How Green Becomes Wood

Cooger sat back on the dock, his line in the water. His face looked younger than Dark's, but his hair was definitely thinner, and he was built much more like a typical almost-40 year old man. He didn't notice Xander looking at him, "Man, I should've brought my speaker out here, we could put on some music. Might spook the fish, though, my grandpa, he always wanted us to be real quiet while fishing, hardly let us say a word. Then again, I play music all the time out here, they're probably used to it. Dark can't fish, I've tried with him, he's just no good at it. That's why we work, ya know? Cause we can't do the same things."
 
"How can someone not be able to fish?" Xander asked curiously. "It doesn't seem like it requires much skill. At least, not this type. I saw a guy on TV once, he was flicking the line all over the place. I dunno how he didn't tangle himself up in his own line." He gave his pole a little jiggle, hoping to make the bait jiggle and catch a fish's attention.

Alec leaned over and tried, very carefully, to touch the top of the closest turtle. He hoped his finger didn't look too much like a worm. He just wanted to know what a wild turtle felt like.
 
"I have no idea," Cooger replied, "He just can't manage to catch the darn things. They never bite for him, I don't know what it is. He's the best at cleaning them, though. Man's quick."

When Alec pointed his finger out to the turtle, it quickly ducked under the water and swam away, being a species more shy than aggressive.

They sat out there for probably twenty minutes just chatting before Xander's line was plunged down, and Cooger turned and exclaimed, "Ah, you got one! Okay, quick, you gotta reel it in! It'll fight you, gotta be strong with it!"
 
Xander pitched forward, nearly going into the lake in surprise. Once he caught himself, he braced himself against the dock and pulled, cranking the little reel around as fast and hard as the fish would allow. Fish were surprisingly strong! How did it manage to pull so hard? It was just fins in water after all! Still, slowly and steadily, he reeled in more and more line until the flashing back of the fish broke the surface.

"You've almost got it!" Alec cried, holding onto the back of Xander's shirt just in case. "Hold on! You can do it! You've almost got it! Keep reeling!"

Finally Xander popped the water up out of the fish and awkwardly swung it around to the dock.
 
Cooger hopped up, excitedly cheering for Xander as he reeled in the fish, and when it plopped on the deck he went over to examine it, "Ah man, you did that like a champ, look at this guy!" He held up the fairly well sized fish, "You gotta hold it up and get a picture with it! Send it to Dark, let him know you did in less than an hour what he's never managed to do!"
 
Xander promptly scrambled to his feet and got out his phone. "Alec, can you get the picture?" he asked, trying to hold pole, phone, and fish.

Alec took the phone and backed up. "Okay! Hold it up! Higher! Right, just like that! Can you smile?"

"I am smiling," Xander retorted, twisting his lips up more.

Alec winced. "Never mind, don't smile." He took the picture and showed it to Xander.

"Come on, Cooger," Xander urged the mountain man to stand next to him. "Your lake, your fish, your teaching methods. You should be in the picture, too."
 
"Sure thing, bud!" Cooger said willingly, and stood next to Xander, grinning while Alec took the picture. After it was done, he took the fish, took the hook from its mouth, and held it out to Xander, "Do you wanna throw it back in? Not too often you get to hold a fish in your hands!"

Then he turned to Alec, "And we don't gotta fish all day. We can go for a ride on the boat, get way out onto the lake. It's a great day for it. We could pack our lunch and eat it right out over the water."
 
Alec took the picture and looked between the pair, smiling in satisfaction.

Xander looked down at the fish as it opened and closed its mouth, gaping at him. "Are you sure this doesn't hurt them? That I'm not participating in some kind of animal cruelty?" He leaned down and put the fish back in the water, watching it swim away.

"Here, send it to Dark!" Alec insisted, holding out the phone.

Xander took it and attached both pictures to the message. Less than two hours. Cooger says your record is... never.
 
Cooger watched the fish with his hands on his hips, "Eh, it depends on who you ask. Germany made catch and release illegal, but in the US if you catch a trout you're required to release it. I figure, you know, this way the fish gets to continue breeding, so we have more fish, but I don't know. And there are some fish that just aren't good for eating, but they're all mixed in with fish that are good, so..." He shrugged, "I keep 'em if they're old enough, the fish, and if I know they'll be eaten and not left to spoil. Course I've got so many cats..."

Dark did not immediately respond to the text message. He must have been busy or otherwise distracted from his phone.

"Alright, y'all want to keep fishing or do you want to go do something else?"
 
"You wanna go out on the boat?" Xander suggested. "I've been swimming a few times, but I've never been on a boat."

"Me neither," Alec said, looking Cooger's small boat over. "Has the Professor ever been on the boat?" If the boat could hold Dark and Cooger, then it could easily hold them!

"Do we need any special stuff for a boat ride?" Xander asked as he checked to make certain his rod was put away properly.
 
"Dark, Tarot, and myself have all been out on her, all at once," Cooger promised, "She's well built. And we've got life jackets and everything, so you won't be at risk of drowning or anything. But we should go make lunch first, sucks to be out on the water and get hungry, really ruins the trip."

As he headed back to his cabin (apparently not being as good as planning as Dark, with how often he walked to and from the central point of his homestead), he said, "I already said I'm grilling steaks for dinner, but what do y'all want for lunch? I can make a great bologna sandwich, or other kinds of deli meat if you prefer. Did you know if you put a piece of bologna on a car or motorcycle or something, you'd strip its paint? It's sick, my dudes, vandalism, but I mean if you really want to get back at someone in a non-violent way, you sneak over to their place and spell out something in bologna on their car."
 
"Um, should we be eating something that can strip the paint off a car?" Alec asked uncertainly. "That sounds kind of dangerous."

"It sounds like it'd clean out your insides," Xander said dryly. He followed Cooger inside the house and moved toward the kitchen area. "I can help you put together some sandwiches. Got any chips or salad or anything like that to go with it?"

Alec stopped at a chair and tentatively offered a cat a pet. "I'll eat anything."
 
"Nah it's fine, people've been eating bologna for decades. 'Course they also advised pregnant women to smoke for decades, too. But you can help yourself to whatever you like," He gestured to his cabinet, "In there I've got cheetos, cool ranch doritos, and barbeque potato chips. I've also got cosmic brownies, and those are safe for y'all to eat. I suppose you should probably take an apple or something just so your folks don't get angry at me."

The cat, when Alec went to pet it, stretched and leaned against his hand, meowing anytime he tried to pull his hand away. Cooger turned around hearing the meow as he was getting sandwich ingredients out, "Oh yeah, that's Casserole. He loves attention. Dude'll wake you up at 2am to be pet."
 
Xander started puttering around the kitchen, shamelessly snooping in the cupboards and dragging out what he thought might be good. A bag of chips and a cosmic brownie for each of them, sandwich makings, and an apple. The apple he sliced with confidence and stuck them in a small baggie. Those would make an excellent snack if they went out for long enough. He started building the sandwiches, making one for Cooger while he was at it.

"Hello, Casserole," Alec greeted awkwardly. "You are a very nice cat." He looked at Cooger. "Why is he called Casserole?"
 
"Because it's a dumb name," Cooger replied. That was the entire story, there wasn't some cute meaning where the cat liked to steal specifically casseroles or anything, he just picked a random word he thought was funny. Then he went to see what Xander was up to and peering over his shoulder said, "See, and this is why it's better for me to just sometimes watch Dark's kids, because he teaches 'em how to make good food. Do you think you and your brother can help make twice baked potatoes later today, to go with the steak? And Alec, you just let me know if there's anything you want to do, alright? I remember you want to go exploring, and I'm keeping it in mind to go on a good walk through these woods."
 
Alec glanced at Cooger, surprised his request had been remembered but pleased. "Exploring sounds like so much fun, but eating on a boat would be easier than eating while walking through the trees, I think. Maybe after the boat ride?"

"Sure, we can do that," Xander agreed after only the briefest of pauses. It might be humorous for Cooger to see how Alec was in the kitchen, but carefully so. He wasn't letting Alec near any knives.
 
"Sure thing, we can do both. It's not even noon, and the sun won't set until late, so we've got plenty of time. I expected y'all wouldn't want to come over until much later in the day, but I probably could've asked Dark earlier than I did. And sounds great, it'll be good eating for dinner. Dark's a great cook and all, but I bet you've both been missing real, classic foods. I've got coleslaw in the fridge, and I'm going to make corn on the cob, 'cause neither of you got braces, so with the potatoes we'll be all set."

He gestured for Xander to bring the lunches and then went down to the dock. From under the seats he pulled out life jackets and tossed them to the twins, "And we've got a little box you can put the lunches in, so they don't get jostled around any. There aren't seatbelts or anything so if we want to go fast you gotta stay seated, alright? That's pretty much my entire safety talk. Unfortunately, we won't see any dolphins today, so if that's what you were hoping for you are SOL."
 
"True, we don't get things like just meat and potatoes often," Xander said, followed Cooger. "Dark makes some really good stuff, but I sometimes miss things like hamburger and potatoes with gravy, cornbread, and things like that." He stored the food away carefully and put on the life jacket. "Your your butt on the seat when the ride is in motion. Got it."

"You get dolphins here? And what's SOL?" Alec asked. He snapped on the life jacket then carefully got in to sit next to Xander.
 
"I'm sure it's weird for both of 'em to have Americans in the house every day. When we lived together we were all a lot poorer--even Tarot, 'cause her dad had still cut her off since she had ran off on her first fiancé--so we couldn't really care too much about what we ate, so when they were able to make their food cheap, I didn't complain, and when I was able to make mine cheap, they lived with it, but I think both of 'em, since they're so far from their people, really try to remain in close a contact with it as they can. Do they have you learning Arabic?" He asked, sitting near the boats controls and starting it up.

"Nah, we don't get dolphins, it's just a lake. SOL means 'Shit outta luck,' so I was joking that if you wanted to see 'em, it was too bad, and you'll not get to here," Cooger told Alec, amused but not making fun of his genuine curiosity about if there were dolphins in the lake.
 
"Oh," Alec replied, not sure what to say to that. He felt a little silly. Of course dolphins wouldn't be in a fresh water lake like this! That was foolish. He didn't know how to respond, but he did feel Cooger wasn't actually making fun of him. He covered his ears briefly for the roar of the engine, but as he got used to it, he dropped his hands.

"Nah, not really, and I'm not sure I want to know," Xander told Cooger. "We've picked up a few words here and there, but they have a lot of, you know, private conversations of all natures. Might be best to give them that privacy." He frowned and tugged at the collar of the flotation device. It was surprisingly awkward and uncomfortable.
 
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