“Phabian, they’ve already finished the foundation! Why won’t you celebrate with me?”
“Because it’s unnatural, you can’t convince me otherwise.”
“But Phabian, you agreed. You said you wanted to do this with me.”
“No, Jennifer, I said that I loved you and that I’d do whatever would make you happy. At no time did I express a desire to build and own a permanent home.”
“Oh come on, Phabian, what would you rather us do? Wander from place to place with the seasons, traveling to where the food is? There’s a Whole Foods two blocks that way!”
“I told you, Jennifer, elephants never cement. We don’t lay foundations, put down roots, or drop anchor. We don’t hold fast to our belongings. It’s an ethos.”
“It’s old and unevolved. All of our friends and family live within an hour’s drive from here. That includes both the humans and pachyderms. The seasons don’t control you anymore.”
“Right, no, the desires of the herd control me now apparently.”
“Is that so wrong? We’ll want the herd close when we have children. We can’t raise children on the road.”
“Why not? That’s what my grandparents did.”
“Yes, but even your mother admits her education suffered from the constant movement. And you and I do not possess the patience to home-school. We’ll be pulling the children in and out of schools—”
“The road can be a great teacher! Heck, people don’t learn how to navigate the real world from schools anymore. There’s no substitute for experience.”
“Phabian! You’re being a horrid rogue right now. Why do we have to rehash this again? What’s bothering you?”
“I… Jennifer… I just don’t want to be chained somewhere, locked to this thing we’ve built and now have to spend our lives paying for.”
“You’re chained to me. Look, we even bought you a custom metal forelimb band – it might as well be a shackle, Mister.”
“I want that bondage. Wherever life leads, I want to go with you.”
“Then enjoy that life has led us here. And hey, you didn’t technically cement anyway. The builders handled that.”
“Haha. Alright Jennifer, I love you and I trust you. We’ll do this for now. Please, though, can we avoid other entanglements for now?”
“Actually, I did want to talk to you about getting a dog…”