Sunday, 28th of Spring

When Alma awoke, she heard the calming sound of rain - and hammering. Bisclavret was curled up on the floor, and when she saw him, she patted her bed. He instantly knew the cue and jumped up on the bed, licking her before settling down again on top of her. She lay in bed a bit, cuddling him with her eyes closed on this, the last day of spring. She thought through what all has happened since she arrived in Stardew Valley, and she wondered what summer would bring. Her mind wandered through time, and she could feel the familiar pangs of stress and regret and wonder and grief, but she also felt the new emotions that were happening more and more often: hope, anticipation, fulfillment, inspiration, determination …. This made her want to get up and start her day. Bisclavret jumped off her when he felt her movement, and she dressed in her overalls and topped herself off with her straw hat. She rubbed the dog's head one more time before stepping outside.

Alma first went to the mailbox. She said hi to Robin, but the carpenter was again too busy to answer. Alma looked at her mail and saw an official-looking letter. Usually letters from people in town had her name handwritten on the outside. Letters from her dad were also handwritten with her name and address. But this one was printed, with a "SVT" seal on the back. She wondered who it could be, and she took it back to the porch so she could read it under the covering of the awning.

"Greetings, Alma.

It is our pleasure to inform you that your farm will be featured in next week's 'up and coming' column of the Stardew Valley Tribune! Congratulations. We're impressed with your quick progress. We have contacted Mayor Lewis to set up a phone interview and a photo shoot within the week. We look forward to speaking with you!

SVT"

"Me?! Wow!" She looked out over the farm. It was a little dinky-looking now, with the last of the spring crops not even producing anything and her chickens inside from the rain. She wondered what there even was to report! A productive spring harvest, with the addition of a coop - complete with two chickens - a furnace, kiln, and now an addition to the house? ...Yeah, actually, Alma thought; she had been doing pretty well. She folded up the letter and headed out into the farm.

She went first to check the chicks and saw that they had grown into adult hens! "Aw, look at you two!" she cooed, scooping them up. She hugged Henriette and Little Red, and as she held them, she spotted two small eggs nestled in the hay. She gasped and placed the two of them back carefully on the ground before going to pick up the eggs. "They're still warm!" Alma wiped off the dirt, straw, and feces and placed them carefully in her bag. "Pierre's not getting these ones. These are special." The chickens clucked and sounded a bit perturbed, and when Alma looked up, she realized that because it was raining, they wouldn't go out to eat the grass. "Oh! You're hungry! Let me go see if Marnie has some food for you all. I'll be right back." Alma ducked back out of the coop and trekked through the mud down to Marnie's.

"Oh Alma!" Marnie cried when she came in. "You're soaked, you poor thing."

Alma took off her hat and wiped her shoes on the mat before coming in. "Oh, I'm all right, Marnie, thank you. But I'll tell you, my chickens were looking pretty peckish. You have anything I can give them?"

"Oh, yes! They need hay!"

"Hay! Of course!" Alma said, smacking her forehead. "And how much is it to buy some?"

"Just ten gold a bunch, dear."

Alma gave her the money for several bunches. "Thank you so much!" she said as she put her hat back on and opened the door.

"You know, Alma," Marnie said before she left, "you might even ask Robin if she'd build a silo for you. That way, you can cut grass and store it as hay for rainy days or the winter."

"That's a thought! But I've got some other things that will probably take priority. But, yes, I will keep that in mind before winter comes! Thank you, Marnie." She rushed back to her farm and went back inside the coop. "I'm back, girlies - with food!" She placed the hay out on the feeding trough and watched them happily pull it apart. She patted them each another time before heading out to store the rest of the hay in the chest by the house. A silo would be a good investment, but she had her eyes on a barn next. But definitely before winter, that would be a good thing to have, she thought.

Alma looked in the chests and wondered what she should do today. There were no crops to take care of, she couldn't plant for summer yet, the chickens were okay, there wasn't anything to sell, no immediate tasks that needed doing …. Maybe she could fish or go to the mines? She went inside the cabin to check on Welwick's spirit reading for the day. They were very displeased. So maybe the mines wouldn't be a good idea. But maybe she could do some fishing. She probably wouldn't catch much, but something was still better than nothing. So she got her fishing rod and went into town.

As Alma passed by the clinic, she thought about the two eggs in her bag. Dr. Harvey would probably appreciate having one, and she was excited to tell him about the first eggs from her first chickens. She told herself before that she wasn't going to just pop into the clinic anymore, but that was before their conversation about the Flower Dance … and before Gunther's comment at the library. Maybe … Maybe it'd be okay to stop in.

When she walked into the clinic, no one was there at the front desk. "Dr. Harvey?" she called, taking off her hat and smoothing back her wet hair. There was no answer. She pushed the waiting room doors open and looked in the medical rooms. "Dr. Harvey? Are you here?" She figured he must be in his apartment. She looked at the back doors and remembered what he said, that the door was unlocked and that she was welcome to come by any time. She carefully pushed the doors open and came up the stairs. "Dr. Harvey?"

"Ms. Alma? I-Is that you?"

"Yes, may I come up?"

"Please do!" As she came up the stairs, she could hear the faint sound of jazz music. He was there, standing in front of the bookshelf, reading a book. His coat was off, his tie was loosened, and his sleeves were rolled up. "Sorry for my, uh, appearance; it gets a bit hot up here, especially in this kind of humidity."

"No worries, it's me who's intruding," she said, wiping her boots on his door mat.

"Not an intrusion at all. If you want to hang out in my apartment, that's okay with me. Since I live above the clinic, I, uh … don't get many visitors." He looked her over and asked, "May I offer you a towel, maybe?"

"No, I'm quite fine. I'll make sure not to sit on anything, though." She put her hat on his coat rack by the door.

"Don't worry about that. It's just that I don't want you to catch a cold."

"I'm fine, Doctor." She chuckled and came to look at the radio. "A cassette tape, huh? Old school." She crouched and could read the label of the tape inside: "Anthology of Classic Jazz."

"Yeah, it ... belonged to my grandfather."

Alma stood back up and looked at him. "Really!"

He nodded and closed the book he was reading, putting it on the shelf. "He's the one who introduced me to – to jazz. He had this big box set of tapes that came with a book published by the Smithsonian, describing over fifty jazz artists, their songs, and careers. It has some of his, uh … some of his favorites." He pulled the book off the shelf and handed it to Alma. The front cover had silhouettes of several jazz performers in gold.

"Like who?" she asked as she flipped through the ragged book.

"Oh, Fats Waller, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Thelonius Monk …. All the ones you'd expect, I guess."

"And which ones do you like?"

He buzzed his lips, shaking his head. "I don't think I have a - a specific favorite. I just like good jazz. But, yeah, his favorites make me especially nostalgic, I guess. He played the bari sax - the-the baritone saxophone, that is. Watching him play was … well, incredible, really. Almost spiritual."

"I can imagine," she said, giving him back the book. "Have you ever played?"

"No," he chuckled, "I'm not - not that talented. Maybe someday. But I experience it, uh, vicariously through other performers like him." Dr. Harvey drummed his fingers on the book in his hands. "Anyway," he said, "enough about me. What brings you here? Everything o-okay on the farm?"

"Everything's great! Robin is still working on the house, and the chickens have grown up! Which means," she teased as she reached around for her bag. She pulled out one of the eggs and held it up. "I brought an egg for you!"

He put the book on the shelf before accepting the egg with a smile. "Thanks. That's very kind of you. I'm going t-to put it down before I break it." He stepped to the kitchen, and Alma took a minute to look at his bookshelf. Most of it was medical reference books, but there were also some books about planes, historical events, music, and self-help.

She laughed and pointed to one book. "Am I reading this right? Do-It-Yourself Knee Surgery?!"

Dr. Harvey laughed and approached her to take it off the shelf. "This was a, uh … gag gift from a classmate in med school at our last Feast of the Winter Star."

He opened it up and showed it to her. The pages had been hollowed out, and a small handsaw and door hinge were nestled inside.

Alma laughed and said, "Okay, good, because I was about to become very worried."

She saw on the inside cover opposite the tools, someone had scrawled in large letters, "Just do the thing, Harv!" The signature was too messy to read, which made sense since it was a future doctor, Alma thought.

"What was 'the thing' they wanted you to do?"

"Oh," he laughed. "That was just, uh … just something a lot of them said to me. It kind of became an inside joke. I was always so scared to do anything. I hesitated too much, questioned too many decisions, and they all just wanted me to take the leap and … well, d-do the thing!" He put the book back on the shelf with another little chuckle.

Alma listened to the tinny music from the old cassette and smiled. "You said that you thought listening to jazz made you feel more sophisticated. I think I get that now." She watched the wheels turn inside the machine. "This wasn't the kind of jazz I was thinking of. This vintage sound is really classy."

Dr. Harvey nodded. "It seems to transport you to a d-different time, doesn't it? A simpler time."

"Mm. A simpler time." She chuckled a little and said, "Y'know, it occurs to me …. You like jazz because it reminds you of your grandfather. That's the whole reason I'm here too, in Stardew Valley. I wanted to live a simpler life, and I wanted to feel close to my grandfather again."

Dr. Harvey nodded again and smiled with a more contemplative smile. "You're right, I - I hadn't thought of that. We have that in common."

Maybe it was that way he looked at her, the soft sound of rain hitting his window, the fact they were alone together in his apartment, or Nat King Cole singing "Nature Boy," but Alma looked up at Dr. Harvey and felt for the first time that maybe there was a deeper connection between them. They scanned each other's faces, and neither of them seemed able to look away. It made Alma's heart beat a little faster, and though she felt a bit of the fight or flight instinct from that halting, familiar glance of a man, it was stifled by the more powerful feeling that came over her: a genuineness - a feeling of care and comfort emanating from Dr. Harvey. Alma saw the sadness pinched at his brows and the nervousness in his darting eyes but also the gentleness and tenderness in parts of his expression that she couldn't put her finger on. She wondered what he was seeing in her eyes too. They both heard the words in the song slowly play behind them: "The greatest thing … you'll ever learn ... is just to love … and be loved ... in return."

Finally, she got back to her senses and looked away, a bit embarrassed. "Sorry, I should - I should go."

"Oh, y-yeah," he stuttered too, pushing up his glasses, "you probably have a lot of work to do today in preparation for the summer season, I guess."

She didn't want to tell him that, no, she was actually pretty open today. "Um, yeah, I'm just going to the river next to do some fishing. See if the fish are biting."

"Ah, okay. Well, thanks - thanks again for the egg. I'm glad your chickens are starting to, uh, produce some for you now."

"Of course, no problem. I hope you enjoy it."

"I'm sure I will." She turned and started making her way to the door, and he walked with her to see her out. She took her hat off the coat hook, and he said, "You sure I - I can't offer you my coat or umbrella or something?"

"I'm fine, really. But thank you." She smiled and waved a little before going down the stairs and out the door. She sighed and tried to shake off the moment before pushing the door open to the rain. Alma made her way to the river and got out her fishing pole. The spirits certainly were upset today; not only were the fish barely biting, but a lot of times, she reeled in useless things like trash, old newspapers, and even Joja Cola, which she promptly threw in the trash. But it didn't matter to her; she kept hearing jazz in her mind and envisioning Dr. Harvey's look in her imagination.