How Green Becomes Wood

"I'm thinking for Father's Day I may hire him a cleaner," Daizi said, "I know he's worried about when I'm working full time because it means on slow days I can't have her play in my office while he can get more work done. And I know he doesn't always give himself enough downtime."

"I'll give you the number to my cleaner," Sally promised. "She is an absolute godsend! If I did not have her coming to do the major cleaning, that's all Jake and I would be doing in our downtime, and I would much rather spend that time with my family or even just resting."

"I would be glad for it," Daizi told her, "Thankfully, Ivy loves trying to help, so if we say it in the right way, she'll put her toys in her bin, and she likes putting her clothes in her hamper. Dark bought her a tiny broom so she sometimes makes a game of attempting to sweep. He's been working on teaching her to clean since infancy, just about."

"Hmm, I feel as though there might be some joke in there about gender roles, but I am no comedian, and therefore dare not tread in those snake-infested waters," Sally said in a clearly teasing tone. "Truly, that is so good that he's helping her so soon!"

"I'd have concerns about that, were it not for the fact she's being taught to clean by her stay-at-home father who does most of the cleaning," Daizi pointed out with a little chuckle, "It's hard to internalize cleaning as 'women's work' when you learn the chores by doing them with your father while your mother is at her job all day. Really, though, he's just trying to prevent grey hairs however he can, or at least that's how he explains it to me."

"A wise idea. Although I am sure he will look very good with salt and pepper hair," Sally mused. "Speaking of your job, how was your first day?"

"He gets some, they all come in through here," She gestured like a stripe on the left side of her hairline, "There aren't too many, and he says he plucks them out when he sees them because they're so few. They have a different texture than his normal hair. He's going to have a stripe one day... Work was okay. It was hard, at times, but overall I was glad to be back. I think I'm glad to be going back tomorrow, but it's also still... an adjustment, I guess."

"I can understand how it would be difficult. Especially after so long away," Sally said. "Any big changes since you were gone?"

"The interns are all new," Daizi answered, "so I'm trying to get to know them. I've messaged with a lot of them, but not enough to really recognize who they are, so they have to keep reminding me of their names. Other than that... My office doesn't smell like how I left it, but my coworkers warned me the incense scent had all faded. Just about everything is where I left it, though, I wasn't supposed to go on maternity leave yet. With Ivy being born prematurely, I came home from work on Wednesday and was in labour on Thursday. One of my favourite coworkers collected some of my belongings for me when I started working from home, so I didn't need to go in for it, and I guess I had left a half-drunk cup of tea on my desk that they kindly washed out for me. In a way it's like coming back to life. There are all those stories about people who died suddenly or tragically and their room remains untouched for years, and it's odd, because I've been working for most of this time, just from home, like it was the pandemic again. Most of my coworkers, I've worked remote with before."