Chapter Text
Spring 1.
Today is going to be a good day for Ella.
She woke up extra early, had time to shower and eat breakfast, and still had plenty of time remaining to navigate the foot traffic on her way to the office. Her small apartment felt extra quiet this morning; the air was still as she passed her roommate's door, the usually blaring TV seemingly muted. She takes this as a sign of good luck and makes her way towards the apartment's entryway. The small area was adorned with an overloaded shoe rack, a dusty mirror, and a key hook that looked like it was going to rip out of the paper-thin wall at any second.
Ella takes a moment to ensure that her outfit is straight, staring into the mirror as she pulls her black pencil skirt tight and buttons the top button on her white blouse before slipping on her barely-worn heels. She has to look her best today; she is certain that she's going to be getting the promotion she has been working towards for the past three years.
Today is going to be a good day.
The position once seemed like such a faraway goal, but over the years, the role of Assistant Director of District B9 Marketing Strategies steadily became closer to her grasp, and today, Ella knows she's going to take it. She, of course, doesn't just want the job for the fancy title; the pay raise is also sorely needed.
She deeply inhales as she grabs her keys off the overwhelmed key hook and slams the door behind herself as she exits the apartment, being sure to expertly wiggle the knob to assure the door shuts properly. The job opening itself was a bit of a surprise. Mary had some scandal with Gerald, some drama that Ella never really cared enough to learn. All she cares is her five-year plan, which she had made when she first started at the company, all of a sudden looked like a three-year plan, and by the way her life has been going lately, she really needs this win.
She makes her way down the oddly humid hallway and towards the elevator doors. The smell of musk and mold briefly overwhelms her senses; there must be another leak of some kind. She catches a glimpse of her reflection in the elevator doors as she approaches. She looks like such a successful businesswoman; her wavy brown hair is pulled into a tight braid that runs down the back of her head, and her perfectly done makeup complements her professional attire. Grandpa would be so proud if he could see her now.
If only the successful part were true, she thinks. She lets out a deep breath once more as she presses the down arrow; the elevator doors almost instantly ding open. Another sign of good luck.
She quickly pulls her headphones out of her bag and over her ears as she slips through the front door of the apartment building and onto the bustling streets of Zuzu city. The music playing through her ears seems to give an extra bounce to her step as she weaves her way through the shoulders on the sidewalk. All this work she's been doing will finally pay off once she gets this promotion; she'll finally be able to afford an apartment without roommates, not to mention she'll earn vacation days, and maybe if she's lucky, she'll be able to negotiate health insurance as well.
Today is going to be a good day.
She trades in the music from her headphones for the chatter of the lobby of her office building. A bulky security guard leans on the front desk, flirting with the blonde receptionist. Ella shuffles past them to the queue for the elevator, taking the space between two men in suits.
After a short but crowded elevator ride to her floor, Ella quickly walks to her cubicle to prepare for her day. She stashes her bag under the desk and settles into her chair. She then cracks her knuckles over her keyboard and begins the daily task of checking her calendar. First thing this morning: Performance Review with Jerry @ 8:15 AM. That's it.
Her heartbeat quickens as she glances at the clock on the monitor, 8:02. It's too early for her to go to Jerry's office, which is just down the hall. Her heart flutters more intensely, and the cereal she had for breakfast churns in her stomach. She looks around for something to calm herself down, catching a glimpse of the small Aloe Vera plant that occupies the corner of her desk as she does so. She settles deeper into her desk chair and slides the small potted plant closer to her. Inspecting the plant, she gently runs her fingers along the spikes; the feeling brings her a small amount of comfort.
She can't help but recall a time when she was young; her grandfather had been a farmer. He instilled a great respect for nature and a love for botany into Ella. When she was young, she desperately wanted to pursue this passion and go to school for botany, but in Zuzu city, you have to follow the money, and there's unfortunately no money in plants. So instead, she chose money; she went to school for marketing and ended up in one of the countless offices for the nation's leading company. It just doesn't help when that company is as heartless and cutthroat as Joja. Maybe if she doesn't get this promotion, she'll run away and start over.
She quickly shakes the thought out of her head and bends over to grab the water bottle from the bag she had just thrown under her desk. She was going to get the promotion. She had to. She was going to get the promotion and a new office, and when she retires in 40 years, then she can pursue her love of botany, maybe become a florist. She opens her water bottle with a soft 'pop' and gently pours a small amount into the plant that is still placed before her on her desk. The smell of the damp earth drifts up to her senses, and any anxiety that she had been feeling before vanishes.
Today is going to be a good day.
After straightening up her cubicle and busying herself, Ella glances one last time at the small clock on her computer monitor, 8:13. She takes one more deep breath before collecting herself and standing; she quickly darts down the hall to Jerry's office. The quicker she gets it started, the quicker it will be over with. Every step she took towards the heavy wooden door of Jerry's office was one step towards her future. A future she had been hungry for her whole life.
Today is going to be a good day.
Ella stands outside the imposing wooden door. She quickly glances down at her outfit and rubs her hand over the wrinkles that have formed on her skirt. She shakes her head as an attempt to shake out the anxiety and raises a fist to knock on the door.
"You may come in," Jerry's booming voice cut through the door before she was even done knocking.
Ella heaves open the door and enters the large office. Jerry gestures towards an open chair on the opposing side of his desk, and Ella takes a seat without a word. Her eyes can't help but dart towards the nameplate on the desk, 'Jerry Smith - Director of District D9 Marketing.' Ella's eyes gleam as she thinks about how she will have a similar plate in her office that she'll be upgraded to once she gets through this meeting.
"Good morning, Jerry! How are you doing today?" Ella brings as much enthusiasm to her voice as she can, maybe even a little too much.
"I'm alright, Ella, but there's no need or time for formalities. I have far too many of these performance reviews to get through today," Ella nods her head as Jerry quickly continues to speak, "I scheduled yours as the first one of the day because I know you are particularly excited and hoping for some good news. I know you've been here for 3 years now," he says as his dull eyes peek over the frames of his glasses to skim the computer monitor in front of him.
"You've been a wonderful asset to our team. In fact, it looks like several of your pitches over the past few years have been great successes," his eyes scan the screen as he looks over her file. Ella only grows more excited as he speaks, her heartbeat pounding through her ears as the older man continues.
"Three years, you've been with us. Three years must seem like such a long time to you," he turns his attention away from the computer and to Ella, fully looking at her for the first time this morning.
"Three years seem like forever for someone so young," he takes a breath and intertwines his hands before placing them on the table, "but unfortunately," Ella feels as if her heart stops, "Joja is looking for someone with a bit more experience to fill the role. Now this doesn't mean that Joja hasn't recognized how hard you've been working, that's why we as a company offer you this $50 gift card to use at any of our JojaMart locations!" His voice is so animated, Ella almost doesn't realize what he said until he slides her the plastic gift card, 'A Gift From Joja to You' in big blue letters on the front.
She looks up at the man before her, confused, "But all of the campaigns last quarter came directly from me, what do you mean I need more experience?" Her question was genuine, the confusion and disappointment evident both on her face and in her voice.
Jerry sighs and removes his glasses, "Look, Ella, you are just too young and don't have the years of experience under your belt needed to understand. There's nothing wrong with it, but you'll understand with time. Your performance review is overall very positive, you're on track to getting this job, but you just have to give it time," he quickly slaps on a big smile and continues, "I give it five years and you'll be in my office and I'll be on a yacht somewhere, we just gotta be patient! Keep up your amazing work, Ella." He nods towards the door as he finishes his speech, signaling the end of their meeting. As Ella stands to leave, he starts preparing for his next review.
Today was supposed to be a good day.
Ella's mind is completely blank as she shuffles towards her desk. The flimsy plastic card slips between her fingers and falls to the floor with a soft thud as she finds her seat at her cubicle. She sits at her desk staring blankly at her monitor for what could be a few seconds, but feels like forever. She's feeling so many emotions so rapidly, she can hardly handle it. Her brain is clouded with so much confusion, sadness, and anger- she knows that she's more than qualified for the position. She knows that Jerry knows it too; she had been the one behind every single campaign from last quarter alone, and Jerry had been the one to approve and sometimes refine each of those ideas with her. All those late nights she pulled, all the projects she took on, for what? She was the one who shouldered all of Darla's work when she passed away.
Ella's mind darts to Darla; she was the only person in this office who had a soul. She and Ella shared countless lunch breaks together, offering each other a small sense of companionship to help them get through their days. But after Darla got sick, she had to keep working. It's just too expensive in the city; she couldn't afford both her treatment and to live, so she just kept working. Joja didn't care that they were consuming the final months of a dying woman's time, and after Darla's eventual passing, it was Ella who Joja expected to take on all of Darla's projects on top of her own.
And Ella did it; she conquered the mountains of paperwork, she got to every meeting early, she always plastered a smile on her face when taking criticism for her hard work, but this apparently got her no further in her career. Hot tears had started to pool in Ella's eyes as she sat there reflecting on her time at Joja. If this forsaken company didn't even care when Darla died, what inclines Ella to believe they care about her at all, anyway? With that final thought and the tears now flowing freely, Ella darts down the hall, past Jerry's office, to the copy room, and she grabs an empty box before slipping back to her cubicle to begin packing.
She doesn't know what she is doing, but she knows she has to get away from Joja. She sets the empty box on the floor in front of her desk and begins to pack away her items. She's careful, gently placing her Aloe plant first, followed by the framed pictures. The first picture is a photo from her graduation, with one parent on either side of her smiling face. You could see the tension in her parents' eyes; despite their pride in their daughter's achievement, they were unable to set aside their differences that day and ended up in a screaming match just seconds after the photo had been taken. Ella shakes her head and sets the picture gently in the box before moving to the next frame. This one captures a moment from one of her childhood summers spent with her grandpa on the farm. She must've been about 7 in the picture, she stands next to her grandpa with a huge grin adorning her sunburned face, both of them were wearing somewhat comically large straw hats to shade from the hot summer sun, and laid out on the ground in front of them is the fruits of their labor: crates of melons, blueberries, and tomatoes. She can almost hear her grandpa's deep belly laughter as she gazes at the photo. This picture is a lot harder for her to pack away, but she knows she has to. As she places the picture in the box, the frame slips from her grasp, and the wood snaps apart, revealing a sealed envelope that had been hiding behind the image.
Ella's mind flashes to when her grandpa gave her the picture frame- it was the last time she had seen him before he passed away. She thought it was just a sweet gift, something for her to remember him by; she had no idea that there was more to it. Her grandpa's final words to her replay in her mind.
"For my very special granddaughter: I want you to have this. Now, listen close... There may come a day when you feel crushed by the burden of modern life... and your bright spirit may fade before a growing emptiness. When that happens, my dear, then you'll be ready for your true gift."
Grandpa's voice echoes in Ella's mind as she bends to pick up the envelope; one side is adorned with a red wax seal depicting a crow. The other side simply read, "For Ella," in her grandpa's familiar scrawl. Her hands shake as she breaks the seal and pulls out the contents. The letter reads:
"Dear Ella,
If you're reading this, you must be in dire need of a change.
The same thing happened to me, long ago. I'd lost sight of what mattered most in life... real connections with other people and nature. So I dropped everything and moved to the place I truly belong.
I've enclosed the deed to that place... my pride and joy: Crowe Farm. It's located in Stardew Valley, on the southern coast. It's the perfect place to start your new life.
This was my most precious gift of all, and now it's yours. I know you'll honor the family name, my dear. Good luck.
Love, Grandpa
P.S. If Lewis is still alive say hi to the old guy for me, will ya?"
Her body moves before she can think. In the blink of an eye, she loads all of her personal belongings into the box and begins searching on her company computer for a bus ticket. The next bus for Stardew Valley leaves at 4:30 PM today. Ella glances at the clock, 9:16 AM. One hour ago, she was in her meeting with Jerry, getting her dreams crushed, and now she is purchasing a bus ticket to the farm that she owns. 4:30 works perfectly.
She all but sprints out the front door of her office building, almost knocking over a pedestrian with the large box of her personal items that she carries. She doesn't care; she just barrels through the people on the sidewalk and towards her apartment. Just like she had done thousands of times before.
It didn't take long for Ella to pack up her belongings. In fact, she stands before the clerk at the bus station an hour early; the dusty clock above her head blinks '3:28' in glowing red numbers. She has 2 large suitcases, one on either side of her, as well as a backpack that weighs at least half as much as she does.
"I have a ticket for Stardew Valley for 4:30," Ella's voice snaps the young clerk's eyes away from his phone. "Okay. It's not 4:30 yet, you can have a seat," the clerk nods towards the mostly empty waiting area behind Ella.
"Oh, of course. Sorry," she hasn't even thought about actually waiting for the bus. She hauls her bags with her and drops her backpack in one of the faded blue plastic chairs, taking the seat next to it for herself.
She had already contacted the number on Pelican Town's website, much to her surprise, it was the mayor who answered her call. He was a man named Lewis, presumably the one that her grandpa spoke about in his letter. He was very friendly and sounded genuinely excited for Ella's arrival in town. He assured her that he would have someone waiting at the bus stop to show her the way to her new home, despite her attempts to tell him that she remembered the way.
Ella hadn't felt the way that she does now since she was a child, probably since the last summer she spent in Pelican Town. She spent all of her summers there as a child, up until around the time she started high school. It was her haven, her safe place away from her constantly feuding parents. After her parents separated when she was in 9th grade, she never really came back. She's not entirely sure why her mother never let her return, but it is something that she has spent a lot of time pondering. She never thought she would get the chance to return to her childhood haven, let alone that she would own it.
Her head has been buzzing with excitement for hours now, and it wasn't long before her wait for the bus was over.
Today is still going to be a good day.