"I'm telling you, Leilani, it's kinda nice to see a familiar face here. Now I might have one at work!" Travis commented as he pulled away from the curb.
"Oh, right! Thanks!" Leilani, who sat next to him, gave him a quick nod.
"So, Travis, uh, when are we gonna be there? This farm's gotta be a good deal away from this area, since it's full of buildin's and cement and stuff." Duke picked up an open bag of chips and ate from it.
"I'm gonna drive us to the train station, then we're gonna take the train to Meadowlands. I'll call a rideshare service to pick us up after our train ride," replied Travis.
"Huh, haven't been on a train in a while," Duke remarked though a mouth full of chips.
"Really? How come?" Leilani looked back at Duke.
Duke shrugged. "Eh, just haven't had a reason to. I was busy tryin' to make it big time."
"Well, you might succeed this time, Duke. This Daring Do job pays pretty well. Some of the animals there are kinda scary, and I ain't in love with the commute, but it pays well. Besides, I don't have to be at the farm very often."
"I do need money! I'm so glad to hear that!" Leilani exclaimed. Her heart swelled with pride at her acting skills.
"Great!" Travis approached a STOP sign.
"Hey, Travis, do you mind if I turn on the radio?" Leilani asked.
"Yeah, sure. Just don't change none of my presets."
"Yeah! Let's jam out!" Duke threw his fists in the air. "What kind of music are ya into anyway, Lei?"
"Well, usually pop or country; singers like Gazelle and Taylor Sheep." Leilani began flipping through radio stations.
"Oh, I like those two! I'm partial to rock and rap. My favorite rappers are Lil' Yakky and Kodak Bear. I kinda like Emu Nem, too."
"Wait, you don't know what kind of music each other likes? How long have you two even known each other? I mean, you're married!"
Leilani stopped pressing the button. "Uh…well…honestly, we haven't really known each other that long, but, when you know, you know! You know?"
Leilani saw Duke raise his eyebrows.
"Oh, well, I guess I get it. On me and my ex's first date, we talked about what kind of music we liked. Maybe that's unusual. I dunno."
Leilani pressed the button two more times and stayed on a station that played a Gazelle song. A first date. Something she never had with Duke.She liked Duke, and she was pretty sure he liked her too. After all, he liked her enough to marry her, so he must have seen something in her. Despite his shiftiness, he cared enough to tell her that he contributed to the plantings of Daring Do. She suddenly wanted to have a first date with him so much. To just have fun together without her trying to get her new life together or them trying to figure out where some strange plants came from.
"Wow! This is awesome!" Duke, on the train, laughed as he grabbed onto a pole and swung around it. "I should do this more often! I don't even care how long it'll take until we get there! This is awesome!"
Leilani, standing at a pole next to him, had a hearty chuckle at his excitement over something nobody else seemed to care about.
"Hey, weasel!"
Leilani and Duke both pricked up their ears. They turned around and saw an elephant sitting down.
"Yeah, you with the black getup! Instead of taking your meds like I suggested, you got yourself a boyfriend to act stupid with!"
Travis dropped his mouth open as he looked back and forth between the weasels and the elephant.
"We just started takin' our meds but they ain't gonna take affect for a while. It's called Get-A-Life-Exitine!" Duke took his toothpick out of his mouth and flicked it at the elephant's trunk.
The elephant grunted and returned to her phone.
Leilani stared at Duke and slowly smiled. "Wow! That was awesome!" Leilani walked over to him and held onto the same pole.
"Oh, uh, well, thanks!" Duke softly chuckled and scratched the back of his neck. "I mean, he was a jerk, and I ain't crazy about ableism. I mean, I know you ain't disabled, not that that's an insult."
Leilani continued to smile as she narrowed her eyes. "Well, I appreciate it."
Duke sighed. "Listen, Lei, I've been thinkin'…maybe once we have time and everything, and once I get my first paycheck, I could…take you out somewhere? My boss said the paychecks come every Friday."
Leilani's heart jumped. "Oh, uh, yeah! Sure! I mean, we don't have to wait until you get money; we could do a picnic or go to the beach or something."
"Well, uh, great! How about a picnic?"
"Great!" Leilani grinned and held a thumb up.
Far away in the meadow, Leilani saw rows of brown and neon green, accompanied by what was either a white tent or house.
"Is that the place?" Leilani asked.
"Yup," replied Travis, "Come on. I'll introduce you to the folks."
Leilani inhaled and exhaled a trembling breath. This is actually happening. We're actually going through with this. No going back—
She suddenly felt Duke's paw on her shoulder.
Duke grimaced and gave a small, high-pitched laugh. "We'll be okay!"
Leilani took a deep breath before they followed Travis down the hill and to the farm.
"Hey y'all! I'm back! Got some prospective coworkers with me." Travis announced.
The array of animals watering the rows of Daring Do looked up from their watering cans.
"So…how prospective are they?" A deer narrowed his eyes and pointed a hoof at the clearly nervous weasels.
"Oh, pretty prospective. They just got married, and they're in desperate need of money."
"Yeah!" Duke put his arm around Leilani and walked ahead of Travis. "You ain't got no idea how much my wife and I need this job! We've really hit upon hard times!" Duke's anxious demeanor quickly calmed. "So, you got like, a manager we can talk to or somethin'?"
The deer rolled his eyes. "Okay, fine. I'll go take you two to our manager."