Walking towards the bridge, Bobbi spotted Sam and Penny chatting. She stopped absently and watched for a few seconds as they seemed to be enjoying each other's company. Hmmm, maybe not everyone is drifting apart in the town but as people change, getting a little older, things change along with them. Not necessarily bad, things aren't getting worse. Just different.
Bobbi noticed that Penny was waving her way and she broke out of her reverie to walk over.
"Bobbi, are you OK?" Penny asked, a bit concerned. "You were just sort of standing there like you were... in another world," Penny trailed off and looked slightly away. "Huh, actually I've been there myself, um, never mind," she finished with a smile.
"Hi Penny, actually I didn't want to intrude on your conversation and yeah," Bobbi agreed, "I was kind of somewhere else."
"Oh, you wouldn't be intruding on anything," Penny denied with a slight pink tinge to her face, "we were just chatting."
"Yeah Bobbi," Sam agreed. "Penny wa-, I mean we were just talking about stuff." Penny shot Sam a small annoyed look which Bobbi almost missed. Bobbi smiled inwardly thinking Sam was getting Penny's goat. She seems to take things seriously and Bobbi got the impression that Sam sat on the completely opposite end of that table.
"Well I'm tutoring Jas and Vincent today so I'll see you two later," and Penny headed towards town.
Sam turned towards the river and said, "It's nice to see you today, Bobbi." Sam wasn't much of a conversationalist, maybe he wasn't kidding Penny all that much. "You know, I took a part-time job at Joja Mart recently. It's kinda nice as I still have time to skate and play." As if realizing what he just said, Sam quickly added," play guitar, I mean!"
"Oh cool, how long you been playing?” A slight pause. “Guitar, you mean," Bobbi finished with a smile.
"Heh, nice. Uh about 3 years now, me 'n Seb 'n Abby practice together every week at least!" He sounded pretty proud of that but it occurred to Bobbi that maybe once a week wasn't great if you were going to take it seriously. Sam started walking slowly down to the river, Bobbi followed.
"Have you guys played in front of people or are you mostly, ah, studio musicians?" asked Bobbi.
"Yeah studio, we haven't played, uh, performed in front of anyone yet," offered Sam. They ended up next to the river somewhat hidden by bushes. "Hey Bobbi, I've been talking to Penny and she mentioned that you seemed pretty cool." He was looking a bit nervous, probably too much talking.
"Ah, did I pass some sort of test then? I don't need to make it up or ask for extra credit?” Bobbi asked, trying to lighten the mood.
"Oh, no way. No more school for me thanks, I got just enough of that," Sam explained. "No, this is about Joja, or something I kind of overheard..." Sam tilted his head to the side, trailing off.
"Kind of overheard?" Bobbi prodded.
"Yeah well, I guess not really kinda, that's not how that goes," Sam said with a laugh. "Anyway I was cleaning up a mess near Morris' station and heard him talking about adding a building here in Pelican Town. He kept talking business this and that, stuff like strategy and location and it'll be good for the town. I kinda couldn't hear everything as I only heard his voice sometimes and I was making too much noise sometimes. And then he saw I was near and I couldn't hear anything else." This all came out in a stream of consciousness.
Bobbi wasn't sure what to think. There’s Morris again, second time today. He seems involved in everything Joja around this place. Should I tell Sam about what Lewis said? Would he understand? Should I tell Lewis anything?? Bah, too many decisions...
"Bobbi?" Sam waved his hand in front of Bobbi's face.
"Sorry Sam, my little pea-brain has had too many things crammed into it today and I think some stuff is leaking out the other side," Bobbi said lamely. "I don't get Joja, though. This town is tiny compared to their usual customer base. Two dozen people really doesn't keep a Joja Mart afloat."
"We have more than 2 dozen people in town," Sam countered. "Well, probably. Though all of them don't shop at Joja. People come in from neighboring communities but not all that often, maybe once a week? One of the ladies loves to mention that she makes her weekly trip every Monday afternoon. She says I remind her of her daughter." Sam looked annoyed. "Not her son of course. Well I don't know if she has one, but really!"
Bobbi giggled. "Hey, you're likable, take it as a compliment."
"Pfft! To an old lady...," Sam rolled his eyes, clearly not enthused about this idea.
"Hey Sam, thanks for the info about Joja," Bobbi said genuinely. "I don't know what it means yet but it doesn't make a lot of sense. Let me know if you hear anything else, ok?"
"Will do, Bobbi! Take it easy," Sam said as he fished his phone out of his pocket and turned towards the river.
Returning to town, Bobbi bumped into Penny again and with Sam not in the area, offered her another dandelion, receiving a predictably warm smile accompanied by a hug. "Thanks Bobbi, I even got mom to eat part of the salad last time, I told her they were good for her morning headaches.” A small laugh. “That might even be true and it's certainly better than what she had the night before." A slight disapproving look flashed over Penny's face, which quickly disappeared, replaced with the smile again. "I'll get this home while it's still fresh. Thanks again, Bobbi!" And Penny whisked off with a wave.
Heading north in town, Bobbi thought to go over to the Joja Mart to have a look inside for herself. She'd always worked for corporate as a cubicle monkey, never taking the role of customer. However, on her way, the elusive Haley emerged from her apparently well-camouflaged hiding place and presented herself to the world. Or she'd been at the park and was now heading home. In any case, Bobbi had an especially nice daffodil waiting for her.
"Oooo, for me, this is super!" Haley exclaimed with a big smile while turning it around in her fingers, appreciating it from all sides. Haley has nice fingers. What? Bobbi your head is messed up today.
"Hmmm, that's nice makeup you have on today," Haley remarked. What? OK, I was not expecting that. "Or are you wearing any?" Haley giggled. "Well whichever, it looks nice on you.” She sighed. “I was sooo bored today at the park and I forgot my camera again."
Thinking fast, Bobbi asked, "was there a sasquatch there today and you missed it?" Oh, yeah that one could go badly, Bobbi winced internally.
Haley snorted, in a cute way. "Uh nooo, but yeah that would totally have ruined my day. Just boring birds and trees and spring things." Haley sighed again. "This month is taking forever and the Flower Dance is still like 2 weeks away," she said in an annoyed voice. Bobbi hadn't thought about that in a week, what's it even about. Clearly Haley knew all about the Dance but Bobbi didn't want to risk a strained conversation exposing her ignorance, so she let it pass. But I should ask Haley about it later.
Great, yet one more thing likely to forget. I need a secretary. Eyeing Haley, she put that thought out of her mind. "Your hair looks nice today, Ok it looks nice every day," Bobbi recovered, "what do you do with it?"
"Oh thank you, well it's mostly natural. You see...." And Haley launched into a morning regimen that had served her well for many years now, which seemed a little shy of natural. Many minutes later Haley finished and bid Bobbi adieu as she'd been on her way home.
What was I doing now? Bobbi's brain had been emptied of a great many things that day and she needed some recovery time. Ah, heading to Joja to sample the store.
On the way there, Bobbi said ‘Hi’ to Abigail but she volunteered that she wasn’t in a good mood right now, so Bobbi let her be. She felt a bit guilty at being saved from talking to someone else, but there were just too many things happening and she was anticipating some corporate-level brainlessness at Joja. Full mental shutdown. I need what little faculties I can still marshal for this experience.
__________
Entering the clean, white whiteness of the Joja Mart was like passing through a portal to another world.
Another... reeeally boring world.
Buried within a mostly empty row of checkout stands stood an unfamiliar cashier who was barely awake, and a manager-looking person pacing in a fishbowl office to the right. I’ll bug them later, will need to work up to that. Perusing the store, Bobbi came upon Pam who burst out with, “Don’t go snoopin’ around my trailer while I’m out!” She immediately recovered, saying, ”sorry kid, I’m still a little cautious with strangers and this place kinds puts me on edge. Lights too bright or somethin’,” she finished, squinting up to the ceiling. Pam turned back to perusing the stocked shelves.
“Take care, Pam,” Bobbi said as she moved off. So it’s Pam that lives in the trailer, not Marlon. Where does he live? Of course there are no return addresses on any of those letters, and fat chance I’d know which house is which anyway. And what are the odds that Pam is hungover— this late in the day? Bobbi spotted Shane working but he was very busy, also to Bobbi’s relief.
Instead she perused the selection. It was awful, though with quite spectacular product labeling. High-five to the graphic designers and product naming teams. Unbearable torturous blaze sauce. Blue Alien ENERGY - get LAUNCHED! Powdered wine?!? Hair gel.
Hair gel! Hey, is this place where everyone gets their hair done? Is there a hair salon tucked in here somewhere? Who runs it? Quickly scanning the rest of the ‘Mart, no hair salon was found. Well I suppose that’s better, I guess everyone’s doing that for themselves instead of paying into Joja.
Bobbi steeled herself to chat with Mr. Manager and suddenly realized that this just had to be the Morris that Sam referred to. Who wasn’t ginger, heh. Wait, who was also the guy from the letter about the landslide or something? OK, Morris is someone who I need to know, one way or another. Bleah, I don’t like this.
Wait.
......
I came here for an escape. I think. I came here for something... different. This is different, it’s not blowing cars up on the pitch or spending 3/4 of the day avoiding work or the boss. It’s chatting with good people, digging junk up, getting covered in slime, soaking wet smelling like fish.
I should go into advertising.
As Bobbi walked up to Morris, he beat her to the punch saying, “Welcome to JojaMart, we haven’t see you in here before, I think?” with a big smile. Heh lucky, Bobbi thought, I was going to start with ‘Hi, Morris’ which would have been awkward. Maybe I should have left this to tomorrow morning.
“No this is my first time in here, I’m new to the area. I’m Bobbi,” she said extending her hand.
Morris shook it, introducing himself, ”I’m Morris, manager here and it’s great to see more people joining the community in Pelican Town. I hope to see you here for all your shopping needs. And if you’re really interested, we’re having a special on Joja memberships for only 5000g, and you’ll get some local benefits... which we’re still ironing out. One thing we do know is memberships will allow us to expand here and create more jobs, starting with a warehouse.”
“Is there space for a warehouse here?” asked Bobbi innocently.
“This place has nothing but space!” exclaimed Morris expansively. “But we’ll start small by converting the old Community Center. The building’s in Ok shape and a decent size. No new permits needed and it’s currently unused. Practically perfect.”
“Ah, sounds good, you’ve got it all worked out then,” prompted Bobbi.
“Yes well, there are always details to work out of course but nothing the town needs to worry about. So... are you interested in a membership?” Morris appealed to Bobbi.
“Well, the easy answer is that I’m way short of that kind of g right now so it’ll have to wait, but thanks for the offer.” Well, that worked out nicely.
“We’re always here to serve you, Bobbi. Take care and see you soon,” said Morris.
As Bobbi left the store, she had more to consider. I didn’t find out anything more that I already knew. And really anything less as intriguingly, Morris didn’t seem to be hiding anything. Well, everyone is always hiding something but Morris didn’t really say much less than Lewis. But Sam thought he was getting some kind of insider information, so this Community Center to Joja conversion may not be common knowledge? Maybe not to the younger people, or anyone else than Morris and Lewis?
Maybe because nobody else cares?
Well, no. Sam seems to care. Not sure what to do, so do nothing right now. I’m not in a position to buy a Joja membership and I’ll just assume that the rest of the town is at a steady state of memberships. But see if anyone else knows anything.
Bobbi ended up at the river and somehow it wasn’t quite sundown yet so she fished to take a load off her mind. Naturally she caught a Joja Cola. Really? What’s with the people around here? Seaweed and a sunfish completed the day and as she was about to leave, she saw Jodi and Sam entering their house. Ah, Jodi is Sam’s mom. Thinking for a bit, Bobbi realized that a number of people’s parents didn’t live local or at least were well hidden. That could be a good conversation starter.
Or killer. And in a rare flash of insight Bobbi realized that Pam was probably Penny’s mom. Penny complained about her mom’s nights and feeling unwell in the morning and Pam was not in a great mood outside of the Saloon.
Which also means Penny lives in the trailer? That’s probably not a great life, and Penny’s made some comments alluding to that. Sigh. Tread carefully Bobbi, you’re not great at subtlety. And now I’m going to be second-guessing myself. Just be yourself, girl.
Another big sigh announced to the Forest that Bobbi had arrived. She passed Marnie who was on her way in a hurry but still stopped for a brief chat.
“Hi Bobbi, doing well?” asked Marnie, a bit out of breath.
“Sure, how are things on your ranch?”
“Better now as Shane is helping out with the chickens,” Marnie brightened. “He really seems to enjoy his time in the yard tending to them. I actually see smiles on his face when he doesn’t see me, and that’s been a big improvement over the past few months. Oh, I’m sorry I’m running a bit late, talk to you again soon Bobbi!” and she bustled towards town.
“See you!” Bobbi called to her back.
Bobbi did a quick round of forage, already appreciating that seedlings were popping up, replacing the trees she’d cut. Back at the farm, Bobbi brainlessly knocked quite a few rocks into futile submission, which was a great respite from the day’s happenings. Peering into her pack, she found cauliflower seeds. Absently she stood looking at them and then her purse, which was smaller than she expected. I think I bought these at Pierre’s and that was utterly erased from my memory.
That’s what leaked out of my ear. Wow, I need a notebook or secretary. Hmmm Haley. Hmmm. What? Stupid brain, shut up.
She planted and fertilized the magic cauliflower, bunged the fish into the bin, and took out unknown frustrations on another stump that was too close to the house.
I’m done, floomp into bed face down and out like a light. No dreams this time.
