Chapter 4

Jack and Claire continue to do their best lo live together peacefully. Their top priority is to share the farm while staying out of each other’s way. But no matter how hard they try, they can’t help but to step on each other’s toes every now and then. Their frustrations grow after every passing day, and their relationship will reach a breaking point sooner than later.

One late Spring morning, Jack is awake early preparing breakfast for them. He finds this time pleasantly peaceful as Claire likes to sleep in a couple of hours. But on this very morning, Claire wakes up early as well. Her hair is a mess, there are bags under her eyes, and she drags her feet to the bathroom to take a shower. Jack raises an eyebrow as he wonders why Claire is up so early if she’s still so sleepy.

As they eat breakfast together, Jack is full of energy and ready to tackle the morning chores. Claire on the other hand is struggling to stay awake. It takes everything she has to not dip her face in her breakfast and fall asleep. Jack shakes his head in disbelief wondering why Claire is so tired. He feels that he works harder and longer hours. Claire has only a few animals to care for and spends most of the day hanging out with the other villagers.

“Had a rough night,” asked Jack sarcastically.

Claire rubs her baggy eyes as she answers, “sorry. . . It’s that rooster that wakes me up in the morning. It crows every morning when the sun comes up. I usually wake up later, but that bird is just plain annoying.”

“That’s weird. I figured that since you had experience dealing with animals and birds, you would be used to it by now,” said Jack before taking another bite of his breakfast.

A bulge forms on Claire’s brow. She feels that Jack is trying to be funny and questioning her ability to do her job. She looks away and says, “well, maybe the next time your girlfriend drops off a bird in our farm, she could give us a chicken instead. I think it’s inconsiderate that she gave us a bird that lays no eggs and wakes me up at the crack of dawn. But you don’t care, you wake up before the rooster crows.”

Jack slams his fork on the table. “Okay seriously, what’s your problem with Popuri? First of all, she’s just a friend, not my girlfriend. Second, there was no way she could have known the egg would hatch a male chick. But you just keep talking so much shit about her like she did something to you. And frankly, it’s getting on my nerves!”

Claire then stares at Jack with a mean glare as she answers, “Popuri is not the problem, you are! You say that she’s just a friend, but you turn into a whole different person when she comes around. You are such an asshole, but then you turn into this nice guy when she visits. If you like her so much, then just marry her and go live in the chicken ranch and leave me the farm already!”

“You know what? You can be a real bitch sometimes when you’re angry,” said Jack sternly.

At that moment, Claire feels that Jack crossed the line. She knows she started the argument, but he didn’t have to call her such a vulgar name. She loses control of her senses and grabs a saltshaker on the table and throws it violently at Jack. Lucky for him, she misses him completely. But the saltshaker flies across the house and smashes a piece of pottery. The loud crash causes both of their eyes to widen. Jack looks back and sees it smashed into tiny pieces. He slowly approaches the smashed item and tries desperately to put it back together. His eyes tremble as tears start to form. It is too damaged and nothing he can do can put it back together.

Claire has no idea what she just broke. She believes that it’s a simple clay pot, a worthless decoration that can easily be replaced. She approaches him slowly and says, “I'm sorry, I didn’t mean to break that. I’ll replace it, I promise.”

“You. . . Can’t. . . Replace. . . This. . ,” said Jack angrily, trying his best not to cry.

Jack is holding the pieces like if he was holding a baby. He is trembling, and Claire has no idea why. To her, it’s just pottery, nothing to cry over. “It’s fine, I’ll buy another one. A better one,” she said casually.

At that point, Jack has reached his limit. He tried his best to live with Claire peacefully, but he feels that he got the short end of the deal. He can’t ask her to leave, but he can’t abandon the farm either. So he feels that there’s only one thing he can do. He drops the broken pieces and walks away. Without saying a word to Claire, he grabs his rucksack and walks out of the house.

“Where are you going,” asked Claire.

He stops for a moment to answer, “I’m staying at the inn from now on! I refuse to live with you in this house any longer.” He then slams the front door behind him.

Claire grunts angrily and shouts, “good riddance! I didn’t want to live with you anyway! Nobody does!”

Jack and Claire do not see each other for the rest of the day. Jack does no farm work and spends the day at the inn to cool off. He checks in at the inn and enjoys his peace and quiet. Claire waters the crops so the plants don’t get dry and die as Jack figures himself out. She then cares for the animals cursing his name and forcing her to do more work than normal. She tried her best to apologize for breaking his pot, but she feels that it was also his fault. If he was simply as nice to her as he is to Popuri, they could get along much better.

After Claire goes home, she finds the house empty and peaceful. For just a single moment, she feels alone. But soon enough, she also feels free. Jack is not home, and he is not coming back. A rush of excitement flows through her body. She quickly strips down and tosses her clothes around. She runs around the house completely naked for the first time since she moved into the house. No Jack means that she can dress down and enjoy her privacy anytime she wants.

For the first time since they started living together, Jack and Claire are at peace and they will enjoy it for as long as they can.

The next morning, Jack wakes up at the inn. For the first time, he slept in his underwear. He feels refreshed sleeping in a room without a strange girl nearby. He has a bathroom all to himself and no need to share. He goes down into the dining hall where Doug brings him his breakfast. He can barely hold his emotions as food is prepared for him. He wakes up every day to feed Claire, then cooks her lunch, then dinner day after day. It feels nice someone cooking for him instead.

Back at the house, Claire wakes up and walks out of the bedroom. She rubs her baggy eyes and says out loud, “Jack, I’m hungry! I don’t smell breakfast, when are you going to get started?” She then takes a look around and realizes that Jack is not in the house. She sighs, “I forgot, he doesn’t live here anymore. I guess I’ll have to feed myself from now on. But who needs him? If that guy can cook, then it can’t possibly be that hard. I’ll just have to teach myself how to cook, and I’ll do it even better than him!”

Claire opens the refrigerator door and finds nothing but raw ingredients. Nothing to heat and eat, not even leftovers from the last time Jack cooked. Just a collection of spring crops, eggs, milk, random items from the supermarket, and herbs that they’ve foraged over time.

She collects some ingredients to make some fried eggs and bamboo rice. She then grabs Jack’s recipe book and starts to flip through the pages. She grunts with frustration seeing all the complicated directions, measurements, and names of tools she has never heard of. “A whisk? What the heck is that? Never mind, I’ll start with the egg. Just put the egg in the pan and cook. A piece of cake!”

She grabs a frying pan and places it on the stove. She turns on the fire and cracks the egg on the side of the pan like Jack would. Only problem is that she cracks it too hard and pieces of the shell gets mixed into the eggs. “Is that normal? I don’t know, maybe it’ll melt into the eggs and be good. I guess it’s time for the rice now.”

Next, she places a pot on the stove and dumps the rice in on high heat. She then starts to chop the bamboo into different sized chunks and dumps it into the rice. As she claps her hands clean, she smells something burning. She looks over to the eggs and sees them charred black. She freaks out and turns the fire off quickly. She then tries to scrape off the egg, but it’s stuck to the bottom of the pan. She scratches her head as she asks, “what happened? Did I miss something? I guess this cooking business is a lot harder than I thought.”

She picks up the recipe book again and finds out that she had to grease the pan and cook in a medium setting. But as she reads, she smells something burning again. This time it’s the rice in the pot. She rushes over and grabs the pot handles to move it off the fire. But the pot is so hot that she drops it on the ground spilling the blackened rice and burnt bamboo all over the floor.

Her stomach growls as she watches the mess in front of her. The food is not edible, and she will need to try again. No matter how hard she tries, things always end up worse than the last time. One time she added too much oil and caught on fire. She also learned that she needed to add water to the bamboo rice, but she can’t understand how much. Even when things don’t go horribly wrong, the food she makes smells bitter. Nothing like how Jack makes it.

After nearly exhausting all the ingredients, Claire makes something that can be remotely look like food. The rice is soggy. The bamboo is tender in some areas and hard in others. The egg is both runny and burnt at the same time. She still puts her chin up and says, “well, it doesn’t look as good as Jack’s cooking, but I’m sure it’s fine. Let’s dig in!” She takes a bite of the food she made, but her face turns blue with disgust. She holds it in and swallows. The food tastes even more disgusting than she imagined. Soon enough, the food starts to come back up quickly. She holds her mouth and rushes to the sink to vomit. She finally has to admit that she can’t cook, but she is too stubborn to admit that she needs Jack’s help. All she can do is return to the fridge and grab a turnip. “It’s not tasty, but it is food. I’ll have to deal with it until I can figure something else out.”

Later that morning, Jack and Claire see each other in the field. They avoid any eye contact and refuse to speak to each other. They just work on their fair share of the farm and avoid one another. When the chores of the day are done, Jack returns to the inn and Claire to the house.

Jack eats his dinner at the inn while reading a newspaper. Claire opens the fridge to see that her situation has not changed. What makes matters worse for her is that the kitchen is still a mess. She knows that it will take all night to clean the mess she made. She considers eating at the inn, but remembers that she doesn’t have much money. The animals are young and don’t provide a lot of income just yet. Jack’s crops bring in the bulk of the income to the farm. She finds herself with no choice but to eat some raw crops and just clean.

Several days pass. Jack and Claire have not spoken to one another since they parted ways. But as each day passes, things do not get any better for either of them. As Jack works on the field, he notices that Claire is walking around tired and hungry. He even once caught her leaning against the fence rubbing her belly trying desperately to quell her hunger. The raw food in the house is not giving her enough nutrition to work efficiently. Jack considers offering her a meal at the inn, but he just convinces himself that Claire would rather starve than accept his help.

Back at the inn, Jack receives a bill from Doug for the last few days. Even though Jack can afford to pay it, the bill is still quite high and he’ll just end up working just to stay at the inn. He won’t be able to save any money for a rainy day at this rate. He considers returning home to the farm, but then he remembers Claire. He isn’t quite ready to face her. All that will happen is the fighting will continue and he’ll just end up back at the inn again. Jack wants things to change, but he is both too stubborn and unwilling to admit his faults.

The next day after his daily work at the farm, Jack finds himself hanging out near the spring in front of the Spring mines. He feels that his life is crashing down like the crystal blue water falling into the pond. As the mist hits his face, he ponders what to do. He thought that working at the farm in Mineral Town would be a successful and rewarding life he dreamed about. Ever since he found out that he had to share the farm with a total stranger he cannot get along with, his dream has turned into a nightmare. Living apart is not working out either. Staying at the inn is a financial strain, and he knows Claire can’t take care of herself. They are both too proud and stubborn to ask each other for help. He bites his lip; he feels no obligation to help Claire, but he does feels guilty leaving her like that.

“Hey Jack,” greeted Popuri.

Jack turns around and finds Popuri walking towards him. “Hey Popuri, what are you doing around here?”

“I hang out here all the time. It’s a perfect chance to get away from my idiot brother. I really like to sit at the edge of the pond and dip my feet in the cool water. It’s relaxing.” Popuri then takes her shoes off and dips her toes into the water. She then takes a seat and bathes her feet in the bond. The water makes her shiver, but she likes how it makes her feel.

As Popuri sways her feel left and right, she notices that Jack looks troubled. They may not have been friends for a long time, but she can tell when something is bothering him. She is also aware that Jack has been staying at the inn for the last couple of days. She heard about it from her mother’s friends visiting her home and gossiping. He may not realize it, but the many residents of Mineral Town have taken a keen interest in Jack, Claire, and the farm.

“Everything okay at the farm,” asked Popuri

Jack looks at Popuri for a moment. He then looks away and answers, “Claire and I are not getting along. I knew from the moment we started living together that there would be problems, especially considering that Claire is a girl. But she is too much to deal with.”

“How so?”

“Claire is like a kid. She can’t take care of herself. She’s moody and gets angry when she can’t have things her way. She wants to do what she wants, then throws a tantrum when I tell hers she can’t. She then starts to throw things when we argue with no respect for my stuff. I wouldn’t care if it was her things, but she came to the farm with nothing but the clothes on her back. I just wish that she would calm down and show some respect.”

Popuri suddenly starts giggling. Jack then crosses his arms and asks, “what’s so funny?”

“I’m sorry, but it sounds like you have quite a troublesome little sister.”

“That’s the thing, I didn’t ask for a little sister.”

“I know, but it sounds like she relies on you like an older brother. I can pretty much relate to her,” Popuri said.

Jack looks away and sighs heavily, “why are you taking her side? I figured that you would be the last person to do so.”

“Think about it. I have an older brother at home, and we argue all the time too. Sometimes the fights can get pretty. . . Nasty. Mom is ill and dad left to find some cure far away in some desert. So me and Rick have to keep the chicken ranch running together. We try to control ourselves, but Rick can say some pretty harsh things that makes me cry and run away. Then I would come here and play in the water to cool off a bit.”

Jack turns back to Popuri and ask, “is that why you’re here?”

“Yeah, I just had another fight with Rick. Summer is just around the corner, and he really gets on my case. It’s exhausting.”

“What were you fighting about?”

Popuri refuses to make eye contact as she answers, “I. . . Rather not talk about that.”

Jack decides to change the topic quickly, “so, how’s your mother?”

“She’s fine, as long as she takes her medicine. She’s been quite depressed since dad has been gone a long time. We haven’t even heard from him in over a year. It must be hard to keep in touch when you’re searching through a desert for a flower that blooms once every ten years. I wish he just came home and let someone else look for it.”

Popuri stands up and puts her shoes on. “I know you’re doing your best on the farm, but I think you should treat Claire a little better. Try to remember that she feels the same way about you. It’s not easy living with someone, especially if they are not related to you. I don’t know why you don’t get along, but it should be you to extend the olive branch. Talk to each other and find some common ground to stand on. I’m not saying that you two should become best friends, but getting along will only make the farm thrive. What do you think?”

Jack raises his head and stares off into the waterfall again. For the first time since living with Claire, he admits that he has not been the easiest person to get along with. He is just as much at fault for what happened at the house. Claire may get on his last nerve, but what has he done to make things better? All he does is avoid her and not try to understand how she feels. He has only been concerned about himself.

Jack then says goodbye to Popuri and returns to the inn. Feeling proud that she made Jack feel better, Popuri returns to her house to make up with her brother. As Jack lays on the bed of the inn, he takes the night to ponder. “Popuri says that Claire sees me like an older brother? I’ve never had a sibling before, so how do I deal with that? I guess I’ll just have to talk to her and do my best to get along.”

The next morning, the rooster crows and wakes Claire up. Her stomach growls for a home cooked meal. She hates the idea that she will eat nothing but raw crops again, but she feels that she doesn’t have a choice. She then quickly notices the smell of breakfast in the air. Curious to know what’s going on, she quickly gets dressed and walks out of the bedroom to see who is in the house with her. She gasps as she sees Jack in the kitchen cooking again. The house has also been cleaned up a bit.

Jack then turns around and casually says, “ready for breakfast?”

“Sure,” nodded Claire. She then takes a seat at the table and waits for Jack to serve.

Jack rests the plates on the table and takes a seat at the other side. Claire takes a long look at the delicious food on her plate. She can barely hold her emotions finally having something else to eat than turnips, cucumbers, and strawberries. She then looks up at Jack who already started eating like nothing happened between them. She curiously asks, “why did you come back?”

Jack stops eating for a moment to answer, “staying at the inn was too expensive. Why stay there when I have a perfectly good house?”

“Is that all?”

Jack takes a deep breath before continuing, “look, I know we both didn’t ask for this. Two strangers of the opposite gender living together under one roof is hard and awkward enough. But if we just talk to each other, then we can get along a little better. We’ll argue less and run this farm in peacefully. What do you think?”

Claire nods in agreement. Before she starts eating, she feels the need to say, “I’m sorry about the vase I broke. I had no idea how much it meant to you.”

“That was not a vase. It was my grandfather’s urn.”

Claire gasps. Since they’ve lived together, Jack has never mentioned any type of family. She assumed that he doesn’t have one. Jack then looks out to all the things he owns and says, “everything in the house I brought used to belong to my grandfather. He died and left the farm to me back in Leaf Valley.”

“What happened to that farm?”

“It was torn down. Some company bought the village to make an amusement park. I tried to save it, but it was no use. So I took everything I could and returned to the city. I scattered his ashes over the lake before I left, but it’s no longer there. This stuff is all I have left to remember him.”

“Oh. . . Jeez. . . I’m sorry, I didn’t know.”

“It’s okay, I should have told you. Why don’t we start over.” Jack then reaches out to Claire and says, “Hi, my name is Jackie Greenvalley. It’s nice to meet you!”

Claire smiles. She stands up and shakes Jack’s hand. “Hi, I’m Clarissa Aoi. It’s nice to meet you too.”

They giggle for a moment, then sit down and start to eat breakfast. They both feel a lot better once they had a chance to talk and understand each other. Claire then promises herself that she’ll be careful with Jack’s stuff from that moment on.