Stardew Valley: The Heart Remembers

Chapter Two

The ride to Pelican Town was much more comfortable than Jaina had been expecting, thanks to her parents' last-minute surprise of a ticket on a coach bus. She would have been fine riding on the usual bus, but it was a six-hour ride and they insisted she should be comfortable during the lengthy travel time. They'd both looked like they were about to start crying when the call finally came over the terminal's loudspeaker, especially her father. He almost didn't let her out of his tight hug in time for her to catch her ride, and even then only did so thanks to her mother's coaxing and a promise to return home for the winter holidays.

She let out a sigh as she rested her head back against the plush seat and watched the scenery pass by outside. Seeing everything suddenly change from the cold concrete and steel of the city to the lush greenery of the more rural outskirts and then to ever more untamed wilderness as they continued their journey had been both a bit jarring and extremely exciting to her. Aside from the visits she'd made to her grandfather's farm as a small child, the entirety of her twenty-four years had been spent in Zuzu City. She grew up there, went to school there, worked there, eventually got her own place there, and was planning to settle down there, too.

With a sigh, she shook her head to clear away her thoughts of the life she had planned on having. That dream was gone, now. It had died when her engagement was abruptly brought to an end. Now, she had a new goal. It surprised her to think that it might actually be the first time she set one for herself. Her parents had urged her to go to college, so she went. Joja offered her a job shortly before her graduation, so she took it. Adam said they should get married, so she agreed. He had made pretty much all of the decisions regarding their wedding, too, and even decided where they would be living after the ceremony.

This move was her choice, though. Despite the strange looks the people at work gave her when she told them why she was quitting, she stuck to her guns. She knew nothing about farming, but the tiny specks of memories which had ignited in her mind when she read her grandfather's letter kept urging her to return to that little house in the country. If nothing else, it would be quiet there and she'd be able to clear her mind a bit and decide upon a new game plan for the rest of her life.

Letting out another sigh, she closed her eyes and settled back into her seat. She hadn't been able to sleep much the night before, and with how comfortable the plush seat felt she soon found herself drifting off.

As she slept, fuzzy images played through her mind, like a VHS tape that had been watched so many times it wore out. Indistinct child-like voices laughed and called her name, and she found herself moving toward them in her dream until another voice called for her from somewhere else.

"Jay-Jay!"

It was another child's voice, but it came through more clearly than the others. The nickname felt somehow familiar, though she couldn't recall anyone ever calling her that before. Curious who was calling her by that name, she turned around and ran toward the voice, but the more she ran the farther away the voice got until she fell to her knees in exhaustion. She cried out for the other person to wait for her, her voice that of a child as it passed through her lips, but there came no reply. Even the laughter and voices of the other children had died out. She was all alone.

Jaina woke up with a start just as the bus slowly pulled to a stop, and the driver called back to the passengers that they had arrived at Pelican Town. She stood from her seat and went to the front of the bus, and the driver got off with her to help her retrieve the backpack she'd stowed away with the rest of the passengers' luggage below. She thanked him, and he gave her a smile and a polite farewell before heading back onto the bus and driving away. She sighed as she watched the bus disappear down the road, and realized that there was no turning back at this point.