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The curtains in the front of the house finally close as her parents begin to head to bed. She can hear Mom suggesting Dad put the semi-solid tomato bought from Pierre's shop either in the lab fridge or the garbage. Maru wasn't shocked when she head the lid of the trash can slam.
"This is ridiculous! Where is Pierre getting his stock from?"
His incredulous voice was no real shock to her. Between Pierre's prices and subpar vegetation and Jojo's even worse quality, the valley was beginning to wither away. The last line of defense was Gus' cooking and the fish Willy provided.
Maybe I can make something to help the town? Something to pump nutrients into the dirt for better produce?
Maru had the beginning of a plan sparking in her mind but no real schematics to make it happen.
Today was one of the few days she had to focus on a hobby and not her life's work.
Pressing her glasses lens against her telescope, she looks up to the stars. The bright orbs of fiery gases made out into vague constellations that only the people of their planet would understand. On any other hypothetical planet, the constellation wouldn't be the same as the stars position would change entirely. The cycle of discovery never ending no matter where one stayed.
"Fascinating…"
Maru sat on the small wooden stool crafted by her mother, getting comfortable for the star gazing she was participating in. Closing one eye and laying the other against the eyepiece to get a glimpse of the night sky speckled with stars.
A startling whoosing overhead that made Maru's hair wildly flap in the gust of wind that passed over her families home. The strong winds knock over her telescope, wobbling on one out of three legs. Maru only has seconds to catch the piece of equipment before she shatters the lenses. Diving from her stool, catching the optical tube and hugging it to her chest as she twist to fall into her back. The air from her lungs rush out from the harsh contact…But the air is quickly regained through a sharp gasp at the flying object stationed in the sky.
Down the mountain, maybe a town over flew a bright disk in the sky. Hoovering in the air and illuminating the darkness and covering the stars in the distance. Green to red to purple and back to green, the light changes colors in the distance. It isn't until a bright white beam shoots down to earth does Maru finally break from her stunned shock.
"DAD! DAD YOU HAVE TO COME SEE THIS!"
Maru laid the telescope on the ground before sprinting into her side entrance into the house. Skidding into her room, the hallway and briefly down the hall she bangs on her parents door with ginormous energy.
It takes far too long to get her dad to leave his room, unappreciative of his finely tuned routine being interrupted. If it were anyone other than Maru he would tell them to try again in the morning, but for her he was willing to forgo his sleep a little longer.
When Maru and Demetrius leave their home, all they are greeted with is the night sky once again. Twinkling stars with the moon creating a beautiful backdrop to the mountains above. The glowing disk in the sky has dissipated without a trace.
"B-but I saw-"
"You've been hard at work today sweetie, you're probably having exhaustion hallucinations like I did when I was cultivating those red mushrooms and didn't want the spores getting into the house." Demetrius pats a hand on his daughter's shoulder.
"No! That's not it at all, it was glowing and it had a white beam!"
Robin watched her husband and daughter from the front door with a yawn at her lips and exhaustion heavy in her eyes. How she got blessed with an overstimulating child and husband is beyond her imagining. She turned back to head to bed, ignoring Maru's excited screams and Demetrius' explanations. She had business to do in the morning and couldn't find it in her to stick herself in a scenario that would leave her stuck there.
"New farmer? What new farmer?"
Maru whipped her head to look at Penny. Both sat on the bench in front of the saloon, Penny jumped an inch from the seat at Maru's high pitched question and sudden eye contact.
"T-the farm just under the mountain, the bus from the next town over is dropping them off."
The next town? That bright light…
"Robin has been fixing up the old house over there, I was sure she would have told you herself."
Maru shook her head. "That's not too surprising, when she's busy with something it's hard to get her attention until it's done. What do you know about them?" Maru was quick to question. Penny just shrugged.
"All I know is he's the old farmer's grandson. Maybe with him here, Pelican town can have some fresh produce like when I was a kid."
Penny stood from the bench, brushing her skirt down and fixing the small cowlick at the back of her head that she somehow sensed. Turning to face her friend with a shy smile on her lips.
"Don't you go scaring the new farmer with your boundless enthusiasm now, let him come to you."
Maru scoffed playfully, waving her hand in the air as if dismissing the thought.
"Who me? I would never."
Penny giggled before making her way to the museum, unaware of the runaway train of thoughts chugging through Maru's mind.
Mom would NEVER miss the chance to talk about a chance to fix up that old farm though. She's had her eye on that property forever! This is so sudden, what if this is related to that light I saw yesterday.
No! Don't spiral, correlation does NOT mean causation. Just because you saw a dazzling light yesterday night mean that's related to the new farmer, Penny said it herself it was the old farmer's grandson. How old was I when the old farmer was still around?
A toddler. She remembers the sweet old man that would give her large, fresh strawberries and pepper poppers. He had started to get sick when she was 10 and had passed not much long afterwards. She remembers meeting the farmer's daughter but no grandson; a boy around her age, maybe a little older. How did she not remember him?
Maru had been at work when the new farmer came in to introduce himself. Shoulder length corn rows in overalls with a black skull shirt underneath. Paisley handkerchief around his neck and gloves on his hands, he looked every part of a farmer that he should…he just didn't talk. Not normally anyway.
Coming up to the counter and pulling a notebook from his front overall pocket and turning the book to face her. It looked to be a pre-made introduction.
"Hello, my name is Dib and I am the new farmer at Outer Farms. I hope to become friends and with you and every villager in town."
Maru can't contain her excitement fast enough.
"I've been looking forward to meeting you! You know, with a small town like this, a new face can really alter the community dynamic. It's exciting!"
Maru can feel her face flush from unfiltered joy before the smile wipes from her face.
Too excited too fast!
Maru could clearly see the farmer hastily look away from her, nervously scratching at his neck under the handkerchief. A flap of fabric lifts just high enough for Maru to see-
Is his neck green?
Dib quickly retracts his hands, waves and runs out of the clinic faster than when he ran in.
That wasn't strange at all, nope and his neck certainly wasn't green, just a play of the lights
Her rational thinking did little to quell the nagging thoughts.
Maru has noted a couple of things about the farmer after his first full season in Pelican Town.
1) He didn't talk, at all.
He often had prewritten communication cards on a necklace around his neck. On the bottom was a whiteboard and marker to write unique responses. She noticed it first when the saw Dib buying seeds from Pierre. Writing down the quantity of each seed he purchased and the total at the end with a question mark. After getting the seeds he flipped through the pages for 'Thank you!' before running back out the door. His face almost glowed with a blush when they locked eyes across the isle, almost running into the doorframe.
2) He was very adventurous despite how anxious he always seemed.
It didn't matter what was going on, Dib wanted to have a part of it. At the egg festival, Dib had finally dethroned Abigail's win streak (not counting the times she lightened up for Vincent and Jas but this was not one of those years).
He could often be seen running through the mountains, back and forth from the mines that once only Clint and Marlon traversed. Coming back covered in soot and dirt, pockets full of treasures he had mined. Occasionally, he came by with a gold bar or a miner's treat, shyly presenting it and quickly running off as he covered his face.
3) His produce was the best she had ever tasted.
Cheesy Cauliflower, Strawberries, Green Bean Hot Pots, Pepper poppers.
It started with the bean hotpots her dad could be seen eating during his meager lunch that he allowed when he remembered to eat. Sharing some with Maru whose couldn't help flap her hands and shake her braids with excitement. The right amount of crunch and flavor that she only remembers from when she was a child.
Just like the old farmer, his grandson was reviving the pallettes of all of the towns people a couple crops at a time.
Lastly, he was very giving.
By the beginning of summer, it wasn't new to see Dr. Harvey with a fresh mug of coffee as he walked into the clinic or seeing Sebastian with a frozen tear as. an earring; Alex eating fresh omelettes and Haley donning dandelions in her hair.
While everyone else got a gift maybe once a week, Ethan made a point to gift her twice a week. A variety of objects…some were misses but a large portion of them were amazing gifts to receive, vital to her work and making her life easier as a carbon copy of her dad who loved to forget to eat.
Even now, sat. in the clinic desk when she should be paying attention to the vial in her hand as she cooked medicine to sell, instead she had the vial in one hand and a fresh strawberry in the other at her lips. It was fresh despite it being the beginning of summer, just the right amount of sweet and juicy that made her stomp her feet with excitement and completely lose track of where she was and what she was supposed to be doing.
When the door burst open, she couldn't help but yelp, loosening her grip on the medicine and watching it shatter against the floor.
"No no no! What do I do? Harvey is gonna be so mad at me!"
Maru instantly starts to calculate the cost of all those ingredients and the difficulty of gaining of them. She looks up at Ethan with tears in her eyes as her ears pick up a whisper.
"H…Harvey will understand. It's okay."
IT was the first time Maru ever heard the farm speak to anyone, but he chose her. Maru didnt get a chance to reply before Harvey rushed in from the examination rooms.
"What happened? Are you okay Maru?"
"I…I dropped a vial, I'm so sorry doctor Harvey I just-"
Harvey waved her off as he grabbed the broom and cleaning salts to absorb the liquid.
"I'm just glad you're okay. Accidents happen all the time."
Harvey's calm tone with each word calmed Maru down. Facing the farmer again she could see a big smile on his face, eyes squinted with smile wrinkles at the ends. The smile was almost cute enough to hide the curl of hair that popped from the top of his head.
almost
In that moment when Maru quietly inspected the farmer, what she saw as a coil of hair leaving the pack quickly crystallized in her eyes.
That's not hair
That's an antenna.
Maru sat outside her home with her telescope once more, watching with wide, keen eyes. She had missed the saucer the first time but not again. Looking up at the stars any of them could be that saucer in disguise, just waiting to pick up or drop off someone else.
I could always ask-
NO, I can't ask that. What could happen if he knew that I knew?
Maru tried to imagine all the things that could happen to her but with Ethan as the antagonist was hard to truly believe. Ethan was far too sweet and awkward to even consider hurting anyone in town. He continued to give to everyone around and he had even begun fixing up the community center, warning others of the rats inside and to let him work. They had danced together during the Flower Dance and he had been so gentlemanly, grabbing her a drink and keeping plenty space between them; though it made no difference to her dad.
Maybe I dreamed the antenna, maybe he just has a unique hair texture…
Even to herself that excuse wasn't believable to herself.
The sounds of footsteps coming from the direction of the caves brough Maru back to her senses. While she had been looking up she had not been processing anything in her eyes.
Lifting her head to see the man/possible alien himself running from the mines, slowing down to a walk as he headed straight towards her.
Maybe I can convince him to tell me himself.
"Hey Dib!" Maru called out before she could second guess her decision.
He walked up to her with a friendly wave before pulling out his board.
"What are you up to?" His communication board read.
"Star gazing! Wanna take a look?"
Dib looked excited to take a turn with her telescope. When he looked through the glass, his face lit up with a smile so wide his teeth showed. That gentle smile made her face flush.
"What do you see out there?"
It takes a moment for him to respond, but he once again uses his voice.
"A beautiful planet…"
His eyes crinkled with a smile that reached from ear to ear. As if he were staring at home.
"By the time we get to visit any of those stars, they'll be long gone. That's the trouble with being human, huh?"
Maru can see the hesitation on his face as she says this, a noise trying to lift from his throat that is below a whisper. AS much as she wanted to convince him to reveal his secret to her, she didn't want it to be at his expense.
"Come on, let me show you a binary star map."
She walks away to her desk with the sound of his footsteps close behind.
Another time.
I can't believe MarILDA is off to space…but at least dad seems to like Dib.
Maru took a walk through the mountains, heading down the path towards Outer Farms. From her position she could see the crops in their sectioned off rows and a bloom of trees producing apples. The sparks of torches surrounding the fields and the gentle mooing of cows as they began to go to sleep.
Outer Farms was a beautiful sight to take in from above. It was no wonder Dib wanted to come back to his grandfather's farm.
"Maru?"
The whisper of Dib's voice startled her. Turning around Dib came from the mountains himself with pockets full of ore and gemstones. Maru was about to excuse herself before she saw the soaking in the abdomen of his overalls.
She took note of his labored breathing, the sweat beading down his face and the trails of brown that dripped down his neck. A teal-green lay underneath the gauze of makeup. Cornrows were frazzled and two long strands stuck up from the top of his head.
Dib fainted right in front of her, dropping everything from his pockets, including a fresh bouquet.
Maru acted on instinct, grabbing him by the strap and throwing his arm over her shoulder down the mountain to the farm. With each step more makeup sweated off his face and arms, his breathing getting quieter in a worrysome way. Maru ignored it all to make it to the farmhouse and remove his clothes.
Maru ignored the way his injury bled a navy blue, or the way his chest expanded much further than a human could breath in. She ignored all these alien signs to clean the wound and wrap it in gauze and bandages. Deep in the back of her mind, she didn't care that he was an alien, she just wanted him to make it to the next day.
Dib brought too much joy and restoration to Pelican Town to die, he had changed the lives of so many villagers and become her best friend. He helped with her projects and brought her gifts. He made her happy and she wanted nothing more than to see his eyes open again.
She could do nothing else but wait with him as his head laid in her lap and he slept the night away. She brushed the baby hairs from his forehead before a thought raided her mind.
Taking his hair down from his rows into the fluffy afro and antennas that sprouted from his scalp, she did nothing but redid the rows in her own gentle hands. Methodical and calming. It allowed her time to think.
I was right…but I don't feel good from it. This isn't how I wanted him to show himself to me.
I wonder if he will leave, or try to stay far from me.
Braiding the hair in front of her helped her not to spiral. Seeing his calm, sleeping faces made her heart skip a beat without any rational explanation beyond the fact that she had begun to like the farmer.
All night she sat with him, checking his wounds that miraculously healed by itself by the time daylight broke. Maru was on the edge of sleep when she felt Dib lift his head from her lap.
He looked around in confusion before turning to see her at the head of his bed. Looking down at his hands without their gloves and wiping at his face to see his makeup was long gone, the panic in his eyes returned as he patted down his pockets and his bag. Maru gently hushed him to point at his nightstand where the bouquet laid.
"Don't worry it's still fresh for…whoever."
Dib looked between the flowers to Maru and back again. He could see how tired she was from staying to care for him, though the smile on her lips made it seem as if she didn't mind it.
Grabbing the flowers and turning to her with them in hand, roses and sunflowers mixed with wisps of supplementary flowers.
"This, isn't how I wanted to do this but I can't think of a better time."
Dib spoke aloud, the most he's ever said to her verbally.
"I wanted to tell you about my family and…how I got here. I didn't mean to scare you with…this." He only gestured to himself when he said that. Maru smiled at his meek face.
"I already knew."
Maru stood to take the flowers and smell them. Looking up at Dib through the flowers with shining brown eyes and and hints of her smiling peeking through.
"I never minded. You're still you. I always like you."
Dib was frozen as she came closer to him, wrapping one arm around his neck to pull him closer and kiss him. No matter how alien he may have been, this felt very human to her. He had always felt human to her, his anxiety, his frantic writing and small smile. Even the anxious way he help her waist and not her hips as he gentle returned the kiss.
Yeah, he's perfect as he is.