MY PLACE s02:e17 - A Conflict of Interests

Never have I stormed my way into Nook’s Homes as quickly and as aggressively as I did this morning. I had a bone to pick with that racoon – he who sits upon his throne of deceit and trickery.

“Nooook!!” I exclaimed I opened the door like a scrawny Viking. He turned to face me with those tired eyes of his, now adorned with that oh so familiar look of judgement I was treated to so many times last year.

“Let me guess…” he sighed “the new resident, yes?”

“You’re gosh darn right!” I said, still unable to swear in the presence of cuddly animals “Their house is parked right in front of a bridge, which would have been annoying enough on its own, but you opted to put their house right on top of that flowerbed I’ve been curating!”

“So, what then? Hm? You’re ordering me to move them? They arrive tomorrow, Mayor, it is simply far too late. And besides, your power doesn’t extend that far. You may be the mayor of Place, but the businesses that operate here, such as myself, are free to do as they please. For the most part anyway…”

“Well” I scoffed “There’s no point in moving them now, the damage is done. I just wanna know why you put them there. I thought me and you could get along these days!”

Tom looked dangerously close to smashing his head against the wall. He had expected my arrival, which indicates to me that despite making amends earlier this year, we still have quite a way to go in forming a trusting relationship with one another. Ugh, that makes it sound like we’re married or something…

“Residents choose where they want to live, Mayor” he grumbled. “I have no say in it. when you moved here? Yes, yes, I did try and divert his attention to a much more suitable location, but the customer was insistent. I was just doing my job.”

I guess I should thank you for trying, huh?” I laughed sarcastically. “Great. Tomorrow morning, I’m gonna give this new guy a piece of my mind, I tell ya!”

I stopped to breathe for a moment. I know it seems a silly thing to get so angry about, but I had really tried to spruce up that particular section of the village with some new, out of town flowers. Seeing half of it dug up and thrown away was like a knife to the heart.

I sighed and turned back towards Tom, who had graciously waited for me to get over myself.
“Sorry for exploding like that” I mumbled - my ego still too proud to apologise louder.

“Think nothing of it, Mayor” Tom replied. “Just , neither you nor I can play god around here. We can’t decide where people want to live, and we can’t terraform the environment to our liking or anything ridiculous like that, hm?”

“Yeah, yeah…”

“Look, go easy on the new resident tomorrow. I’m sure they meant no harm, yes?”

~Author’s Notes~
A short one for today, but this is where the main plot of season two starts to kick into gear.
From the next episode onwards, there will be a lot less dawdling about as things start to get moving.