How Green Becomes Wood

"I hate when walls tell me what to do." Milo said, walking with Xander back towards the center of the museum, "That's why I like Pink Floyd's The Wall album. The whole point is you've got to not listen to the Wall and tear it down, basically. Have you ever listened to it?"
 
Xander frowned in thought. "I don't know... is that the one that's like... don't need to education... something about being a brick in the wall? Sorry, I don't really know Floyd, but I can look it up later. No, wait, I think my dad's listened to it sometimes." He spotted the way to the gift shop and steered in that direction.
 
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"Yeah," Milo nodded, "That's the song. Well, it's one of the songs. It's a full album. They made a movie, too, with cool animated parts, like walking hammers. It's also where the song 'Comfortably Numb' comes from."

When he walked into the gift shop, he rocked up onto his toes with a similar excitement to what he had in the photography exhibit, "I love gift shops. I don't even know why, I rarely get things from them, besides the post cards."
 
"Yeah? I haven't really spent much time in gift shops, but they do seem pretty fun," Xander agreed. "What kind of post cards do you think this place has? Better be some good ones." He started looking around the gift shop curiously. It was big! Really big, but well laid-out.
 
"They tend to have them for their most popular exhibits or artifacts," Milo explained, looking around wide-eyed, "It'd be cool if they have one of your mom's exhibit." He took a quick look at Xander when he realized how that could be misinterpreted, but he spoke quickly to not call attention to it, "The legends one, I mean. Because if I'm keeping it to bookend all of these pictures, the best one to use is the one the person who let us do this made, right?"
 
"Right," Xander said, not taking offense. It was a really cool exhibit. As far as he was concerned, a person would have to be crazy to not want something to remember it. Maybe Milo would even pick up one of her books. "Hey, look over here. These are cool." He pointed to a large section of scientific experiments, discovery kits, and similar. "These look like a lot of fun."
 
"There's your chance to lick a rock," Milo said, pointing out one particular kit, "Or you can get one of those bags you fill with an assortment of rocks. Since you loved that exhibit so much. It was your favourite one."
 
"You're a real comedian," Xander snickered. "Maybe I'll get a bag of the shiniest ones, clean them up, and give them a good licking." He stopped and frowned. "What the hell did I just say?" He gave Milo a fake glare. "Don't you tell anyone about this, right?"
 
"Who would I tell?" Milo asked, picking up the rock box and turning it over in his hands, "You're pretty much the only person I talk to regularly. You and my grandparents, I guess. And the birds."
 
"Well, there you go, then, you just lifted off who you could tell. What am I going to do if you tell the birds and they bring it up the next time I see them?" Xander smirked. He indicated the rock box. "Would you want to polish up your stones? It looks like you can use that little polisher thing for more than just the ones in the box. Me, I think I'd get one of these anatomy puzzles."
 
He flipped it in his hands to read the instructions, but then frowned and set it back, "It seems like it'd be a lot to carry with me. All those loose stones... Maybe I'll get... not here, but somewhere, acrylic paint, so I can paint on rocks, and leave them to be found. Like bread crumbs, you know?" He looked at Xander, for the first time with a bit of sadness in his eyes about leaving, although he looked away so quickly it was hard to see, "Like Hansel and Gretel."
 
Xander felt a twinge of pain and sadness at Milo's expression. "Yeah," he said softly. "That's a good idea." He forced himself to shake off the sadness and moved on to something else. "Huh. A volcano? Whatever happened to making a baking soda volcano out of paper mache and stuff? Why's it so high-tech? I mean, it does look kind of cool."
 
"I guess they don't make much money if you can do it without a kit," Milo said, "Or this one fakes an eruption better. I might look into getting a t-shirt or something. Just this once... My grandparents sent me with some money, and a t-shirt is easy to carry."
 
Xander pointed out the selection of shirts, bags, hats, and other wearable items. "Or a bag, maybe. Hey, you want to help me pick out the most ridiculous shirt for Alec? I told him I'd bring him back something."
 
"A bag could be nice..." Milo considered briefly. Bags lasted longer, and they were good for storing things. But he already had his school bag and his duffle bag, what use would a third be? It'd be a lot to carry... "I'll think about it. But sure, I'll help you look for a stupid shirt. I'd ask if you wanted to get something for the rest of your family, but I guess your mom probably knows everything that's in here, right? So it'd be pointless to get something for either of your parents."
 
"I'm not actually sure what to get my dad, if I were to get him anything," Xander admitted, trying to picture Dark wearing one of the hats on the shelf or a shirt with a slogan like "I heart dinos" or similar, qnd his mind melted at the idea. "My mum - Mama - would love some of these stones or maybe something like this big scarf, shawl thingy since it looks like bird wings when you hold it out. She likes stuff like that or tactile or smells good. She's easier."
 
"You could always get him a bust of an Easter Island statue and tell him it made you think of him," Milo joked, even though he was fairly certain they didn't sell them there, since he hadn't seen anything about the originals at the museum, "I'd be nervous buying your mom anything from her own gift shop. Who knows what she already owns from it, you know? ...I should get something for my mom. Like a welcome home gift, you know?"
 
"She wouldn't mind if it showed I was thinking about her," Xander shrugged, flicking through the shirts quickly. He glanced at Milo. "What would she want? What would you want to get her?"
 
"That's a good point," Milo said, also thumbing through some t-shirts, "Look, that's the one Dr. Pryce was wearing, you could match him." He held it up to Xander briefly before hanging it back up, "She's love those Crystal windchimes that are hanging up over there, but I have no idea where we'll end up going or how long they're staying there, and I'd hate for them to break. I might find a nice piece of jewelry for her... Maybe something where we can each have one, you know?"

It didn't occur to him at all what his expectation of them moving again, despite his mom having gone through rehab, suggested.
 
"When you'll be moving again? I thought you said she said you were done with that once you reached New Mexico," Xander commented as casually as he could. "Here's one." He held it up. It had the museum's logo with the words, "this museum rocked," with a few rocks around it like a ring.
 
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