Page 33 of A Light in the Dark
“Earth roses.”
Well, I foresaw the complete destruction of my budget, inquiries on working overtime, and the loss of my sanity. “We got Earth roses?”
“Somebody rescued a seed bank, and it included numerous varieties of Earth roses. Someone bought the bank and decided to try to plant a bunch of the flowers. The roses have been doing exceptionally well, and he’s sellingbecause he can’t keep thousands of rose plants. He had something like a ninety percent success rate on getting them to sprout.”
“That’s crazy.”
“He even knows which varieties there are. I called last night, and he promised to hold a bunch for me. Not only is he holding a bunch for me, he’s going to loan me a trailer to get everything back here safe and sound. There’ll be plenty of space for anything you want to buy.”
“And it is actually a garden store?”
“It is, but it isn’t a chain type like the one we went to yesterday. He should have plenty of plants and seeds you can buy.”
“When I roll into work looking worse for wear, I’m blaming you.”
Joel snickered. “I think I can handle Humphrey. Do feel free to blame me, though. Do you own a camera?”
A camera? I frowned and shook my head. “I don’t.”
“We’re going to rectify that, because you will want to take pictures where we’re going. I brought mine with me, but I don’t have a spare. As I’m kidnapping you, the least I can do is provide a camera to keep you amused while I enjoy the scenery.”
Men existed to confuse me, but if being a kidnapping victim meant I’d get to play with a camera and see something pretty, I would not complain. “One of the disposable film ones?”
“I’m going to buy us a pair of those just for fun because I haven’t used one of those inyears. I’ll probably get you a decent little point and shoot unless you fall in love with something in the store. I’ll take you to my favorite shop andset you loose. It’ll only take us thirty extra minutes, and it’ll be fun.”
Did luna moths hopped up on roses and marigolds lose their minds and chase fun? If so, I would need to buy even more roses, take advantage of any camera purchases, and make an entire journal dedicated to the antics of luna moths when shifted and in human form.
Then I’d text Roger and tell him I’d have a hard time helping him if I kept getting distracted by the local wildlife.
“I could use some fun.”
“So could I. Outside of gaming and gardening, I haven’t done a whole lot just for fun lately. My camera was gathering dust, and I haven’t left the city in a while. Roses just make a really good excuse to try a little harder at living.”
I could understand that. When news of Earth’s destruction had hit, I’d had similar thoughts. I wondered if Gabriella’s plight had made him think about the little things more. The job fair would be an issue, but I wondered if Joel might be able to offer advice. “Hey, Joel? I have an odd question for you.”
Joel pulled away from the curb, and once we were on the way, he glanced at me out of the corner of his eye. “Go for it.”
“Do companies use job fairs, really? Like, do those things actually partner employees with employers?”
“Oh. You must have heard the ad. They can, but we don’t usually have them in Stonecreek. This one is being done because of the refugee situation.”
Bingo. No wonder Roger wanted me to go have a look. “Do you think asking my boss if we should go have a look for prospective employees might be a good thing?”
“As your company would get all the hiring benefits fortaking on refugees, yes. My place of employment is planning on grabbing every refugee we can get our hands on. We’re about to expand, and we need the extra bodies. I’m also concerned about the refugee situation, so if I can employ a bunch of them, they should be safe enough.”
My curiosity over what he did for work stirred, but unless he offered the information, I wouldn’t pry. “Won’t housing be a problem?”
“After talking to you and your boss, I passed word along in my company we should consider the same tactic. I believe the current plan is to buy land right outside the city, build an apartment complex, shore everything up, and handle it that way. They’ll count as residents for purposes of the city, but they’ll be at the bottom of the hill outside of the flood drain zones. We’ll build with tall, shored foundations, though. We’d be able to establish an office on commercial land nearby, so they’d live right next to work.”
Unless there was a catastrophic flood, the kind that happened every few hundred years, the refugees would be safe enough. The shored properties, like mine, would survive even a catastrophe, although the magic would have to be renewed.
We’d be digging bodies out of the rubble for the unlucky, and the thought of rebuilding staggered me.
“Okay. I’ll mention it to my boss, and I’ll blame you if he’s concerned I’ve been too uppity.”
“For some reason, I seriously doubt you get uppity at work. I’m thinking you reserve your uppity ways for after hours and when set loose in a garden store,” he teased.
I giggled as he wasn’t wrong. “I do like my job and wish to keep it, so I generally behave while at the office. Work is alittle harder for me to acquire since I wasn’t born in Stonecreek.”
