Meet Eiji

My name’s Eiji Ikeda.

 

I’m the fifth child of Malik and Kaori Oglesby-Ikeda and would have been the tenth heir to the estate. You may have heard of me. I’ve got several famous relatives. I’m also the lucky son of a plumbob that gets to build a park in the little spot of land called Newcrest.

But wait, Eiji, you might say, why aren’t you living on the big family lot in that humongous house? Well, this idiot of a town decided that the house wasn’t built to code and made us tear it down. No matter that it was a historical landmark… My mom was heartbroken. Dad was gone already, of course, and almost all of my siblings were married (not Suzu or I. She’s still writing her weird book). Mom and my Great Aunt Aya moved to Granite Falls to actually legit retire.

Can you believe that Aya is alive? She must have found the fountain of youth. She’s super old and doesn’t look or act like it. I told her she could live with me and we could stay alive forever but she said I would weigh her down. Psh.

I’m gonna fast forward on my life a little so you don’t get bored. Maybe I’ll slow down in a bit but, for now, I’m impatient.

So, yeah. When I was a teenager, my mom and dad were like, “Hey, we’ve got an idea for when you move out. Go build a park.”

 

I asked them why I would be interested in building a park and they said that, if I did, I would become the mayor of Newcrest. At that age I was all, “Why would they make me mayor if I built a plummin’ park?” I still feel that way, actually. It seems stupid. I figured I could make it work with all the money I was going to be inheriting PLUS I’d have Suzu, Mom, and Aya to help me since we all still lived together at the time. Nah. They gave me 20k and said “have at it!” They said I could do whatever I wanted until I finished my “goals”. I got a notebook to keep track. It’s really annoying, actually.

I put down stones on my own and installed a huge fountain. I also splurged on an awesome grill and bar for the “entertainment” area.

 

There’s a lot of place to sit and eat so you could have a barbeque or something.

 

I also built a bathroom because that seemed important for me to be a pleasant person to be around. I spent too much money on that stupid fountain so I didn’t have enough to build a little house. Oops.

Anyway, I collected a lot of flowers that first week and planted them around the fountain. I didn’t have any gardening skills when I moved out but I figured I would be a pro by the time I was an old man.

 

 

I eventually found some vegetables, mushrooms, and fruits and planted them away from the fountain. If I know anything about gardening I know how lucrative a big ass garden can be. I’d have a house eventually…

 

Every day I got better at figuring out what my plants wanted and they got bigger and stronger. I was pretty proud of myself. And my plants…

 

Actually, I was a little too close to my plants. I needed to expand my social circle.

 

I had my mom, of course, but I needed a friend. A girlfriend would be preferable but beggars can’t be choosers, you know? All the women in this town were married and older than I was. That was problematic. There was this one girl, though…

 

Problem was she was still in high school. Well, okay, that’s not a problem for me. I’m still a young guy. It’s not like she was 14 or something. That would have been weird and wrong. Still, I pursued her (AS A FRIEND) for a long time. She got to meet my mom before she died (yeah… that happened, too…) She was really cool and helped keep me company when I was stressed out.

 

We’re sort of best friends. Her name is Anahi Shipman. She lives with her parents and her younger brother.

 

She did give me a weird look when I explained why I was living in a park.

 

I told her that my family has been living in Willow Creek for at least eight generations. They did originally settle in Oasis Springs but moved everything over at some point. There’s a lot about my family’s history I don’t know. Aunt Aya could tell you more more but she’s off climbing Everest or something right now.

Anahi was impressed with what I did know about my family’s history (and also my muscles).

 

We talked about our traits. I admitted that I could be mean but she wouldn’t know that because I’ve never yelled at her. She knew I was lazy but I also said that I was a perfectionist. She’s a cheerful bro type. That’s probably why we get along so well.

 

I’m not telling you what I said to her…

 

But she liked it anyway.

 

Guys, I think she gets me.

 

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