How Green Becomes Wood

Lex backed up until she felt the porch railing against her back. "Well, Sheriff, your hunches are pretty good, I gotta say. But!" She hopped up to sit on the railing and flashed him a devilish grin. "You'll have to catch me if you want to bring me to justice." With that, she swung her legs over the railing and hopped off, scampering away from Cooger with a laugh. She made her way toward his parents, intending to strike up a conversation with them.
 
Cooger laughed, resting his arms on the railing and hanging his head for a moment before watching her scamper off. He knew he should chase after her, but he was so surprised and amused he couldn't do anything for the moment.

Cooger's parents were sitting with Dark and Daizi, who were rather like their other children at this point, and when Lex came running up, three of their four heads looked up in surprise.

"Hey there Lex," Russ said, "Everything okay?"
 
"Fine and dandy!" Lex assured him. "Some people were having a little too much fun with their water guns." She didn't have to mention that one of those people was herself. She sat down next to Abbey and smoothed her skirt. "I hope you don't mind me crashing your conversation."
 
"I had noticed that," Russ said, glancing towards a trio of grown men in a water-gun standoff.

"You're always welcome to join us," Abbey told Lex, patting her on the knee, "We were just talking about Jasper, the lot of us."
 
"Where do we start?" Dark said dryly, knowing full well that he'd take many of Cooger's embarrassing moments to the grave out of solidarity.

"No, no, it wasn't anything bad," Russ assured Lex, "We were just saying how happy he seems to be."

"Nothing to do with you, I'll bet," Abbey said with a wink to Lex, already willing to lightly tease her.
 
"I'm sure I am a bane on his existence," Lex said with a grin, liking Abbey. "In truth, he's a great guy, and he's certainly brightened up my life. Especially since I now have two of his cats."
 
"He was telling us about that---Soup and Salad, right?" Abbey asked.

"I still don't understand the cats,' Russ chuckled, and then held up one hand to Lex, "I'm very proud, and he does great work, and he really, really loves them, but..." He shook his head.

"Mr. Russ is allergic," Dark explained, still unable to refer to Pa Cooger merely by his first name.
 
"Soup and Salad," Lex confirmed proudly. "They are my first cats for real, and up until I met Cooger, I wasn't certain I wanted a pet. He won me over without even trying. They've certainly brought a lot of excitement to the place. Like when Soup got into my shop and tried to eat a piece of hot metal. Lucky for him, adrenaline makes you very, very fast!"
 
"My garage and in the back yard a bit," Lex nodded. "I've been looking at the possibility of maybe getting a workspace that's not in a residential zone, but I do really like having my work on my doorstep, but I'm not sure my neighbors always appreciate it." She nodded toward Dark and Daizi.
 
"It's woken her up once or twice," Daizi admitted, somewhat downplaying the truth, while rubbing Ivy's back. At that moment, Ivy was fast asleep using her mother's chest as a pillow, not stirring even the tiniest bit. "But overall, it's not too bad." Dark wasn't as sure he agreed, but he also wasn't going to make a big deal about it. As much as he would prefer less clanging of metal, he liked Lex enough to put up with it.
 
"The HOA is too busy with us," Daizi teased, "We keep them so busy, the rest of the neighborhood can do anything else they like."

"Oh, I'm sure it's not that bad," Russ said, stretching his legs out, "I can't imagine it's any louder than the car horns and sirens of Brooklyn."

"Everything goes back to Brooklyn," Abbey whispered to Lex, "If Jasper had been born a girl, he probably would've wanted to call her Brooklyn."
 
"That is one of the best reasons to live next to a Necropolise," Lex said with a wink at Daizi. She smiled at Abbey. "You know, I've often thought Brooklyn sounded like a fine boy's name. If only the girls hadn't gotten it first."
 
"It's a very good thing we're beyond having children." Abbey said flatly.

"If we had two girls, they could've been Brooklyn and Virigina," Russ said, gesturing like he was in a courtroom.

"I'm from West Virigina," Abbey pointed out.

Repeating his hand gesture, Russ said, "Brooklyn and Appalachia! Beautiful names."
 
"Unfortunately, the capital city of West Virginia is Charleston, which isn't good," Russ sighed, "Oh well, those days are long behind us now. We might've had more kids, if we weren't both so busy all the time."

"And Jasper was a handful," Abbey laughed, "I was afraid to have another. The fact he grew into such a great man is a shock from what a terror he was as a baby."
 
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