Roses and Sonatas [Harvest Moon: Tale of Two Towns]

Chapter 19

The rest of winter passed quickly. While my chores were lighter, since I had fewer crops to tend, I kept busy in other ways: riding and ice fishing with Kana, long tromps through the snowy woods and fields with Cam, and violin practice with Mikhail. He came over to my house two or three days a week, and we'd play our violins for an hour or two, sometimes longer when we had the time and the inclination.

In addition, both Yun and Ina had asked Mikhail if he would give Ying and Rahi lessons. He'd balked somewhat at first, then after some consideration, he decided that if I'd agree to assist, he'd consent to give them a lesson for an hour once a week. So I was persuaded to join them, although he admitted to me later that he'd only agreed in order to have more time with me. And also, he admitted later, because he really loved to watch me with the children. "I like to imagine you and I married, with children of our own, and I think to myself that perhaps one day... you will play with our children as you play with those two," he had said, smiling down at me. Embarrassed, I had quickly changed the subject, to his obvious amusement.

New Year's Eve fell on a Thursday, so I didn't expect to see Cam at all that day. The villagers in both towns liked to begin the new year with their homes and lives in spotless order, and my parents had raised me to follow the old customs. So that day, I was so busy cleaning and doing chores and preparing for the holiday, I didn't have time to pay my usual social calls. I figured I'd see everyone in Konohana at the village party that night, and I'd go visit my friends in Bluebell on New Year's Day. Everyone else would be too busy for visiting, anyway. So I was surprised when I returned from my morning chores, ready to start my house cleaning, and found Cam waiting for me. He smiled when I walked in, saying, "I knew you'd be too busy to come and see me today, so I took some time out from helping Laney and Howard to come and see you."

I gave him a delighted hug, then said, "I'm so happy you came to see me, but I'll have to clean while you visit in order to get it all done before the party tonight. I hope you don't mind too much?"

He shook his head, saying, "Not at all. In fact, I'd like to help. I'm handier than I look—I do my fair share of housework at Howard's, you know. What shall I do first?"

I thought for a moment, then said, "Well... you could do the bookshelves for me, if you don't mind? You'll need to pull all the books off the shelves, carry them outside a few at a time to dust them off, then wipe down the empty shelves before you put the books back on the shelves. Could you do that? It really needs to be done—I neglect dusting my books just because it's so time consuming."

"Sure, I'd be happy to," he replied, and got right to work.

Meanwhile, I pulled all the linens off the bed, removed the curtains from all the windows, and grabbed all the bath linens. Then I washed everything and hung them outside to dry. Luckily it was not snowing that day—the air was nippy, but it sunny and beautiful outside.

While the linens dried, I washed the windows, then I pulled all the dishes out of the cupboards, wiped the dust off the ones I seldom used, cleaned the shelves, and put everything back. Then I wiped down the walls and the light fixtures, scrubbed the bathroom and the kitchen, dusted and polished the furniture, and finally swept and mopped the floor.

When I was done, I put on the kettle to make some tea. Cam had finished with the books and had taken the throw rugs outside, shaken and beat them until no more dust rose from them, and replaced them on the clean floor. He looked around in sheer amazement, everything sparkling clean—the only thing remaining was to bring in the linens, iron them, and put them back in place. He looked at me with admiration, and said, "Wow, you're amazing! It's only been a few hours, and you've cleaned the whole house from top to bottom!"

"Well, I hate cleaning... so I do it as fast as I can just to get it over and done with." I said with a laugh as I handed him a cup of tea. "Besides, you did some of the most time-consuming chores for me. Thank you so much!"