Chapter 15

Before they know it, spring is ending and the warmth of summer quickly approaches. Jennifer walks into the house on the last day of spring to find Yuto napping on the table after a long day of crunching numbers and farm work. His calculator app on the phone is still on, receipts are scattered on the table, his monthly ledger under his arms, and his pencil still in his hand. She smiles, knowing that Yuto is working so hard at the farm while also balancing his monthly budget. He clearly fell asleep from exhaustion.

After Jennifer admires his hard work, she takes a peek at the calendar. There is a festival happening on the first day of summer. She then remembers the Fetch Festival from Thomas who invited them last year. She looks at Yuto once again and feels that he has been working so hard lately, that he has earned himself a day off to relax and hang out with the other Mineral Town residents. She knows that he will resist and make excuses to keep working. She’ll just remind him that rest is just as important as work.

As Jennifer walks out of the house, Milo rushes in to find some food in it’s dog bowl. After it scarfs it’s food down, it takes a look around the house for a toy to play with. As it looks around, it finds itself in front of the cabinet where the pieces of the Jewel of Truth are stored. A mysterious glow radiates from the pieces, almost as if it is trying to communicate with Milo. It then takes a good sniff at the pieces, taking note on the stone’s unique scent. Afterwards, it runs back out of the house so it can find something to play with.

The next day, Yuto arrives at the beach with Jennifer and Milo. They look around, seeing all the residents of Mineral Town having a great time. All the older residents are relaxing on the warm sand. The younger men and women are playing games like volleyball or Frisbee. The children are splashing and swimming in the water, or making sand castles. Despite Yuto’s earlier protest, he is glad that he took Jennifer’s advice and take a day off.

Yuto and Jennifer change into their bathing clothes while Milo waits outside the changing rooms. Yuto comes out in his blue bathing trunks and matching sandals. Jennifer walks out wearing a one piece yellow bathing suit with matching yellow sandals. Yuto can’t help but to blush as he gazes at her slender body while her long wavy blonde hair dances with the summer breeze. Her legs are long and well toned with flawless creamy skin. Her arms almost glisten against the summer sun. Such a difference without her shawl, jeans, or wool knit cap which she wears all year long.

As the summer sun beats everyone down, Yuto plants his parasol into the sand to set up camp for Jennifer and himself. He then lays a beach towel under it so he can lay under the shadow of the parasol to relax. As he lays under the shade, he notices that several of the younger women would pass in front of him to giggle and wink flirtatiously at him. Yuto just smiles awkwardly and waves back at them. He knows that there are plenty of young and attractive single women in Mineral Town, many of them has shown interest since the beginning of spring. Being such a hard worker has earned him a reputation around town.

He then looks at Jennifer who is playing on the shore with Milo. She throws the rubber ball across the beach, then watch Milo bring it back. She laughs cheerfully as she rewards the dog by rubbing it’s belly and neck for a good catch. Yuto smiles in awe as Jennifer continues to bond with his dog as she yells, “good boy!” There may be plenty of attractive women in Mineral Town, but he feels that none of them are as special as Jennifer.

At around noon, Mayor Thomas pulls out his megaphone to announce, “okay everyone! It’s almost time for the Fetch Festival! All participants, please line up at the beach with their pets right now!”

As soon as Jennifer hears the announcement, she decides to participate herself. Five other people also decide to join in the Fetch Festival. They all line up at the beach to show off their pets. As the crowd begins to form around the participants, Yuto decides to join in to cheer for Jennifer and Milo. As he watches from the crowd, he notices the odd collection of pets that are competing. Two other people besides Jenifer brought a dog, one brought a cat, one a penguin, and the last person brought a capybara. Yuto is confused as he has never even seen a capybara until now, it looks more like a giant hamster. He also didn’t know that penguins can even play fetch to begin with.

As the contest begins, each contestant introduces themselves and their pet. The first contestant throws the frisbee, then his dog runs to catch it 66 meters away. The next person throws the frisbee, then her cat rushes ahead to catch it at 78 meters. The next guy throws the frisbee, so the penguin waddles ahead to catch it at 54 meters away. The other contestant with the dog catches the frisbee at 45 meters. The capybara runs to catch the frisbee, but gives up before reaching it.

Finally, it is Jennifer’s turn to show off Milo’s catching ability. With the grace of an angel, she tosses the frisbee ahead while Milo rushes forward. She cheers as Milo runs, until she notices that the dog is running past the frisbee and keep on running even after it lands in the sand. Forgetting about the festival, she runs off to see where is Milo going and why did it run off so suddenly.

After they disappear behind the seaside shack, the crowd laughs cheerfully. Yuto becomes annoyed, then follows to see if she is okay and find out what happened to Milo. He finds her behind the buildings by the dock calling for Milo. He walks up to her, asking, “hey, are you okay?”

“I’m looking for Milo. I have no idea why he would run off so suddenly. This is not like him at all”, answered Jennifer.

Yuto crosses his arms in frustration saying, “those other people shouldn’t have laughed when you both ran off, that was rude of them.”

“Oh they did? I was so worried about Milo, that I didn’t even notice,” she answered.

They then hear the sound of Milo digging and grunting in the sand. They follow the sound to find it digging something in the sand. Before they can say anything to it, Milo pulls the object out of the sand then brings it to Jennifer. She then gasps yelling, “look, Milo found another piece of the Jewel of Truth. He must have picked up the scent from the other pieces at the house!”

Yuto then picks up the dog yelling, “I don’t believe it! You did it!” They then snuggle with Milo celebrating the discovery of another piece. Even though they didn’t win the Fetch Festival, they still feel like winners. They now have seven of the nine pieces, it is a matter of time unto they get the last two.