shy to turn around.
It was Angela who answered. "I just came to warn you. You should go back to bed before they see you up here. They're determined to have you rest for the next couple days. Elli's inside taking care of the work."
Gill snorted.
"Anyway," Angela said, moving on from the subject, "Even your father agreed to do whatever it took to keep you from work."
"That's not going to happen." Gill said, "now if you'll excuse me." Gill finally turned around.
Angela was sporting a white collared shirt and a pair of overalls. It was classy, yet simple. Gill had to say he liked the style, but it probably would've looked better on a blond. Her hair was long enough to pull it off.
Angela sighed. "Owen's got a hammer."
Gill stopped. He thought for a moment for a way around it, and then sighed. "Okay Okay, I won't go to work. But what am I supposed to do? I can't just sit at home all day."
Angela seemed shocked for a moment. "You're asking me? I guess you could help me on the farm. I could use a hand."
This time Gill was the one that seemed shocked. Him? Help? Her? Farmwork? He didn't know if sitting home bored all day was a better alternative or not. He didn't want to clean out stables. He didn't mind watering plants, but that was about all he could do without wrecking the entire place. If he helped her though, he could consider his 'debt' repaid. And who knew? Maybe he would become a little more manly in the process. Gill had always wanted to seem a little more manly..
"Okay. Deal." Gill said.
"Great!" Angela exclaimed quietly, "You start to day. Let's go."
Angela dropped down the ladder and landed softly on the ground. Gill frowned lightly, knowing that it was going to be a long day.
Gill's first lesson of the day had been petting the animals. At first he was surprised that this was considered work, but after petting the first cow and having it lick him, he was definite that it was considered a chore. After wiping the slimy cow spit off of his face of her grand total of Eight cows, about an hour had passed. How? He was already getting frustrated. But, he had to admit that the rest of the day wasn't that bad. Watering had gone slowly.. Angela had split the work between them, since she had an extra watering can. She had been done within five minutes. Gill had managed to water ten.. she had managed to water about fifty. Angela laughed and showed him that he could basically throw the water and get a bigger effect. It took so much energy though...
Then they had lunch. Gill sat at the table of the house as Angela stirred and fried, various good smells wafting towards him. Gill's stomach growled and his mouth watered. He wondered how Angela could've possibly done this every single day. Without knowing it, Gill had found himself getting up and looking around at various things. The house had obviously been upgraded.. and it looked incredibly clean. Geez, was she superwoman or something? Gill pulled out a book from the shelf and leafed through it. It was full of stuff that he already knew, so he put it back. But, then another book caught his eye. Gill pulled it out, and flipped it open.
It was a photo album. There were various pictures of various places and people that lived in the town. There was Owen and Kathy, waving at the camera, and there was Mira and Ramsey.. racing? Gill flipped the pages, seeing not only the villagers, but animals, sprites, and a few empty pictures where somebody was missing. Gill flipped the page again, seeing more and more pictures of Angela herself before noticing that somebody was peeking over his shoulder. Gill looked to his left to see Angela peering down at the pictures and smiling. She took the book and closed it, putting it back on the shelf.
"We can browse later. We have to get back to work soon." Angela said with a small laugh. Gill was stunned for a moment before giving a light, nervous smile and going over to the table. They had vegetable pizza with tomato juice, an interesting and yet delicious combination before they went back to work. This time they were brushing the cows. Gill was fine with only giving them a couple of strokes on the back, but Angela insisted otherwise. And so, wiping the cow spit off of his face for a second time that day, they proceeded to milking the cows. That was slightly easier, since the cows couldn't reach Gill's face that way. They were worse than dogs..
Angela sent Gill to gather the eggs from the coop, but he wasn't so good at that. In the process of setting the eggs in the shipping bin, three out of four of them had cracked, leaving both the bottom of the shipping bin, and his hands, eggy. Angela only laughed and gave him a washcloth to clean up the mess before letting him wash his hands. By the time he had finished that, his back was aching, his arms hurt, and his head throbbed. It was only three o' clock.
And only after that Angela had mentioned that they were going scavenging. What! Scavenging? They were going to get down on their hands an knees in the grass to pick herbs that did who knew what? He was tired, and his whole body ached, and he did smell terrible. Angela sighed as Gill silently protested an escapade for mushrooms and herbs and gave in.
"Fine. You can use my bathtub. I trust you'll take less than an hour?" Angela questioned.
Gill sat chest deep in a giant pool of warm water. The steam lifted all around him, and he melted into the side of the tub. Gill sunk in further until he was lip deep and then looked around. It was awfully girly for a bathroom, but he hadn't expected anything less. It smelled like roses.. he liked it. It was so relaxing... He didn't think he'd ever done that much work in his life. Why had he decided to do this again? He was too tired to remember at the moment. But then, an image of Owen and his huge sledgehammer came into his mind, jarring his thoughts.
Gill sat up, rubbing his right shoulder. He guessed this is why Angela was so strong.. Heck, she was probably ten times stronger than she looked, and she had taken a break for.. how long was it? A whole year? Things didn't seem to be looking up for the town.. but Angela seemed to be doing pretty well. Gill looked at the timer and noted that he had been in the tub for about an hour. Gill stood up and wrapped a towel around himself, deciding to take another look around the bathroom. He wasn't really interested, but when he didn't have anything else to do, snooping was always an option. Gill opened up the medicine cabinet as he let the bathwater drain. There was nothing but cold medicine and pain killers. There wasn't any acne cream or disinfectant. He guessed she just washed her face with soap and water. Gill closed the medicine cabinet and looked into the drawers under the sink. All he saw were.. certain personal items..
But, his curiosity coming into play, having not had a pre-menopausal woman in the house before he could remember, he had always wondered what they looked like. So, Gill brought up an open box of tampons, and a pad still in the wrapper. He blinked lightly, looking around before opening the pad. It was a queer little thing, flower scented, he noted. He turned the faucet on and watched it drip into the pad, he turned it on to a faster setting and marveled at how much it held. Then, the inevitable thought came to his mind. How much did it need to hold...? And if it was supposed to be changed every two hours...
"Holy crap.. Do they have any blood after?" Gill wondered. Well, it was always stated that women were cold... Maybe it was because they had no blood. Then, he took out the tampon.
"How does it work..?" Gill questioned. Then he pushed the tab and it went through the tube. His eyes raised lightly and then it fell into the sink full of water, soaking up about a ton of water. Gill looked down into the sink and then heard someone's throat clear. Gill whirled around, grasping his towel around his waist, still holding the tampon string. He laughed nervously.
"It's not.. it's not what you think I was just.. okay so it's.." Gill stuttered, looking from Angela to the tampon filled with water and back to Angela.
Angela blushed brightly and then backed out of the bathroom, leaving Gill staring at a closed bathroom door.
Gill quickly got dressed and threw away the 'personal items'. He got out of the bathroom, where Angela was sitting at the table. Her head lifted when he came out, but it lowered again. Gill walked over to her and cleared his throat.
"Uh, about earlier.." Gill said.
Angela smiled lightly, "I think it's better if neither of us mentioned it." Angela said.
Gill was silent for a moment before smiling. "Thanks."
"Wanna see my photo album?" Angela questioned lightly. Gill looked at the clock and smirked. "No, I think I should be getting home. I think father should be home any minute. Thanks anyway."
Angela watched Gill leave and then looked back down at her photo album with a smile.
Gill wandered into his empty house and turned on the lights, and walked into his room. He flopped onto his bed and as soon as his head hit the pillow, he was fast asleep. Mayor Hamilton walked into Gill's room about five minutes after Gill had fallen asleep. He looked at his son and smiled, turning his light off. He was sure that the plan would work. It would work very nicely.
Sorry for the delay guys! I did NaNoWriMo! And then I had a whole bunch of homework to catch up on. But now.. over the holidays, I'm almost always free. :D Expect more and often!