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

Chapter 42

The train pulled in at my stop just a few minutes past noon. Kana had offered to take the day off to pick me up, saying that it would be a good chance to work a pair of horses he'd been training to drive. He was waiting for me, standing next to his horse and cart when the train pulled into the station. He helped me fetch my luggage and load it into his cart, and we set off towards the village. We chatted along the way about my trip, and he caught me up on all the local gossip.

"Hey, uh," he said during a lull in the conversation, "I don't know what might or might not have happened between you and Mikhail while you were away—and don't get me wrong, I'm not poking my nose in. It's none of my business. But, well, could ya kinda take it easy with Cam? Georgia says he's been moping around the whole time you've been gone, looking totally lost. So...."

I nodded. "Thanks, Kana. I appreciate the warning. Today's his birthday, so before I do anything else, I want to track him down and invite him over for dinner. By the way, I can't thank you enough for letting Rob stay with you tonight."

"No problem! He's a good kid. He's a lot like you, ya know that? Nice guy, hard worker, real likeable."

"Yeah, we're really good friends. We fought some as kids, naturally, but we were still more like buddies than siblings. I've really missed him since I moved away. I need to add some rooms to my house so I can have him come out to visit again."

"Hey, yeah, that'd be cool! I bet he'd like that!"

We reached my farm around half past two. I gave Rob a huge bear hug, then the three of us hauled my suitcases in. The guys returned to Kana's house, where I was told Kana was going to teach Rob how to cook a "boss curry" and watch some kung-fu movies. I wondered if Rob had missed having a television—or if he'd been too busy working to care.

First thing, even before inspecting my farm, I took a quick shower and threw on some jeans, a light tan sweater, an orangey-pink scarf, and brown boots, then dashed through the tunnel to Bluebell to find Cam.

Since he usually spent his days off going for walks on the mountain, I turned right up the path instead of checking. I spotted him down by the river with his back to the trail, listlessly skipping pebbles across the surface. Standing on the trail watching him, I had a sudden flash of insight, and all my doubts melted away as I broke into a run down the path towards him.

He whirled around as I called out his name, his expression changing from melancholy to elation in the blink of an eye. "Alice?" he cried, staring at me as if he wasn't quite sure I was real. "You're back!"

He tore up to meet me, and as I threw my arms around his neck, he lifted me up in a bear hug and spun me around and around, both of us laughing with joy, until he grew dizzy and we fell over in a giggling heap on the riverbank. He pulled me close and held me tightly, but not before I spotted tears in the corners of his eyes. I wiped the tears gently from his eyes and kissed him all over his face, then held him, exhaling a long sigh of sheer bliss.

I was home.