Part 2: Purity of Your Smile

Summer 1, 2000

Muffy has been pretty persistent the last couple of weeks since our date. Each day she has off, she would come around the farm. She likes to make some weird excuses like, “I got lost and ended up here”. Even Stevie Wonder can clearly see that she only comes around to spend time with me. I am starting to think that she comes to the farm to see if any other girls are hanging around the farm. At times I enjoy Muffy’s company. But it can be annoying other days. She keeps asking me out on dates or bringing food to have a picnic. It gets exhausting.

Today I decided to spend the day away from the farm. Most of the people in the village are at the beach celebrating the Summer Festival, a time to spend at the beach with family. I’m pretty sure Muffy came by while I was out looking for me to ask to go to the beach with the rest of the people. I was thinking about getting a hobby outside of spending so much time at the Blue Bar. Of course, that is easier said than done. This valley doesn’t have much to do outside of work, eat, sleep, and go to the Blue Bar. I could go to Mineral Town, but that’s a pretty far commute to travel just to have something to do. But I will find something, even if that means hanging out at Mineral Town.

Summer 5, 2000

One drunk night, I made a promise to hang out with Muffy for her birthday. Behold, today is her birthday and she held me to that promise. I am not the kind of guy who breaks promises, so I decided to get through with it. There isn’t much to do in the valley, so we took a casual walk around the village. She tried her usual things like hold my arm and get too close. I swear, you need a pitch fork to calm her down sometimes.

As we walked around Forget-Me-Not Valley, I noticed a flier pinned to a tree. There is an ad requesting help over at Vesta’s farm. I did meet Vesta when I first arrived at the Valley last Spring, but I haven’t been there since. It’s strange seeing that she needs help. When I introduced myself, I did see other people working there. If I remember correctly, she has a brother named Marlin and another girl named Celia. I thought that Marlin and Celia were a couple, but word around the Blue Bar says otherwise. She is apparently an outsider just like me who work there. She has no family here, and everyone says that she’s very kind and quiet. I have no idea why Vesta needs help, but I may as well take the job. It could be good to get experience for my own farm, not to mention the extra cash could afford me a few animals.

Summer 6, 2000

I went over to Vesta’s farm early in the morning after watering the pathetic amount of seeds planted in my farm. She wasted no time hiring me. She even put me to work right away! I was not expecting to work so soon, but I didn’t complain. I needed to get out of my own farm and get some experience if I am going to also run a farm here. The first thing she did was introduce me to her “family”.

First person I was introduced to was her brother Marlin. Working with him was quite the experience. He is a pretty okay guy, but he can be pretty cold and harsh when he wants to be. I heard that he works with Vesta because his heath is poor, and he isn’t able to get a job himself in the city. I can’t tell, he works pretty hard around the farm being all bossy. I can only imagine that he puts up that tough front because deep inside he knows he’s frail. He runs the farm like a drill sergeant, watching over the farm and correcting my crop formation over and over. I don’t mind at all. The more he can teach me, the better I’ll get at farming. I can’t wait until I use his advice in my own farm.

I did notice that he treats Celia quite differently. I am not sure if he has a soft spot for Celia, or he’s going easy on her because she’s a girl. Me and Celia were planting seeds on opposite ends of the field. Each time I mess up, Marlin corrects me sternly like a middle school teacher. But when Celia makes a mistake, his voice is softer and more comforting. He leads by example and shows her the proper way to plant the seeds. I would learn a bit faster if Marlin was that patient with me.

One thing I found weird is Celia’s smile. When Marlin is helping her, she gives him a warm and pure smile. At first, I thought she smiled at him like that because she liked him. Watching them a bit closer, I am sure that is not the case anymore. Even though it is pure, her smile looks forced. She doesn’t blush, and her body language seems quite empty. Now that I think about it, I heard that she has been working in the farm for quite some time. Why is she still making the same mistakes I am?

Another thing she does is take a lot of breaks. I get one lunch break, but she gets one every hour. They are not long at all, maybe five or ten minutes each. It doesn’t seem to bother Marlin or Vesta, so she must do it all the time. At least I know why Vesta needs the extra help around her farm. With Marlin’s poor health and Celia breaking so often, getting work done seems to be an issue. But I won’t let the extra work get me down, I’ll keep doing my best so I can learn to run my farm quickly.

Summer 12, 2000

Today was such an eye opener. Vesta’s farm is a lot of hard work, and she doesn’t even own animals! But everything that happened has nothing to do with work. Work I can deal with, but things got emotional very quickly. I have no idea where to begin.

I guess the best place to start is at the beginning. This morning, I was put in charge of deliveries. Every now and then, Vesta gets a delivery of seeds, fertilizer, food, and other supplies. Normally Marlin would take care of it, but he decided to help Celia water the crops instead. Those packages were really heavy, I sure hope that things don’t get this way once I start working in my own farm.

As I carried stuff into the store room, I saw Celia ask Marlin for a break. She took it in the house like she usually does. At that time, I had no idea what she did during her breaks. I assumed that she took a nap or ate something. After I spoke to Vesta about the deliveries, she had me take a box filled with groceries to the house.

I walked into the house and placed the groceries on the table. At that moment, I heard an odd sound. I got curious since it was so familiar. It came from upstairs. I completely forgot that Celia was in the house with me, and her room is upstairs. I walked up to see what that sound was, it sounded like something rattling in a plastic bottle.

When I got to her room, I found Celia sitting on her bed with some pills on her hand. I jumped to conclusions, so I rushed in and stopped her. I scared her when I barged in and held her arm to stop her from taking them. I had no idea at the time what were they or why she had them. After we both calmed down, she explained that they were just medicine prescribed by Doctor Hardy. She has been taken them in secret, Marlin or Vesta had no idea.

Since I found out about the pills, she decided to tell me the truth. We sat on the bed as she explained her secret. You see she admitted that she is an orphan. She was born with a rare illness and her mother abandoned her. After she grew up, she was sent to Forget-Me-Not Valley to be treated by Doctor Hardy. She then got a job at Vesta’s farm so she can have an income and a place to live. She never told Vesta or Marlin about any of this, she was scared that they will ask her to leave if they found out.

That at least explains all the weird things she does. She gets exhausted from her illness, so she breaks often. She makes mistakes around the farm because she is always worried that Marlin or Vesta will find out and gets distracted. She takes her medicine on her lunch break, and goes to see Doctor Hardy on her days off. I feel bad knowing that she has to live this secret life.

After explaining the truth to me, she asked if I could keep her secret. She then gave me that pure smile she would always give Marlin. My heart just breaks when I look into her sad puppy brown eyes. Not because of her pretty face behind her straight brown hair. Not because of that innocent looking country dress or the bandanna in her hair. My heart aches because I have seen that smile before. The pure smile that says, “everything is going to be okay, I promise”.

My mom gave me that smile once. A smile that she made before tears started rolling down her cheeks. It was also the last smile she had. You see, my parents started to argue when I was about nine years old. Atland’s economy went down the toilet, and lots of people got laid off. My dad was one of them. Naturally, mom worried about how were the bills getting paid once the savings dried out. She was yelling and screaming, while my dad just sat there and took it. He had no idea what to say other than apologize. The apology only made mom angrier as she screamed, “sorry is not going to fix anything!” Those words haunt me to this very day as they echo back and forth in my mind. That day, my family fell apart.

Mom had to get a job, which meant that dad had to stay home and look after me. Money was no longer an issue, but things didn’t get better for my parents. Mom’s job didn’t pay as much as dad’s, so she had to work overtime to make up the difference. This means that mom was always tired and frustrated. Dad tried to find a new job, but all he knew is how to be a carpenter. He was equally bad at other types of work as maintaining a clean house. Mom came home and complained that the house is dirty and the food is burnt. They argued every day, it was hard to believe considering how well they got along before.

A few months later, mom and dad sat me down to tell me that they are getting a divorce. Dad had to move out, it broke my heart seeing them split up. At least the arguments stopped. I ended up living with mom, but I spent a lot of time at dad’s place. After school, I spent the afternoon at my dad’s place until my mom got home from work. It was so hard watching how miserable my dad was knowing that he failed his marriage. He still loved mom, but he wanted to get his life together before trying to work things out.

For a while, dad still didn’t have a job. He was going through his savings very quickly, and he was starting to worry about what he was going to do with himself. Mom helped him out, but he felt bad about it. He wanted to work, but carpentry was the only thing he was ever good at. He believe that if he could just work, he would be able to earn mom’s love again. Job interview after another, he came back empty handed. Dad got depressed and started drinking. It was the only way he knew how to cope with his feelings.

One day I came home after school. It was my mother’s day off, but I was shocked to see my dad at the house. You see, my dad’s friend Takakura bought some land to start a farm in Forget-Me-Not Valley. Takakura was willing to train my dad to be a farmer, and he can use his skills in carpentry to build the farm with his own two hands. I was happy knowing that dad was going to finally work, but my mood changed once I learned how far away Forget-Me-Not Valley is from home. Once he left, I’ll rarely see him anymore.

Mom was pretty upset too. She didn’t want him to go so far away to work. She still loved him despite the divorce. She promised him that they will work on their relationship if he decided to stay. But dad was not going to be happy sitting around while mom worked. And so, he left.

Mom was okay at first. She held herself together trying to be happy that my dad is finally working and making some money. Soon, mom started to get very lonely and her mental health broke down. She suddenly started to blame herself for the divorce. Mom would randomly cry for no real reason, and she couldn’t handle it. She then started to drink and smoke, but that was not helping. After some time, she started taking anti-depressants to cope with her sadness. That did help, but she looked so sad even on her best days.

Forget-Me-Not valley only had one phone at the time. There is a phone in the farm now, but that was installed much later. Once a week, dad would call to check on mom and me. Hearing his voice did help mom, but she slowly got worse over the years. One time I came home and watch mom beg dad to come back to Atland. Dad try to comfort my mom and tell her that things were going well in Forget-Me-Not Valley. He had no idea how much pain hearing that caused her.

About a year later, mom’ health started to fail. All the work, depression, liquor, cigarettes, and pills were eating her alive. I remember her seeing a doctor. She never said anything to me, but she knew what was happening to her. But even after the doctor told her the sad news, mom just turned to me with that pure smile. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she told me, “don’t worry son, everything is going to okay. I promise.” Even though she said that, the truth was that she’s dying. And there was nothing anyone could do to stop it.

So as I sat there looking at Celia’s sad brown eyes, I could not just stay there and do nothing. I talked to her and convinced her to tell Vesta the truth. That way, she can get the treatment she needs and not be alone about it. She needs Vesta and Marlin’s support, otherwise she’ll be alone just like my mother. I promised her that Vesta and Marlin will help her, otherwise I’ll let her work on my farm.

Later that afternoon, Celia gained the courage to tell Vesta and Marlin everything. She was scared, but I was nearby to support her. When Vesta learned the truth, she walked up to Celia and hugged her. Celia had no idea, but Vesta loves her like if she was a member of her family. Vesta is glad that she knows the truth, she only wished she knew sooner.

It was so emotional watching them bond. Vesta also thanked me for helping Celia get over her fear. It did feel good helping them, I know things will get better now that everything is out in the open. Hopefully Celia can work better knowing that she has Vesta and Marlin’s support.

Summer 15, 2000

Celia came over to my house early this morning. At first, I was worried that something happened at Vesta’s farm. She promised me that nothing is wrong, but she had something important to tell me. She started the conversation with admitting that Vesta asked if she was interested in having an arranged marriage. Celia quickly turned it down. When I asked why, she answered, “I haven’t been able to get you off my mind the last couple of days. I think I’m in love with you. I was hoping that I could be your girlfriend. Is that a problem for you?”

I was pretty shocked to hear her confess so suddenly. I admit that it made me feel happy to hear her say those words. Celia is very pretty, any guy would be a fool to turn down such a cute confession of love. But I did it anyway. It feels pretty ironic that I encouraged her to tell Vesta the truth, yet I don’t have the courage to do it myself. All I told her that I was not ready to be in a relationship, I just needed time.

I figured that if I said that, she would just move on. But just like Muffy before her, she decided to simply wait until I am ready. Maybe I will tell her the truth someday. When I do, will she understand then? When I am finally able to do that, I’ll just keep walking in my father’s shoes.