The Runaway: A Stardew Valley Story

Meet June-pox

"Junox, these parsnips look perfect! Are you sure this is your first crop?" Pier asks as he inspects a vegetable.

"Oh yes, because what you see there are all of the parsnips for the year." I frown. "The crows ate the rest of them yesterday."

The clerk chuckles. "Well, in honor of your first harvest, I'll pay an additional ten percent. How does 100G sound?"

"Not even 105G?" I smile.

"No," Pier drops into a serious tone, "take it or leave it."

Obviously, I took the deal. As tempting as it would be to buy celebratory chocolate cake, I decide to take the rest of my afternoon to soak in the salty air of the beach. Most of the week has been chilly and windy, but today seems perfect for a little sun and sand. I make it almost as far as the Stardrop Saloon before catching sight of Alex tossing something brown and misshapen up and catching it.

"Oh, hey, farm girl!" he shouts. "Heads up!"

"Huh?"

I turn around just in time for a strange brown object to nail the center of my chest. Surprisingly, the impact of the thing hurts worse than falling on my butt. Dirt and dust go flying along with a few of the contents of my backpack. A dog behind a wooden fence starts barking as if to laugh.

"I expected more from someone who farms for a living, but you're not very coordinated, are you?"

Unlike the last time I ended up on the ground thanks to this guy, Alex offers a hand. A long arm of taught muscle and tan skin leads to solid shoulders. He's built exactly like Josh, right down to the chiseled jawline. I brush the thought away as I accept Alex's hand.

"There aren't pointy balls flying at me on the farm," I defend myself.

"You mean a gridball?"

"They don't look like that on TV."

"There's no way you've watched a for-real gridball game and don't know what it looks like." Alex frowns down at me.

"They're so small on screen," I say, "and I never got to watch a whole game."

Alex shakes his head. "My mom would never leave a game halfway through. She would be watching the game even if a hurricane blew down the house!"

You would never know by the force in Alex's tone, but a tear glistens in the corner of his eye as he talks. He sounds so proud of her. How could I have missed her in all of my introductions? She must be a force to be reckoned with.

"You'll have to introduce me, then," I laugh. "She sounds like fun."

A line forms between Alex's brow. His voice is much softer when he says, "I'm actually on my way to go see her. You can come with." There's a pause before he adds, "If you can keep a secret, that is."

Inwardly, I die a little as I say with a light laugh, "My lips are sealed."

We head down the uneven streets of town. I almost ask if Alex's mom is enjoying the beach today judging by our direction, but then, Alex turns right into a fenced-in plot of land I hadn't paid much attention to before. There's a little plaque reading Pelican Town Cemetery.

But cemeteries are where they bury dead people, right? I mean, I've never been to one, so I can't be certain. It doesn't make any sense as to why Alex would meet his mother in a field of graves. Unless...

"Hey, Mom," Alex says with a toss of the gridball. "This is June-pox, the new Lakewood farmer. You always said it was a shame no one took care of the place, so I figured you'd like to meet the girl who does." Alex gestures to a stone with the name Elizabeth in big, bold letters. "June-pox, my mom."

I have no idea what to say. I don't know what to do. When Alex looks back at me with an expectant smile, I manage a tiny wave in the stone's direction. Damn, I must look like an absolute idiot.

"Mom passed away a few years ago in a car accident," Alex continues on as if my shock is nothing of importance. "It was the night of my first gridball game as a high schooler. Seeing me play meant everything to her."

I swallow back the massive lump in my throat. "Was it hard to play after that?"

A snort rises up from my companion, but it's softened with something like humor. "Hell yeah. I didn't pick up a ball for a whole year. I would still be sitting on the bleachers if it weren't for Hales."

"Haley?" I ask, surprised.

"Yeah." The smile on Alex's lips says it all. "She's the reason I need you to keep this a secret."

"Keep what a secret?" The fact that his mother is dead? Is that not common knowledge?

From his left pocket, Alex pulls out a folded piece of paper. He opens it to reveal the contents to his mother's stone, beaming like a thousand lights. "We did it, Mom. I got a full ride, and Coach says I can be starter by sophomore year." Then Alex turns to me. "I want to surprise Haley, but I had to let Mom know first."

"Why did you decide to tell me?"

"I'm not super confident in the second part of my surprise, to be honest, and I needed someone else's opinion." Alex puts the letter back into his pocket. "Haley's my best friend, and I don't know which is more selfish, telling her that I want to be more than friends before leaving Pelican or never telling her at all."

Why is he asking me this?!

"There isn't anyone else in town I can ask for help. Hales is the only person around here I can talk to, and that kind of defeats the purpose."

I frown down at Elizabeth's stone marker. "I don't have a lot of experience with feelings. I've only dated one person and... things were different."

"Please, June-pox," despite the fact that Alex continues to completely butcher my name, he's being totally serious. "Please, would you be able to live with yourself if you never told the people you love the truth?"

Shaking my head, "I hate secrets. I hate them so much that if I had a truth to tell as simple and wonderful as that I would tell someone the next time I saw them."

Me: Oh, Grammarly seems to think this chapter is okay, maybe I can get away with not using the Read-Aloud since I'm in a hurry.

*Uses the read-aloud while I eat my pizza rolls. Finds ten crap-worth-nothing sentences.*

Me: Well...