Hi guys! Here is chapter 3! I hope you are liking the story so far! PLEASE please feel free to leave comments/reviews. Any feedback is greatly appreciated and I would LOVE to hear from you readers. Write more to you soon! xoxo
Jack was rarely tired and had an almost uncanny amount of energy about him, but lately things had been different. It had been a few days since he had begun his new life as a farmer in Mineral Town and he felt a certain sense of ennui as he looked out his window to his disheveled looking field.
He was never much of a procrastinator and, as such, never really understood how or why people didn't want to "do" things- especially things they apparently wanted to do. But, today he understood how they felt in a sense. Jack clearly didn't know much about farming and thus, didn't really know what to tackle first. He was beginning to grasp just how difficult restoring the farm was going to be.
Jack yawned as he embraced the day and stepped outside. It was cloudy out- the perfect shopping weather! He thought to himself. Jack pulled on his rucksack and headed into town…secretly hoping he might run into Elli along the way. He fixed his hat and smiled to himself as he remembered her.
The supermarket didn't open until 9:00, so Jack decided to walk nice and slow… He needed to waste time considering it was only 8:30. He started to ponder all sorts of things. As he thought back to his past, he realized that he didn't actually know very much about his grandfather at all. Besides the summer they spent together on the farm, he relied on stories to paint the man he distantly admired.
Jack wasn't close with many of his family members. In fact, he heard about his grandfather's death via an anonymous letter telling him to contact Mayor Thomas of Mineral Town. The more he thought about the ambiguity of that letter, the more he wondered who decided to contact him in the first place. He assumed it to be a distant family member who found his name through the grapevine and thought that he may be interested in running the farm. Come to think of it…Jack was never informed of how his grandfather died. He assumed it was "old age", but what did "old age" consist of? Was it an illness? A heart condition? He really hadn't given it much thought before.
Jack realized the time was 9:10 and snapped back to reality. He would ponder the mystery of his grandfather later. He had serious work to do! He ran up to the door of the supermarket, fixed his hat, and entered.
It was the first time he had been inside the supermarket in many years. He remembered accompanying his grandfather to buy seeds and not being able to see above the table. Oh how times had changed.
The store was empty with the exception of a black-haired man standing behind the cash register. "Welcome." Said the man. He almost looked sick to his stomach…
"Hi! I'm Jack…I'm new around here. I'm…not completely sure what exactly I am here to buy, but I definitely need some seeds for my farm. Gotta make that money if you know what I mean!"
"Hi Jack. I'm Jeff. I wish I could be more help, but I don't know too much about farming. We have a variety of spring seeds- ahhh!" Jeff groaned.
"Are you ok, man?" Jack asked.
"Yes. Don't worry about m- UGH!" Jeff was starting to turn pale. Something was clearly making him sick. Clearly he needed to be taken to the clinic…where Elli happened to be working. Perhaps it was a cosmic sign!
"You, my friend, are going to the clinic right now. Come with me." Jack reached out his hand to help Jeff up and over to the door. Luckily the clinic was just next door to the supermarket.
The pair made their way to the clinic and stumbled through the door. The doctor didn't budge- per usual.
"Oh no, Jeff not again!" Elli exclaimed. Apparently this wasn't the first time Jeff had this illness. Elli rushed over and took Jeff's hand. "Come with me." She sighed despairingly.
She walked him over to a bed and brought him a handful of pills. "Take these!" She said as she handed him a cup of water. Elli had yet to say a word to Jack or even make eye contact with him, which made him feel a sense of defeat. He silently sunk as he realized she most likely hadn't been thinking about him as often as he had been thinking about her and turned to leave.
"Umm hi Jack! What are you just going to ignore me and leave? Tehe!" Elli jabbed jokingly. The doctor shot him an eagle-like gaze at Jack as if to be intimidating. Jack was caught off guard and made some awkward remark in attempt to play it cool. Naturally, he failed.
"Heh heh oh, Elli! Hi! Me? leave without saying anything? Psh no way! In fact…well I was just about to-" and before he could say another word the door flew open.
"OK, where is he?! DAD! I KNOW YOU'RE IN HERE! YOU BETTER HAVE A-"
"Oh, Karen calm down! He's over here resting." Elli tried to disarm the situation.
Karen marched over to her father's bed and pulled open the curtain.
"You can't just LEAVE the shop open like that, Dad! We can't afford to loose any more money! People could just walk in there and take whatever they want! Ohhhh wait, but people do that when you're there anyway DON'T THEY. And you just LET IT HAPPEN."
She boldly marched over to the doctor sitting in his chair. "Oh, don't pretend this isn't partially YOUR fault, buddy. MAYBE if you considered paying your damn tab once in a while he wouldn't be so stressed like this! Or maybe you WANT him to get sick for the sake of your own business. Is THAT what this is? I mean I wouldn't be surprised since-"
"Karen, that's enough!" Elli shouted. "Just go back to work and let your dad rest…He will be better in an hour or two." The doctor looked down at a book he was reading as if to avoid any sort of interaction.
"Fine." Karen stormed towards the door, anger fuming from her every pore. She stopped in front of Jack. "Who the hell are you and what are you looking at?" She demanded.
"…I'm Jack. I just moved here to restore my grandfather's farm." Jack had no other words. He was dumbfounded by the whole situation.
"Jack. What a unique name. " Karen said sarcastically.
"…Yea." Jack said, clueless. "I was named after my grandfather John actually, I'm sure you knew him."
Karen jolted to look at Elli. Elli looked down as if trying to hide her expression.
"Hah. Well good luck making friends in this clinic. If I were you, I would look elsewhere." Karen suggested.
What was she talking about? Why wouldn't Elli and the doctor like him…because of his name? Was he missing something?
"Anyway, whatever. Bye Elli…Bye farmerboy." She chuckled as she exited.
Jack noticed that Elli was still looking down.
"Ok, well…I better get back to work then."
"Ok, bye Jack. I hope to see you around! Don't let Karen discourage you by the way." Elli smiled at Jack and he smiled back. For once, the doctor wasn't glaring at Jack as they interacted. Instead, he was looking down too.