Writing Evil Twin Betsy's diary

[Jayamos]

11 Winter Y 4
Passed out in the mines Tuesday night, the 9th. I think Harvey picked me up again.

Which leads me to... passing out at the bus stop last night, because...

Yesterday was a perfect luck day. I let a couple go by last week but yesterday morning I felt like I was ready to go back to Skull Cavern at long last. Clearly Harvey isn't averse to patching me up these days.

Totals:
22 staircases

60-ish bombs, thanks to a well-timed treasure chest when I was down to my last one and nearly out of iron ore

13 floors skipped via shafts

5 or 6 treasure floors

8 or 10 freebie ladders

2 or 3 Spicy Eels

0 triple-shot espressos because I forgot to bring them

1 thoroughly disgusting shot of snake milk

and best of all: 1 Dark Cowboy Hat. Which I put on mid-run because if I got slammed by serpents I would be fine to lose my beanie but I Want That Hat.

I don't know what to think about Mr. Qi. I feel vaguely surveilled. How does he even get down there with those snakes? And who is he to get all snooty about staircases? But I do feel extra powerful now.

Anyway, got out of the mines at 1:40. Pam is forgiven for every bad thing she's done in life, I was never so glad to see the bus sitting there. Left the scepter at home.

Today I went to see George and Evelyn and Alex. George took one look at the hat and said "You're running Skull Cavern, aren't you?"

"Yes," I said. "Say, did you ever run into that Mr. Qi guy down there?"

"You met Mr. Qi?" George and Alex say at once. They're both goggle-eyed and all of a sudden I see the family resemblance.

"I thought that was a legend, that if you got far enough down you'd run into him." said George. "Your grandfather was pretty good at Skull Cavern runs but even he never met him."

"Well. Met him, talked to him... I don't know. He seemed weird. But he was all set up like he lived there."

"Huh. Lurch Murchison always said his grandfather came on Mr. Qi but Lurch always did like to brag."

Then we get to talking monsters. "Tell you what I used to hate, those haunted skulls," George says, and we trade stories of being ambushed by skulls on floors we thought would be easy. Turns out we're both averse to using staircases unless we have to. Alex's face turns from George to me, from me to George.

"Did you ever want to mine, Alex?" I ask.

George snaps, "Gridball's dangerous enough for my grandson."

Alex says, "Maybe when I was little, but Mom and Grandma and Grandpa all wanted me to do something else, and I always loved watching gridball with Grandpa and then when I started playing... I felt like that was what I was supposed to do."

I have to say, I feel more understood in that family than anywhere else in the valley. When I first met him I never would have thought of Alex as understanding my life, but now...

Winter 12
My I'm feeling bright and happy. If this is the afterglow from the snake milk, it's worth it. Or maybe it's Alex's eyes on mine, seeing something he likes. Either way, even the snow seems extra sparkly.

Winter 13
I wake up feeling like I can do anything. It doesn't hurt that my banker says I've made 10 million in deposits, which entitles me to some kind of VIP status. And what do I want to do with all this extra energy? Enjoy some more of that understanding and possibly the second-finest set of abs in the valley. Never have I been so pleased that Pierre is a workaholic. Marriage bouquet bought.

Evelyn said I could find Alex at the spa, and I caught him on the way out. He's cute when he's caught off guard. Now that there's this possibility I don't want to wait till spring.

 

[Jayamos]

Winter 15
Lots of chores, including trying to get my patchy floor fixed in the slime hutch. I've learned that the easiest way is to go in, get swarmed, and keep trying to slip the tiles down as the slimes go sliding past. Eventually it'll stick. Of course I need plenty of food to get my strength up, but I have hopes of actually getting this done and then leaning over the fence watching them.

I went to the Night Market and stopped on the way to have a nice chat with Alex and hang out with him and Dusty. He asked me a lot of questions about fight strategy. To be polite I asked about his workout routine. It turns out he has a lot of good exercises for core strength and upper body. I could learn something from him.

At the Night Market Clint was fretting about his checkup, and vacillating about going to the mermaid show. I suggested we go together, but he balked. I'm trying to learn the mermaid song and got about 7 notes in before I lost the thread of it.

Shane was there with Jas. I was happy to see them and we talked for a little while. It feels like we're becoming friends again.

Winter 17
Stopped off to see Alex on the way to the Night Market again and he said, "Look, I know how I feel about you. And it looks like you know how you feel about me. So what are we waiting for? I feel... I feel like the game's about to begin and I'm just running up and down the sidelines, trying to keep warm and settle my jitters. So could we just... start?"

We're just starting to date and I didn't think he'd be ready, but he's full of surprises.

And then at the Night Market Evelyn tells me "He's got some kind of light in him lately. George and I are glad. You know he had an offer a few years ago from the Tunnelers' farm team and he turned it down because we rely on him so much. And the years are going by... it's good to see him getting something good in his life."

No pressure.

So after a disappointing night on the midnight fishing tour (I ran out of bait), I dug out a rain totem and made plans for tomorrow.

Winter 18
Who knew Gus was musical? Alex and I had a very romantic dinner at the saloon, after I told him that if he thought I was going to eat salad and watch him eat steak he had another think coming.

"Really?" he said. "I thought girls..."

"This girl is constantly getting banged up in the mines. I need my iron." So he gave me some of his steak, but he was wolfing his down so fast I figured he doesn't often get this type of thing. So what's going on with giving it to the dog? Anyway, I excused myself, went down to the bar, and got Gus to give us another one on my tab, since if I'd gone all out like this trying to take my sweetie out for a romantic dinner I wouldn't want to be hassling over the check at the end. Of course Alex asked about it when he got the check, but I thought of that and Gus told him it was on the house "for the happy couple." Alex blushed. He looked so happy and grateful, as if people don't go out of their way for him much.

And marriage pendant accepted. He's awfully cute when he blushes. And he blushes a lot.

Winter 20
Good luck days today and yesterday, not perfect, but I decided to try Skull Cavern runs anyway. Got past floor 100 both times, plenty of iridium. I'm wondering if it makes sense to sell my animals and go big with crystallariums (crystallaria?) I was going to go to the saloon and chat with Leah. Of course that didn't happen, and maybe it's just as well... she's not going to be pleased. Worse, I missed Evelyn's birthday, bad timing to forget my grandmother-in-law! But I'll make it up to her tomorrow.

Winter 21
Almost forgot to get properly dressed before I got whisked off to the wedding! It was a simple outfit, just some nice pants and a shirt with a becoming little bow tie. He was probably expecting a dress, but it's my mining self he likes and my mining self he gets. Alex looked very nice in his suit—it's kind of old fashioned, as if it's a hand-me-down, but he fills it out nicely.

I gave him the full tour. The downsides of getting married in Winter are having to do the tour in the snow and not having crops to show off. But he was duly impressed with the greenhouse—the cacti were in bloom, bright and impressive, and little green fruit were on the ancient fruit vines—and the shed and cellar full of wine. He was more impressed by the work that went into them and the money that comes in; he says he's more a beer guy than a wine guy, when he drinks at all. He likes all the animals, the bigger the better, and even petted the dinos; doesn't mind their raspy skin. It's nice to finally be married to someone who appreciates them. OK, he couldn't really see the point of the slime hutch, but it's so rough in there still with half the floor down, I can't blame him.

I gave him one of my shards from the Skull Cavern runs. He was so pleased and he put it in his room. I'm glad—it's so spartan, so much just a gym, it made me a little sad. All the other people I've married had rooms that looked comfortable for them (OK, Shane's was maybe a little too comfy) and his is just work work work. But I guess we're both strivers.

And I got in to see George and Evelyn. Gave them both diamonds; Evelyn was very pleased, George less so. But it's not his birthday I forgot. I feel I somewhat made up for yesterday's lapse.

Now to get to bed in timely fashion!

 

[Jayamos]

Winter 22 Y 4
What Alex lacks in experience, he makes up for in enthusiasm, and once we had a discussion about how this wasn't about moving anything past any goal posts, nobody was going to be winning or losing anything, we had a good time. He's very coachable.

And then this morning it was a perfect luck day so I whisked off to Skull Cavern and came home with a good haul—including a red slime egg and two purples. I have at least 2 greens and blues. Now I want to get one more red slime egg and hatch out breeding pairs of each color and... see what happens. I'm imagining rainbows of slimes. That means definitely culling all the ones I have now and finally finishing the hutch remodel. Possibly remodeling the remodel.

I did manage to get home on my own two feet. I am really really grateful that Alex is understanding... and he woke up very cheerfully when I slipped under the covers. A good day mining and a good night with my husband—I couldn't ask for more.

Winter 23
Horrible luck day, and I was almost relieved to have the excuse to stay home. I cleared out the area by the cabin so I could ask Robin to demolish it and put a shed in its place. I need more crystallaria for jade, more furnaces to smelt the ore I bring home, more places to put them. The cows and pigs are a little crowded with the current bunch of crystallaria, but they seem happy enough. The barn's a little warmer with them in there, although they give off some fumes. I'll have them out of there pretty soon, though.

Then I tapped one of the casks and brought Leah a bottle of my first reserve vintage of starfruit wine. It's not quite aged to perfection, but it's aged to pretty bleeping excellent. I figured that would make up for my (a) extremely imperfect love life and (b) being an absentee friend.

"Think you can buy me off, do you?" Leah said when we uncorked the bottle. She sniffed the wine and said, "OK, fine, you can buy me off."

Things were pretty awkward until we'd had our first glass. Chitchat isn't our style and between her stuff with Kel and needing to catch her up on my life... we needed a little time to settle in with each other, and the wine didn't hurt. So we admired the wine, "notes of dragonfruit and amber," she said, and we had a discussion about whether a wine even could have notes of amber, and finally she said, "OK, really, what is going on with you? I never see you, and you split with Haley and you're practically instantly with Alex, which is my first indication that Alex has any redeeming qualities, or are you just in it for his body which I have to admit I have more than once deeply, deeply wanted to sketch?"

"OK, so the reason you never see me is kind of why Haley and I split. I've just been mining mining mining. The more I do it the more I like it—it's like a treasure hunt every day! And I finally got the hang of getting far enough down in Skull Cavern for it to be worth it. But, yeah, I'm not really spending enough time above ground. And... it upset Haley. She's more domestic than I ever would have thought and really wanted a homebody."

"And does Alex want a homebody?"

"Well, that's the thing. George has told him all these mining stories, and he's half afraid of the mines and half fascinated, and it sounds like he almost thinks of me as this fantastic martial artist. And once you get through that thick skull of his... turns out he has a lot of heart. So I mine, and he gets it, and so far so good."

"OK then, that seems like an advance, someone who actually appreciates your work... by the way, I felt bad for Haley, so I made an effort and at the Ice Fest I said I'd heard she was into photography, and I took a look a couple of days ago, and she really does have something there. I asked her about some of the choices she made and she said she hadn't really thought about it, so now we're doing a kind of art meet up. And I'm glad that now I don't have to worry that she was evil to you."

"Oh. Yeah, no evilness. That's great that you're doing that. I'm glad something good came out of the whole debacle... so that brings us to Kel. Any changes in the great art buy-up?"

"Yeah, I finally developed a spine and called her and... said I knew it was her and asked what she was doing. She says she still has feelings for me and was trying to win me back." She swirled her wine in her cup, beautiful thick swirls, and said, "I have to say wine would be a much more effective way of buying my love. Wait, that didn't come out right!" Now she's blushing and I suddenly am imagining things a married woman shouldn't.

"Look, while I'm being all authentic," she says, "you are hugely important to me but I only need one bull in my china shop."

"Umm... do you have any bulls in your china shop? And what china shop are we talking about here exactly?"

"Wow this vino is powerful stuff," she says, pushing it into the center of the table and getting up and splashing her face.

She sits down again and says, "OK, back to Kel. I told her we are over, I told her thank you for introducing me to Julian at the gallery, but we are still over, I told her there is no question of winning me back and if she really believed that would she still be buying my paintings... oof, I need that wine again," and she retrieves it from the center of the table and drinks it a little more hastily than it deserves and finishes,

"What she said was they make great gifts and some of her friends like them so they've all gone to good homes."

"Oookaaaayyy. Kel being Kel." I think back to my assorted divorces and decide I don't come up any rosier than Kel. "Anyway, I can see why you want the wine. What did you say to that?"

"I hung up on her and spent a long time on tech support seeing if I could block her from the website. If I weren't getting along so well with Julian I'd be tempted to withdraw from the gallery. But stuff does sell there without Kel having anything to do it, so my confidence wasn't totally shot by that exchange. I have a little saved up now. And after we had that discussion about the slime hutch gallery I started wondering about the aerobics room at the shop. It's really informal for a gallery but I think Pierre might be interested in a little commission and some more people coming through the shop."

"I think it's a terrific idea," I say. "Way better location than the slime hutch! You could have a sandwich board or something to draw in the tourists at the fair. And if you need any money for remodeling or framing or anything, remember you can be the first Pelican Community Fund artist-in-residence."

"Hah! OK," she says, contemplating the wine.

"And look, we had that awkward moment, but... we don't really have any illusions about each other. I value our friendship, I'm not going to throw it away on something we both know... isn't right for either of us." I say.

"I know. Me too," she says, looking me in the eye. "One thing I've learned around you, I like a little chaos in my life, especially when it comes with such excellent wine attached, but I need it in small doses."

"Small doses of chaos, my specialty," I say.

Winter 24
Alex thinks this place would be great for kids. Yikes, he doesn't waste any time beating around the bush. He must have been cute as a little tyke running around, though, and then I think of his father and I wonder what the man could have been thinking.

Alex must have been the kind of little boy you have to tire out so he'll go to bed. I'm sure his kids will be the same, in need of patience. Which we all know is my strong suit—not.

He says something about earning bed after pushing yourself to the limit, and I feel so seen.

Winter 25
I've been fretting over getting Gus the extra eggs he needs—I have plenty, but keep forgetting—but Marnie, my secret Santa, gave me a dozen. They couldn't be better timed. I gave Evelyn chocolate cake. Boy was I delighted when I got her name. Family togetherness!

Winter 26
And the iridium starfruit wine is done! Off it went and we are rich. OK, we were rich before, but now we're even more so.

Winter 28
I wanted to take Alex to the movies to celebrate but the old workaholism keeps rearing its head. I even got us a couple of tickets but yesterday I got completely distracted harvesting the fruit cave, of all things—it'll make us chump change but I couldn't get myself to just let the fruit go to waste—and then today I had to get grass starter down, which means I also had to spend time today and yesterday getting in enough fiber. And now the movie's rotating out. He was a good sport, but I could see I hurt his feelings. Underpromise and overdeliver, a good policy in marriage as in business.

I've got to do better. I hope he likes the next movie that comes in.

 

[Jayamos]

Spring 1 Y5
It's hard to believe I've been here for an entire four years. I look out over the farm now and can hardly remember what a mess it was back in the day, so much clean up just to get around the place. And I was so broke and depressed (thaaannnkkksss, Joja Mart), and the tools Grandpa left were in such sad shape and I barely knew how to use them and was out of shape from the desk job... and now here we are. A field of strawberries planted up in a few hours, kegs of new wine in the shed, aging wine in the cellar, all the animals wandering out of barns and coops, the slimes safely locked down, the mines a refreshing way to spend an evening. Alex working out in his spot behind the house… Lots of ups and downs but I wouldn't trade it for anything.

And after all these years Kel's still after Leah. Leah must really be the love of her life. Or delusion of her life. I'm sure there's a Taylor Swift song that applies. I can't believe Kel's chasing after her and doesn't get her art. Maybe it's one of those things where it's not working out with an actual person and Leah's a convenient fantasy. It occurs to me I could feel bitter that Kel wants Leah so much more than she ever wanted me, but what Kel and I had was one of those purely chemical things that burns itself out quick. No harm done and I'm glad it didn't last.

Speaking of actual people, Alex asked if I wanted to have kids and my immediate thought was "Oh hell no" but I said, accurately, not yet. And the thing is I do but I feel like I'm just getting the hang of mining and I'm not ready to be a parent.

Spring 2
Perfect luck day, so I kissed Alex goodbye and whisked out of the house. I went heavy on the bombs, looking around: staircase floor or bomb floor? I was worrying about being slow getting to the lucrative floors, but I got a little farther down than before and my haul was as good as ever, so it's a decent strategy.

Spring 3
It's funny, this new rhythm--thrilled to have a perfect luck day, relieved to have a bad luck day and actually get things done around the place. I puttered around and got the new shed set up. I'm glad I got the crystallaria out of the barn. The animals seem perfectly happy, especially now that they're out all day with the new spring grass, but the fumes can't be good for them and I suspect there's some kind of radiation. If the next pig comes out a little funny-looking I'll know what to blame.

When I woke up this morning Alex was watching the recipe show and we had to negotiate a little so I could check the luck. He says he wants to be able to cook for me. "Good plan! The way to my heart is definitely through my stomach," I say. "I would have gotten you a cookbook for Night of the Winter Star if I'd known."

"Oh... cookbooks," he says, looking uncomfortable. Then he brightens and says, "If I watch it I can memorize it, and then it's here permanently," pointing to his head.

Then I remember all the notes I took back in the day when I first got here and dig them out of the kitchen cabinet. "You can skim through these any time. Look, here's the recipe for the breakfast I've been cooking for you."

He takes the notebook gingerly and furrows his brow—his entire face, really—at the recipe. "Com...pet...compete breakfast?" he says and grins. "That's a cool name, no wonder you gave it to me! Wait...pac-nak... picnics?"

I look at my notes and the L is right there in capital letters the way I always do my titles. And pancakes is spelled like it's supposed to be. And my handwriting wouldn't win any prizes, but no one's ever told me they couldn't read it. Now I understand why he's never read that shelf of books in his bedroom and why he was so embarrassed about it.

I was pretty thoughtful as I was building more furnaces and getting iridium bars smelted. Imagining being the teacher's kid—well, grandkid—and not being able to read. Imagining being a kid's teacher and grandmother and raising him and grieving a daughter and taking care of a husband who finds himself in a wheelchair... all in a town without the money to buy textbooks, let alone build out a reading curriculum for a severely dyslexic kid who's probably seriously fidgety too.

And then he gives up his one dream, the thing he can really do, so he can help them out.

I think of how obsessed he seemed with gridball and fitness when we first met, and it all looks so different now. And then I think of Kel and what she's been doing hanging onto Leah. What she was doing wasn't right, and it's been a real mixed result for Leah, but I wonder if it would look different if I really understood what was going on with her.

Spring 4
Perfect luck day but I didn't get as much this time. I slowed down on a dino floor to see how I would do in combat against them and it was definitely not worth it. I got some bones and a couple of dino eggs out of it and a lot of guilt from killing the large cousins of my beloved dinos.

Before I left Alex said again how great this place would be for kids. I don't think he's just reflecting on his childhood, either.

Spring 5
Alex sure is talking a lot about raising kids on the farm! I'm starting to feel pressed.

I realized I had nearly 200 gold ancient fruit in the wine shed storage, and I'm never going to get them kegged, so I shipped them along with the week's wine. We are even richer now.

Spring 6
I was a good spouse! Checked the theater, decided Alex would like the movie, managed to meet him just in time for the late show. Pam and Penny were there too, and afterward they were having a friendly argument about whether the movie was sappy or inspiring. It's good to see them just enjoying each other's company. The concession stand is terrific, and hungry boy enjoyed his burger. And he did like the movie.

After the movie Alex wanted to quickly check in on Evelyn and George, so we went our separate ways home. I bumped into Abi on the way. She asked me if I was exploring "the caves above town" and said she'd like to go with me.

"I am," I said, "but your parents would be furious if I took them down there."

"Just because I'm living with them doesn't mean they run my life!" she said furiously. "I'm certainly more mature than...!" She breaks off, looks deeply upset and I suddenly feel completely out of my depth. She takes a breath and says, "I think you're confusing my small size with my actual age."

"Um." I try to dog paddle my way out of the icy pool I somehow stepped into. "Look, I'm sorry. And, yeah... maybe I am thinking of you as the age you were when we met." There's a whole conversation under here, a whole conversation I can't have right now. "You are older... I guess we've both grown some over the years."

"Yeah, well..." She looks out toward the river for a moment. "Nothing here is your fault. At all. Look, after I kick your butt at the Egg Festival, come over and I'll kick your butt at Journey of the Prairie King."

"Deal." I say, smiling. I can't resist teasing. "Now...are you sure about that maturity?"

"Oh, I'm just showing you the tip of the iceberg," she says. "You'll get to see the rest if I ever see ready for it," she says, smiling back, sort of.

I go home remembering bumping into her in the rain, by the river, with her flute. Years later it's still vivid. I can just remember the tune, just. I wonder if she'd play it for me again.

Spring 7
Alex asked if we're doing OK on money. I told him how much was coming in during the farm tour, so I was surprised that he was worried about it. Maybe he saw the shed going up and thought it costs more than it does. And I don't update him on every shipment. I just told him we were doing more than OK, that I couldn't imagine any situation in which we weren't fine.

He has a lot going on underneath, far more than I can resolve with money. But money might help. I have to figure this out, what I'm doing with my income. And I wonder if throwing money at some kind of reading help would make a difference. I need to talk to Penny, see if she even has a place to start.