Chapter 4

We walked towards the river-side farm and we instantly realised two things: it is certainly years more modern than our old farm (Note: it's still an old farm, just not as horrible as the one they were at) and the people there were in a better mental state than the place we left behind.

People here were a lot happier, they didn't seem to be any more pay than we are, but they certainly looked merrier than us in every way.

If we compare our old farm to this one, I would certainly have preferred to stay here instead of there. The houses didn't look like a wooden box that would break if someone pushed it hard enough, the houses looked like real houses built using bricks. The roofs look more stable and hard to break than ours. There even seems to be enough workers to have shifts instead of constantly working day and night.

The food is definitely better than ours, we could smell it from here! Not only that, but fish was probably served! If even the fish we ate on our way here is better than the food we get there, then they must have better food than we did.

Looking at the village is like looking towards heaven, we are so glad we left our old village behind!

We just stood there staring at the sight of peace, absorbing hope.

But all good things had to end, someone from the farm has finally noticed us. He called a few others and they moved towards us.

"Hey, whatcha doing 'ere?" A farmer asked.

"We came here by walking from a certain point of the river," I joked, but only the boy seemed to notice.

"You are terrible at joking," The kid whispered to me. I just looked at him, again, defeated.

"Is he your son?" The farmer interrupted.

I considered the question for a moment: if he seemed to be my son, we wouldn't run into any problems with people accusing me of abusing children, however, the kid looks nothing like me!

"No, of course not does he look anything like me?" The kid answered the farmer's question. "I'm the son of a friend of his but he died after getting crushed by a broken-down shed. James here is taking care of me now."

The kid just saved me from death, I can't believe he just beat me again.

"Oh, I'm sorry for asking," The farmer answered, looking sorry for what he just asked.

"It's not a problem," The kid answered. (He was even acting sad, he actually had tears coming out, he could've been a great actor if it wasn't for the crash.)

"Well, are you passing by or attempting to find a place to live?" The farmer asked. "Because we are currently low on workers, and we are having a problem with our stove..."

"No problem, I've fixed many stoves in my life!" I answered. It seems like wherever I go, there's a stove for me to fix.

"That's great, you just need to ask the boss if you can join," The farmer said cheerily.

We then followed the farmer to where the boss of this farm is.

"I guess we actually did escape from that devil, didn't we?" The kid joked.

"I guess your right," I answered, laughing.

"Here, this 'ere is where the boss lives, it's kinda on the small size, just make sure to not anger him, he is a very jolly gentleman, but if you mention anything about his wife he's gonna cut your head off!" The farmer said once we arrived at a small cabin.

We knew he was joking, but after what we experienced in chapter 2 (I just wanted to add a fourth wall break, it's for fun, I just wanted to try one), I don't think we want to hear a joke like that again.

*Knock* *Knock*

"Who's there?" a voice questioned from above.

We all looked up and saw a cheery face look down upon us.

"Boss, it's me, Farmer George," The farmer answered, moving his head upwards to see him.

"Farmer George who?" the boss asked back

"Farmer George and a few newbies who wanna join the farm," George answered back, slightly impatient.

"Oh, come one in!" the boss answered.

We followed George into the house and stood there, amazed at how different the place was from the old garbage dump we used to call home.

The house had two floors, we currently stood on the bottom floor. The room had a large table for four, a chair that wasn't made completely of wooden planks and a staircase. A STAIRCASE! We haven't seen anything but a rusty ladder to move upwards for an entire year. There was a fluffy, yellow, circle-shaped carpet in the middle of the wooden floor, as well as a gold-coloured gramophone.

"Hello, newcomers, whatcha doing in this part of the river?" The jolly boss asked.

I was about to answer when...

"We walked here from somewhere along the river," The kid answered the question.

"Give me a chance to speak!" I told him, annoyed.

"Sure," He answered back jeeringly. I highly doubted that promise.

"Why did you move down the river?" The boss asked us.

The kid acted sad again. I tried to keep the act going by pretending to calm him down.

"The truth is kinda painful for the kid," The farmer answered him for us, he then proceeded to walk towards the boss and whisper in his ear the story which the kid told him before. (The one about his father dying because of a shed.

"Oh, I'm sorry for asking," The boss told us, "I myself lost someone close to me, so I know how you feel."

"It's OK," The kid answered back.

"Now then, you two wanna work here don't you?" The boss instantly changed back to his cheery self as if what just happened never did.

"Yeah, I'm a handyman and have fixed stoves all my life, this boy here is usually my assistant, but occasionally, he is sent to be a message boy," I explained, though the story took the entire trip down the mountain for me to make up. The boy just stared at me, amazed that I had even made up anything.

"Oh, that's great, our stove has broken down for the first time, it probably means it's going to start breaking down a lot in the future." The boss answered. I twitched, I guess broken stoves just follow me wherever I go, don't they.

"Ok, thanks for joining us, uhh..." The boss said.

"James," I answered.

"And the kid?" The boss asked.

"He refused to give me his real name and just told everyone he met to call him 'kid' or 'boy'. Don't ask me why." I told him.

"Oh, OK, you two can join the farm on decent, monthly pay, deal?" He asked.

"Sure," We answered simultaneously.