Notes
Based on a true story.
Notes
Based on a true story.
There are footsteps descending the stairs to my room. I pause my work to see who it is this time. It’s too early for dinner, so it shouldn’t be my mother on the stairs. I’m hoping it’s not one of my friends who wants to hang out. They know that I am working around this time, and I hate it that they don’t take my job seriously.
The person has made it all the way to the bottom of the stairs, and is now trying the locked door.
“Fuck!”, a strange voice exclaims, before the footsteps retreat up the stairs.
A bit unnerved, I get up from my desk and open the door. The person is gone by the time I get there, so I walk upstairs where I bump into Maru.
“Was someone here just now?” I ask her.
“Yeah, the new farmer just left. The one that just took over the old farm? I overheard him talking to mom about building a shed.”
“Right.”
“Why do you ask?”
“Oh, I just thought I heard some voices. Doesn’t matter.”
The next day I go out for a smoke by the lake in the evening, and I see a stranger in farmer’s clothes walk out of the mines.
I don’t have to wonder long who it is, as they head right towards me and introduce themselves as the new farmer.
This close I can see some blood and slime on their clothes, so I really don’t want them hanging around me too much, so I quickly tell them my name and turn away. But then I remember the incident from the day before, and decide to confront them about it. I want them to know that I noticed, and that I don’t want any repeats of it.
The farmer blushes. “Ah, yes, sorry, I kinda have a bad sense of direction. I just got it in my head that the front door is on the left. But, well, clearly it isn’t. I’ll try to remember in the future.”
“Right.”
The farmer looks a bit embarrassed, and they turn around and walk back towards the mine, before stopping dead in their tracks, turning around again, and quickly walking past me towards the town.
It’s quiet for a couple of days. I see the farmer running around town and coming to and from the mines occasionally, but they seem to be keeping to themselves, or if they are bothering people then I don’t hear about it.
Until a week later, while I am working on a program, I notice footsteps descending the stairs to my room. The don’t quite reach the bottom of the stairs, before I hear what I now recognize as the voice of the farmer exclaim “Fuck!”
They return upstairs without ever touching my door.
This repeats. Every few days I will hear the farmer coming halfway down my stairs, they will exclaim “Fuck!” as they realize what they are doing, and then they will go and actually find the front door. Except for those few times when they do it twice in a row.
They did say that they have a bad sense of direction, but I didn’t know that it was possible to be this lost.
The farmer comes up to talk to me when they see me outside sometimes, usually in the evenings by the lake by the mines. They sure spend a lot of time in the mines for someone who is supposed to be a farmer.
I never know what to say to them, so I try to say something about the weather and how it must relate to farming. I think I must be making a fool of myself, since I don’t understand all that much about farming, but they always seem to be happy no matter what I say.
One time I tried to talk about my work. They seemed a bit puzzled when I mentioned programming, so I haven’t brought it up again. It’s easier for me to come up with something about rain being good for the farm than it is for them to talk about the latest algorithm I’m implementing.
I have kind of gotten used to the farmer mistaking my stairs for the front door, and I can’t help the fond smile any time I hear them swearing.
One time they come out of the mine particularly battered looking, and partially covered in rime, and I genuinely wonder what they are doing down there.
But they just walk up to me with a big smile and hold something out for me to take.
It’s a small blue crystal, in the shape of a tear. It’s cold to the touch, and it stays cold no matter how long I hold it.
The farmer tells me that I can keep it if I want to. And before I even have a chance to return it, they are already off.
I’m not usually all that interested in crystals, but this one kinda fits my aesthetic, so I keep it.
One day I hear the farmer upstairs talking to my mom about a barn they need constructed, and I’m waiting to hear them come down my stairs. But they never do, and instead I hear the front door open and close a few moments later.
Apparently they finally learned the way. I’m kinda disappointed.
I still see the farmer out and about. One time they find me changing the oil on my motorcycle, and without thinking I invite them out for a ride some time. The farmer agrees, but in a way that makes it clear they don’t want to go right now.
Another time I find them talking to Sam about Solarion Chronicles, and we learn that they have never played any tabletop roleplaying game before, so clearly we have to invite them to play with us. They are surprisingly good for their first time, and they turn out to be fun to hang out with.
I still miss them getting lost on my stairs, but I will absolutely not tell them that.
At some point the farmer discovers the arcade games in the saloon, and from then on they are always hanging out with us on friday nights.
Sam and I are playing pool, while Abbey watches, and the farmer is trying to beat Journey of the Prairie King.
They insist that one day they will make it past the second level. I don’t quite see that happening.
My mom’s basement is a bit cramped. I really need to get out of there soon.
It’s not like there is anything wrong with my family, and technically there is also nothing wrong with living with your parents. But I want to get out anyway. There are just some things you can’t do in your mom’s basement.
I’ve always dreamed of getting an apartment in the city, but recently I’ve started picturing a small house on a farm instead…
It’s raining, and I make my way down to the ocean. I like to stand on the pier and watch the waves on gloomy days like this. One pier over I see the farmer fishing. It occurs to me that I’ve never actually seen them do any farming, but I don’t have time to think about it, because they spot me as well. They wave, put their fishing pole down, walk back to where the piers connect, and come up to where I’m standing, looking out over the ocean next to me.
I don’t usually like having company out here. I’m kinda anxious around most people in general.
But I really don’t mind the farmer’s company.
Without thinking about it I tell them exactly that.
They seem happy and tell me that they like being around me as well.
A few days later, on my way to the kitchen, I spot the farmer on their way to the mines through a window, and I seriously wonder if they ever actually do any farming. Sure, sometimes they’ll have pockets full of seeds, but they definitely spend more time around town than they do on their farm.
I look away and a moment later I spot them walking the opposite way. I assume that they forgot to grab their pickaxe. They can be forgetful sometimes.
I don’t see them again, so I continue to the kitchen to make a sandwich.
I just got done when I hear the front door open, and the farmer calls “Hello!” into the otherwise empty house.
I poke my head out of the kitchen to greet them. “Hi.”
The farmer’s face lights up and they make their way over to me.
I really only see them in the house when they want to talk to my mom, so I tell them “Mom’s out for a walk right now.”
“Oh, uh, that’s fine. I wanted to talk to you anyway.”
Now I notice that they are keeping their hands behind their back, and their face is kinda flushed.
They open their mouth, then apparently think better of it, and close it again.
Instead they reveal what they were keeping behind their back, and hold out a bouquet to me.
Oh.
There is only one thing this means around here.
“...You want to get more serious?”
They nod wordlessly.
Well, I have been imagining myself in that farmhouse a lot recently. And I really do like spending time with them.
“I feel the same way.”
The farmer’s face breaks out into a bright smile, and they turn even redder, and then they suddenly look like they don’t quite know what to do with themselves now.
I also don’t quite know what to do.
It almost feels like we should kiss, but that’s not how this goes. You don’t kiss someone immediately after receiving a bouquet from them.
We both stammer a bit awkwardly before they say they have to get back to the farm. But they don’t leave without promising that they’ll visit again tomorrow.
I can hear them giggling happily as they walk down the hallway.
I look down at the bouquet and can’t stop smiling either.
At the beginning of the year I absolutely did not expect my life to go this way.
I don’t hear the front door opening. Instead I hear footsteps descending the stairs, and a few moments later a “Fuck!” echoes up from the stairs.
A laugh bursts out of me.
Some things just don’t change.