Welcome back to Radajan: Ray’s Animal Crossing diary. The journey of Ray, mayor of Radajan, continues.
After a baffling first day, he’s finally had a chance to rest his head for the night. Unfortunately for him, the craziness has barely started to begin…
DAY TWO
Well, it wasn’t the best nights sleep i’ve ever had. In the middle of the night, some camoflagued frog appeared at the mouth of my tent and scared the life out of me.
‘Oh, sorry’ He said … ‘I was just bringing you a lantern as a house-warming present. It’ll give this place a bit of light.’ He also reckons that I probably ‘shouldn’t sleep in the dark.’
Well, firstly, back home if I saw a frog in my tent I’d grab it by the leg and chuck it back in the pond. I wouldn’t even give cause to think. That said, looking at my visitor, I wouldn’t have gotten very far. He probably would have been the one grabbing me by the leg.
Secondly…I was sleeping! It was the middle of the night! Why do I need the light on? I’m not five. I don’t worry about boogeymen under my bed. I didn’t realise that I looked like I needed a light at that moment in time. Nice gesture and all, but couldn’t it have waited until the morning.
You know, eyes closed means ASLEEP… DO NOT DISTURB…RAAAHH!
That, coupled with the ground being soaking wet and the sound of drills and hammers going on through the night meant I didn’t get much rest. I’m impressed with how fast these guys work, though. My house isn’t quite finished, but I must say, compared to back home, these guys know how to build quickly. I just hope they’re not a bunch of cowboys and it all comes tumbling down around me in a few months when I’m having a bath or something…
Bah. Anyway. I had another visitor at the crack of dawn. My new secretary, Isabelle, popped by to ask if I slept well. The bags under my eyes told the story.
Swiftly, she moved on and went on to tell me that the town wants to commemorate my appointment as Mayor. Apparently it’s an ancient tradition in Radaja to plant a tree when someone comes into office. It grows as the town does, supposedly. I shrugged, gave her a sleepy nod and said i’d be right down.
Leaving the tent, I trod on an unexpected letter that had been hastily thrown by the entrance. Probably from that frog again telling me ‘Hop to it’ or something. Except this was anonymously sealed so I had no idea of telling where it had come from.
Upon reading it, my jaw dropped. It was from the guy who was supposed to be Mayor. As a result I was expecting the worst, but he said that he couldn’t deal with the responsibility, shirked everything and wished me luck. He already knew about my appointment and wants me to do well.
This is all some mad dream i’m going to wake up from, isn’t it?
Shaking my head in disbelief and storing the letter, I took a walk down to the coronation spot Isabelle told me about.
The entire town was waiting for me. At 7am! Don’t these guys have anything better to do? Why aren’t they having a lie-in? Bah.
Anyway, I took the seed from Isabelle and planted it to raucous applause. Now I really am the Mayor. Truly and officially. This won’t end well….
Meeting and greeting, I got to learn some of the names of my fellow residents. Peck the bird is all about carbohydrates and keeping fit. Meanwhile Derwin, another bird, is a bit of a nerd and mostly keeps to himself.
Then, of course, there was Camofrog. Looking at the war paint around the eyes and that stripey, colourfully camoflagued attire, I had started to think that he must have been on the frontline of some war, protecting Radjan from … whatever Radajan needs protecting from. Probably the last incompetent Mayor they picked up from the train station.
Chatting to them all, I felt like some kind of celebrity. To be honest, it made me feel good. Nobody has shown me that much attention before. They really wanted to get to know me and genuinely felt I could make their little town a better place. Encouragement counts for a lot. It was nice … even if I was talking to a cat that kept involuntarily licking herself after every pause. Bit off-putting, I have to admit.
I smiled, waved goodbye and took a stroll to my office. Why not? It was a beautiful day and the walk was jovial and relaxing. Despite running on no sleep, I felt inspired and elated. For the first time, I felt like I could actually do this…
That was until I was told I needed to cough up a 10,000 bells down payment before they’d finish building my house…
WHAAAA
Firstly, what’s a bell? Don’t I just ring those?? Don’t my pounds work here? I was led to believe any money was good in Radajan. Those travel brochures were useless. They didn’t prepare me for any of this!!
To make matters worse, I’m also forced to cough up the down payment as soon as possible otherwise I can’t properly take my office as Mayor and people won’t take me seriously.
To get me started, Isabelle told me there’s a Recycling Shop where I can trade goods and earn Bells in return. She said they take anything, from fruit to shells, and recomended I start scavenging.
Wonderful…
So, from 8am onwards, I spent the day wandering around Radajan, shaking trees and picking up peaches (apparently there’s no law against shaking trees and I can do it as much as I like. They’ll regret telling me that…), collecting shells from the beach, getting sand stuck underneath my fingernails, (although I did find a groovy looking pearl oyster shell while I was there) and spending the rest of my time speaking to residents, getting the odd gift I didn’t want. It was long, laborious, hard work. I was sweating, out of breath and on the verge of collapse.
But at around 3.30pm, I fumbled through the doors of the appropriately titled, Re-Tail and dropped a load of my peaches on the ground in exhaustion. It was ok though, Reese (she was a Lamb…no, a real lamb…) was very understanding and helped me pick them all up.
I felt dreadful because all I could think about was water, my stomach and mint sauce…
Worst. Mayor. Ever.
Anyway, I sold the lot. I was even surprised to learn that my groovy Pearl Oyster Shell was today’s special and I was given well over the odds for bringing it in. Somehow it all managed to ring up to 10,000 bells (give or take a bell…). Major relief.
Excitedly, I dashed out and ran straight to Nooks and handed all the money over. The devious Racoon grinned a grin i’d never seen from a racoon before and he promised me that, tomorrow morning, my little house with the pretty red roof would be built. Excellent! This would be my last night sleeping rough!
Still, long day was long. I needed to unwind. Seeing how tired I was, Derwin kindly asked me around to his place. I happily stopped by around 6.30, but was a bit disappointed to see there was no fridge freezer, therefore no drinks or food. (what does he do for refreshment??) Still, he had a decent pad. Don’t get me wrong, it was peculiar, especially as a chalkboard was the feature piece, but decent.
I didn’t stick around long, but still thanked him for the chat and saw myself out.
As I left, Peck unexpectedly dived on me and begged me to give a present to Derwin as he couldn’t do it himself. Bearing in mind, he’s stood three foot away from his door and he can’t do this himself? He doesn’t even offer me anything as incentive. Even the Royal Mail gets something for their service. Geez….
Apparently he’s too nervous about Derwin’s reaction and needs someone else to do it. Whatever..
Still, I haven’t exactly been the best ambassador to this lot. So, to start being ‘a good Mayor’ I go back to Derwin and give him Peck’s present. It was a shirt. To be honest, I felt that was quite a generous gift for no apparent reason other than ‘just because’.
Peck tried it on and was instantly ecstatic. However, I chose not to comment. Frankly, it looked stupid on Derwin, but I wasn’t going to tell him that. Especially as he was practically jumping through the roof with excitement. He screamed something about ‘first new clothes of the year…OHMAHGAWWWD‘ – As we’re in June, that’s a little concerning… I smiled and, for the second time in one night, saw myself out.
Once again, Peck dived on me (he’d been waiting next to a tree outside. The bird was more eager than a beaver) he wanted to know what Derwin thought.
When I told Peck how excited Derwin was, the muscular bird couldn’t be more pleased. After thanking me, he walked off with a strut in his stride, whistling happily to himself.
And that was that.
Even though that was lovely and all, and I was happy to bring some kind of joy to both, I had to ask myself: WHAT JUST HAPPENED?!
Frankly, I’ve got no words. I’m done for the day. All I know is, my house is getting built tomorrow. I get to start doing my job. I’ll do some proper decorating. I can finally settle in. Life will be good. Things can’t possibly get more crazy than they have already…
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