Cheer Up!

The following day, I watered my potatoes, which to my delight were sprouting up in a couple of places. I splashed a little water as well on my sad looking strawberry plants, and then I geared up to go fishing.

I had a pretty successful go at it. I caught four masu trout and one rainbow trout. When the sun was high in the sky, I realized it was lunchtime, and I lugged the bucket and my pole home. My heart leapt when I saw Luke walking up the path towards me, grinning cheerfully.

"There you are!" he said. "You weren't at your house, so I thought I'd look around the area." We reached each other and he turned, walking back towards my house with me. "Catch anything?" he asked. I tilted the bucket at him, showing him the five fish inside. "Hey, that's pretty awesome," he said, impressed.

"I finally started to get good at fishing," I admitted. "For the longest time, all I could catch was empty cans, it seemed like." That made him roar with laughter, and we then reached my farm. "So what were you looking for me for?" I asked as nonchalantly as I could, when in reality I was dying to know why he had been searching me out.

"You wanna come to lunch with me again?" I hesitated, and he grinned, punching me in the arm lightly. "Come on, somebody's gotta watch and make sure you eat. If you get any scrawnier, you'll turn invisible!"

"Well...I was going to eat some of this fish for lunch. Do you...do you like fish?" I asked apprehensively. He nodded yes, and I smiled. "Well, then how about you eat here with me? It's not as good as the inn, but I'm a decent cook." He agreed, and we went inside together.

I blushed when I realized it was the first time that I had a guy in my house. Well, the mayor had been in there, but it didn't really seem like he counted as a guy. Luke looked around the sparsely furnished place. "You know, I built this place. Well, I mean, I helped build it."

"No, I didn't realize...I guess I should have known. Who else would have built it? Not the Mayor and Gill." That made us both laugh, and I set to work cleaning two of the trout. I grilled them up in the pan, and then served him one.

"Got any mayonnaise?" he asked, looking around. I blushed, feeling embarrassed.

"No, I don't even have a fridge. I do have salt and pepper," I offered, and he laughed.

"Sorry, I'm just kind of obsessed with mayonnaise. Pops says it's gross to put it on everything, but it makes stuff taste so good!" I laughed at that, and then we ate in silence. He spoke up a few minutes later. "Hey, Angela, you ever thought about having a chicken coop?"

I tilted my head at him, considering it. "No, I honestly never have. That's kind of way down the road from where I'm at right now."

Luke grinned. "Well, Pops says that I need to do a project on my own as part of my apprenticeship, and I thought maybe I could build you a coop."

I stammered, looking down at my plate. "Well, I can't afford one right now, so..." Luke waved my doubts away with his hand.

"No, I mean for free. After all, it'll be my first solo project, so the whole thing might fall down, ya know? I couldn't charge somebody for work like that."

"Oh...but, you don't have to do something like that for me."

Luke just grinned wider. "But you're my friend. I want to." I just nodded in acquiescence, and cleaned up our empty plates. "That was pretty good," he said. "Even without mayonnaise." I smiled, and then his face lit up. "Hey, and then if you have a chicken coop, maybe you'll get a mayonnaise maker to go in it, and I'll have my own personal supply of mayonnaise!" His eyes were dreamy as he thought about it, and I marveled at how much someone could like mayonnaise. He snapped to, and stood up. "Well, better get back to work before Pops freaks out. I'll start on the chicken coop tomorrow or the day after." I nodded and thanked him again, and he left.

The next day, sure enough, he was there at 6 am, dragging along a wagon full of boards. He set right to work, and my heart swelled with happiness at this gesture of kindness. A free chicken coop - it was more than I could have asked for. I passed the time while he worked by foraging and fishing. I was doing a little better in both departments, and I hadn't gone hungry at all since that day when Luke took me to lunch.

Finally, the coop was done. We marveled over it. Despite Luke's doubts, the coop didn't fall down - rather, it was pretty impressive. The owner of Brownie Ranch, Cain, heard about my coop and brought me a little chick one morning to get me started. I thanked him over and over, and he showed me how to ring the bell so that barn doors would open, and the chick would run outside to feed. He cautioned me that if it rained, I needed to keep animals inside, and he left me with about a week's worth of food for using in the case of bad weather.

My potatoes, true to Craig's word, had thrived in the poor soil. I made a nice little pile of money from selling about half of them, and I saved the rest for eating. They kept well, and it was reassuring to finally have some food in the house. There wasn't but just over a week left in the season, but I calculated it out, and I knew that I could grow another batch of potatoes. I hurried over to Craig's and bought more seeds, and planted and watered them as soon as I got home.

That Sunday was a kind of flea market in the town square. Luke and I met up outside of it at 11am, and we went in together. "I wanted to sell furniture at this market thing, but Pops said no," Luke pined as we looked over the wares. "I think it would have been fun!" I laughed, and then my eyes lit up when I saw fertilizer on display. It wasn't cheap, but it was just what I needed to revitalize my soil. They didn't sell it at the seed shop, so this would be my only chance to get any. I bought what I could afford, and Luke helped me lug it home.

"Gee, now, you're my kind of girl," Luke said, and I blushed heavily, even thought he meant it innocently enough. "All that jewelry and frou frou furniture, and you buy bags of fertilizer. That's a real farmer." I smiled, and we set the bags inside. I decided to wait until the beginning of summer to spread them, because spring was almost over anyway. It wouldn't do the crops that were growing now any good, most likely.

A few days later, my chicken was full grown, and she laid her first egg. I was absolutely delighted. I only got a few coins for selling it, the promise of a new way to earn money and a new food source was encouraging. I couldn't yet afford a mayonnaise maker like Luke wanted, and since eggs didn't sell for that much, I decided that I would keep them for eating, at least for now.

On the last day of Spring, my second crop of potatoes were finally ready. I tugged them all out of the ground, selling the best ones and saving the less impressive ones for my own eating. I also happily threshed down my two sad strawberry plants. I was sick of looking at them, and even more sick of eating yellow strawberries.

Summer was finally here, and on the first day I was busy with weeding, hoeing, fertilizing, planting, and watering. I had saved my money for the start of the season, and I had bought a bag of every kind of seeds that they had. I would be growing watermelon, honeydew, corn, tomatoes, onions, and even some flowers. As I finished up with everything, the sun started to set. Every muscle in my body screamed out in pain, and I remembered seeing a hot springs up in the mountains. I fetched my bathing suit and a towel and made my way up the long path, panting for breath by the time I reached the summit. I stepped behind the battered old bamboo changing screen and got into my bathing suit, then slipped into the hot water. It felt so heavenly, that I just closed my eyes, letting myself slip deeper into the water.

I cracked one eye open some time later when I heard the sound of someone whistling. I was pleased to see Luke's head bobbing up the path. His face lit up when he saw me. "Angela! So you discovered my secret spot!"

"Yeah, I'm pretty sore from planting all the summer crops," I admitted.

"I've been chopping wood all day. Nothing cures muscle pain like a soak in these springs," he said as he moved behind the screen and began undressing. My face started to heat up, and not just from the steaming water. I watched as he draped his jeans over the edge of the screen, then his shirt, and my heart jumped up in my throat when he laid his boxers on top of that! He suddenly appeared from behind the screen, with just a narrow width of towel covering his lower body. I tried not to stare as he eased himself down in the water. His body was truly magnificent; lean and muscular. His chest and abdomen were perfectly sculpted, and his shoulders and arms rippled with the results of all his wood chopping.

But one thought overrode everything else in my mind, and I couldn't stop myself from blurting out, "Luke, are you naked?" My face burned red as soon as I said it, and he frowned.

"No..." he said, reaching under the water. To my surprise, he pulled the wet towel out and laid it aside. "Now I am!" he grinned cheekily, and I squeaked. He laughed heartily at my discomfort. "Oh come on, Angela, only tourists wear a bathing suit in the hot springs. Us island natives always get in naked."

I stared straight down in the water, my face burning in embarrassment. I was so overwhelmed that I felt dizzy. "Oh, I didn't know that."

"Besides, you and me are friends. No big deal, right?"

I looked up at him. "I-it is a b-b-big deal! You're still a boy and I'm still a girl!"

He arched one eyebrow at me. "Oh, is that it?" He placed his hands behind him on the rocks, and started to lift himself slightly out of the water. "You wanna see...?" His eyes twinkled mischievously, and my breath hitched in my throat as I stared at his abdomen as it slowly rose out of the water. By the Harvest Goddess, it was absolutely perfect. I felt frozen to the spot as he rose higher and higher, and when I saw his narrow hips emerge from the water, my brain about shut down. A dirty part of my mind that I didn't even know was there was making me fix my eyes straight ahead, in breathless anticipation of what was about to appear.

But the sensible part of me won the day, and I clapped my wet hands over my face. "Luke, stop!" I squealed.

He roared with laughter, and I heard a splash of water that signified he had sat back down. "Aw, man, Angela, you shoulda seen the look on your face. It was priceless!"

I uncovered my face, and pouted at him. "You're mean, teasing me like that."

He laughed again. "Come on, we're friends. I was just kidding around. I know you didn't want to see me naked." My face flushed again when I admitted to myself that, yes, I did want to see him naked. I wanted it rather badly.

That evening, I lay in bed and pondered this fact. Luke liked me a lot, but just as a friend. While I was happy that he liked spending time with me and he felt comfortable enough around me to joke around like he did today, the thought of which made my whole body flush; I liked him more than that. I wanted him to do something like he had done, but really mean it.

I sighed, tossing in the bed. But I could never tell him how I felt. He obviously didn't feel the same way, and I didn't want to lose him as a friend. I would have to content myself with what we had. But, Goddess, if he did anything like that again, there was no telling what I'd do next time.