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Fall
When Maru agreed to marry the farmer, she hadn't known what to really expect of life on the farm. She just knew that the farmer made her heart pound like she'd been shocked by electrical wiring, and that the farmer would always be there to hand her a wrench if she needed it.
As soon as she moved in, Maru found projects. It was fall and the farmer was concentrating on her crops and not the leak in the kitchen roof. When Maru pointed it out, the farmer wiped some dirt off her cheek and said, "Sure, I was going to ask your mom about that once I got these pumpkins in the ground."
Wiping the dirt off had just smeared it. Another drop fell from the ceiling into the bucket between them.
"It's not that bad, right?" the farmer asked, and Maru kissed her.
"I'll take care of it," she promised, and the next sunny day she was up on the roof with her mom giving her instructions from below. She could see the farmer's tanned forearms as she drove the hoe into the ground, planting another row. Now Maru understood why she'd hardly seen her during the first week of the season. The farmer worked from sunup to long past sundown, slipping into bed smelling of earth and (thankfully) soap.
"Do you see where the slats slipped?" Robin yelled up, but Maru was already pulling up the bad shingles.
*
Winter
Maru thought things might slow down a bit once the harvest was in and winter came around. They'd been talking about adopting kids, maybe, but the farmer wanted to wait until they were a little more established. She spent the winter preparing for spring, repairing sprinklers and running errands, climbing deep into the mines and bringing home weird treasures for the museum. She always had a pretty quartz for Maru to examine, and one day she brought home what she swore was a real dinosaur egg.
Maru poked the egg suspiciously. It was much larger than any bird's egg she'd ever seen, with spots. The farmer was trying uselessly to clean the sand out of the bottom of her bag and telling Maru about the adventure.
"Dinosaurs that breathed fire?"
Maru had read about a lot of different places in the Ferngill Republic, but she'd never heard of fire-breathing desert lizards.
The farmer cupped her hands around the egg protectively. "I'm going to incubate it and see what happens," she announced.
The lizard that came out of the egg was quite a bit smaller than the one that the farmer had described, but it was unlike any lizard that Maru had ever seen. She invited her dad over to see it and they took some notes, photos, and measurements.
"We can probably get a paper out of this," Demetrius said. The little beastie crawled up into his lap and settled, much like a cat. Maru took a picture of that to show her mom.
*
Spring
In the spring, the farmer planted cauliflower, and then she took a break. Together, she and Maru organized all the chests in their little storeroom, and then, as a surprise, the farmer got Robin to add on a new room to be a nursery. Maru's hands glided smoothly over the side of the crib. It was perfect -- exactly like the one her mom had built for her when she was a baby.
They filled out the adoption application and sent it off, and so when Maru got a letter in the mail a week later, that's what she expected it to be. Break or not, the farmer was usually up at dawn feeding the animals or chasing down errands for the Pelican Town residents, and she'd often leave the mail on the counter for Maru to look at when she woke, but she slid back into bed with Maru holding the little blue envelope.
"It's for you!" the farmer said.
Blue would be a strange color for official government paperwork, Maru thought. Plus, there was a forwarding note slapped on there -- the letter had been addressed to her old address at her parents' house. She opened the envelope carefully.
It was from MarILDA. Maru was astonished, but also pride welled up inside her. Her robot could write letters! She was brilliant!
"What does it say?" the farmer asked, and Maru read it out. MarILDA had traveled across the globe looking for other artificial intelligences. She'd found a few in far off countries, but she'd written to Maru because she'd met someone at Zuzu University looking for a grad student to help with A.I. research. MarILDA was proof of concept, of course, and so she had accepted on Maru's behalf. She had a couple of weeks before the professor expected her.
"That's a very impetuous robot," the farmer murmured, and Maru's heart sank. How could she go now? But how could she not go?
"Honey," she began, trying to form an argument, almost afraid of arguing, but the farmer leaned over and traced Maru's name on the envelope, pressing her hip against Maru's.
"Who taught it how to write?" she wondered. Then, she said, "The bus starts running around ten usually if Pam's having a good day. Do you want to go see what it's like in the city?"
"But the farm--" Maru protested, but only weakly.
"I'm not going to keep you from your dream, not when I get to live mine every day," the farmer said, and kissed her.
They had to scramble to make the 10am after the kiss that turned into a little more, but it was worth it.
*
Summer
Maru loved the farm in summer the most. Sunflowers greeted her as she walked home from the bus stop, each almost as tall as her. She couldn't even see the farmer over the stalks of corn, but she knew she was out there, working hard. She could hear the farmer singing tunelessly, in fact, and she thought it was one of the songs from the demo that Sam's band had put out. It made her smile.
She had two full weeks of break ahead, after a whirlwind spring semester, and she was looking forward to spending it in peace, on the farm. Of course, there was always the chance that the adoption agency would end up calling and then they'd never have a moment of peace again, but that was an excitement she was ready for too.
The cat meowed and came to rub against her ankles like she hadn't seen Maru in months, which was a gross exaggeration. Maru set her bag down and picked up the cat, wandering into the field but being careful to stick to the paths the farmer had carefully laid in the soil. The cat had wriggled down and away to chase some little creatures in the trees before Maru found her wife scattering red cabbage seeds into the dirt. She was wearing the straw hat she'd finally beat Abigail for at that year's Egg Festival.
"Maru!" the farmer said, opening her arms, and Maru ran to meet her. Despite her boots sinking into the mud and the acrid stench of fertilizer, Maru was happy.
"I made rhubarb pie," the farmer said. "Should be just about cool. How were finals?"
The sun was beating down on them, but Maru hardly cared. Still, the farmer took off her hat and placed it on Maru's head as they stepped back onto the little dirt path back towards the house. They swung their hands together as Maru told her about the last few whirlwind days. She had a little studio apartment in the city now, where she stayed during the week when school and work were especially busy, so there was a lot to catch up on.
"What about you?" Maru asked finally, feeling like she was monopolizing the conversation. The farmer smiled.
"Oh, nothing much happens around here," she said. "Your dad sent me some seashells in the mail. I caught a really weird fish in the mine. The usual."
"Tell me all about it," Maru said, as they went inside together, and Maru screamed in surprise when her friends and family all emerged from behind the furniture, shouting, "Happy birthday!" The farmhouse was bedecked with streamers, and there was a pie in pride of place on the table. Maru had to laugh to herself that her friends were all inside but the farmer had been out doing work. That was just like her wife, but Maru couldn't fault her -- she knew what it was like to have a passion.
"Welcome home," the farmer said. "We're glad to have you back."
Maru hadn't known it was possible to be so happy. She only hoped -- she knew -- that next year would be even better.