Chapter 8

Summer 4, 2003

Muffy is in her room at 9:00pm crossing out the fourth day of Summer on her calendar. She sighs as she takes a look at the fifth day of Summer feeling depressed and lonely. On the fifth square, she had already written “Happy Birthday” on it as a constant reminder of her own birthday. Usually, her birthday is a time for happiness and celebration. But this year, and the years following it will forever be different.

She places her hand on the calendar and says, “I can't believe it. I never would have thought I would come to this day. Tomorrow, I'll be thirty years old, and I'm still not married. It's not fair, all of my high school friends are already married and have at least 2 kids already. I'm the only one who hasn't yet.”

She walks away from the calendar, and crashes on her bed. She spends a few minutes staring at the ceiling remembering the failures she's endured in her love life. Muffy is indeed beautiful. But because of that, no man has ever taken her seriously. She thought that moving to forget-Me-Not Valley would be a foolproof way to find a husband quickly. But five years later, she has not gotten lucky.

She turns her head to find Yuki's Photo resting on the nightstand next to her bed. She sits up, and picks up the photo of the young, caring, and handsome farmer who lives not too far away. There are several single men in Forget-Me-Not Valley, but most of them are even older than she is. Yuki is the only guy that she reserves a special place in her heart.

As she stares into the photo, she remembers all the great times she had with Yuki. She knew him for three years, and tries her best to wait patiently for the blue feather. But as the years pass by, her chance of getting married to him seem to be getting dimmer.

After staring at Yuki's photo, she returns to her bed and falls asleep. She wishes that tomorrow would never come, but she knows that she doesn’t have the ability to stop time. All she can do is try a bit harder to get married to the young farmer. Even though that there is a lot of competition, and Yuki now has a daughter living with him, she refuses to give up. She decided a long time ago to continue to fight until the last day.

Summer 5, 2003

After getting dressed up in her usual red dress and blue mini jacket, Muffy heads down the stairs to help Griffin prepare the Bar. When she reaches the bar, she finds Griffin talking on the phone. As soon as he notices her, he calls her over covering the bottom end of the phone. Griffin then passes over the phone to Muffy telling her that someone called from her hometown.

“Hello?” answered Muffy. She hears the voice of her mother on the other end of the line. “Oh hi mom! . . . Yes, I know it's my birthday today, I was going to call you later. . . Married? No, not yet, I'm still working on it. . . A blind date? Mom, you know how I feel about that. I do not want to get married to some stranger. . . Yes, I know that you want to see your grand kids soon, but things are not as easy as you think. . . A boyfriend? Well, I do have this one guy I'm sort of seeing, but he's not yet ready for a commitment yet. . .”

Muffy continues to listen to her mother's ranting for another hour or so. Griffin just cleans the dishes as Muffy continues to deal with her mother. After a while, Muffy says, “Okay mom. I promise I'll do my best here in the valley. . . Goodbye.”

She hangs up the phone, and collapses on one of the bar stools. Explaining to her mother why isn't she married yet drained a lot of her energy. Griffin notices that Muffy is done speaking to her mother, and walks out to the bar drying out an empty mug. “Your mother giving you a hard time?” asked Griffin.

“She's even more impatient than last year.” answered Muffy. “It's not my fault that I'm still single. I mean I have bond hair, green eyes, I take good care of my figure, and I look younger than I really am. I just don't get how no man would want to take a girl like me seriously. Most guys just want to have a few nights of fun with me, then they move on to the next girl on their list. It's not fair.”

Griffin smiles and pulls out three tickets out of his pocket. Muffy stares at them and asks, “What are those for?”

“I'm letting you have the day off today because it's your birthday. The circus just came into town yesterday, and I'm sure that you could find two other people to go with. Like a young farmer and his kid.” answered Griffin.

Muffy's mood changes from depressed to happy. She hugs him and takes the tickets running out of the bar saying, “Thanks Griffin, you're the best!”

Griffin continues to smile as he watches her leave the Bar. He knows that he has strong feelings for Muffy, but he just watches over her like her guardian. Griffin is 15 years older than Muffy. Because of that, Muffy sees him as a father figure, not a bachelor. Even so, he still watches her hoping only the best.

Yuki, Choco, and Muffy walk together to the circus that has set up on the east side of Forget-Me-Not Valley. Yuki stares at Muffy nervously as she hums a cheerful tune. Choco is just happy that she is going to the circus for the first time. As they walk, Muffy says, “What a wonderful Summer day this has turned out. Clear skies, bright sun, birds are singing, and I am on a date with the greatest guy in the world.”

Yuki sweats nervously and says, “Muffy, I am only going with you because it's your birthday. This is not a date.”

Muffy happily ignores him and continues to walk. Soon, they hear the sounds of the circus band playing, and they see the circus from a distance. Choco becomes even more excited as they approach the circus. Even Yuki becomes excited to go to the circus, he has never been to one before either.

The ticket man accepts their tickets and they walk in. There are so many stands that none of them can decide what do they want to do first. They decide to eat some of the carnival treats like cotton candy, funnel cake, churros, and chocolate covered apples. Next they decide to try out the games at the circus. Yuki plays the test of strength game where you hit the target on the ground with a hammer, then a counterweight flies up and hits a bell. Choco participates in a chocolate eating contest, and wins by a landslide. Muffy and Choco both end up with a lot of prizes to take home.

Their next stop is a drink stand. The line is a bit long, so Yuki and Muffy waits while Choco sits on a bench. After a few minutes of waiting, Choco gets bored, and starts to walk around close by. As she takes a look around on her own, a strange short man jumps out in front of her and yells, “Hi there!!”

Choco shrieks and kicks the man between the legs where it hurts the most. The strange man collapses on the ground in pain holding his crotch. Everyone stops to stare, Yuki and Muffy finds Choco in the middle of the crowd of people holding some drinks. “Choco, what did you do this time!?” yelled Yuki.

“Daddy, that man is scary!” answered Choco.

The strange man jumps on his feet and yells cheerfully, “Sorry about that, it was my fault!” Yuki and Muffy jumps back as they are both surprised to see him recover so quickly. Seeing that the man is okay, the crowd disappears. The short man is wearing a blue and gray business suit, a blue top hat, dyed blond hair, and a red bow tie on his neck. He has extremely small eyes, and a tattoo on each of his cheeks, a star on his right and a heart on his left. After dusting his clothes off, he says, “My name is Barney, I am the ringleader of this circus! I didn't mean to scare the little princess, but I couldn't help myself.”

Choco hides behind Yuki. He feels obligated to introduce them, so he says, “My name is Yuki, I own a farm here in the valley. This is my daughter Choco, and with me is Muffy.”

Barney smiles and continues, “Looks like your here with the family. It's great to see a husband and wife taking their child to the circus.”

Muffy blushes from being told that they were a couple. But Yuki rains on her parade and says, “We're not married. We're just friends, that's all. It's her birthday today, and I'm just keeping her company.”

“So are you here to see the show?” Barney asked unexpectedly.

“The show?” asked Yuki.

Barney points at the bulletin board behind them. On the bulletin board. They turn around and see a young woman with jet black hair wearing a blue leotard standing in it. Next to her are the words, “Mimi the amazing acrobat and friends” written next to her. “She is the star of this circus. We would be happy if everyone would come watch her perform. Naturally, I'll be there too as an announcer.” said Barney.

Yuki takes a hard look at the bulletin board and says,“Wow, she's real pretty.” He turns to Choco and asks, “You want to watch Mimi perform?” Choco nods happily. Yuki grabs Choco's hand, and they walk to the big tent to watch the show.

Muffy pouts for a minute saying, “The whole three years we known each other, you never said that I was pretty. . .” After a moment, she follows Yuki into the tent.

The tent is filled with a lot of people from many different places including Mineral Town. Yuki tries his best to hide from his friends until things have settled down over there. They are able to get great seats in the middle of the stands. Not too far, yet not too close. Choco drinks her chocolate milk as they wait for the show to start.

After a few minutes, Barney comes out of the curtains and announces, “Ladies and Gentlemen! Thanks for coming to the show! We have a lot of performances to show you! Funny clowns, ferocious beasts, tricks that deceive the eye, but most importantly. . . The Amazing Mimi!” Everyone claps and cheers as they watch Mimi swing through the air. Muffy becomes a little jealous because Yuki is watching Mimi more than her, but she still tries her best to enjoy the performance.

After the opening act, the curtain opens and a bunch of clowns start performing throwing pies at one another and telling jokes. Everyone laughs as they watch the clowns act silly. After the clowns, Mimi swings on the trapeze singing a beautiful melody that leaves the crowd in awe.

As they continue to watch, all the chocolates that Choco has been eating catches up to her. She pulls on Yuki's sleeve and says, “Daddy, I need to use the bathroom.”

Yuki nods, and Choco runs to the stalls to relieve herself. After she leaves the stall, she realizes that in the sudden rush, she does not remember how to go back to the audience. She walks around the tent aimlessly, and finds a door. Not sure if it is the right way, she enters anyway.

At the same time, an act has ended and Barney is back on the stage announcing, “Okay, it's time for Mimi to show off her magic skills! Can I ask for a volunteer from the audience!?”

Just then, Choco walks on the side of the stage, and realizes that she took a wrong turn. Barney notices Choco. He runs to the side, and pulls her on the stage. “Looks like we have a volunteer! The cute and cuddly CHOCO!!”

Yuki then spits out his Pepsi and yells, “WHAT THE F-” then the band plays loudly blocking out anything else he was about to say.

Mimi comes out with a huge box with a curtain, and steps Choco inside. Before closing the curtain, she yells, “I shall now make this little girl disappear in front of your very eyes!” She then closes the curtain, spins the box around completely. Afterwards, Mimi opens the curtain and Choco is not inside, She is now behind the box appearing as if she had vanished.

Muffy is impressed and claps cheerfully. She then says, “Wow, she really is amazing, right Yuki. . . Yuki?” She then notices that Yuki is no longer sitting next to her. Thinking that he'll come back, she continues to watch the show.

As Yuki is going bananas looking for the entrance to the stage, Choco is juggling with some of the clowns. After a while, Yuki finds himself in the back of the stage where the crew is preparing a big event. As he searches, one of the workers stop him and asks, “Are you here for the act?”

“What?” asked Yuki.

“Good you're late, get into the cage right now!” the employee pushes Yuki into a huge cage and locks it. Then he goes out to signal that they are ready.

Barney comes out to the stage and announces, “Sorry that our final act is a bit late, we had trouble finding our man! Now that he is here, I shall introduce the final performance! Introducing, Kano and Simbah!”

The curtain rises revealing the huge cage. Barney turns around and finds Yuki inside instead of Kano demanding to be let out. Barney sweats nervously, but he tries to make the best of the act. “Looks like Kano is still in the hospital, but no worries! We have a great replacement to show us a great performance. I'll introduce Yuki the Lion tamer!”

Yuki shakes the bars and says, “Hey, I thought I told you to let me out!. . . Wait, did he say Lion tamer?” Then Yuki hears the growl of a vicious animal behind him. He turns around slowly and finds a huge lion in the cage with him.

“Yuki!! Do your best!!” yelled Muffy from the audience.

“Muffy!! Don't just sit there!! Do something!!” demanded Yuki.

The yelling upsets the lion called Simbah, and it starts to chase him. Choco looks around for anything to help her father. She quickly finds a whip and a stool inside the cage. The bars are wide enough for Choco to squeeze through, so she runs to her father's aid. The lion has Yuki pinned in a corner, but Choco grabs the whip and stool and runs between them.

“Choco, what are you doing here!! Get out!!” yelled Yuki.

Choco ignores her father, and remains where she is. Choco then whips the ground yelling, “Back Simbah! Back!! The determination and fearlessness in her eyes drives the lion back. The crowd is amazed and cheers for Choco.

Muffy claps and yells, “Yay Choco!! Tame that lion!!”

“Muffy!! Who's side are you on!!??” yelled Yuki realizing that Muffy still has not moved to help them.

Afterwards, the show is over. Yuki, Choco, and Muffy walk home by themselves. Yuki is exhausted after being chased by a lion. Choco and Muffy are happy, they had the best time of their lives. Yuki looks at Choco and asks, “Choco, where did you learn how to do that back there? With the lion I mean.”

“Saturday morning cartoons!” cheered Choco.

Yuki drops Muffy off at the bar, and then walks home with Choco. They were silent for a while, until Choco asks, “Daddy, can we go to the circus again, PLEASE.”

“Absolutely not.” said Yuki. “After what happened, I'll never go back to the circus again.”

However a few minutes later, Yuki finds Celia, Lumina, Flora, and Nami standing right outside the gates to his farm. They each held up three circus tickets, and they all sing, “Hey Yuki!! Wanna go to the circus with me?!”

“Oh no!” complained Yuki as he passes out. Choco jumps for Joy as she sees that she'll go to the circus four more times, once with each of the other girls.