How Green Becomes Wood

"I've got a little garden. Not flowers or anything, but I grow carrots and cucumber, and those sorts of things. And I've got some chickens and a goose to guard them." He told her, putting his glass in the sink next to hers, "When the weather's good, I take my boat out, sometimes to fish. I spend a good deal of time over here, or I bring them back to my place, but I don't know what I'll do when that baby starts moving, my cabin is going to be a--" he stopped and corrected himself, "It'll be damn hard to babyproof. But really I just like to spend my time getting up to all those little hobbies most people put off till they're too old to enjoy 'em. How about you?"
 
"I guess that's why they invented baby gates and those little mesh prisons they call playpens," Lex chuckled. She hummed softly as she considered his question. "Well, I've only recently really been able to pick up more than one hobby, but I like designing things. Not really interior design or fashion, more like molding things into a shape I like. Whether it's taking a railroad stake and turning it into a fancy knife or trying to figure out the most efficient way to design and put together a shelving unit for a bedroom. I also attend my son's competitions for boarding, blading, and sometimes ice skating. Now that I've got more time and mental power - used to work in retail, no brain power after a shift or two - I want to explore some other things for me, but I haven't gotten that far yet. For now, my hobby is trying to get this place properly liveable." She couldn't help a proud grin. "It's my first house. I wanna get it right."
 
"If we hadn't already finished drinking water, I'd cheers to that. It's a great feeling, you know? Nothing quite like it. But if you think this is great, just wait for when it's all finished. Mine was all run down when I bought it, it didn't even have electricity or heating. You know, building something from scratch is nice, like what they did," he nodded in the general direction of the Wahid-Dark home, "but there's something special about taking something broken and making it whole."
 
"I've done both - not with houses, other things - made something from scratch and reshaping something broken, and I can see the appeal in both, but I gotta say, for me personally, I like mending the broken or reshaping it into something new over creating from scratch," Lex admitted. "I still make plenty of things from scratch, but there's something satisfying about breathing new life into something old and giving it a new purpose. Like turning a mug into a vase, for a simple example."
 
"That's a very Kintsugi stance to take. Dark would tell you to put a gold motif throughout your home to honor it. I spend too much time with him." He tugged lightly on his beard, "But I do think too many people aren't nearly interested enough in fixing what they've broken. I dunno if I mean that literally or not, but when it's literal it's great news for me, or really bad news if they just buy something new without asking someone else to try to fix it, if they don't care enough to do it themselves."
 
Lex tipped her head curiously. "Kintsugi," she muttered, making a note to look it up later. She had no idea who or what that was. "I'm not into all that 'zero-waste, pretend like people don't have a right to be here and shouldn't make an impact' kind of deal, but I do think it's important to try to take care of stuff. Take pride in ownership. Look out for it and look after the land." She shrugged with a crooked smile. "It's almost easier to do when you're poor. Not that I begrudge the rich, it's just... you know, fixing stuff comes to mind first when money's tight. Although I guess I have seen some rich folk fix stuff. Depends, I guess." She glanced at the clock and straightened. "Is that the time? Gosh, I should let you go and stop twisting your ear."
 
"I'm not either, really." Cooger told her, stopping short of revealing Dark sometimes could be, when the right, foul, mood took him, but that didn't really seem to be worth sharing. He just wasn't used to talking to people who actually knew him, but didn't know him well. "I agree with you, though, especially about caring for the land. Too often these days, people they..." He trailed off, not being good enough with words to express his thoughts on the matter in a way he was satisfied with, "Naw, it don't matter about the time. The longer I'm here, the more I can bill you for, right? And chewing the fat sure beats fiddling with toilets." The glint in his eyes showed he was by no means serious, and he quickly admitted to the lie, "I'm only joking. I made a note of when I stopped doing any actual work around here."
 
"Good! Otherwise, we were going to have a problem," Lex laughed. She straightened and used the motion to twist the kink out of her back. "I gotta admit, I enjoyed chatting with you, Cooger, but I gotta get back to getting that mess in the garage sorted out. You're welcome to hang out and keep jawing away, but if I don't do it now, I won't be ready in time to get Toby to the competition downtown."
 
"It has been pretty nice," He agreed warmly, "I've had some clients who do everything they can to pretend I don't exist unless they need something, and I've met some of the people in this neighborhood, and ones like it..." He shook his head, "I told 'em to move closer to me, but they wanted the good school district. And I would stay, but I don't want to keep you from your tasks. I'll probably just pop over next door and see how Tarot is getting on, give her an adult to talk to for a change. Plus I had a real weird dream about her last night."
 
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She started walking toward the garage door, a little regretful to see Cooger go, but she really did have work to get done. Cooger was only the second person she'd met so far who'd treated her kindly. Like a friend. It was nice. "Tarot? The woman next door? I'm still trying to get her name pronunciation right. Is she really into things like tarot readings and stuff? I still have an aversion to all things 'occult,'" she hooked her fingers like quotation marks, "thanks to strict parents terrified I'd invite a demon into my soul by messing with cards. Logically, I get that it's not like that, but it's hard to overcome your first lessons, yeah?" She opened the door for Cooger and let him go first.
 
"Yeah, that's her, the one who just had a baby? Well, shoot, I guess it's not 'just,' it's been nearly six months, now that I think 'bout it. Anyway, her real name is Daizi, but I've been calling her Tarot since we were kids. It's what all her friends call her. Or most of them. And even Dark only calls her Daizi when he speaking about her to folks who don't call her Tarot. And yeah, she's real into all that stuff. She's about as real a witch as you can find, I think, she does rituals and everything. But I can't remember if she's right hand or left hand or chaos. But don't worry, she's not stealing souls or nothing, and I think she's said she doesn't do any invocation only evocation, but I can never remember which is which." He chuckled, walking out of the house and stopping on her porch for a moment, "I know it probably sounds really weird, but it's just another kinda religion. She's got her shrines and altars, and my Nana has a house where every room's got at least one Crucifix. And if your folks were Catholics, well, hers is nearly the same as Saint worship."
 
"Huh. The more you know," she mused. "It'll take some getting used to, but it can't be any worse than those creepy Jesus pictures. My family was always loosely Catholic, more out of tradition than any real belief, but my Nana... I avoided going to her house." She paused. "Except once when I swapped out some of her Jesus pictures and statues with Qui Gon Jinn. Last I heard, she still hasn't noticed the difference, and neither has my mother, but I'm pretty sure if Catholicism is real, I'm headed for the nasty place after that prank."
 
"It probably won't even affect you much, if I had to guess. She's not a missionary, the whole point of her belief system is personal agency, basically, so it's not like you gotta worried about being invited to a ritual or something. And the altars are in the office, if you ever go over there, the only strange thing you'll encounter is a bowl of salt you'll be requested to touch." Cooger explained, trying to be very clear how little a deal it was, although he was thinking about their door knocker and the statue of Baphomet they had in their back yard, "But I mean, a house like that, what's more weird? But that prank, that's a good one. I've heard about people doing that with Obi Wan."
 
"I thought Qui Gon fit the look a little better," Lex said, stopping at the end of her garage. "So, you'll give me a call once you get those estimates? And we can move forward once we get the supplies. See you again, what, tomorrow? Day after?"
 
"Yeah, I'll call you as soon as everything's settled on my end, then I'll also text you just so you've got the number written down for you and there's no confusion. I'll definitely be here soon, but I've got to look at my calendar to see exactly when--I'll let you know that, too, when I get in touch with the estimate." He opened up his truck and put the tool box inside, then he turned back, "But in any case, I'll see ya soon."
 
"I look forward to it," Lex assured him, lifting a hand. "Good working with you, Cooger! Have fun with your niece." She turned back to the garage and started tinkering with the sheets of metal once again.
 
"Thanks. Have fun with your, uh, garage. But good luck to your son at his competition, unless skateboarding is like theatre where you're supposed to not say good luck, in which case--I guess, whatever you're meant to say." Then he got into his truck and drove the minute over to the next driveway. By the time the house was finished, he knew he'd just leave the truck in her driveway and walk over, but at the moment, it felt just a bit too strange to leave his car in the client's drive.
 
Lex smiled and shook her head. Nice guy. Good family. She'd really lucked out with this random choice in location. If they'd all been like the people from the barbecue, she might have already started packing.

~~~

Lunch time, and Xander and Alec were making their way toward their usual table where Peter already sat waiting for them. Peter grinned and waved excitedly.
 
Peter glanced at Sloan in amusement. "I can't be happy to see my friends? To be honest, it's been a rough morning, so hanging out with my friends is the highlight of my day so far!"

"Hi, Peter!" Alec said, returning the wave enthusiastically. "Good to see you!"

Peter pointed at Alec. "See? He gets it."

Xander shook his head as he plunked down. "You dorks act like you haven't seen each other in months."

"Welcome back, Xander!" Peter greeted him cheerfully.
 
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