7.5 Harvest Festival

Autumn 1996, Founder's park

Around 9pm, most of the visitors had left. Linda noticed how much food they still had left on their stand. They would have to pack it away, so it would stay fresh when the administration would donate it to the local food bank.

Linda started already wrapping them up, then Vivian interrupted her: "Aiko will come and help me clean up. Take a break Linda, you look tired."

Linda felt grateful to the old woman. She really was tired.

"Thank you", she said, smiling.

Linda found a left over jug of hand made lemonade and poured herself a glass, then sat down at one of the tables.

It was refreshing. She let the day pass again in her mind. There had been a lot of people, and the festival had been a lot of success. And they sold so much of their crops, that most likely the mayor would like to repeat it next year.

It had been fun. And she finally caught a glimpse of Mae's new boyfriend. He definitely was different than the ones Mae used to date when she was in high school. Mae always had been a wild child.

She was still cocky and cheerful as before, but had she changed, after all?

Linda had noticed that Mae had been different when she returned over a year ago for their mother's funeral. And Mae absolutely hadn't want to go back anymore. It took Linda some time to convince her to finish the chef academy. But Linda always thought that it was because their mother died.

Now Mae looked like she was back to her old self, though still something changed.

Maybe her little sister only grew up.

Linda just wished for Mae to be happy.