How Green Becomes Wood

"I enjoy it immensely," Daizi said, proud of what she had managed to achieve.

"I did not technically retire," Dark informed her, "I left teaching to be a stay-at-home father. I could not come to grips with missing so much of Ivy-Qadira's early years, and we preferred it to putting her into day care."
 
Emma finished looking around. "It quite shows. Alec said that you're a plant lover, Mrs. - Dr. Wahid. Do you have a lot of plants you enjoy to keep indoors? Or is it just your garden?"
 
"We have a good number indoors, we just had to move the pots from where Ivy can reach to stop her spilling soil everywhere," Daizi explained, reaching over to touch Ivy's hair, "My study upstairs is full of plants, and just over Christmas we were given a fig tree. We're still figuring out the best place for it. Do you keep any?"
 
"A fig tree? Wow!" Emma said in genuine surprise. "That is quite the impressive plant! Especially indoors. I do keep a couple of plants... well, actually, they are my mother's. I don't have any plants of my own, but I enjoy hers. She has a, um, philodendron, I think? And a snake plant as well as a couple of flower plants. I don't know their names, I'm afraid."
 
"More or less, yes," Emma nodded. "My mother is from a town about an hour's drive from here, and my father is from a place three hours away in the other direction. They settled here together a few years before I came along."
 
"That must be nice," Dark said, mostly because it had been awhile since he had last said anything and he knew he should make an attempt at small talk, even though it was unnatural to him.

"When you finish college, do you intend to come back or strike out on your own?" Daizi asked, taking a sip of tea.
 
"Oh, I fully intend to come back here for a while, at least," Emma said. "Then I want to go out on my own. Of course, depending on what I end up deciding what to do for a career, I might end up moving immediately. In my perfect world, I want to go to," she named a large city a few hours away, "to work as an anesthesiologist, but I'll live on the outskirts, where it will be much cheaper. Once I have a career mostly established, then it will be time for a family. If I've met the person I'm supposed to marry first, then, of course, we'll go together, but I don't intend to get married until at least my first four years of college. There is simply too much to do and focus on the get married during college."
 
"You are certainly very pragmatic," Dark said, "It is impressive how much thought you've put into things."

"I had absolutely no idea about my future when I was a teenager," Daizi chuckled.
 
Emma shrugged. "To me, life's too short to waste it. I know a lot of people say your teen years are when you should be having fun, and I do have a lot of fun, but I will have more fun when I have stability to back up that fun, if you know what I mean. Plus, if I start saving now, hopefully I'll be able to retire no matter what's happened with the economy, since you never really know how that's going to look year to year."

"Emma is really good at seeing the big picture," Alec said with a smile. "She's amazing at getting things planned out and then adapting if stuff doesn't work out. Tell them what you intend to do during your gap year!"

"Oh." She blinked. "I'm going to be a dog trainer. If I decide to stick with dog training as a career - highly unlikely as while it's always in demand, it's not that stable - I intend to do dog training for movies and stunts and things like that. I'm very good at it, so I think I could get my name out there with enough time and exposure."
 
Dark and Daizi nodding along, some small undying emo part of them having flashbacks to high school. As adults, Emma seemed a kind, proactive, amd ambitious young woman. But the teenagers who lived in their minds knew they would not have gotten along. Of course, they didn't hold this against her at all, they just found it somewhat amusing.

"Dog trainers are very important, we worked hard with our dog Enkidu."

"Although he doesn't know any movie stunts," Daizi added before asking, "What inspired you to get into dog training?"
 
"My own dog," she said. "Not the one I have now. The one before. Sadly, he's passed, but he was a beast of chaos, and my mother dispaired. She didn't think we could keep him because neither of my parents had the time to properly train him. They were told he was partially trained when they got him, but that didn't turn out to be true. So, I thought I'd try. It was really, really hard at first, and I made a lot of mistakes, but we got there in the end! I've taught my current dog a lot of tricks now, and a neighbor down the street lets me work with their dogs. I've volunteered at the shelter, too, when I have time."
 
Emma raised her brows at Alec. "You do? You didn't mention that."

Alec shrugged and smiled. "I like them. I think they can be very sweet, and I love the way they feel. Fabulous creatures."

"Huh. I guess so," Emma said doubtfully. "I don't know about living with one."

"Xander wants a dog," Alec said, almost as if throwing his brother in front of her as a distraction.

"What kind?" Emma asked, turning to Xander.

"Haven't decided," Xander said grudgingly. "It's not going to happen anytime soon, so why worry about it?"

Emma tutted. "If you know it won't be for a while, then it's an excellent chance to make plans!"

"Plans?" Xander repeated. "For a dog?"

She gave a quick nod. "I know a lot of people hate shopping for a dog, and at least 90% of the time, I agree with them, but if you are looking to fill a specific job for the dog - like agility, tracking, emotional support, guarding, or self-protection - then researching the breed that's right for that job and then researching responsible breeders for that dog breed or maybe a blend of dog breeds takes a lot of time. It's good to give yourself a nice cushion of time so that you can follow the breeder's media feeds, go visit them, see the puppies and the parents, things like that. If you are going to buy a dog, you should always do a lot of in-depth research. If you aren't going to buy one, you can still decide the types of dogs that fit with your lifestyle - high, medium, or low energy - and research that as well as dog training styles. There are multiple very good styles of training, and you can take the time you are waiting for the right time to get the dog learning how to train it. There's a lot to plan for with a new dog. Not to mention, planning for all of the potential problems that might come with a shelter dog."

"Oooo-kay," Xander said slowly, feeling as if her flood of words had pressed him back into the couch. "I will... take that into consideration."

She narrowed her eyes at him. "It's not a light thing to adopt a dog."

"Fully agree," Xander said. "Just don't think I can make all the plans right here, right now. Need to... write them down. In a journal."
 
Daizi sat silently as she came to terms with the chaos she had unleashed. This was not her intention.

Dark listened carefully, and as Ivy shrieked and babbled said, "We rescued Enkidu. A puppy mill was, rightfully, shut down, he was one of the puppies they were trying to find a home for. At the time he was very sick, but he has recovered well."
 
"Puppy mills are the absolute worst, and people who run them should be charged for horrible crimes," Emma said stoutly.

"I think they are, sometimes," Alec said timidly. "And Enkidu is really cute. Maybe you could meet him?" He looked to his parents.

"I'd love to meet him if I may," Emma said, brightening.
 
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