Summer - 3 - xxx2
Elli's in an unusually chipper mood this morning, kissing me when I wake up and saying,
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"Not that I disagree, but...What brought this on today, specifically?"
"You know, I'm not really sure myself. I just looked over...And I felt that it was true. Maybe I've just gotten used to things enough to say that."
She has a point -- it hasn't been very long, but it has been a month... We know what life might just have in store.
I hug her before I head out the door.
A wonderful life, huh? I guess I've satisfied what my grandfather was asking for.
As I head into the mountain, I feel my spirits buoying up. I go check on the big blue flower. It doesn't need tending anymore, but I do like seeing it. It makes a person happy.
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Yeah, it's pretty impressive.
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...It's not that impressive, man. Calm down. It's a flower. A flower that leaves you oddly soothed just by its presence, almost releasing happiness into the air...But it's. a. flower.
Don't jump around due to flowers.
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"Hope left?"
Popuri was talking about eerily-accurate descriptions of the magical business at play here.
"For that! For that, most precious of things! For the sign that all is not lost! Hope!"
...So. I've been kissed by a goddess and summoned grape spirits with blood. I've given children's toys to elves, and eaten fruit from a kappa. I've turned water into gold and, to the shock of everyone who ever knew me, gotten married.
And you're the craziest thing I've ever seen.
I head back and try to talk to the elves about this...
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But they're busy freaking out about monkeys being back in the area.
So I keep going up, up, up the mountains. The man was pacing outside the restaurant -- it occurs to me that before I came in, I'd never seen him outside before, like he didn't exist until I opened the door.
"I was thinking about your grandfather. It seemed like just yesterday he had a son your age..."
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"Wait, wouldn't that be time passing quickly?"
"Ah, but time passes slowly. Like a cloud of time around us, each day seeming so great, but down there, it all moves by like a blur."
He heaved a melencholy
"Did you ever meet my dad?"
"Ah, that...That's the story for another day."
Drat.
On my way down, I start passing out flowers from my field.
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"So thanks, Bro! Getting flowers are so nice."
He smiled cheerfully.
I run all around, but there's not much to say about that.
I finish the day by going to the bar, giving away more blossoms...
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"longer...Just until they're ready to take it all over."
I guess it must be a relief, seeing things finally go right.
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And, having heard the talk, headed home to plant some more grass.
Summer - 4 - xxx2
I check the weather.
"It appears that tommorow, a..."
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"Be sure to lock up tight! And bring animals inside!!"
...Well, that's...ominous. I don't think the goddess will protect me this time.
"There's a typhoon coming, right? We better get ready."
"Yeah, I'll probably bringing in animals all day."
She nods.
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"So I can get supplies in case there's a power outage or the like."
A power outage...Typhoons are serious business. I've never experienced one before -- just the word has an ominous energy... Do I need to board up the windows? That's a thing you do for typhoons, right? And...Um...Build a cellar?
Ok, I don't have time to build a cellar. I don't even know if the ground will *support* a cellar. And you probably can't
Curses, foiled again by architectural logistics.
...You don't want to know why I was foiled by architectural logistics the first time.
When I leave the house, I see something I never expected.
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Harvest Sprites on my lawn.
"Hey, guys. What's happening? Is there some sort of supernatural crisis requiring my vaguely-defined attention?"
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"Yeah, it was on the forecast. What about it?"
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"Them?" I'm not sure what they mean for a minute.
"Your animals! It's not safe for you outside, but they'll get sick if you don't feed them, right?"
I...I didn't even think about that. Typhoons can be a lot of trouble...
"Thanks. Thank you so much," I say, trying to come to grips with them having solved a problem I did not even anticipate.
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They leave the farm in single file, like a tiny marching line.
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For the next several hours, I do nothing but put animals in my barn. For most of the cows, it goes quickly, but my sheep are stubborn little buggers.
They're antsy -- they feel the storm looming. They don't know I've enlisted magical assistance.
When they're all in, I make sure I feed them, just in case. I never know if they've eaten or not and it's a pain.
I wonder if that flower will be OK. I paused and try and figure out why the thought crossed my mind. But still. I wonder if there's something I can do.
...Well, if I'm going to be thinking that, I might as well go see, right? Thoughts don't just randomly happen.
On my way up, I spot some of the kids: I guess they've been missing me at school, because May and Kent both have questions.
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"With summer, the world's positioned so it's in the sunlight longer."
"Oh...Are you sure it's not so I can have a later bedtime?"
"That not the reason, but it might be a consequence. Ask your dad."
May's is easy...
And Kent's is kind of embaressing.
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We...We have not exactly talked about -- I mean, I know it's a goal, but I'm not sure we're in a stable enough position to -- maybe next --
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Oh, that's the way it is, huh?
"Pfff. Kent, let me ask you something: do you know?"
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"...married. But to grow, they need your love, too."
Awww, isn't that cute? BUT IT'S WRONG!
"Kent, this is a serious adult matter, not to be taken lightly...So, honestly, I don't know what our plan is. I think we intend to wait."
He leaned forward and whispered to me:
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"...Well, that's... Look, your grandpa knows something about medicine. Ask him."
Honestly, Kent's version is tidier. I would have been less worried in my party days.
I also want to thank the Harvest Sprites again.
[color=red]"It's no trouble," the leader tells me, when I explain it.
"Typhoons aren't dangerous to us. But..."
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So...They're afraid of people, snakes, and squirrells... But not hundred-mile-per-hour winds. Right.
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"Or they'll get you."
"I'll be careful, then."
I suppose... I mean, I don't need to worry about them.
At last, though, I pry away from socializing to go see the flower.
Popuri's visiting, too, and so is...
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A vivid butterfly,
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That's not emerald-colored, I want to say. It's Amethyst, if anything.
But something about it is too pretty for my usual brand of snarky corrections. The butterfly's wings shimmer as they beat the air, shedding a thin layer of dusty scales into the air of a summer afternoon. Besides, more than emerald or amethyst, it's a jewel-less shimmer in a twilight color, rich in shade as an eggplant, with a lacquer gleam.
It circles the blue flower like a beacon, and I feel something serene and far-away from my typhoon-omen worries seep through me. It seems to me, as the butterfly's wings cross the blue petals in my line of sight, like some sort of purple moon, circling the oceans of a blue world, like ours.
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"...Yeah, you're right."
She looks as awed by it as I am, a nearly divine smile on her face -- she's always struck me, in moments like this, as a little bit supernatural and otherworldly, maybe more so than some magic things. I wonder if the strangeness of those thoughts is that the Goddess wanted me -- and her, too, why not -- to see this moment, our efforts, before they are snatched away by gale winds.
"Is it a sign, of how much things have changed?" She asks, her voice almost sing-song.
"Or is it an omen...Things will change again, more brillaint and beautiful than before?"
She lifts her eyes to the horizon, the butterfly circling somewhere in the middle of her line of sight.
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And then he charges in like a rhino and kills the mood.
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He is way too excited...But I'm not sure I can blame him.
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"The color is purple," I mutter, that peaceful feeling dissolving. Also, wasn't he looking for a blue -- an azure -- butterfly?
Is everyone here colorblind?
...Am I?
No. No. The grass, which is green, is a clearly different color than this.
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At least it's not the creepy cameraman. Popuri eyes the net he has and comments,
"Alright, but this is precious, so that's all you'll take."
Her words, delivered in the soft pink cloud of her voice, are an unescapable order.
The flash startled the butterfly, which moves further and further away in an aimless, but certain, drift.
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...Probably, so will I.
I head back down and decide to go fish by the ocean...
And discover I've walked in on an intimate moment, Kai and Karen standing, watching the waves together. I remember when she'd watch them alone like this.
The two of them seem cozy, and she rests her head on his shoulder, but jerks it up when she hears my footsteps. She looks embaressed.
"Taking a break?"
They nod, looking sheepish. They look so shy, for a married couple, that I can't help but laugh.
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"Sounds nice. Well, I'll...leave you be...I forgot my fishing rod, anyway."
That's not even an excuse. I really did.
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I try and do a little fishing, but everything's been scared by the storm.
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I bring the dog in so the storm won't hurt him -- Agro, though...Agro just has to shelter in the stable. There's sadly nothing more I can do.
Summer - 5 - xxx2
Outside, the wind pounds, and the rain fills the air with dulling white noise, broken only by the shaking of the trees. The storm started probably sometime before dawn, but it's a little hard to place. Time seems to stand still -- for the most part, we're
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TV's out, but we still have lights, anyway. For now.
The dog's not scared -- I guess ...
But Elli's been peering anxiously out the window, then pacing back behind the bed. She looks uneasy.
"Something wrong?"
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"Of the storm?"
"Don't laugh," I was not.
"It's just...Listen to that. We could all be blown away. A tree could fall. The greenhouse could explode into a shower of glass...Nature is vast and uncontrollable. I know it's silly, but..."
"It's not silly when you put it like that." That glass-shard one was pretty formidable. I wrap my arm around her. "But, hey. We're at least together. In light of that...I think we'll be OK."
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We went to bed...But I can't say that, it being so early and all, we really were sleeping right away.
Summer - 6 - xxx2
The next morning, it had passed. The storm knocked everything around, and now the remainder celebrated openly.
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"Thanks."
Now to go look out over the farm.
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It looks like all the extensions are alright. And Agro's doing just fine, too.
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I don't feel like spending all day bringing them outside again. Maybe tommorow.
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Oh, this must be from that entymologist...
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The camera man? The bug-man is the camera man? I thought the camera man was the camera man!
Everything I know is wrong! I need to re-evaluate everything!
And...Oh no.
My nemesis was so close. I could have yelled at him to his face, frequently, for like a month. I must find him again.
...After I look at this picture.
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My worst angle.
I head up into the mountains to find him...
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But only find the flower. Well, at least that's there.
I head into town and make a quick circle through, just talking to people. There's a lot of people I haven't spoken to recently, or much at all.
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Like the midwife. Why is everyone suddenly on us about having kids?
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After that, I wander through my fields, checking for damages. The grass is fine, but the flowers were torn up...
While I'm thinking of possible improvements, I'd like to try and have a less rocky fence. More like a normal fence, you know?
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So I run and get a bit of lumber, that I could start working on that eventually.
Summer - 7 - xxx2
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"It looks like it'll be a nice day for that." The sun, now fully recovered from the clouds in the wake of the typhoon, is shining brightly. It looks like a good day to hang around in the warmth.
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Holmes is up to medium milk now, which makes me decide this is a good day for bringing them all back out.
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THEY CONVERGE.
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But they all go out easily with a bit of herding, and it's not long until they're all in their places.
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I head out and buy some chicken feed, since I'm running low.
The rest of the day passes quietly.
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I log a bit on a quick mountain trip...
And find Elli waiting for me at home, in the evening.
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"The 'Bamboo Float.'"
"Bamboo float?" I thought, having been here for a year, I'd have seen all the festivals.
"It's...sort of a tradition for families around here. You take a bamboo boat and float it downriver. You make a wish, and that..."
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"And it's tonight?"
"It's just a night in summer, when it seems like the right night; like I said, it's not a formal event. It's...just the two of us, tonight."
She said with a smiler warmer than the summer sunset.
"Well, let's go, then."
If she says it's right with a look like that, how can I argue?
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When we get to the water's edge, walking hand in hand in the blossoming twilight, she pulls a cut of bamboo from her bag. True to the expectation, it's boat-shaped, split in half.
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"...Happiness. As a family."
I say, after giving up on saying something that didn't sound silly or sappy or trite. At this, she leans into my shoulder and smiles. I know what she means by that.
I set the boat into the cool water...
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And we watch the current take it somewhere far away. It hits a rough spot by the bridge, but in the end, it pulls through, and falls away from sight.
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I'm reminded of being a kid and doing this, for no stakes at all -- no wishes hanging on it, and the expectation of a million failures to that lone stick making its way through the river that ran through the city, a park built around some of the prettier banks.
"What about you?"
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She blushes and laughs into her hand.
"If I told you, it wouldn't come true!"
"Oh, but I told you?"
"That's your loss, honey."
She said with a bright smile. We laugh as she puts her boat into the water, and, like mine, it drifts away into the night. Good luck, boats full of un-stated wishes.
We walk home quietly in the dark, thinking of dreams unspoken.
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