Backwoods Farm... and Alex

Chapter 1 -Welcome to the First Day of the Rest of Your Life

I jolt awake.

No. The last few weeks were not a dream.

I am still on the train to Stardew Valley, to a no name town, to a town I had not been to for years.

I look out of the window. I see the city slowly fade away as the bus rolled further on the road. The buildings, once tall monstrosities looming over everything now stands like miniature boxes squatting in the horizon. I used to live in one of those buildings... 653 Roosevelt Ave apartment 515. I had moved out of my parents' house two years prior and despite them being just a short 30 minute subway ride away, it felt liberating. No longer did I have to conform to their rules, which was all I ever wanted. It felt great living by myself, but I had to of course pay my dues... I was working for a company called Joja Corporation and it was soul crushing work. But it had to get done... I wanted to save up for college before I went so I wouldn't have to worry about funding my education later on. And so I subsisted like that... living in the apartment, part of my rent paid by my parents, and the other part paid by my soul sucking job at Joja.

Snort! The guy next to me turns and lays his head onto my shoulder, then continues to sleep on. And since I'm too much of a coward to wake him and tell him to get his head off my shoulder, I let it sit there. The almost comically large buildings of the city fade to nothingness and soon, more and more rolling fields greet us as we chug along the track. The sun is just barely poking its head up above the horizon, giving us a sleepy glimmer of light. The light quickly winks out as the tracks plunge us into a dense forest, where the only source of light is the palest violet that painted the sky above. It had been years since I had come this way, and the memories that rush back put a lump in my throat.

"Porthmadog! Station Porthmadog!" The conductor comes barreling through the train car, shattering the silence.

The guy next to me jolts awake, eyes still glassy from sleep. "Wha-what station did he just announce?"

"Porthmadog..." I parrot as the conductor breezed out of the car.

"Oh good..." the guy runs his hand through his messy blonde hair. "Oh my god, was I leaning my head on your shoulder? I'm so sorry..."

"Oh no it's ok..." I try to force a smile, through the haze of memories.

"Oh god it's so embarrassing, I'm so sorry..." he frets.

"No really, it's ok," I reassure him. To help him ease up, I introduce myself. "Hi, my name's Theo."

"Hi Theo, I'm Sam," he says. He looks out the window, "My friend in the city wanted us to play a set in this club she owned and she had everything set up. Of course like an idiot I forgot what time the actual set was and my phone died. Boy did I get a mouthful from Abigail about that. And by then we were at the train station and we couldn't call... so we turned up at the club a few hours early. But storing baggage on the train after a few hours of a concert and then a few hours of sleep was really something, I'll tell you. I will never take the train out of the valley again. It's bus or I'm not going."

"Why didn't you take the bus yesterday?"

"Well there's only one bus in all of Stardew Valley, and it's kinda... out of service..."

"You're headed back to stardew valley? That's where I'm headed right now!" I sit up straighter, knowing I might've just met the person that could prevent the whole moving operation from turning into a total lonely mistake.

"Really? Who are you visiting?" Sam asks.

"Well I'm not really visiting..." I trail off.

"Then why are you going? I mean don't get me wrong, Pelican Town is a beautiful place, but it's not really a place you go to... it's a place you end up..."