Harvest Moon: Kestrel Village

Chapter Two

Otaku-san?! N-Nanii?

Eli gaped back at her, aghast. And then he chortled at her overdramatic expression.

“It won’t be so bad. We have a kitchen, so we don’t need a microwave, and besides, you know I’m not a bad cook. We have a mailbox for communicating to the outside world, anyhow. And if it comes down to it, we’ll get a radio or something so we’re not cut off completely from news. If we’re lucky, someone will have a television somewhere.”

Then he wagged a finger at her in jest, clearly enjoying Aly’s deprivation of technology.

“No more ‘Desperate Manwives’ for you!”

The blond brought a hand to her heart and scoffed, “’Desperate Manwives’ is the kind of show millions of girls such as myself live on. A boy like you wouldn’t understand.” She was lightly thrown a duster in retaliation, and Aly was too late to throw it back after Eli ducked smartly away and out the door in a flash to retrieve their belongings in the moving van.

At the first sweep of dusting, the girl squinted her eyes and coughed when the little particles floated in the fresh spring air. And the more she dusted, the more dust floated around the house and slowly towards the door. “Oh, come on! You’re like those little old ladies on the freeway! Get a move on!” urged Aly, waving out her unwanted guests. Continuing in her little chore, she grumbled, “Guy who lived here must’ve been a slob!” 

In time, Aly finally chased all the dust out of the premises and Eli came back with the truck loaded high and the moving men in tow. The four of them labored in moving furniture around carefully, taking out the old bed and putting in a new mattress, setting up cabinets and drawers and the like. Aly pretended to help with the lifting at first, but then mostly she gave encouragement while waving in whatever general direction the three men were going in with whatever heavy furniture piece they were lugging around. She obliged with much lighter belongings like putting clothes and books in their proper places. Slowly but surely, the little empty house began to look more like someone was really going to live there again. Curious villagers paused in front of the run-down farm to view the spectacle from time to time, one villager in particular.

“Thanks a bunch, guys,” the young male exhaled in relief much later in the day. The two siblings looked around the house in exhausted satisfaction one last time before moving out of the house to say goodbye to the moving men.

“It’s no problem, sir,” the men replied, one of them touching the lid of his cap obligingly. “You take care now. I can’t imagine living and working on a farm, but good luck to you both!” 

Eli paid the men for their services and the rent on the truck, and the man and woman waved until the truck rumbled out of sight.

Aly dropped her arm first. “I’m starving… We didn’t take a single break from all that work,” she pouted. “It’s way past noon already.”

Eli rubbed a hand against his forehead and did his best to ignore the aches in the lower regions of his back. “We were too busy to notice, I guess. Oof, I’m gonna feel this tomorrow for sure. I’m too tired to cook. Let’s go buy something, yeah?”

“But it’s New Year’s. Is anything open?”

“Dunno. Let’s take a look around the village and see what we get.”

“I see you’re all moved in,” interrupted a young man pleasantly. At the sound of this new voice and the soft crunch of hard dirt, the new farmers turned on the spot.

He was clad in business attire, dress shirt and dress pants and striped tie and all, freshly ironed and pressed. His light orange hair ruffled a bit in the incoming breeze and only added to the youth of his figure. With a smile etched onto his face, the mystery man said, “I hope I’m not intruding?”