Chapter Text
An alarm clock blares as she sits up slamming at the infernal machine to quiet. She throws her long (at least compared to her height) legs off the edge of the bed. Damn Monday. She hoists herself up and half drags herself to the bathroom, she’s usually a morning person but 5 o’clock is too early to get up so she can be ready to sit behind a desk all day. Her mind drifts to the farm her grandfather has in that little town. She misses visiting him, she hasn’t seen him in four years and he was barely keeping up with his meager crops then. I should have stayed to help him; I always wanted to have a rural life anyway. Maybe I should go back… She snorts to herself knowing that as much as she would love it she wouldn’t have the confidence in herself to leave her job and give up the steady paycheck.
She showers away her drowsiness under the hot water then turns the water to cold and rinses her face. She towels her wet black hair and then her pale skin before she dresses for work in her light gray pencil skirt suit with a deep purple dress shirt. She stands in front of the bathroom mirror to put on some light, natural-looking make up. A light dusting of blush to give color to her tired face. A light brown eyeshadow so her blue-gray eyes pop. She follows up with mascara to add length to her already fairly long eyelashes, then adds a just pink enough gloss to her lips. She stares at her face for a moment, her eyes taking in her nose; a half-hearted smile as the slight upturn of her nose reminds her of her father. She breaks the stare and heads to the kitchen, brushing her wavy hair on the way. She grabs a strawberry yogurt and a peanut butter-chocolate chip granola bar to eat on her walk to work. She slips on her nude heels then heads to her apartment building elevator. She uses her granola bar to scoop her yogurt as she walks two blocks south of her building then three blocks west on 12th St to her office building. Having finished her granola bar, she throws away her yogurt container in the lobby trash can before getting on the elevator to ride up to her tiny cubicle on the 22nd floor.
She walks past her co-workers already typing away on their computers or tiredly sipping on their dark life-blood of caffeine. She makes it into her cubicle and sits at her desk. She begins to work on her menial task of transferring records to the computer database. Halfway through her third form mail-call happens and an important, very official looking envelope is haphazardly thrown on her desk as the bored looking serviceman continues his steady pace down the rows. She finishes her form and turns to the mail delivered. The return address is in Pelican Town from the town mayor. She opens the envelope her curiosity piqued, brow furrowed. The first paper to meet her fingers is pulled out and scanned.
Condolences… doctor… grandfather… deceased… will… farm… earliest convenience…
She slows down, not wanting to believe what she’s reading.
Dear Lilianna,
My deepest condolences, it is my duty to inform you that the doctor was called to your grandfather’s farm where they found him delirious and requesting you take a letter though you were obviously not present. Doctor Harvey tried his best to administer treatments but your grandfather was pronounced deceased.
In your grandfather’s will, he named you as the successor to his farm. I have enclosed the letter he was attempting to give you in his delirious state. Please contact me at your earliest convenience to determine what shall be done with the farm.
Signed with my sincerest regret,
Mayor Lewis
Pelican Town, Stardew Valley
Her heart breaks with a sharp pain in her chest and tears roll down her cheeks as she shoves her hand into the envelope to pull out the letter. She feels a rough wax seal as she pulls the letter out. She carefully pulls the midnight blue, cow face seal free of the lower part of the envelope unwilling to risk it cracking. She pulls the parchment free of the envelope and with teary eyes reads her beloved grandfather’s messy scrawl.
Dear Lili,
If you’re reading this, you must be in dire need of change.
She huffs a laugh through her tears, even from beyond the grave he knows her better than she knows herself.
The same thing happened to me, long ago. I’d lost sight of what mattered most in life… real connections with other people and nature. So, I dropped everything and moved to the place I truly belong.
I’ve enclosed the deed to that place… my pride and joy: Darkwood Farm. It’s located in Stardew Valley, just north of Cindersap Forest. It’s the perfect place to start your new life.
This was my most precious gift of all, and now it’s yours. I know you’ll honor the family name, my dear.
Good luck.
Love,
Grandpa
P.S. If Lewis is still alive say hi to the old guy for me, will ya?
Geez, how old is this letter that he would write this? How much longer did he think he would live? When did he intend to give this to me? When did he expect me to open it? Question after question sifts through her mind before her eyes widen at the realization that she can finally leave this hellhole of a city and live the life she always wanted.
She stands up slowly and steps out of her cramped cubicle. She looks down the narrow aisle at the door to her supervisor’s office. Before she realizes it, she’s running for the door, feeling more alive than she has since she last visited her grandfather.
Her knuckles rap on the door and a dull voice calls a half-hearted, “Come in.”
The surprise on his face is the most genuine emotion she’s ever seen him show as she steps in. She takes a deep breath and says as confidently as she can muster. “I’m giving my two weeks, sir.”
His dull eyes seem a little duller after she says that but she can’t let that get to her, his voice asks in a tone that might sound sad if it wasn’t so droning, “May I ask why?”
That causes her to stutter slightly, “M-my grandfather passed away and left me the deed to his property. I’m moving away.”
Her supervisor nods with an understanding but bored look on his face. He makes a note on his calendar and her return to her cubicle shows a spring in her step as she gets back to work.
At lunch, she takes a sheet of paper, an envelope, and pen as she heads to the nearby pizza parlor and writes a letter to Lewis to tell him that she’ll be there in two weeks to take over the farm. She munches on her personal, cheese pizza careful not to make a mess on her letter. She wipes the grease from her fingers before folding the letter and stuffing it into the envelope. She pulls her stamp book out and places a single stamp on the envelope before addressing it and slipping both into her purse. She finishes the cheese-stuffed crust of her pizza before heading out. On the way back to the office, she drops her envelope in a P.O. box.
The rest of the day passes without incident and her arrival at her apartment is early enough to let her super know this will be her last month. She makes a simple canned soup dinner before getting ready for bed.
Her last two weeks pass by easily as she corresponds with Mayor Lewis and the carpenter named Robin who has been making sure the house stays in good repair since Grandpa’s passing. She packs her meager belongings into a small moving truck and pays the driver to assure everything arrives the same day she does.
Finally, it’s the day she has been looking forward to, the day she is moving to the farm that she loves so much. It’s the first day of spring and that just seems to sum up how she’s feeling. She boards the bus to Stardew Valley taking the empty seat in the middle of the bus. Her's is the third stop on this bus route. To pass the time she pulls out an old leather-bound notebook and writes as many things as she can remember about helping her grandpa on the farm.