The Wild Card [Harvest Moon: Sunshine Islands]

Chapter 22

"Wow," Colette exclaimed, rotating her aching shoulder to stretch it out. "Who knew that rowing in tandem was so hard?"

"Well, honestly, we did quite well. Usually it's much harder than that," Will replied with a tired smile. "We seem to make a good team."

"I'd hate to see what a bad team is like, then," Colette laughed as she pushed open the door to Taro's office. He was halfway to the door when they stepped in, and he looked up at them in surprise.

"Good evening, Colette, Will. I was just on my way out, but what can I do for you?"

"I wanted to let you know, we explored the two newest islands. One seems to have a large population of animals, I don't know why or where they came from. They have some water there, but very little food. I'm worried about them-they seem very hungry. I think I'll row out again tomorrow and put out some food for them.

"As for the other island, we didn't get to explore it much. There were two men living there, and they didn't seem too pleased to see us."

"Men?" Taro asked with a frown. "Who were they? No one should be on that island."

"They looked like natives, but again, I don't know. They didn't seem to understand English, and the language they spoke wasn't one I recognized. We were able to exchange names, though, after we gave them some food. They said their names were..." she hesitated, searching her memory as she glanced at Will.

"The older one was Wada, I believe," he replied, rubbing his chin.

"Yeah, I think that's right. And the younger one was... Shea?" Will nodded, and she looked again at Taro. "They've built a hut out of dried grasses near the beach, on the far side of the island from the dock. I also saw a kind of coracle pulled up onto the beach. It looked pretty beat up. I'm guessing there's not a lot of food available there on the island-they looked half-starved."

"Hmm, very interesting. Well, no need to worry. We've already got everything under control," Taro said, ushering them toward his door.

"Oh? What do you mean? Who's 'we'?" Colette asked.

"Well... why don't you come with me and see for yourself? The evening ferry arrived a short while ago."

Neither she nor Will could see what connection that had with anything, but they followed the old man across the bridge and to the hotel. "Is he here yet, Carol?" Taro asked as he stopped at the desk.

"Yes, he is-he just checked in a few minutes ago! Let me call him for you."Carol picked up the phone and dialed while the three of them went to take a seat in the lobby.

A few minutes later, Taro rose, saying, "Ahh, here we go. Colette, Will, I'd like you to meet-"

"Mark!" Colette shrieked, leaping from her chair and flinging herself at the young man that had just rounded the corner.

"Colette? What are you doing here?" he exclaimed.

"I take it you two know each other?" Taro said, while Will just stared in consternation.

Laughing with delight, Colette tucked her arm into the young man's as she turned to look at the others, her eyes sparkling with joy. "We sure do! He's my cousin-my favorite cousin."

"Cousins?" Will managed to say.

"Yep! Well, kind of. Half-cousins? Is that a thing?"

"Half-cousins?"

"Well, his mother is my mother's half-sister. My grandparents divorced when my mother was young, and grandpa got custody of her because grandma didn't want to be 'tied down'. She was going through this kind of a... phase. She ended up settling down after a while, though, with a man who was quite a lot younger than her-I think she was around forty by then and he was barely in his twenties, wasn't that right?" Mark nodded, and she went on. "Anyway, they had two children, my mom's half-sister and half-brother. So they're my half-aunt and half-uncle, and their kids are my half-cousins, like Mark here. And he's my favorite, I guess because I felt like he was the only one out of all my whole family that really 'got' me."