The next few days passed as uneventfully as could be, aside from Scellia's near-constant presence now that Victoria could see her properly. Deciding to put the gift she'd been given to good use, she barely left her farm other than one trip to town to trade some wood to Robin for enough coin to buy groceries from Pierre. He'd been surprised to see her, as he didn't have as much selection as JojaMart and his prices were a little higher, but she'd assured him that she'd never buy a single thing from that place as long as she lived in town. Unfortunately Abigail hadn't been home, so she hadn't gotten to see her friend again and talk to her about what she and the Wizard had discussed.
True to his word, Lewis and the others didn't seem to remember the events on her farm, and she hadn't wanted to press just in case his magic didn't work as well as he thought. She'd asked how they were doing and they asked how her farm was, and no mentions of rats or dragons or journals had been made. Vicky found this somewhat amusing, as Scellia spent the entire trip weightlessly occuping her shoulder. When she wasn't making a minor nuisance of herself by stealing something or running off with a tool or getting into the way, she either mimed what Vicky was doing or stole food. Vicky'd decided not waking up sore was worth whatever 'price' Scellia took for herself, however.
The parsnips she'd planted had appeared fully grown when she woke up Thursday morning, but she was planning another trip into town on Friday and decided to leave them in the ground the extra day, figuring it wouldn't hurt and they might even get bigger than that. When she harvested them, tugging each one up from the ground by the bulb after digging around them with Scellia's help, they came up fat and plump and healthy. She was so happy at having harvested her first plants she even captured the magical little dragon for a hug, though she'd apparently not appreciated it very much given her squirming and screeching at the gesture. Vicky had been too happy to care.
She knew that Lewis would be by to pick them up that night, but she wanted to bring her first harvest to town on her own to show that she was in fact capable of farming, and she wanted to buy seeds so she could replant as soon as possible. She'd spent her days clearing more space on her farm, and she'd planned out at least three more plots. She'd either plant more parsnips or other seeds if she was able to get them from Pierre once she'd sold her new produce.
Vicky had fashioned a trailer of sorts for her bike using an old wheelbarrow she'd found in a shed behind her house, buried in the overgrown forest. She'd attached the handle to the back of her bike with a length of rope, and she found she could tug it along behind her with a little effort as long as she didn't try to go too quickly.
In this fashion she ventured off to town with her trailer full of parsnips in tow, with Scellia having decided to sit on them for the ride. Vicky'd made her promise to help keep them in the wheelbarrow if she was going to ride back there, which got an enthusiastic nodding from the little dragon. There was another reason she wanted to go in town Friday, as she remembered Pierre or Lewis mentioning that everyone in town gathered in the Saloon Friday nights, and she was hoping Abigail would be there.
She pulled into town bright and early Friday morning, arriving at Pierre's shop right about when he was opening for business, as he hadn't even turned the little sign in his door window over to "Open" yet. She did it for him as she stepped inside, a grin a mile wide plastered across her features.
He smirked a little as he looked up from arranging his shelving, and turned to her more fully when he finished his current task. Vicky stood with her hands on her hips, looking extremely proud of herself when he asked "To what do I owe the pleasure of your visit, Miss?"
"You're looking at the newest successful farmer in the Valley! I have a wheelbarrow full of produce outside to sell."
He placed a hand on his hip and grinned. "Is that so? Well let's go see then!" He gestured for her to lead the way, and she led him through the door to view her bike which she'd propped up safely against the wall, about half full of parsnips. Scellia still sat on top, but she skittered down below it when he moved to look at them more closely.
Pierre couldn't help but laugh at her impromptu trailer, but he seemed rather impressed with the size and quality of the vegetables she'd produced. "Vicky these are absolutely wonderful. I'll take the whole lot if you'll let me."
Her eyes went wide, she'd been expecting him to take the majority, but she'd thought she'd have to spend at least part of the day hawking them to the villagers to get rid of the rest. "W-well, sure! Definitely. Can I ask what you'll give me for them, though?"
He nodded, placing a hand on his chin as he examined them. "Uh... Let's get them inside, I'll look them over, then tell you what I'll give you for the lot of them. Sound good?"
She nodded, giving him a thumbs up. "Sure thing. Should I just start dragging them inside, or...?"
He let out a laugh and shook his head. "Nono, I'll get Abigail with some crates out here to help you."
She grinned nice and wide, and felt her heart skip a beat knowing that she'd get to see her friend sooner rather than later. "Awesome! I've wanted to talk to her about something."
Pierre nodded, then headed inside. She could hear him calling for Abigail outside, and Vicky took a moment to make sure she looked alright in the reflection on the door. Abigail liked Sebastian but you could never really know, right? Her hair being short made that a little easier since she didn't have to worry about it so much.
The object of her affections ventured outside a few minutes later, looking a little sleepy but that was to be expected given how early it was, and she was carrying a few plastic crates that they'd be able to put the parsnips in to get them inside. "Hey Vicky", she greeted with a yawn.
"Good morning", she replied, with a wave. "Nice to see you. Hopefully I didn't disrupt your sleep any."
"No, I was just trying to figure out what to have for breakfast when Dad grabbed me, so it's fine."
"Oh, I see. Well, while we're loading these would you like to hear what Mr. Wizard had to say?" She raised an eyebrow with a grin.
"Sure thing. Just don't call him that, he hates it.", she replied with a laugh.
Vicky spent the next few minutes talking to Abigail about what she'd learned from Rasmodius while they loaded the crates with parsnips, Scellia even helping out a bit by placing a couple of parsnips into Vicky's basket when Abigail wasn't looking. Vicky figured she didn't want her friend to see a floating parsnip fly into a crate. They also spoke a bit about how things on the farm were doing, and Vicky mentioned that it was somewhat lonely with nobody to talk to. Smooth as ever. Scellia gave her a bit of an offended look, but Vicky shot her a glare of her own. She was trying to work her game here, man.
Abigail laughed quietly, then stood as the last parsnip was loaded into a crate. "You know, I could give you my number? You could call if you ever want a chat. And I can text you when things are going on in town or I learn about anything interesting you might want to know?"
"Yeah that'd be great!" Inwardly rejoicing, she pulled out her phone and punched in Abigail's number. "And there we go." She texted Abigail a smiley face just to make sure it was right, and then the two of them began carrying the crates inside.
While they were waiting for Pierre to count and examine the parsnips, Vicky glanced to the side. "Hey, I heard something about an old abandoned Community Center or something? Sounds like a cool place to explore, right?"
"Yeah. I've been in there a few times. Vincent and Jas, Jodi's son and Marnie's niece, go play there sometimes. They built a little hut thing inside."
"Want to show me around? We could bring breakfast, make a little excursion out of it." She internally crossed her fingers as she waited.
Abigail thought it over for a moment, then shrugged. "I'll pass. I have some schoolwork to do before it gets too far in the day."
Damn.
"Alright. I'll go ask Lewis about it, Rasmodius said he'd know more."
Pierre glanced up at the two of them, from Abigail to Vicky. "Did she introduce him to you? Kind of an odd old man. Never comes into town much."
Vicky turned to look to Pierre. "I got a letter from him in the mail asking to go have a chat."
"Ah, so like Abby-" Abigail scoffed at the nickname. "-did then. She goes out there and sees him at least once a week, right?"
Abigail nodded, and Pierre gave her sort of an odd look for a moment before he turned back to the Parsnips. "Anyway, by my count I'll be able to give you right around a thousand G for all this."
Vicky let out a noise, drawing a laugh from Abigail and a raised eyebrow from Pierre. "Sorry! I just... that's not overpaying, is it?"
"Not at all, it's a completely fair price. These are really high quality, and you have a couple of really big ones in here."
"Great!" She leaned over the counter, looking into the glass display box recessed into it. "Can I buy some more seeds?"
"Certainly!" He gestured to the box, then pointed at one section near the top. "Anything listed in the 'Spring' box, prices are underneath."
Abigail wandered off after saying bye to Vicky while she and Pierre discussed seeds, and soon afterward she left with a healthy bunch of brand new seeds for her farm in a paper bag. She returned to find Scellia napping in the wheelbarrow, which she carefully dropped the bag into. That woke the little dragon up, and she started sniffing at the bag and all the different kinds of seeds that Vicky'd gotten. Cauliflower, Green Beans, Kale, Potatoes, and of course more Parsnips, along with a few flower seeds to start a little garden near the front of her house.
Vicky decided to leave her bike at Pierre's store after asking him if it was alright, leaving the little dragon to sleep, and wandered around town to see who she could find awake this early. It had gotten a little later after her errand at Pierre's shop, and she was able to find a few people up and about in town. She met Alex outside of Evelyn and George's house, who turned out to be his Grandparents, and she chatted with him a bit and thanked him for making sure her house had been clear. She found Sam, one of the others who'd gone to check out her farm, and thanked him as well as introducing herself. He was a little bit of an odd one by her measure, with comic book-esque hair, and wearing a bright blue jacket.
She also ran into a young woman named Emily with bright blue hair, though she didn't have too much time to talk. It turned out she worked with Gus, the owner of the Saloon, and was heading over to make preparations for their busiest night of the week. She also met Jodi outside of her home, waiting with Vincent for someone named Penny to arrive, and introduced herself to the both of them, as well as Jas when she turned up from Marnie's farm, and then Penny when she also arrived to take the two of them off to the library.
After talking with them a bit and allowing them to head off on their way and saying goodbye to Jodi, Vicky ventured back into town. She still had a little bit of money left over, not wanting to spend every coin she'd earned on new seeds and overwhelm herself, and she wanted to go visit Harvey and get that checkup she'd been missing. To tell the truth, it had been quite a while since she'd visited a doctor at all.
When she arrived at the building, just to the side of Pierre's shop and partially attached, she found Mayor Lewis standing outside near a tree. "Hello Mayor! Good to see you."
"Vicky! Lovely to see you in town. I haven't seen you in a couple of days, are things going okay?"
"More than okay, actually." She gestured to the little bike and 'trailer' leaning against Pierre's store. "I pulled up my first harvest and brought them to Pierre today. I know you said you'd come pick them up but I wanted to come into town anyway to introduce myself to more people, and I wanted to sell the first ones myself."
He smiled and nodded. "I was wondering if that was yours. It's great that you're doing so well so far. What're you up to at the moment?"
"I'm going to go see Dr. Harvey and get a checkup, it's been a while."
Lewis smiled, shaking a finger in her direction. "Good thing then! Can't have our newest resident getting sick. I'll let you go then, and enjoy your stay in town."
"Oh, I will. I'm planning to stay until tonight so I can mingle at the Saloon."
"Wonderful! Wonderful, I'll look for you there."
She nodded and headed into the clinic, the door swinging open with a quiet tinkling noise. She found Dr. Harvey standing behind the counter, a somewhat mousey looking man with tousled hair and a pair of glasses wearing a green suit and tie.
"Hello! You must be Vicky, the new farmer. Have you come for your checkup?" He ventured to ask.
"I have! It's good to meet you. Is there a wait period?" She gestured to one of the chairs nearby in the waiting room. It looked very clean and a little warmer than most clinics that she'd seen, more of a homey type of place than she was used to.
"No, you're actually the first person to come in today, I'll be able to take you right now." He gestured for her to head through the door straight ahead of her. "Right this way and I'll see you immediately."
While Vicky was being examined he let slip that he was glad she'd come in, most of the villagers were in good shape and usually only came in for their yearly checkup and shots, though a few of them came in more often for regular visits, mostly George, or when they got sick or hurt. He also mentioned that he sold a few over the counter medicines, mostly for tiredness and energy since most of the work done in the area was physical in nature, along with headache medicine and a few other medical staples.
She checked out with a clean bill of health, and before he let her leave he informed her that he'd pull her records from the city in a few days, just so he'd have a more-complete record of her medical history. Vicky waved goodbye and left not long after, deciding he was a rather nice man to have for a doctor.
By the time she finished up it was just after lunch, and she decided she'd head over to the Saloon to grab a bite to eat, and then perhaps go take Mayor Lewis up on his offer to go visit the Community Center, though he hadn't offered quite yet. Sometimes it's nice to have a Wizard around so you'll know what to expect.
After lunch and meeting Gus, a jolly man who'd insisted that her drinks tonight would be on the house if she stopped by as promised, she headed back over to Lewis' home. "Hey, Lewis. Anything interesting going on in town today?"
"Not today, I'm afraid. Other than the weekly meetup tonight in the Saloon, that is." He stood from where he was kneeling at a small flowerbed in front of his home. "I did want to talk to you, though."
Vicky nodded, standing still and putting her hands into her pockets. "Sure! What about?"
"Have you seen the old Community Center outside of town?"
Damn, he was right after all.
"No I haven't, but someone mentioned it to me. Why?"
He waved with a hand, gesturing for Vicky to follow him as he began walking. "I wanted to show it to you. And talk to you a little bit."
"Sure thing, Mayor." She kept her hands in her pockets as they walked, and it didn't take long for them to cross the square and start heading up into the area north of town. There was a grand old tree here with a few things carved into the trunk, and Vicky was elated to spot a "P+G" carved into a heart halfway up the trunk. There was a nice little park in this area as well, and once they crested a small hill, she caught sight of the old Community Center. It looked like it had once been an important and loved building, judging by the size and position of it near the park, but it had clearly fallen into disuse and disrepair. "So what happened to this place?"
"Well, as I mentioned before, when Joja moved in... it sort of seemed like people just stopped caring. There were less people in town so a large central area wasn't really necessary, and the head of maintenance, a lovely old man by the name of Paul, died just afterward. We couldn't find anyone to replace him, and the building is rather old. After a while things started to break down. When the boiler finally went we didn't have a choice." He let out a quiet sigh and put his hands in his pockets, staring at the old building for a few minutes, and Vicky let him reminisce in peace.
He looked down after a moment and pulled a keyring out of his pocket, flipping through it with a finger until he held one large iron key up and looked at Vicky with a bit of a smile. "Would you like to go inside?"
"Sure! I love exploring things." She pulled her hands out of her pockets as well, and followed as he began to lead her toward the building.
She had to help him push the door open once he'd finally managed to undo the lock, very nearly frozen shut after years of neglect. How are the kids getting in here? Must be a small entrance somewhere.
Sure enough, there was evidence of small child inhabitation, a few coloring books and toys, and even an odd little hut in the corner. Lewis led her over to what looked like it had once been a large aquarium and gestured around himself. "Well, here it is. This was a little display of things available in town to show tourists when they stopped by, we used to keep live fish in this tank. Willy took care of them after it closed. Over there used to be a desk that was manned by a lovely young woman whose name I can't remember at the moment, she moved away when her parents did. Off in that direction," he gestured to the west, "There was a large communal craft room with a loom and things like that, and a few desks where volunteer teachers could instruct children. High School is handled not far away, but that bus doesn't run from the larger town as there aren't any kids of proper age in the area right now."
He put his hands in his pockets again as he glanced around, and it was a few minutes before he continued. "Further than the craft room was a pantry and kitchen, we used to have big communal dinners every Saturday that everyone would bring dishes and ingredients for and spend what time they could to help preparing or cleaning up afterward. Off that way," he turned east, "is the mayor's office and the boiler/maintenance room. There's a big vault in there where we used to store things important to the town, the key to the city, the treasury money, things like that. I keep it all at home now in a much smaller safe."
He sighed quietly, then glanced back to Vicky with a curious look. "What do you think of it all?"
She gave him a sad smile. "I think it's incredibly unfortunate that this place is abandoned like this. I wonder what it would cost to get it fixed up again."
"More than we can afford. If anyone else buys a Joja membership I'm just going to sell it to them." He sighed again, then gestured for the door. "I have some things I need to do in town. I'll leave the door open, you can come explore whenever you want."
"Alright. Have a good evening, Mayor." She waved as he headed out, gently closing the door behind him.
Vicky went for a little walk around the place, just exploring and checking out all the different rooms. Just as he'd stated, the building was in an extreme state of disrepair and she was surprised it hadn't come down yet. However, she found something interesting in the craft. A Junimo had been standing near some sort of golden plaque laying on the floor, though it bounced away and disappeared when she got close.
When she bent to examine it, she was momentarily stunned by some kind of impression of information on her mind, and the plaque glowed gently.
We are the Junimo, and we are here to help. Collect these items so that we may use their magic or as ingredients, and we shall pay you with help to the town!
She got flashes of the other rooms in the building as a new plaque appeared on the floor of each one, complete with an attendant Junimo. Vicky returned to her own self a few seconds later, blinking her eyes as the visions faded from her mind and she was able to see the room again.
Vicky sighed quietly, slowly pushing herself to her feet. "I'm getting real tired of weird magical shit happening all the time. You'd think they could at least ask first."
It didn't take long for her to confirm that, yes, plaques had appeared in the other rooms, complete with lists of items and names engraved upon them. She had no idea why they wanted some of the things they did, but she supposed she didn't really have to understand tiny little magical creatures and their whims, as long as they did what was promised.
I wonder if this is what the wizard's vision was. Maybe I'll ask him.
She sighed quietly and headed back into town, sparing one look back at the Community Center as she crossed the little hill, when an odd thought strayed through her head.
All it took was one company to tear everything down. I wonder if one person can build it back up again.
Vicky stared a moment longer, then turned and headed down the stairs, leaving the old building behind.
