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Pam was bored out of her mind.
Don’t get her wrong – having her job back as a bus driver was a privilege she wasn’t stupid enough to complain about. It surely beat loafing about in her trailer, killing time drinking awful Joja-brand beer, or bumming about the saloon as soon as it opened each day. But standing there at the stop all day in Pelican Town or sitting in the bus while her passengers wandered about the Calico Desert wasn’t exactly a riveting experience. She only got to go to the desert if someone actually purchased a ticket, of course, but the blazing sun and wind-swept dunes were enough for her to be incredibly grateful that the AC got repaired along with the rest of the bus.
Well, she thought as she shifted in her seat and bumped said AC down a few degrees, most of her trips of late had been owed to one individual in particular.
That kid from Standard Farm was a strange one. With his brown hair and eyes, he certainly took after his dear old grandpa – Yoba rest his weary soul – had he been a good 60 years younger. He’d swept into town at the beginning of spring, spry and full of enthusiasm in a way she couldn’t decide was more annoying or endearing. Endearing seemed to be the general consensus, given how he’d managed to befriend nearly the whole valley (and beyond) since he’d arrived.
She snorted wryly to herself.
Oh, yes, the young man had half the eligible singles in town beaming like the sun if he so much as stopped to talk to them. Penny was no different. Her baby girl had taken to humming as she flitted about the trailer and sighing softly to herself as she read that sappy romance novel Elliott had finally gotten around to publishing. She’d been meaning to sit her down and have a chat about how dangerous that behavior could become if wild and unthinking passion was involved – see: her own crummy life choices – but, well, she’d been a bit too busy as of late.
Case and point, she had been sitting in the same spot for literal hours now. The young farmer had already been waiting for her at the bus stop before she arrived, bouncing on his heels with bright eyes and an even brighter grin, so there had been no downtime between her clocking in and getting to the desert this morning.
And ‘morning’ had been so long ago at this point.
Her snacks had been depleted to dangerous levels, sandwich and chips eaten for a long-passed lunch, and she knew better than to indulge when she was on the clock and would need to drive. Plus, she’d even managed to finish the dry and dull book her daughter had lent her. It had been better than that one time she’d been forced to skim one of Demetrius’s awful papers on regional mushroom growth locations and rates. She had not been able to look at a morel mushroom the same since.
At least she had the radio to keep her company, even if the newfangled pop crap sometimes gave her a headache. And don’t get her started on the rapping and beat boxing trend people seemed to want to add to every genre. Drop the auto tune and bring back the acoustic guitar! She almost was tempted to drive to the radio station herself and give them a piece of her mind from how often the mindless, generic love songs kept being played.
Still no sign of her number one passenger, though, so she was required by contract to wait right where she was unless otherwise specified. He was a good customer, too. Beyond shelling out an ever-increasing amount of gold just to get to this sand-encrusted desert, he always called her cell if he had to ‘pop a warp totem’ to return to his farm for some reason or another. Granted, that was kind of the norm for folks out here in the boonies, anyway.
Always calling and talking and meddling-
She could feel herself losing her train of thought. Weird. That usually only happened if she was 2 or 6 bottles deep, depending on the night. She stifled a yawn with the back of her hand, the other resting limply on the steering wheel. Sunset was fast approaching and she could feel the weariness of the day setting in. That, or it was her old bones protesting being stuck in one place for so long on a regular basis.
Reaching down, Pam snagged an energy tonic from her duffle bag. She glanced somewhat guiltily at the sheer number of plastic wrappers that came tumbling out with the white bottle, but shrugged and swiftly opened the red top to take a huge swig.
The taste left something to be desired and she had to suppress a shudder as the liquid slithered down into her stomach. It was a little bit like taking a shot of neat tequila. Almost. Kind of. Except the warmth in her belly was more of a snapping from electric eels that wriggled and made her a little twitchy for a few moments before slowly dissipating.
She sighed heavily as she put the top back on the bottle and tossed it in the vague direction of her duffle. It was turning out to be yet another long day. She should get the kid to buy her a few rounds at the saloon next time he stopped by for the amount of times he’d kept her out here past the time most sane people with be tucked all cozy and warm in their beds. The thought made Pam smirk. He’d likely do it just to say ‘thank you’ or ‘sorry’ and she wasn’t particularly bothered which one caused the event to happen. Free booze was free booze.
Resolved, she settled back into her chair and got comfortable, ready for what was becoming a customarily long vigil.
(Vigil, because she knew what her number one passenger always came here to do.)
Her gaze shifted to her right, across the sweltering landscape, to the tiny oasis that she knew existed somewhere to the north and the cave that was hidden in the cliffs beyond it. Filled with vicious monsters unlike anything in the mountain mine to the north of Pelican Town.
Mummies that rose from the ground again and again, lashing out with decaying hands that couldn’t be severed even with the hardest steel. Flying serpents whose cries could haunt your nightmares for years and who would dog your footsteps for entire floors. Vivid purple slimes who grew so large they burst into a swarm of smaller but no less dangerous offspring when they were harmed. Fire-breathing lizards and iridium-furred bats that patrolled lush areas with violent territorialism.
Pam wasn’t particularly cowardly, but she also wasn’t an idiot with a death wish. She knew that there was a high chance that one day she was to head to that cave and find the stupid kid bleeding out in the sand. Hell, she’d had to drag his sorry hide home several times already! Turnabout was fair play, she conceded when it occurred to her a moment later, seeing as he’d helped Gus carry her back to her trailer his own fair share after she’d had one too many.
But that had been before the bus was back up and running! She was doing better now!
Whatever. It was no skin off her nose if the punk didn’t show up again tonight. She’d still wait as long as possible for him to show up, of course, but that’s because she was so nice and thoughtful and bound by law.
She tore her gaze away from the distant, shimmering locations and her mind from a myriad of descending possibilities and leaned back once more, shutting her eyes to block out the sun that had begun to shine behind her but was no less bright than it had been all day – even with tinted windows! She doubted she’d actually get a nap in seeing as she’d just chugged some energy tonic, but it couldn’t hurt to try. The drive back was gonna be hard enough without having strained eyes.
It would only be for a few minutes, anyway.
---------
There was something tapping on her window.
Pam startled awake, nearly falling from her driver’s chair in the process as she flailed and tried to make sense of her sudden thrusting back into consciousness. It was dark now – passed dark, actually, and the lack of visibility surely didn’t help her regain her bearings. Still, she hadn’t gotten to her age by being a hysterical ninny.
“Dangnabbit!” she growled, glaring out her window at the shadowy figure she was able to just barely make out against the gloom, “Haven’t you heard about not waking somebody up when they’re napping?”
“Sorry,” said a familiar voice, hoarse and dry with sand and Yoba knew what else, “I just wanted to see if you’d be able to drive us back to town? I have an extra totem on me you can use if not.”
Her number one passenger had finally returned.
She snorted, sitting up straighter in her seat and trying to regain a little bit of her dignity. “I can do my job. I just needed a little cat nap, you know, after sittin’ here waiting for you all day. Besides, I don’t wanna be exposed to whatever dark magic you’re using all the time with those totems when I have a perfectly good bus to drive!”
The kid chuckled at that, though it was more of a wheeze than anything. “Hardwood, honey, and fiber isn’t exactly a recipe for nefarious deeds.”
“Don’t care. It ain’t natural and I don’t want it anywhere near me,” she said, adding a quick “Or Penny!” when the young man rolled his eyes and chuckled again before launching into a bit of a coughing fit.
“You gonna let me in?” he asked, a fist covering his mouth, staring up at her with watery brown eyes.
Pam grumbled under her breath but still she opened the door for him. She looked the young man over when he stumbled up the steps with uncharacteristically clumsy feet, frowning at the dark splotches that littered his body and the various slashes on his clothes. He also looked in desperate need of a shower, a meal, and a bed as soon as possible. Especially with how he flopped down in the seat nearest to the door.
“You doin’ alright there, kid? I haven’t seen you this roughed up in a while.” Her frown deepened when he shrugged noncommittally. It wasn’t any of her business or even her responsibility to look after him but, well. You know how it goes.
“Need me to drop you off with Harvey?” she offered, tone softened slightly with genuine concern.
The young farmer looked up at her in surprise, which she found a little offensive. She was a good person!
“Nah,” he declined after a moment, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly, “It’s not that bad. A good night’s sleep will see me back in shape for tomorrow’s farm work. Besides, it’s pretty late already. I wouldn’t want to wake him for something like this.”
“Kid,” she said, a little disbelieving, “He’s a doctor! This kind of thing is exactly what he’s meant to be helpin’ people with.”
He just shook his head, waving her off. “I’ll take it easy for a few days before trying again. I need to gather more stone for staircases, anyway. And silver for bombs. But I’m so close to my goal – I can almost taste it!”
Ah, yes, the ever mysterious ‘goal’. He never elaborated when she asked about it, merely stating that it was important that he reach a certain floor of the mines there in the desert. It seemed silly to her to have such a thing be what drove him to throw himself over and over at the mercy of monsters and luck, but she couldn’t exactly tell him what to do. It was his life and she was surely not his mama.
Pam shook her head and, with one more pointed look, turned back to the steering wheel and closed the doors. “Just don’t bleed out on my seats,” she said, turning the key to start the engine up again, “Your grandpa would be disappointed if that’s how his bloodline were to end.”
If his meek little “Yes ma’am” made her smile, no it didn’t.
Pam thought for sure he would fall asleep the minute they were on the road, but he did not. This time, at least. Waking him up was kind of a fun endeavor when he was this busted up. Hm, maybe ‘fun’ wasn’t the right word. Intense? It usually involved her throwing a bottle or two at him until he jerked awake, sword drawn, with a fierce scowl on his face that made her chuckle nervously. It pained her a little that someone so young could have such hair triggered reactions to coming awake, but he was doing it to himself.
She glanced back at her only passenger to see him watching her, a curious expression on his face. A street light whizzed by them as she got them headed back toward home, the light of it catching his eyes and almost making them glow amber. She looked back at the road, scowling.
Amber-eyed men were bad news. She thanked Yoba every day that Penny had gotten her Granny’s gorgeous emerald greens because she wasn’t sure she could’ve handled seeing his eyes every day. Especially when Penny’s eyes were often squinted with disappointment or concern – though that only helped deepen the divide between her and her bastard of a father.
It had gotten better, lately. With the bus back up and the funds to keep it so coming from certain individuals that may or may not be filthy and reek of gunpowder at the moment, Pam hadn’t been able to bum about all day. Her legs ached some days from the walking or the weather and the hours were sometimes long and tedious, but, well, it was like she always said: going all around the valley, meeting people, and listening to the radio was all she ever needed to be content in life.
“Mrs. Pam?” came a voice behind her, jolting her out of her memories.
“Just Pam, kid,” she replied, a little short because frankly she was still a bit spooked from his sudden appearance earlier.
“Pam, then.”
“Yeah?”
He opened his mouth but paused, shifting in his seat. “Don’t be mad,” he said, which only meant good things were coming, “I’m just curious. No judgement, of course, and you don’t have to answer me. In fact, I’m almost certain you won’t.”
“What.” she said flatly, voice tense with her rising annoyance.
“I just…” He stopped to clear his throat. She looked up into her mirror again to check on him and their eyes met as he asked sincerely, “Why do you treat Penny the way you do?”
“Excuse me?!” she exploded, only just barely remembering to keep her eyes on the road and not to whip around to gawk at her passenger. Bad manners or not, it wouldn’t be right to get them both killed just from an off-color accusation (that she was honestly already accustomed to hearing around town). She did get to hear the leather squeak as he sank lower in his seat, though, so that was something. But still, she wasn’t gonna take it laying down. “What kinda question is that? How dare you! I oughta-“
“Pam, please!” the little punk yelled over her, “I didn’t mean to upset you. I just, I know you love her more than anything–”
“You’re damn right I do!”
“– so I can’t understand why you put her through so much pain!”
“I ain’t painin’ nobody!” she declared, hands fisted on the steering wheel, words coming out fast and thoughtlessly in the thickening drawl of her ire, “And if anybody’s painin’ my Penny it’s you! You keep her up half the night worrying over you with all your adventuring and fighting and just general being a good, honest man she’s done started mooning ov-”
“… What?”
“Oh, hell,” she grumbled under her breath, face flushing further, “You forget that now, you hear? You forget it.” She paused to consider something, then continued. “Except for the fact that Penny cares about you and it won’t do for you to be running into danger all the time.”
“She cares about me?” he asked, sounding mystified.
Was this kid for real? Half the town wanted to date him and the other half wanted to adopt him, and he was this shell shocked by the fact the sweetest, kindest, most intelligent beauty in Stardew Valley had ever known could find it in her endlessly compassionate heart to care about him? He was seriously lucky that Penny had enough brains for the both of them if that was the case.
If he actually was sweet on her back, that is.
There was a difference between dating someone because you liked them for them, and dating someone simply because you knew they liked you.
The young man had apparently had enough time to get over this world-shattering revelation because he was back to staring at her. It was seriously disconcerting – especially with him being filthy and covered in dried blood and who knows what else.
“Pam,” he said, leaning forward in his seat, elbows resting on his knees with his hands clasped loosely. “Back to my question. Why do you scold Penny so much when she’s just trying to help you? She’s so worried about you all the time. I mean, half our conversations start with her telling me that you passed out at the saloon and or yelled at her for cleaning the trailer or whatever else. You don’t–”
“That-That’s enough,” she sputtered, mouth set firmly in embarrassment, “That’s enough out of you. You ain’t my doctor so you don’t get to talk to me about my health. I’m healthy as can be! And Penny shouldn’t be airing our dirty laundry to some-”
“That’s not the only reason she’s concerned!” the kid exclaimed, scowling up the aisle at her, “And you know it. It’s because you don’t care about yourself that she’s so anxious all the time. Drinking until you pass out isn’t normal – I’ve had to pick up you and Shane in a pile of bottles more times than I can count. I’ve seen the toll it takes on you the next day, not to mention the night of. He said he only does it because it’s the only way he doesn’t feel so small and worthless, and that he doesn’t feel strong enough to take control of his life without it –”
“Shane’s the only one that understands, then,” she grumbled, feeling petulant even as the horror of such statements began to creep up on her. Shane was dealing with those sorts of thoughts and feelings as well? And at such a young age, too.
He jumped up suddenly, startling her, the wheel twitching in her hand and making them swerve off the road slightly. His hand slapped down on the back of her chair which did nothing to help her concentration, bracing himself so he wouldn’t topple to the floor with the rough bumping as wheels made for pavement ran on grass and dirt and rocks.
“Sit down, you crazy idiot!” she shouted, quickly moving to correct them back onto the road, adrenaline making her movements a bit too jerky.
“It’s illegal for any passengers to be up and moving on this thing while the vehicle is in motion, anyway. This ain’t some city bus with rails to hold onto – it’s a charter bus!”
“I know that!” he snapped back, glowering at her fiercely. He did let go and step back to sit in the first seat once they were back on the smooth ride of the road, hands balled into fists now as his whole body seemed to quiver. That alone made her pause in resuming her scolding. Why was he so damn upset?
There was a moment of silence as they both struggled to collect themselves, tense and bristling but also tinged with no small amount of relief at still being alive.
She didn’t quite know what to make of how things had turned out. It was supposed it be just a normal, if a little late, day on the job. Yet here she was, heart racing with adrenaline from fear and indignation. All because some little punk wanted to rail on her for how she and her daughter did things in their own home!
Then the young man in question took a deep, steadying breath, then pinned her with a serious stare. It made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up so she quickly focused solely on the road ahead of them. They were blessedly nearly back to the Pelican Town stop and the two of them could put this whole ride behind them where it belonged.
Yoba, she needed a drink.
“I’m only telling you this because it might help you,” he said, tone so firm it made her instinctively straighten in her seat, “But this doesn’t leave this bus. Can I trust you with that?”
“You can,” she replied, a bit hesitant and understandably shaken from the events of the last few minutes, “But what could be so serious that you’re bein’ so dramatic for? It ain’t like somebody died recently or anything.”
“Shane nearly did.”
Her blood froze. “What?”
“Where do I even start?” He sighed, rubbing a hand down his face, looking more haggard that he had all evening. “A couple of weeks ago, I went to the Cindersnap Forest at around 6 in the evening to collect some forage. Shane was lying face down at the edge of the cliffs, surrounded by beer as per usual. He told me that he was so miserable and asked me why he shouldn't just roll off the cliff.”
He paused when she made a choked noise, nodding to her in sympathy.
“I told him he needed to be around for Jas because she loves and needs him in her life, and he started losing it. He passed out soon after I had to take him to Harvey to get treatment. Harvey pumped his stomach but was more concerned about Shane's mental health – for obvious reasons.” He swallowed before continuing. “He told me that he was going to recommend Shane to a counselor in Zuzu City, and the next day Shane came and told me he was taking Harvey up on the offer and was going to start seeing someone for his condition.”
Pam was at a loss for words. How do you respond to something like this? “I’d wondered why he wasn’t coming to the saloon as often,” she offered weakly.
“He’s trying to detox right now,” he explained, snorting when she grimaced, “Sparkling water if he gets a craving, which is often. Makes him belch super loud, though, which Jas finds hysterical. Marine, less so, but she tolerates it and even offered to introduce him to your workout group.”
“Wait, what? Really?”
“Yup! Not sure if he’ll go alone so I might join in, too. I know Harvey sometimes attends too,” he said, chuckling a little, “But, in general, I think Shane and his family are all starting to feel a bit more hopeful for the future.”
“That sounds nice,” she said, sniffing harshly because she wasn’t tearing up, no sir. “Thanks for trustin’ me with it. I won’t go spreadin’ it, so don’t worry about that none. But I still don’t understand what it has to do with me.” Glancing in the mirror, she saw the kind of look he sent her way and it made her flush guiltily.
“Don’t you?” he asked softly, his eyes soft and his tone sincere. “Penny needs you just as much as Jas needs Shane, you know.”
“Penny’s grown up,” Pam said, continuing to sniff harshly, “She needs me about as much as anyone else does.” A hand reached up to offer her a dubious looking cloth that looked older than her Pappy, so she waved him off and just rubbed at her eyes a bit to clear them. Once done, she saw the stop coming up and couldn’t help the bubble of pure joy that bloomed in her chest at the sight.
Then came a soft whisper of “You’re needed, Pam, more than you know.” and her sniffling increased even more.
They were headed the wrong way on the road for her to stop immediately, of course, she used the little loop just before town that to turn them around. Pulling up to the stop and swinging open the doors, she breathed out a sigh of relief and settled back into her seat a bit, pressing both of her palms against her eyes to try and dissuade the tears that threatened to fall.
Yoba, what was wrong with her? She wasn’t normally this emotional!
“Guess this is where I get off,” the kid said, attempting to joke she supposed. She could only grunt in response. He patted the back of her seat gently as he stood, and when she looked up at him, he smiled. “Thanks for driving me today. And not completely taking my head off. And, well, for everything else, too.”
“You owe me a round at the saloon,” she grumbled, wincing before she added, “And a new battery for my remote.”
He nodded to her, squeezed her shoulder, and exited the bus. She watched him go, body aching from the long day and chest aching for a completely different reason.
Maybe she should ask Shane where he got his sparkling water.