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1. Days Remembered

"What do you want to do today" Rob asked Lucas. Lucas sat on the edge of his dad's bed and watched him pack a pair of jeans into a suitcase. Rob was scheduled to leave the next day and had told Lucas that he would spend the entire week before he left just with him. Rob had gone on business trips before, but never on any trip that would take him away from home so long. They had already gone to Las Vegas and ridden all of the rides that were scattered about the city. Lucas loved the adrenaline of rollercoasters and he had pretty much forced Rob to drive him all over the city to each and every roller coaster he could look up on the internet. It was an exhausting day, but it was worth it to Rob. There usually wasn't much time to spend with his son; between his work and Lucas' school, he only had the weekends to really spend quality time.

"I don't know?" Lucas pondered and brought a clenched fist under his chin much like 'The Thinker' statue. "We've gone on all of the amusement park rides in the city. We went to the pool." He went on and listed a long list of various activities that they had done. Rob listened with only half an ear.

Thank goodness I don't have ears like his or he would know that I wasn't really listening. Rob thought. He knew when Lucas wasn't listening, his ears were like satellite dishes, they needed to be pointed at whatever he was focused on. If they weren't pointed at him, Rob knew his son wasn't listening. Recently Lucas had worked a way to keep his ears focused on Rob even when he wasn't listening. It was a temporary way to avoid lectures, but the child didn't have the patience to consciously focus on keeping his ears turned while doing something else. He would always end up slipping eventually.

"Are you listening to me?" Lucas waved a paw front of Rob, the TitanWeave ring getting his attention. Lucas had moved it to his thumb since that was the only finger it would fit on. He had nearly lost it one time when washing his hands. Rob had managed to grab it before it went down the drain where it would have stayed until they got a plumber to take the pipes apart.

"Uhh, yeah." He said quickly and refocused on his packing. He picked up a white t-shirt and folded it and threw it in the suitcase where it landed and unfolded. Rob ignored it and reached for another t-shirt, but Lucas stopped him by jumping in his way and landed on top of the clothes he had laid out on his bed. Clothes scattered in every direction, the explosion of cotton and synthetic fabric forced Rob to stumble back with his arms raised to protect his face.

Lucas remained where he landed, arms and legs sprawled out with his tail wagging back and forth. When he saw his dad space off, he took his chance to get revenge for all of the times he was caught doing the exact same thing. As far as he was concerned, packing could wait. He needed constant attention to fill his childish ego and the best way to get it was through semi-destructive and hampering behavior. Lucas had heard his father joke about how he acted just like a dog, full of energy, needy and then hungry.

Such observations were not uncommon among even the scientific community. Canis Sapiens often took on characteristics of the breed they resembled. Shepherds were fiercely protective of families, especially children, often keeping visual contact at all times. They were known to be the best baby sitters around. This had led to a lot of speculation to the origins of Canis Sapiens. They had mysteriously appeared around one hundred years ago all around the world and no one knew why or how. There was no history of them at all before them and they seemed to change with time. They took on the characteristics of the common dog breeds that existed, if a new breed of dog emerged among the four legged population, it wouldn't be long before a Canis Sapien of the same breed would also appear. Also, as a four legged breed became more populous in a location, the same would occur with the Canis Sapien population of the area after some time.

Huskies had thick two layered coats that weren't suitable for the dessert so there weren't a lot of them in Nevada, both four legged and two legged. Rob looked at his own little husky that was now rolling around in his clothes. He was lucky to have such a joyous thing in his life and would gladly give up anything to ensure he would have a full and happy life. Rob's heartfelt moment slowly faded at the sight of large clumps of white and grey fur begin to spread around.

"Ahh! You're shedding over everything!" Rob ran forward and picked up Lucas and set him back onto the side of the bed. He looked at his clothes to assess the damage. The pup had always had a shedding problem, even the adoption facility where he got him had warned him about it. He picked up a black shirt that was now striped with bands of contrasting white fur. Behind the shirt, Rob spied a beaming smile from the culprit. He rolled up the hairy article of clothing and chucked it at the unsuspecting pup.

"Wha..." The yelp was muffled by the shirt as it hit him and then wrapped around his face. He instinctively tugged at it, but the arms had tangled behind his head and around his ears. He frantically grasped it tugged at it helplessly. The show was quite comical to Rob who just watch gleefully at his inability to free himself. "Help me." Lucas finally cried out and Rob reluctantly helped him, wanting to watch a bit more.

He eventually got the shirt which had changed color from black to a more greyish hue from the fur that had come off of the little furry pup. "We could collect all of this fur and make another one of you." Rob blew at some fur that was floating through the air. It landed on the end of Lucas' nose and he sneezed shortly afterwards, making more fur to take to the air. It swirled around them like a flurry of snow that had somehow hit their home last winter. The dessert got plenty cold for snow, it just rarely got the precipitation for it. It came as a pleasant surprise and Lucas took full advantage of it. He had a full winter coat of fur so he was able to run out into the snow in only jeans and a shirt. The day was spent throwing snowballs and making snow angels. It was days like that which Rob would remember and he wanted to make this last day before he left just as memorable.

"I can pack later." Rob closed the suitcase, still having lots of clothes to pack. "Let's go out and get some ice cream. How does that sound?" He asked.

"Yeah, let's get some ice cream." Lucas instantly agreed. He leapt off of the bed and ran out of the room to get his shoes.

Rob chuckled and followed him out, forgetting about the mess of fur he would have to clean up when he got back, that was for a later time. He had a child who needed ice cream.

---

"The future is full of uncertainties." Lucas stood on a stage and stared back at the thousand faces who sat before him.

It was graduation and as the Valedictorian, he was expected to make a speech. It turned out no one else in his class was even close enough to matching his grades and it was known he was going to be the Valedictorian at around the beginning of the semester. He had nearly had a panic attack when he learned this. He had gone through most of high school as a bit of a loner. He hated the idea of large crowds and suddenly he had to speak in front of the thousands of family members of his class. Turns out putting off any kind of preparation for a speech won't make it go away. It was the day before graduation when Lucas had finally written his speech, it came to him suddenly when he remembered his last day with his father.

"There will be times when you may not know what will happen next." He was shaking and supported himself by holding onto the podium which the paper with his speech on it. He gulped and looked down at the speech. It was short, he didn't want to spend a lot of time up here, out of fear that he would faint. "One second everything may seem okay and the next everything could be falling apart." A couple of other students shifted uncomfortably in their seats. Not many people knew about Lucas' past experiences, but those that did, were the one he felt he could trust and they were slowly becoming worried about where the speech was going.

Lucas heard the shuffling behind him, but pressed on. "It can be hard to recover from such setbacks. They push us down and make us want to give up, but we can't let them win." He glanced down at the ring on his finger. He recalled the one last afternoon when his father took him out for ice-cream. It wasn't as exciting as the roller coasters, but it meant more to him. There was something about taking a child out for ice cream that was so clichéd, but it was that way for a reason. To Lucas, it was the last time his father took him out and spent time with him.

The silence was beginning to get awkward as Lucas stood there and stared at his ring. A cough from behind brought him back to reality. Quiet chuckling came from the crowd when Lucas' ears flattened in embarrassment. Lucas quickly scanned his speech and found where he had left off.

"We can't let them win. Each of us have a time in our life when all was fine, I do. I hold onto those memories and use them to help me keep moving when the going gets tough." The confidence which had been lacking much of his life began to come back. When he began he didn't truly believe his own words, now he began to believe them. He had made it through school without his father, although hard, he did it. It didn't mean he didn't need his father, he wanted him back more than anything, but now he knew that it was possible to move on.

Bringing in lungful of air, he finished his speech...

"Great speech." Lucas' friend Louis came up to him and gave him a high five. "For a second there I thought you were just going to go on one of those depressing rants." Louis was one of the people who knew all about Lucas' life. He had helped Lucas through thick and thin, becoming one of the people he trusted.

"Thanks." They stood in a throng a people who were congratulating each other. Lucas had been walking around looking for the graduation cap he had thrown into the air. The piece of cardboard and fabric had cost $30, he wasn't about to let it get away from him. "Have you seen my cap?" He asked his friend.

"No, but it can't be hard t find. Yours is the only one with holes on the top for your ears." He reached up and swatted one of Lucas' ears which flickered at the touch. Lucas was the only Canis in his class of 50. There had been others over the course of high school, but they always ended up moving away. There wasn't really any problem with speciesism in school, though it did exist, they just never stayed around. The class behind his had 14 Canis in their class, 6 of which came from one family of golden retrievers.

"Can you help me find it?" He asked all the while scanning the auditorium where the graduation was held. There were too many people, he couldn't see very far.

"Sure, I'll go check over by the stage." He pointed a thumb behind him and headed off.

"Now where could it have gone?" Lucas turned around to head to the center of the room where he initially threw the cap. It couldn't have gone far. He thought and nearly ran into a man who had been standing behind him.

"Looking for this." He held up Lucas' red cap. The man was wearing a three piece navy blue suit. A bit too formal for a high school graduation in Lucas' opinion.

"Thanks." Lucas cautiously took the cap and put it back on his head. He moved it around until his ears popped out of the top.

"Do you have a moment?" The suited man asked. The man looked oddly familiar to Lucas.

"Do I know you?"

"Possibly. I used to work with your father." He offered a hand. "My name is Gregory Martins, I was the head engineer at Solar Tec that led the team that created the TitanWeave material."

Lucas hesitated for a moment.

As if reading Lucas' mind, Gregory spoke up. "Don't worry I won't bite." He kept his hand out ignoring the awkwardness of it.

"Sorry." Lucas took the hand. "It's not everyday someone from the past suddenly appears. What did you want to speak to me about?" Might as well get to the point. He aunt will want to be heading home soon and was probably looking for him now. He wouldn't have long before she dragged him off.

"I'm here as a recruiter for Solar Tec." He pulled his hand back and reached into one of the pockets on the inside of the suit. He pulled out a small card and handed it to Lucas. "Solar Tec needs as many bright minds as it can get. I'm sure you're well aware of what we're doing?"

The question was asked rhetorically since it was impossible to ignore the faint outline of scaffolding that had slowly become more visible at night. Spokesmen for Solar Tec talked about how in another 15 years the skeleton of the space station that was being built would be visible during the day. They called it "Humanities imprint on the heavens." Though that was all Lucas really knew past what his father had told him, he tended to avoid the subject. It brought back unpleasant memories.

"We're trying to get people straight out of school. You're outstanding performance in school has got out attention. If you're interested in working for us, we offer scholarships and a very good wage for someone just out of high school. Though." He added and rubbed the back of his head. "If you don't want to for personal reasons, that is entirely understandable. Just think about it."

Lucas looked at the card. It was a standard business card. It had the Solar Tec logo of a sun that was a gear and a phone number. His father had spoken only praises about the company. There was actually very little reason not to take the offer. He had planned to go to the local university and if he could get a scholarship from the company to pay for his tuition, then there was nothing to lose. "I'll think about it."