Chapter 3

A few days has passed since Popuri dropped off the egg with Jack and Claire. Claire puts the egg in the incubator, and she’s been watches it closely ever since. The egg has been Claire’s only responsibility in the farm while Jack works hard every day clearing the field for planting crops. Other than that, things have been relatively peaceful at the farm.

One Spring afternoon, Jack finishes his work for the day and goes home to relax. He takes off his work boots, sits on the sofa, and opens a newspaper to read the current events around Mineral Town. Claire then rushes into the house with some huge news for Jack. “Come quick! The egg is hatching,” shouted Claire. She then runs out of the house, while Jack takes his time putting the paper down and follows her to the coop to watch the miracle of life happen.

Inside the coop, Jack and Claire observe as the small chick emerges from the egg. The yellow chick peeps as it gets used to its new life it was brought into. Seeing the cute new addition to the farm bring a smile to both of their faces. Since there are no adult chickens to care for it, Claire knows that she will have to play the role of mother hen until it grows up.

“I wonder what we will name her,” asked Jack.

“Just so you know, this chick is male,” answered Claire.

“Really? Sorry, I’m not an animal person, so I couldn’t tell what gender it was. I guess that means we will still need to buy a chicken after all. But still, we should be able to start a full flock of chickens in no time once this chick grows up into a rooster.”

Jack was hoping that the chick would have been female to name it Popuri. But even if he didn’t get the chick he wanted, seeing new life being born brings him hope that the farm will thrive and prosper. For just a moment, he is glad to have a partner to help him around the farm.

Even though Jack and Claire have been getting along quite well, things turn very sour rather quickly. As they get comfortable around each other, they start to step on each other’s toes. Their opposing personalities will start to clash, and their differences cause them to argue.

The first argument came a few days after the chick hatched. Jack has been working a lot harder trying to plant as much crops as possible to start affording new animals to populate the farm. He comes home exhausted and in need of a relaxing warm shower. He feels that he has earned it after tilling, planting, and watering a big chunk of the field. All he wants is to rest for the day after his shower.

He opens the door to the bathroom and walks in. He gasps as he finds Claire in there sitting on the toilet, pants down with her business totally exposed. There is an awkward moment as Jack and Claire lock eyes at each other as they process what just happened. Their faces turn red as Jack says, “shit. . .”

Claire wastes no time covering herself screaming as loud as she can. She then grabs anything she can throw yelling, “get out, get out, get out!”

Jack gets hit with a bottle of toothpaste, several toothbrushes, a soap dish, and bottles of shampoo and conditioner. Once Claire runs out of things to throw, Jack rushes out and slams the door shut. He breathes heavily as Claire continues to shout at Jack calling all sorts of foul names.

Once everything has settled down, Jack and Claire find themselves sitting at the opposite ends of the dining room table. Jack’s face is all bruised up from the many things Claire threw at him. Even though they know that they’re both are at fault, they still look at each other angrily. If they have one thing in common, they are very stubborn.

“You know, you could just lock the door like a normal person,” whined Jack.

“Excuse me, but I am not used to locking doors in my own house. You could knock you know! Just admit it, you just wanted to catch a peep you pervert.”

“Like if there was anything to look at,” he snapped.

Claire gets angry and starts shouting at Jack. He shouts back as well. For hours they shout at each other back and forth for invading each other’s private space. After a heated debate, they decide on some new ground rules and a set schedule for bathing. They can only hope to avoid any encounters like this in the future.

Their next argument happens a few days later. Jack once again comes home after a long day working at the farm. He is looking forward to rest until it is time to cook dinner. After taking off his boots, he takes a look around the house and finds an unexpected surprise. He finds a dog inside the house that he has never seen before. The dog has one of Jack’s shirts locked in it’s jaws; flailing around trying to tear it to shreds.

Soon enough, the dog notices Jack staring at him. Their eyes lock on to each other as Jack wonders where this dog came from and why is it in the house. As they continue to stare at each other, the dog lifts its hind leg and starts to mark it’s territory.

Jack freaks out and starts to yell. Claire hears him screaming from inside the house, so she decides to check what’s all the commotion about. When Claire walks inside the house, she finds the dog trapped in a corner. The dog whimpers as Jack approaches the dog carrying a hammer. He then lifts the hammer up yelling, “get out of my house you stinky mutt!”

Claire rushes to the dog’s rescue and yells, “please don’t hurt Milo!”

“Wait a second, this is your dog?”

“Yep, I just adopted him today!” She then picks the dog up and shows it to Jack saying, “isn’t he cute?”

“Are you kidding me? I hate dogs! They smell, piss everywhere, and we don’t have time to train it. I don’t care where you got that thing, but take it back! I don’t want that thing in my farm!”

“No,” said Claire sternly as she stands her ground. “This is just as much my farm as it is yours. Since my share of the work is raising animals, I get to decide if Milo stays. We need a dog to protect my animals from other wild animals. And besides, if Milo has to go, then the chick has to go too.”

Jack hates to admit it, but Claire is right. He has to respect the idea that Claire also owns the farm and can make decisions about it too. Jack groans, then says, “fine, but keep it outside. You’re responsible for it, not me.” Jack then walks back to the bedroom and slams the door behind him.

Claire snuggles Milo as she says, “don’t worry about that big jerk, I’ll protect you. He’s just a grumpy old man in a boy’s body. Let’s go outside and play catch.”

Another few days pass, and things get quiet between Jack and Claire. They both start to avoid each other and just work on the farm. Since Claire doesn’t have much to do just yet, she spends many afternoons making sure the house is clean. The problem is that Jack is not as neat as Claire would like him to be, and it starting to get on her nerves. She knows that all of the stuff in the house belongs to Jack, but she wishes that he would pick up after himself a little.

She walks around the house and picks up Jack’s books and places them neatly back on the shelf. She then grabs a laundry basket and starts picking up Jack’s sweaty and smelly clothes that he leaves around. As she picks up Jack’s musty socks, she says to herself, “I know he works hard every day, but what the hell? At least put your socks in the laundry basket. This is so gross!”

As she walks around the house, she is starting to notice a slight male funk lingering around. She sprays some deodorant and opens a few windows. She knows that Jack primarily stays in the house and rarely leaves the farm to socialize with others, but Claire has to live in the same house too.

Since Jack’s dirty clothes smells so bad, she decides to wash his clothes first. As she works on the clothes, Jack walks in the house with mud all over his boots. He is exhausted and ready to sit on the couch and relax. He reaches into the laundry basket and pulls out a piece of clothing. He then wipes his sweaty forehead with the item. He quickly notices that the fabric feels different than what he normally wears, so he takes a look. His face turns red as soon as he notices that he has a pair of Claire’s underwear in his hands. He looks down and notices that he reached into Claire’s dirty clothes, and his basket is missing.

“Jack! What the hell are you doing,” shouted Claire. She then walks up to him and shouts, “I just cleaned up, and you ruined the floor I spent all day cleaning!” She then notices Jack holding her underwear in his hands. Without bothering to hear an explanation, Claire snatches her underwear and slaps the living daylight out of Jack.

He finds himself sitting at the dining room table with a big red hand mark across his face. Claire just cleans up the mess angrily, too embarrassed to even look at him. Once she is done cleaning, Claire starts to shout at Jack about how much of a slob he is. She also warns him to stay away from her clothing. Jack is just too embarrassed to argue back.

A week later, Jack walks out of the house that morning to start working on the pasture. He is sure that some turnips are ripe enough to harvest and ship. He rubs his hands together looking forward to a nice pay after all that work growing crops. As he walks to the pasture, he finds a pony pulling up some of the turnips and eating them one by one. He screams bloody murder as he rushes to save his turnips.

“Hey, shoo! Get out of here! Where did you even come from? Go back to where you came from,” shouted Jack. The pony ignores him and continues to eat and trample the turnips Jack worked so hard to grow.

Jack tries to push the pony away. It squeals angrily, and hind kicks Jack in his chest. Jack flies back and hits the ground hard. He is now in a lot of pain in the fetal position while the pony continues to feat on his harvest.

“What’s going on here,” asked Claire as she walks out of the house. She finds the pony eating at Jack’s turnips, while he lays there moaning in pain. She cringes as she imagines what happened. The only thing she can do is call for help and have Jack go to the clinic.

At the clinic, Jack’s chest is covered in bandages. Claire waits for Doctor Trent to come back for the results of the exam. The pony really knocked the wind out of Jack, and she hopes he’ll be okay. Soon enough, Doctor Trent comes out of the back room holding Jack’s X-ray saying, “good news. You have a few bruised ribs, but nothing seems to be broken. You’re pretty tough to take a hit from a pony and still be fine. I would take it easy for a few days, but you’ll make a full recovery.”

“Thanks doctor,” said Claire.

Doctor nods, “I’m going to get you some medicine for the pain, I’ll be right back.” He then moves himself back to his office to write Jack a prescription.

Jack then leers at Claire angrily, “let me guess, the pony is yours too? Where did you even get it?”

Claire laughs sheepishly before answering, “Barley let me have it. I passed by his ranch, and the pony was giving it trouble. I’ve always wanted to compete in horse races, so I volunteered to take it off his hands and raise it in our farm. I know it’s a lot, but I promise to give it lots of love and attention. Sorry, I should have told you earlier.”

Jack suddenly gets a jolt of pain in his chest. “Why is it that I always get hurt from your little shenanigans?”

“Sorry, I’ll build a fence and keep him on my side of the field. I promise.”

Things gets quiet for a few more days. Jack helped Claire build a fence around her half of the field, and Claire worked hard to plant grass and make a pasture. At least the fence will keep her animals out of his crops from that moment on. With the remaining turnips Jack harvested, he was able to buy a cow and a sheep to keep Claire busy and out of his way. The grass starts to grow, and her animals are feeling happy. She hopes that by mid-Summer, her cow will start producing milk and help Jack make some money.

One afternoon, Claire comes home after working in the animals for the day. The house is filled with the delicious scent of Jack’s cooking. She walks to the kitchen, but Jack is nowhere to be found. She finds a pot boiling with what she believes is either stew or curry. The smell makes her mouth water, she’s hungry and can’t wait to eat.

“Hey Claire, is that you,” shouted Jack from the bathroom. “I’m currently shaving, can you do me a favor and put the pot on the dining table? I already put a mat on the table!”

“Sure thing,” answered Claire. She grabs the pot’s handles, but it’s too hot for her to move. She looks around and finds one of Jack’s shirts lying around. She grabs the shirt and uses it to pick up the pot. As she slowly lifts the pot off the stove, one of the sleeves of the shirt falls into the flame and catches on fire. Halfway to the dining table, Claire smells something burning. She looks down and sees the shirt burning under her. She freaks out and tosses the pot to the ground, spilling the contents all over the floor. She then throws the shirt on the floor and stomps on it to put it out. The shirt is ruined, and there is no way to fix it.

“What’s going on,” asked Jack as he pops his head out of the bathroom. His eyes nearly pop out of his head as he sees the mess Claire made and his shirt all burnt up in Claire’s hands.

“Uh, my bad,” said Claire.

“My shirt,” shouted Jack. He rushes out of the bathroom bare chested and snatches the shirt out of her hands. “Oh man, I was going to wear this. It’s my favorite lucky shirt. A one-of-a-kind collector’s item signed by the famous singer Lanna. It was really expensive, why would you do this?”

“I’m sorry. I’ll replace it, I promise.”

“You can’t replace this! I just said it’s one of a kind! How did this happen anyway?”

“The pot was too hot, so I need something to carry it.”

“Why didn’t you use a potholder?”

“What’s a potholder?”

“Are you kidding me? You know what? From now on, stay away from the kitchen,” said Jack angrily. He then walks away to the bedroom and slams the door shut. Claire takes a deep breath and looks at the mess. She can’t do anything else but to clean up and go buy dinner from the inn. She had no idea how difficult it was going to be to live with Jack. She thought about just leaving, but she has nowhere to go. She drops the mop and tilts her head down sadly. She feels trapped and she feels that things might get worse before things get better. Assuming it does at all.

Jack and Claire haven’t spoken to each other for several days. The incidents from the last few weeks is starting to build up and they find more and more reasons to be upset at each other. They both wonder how much they can take before things get ugly. But they both are pretty much stuck living together, so they just try again to live together in peace. Even if it means walking on eggshells in the meantime.

They do share a farm together and must learn to cooperate. Day after day, hey just keep their distance and give each other space. The most important thing is the farm, so they just look ahead and keep doing their jobs.

One day, Jack and Claire are doing their fair share of the work in the house. Jack cooks in the kitchen, and Claire is in the bedroom cleaning up. She makes her bed, tucks the sheets in. and fluffs her pillow. She does the same to Jack’s bed. As she fluffs Jack’s pillow, she finds a photograph faced down under it.

Curiosity takes over, and Claire picks up the photograph. Just before she is able to look at it, Jack snatches the photograph and says, “new rule, never touch this. I don’t care what you touch in this house. But please do not touch this picture. It’s precious to me.”

Claire huffs in an annoyed manner, “fine, whatever. I bet it’s just a picture of some big boobed bimbo anyway.” She then walks out of the room to go clean something else.

Jack places the picture back under the pillow and pats it gently. He sighs sadly, he never imagined that living with Claire would be so difficult. He tries to remember that he did live alone for a while before moving to Mineral Town and he should be patient. He thought about leaving town and starting over back in the city where he came from, but he also knows that life was very stressful as well.

Jack and Claire don’t realize it, but they are both feeling trapped. They can’t leave, yet they don’t want to live with each other anymore. This one thing that they have in common is driving each other crazy. They both have no idea how much they can take. So they decide to take things on day at a time and try to figure it out.