Animal Crossing: New Leaf ~ Berling

Chapter 9 - Main Street

I took my time walking up to Main Street. The slight breeze gave life to the enormous pine trees covering sections of town. I don't know why, but nature had always fascinated me. There was a small pond that was hidden by an orange brush. The area was especially quiet, except for the lowest of rumbles by the occasional train in the distance. This would be a good fishing spot... 

Finally, I came up to the train station. It didn't seem really busy, at least in the morning. There was a man in a blue suit changing the train schedules on the front bulletin board. Greeting him quickly, I crossed the tracks.

The stone stairs that came next led up to the Main Street. All the shops were barely opening, and with that, I walked to Tom Nook's business. As I came in, the bells attached to the top of the front door jingled. Toom Nook averted his attention towards me; he had been working on some calculations. 

"Oh, yes, Mr. Mayor!" Nook greeted. "Cold morning, isn't it?"

"It sure is." I responded.

"Say, what is that you got there?" Tom Nook suddenly gazed upon the destroyed tent in my right hand. 

"Eh..." I shifted nervously. "Last night's strong winds flew the tent off, I had to flee to a neighbor's house overnight." I approached him, showing him the tears on the yellow tent. "I found it held by a palm tree on the beach earlier today. Sorry about that..."

Tom Nook smiled widely. "Don't worry about it, Emilio. Accidents happen." He proceeded to take the tent and stuff it in a shabby cabinet in the corner of his office. "Come here. I finished crunching the numbers on your new home."

"Really?" I sat down near his desk. He showed me the detailed plans for a basic home. Although Nook already had previously discussed this with me, I was interested in how it would look in the end.  

"The final down payment comes to about 10,500 bells. The sooner you can pay it, the faster my crew can come by and build it for you." Tom Nook explained. He then observed me while I pulled out that amount of bells from my pocket. "My my, looks like you'll have your new home soon." He slowly gathered the bells and pushed them aside near a safe he had under his desk.

"Mr. Nook, thank you for making this process simple. It would be nice to sleep in my own house soon." I joked.

"Business is business." Nook responded in a satisfied tone.

For the next half hour, Tom Nook kept me entertained with financial talks relating to his business. He offered me coffee, and we discussed plans for my home for the distant future. We agreed that building me a larger house would benefit me. Those were only thoughts that were probably too distant to even consider at that point. As I exited Tom Nook's place, he waved at me.

"Take care Mr. Mayor, I look forward to further work with you."

"Yeah, see you around Mr. Nook." I responded as the front door shut. 

The late morning still didn't bring much life to Main Street. There were only 4 shops open: Nook's Homes, the post office, Nookling Junction, and the Able Sisters. There was only one person near me, and that was Rod. He was jogging along the far side of the street. We meet up in front of the Nookling Junction.

"Hey Rod." I said.

"Hello Emilio, what brings you here this morning?" Rod asked.

"I was finishing some paperwork and such at Tom Nook's shop. And you?"

Rod puffed up proudly. "I'm just here making my routine jog around town." 

"Oh yeah, keep going then... Hey, and I wanted to thank you again for giving me refuge from last night's storm." I chuckled.