How Green Becomes Wood

"Right away," Dark said, stepping nimbly off his soap box, absolutely delighted by how his wife immediately found a way to 'rescue' him, "As a show of good faith, to prove my earnestness, I will provide a dose of this most revivifying drink to our good sheriff, free of charge!"

By this point, Cooger and Daizi were sat on the floor of his porch. She had removed his hat, and was gently murmuring, "Stay with me," and "We'll get you help, Sheriff!"

Dark hopped over the porch railing and knelt down beside Cooger, uncorking the glass vial. "Here, good sir! This will save your life!"

Cooger opened an eye to glance at Dark and whispered, "...is that safe to drink?"

"yes," Dark whispered back, "i mean. It is water and green food colouring with edible glitter, so it will not taste nice, but it is technically drinkable."

"That's fine then," Cooger said, shutting his eyes and dropping his head back, allowing Dark to help him drink from the vial. Shortly after swallowing it, he stood up and exclaimed, "By god! It works!"

"As I claimed it would!" Dark replied, shaking Cooger's hand.
 
"The sheriff lives!" Lex cheered, clapping and encouraging those around her to clap. "The elixer works! Let's hear it for the Mystery Elixer! Sign me up for two!"

"But wait!" Alec called out. "Who shot the Sheriff?"

"I shot the deputy by accident, but I didn't shoot no deputy," Toby said.
 
Knowing Dark had brought in a punch, Cooger said, "To thank this mysterious stranger, I'll buy up his elixir for everyone!"

"And I will gladly set it up on the snack table," Dark chuckled, a bit of embarrassment of what he had done rushing in as he walked back to his car to fetch the punch.

Cooger, meanwhile laughed, helped Daizi back to her feet and said, "Dark missed his calling."
 
"More or less, except he kept his shirt on for this," Cooger said, stretching, "We always envisioned whatever the ethical version of a freakshow would be. I guess just performers or whatever, circus-like, and he used to imagine the tall tales we'd tell about them to get people to come take a look." For a moment he looked wistful, and remembering those days he said, "In his mind, it was all real, he loved the idea of those monkey's paw type stories, where everyone in our employee ended up there trying to get some big dream. That's what his wooden one is like."

"I'm willing to guess when he was giving that speech about his elixir, he was imagining it actually could work, but not without a cost most would regret to pay," Daizi said, utterly besotted.

"And not a financial cost, either," Cooger nodded in agreement.

"MmMm..." She sighed, feeling those old teenage feelings of having a crush bubble up, "If he we were in the past and he was an actual snake oil salesman, I'm certain that I'd be his secret audient plant."
 
"That is really sweet," Lex said with a sad smile. She wished, for a moment, that she could join them in their dream. Only for a moment. "I guess that can be your retirement plan, all of you," she chuckled. "That'd be quite the dream to see fulfilled!"
 
Hearing a slight change in the tone of Lex's voice, Daizi turned her head slightly to the side, but wasn't sure how to address what she thought she heard. Instead she just shrugged and said, "By retirement, I'm not sure how interested I'll be in traveling across the country."

"And I'm still waiting on the day his body gives out and he can't walk around lookin' like a sculpture," Cooger laughed, "when that happens, I don't know if he'll want to have his shirt off showing off his tattoos all the time."

"You're so mean," Daizi teased. "Anyway, it'd probably make it hard for our kids to track us down to visit."
 
"Unless... your kids are the ones footing the main work, and you're tagging along with them and enjoying the ride," Lex laughed. "It'd be great! You get to have all the fun, and they do all the work in the background."
 
Cooger glanced over at Dark, who was getting the punch out of the cooler on the car. Ivy was down by his side, and after opening the trunk, Dark handed her the punchbowl ladle to carry so she could help. Then Cooger said, "He may already be preparing them for that."
 
Lex chuckled as she watched Dark. Then she touched Cooger's shoulder. "I need to get your gift. Wait here for me." She went to her car and fetched a thin, flat box. She returned and handed it to him. "Open it later," she warned him seriously.
 
Lex laughed and leaned in to kiss his cheek. "I have a few ideas of my own. I would love to stay over, but this is going to be an exhausting day. We'll revisit this before I go, okay?"
 
"Babe, you can beg me any time you want," Lex purred in a wicked tone, "but maybe not while the guests are here. When it's just you and me and the cats..." She whispered a few spicy words in his ear and kissed his earlobe.
 
Cooger laughed against her, and putting his hands on her waist pulled her in close. He was just about to kiss her right there on the porch when a little voice came their way.

To Dark's credit, seeing his brother and his girlfriend like that on the porch, he tried to reach out and prevent her, calling her name, but he was carrying a full punch bowl and didn't want to accidentally dump it out. And the steps to the porch were low enough little legs were easily able to traverse them.

So just before Cooger kissed Lex, a lightly swung drink ladle lightly whacked their legs and then, Ivy threw her arms around her uncle's legs and happily said, "Oogie!" Utterly unaware of what she was putting herself in between.
 
Lex yelped a little at the ladle, mostly in surprise as it did not hurt much, and backed away. She laughed when Ivy launched herself at Cooger and raised her brows at Cooger. "See? Can't get a kiss in edgewise right now." Then she addressed Ivy in amusement. "What have you got there? Have you got Oogie? Oogie and a big spoon?"
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top