“Yeah, this is awesome, Dev. Thanks for putting it together.”
Ducking his head a bit, Dev took two bottles of water out of the cooler and handed one to Leaf.
“I like to take care of my people by providing sustenance,” Dev said and smiled slightly. “This is nice, though. Lovely spot, good company—oh, speaking of which….” He rummaged through the very bottom of the cooler. “I got some organic dog treats for the kiddos, if that’s okay?”
Leaf stared at Dev, kind of speechless, until Dev fidgeted.
“I mean, if it’s not okay—”
“No, no!” Leaf said quickly. “I’m just…. You’re pretty fucking awesome, Dev. You know that, right?”
Again, Dev ducked his head, blushed, and avoided Leaf’s gaze for a few moments.
“Not used to hearing that?”
“It’s… weird. Good weird, though.” Dev peered at him.
“You look like such a kid right now, not that it’s a bad thing, really.”
“Well, Iam—”
“Half my age, yes, I know.” Leaf rolled his eyes.
They smiled at each other and dug into the food. Leaf told Dev to wait with the dog treats so the dogs wouldn’t associate them with the human mealtime. Right then, the dogs were lying on the shadow of the rocks, close to one another, enjoying the shade.
“How did you end up with dogs as your job?” Dev asked eventually, between nibbling on a cheese cube.
Leaf drank some water and smiled at him. “Long or short version?”
“Whichever you’re comfortable with.”
He appreciated the thought, the courtesy of letting him choose what to tell, for sure. “I’m not sure if I told you exactly how I grew up?”
“I think Seth called it something like ‘unconventional’?” Dev made the quotation marks with his fingers, and Leaf chuckled.
“My parents weren’t really hippies, despite the fact I’m called Leaf and my sister is Rainbow,” he started, and now it was Dev laughing.
“Oh my God,Rainbow, really?”
“Rainbow Serenity, to be exact.” Leaf smiled as Dev got another bout of giggles under control and gestured for him to continue. “Yeah, so they weren’t hippies really, just… I don’t know. Young and impressionable, and when Rain and I were just toddlers, they met these people who charmed them off their feet, got them to relocate us to their commune, and so on. We were less than ten years old when I first heard the word ‘cult’ mentioned.”
Dev had gone silent and serious. “A cult?”
“Yeah, they’re still operational. The Solace, have you heard of them?”
“No fucking way?” Dev stared at him with his mouth open. “Eternal Solace?”
“Yep, that’s them.”
“You’re second-gen, technically. Holy fuck. Good for you guys for getting out of there sane.” Dev reached a hand across the stone surface and took hold of Leaf’s, seemingly unconsciously.
“More or less. But yeah, we left when Rain turned eighteen. There had always been dogs around the compounds wherever we were, and I sort of had a knack for dealing with them, so I started to walk dogs for a living. Rain used to wait tables wherever she could. That’s how we survived the first years until we got better jobs eventually.”
“Your parents stayed?” Dev frowned, already guessing the answer.
“Yeah. We don’t know if they’re still alive, but I would think maybe not. They’d be old now, and Solace isn’t big on conventional medications or doctors.”
“Yeah, I’ve read about cults. Headful of useless knowledge, you know,” Dev said, tapping his temple. “Shit. Here I was thinking I had the shitty childhood contest already won, but man….”
