Chapter Two

It wasn't a dream, but it sure did feel like a waking nightmare.

Alex hadn't believed her at first, the whole thing sounded just too crazy to be real. Quit his job? He'd spent a year and a half as an unpaid intern in the hopes that maybe; just maybe they'd take him on in the cubicle farm. Was she insane? Was he?

After a few minutes of discussion, he'd at least managed to rule out the former.

His cell phone provided plenty of documentation to back up her claims. He’d sent out a number of e-mails a few days earlier, along with some contemporary text messages to friends. Near as he could piece together, he’d quit his job, broken his lease and told a bunch of his friends that he’d received a letter from distant family; that he was moving away.

The only problem was, he didn’t remember any of it.

Well, perhaps not his only problem. An arguably bigger issue was the fact that, no matter where he stood, he couldn’t get the slightest hint of a cell signal.

“I know it might be asking a lot, but is there any way you could drive me home?” Alex asked. He was sitting on the porch now, suddenly wearier than he'd ever felt. Being told that your whole life had just evaporated around you while you slept did that to a person.

"I'm sorry Alex," Marie replied, shaking her head. She held up a finger to silence him as he was about to protest. "It isn't that I don't want to, I simply can't. For one, I don't own a car. Blue Hills isn't really automobile friendly."

“And for the other?”

She winced. “The only road out of town had a mudslide early last year. We haven't been able to scrounge up the money to have it removed.”

Alex felt the last strand of hope tugged free of his body. “You're telling me that the only way in or out of this town is a train that only comes by once a month.”

“You could hike.” She admitted even as her face suggested how bad of an idea that would be.

“How far?”

“... a little over a hundred miles.”

“Ughhh.....”

“I know, I know.” She said, patting him gingerly on the knee as he slumped prone across the porch with an arm thrown across his face, nearly clipping his head against the door in the process. “Just think of it as a vacation!”

“A vacation?” He scowled.

“Why not?” She shot back, a bit of sassiness in her voice. “You've got your own cabin, and all of this land on it to explore, not to mention the rest of the valley. If you work hard, you can even build up a little nest egg to help you get back on your feet once you go home!”

“Work hard?” Alex asked as he shifted the arm just enough to glare at her. “On vacation.”

Marie smiled. “Well, this is a farm after all.”

"Me? Farm?" Alex laughed. "Look, no offense, but I'm a paralegal. I dig through books for a living, not soil. I couldn't even keep the houseplant in my first apartment alive, let alone try and get anything to grow."

"I'm sure you aren't that ba-"

"It was made of plastic!" He shouted.

“Ah," Marie said, wearing a frown even as her eyes glittered with laughter. "It was just a suggestion. I've got plenty of others too.”

“Besides, I'm here for twenty-seven days, not six months. Not exactly a lot of time to grow crops.”

That seemed to confuse her. “Months?” She asked, before waving the thought away in favor of a different one. “There really is plenty of time if you wanted to learn.” Marie turned away from him, digging into the satchel she had set down at the foot of the stairs when the two of them had sat down to hash things out. She rummaged around within it for a few moments. “I was going to give you these. Some potato seeds. They only take five days to grow. Plenty of time for a few crops.”

Alex raised an eyebrow. “Okay, I'm not super familiar with farming, but I'm like... ninety percent sure that a potato takes longer than five days to grow.”

“City boys.” Marie scoffed. “Always thinking that things take ages if they don't finish in an afternoon. Just take them!”

Marie reminded him of his mom when she talked like that, sternly laying down the law. Except his mom would never be caught dead wearing spectacles and a silly little top hat. Still, just like his mom, there was little sense in arguing when she had her mind set on something. Better to just take the seeds.

“Thank you.” She said sarcastically, before standing and brushing herself off. “Now come on, get up and, let me give you the tour of the place like your uncle wanted.”

Holding his dead uncle's last wish over his head to make him take a tour. Marie could be positively savage when she wanted to be. “Fine. Fine.” He grumbled.

“Alright!” She replied in a tone far too chipper for his taste. “We'll start close and move our way out as we go. Sound good?”

“Do I actually have a choice in this? Or is this sort of a rhetorical question?”

Marie stopped for a moment, pondering. “Hmm. Probably the second one.”

Alex rolled his eyes and grabbed the porch banister, using it to leverage himself upright. He'd barely taken a handful of steps to catch up to Marie before she was pointing to a large wooden box, perhaps six feet long, four feet wide and three feet tall. It was painted a dark brown, with a coarse rope handle protruding from the top of a hinged top.

“Please tell me that isn't the outhouse.”

“What? No! Ugh.” Marie shuddered. “Your bathroom is inside, remember?”

“Oh. Right.” Alex laughed.

She rolled her eyes. “That is your shipping bin. I'll come by every day on my morning walk. I'll take anything you've put in the bin, and bring it back to the general store in town for sale.”

“That seems convenient, though don't come around on my account. Not likely to be shipping much, if anything.”

Marie shrugged. “It is a habit I started with your uncle, too old to quit now.”

“If I do ship things, how do I get paid? Do I go to the general store?” Alex asked. It felt bizarre to even say the words general store in a context that wasn't about a video game or an old western film.

"Ah, we'll make a capitalist farmer out of you yet," Marie replied, reaching back to pinch his cheek before he could stop her. "No, you don't have to do anything. It'll all be credited to your general account."

“My general account?”

She nodded. "Blue Hills is a pretty tight-knit community. Back in my grandfather's time, we decided that it was silly to carry cash everywhere when everyone knows everyone. Instead we each just have a general account that I keep track of at my office. Every day I total up everyone's purchases, update the accounts and update their ledgers on my morning walk.”

“That seems...” Alex started a bit at a loss for words. It wasn't that he didn't have words of course, but that the ones he had were probably not ideal. Nuts, insane, crazy, stupid, he had plenty of choices, just none that worked easily. “... dangerous.” He finished at last. Not perfect, but she didn't look angry. “Don't you worry about cheating, embezzling? Things like that?”

"Not really," Marie said plainly. "Like I said, we're a tight-knit little group. It wouldn't work in a big city, but no one here would try to cheat us. Just not in character for a resident of Blue Hills."

"But how do you deal with anyone who isn't from Blue Hills," Alex asked incredulously.

“We still have Zeni.” Marie rolled her eyes. “We just don’t carry it around.”

“Wait. Zeni? What the heck is a Zeni?”

“Again, I’m not really sure what word I can use to describe it better than the one I’ve already used. Money?”

“But why not-“

Marie eyed him for a moment, a more stern gaze than he was used to. "Look, it is probably a lot for you to take in for one day. Right now the important thing you need to know is that when you buy something at a store, an appropriate amount gets debited from your account. Try and bring the book with you and don't overspend while you're here. I've given you a thousand Zeni to help you buy any essentials you might need while starting out, alright?"

“Could you maybe throw in a couple of blemflarks while you're at it?” He asked.

She cocked her head to one side.

“Nevermind you're probably right. Definitely not in the right state of mind to try and puzzle out economics." He said, at last, a half smile on his lips. "You said that it is tight-knit. How many people are we talking about? A few hundred?"

“With you?” Marie tilted her head back in thought before replying. “Thirty-Six?”

“Thirty-six?” Alex laughed. “Wouldn't that technically make you a Hamlet?”

“Wouldn't complaining about the choice of what we call our town make you a pedant?”

“... point taken.”

"I thought you might," Marie smirked. "Let's continue.”

They didn't have to go far. Less than twenty feet from the shipping bin, Marie gestured to a small wooden chest pressed up against the side of the house. A handful of farm implements were laid out on the ground next to it, along with a small satchel similar to the one she wore.

"These are, unfortunately, all that was left of your uncle's tools and storage," Marie explained. "Most of what he owned was auctioned off to cover debts, as per his will, but he made sure to leave you a sort of starter kit."

“Wow.” It was the only reply Alex could find within himself.

"I know they don't look like much. But they are great starter tools." Marie gestured to each item in turn as she spoke. "An ax to get you whatever lumber you need, a pickax for mining, a hoe for tilling soil, a scythe for harvesting certain crops and a watering can for... well, I'm sure you can guess what that one is for.”

“I was fairly sure of what all of them were used for.” Alex briefly rubbed at his temples with his thumb and forefinger. “So we're going full Amish here, huh?”

“Not familiar with the term, so… yes?” Marie scowled. “If I could have provided you better tools, I would have, but as it is I had to go out and splurge just to get you the things he forgot you'd need.”

With that Marie hefted the satchel and tossed it in his direction. It was a brown leather of the same sort as his jacket, its roughly textured surface inlaid with fairly intricate highlights and stitching. The whole bag couldn't have weighed more than a few pounds, and even Alex had to admit it fit remarkably well as he looped the strap over one shoulder.

“That should get you started, though you may want to see Belle about getting a larger one if you find the size to be too limited. It should hold twelve unique items, while the chest here can hold thirty-six.”

Alex stared back at her blankly. Did she mean pockets? He turned his attention to the bag itself, but it appeared to only have a single pocket on its outer facing, without any dividers or other means of separating what was put inside of it. What on earth was she talking about?

Before he could think of a polite way to voice his question, Marie was off again on her tour, walking briefly around the edges of the house before gesturing with an outstretched hand. "To the north, you'll find the Indigo Forest. It is not only a wonderful place for you to go for a walk, but it can serve as an extra source of lumber, scavenged materials, wild crops and the like."

“Wouldn't that tick off the property owner?”

"The land is kept in trust by the town itself." Marie smiled. "Treat it kindly, and we won't have any more cause to complain about you than we did your uncle."

"You seemed to have a lot of arrangements with my uncle," Alex observed.

She cast a sidelong look in his direction as she turned, a new sharpness in her tone. “Your uncle was a great man who did great things for this town. Only right that we gave things back. Now if you'll follow my gaze to the west, you should just be able to see the top of the town clock tower.”

So he could. Of course, if he hadn't been told to look, Alex doubted he would have ever spotted the distant building. Only the very top steeple peeked out over the rolling hills that separated his far from the town proper, though it was enough to give him some sense of the distance between the two.

“Bit of a walk from here to there, isn't it?” Alex remarked.

“Fifteen minutes or so. You'll get used to it.”

Alex snorted.

"To the south, you've got the foothills. We've got a few of the outlying homesteads out that way, along with the town blacksmith and our famous hot springs.”

He wasn't sure which was more ridiculous, that the town still had a blacksmith, or that Marie thought anything in this Podunk village could be considered famous.

“You might want to go have a talk with Victor at some point.” She continued, either not recognizing or choosing to ignore the skepticism on Alex's face. “There is a mine on the property that your Uncle had Victor seal up when it became apparent that your uncle no longer had the strength to work it. If you don't take to farming, that might be more your style.”

“What did they mine?” Alex asked, after a moment's thought.

“You know, I'm not sure.” She admitted. “A whole host of different ores, but I can't be specific. Victor should be at his shop for most of the day, perhaps he'll know more.”

Alex nodded. “So what else do I need to know?”

“Hmm, for the moment, I think that is it.” Marie grinned. “There is quite a bit to the village, but rather than drag you all the way there I think it is better for you to explore in your own time.”

“Short tour.” He laughed.

"Small town." She shot back, her voice twinkling with amusement. "I live in a bright red building in town, and I work at city hall. Pretty much impossible for you to miss either of them. If you have any questions today, you can come and ask. Otherwise, I'll be back this evening to see if there is anything you're struggling with.”

“Besides 'How I got here and why I don't remember any of it?” Alex asked.

“Yes. Besides that.”

For the first time, it occurred to him that Marie might not actually believe him. Perhaps she thought he'd actually been intoxicated after all, or maybe she just thought he'd gotten cold feet about the whole thing once he'd gotten there. There was just that little twitch in her smile when he talked about how he didn't remember, the same sort of look his mother used to get when he told a blatant lie, but she decided to humor him anyway.

“Well, I'd best get back to town. It isn't going to run itself.” Marie said sweetly.

“I wouldn't be so sure about that.” Alex murmured under his breath before giving the most confident smile he could muster given the circumstances. “I'll see you tomorrow.”

He watched for about a minute as his one lifeline picked her way through the shrubs and rough terrain of the farm, then set out on her way up the hill that would take her off the farm and into the town proper. What on earth was he supposed to do now?

"Would have been nice of them to give me a shed," Alex muttered to himself as he returned to the tools laid out on the soil next to the house. The chest wasn't nearly large enough to hold the scythe or the hoe, but it should fit the watering can and the ax if he angled the latter correctly. If there was one thing he hated, it was clutter.

Alex leaned down scooping up the watering can in one hand. It was an ancient thing, like something out of the 1950's, with a gaudy teal paint scheme, but it was in remarkable condition. It was metal, but there wasn't a hint of rust or discoloration on the farm equipment. It looked as though it had just come off the manufacturing line.

Watering can in hand, he walked a few steps over to the wooden chest, snickering a little at its design as he approached it. It looked for the entire world like a treasure chest straight out of a storybook, with iron banding running here and there across its frame, and a comically oversized lock latching it shut. Considering the key for the padlock was nowhere in sight, he gingerly removed the lock and set it aside before he opened the chest itself and set the watering can and lock inside. He'd figure out where the key was later.

Next, he went for the ax, plucking the heavy wood handled farm implement from the dirt and looking it over. Just like the watering can, the ax looked both ancient, while at the same time good as new. Like someone's platonic ideal of what the perfect woodcutter's ax would be.

It was only when he turned to stow the ax in the chest that things took a turn for the weird.

“What the?” Alex blurted aloud in sudden surprise. He'd put both the watering can and the padlock inside the chest not twenty seconds ago. But the chest was empty.

Must have dropped them beside it or something. He thought to himself as if that made any sense at all. His memory hadn't exactly proven itself reliable, but even so, Alex was certain he'd placed both items directly into the chest.

To free up his hands, Alex set the ax down inside the chest and walked a slow, circle around it. The whole thing was ludicrous of course. After all, he was trying to find a foot tall watering can that should be plain as day, not a missing contact lens. Still, he approached the challenge with the same studiousness of a man who opened the same cupboard five times in search of his missing keys.

Then he noticed the ax was missing.

"No way," Alex said, backing away from the open chest in shock. "There is just no way."

There really wasn't. Even if he worried that his swiss cheese brain had somehow led to him losing the watering can, there was no way on earth he'd made the same mistake with the ax. But what other alternative was there? A trap door? That'd be insane.

Alex checked for one anyway.

Satisfied that the dirt underneath the treasure chest was indeed solid earth, his mind spun for a rational or even irrational explanation, though to no effect. Things didn't just disappear when you put them in a box, that didn't make any sense.

It can hold up to twelve unique items. Marie's words about the chest and his satchel came back to him in a rush. Is this what she'd been talking about?

"Only one way to find out," Alex said to himself, though he was far less sure than his defiant words let on.

The strap slid from his shoulder before Alex set the open bag down on the ground next to the open chest. From there he returned to the two remaining implements. He looked between them for a second, then opted to avoid the one with the gleaming, sharpened edge for his experiment.

Hoe in hand, he returned to the open bag and took a deep breath. Then he pressed the butt of the hoe into the bag. Tension melted from his shoulders as he felt the wooden tip of the hoe push against leather and halt against the unyielding ground beneath.

“Well at least that isn-" Alex said, though he'd spoken far too soon. The hoe in his hand shimmered as if the physical object were nothing more than a mirage. Then, in the blink of an eye, the mirage collapsed, while a blur of motion shot down into the open bag before vanishing altogether.

Perhaps that earlier slap just wasn’t hard enough after all.