Part 2
Chapter 3: Marty and Lumina(Forget-Me-Not Valley Spring 10, 2108)Several days has passed since Eric and Marty's dispute. Eric knows that he promised Flora that he'll whip Mary into becoming a better farmer, but it's not as easy at it seems. Since Eric feels that he has failed at farming, he believes that he barely has a right to lecture anyone.
Eric has not worn his grandfather's hat since he took it off several days ago. Neither has he worn his farming clothes, he now wears Marty's clothing that he borrowed earlier. His hair still changed from the way he used to have it when he lived in Mineral Town. Under all the clothing, bandages covers his arm and chest. The doctor has placed a light splint on his arm, and ordered him to put minimal strain on it. Time after time, he could still feel the pain from his injuries, but it's not as bad as it was before.
Eric and Flora started working in the mines the other day. Since Eric is still injured, she only allowed him to do easy work. Mostly handing her tools and observing. Since he will be helping her do more serious work after his injuries have healed, he will need to know how to do the work.
His appearance is not the only thing that has changed. Eric has become more of a hermit since he has arrived in Forget-Me-Not Valley. When he first arrived in Mineral Town, he walked around greeting himself to his new neighbors. But now he stays inside the tent most of the time when he is not working. Bot being with Mary is tearing him from the inside. Flora tries to talk to him about his problems, but he doesn't say anything.
Today, Flora and Eric dig down one of the mines exploring for ancient treasures. They go down a few floors examining every inch of the ground and ponding away at large boulders, but they found nothing that day. So they called it a day at 3:00 pm, and got ready for the rest of the day. They parted ways after they reached the entrance of the cave, Flora goes to the blue bar to have a drink, and Eric walks around randomly.
In the bar, Flora orders her usual drinks. She takes off her glasses and takes a deep breath of relief. Working in the mines is much harder than it looks, and having a man working with her only makes her job much easier. She only hopes that Eric can recover soon so that they can work together more efficiently.
Muffy, a blond woman who works at the bar brings Flora her drink. Muffy and Flora are not close friends, but they do chat every now and then. Of all the single women in Forget-Me-Not Valley, Muffy and Flora are the oldest. Muffy being 30 years old, and Flora dragging 3 years behind with 27.
“So, I heard a rumor that you have another guy living with you Flora.” said Muffy trying to get the latest gossip on Eric. “So tell me, is it true?”
Flora takes a sip of her drink, then says, “His name is Eric. I haven't got his last name yet.”
Muffy leans on the bar ready to listen to Flora's story. “So tell me about this guy. How old is he? Is he cute?”
“He's young, 19 turning 20 soon. I have to admit, he does have a cute face, but he looks a lot like Marty, but with longer hair.”
Muffy giggles. She always had a thing for Marty, but he was never interested in her. “I'm already jealous. So, what kind of guy is he? Is he the Casanova who will sweep the girl he likes off her feet, or the quiet shy type?”
Flora lets out a sigh before saying, “I don't know to tell you the truth. He's very mysterious, but he looks like he has a lot on his mind. He doesn't talk much, and he keeps getting lost in thought. He's just so mysterious, you know?”
Muffy leans over to Flora ans whispers in her ear, “If I was in your shoes, I would do whatever it takes to put his mind at ease, and make him mine. Trust me, guys like that don't just fall from the mountains every day! I say go for it!”
Flora blushes, then giggles at how silly Muffy is sounding. Talking about grabbing Eric when they hardly know each other. Not too far from the bar, Eric walks down the main brick road that begins from the bridge, and stretches all the way to a mansion on the other end. As he walks down the road heading towards the bridge, he finds himself in front of Marty's farm.
He stares at the farm for a few moments, and takes a moment to recall what he said to Marty several days ago. He then starts to feel ashamed of himself for allowing himself to speak such aggressive words to another person. At first, he felt that he deserved such harsh words for taking farming so lightly, but then he feels that he is no better than he is. Rather than working hard on his own farm, he abused a magical item so that he could make farming easy and convenient. The price he paid for such a convenience is the loss of his farm, and the woman that he loved. Not to mention that he is lost 100 years into the future, and no idea how to get back.
Standing in front of the farm is not going to accomplish anything, so he walks in to have another chat with Marty. He walks up to the farm house, and knocks on the door, but nobody answers. He feels that it may be best to come back another time. But as soon as he turns around to leave the farm, he finds Marty standing behind him carrying a bottle of milk. The milk bottle tell shim that he was just out milking his cow for his daily calcium.
“Hi there, can I help you?” asked Marty.
Eric stood silently for a moment. But he entered the farm to apologize to Marty, so he bows before him and says, “I'm sorry. I said too much last time I was here. This farm does not belong to me, and I have no right to tell you how to run it.”
Marty laughs and says, “You came to tell me that? I forgot about it a while ago. Just don't worry about it, every thing's fine.”
“Even so, I'm sorry.” continued Eric.
Marty sighs and says, “You were upset and frustrated, and had a lot on your mind. Didn't you?”
Eric finally stands up and looks at Marty. “You could tell?”
“Yeah, you're not very good at hiding your troubles. And not to mention that me and Flora talk from time to time. Considering your situation, I forgave you a long time ago.” Eric takes a sigh of relief. He felt at first that Marty was a terrible person, but now he feels that he has misjudged him. Eric walks past him, and opens his door saying, “Why don't you come inside? I'll make you some coffee, and we'll talk.”
Eric accepted the invitation, and walks in the house. As he sat down to drink the coffee, he looks around the home amazed at what he is seeing. He may be a bad farmer, and the farm is in the worst condition that he has ever seen. But Marty has good taste in interior decorating. All the furniture is neatly organized, and well kept. He cannot find anything dirty, so he assumes that he is a very clean person as well. The cow is happy in that barn, so he must like animals despite the appearance of the farm. The cow must be a pet to him rather than cattle used for making money.
There is another thing that he finds interesting in the house. A single photograph of a young girl resting on a table. By the looks of things, he does not keep any other photographs of family or friends in the house. She looks slightly younger than Marty, ranging around sixteen or seventeen. The way she is posing in the picture, she must have not been aware that the photo was taken.
After they were done with their coffee, Eric feels that he should start a conversation. But the only thing that he had on his mind is that girl in the photograph. “So, who's the girl in the picture?” he asked.
Marty takes a quick look at the photograph, and says, “A friend of mine.”
Eric can see his cheeks blush for a moment. He becomes interested in knowing more about this girl and says, “I see. I thought she was a sister or a cousin. So, is she your girlfriend or lover or something?”
“I admit that I have a small crush on her. But she's not interested in a guy like me. I guess we just come from two different worlds. Please don't misunderstand, she's an incredible person, but everyone has their standards.”
“I see.” said Eric. Seeing that the conversation ended too early, he thought about something else to talk about. “So, if farming is not your thing, why did you become a farmer in the first place?”
“Farming wasn't my idea of a career. It was my father's. He used to own the farm before me. But he died not too long ago, leaving me his farm to care for. I was only inches from turning the farm down, but I needed a job anyway, so here I am. Farming is not the most exciting job in the world, but I make ends meet by mining in the caves independently.”
Eric sighs and says, “I'm sorry about your father. I lost my mother when I was young too.”
“I see.” Marty then stands up and grabs the cups saying, “I'll refill our cups. Be right back.”
As Marty refills the cups in the kitchen, he says in his head, “How strange. I rarely talk to anyone like that. It almost feels like if we're brothers or something. But that's impossible, dad only has one son that I know of.”
He returns to Eric with more coffee, and gives a cup to him. He takes a seat, and starts to sip his coffee. After Eric takes a sip, he wonders about the history of the farm. So he asks, “So, this farm is a family owned farm. How many generations has this farm been around?”
“This farm is pretty new believe it or not. My father built it with his bare hands.” answered Marty.
“Really? I thought that your family had a long history of farmers.” said Eric full of shock.
“Please don't misunderstand. My family does have a long history of farming. But my grandfather was not interested in farming. He became a lawyer, even though his father wanted him to be a farmer.”
The story is becoming familiar to Eric. It sounds similar to the story spoken by Claire when he went over to Mineral Town. He feels that the two stories are just coincidences, but he needs to make sure anyway. “So, I guess that your family used to own a farm somewhere else. Where?”
Marty takes a moment to think, and says, “I think it's the next town over Mineral Town.”
“Mineral Town!!” screamed Eric jumping out of his seat. The sudden outburst shocks Marty, and causes him to spill his coffee. Embarrassed as he is, he took his seat again, and says, “Sorry about that. I used to live in Mineral Town a long time ago. So I was a little surprised to know that your family once had a farm in Mineral Town.”
“It's fine, don't worry about it.” said Marty. He pulls out a small towel out of his pocket to clean the spilled coffee. However, a familiar looking necklace dangles out of the pocket for a moment. Eric's eyes widen as he recognizes that it's the same exact necklace that his mother passed to him when he was only a child. However he only notices half the necklace, the half he owns. He digs in his pocket, and feels that he still has his. He gave the other half to Mary after confessing his love for her the very first time. The series of coincidences were coming together, but he was still skeptical that all of this is even possible.
After cleaning up the coffee, Marty ran over to the kitchen so that he can clean the towel before it stains. He returns to the den and sits down.
Eric is curious to know. He wants to find out of this person who looks a lot like him. Is he related to him or not? So he takes a deep breath and asks, “You wouldn't happen to know what your great-grandparent's names are? The ones who ran a farm?”
He takes another moment to answer, “I didn't get my great grandfather's name, but I do know my great grandmother's. I was named after her actually. Her name was Mary.”
(Mineral Town Winter 20, 2007)Mary is silent. She had just been proposed by Gray, a dear friend that she cherishes very much. But even so, she only sees him as a friend, and her heart belonged to only one person. That man is Eric, and him alone. She had butterflies in her stomach, she wants to tell him her answer. But she has cornered her in an uncomfortable situation. He proposed on her birthday, and in her house in front of her parents above all things. She needs Eric by her side right now, but he is nowhere to be found.
She is trembling, scared to give her answer. Saying no at that moment might end her friendship with Gray. He is one of the few friends that she has. Losing that will hurt, but she cannot accept his proposal either. But then, she thought about the times she had with Marty. Starting from the childhood past that they share, the day that they were reunited 10 years later, the sweet words he whispered in her ear, the times that he stood by her and listened to her play the piano. All those moments, and even the imperfect ones where they would spat over the smallest things, and then they would make up the next day. These moments gave her courage to give a proper answer.
“I'm sorry Gray, I can't.” Those words shock Gray enough to drop the blue feather, and stood up eyes wide open. He thought that he planned everything perfectly so that she would accept his confession and proposal. But he was unaware of how close Mary is to Eric. All the long hours in the blacksmith's shop caused him to miss the times that he could have spent with Mary.
“Gray, I do like you, but I only see you as a good friend. But I do love Eric with all my heart.” continues Mary.
But Gray was not satisfied yet. “You may love Eric, but I don't think he cares about you as much. Don't you see Mary, I love you the most!”
Mary becomes upset at Gray's harsh words. A tear sheds from behind her glasses and she says, “He does love me! We've been through so much within the past few years. There is no way that I'm wrong.”
Gray folds his arms and says, “Well, where is he then? It's your birthday, and I don't think he has been here yet.” Gray is sure because he has been closely monitoring the entrance of the farm. He is unaware that Eric vanished because he started monitoring about 10 minutes after Eric disappeared.
Mary has no answer for him. But she is still sure that Eric has some sort of good explanation why he has not arrived at her party yet. Rather than talking to gray about it, she rushes to her coat, and runs out the door.
“Wait, where are you going!” yelled Gray.
Mary stopped and looks back to say, “If Eric is not here, then I'm going to him! I know that there is a reason he's not here. He might be sick, and cannot make it! Whatever the reason, I'm going to find out!” She then ran off into the cold Winter roads towards the farm.
(Forget-Me-Not Valley Spring 10, 2108)After Eric and Marty spoke some more, they say their goodbyes and part ways. Marty heads to the mines to make some money for his daily bread, and Eric walks towards the bar. But Eric was so lost in thought, that he missed the bar and kept walking. Learning that he is in the future, but he had gotten married to Mary 100 years ago confuses him. He had not told Marty that he is his great grandfather, he wouldn't believe him anyway.
He finally realizes that he missed the bar when the road turns to the right. Rather than turning around and head back to the bar, he became curious and looks to his right to see where the road leads to. The road leads up a hill, and he could barely make out some fences and a gate on top. He wants to turn back, but the faint sound of a piano draws him up the hill.
The piano slowly becomes louder as he ascends the hill. About halfway up, he could see the top of a large building. Or rather, a western mansion. He has been around Forget-Me-Not valley a few days already, but he never fully explored the village. A mansion was the last thing he was expecting to see in Forget-Me-Not Valley.
He walked past the gates that are wide open, and approaches the huge doors. The sound of the piano comes from inside. The piano reminds him of the days that Mary and himself visited the church just to play the organ. Eric only listens to Mary play. With little control of his own arms, he knocks on the door. The piano playing suddenly stops.
Eric begins to panic. He is not sure who lives in this estate. He can only imagine a fat rich musician with a personality problem answering the door. He would be upset that Eric had interrupted him, and he would call the police for trespassing. He wants to leave, but his legs are stiff. Almost like they are glued to the floor.
The door opens momentarily. Eric was about to begin his speeches of how sorry he is, but he relaxes when he finds who answered the door. It's not a fat rich musician, but a young teenage girl. It didn't take long to realize that this girl is familiar. It's the same girl that Marty had a picture of in his house. He could tell by the light brown hair, a yellow hair band, and the amber colored eyes that could barely seen in the picture. The clothing she is wearing resembles the ones she wears in the photo which are a plain white t-shirt, jeans, and a large bandanna that she wears around her neck. She also wears pink and white sneakers that could not be seen on the photograph. She is an attractive young woman, but she looks a bit tomboyish and barely happy.
“Hello? May I help you?” asked the young girl breaking the silence.
“Um, hi.” answered Eric without a clue as to what to say.
“Who are you? I've never seen you before.” she asked.
“Oh! Sorry, how rude of me. My name is Eric Hikari, I'm new to the Valley.”
“My name is Lumina. Is there something you need?”
Eric suddenly waves his hands around and says, “No, I was just taking a look around the village!” He then calms down and says, “I was lured by someone playing the piano, and I found myself here. I'm sorry if I was interrupting anything.”
Lumina looks at him calmly and says in her head, “He's an odd guy, but he seems harmless. He does look like Marty, but I can tell by his long hair that it's someone else.” She moved aside and says, “Would you like to come in? I wouldn't mind the company.”
He accepted the invitation, and entered the grand mansion. Everything inside left him in awe with expensive looking artwork everywhere. Everything is spotless, and spells like cinnamon incense. The polar opposite than the smell of farm animals he was used to back in Mineral Town. In the right side of the room, he found a grand piano that looks like it was worth more money than he will ever own. The black polish is perfect with not even a trace of dirt, fingerprints, or scratches. The keys are much larger than the ones than the organ that Mary plays.
Lumina takes a seat, and prepares to resume playing. Eric looks at her and says, “Oh, it was you who was playing the piano?”
Lumina looks back at him and says, “I do. But it's more my auntie's idea than mine. I can play it, but I am not perfect just yet. So please don't laugh if I don't make a mistake.”
Eric nods, and waits for her to begin. She begins playing a familiar tune, something that Eric used to hear Mary play when they were together. He feels calm and relaxed hearing the song. It's a very hard piece to play, because there are so many keys to hit at the same time. Lumina complains that she had to practice, but Eric notices that he is getting into the song.
Somewhere in the middle, she starts to slow down, and misses a few keys. Lumina looks at Eric, and notices him stare at her awkwardly. She smiles nervously and says, “Sorry, I always mess up in that part. It's a very old piece, written more than 100 years ago, but it's quite hard to play.”
Eric leans over to the piano, and starts hitting some keys one by one. The same keys that Lumina messed up earlier. Lumina is impressed that he is able to lay that part of the song, slow but correctly. Following the example, she starts from where she begins to slow down, and tries to play the part again. This time, she was able to play it correctly without slowing down and missing notes.
After the song was done, Lumina takes a deep breath, and Eric applauds. Lumina then says, “Do you play the piano too?”
“No. I just picked up a thing or two from a person dear to me.” answered Eric. “She played the organ, she was a very talented pianist. She loved books just as much as she loved to play.”
“If she is special to you, why are you here, and not with her?” asked Lumina curiously.
“It's a long story. I'll probably tell you another day.” Lumina has no idea what he meant by that, but there is a sad look in his eye. So she drops it and continues to play. After some time, Lumina and Eric says their goodbyes, and part ways. As Eric looks into the sunset, he asks himself, “Mary, I wonder how will you react when you realize that I'm gone.”
(Mineral Town Winter 20, 2007)Mary runs to the farm to find Eric. She runs with all her might, she is not sure why, but she knows that something terrible has happened. Eric promised that he was going to be there for her birthday. But the day is almost over, and Eric has not shown up. She passed the gates of the farm, and burst in the house yelling his name. But no matter how hard she yells, Eric does not answer. She checks the barn, coop, and stable, but he is nowhere to be found.
She suddenly feels a hand on her shoulder. She turns around and was about to jump into Eric's arms, but she then realizes that it is not him. It's only the only police officer of Mineral Town, Harris.
“Mary, what are you doing here?” asked Harris.
Mary took a few deep breaths. The run to the farm took a lot out of her, and she needed to take a few deep breaths. She then looks up at Harris and says, “I'm looking for my boyfriend Eric. Have you seen him?”
Harris shakes his head no and says, “I haven't seen him all day. In fact, the reason I came was because someone from the chicken farm next door told me about an hour ago that they say some strange light this morning. I wanted to ask Eric what's up, but I haven't seen him.”
“I see. . .” said Mary. She looks down, and her eyes start to become filled with tears.
“Hey, don't be upset! I'm sure he'll turn up soon. Why don't you wait at your home for him. I'm sure he'll come by there eventually.
“Okay.” said Mary. Even though Harris promised that everything was going to be okay, she still does not feel any better. She cannot ease her troubled mind unless she sees Eric's face safe and sound. But she did as she was told, and returned home where she will wait for him.
Hidden in the trees, the Harvest Goddess is also worried. She failed to notice that Eric was using a magical item at the same time as she was casting a weather changing spell. As she floats through the tree leaves, she says, “I can't believe he had one of the forbidden cursed items! I knew I should have buried it deeper in the mines, but I was sure that 255 floors was deep enough. Knowing that item's power, he must have been thrown forward in time. But how long?”
The Harvest Goddess returns to the pond where she begins her plan to make everything right again. She then calls on the seven Harvest Sprites to the pond to have a meeting. One by one, the seven individually colored miniature elves arrive at the pond. They all jump together and say, “Yes Harvest Goddess! Did you call us!”
“Chef! Nappy! Hoggy! Aqua! Bold! Timid! Staid! We have an emergency! Someone has been using one of the cursed items, and as a result he was sent forward in time!”
“Oh no! That's terrible!” yelled the leader of the Sprites.
“If this is not corrected soon, the future might be changed.” said the Harvest Goddess. “Call Nik, Nak, and Flak! We're going to need the help of all 101 Harvest Sprites for this!”
“Okay!” they all cheered. Then they went on their separate ways gathering all the Harvest Sprites around the continent to help in the search for the missing farmer, and hopefully fix the problem before it's too late.
To Be Continued.
