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“You should go.” Ruby said, chin resting on Oscar’s shoulder as he sat reading a letter. She had read along with him, not that he minded.It was a letter from his aunt. They kept in touch but at no point in these last six years had he paid a visit, despite her multiple invitations.
“Hm?” Oscar absently hummed. It took a moment he actually caught up to what Ruby just said.
“I said you should go. C’mon farmer boy, you should give me a tour of that country boy life you lived. Afterall, you’ve seen where I grew up, it’s only fair.”
Despite Oscar’s hesitation, Ruby’s encouragement was always and forever startlingly effective.
That was how, a week later, they ended up walking down the last rural road to the familiar farm. Oscar was nervous, he hadn’t put words to it but Ruby picked up on it. She held his hand, and matched his slowing pace, giving him the time he needed to get his bearings.
The sun was setting by the time they made it to the house. Another long pause before Oscar worked up the nerve to knock on the door. From then, things couldn’t have gone better than they did. His aunt, tears in her eyes, pulled him into a crushing hug, scolding him for not visiting sooner and welcoming him home all in one. He may be grown compared to when he’d first left, but that hug made him feel small as could be.
Ruby stood off to the side, smiling at the reunion. She eventually had her chance to introduce herself, receiving a welcome hug as well, minus the tears and scolding.
So they ate supper, and got sleeping arrangements set up. Oscar’s aunt had jokingly told him to go sleep in the barn, while offering Ruby a nice cot inside the main house. In the end both Ruby and Oscar ended up curled up in a cot in the house that was definitely designed for just one person. His aunt didn’t comment, just grinned knowingly as she said goodnight.
The next morning brought Ruby waking early, poking at Oscar’s cheek to get him up as well. They both were an odd mix of morning people and yet grumpy about being woken up, it always made mornings interesting. Oscar groaned, not opening his eyes as he batted Ruby’s hand away.
“The sun’s up, you promised me a tour.” Ruby hummed, poking him once more.
“I recall making no such promise.” Oscar muttered, barely cracking his eyes open, trying to suppress a grin.
It took another half hour before they actually untangled themselves and got ready for the day.
Oscar didn’t think there was all that much to show about the farm, it was just like any other farm he figured. Still as he lead Ruby through the fields he was hit with how little had changed. In a way that was what he had been afraid of, how could he go home to a place so unchanged when he himself had changed so much?
Ruby noticed his far off, unfocused gaze, nudging him lightly with her elbow.
“Hey… you okay?”
“Yeah, yeah of cour-”
He was interrupted by a gasp from Ruby, and in a blink left with just a cloud of falling rose petals in her wake.
Ruby was a good fifty feet ahead of him, right on the edge of the fencing of the chicken pen.
They had been through hell and back, but somehow Ruby still managed to pull a childish look of glee and excitement.
“You didn’t tell me you had chickens!” She called back, crouching down where a couple hens had started crowding at the fence, expecting food.
Oscar jogged to meet up with her. “I thought that would be obvious, with it being a farm.” As he got a better look at the chickens, a grin of his own grew, matching hers. He could still recognize several of the chickens there, they all had names and he knew their markings.
“You can go into the pen, you know.” He said, gesturing to the latched gate as Ruby made clicking noises to attract more of the hens over.
Ruby did just that, going into the pen, carefully closing the gate behind her and kneeling to greet the chickens. They clucked and pecked, all expecting treats from this new person. Oscar laughed quietly. “I’ll be right back, you stay there.” He called, turning to run off for just a moment. He came back with bush of collard greens, and a couple tomatoes, joining Ruby in the pen, handing her the vegetables. “Here, they’ll love you if you give them treats.”
Ruby held out a leave of the collard greens, giggling as the chickens devoured it in moments. As she fed them, Oscar pointed out the ones he still recognized. “That’s Duchess, she likes to break out and harass the goats, and the brown one with the fluffy crown over there is Spoon. That started because when I first lived on the farm, I named a chicken Fork, so we’ve had Fork, Knife, and Spoon. I’m glad she’s still around…”
Ruby listened to Oscar, happily feeding the chickens. He was so caught up in recounting the stories of their names that he didn’t even realize Ruby’s focus had moved from watching and cooing at the hens, to smiling fondly at him. He was startled slightly when she gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.
“Are you glad you came back?” Ruby asked, turning her gaze back to the chickens, absolutely overjoyed that one let her pet it’s feathery back.
There was no possible way for Oscar to look at Ruby smiling like that and say anything other than what he did. “Yeah- yeah I really am.”