Chapter 5

Time passes since Pete started visiting Dia. Summer days roll over one by one and everyone in Flowerbud Village stays cool in the heat. Pete continues to work on the farm while Dia reads her books by the windowsill. This doesn’t mean that life has been the same for Pete or Dia. Once a week, Pete visit the sanitarium to see Dia. During those visits, Pete brings some fresh homemade blueberry pie for them to enjoy. He wonders how one person can eat blueberry pie without ever getting bored of it. He has tried to mix up the recipe to make the pies more diverse, but blueberry pies taste all the same to them.

Dia is still shy, so Pete does all the talking when he visits. He would talk about his hometown, family, friends, dreams, interests, and why he moved to Flowerbud Village. Every now and then, Dia would say a few things about her family. She is trying to open up bit by bit, but she’s not willing to share too many details of her past. Pete respects Dia’s silence, but it has become the elephant in the room.

When Pete can’t visit, he dedicate his time to his work on the farm. He feels that the more he can do in a day, it would free up time to see Dia later. Despite visiting the sanitarium often, he finds himself wondering about his feelings for her. He also wonders if she enjoys his company, or if she’s rather him not visiting. Maybe she only tolerates him for the blueberry pie. All he is sure about is that he enjoys talking to someone other than his cows and chickens. Seeing Dia brings him comfort and joy, but her secret past makes him feel like Dia doesn’t trust him. Forcing her to talk about her past may upset her and ruin their friendship.

On days that Pete can’t visit, Dia tends to look out her window more. She tries her best to convince herself that she is not looking for Pete. She tells herself that she is admiring nature from her window. There are no windows that lets her see Pete’s farm directly, so she’ll never see him coming with a basket filled with Blueberry pie. She does see him wander around the village from time to time.

One day, she sees Pete talking to Nina outside of the Spring Farm where she lives. Seeing Pete talking to someone else makes her feel a little jealous. Like a small prick in her chest. She sighs in relief when she sees him pay for seeds, so it was a business visit not a personal one. All she can hope for is for him to visit soon.

The seasons change, the air gets cooler as the autumn chill takes over the summer heat. Pete continues to visit Dia, but something feels different. When he is talking, he would notice her getting distracted. She would stare out of the window for no obvious reason. Most of the time, nothing was outside to look at except the occasional squirrel or villager moving around. It looks like something outside was calling her but he can’t see what.

One day after Pete arrives home from visiting Dia, he realizes that he hasn't changed his calendar yet. It’s the fifth day of Fall and he still has his Summer page of his calendar up. After ripping the page, he takes a look at the summer events that are written on it. During Summer, he missed the Beach Festival, Star Festival, Firefly Festival, and the Fireworks festival because of work. All of them could have been nice to take Dia on a date.

He scratches his head and thinks for a moment. Not once does he remember Dia outside of the sanitarium. Since he himself missed all the festivals, he doesn’t know if she’s been attending them or not. He doesn’t know if Dia has even stepped foot outside to take a breath of fresh air. He takes a look at the fall calendar and sees the Moonlight Festival is coming up soon. He gets an idea to take Dia out to see the moon during the Moon Festival. He imagines a date where Dia would wear something different than her emerald green dress as they enjoy some blueberry pie under the Harvest Moon. A plan so rich, he can almost taste it.

After planning for a few days, the Moonlight Festival arrives. All the other villagers are asking their dates to go view the moon from their own personal spots. Pete puts on his best clothes to ask the princess out of her castle. He no longer needs to sneak into the sanitarium since Alex and Gina knows he is a frequent visitor. They have sparked a little romance of their own, so they get distracted easily.

Pete arrives at the Sanitarium, Alex waves at him as he approaches Gina to ask her out to the Moonlight Festival. Up the stairs, he goes to meet Dia. Just as always, he finds her sitting in her room reading a book. He smiles as he knocks on the wall to get her attention. Dia looks at Pete, she puts her book down and gives him a sad but warm smile. She is surprised to see him since it was a festival, but she doesn’t complain.

“Hey there,” greets Pete.

“Hello there, you are here earlier than usual. How have you been?” answered Dia.

“I’m good,” replied Pete nervously. He then takes a deep breath and gathers the courage to sit next to Dia to ask, “you know, the Moonlight Festival is tonight. I was wondering if you want to go with me tonight. Like a date.

Dia gasps. She then looks down sadly and answers, “I. . . I can’t. I’m sorry.”

Pete sighs and says, “I see. I guess you’re going with someone else then.”

“That’s not it,” snapped Dia. “I can’t go because I can’t go. Not with you or anyone else.”

Pete’s eyes widen as he dares to ask, “why then?”

“I just can’t!” Dia answered in a frustrated tone. Her body is trembling almost as if she’s having a nervous breakdown or a panic attack. She wants to explain herself, but she fears that if he knew the truth, he’ll stop coming by.

Pete stands up and adjusts his hat. He sighs sadly and says, “I guess I’ll just leave then. I’m sorry for bothering you.”

As soon as Pete turns away, Dia gathers the courage to yell, “I’m weak dammit!”

Dia’s outburst shocks him. He turns to find her crying uncontrollably. Gina and Alex run up the stairs to see what happened. They find Dia crying with her face covered and Pete paralyzed with shock. Gina rushes over to comfort Dia and Alex pulls Pete away from them.

“What happened here?” asked Alex sternly.

Pete trembles as he answers, “it’s all my fault.”

Alex sighs and says, “I’m going to have to ask you to leave now. Please don’t come back here.”

“Don’t go!” yelled Dia suddenly.

Everyone looks over at Dia surprised at what she said. She was crying because of Pete, but hearing her doctor demanding him to leave is making her more upset. Gina has no idea what happened, but she calls Pete over to her. She knows Dia well enough to know when she needs to say something important.

As Pete moves closer, Dia admits, “My body is weak.” She pauses to catch her breath before continuing, “I cannot go out with you because my body won’t let me. If I move around too much, I’ll pass out.”

Pete takes a deep breath. Her confession was hard to do, almost terrifying. Her flaws make her feel uncomfortable and less human. She doesn’t want to get this close to anyone for many reasons. She doesn’t want to get hurt. She doesn’t want to face her reality. Most importantly, she doesn’t want to feel abandoned.

Pete takes her hand and says, “I undertstand.”

Dia looks up at his baby blue eyes. Those are the eyes that comforts her when he comes over. They remind her of blueberries she loves so much. Pete kneels and says, “I’m sorry I made you cry. I just wanted us to enjoy some time outside this place. I didn’t know, please forgive me.”

Dia wipes the tears off her face and asks, “will you stay here and watch the moon from here?”

Pete rests his forehead against her’s and answers, “of course I will.”

With that, Gina and Alex leaves to give them some privacy. They spend the whole day up until the night where they look up at the moon from Dia’s window. Gina brings them some Blueberry pie so they can share together. As Dia looks up at the night sky enjoying the festival, Pete realizes that there is so much to learn about Dia. He’ll have to take things one day at a time.