Lost and Found [Harvest Moon: A New Beginning]

Found

After Wendy's visit, it seemed to Rio's friends that she descended into an even deeper depression. She no longer did anything except work, and she threw herself into that with a passion that bordered on obsession. Soseki confided to Tina that several times, while strolling around the village and its environs well past midnight, he'd even heard her still working around her farm or spotted her foraging for mushrooms and other wild foods in the mountains. Felicity and Iroha concluded that she wasn't eating properly anymore, either—while not quite skin and bones, her lithe, curvy figure had become gaunt and angular in an alarmingly short space of time. Allen, of course, bemoaned the way she neglected her appearance, but beneath his flippant remarks, he, too, was deeply concerned.

Her friends tried their best to snap her out of her grief. But she declined all invitations to go out, preferring instead to work in solitude. She was half-dead with exhaustion, working all day and most of the night, sleeping only two or three hours at most. Still, it beat lying in bed, reliving that day over and over in her head and thinking of all the things she might have done differently, everything she might have said or not said, so that Neil wouldn't have gone away. She realized now how Vaughn must have felt all those years, after she just up and left him without so much as a goodbye.

The crimson leaves of autumn fell one by one until the trees were barren, followed by the arrival of the winter snows, and soon it was nearly spring again. One day as the year's end was approaching, Rio woke up earlier than usual—a little after 5:00—even though she hadn't gotten to bed until nearly 3:00 that morning. The past few weeks, she'd taken to walking in the woods at night when she didn't have any work left to do on the farm, sometimes foraging and other times just walking—mechanically going through the motions of placing one foot before the other, step after step, mile after mile. The only villagers that she ever saw so late at night were Soseki and the reclusive hermit known only as the Witch Princess, both of whom were night owls. But while they slept in until late morning, she did not.

She skipped breakfast that morning, as she often did those days, opting to have only coffee. Then she pulled on her work clothes and boots, poured another mug of coffee and headed to the barn, her boots marring the perfection of the newly-fallen snow. She tended to her animals on the main part of her farm, then walked to the west farm, stopping for a fresh cup of coffee on the way.

Once she'd finished caring for all her animals, she stopped by the house to fill a thermos of coffee before heading to the east part of her farm, to work on her orchards and her fields of winter crops. She went through all the motions, tending her crops with efficiency and meticulous care, but automatically, as if she were no more than an automaton. Finally, her work done for the day, she resorted to cutting grass for hay—she didn't need it, but it helped to pass the hours until she could no longer fend off sleep and the dreams it brought to her.

While she was slashing the tall grass with her sickle, her three closest friends stopped by the farm. After they tracked her down in her field, they stood waiting, watching their friend at work. Iroha and Felicity leaned against a nearby fence while Tina climbed up to sit on the top rail, the concern in each face mirrored in the others. After a few minutes, Tina said, "Hey, Rio, why don't you knock off early and come shopping with us? You haven't been out for weeks. New Year's Eve is in just a few days, and we all need to find something to wear. You know there's going to be a huge party this year, right?"

Rio shook her head as she severed another bundle of grass, dropping it to the ground beside her to gather later. "I'm not going. Thanks anyway."

The three girls looked at each other, their eyes troubled. Felicity whispered loudly, "See? I told you."

Iroha walked over and put a hand on Rio's shoulder. "Listen, Rio. I know it hurts, but he's... he's just gone. And... it really doesn't look like he's coming back, does it? I mean... it's been almost half a year now since he left, and no one's heard anything from him, not since Wendy came to town. Sooner or later you're going to have to come to terms with it. You're young, you're beautiful, you're smart, and you're a fun person. You need to...," she paused and took a deep breath, "to just let go and move on with your life."