Although it's been like two days since Chandler and his father stumbled upon the dead bodies in the wood, Chandler still has nightmares whenever he closes his eyes but he does not want to share that with anyone maybe because he does not want his father to see him as a sissy. He has been doing a lot of thinking to figure out what he might be doing to get the image of the dead bodies out of his head, he tried to just think about the pretty girl his father almost hit that morning but the least he could do was seeing an image of the dead body but this time they all had her head so that was scarier than just the bodies.
He decided that maybe it was time for him to find a job to do, he doesn't know anyone anywhere in this town so it would be hard to get any job. This morning while he was outside mowing the lawn, he saw an old lady that was fighting with her dog. It was a Basset Hound and it refused to move, the old lady have little strength in her to pull the stubborn dog so he got closer to help her. Since he was a kid, he has noticed this weird connection of him with dogs, and his parents told him it was hereditary and some of their ancestors way back had the same gift. When Chandler got to the spot where the old lady and her dog were struggling he bent low and spoke softly to the dog and it got up ready to walk.
"There was something she wanted you to buy and you didn't buy it," Chandler told the old lady as he stood up smiling while still looking at the dog.
"Yeah it wanted one scary doll we saw in the mall but...How did you know that?" The old woman looked flabbergasted at Chandler who was just smiling.
"Dogs love me and they love to tell me stuff."
"That's some gift you got there Dr. DoLittle, you will make a good dog trainer." The old lady said as she was still grinning in amazement.
Chandler stood there and that was when it hit him, he has been looking for an idea of what to do and forgot all about the very one thing he was good at. He could not believe he never thought about this until now, he was already imagining how it was going to be. He just has to put up a sign in front of their house and anyone that wants his dogs to be trained or even babysit he could do that and he was sure that many people will be glad to pay him to do that.
"Thank you, young man, tell your friend here that next time we go to the mall I will get the doll." The old lady interrupted Chandler's thought who just realized that he was still with her.
"Oh, Yeah! He knows already." Chandler replied the moment he came back to reality.
"Okay then, bye." The old lady said as she walked away with her dog.
"Yeah bye," Chandler said softly as he watched her stroll away.
"Dad I want to start a business here, in this house," Chandler said to his father as he walked inside their garage to find him there arranging his toolbox. Mr. Beckham paused for a while as he looked at Chandler and realized he was serious about what he just said.
He was happy to hear that from his son because that could only mean that he was starting to like it here so all he has to do is to support him in whatever he wanted to start.
"Good son, so what do you wanna do?"
"Dog trainer, I will start small but when all goes well then I can find my Shed..."
"No." Mr. Beckham interrupted right before Chandler could say anything further.
"What?" Chandler was surprised because he saw how excited his father was like a few seconds ago when he told him that he wanted to start a business so he can't figure out what just changed.
Mr. Beckham heaved a sigh of relief as he was ready to explain the reason for his answer to his son but right then, his wife walked in.
"What's going on? What're you guys talking about?" She asked as she gently moved to where Mr. Beckham was and rubbed her hand on his bald head.
"He wants to start a business." Mr. Beckham said as he pointed to where Chandler was standing looking at them.
"Wow! That's nice!" Chandler's mother was so happy and excited to even hear that, she walked to Chandler to hug him.
"Wait before you get all excited, ask him what's the business all about." Mr. Beckham interrupted the excitement, Chandler's mother paused for a while and was confused for a little bit and curious to know what the business could be for her husband to sound just like that.
"Okay, so Chandler what's the business about?" She asked as she leaned back to hear his reply.
"Mom looks, I just want to be a private dog instructor and trainer. You know about my gifts and you know I could do these easily." Chandler said lowly trying to convince his mother because he knows that once he was able to convince his mother then she can easily convince his father.
"Son, you're not going to bring in a bunch of untrained dogs in this house. Look for something else, something better" Mr. Beckham said sternly.
Chandler's mouth was open already as he was about to tell his father reasons why he should allow him to do this and his face shows that he was not going to say that politely, his mother knew that already so she shun him before he could even say a word.
"Chandler goes upstairs, I'll speak to your dad."
Chandler sighed with relief as he walked upstairs beaming with a smile because that can only mean that his mother could convince his father that his plan was going to work.
"I don't care about what you're about to tell me, that boy is not starting that in my house." Mr. Beckham was still stiff-necked about what he said but his wife still think she could convince him.
"You know this would be good for him so he could forget about new york and probably start making friends here."
"As time goes on he would forget about new york, I won't like to come home and see dogs running around everywhere because I want him to be happy and forget new york." Mr. Beckham was still not giving in.
"Have you seen this town honey? It's small and how many people do you think would be willing to pay him money to look after their dog or even train it?"
"So you're saying that you don't think it would work out for him but you still want him to do it?" Mr. Beckham squeezed his face in confusion.
"Yeah, something like that. Look, we just have to allow him to do this so he could get his mind off something and get a little bit attached to few people here so he could forget about his friends in NYC."
Mr. Beckham could not disagree now because his wife probably has a point even though he doesn't like it and now he has to swallow his stiff-necked pride and agree so it won't look like he was too pig-headed to listen.
"You know, one of these days he would start thinking that all he has to do to convince me about anything is to just convince me." Mr. Beckham said as he looked at his wife who was smiling already.
"I think he already knows that."
"Don't get too cocky now, I might change my mind."
"Aww, you look so cute" She grinned as she kissed him and he kissed her back.
"Ouch!" Chandler wailed internally as the head of the hammer hit his thumb while he was hanging the sign for his dog trainer in front of their house.
His father just finished helping him in the garage to make the sign and draw on it too, his father was a very good artist too and he made it look very good. All he has to do now is to sit down and relax and wait for his customers to bring in their dogs, he could not deny the fact that he was getting paranoid because he seems to think now that he did not think much about this.
It was going to be a lot of responsibilities and this was the first time that he was going to do something this huge he never had to worry about anything like this before but he needs to convince himself so he finished hanging the sign as he looked at it with his thumb that he smashed with a hammer in his mouth.
"So are you the dog trainer or your father?"
Chandler was startled as a gentle feminine asked behind him, he turned quickly to see who was behind and it was her again, the girl that he fell in love with her smile the day his father almost hit her with their truck.
"Uhmm...Hi" That was the only thing that Chandler could think of on such short notice, he was nervous, he has never been this nervous before even when talking to girls but this was different, she was different.
"Yeah, hi" She replied and it was followed by that smile again.
Chandler could few everything but his heartbeat getting slower, he looked at her and she was closer to him than she was the other day. He could see her beautiful face and eyes and it looked like her skin was glowing like in the cartoons, she looked pretty in the pink gown that she wore. Chandler knew that this was the right time for him to introduce himself to her and know more about her too.
"Hi, my name is..." Chandler stretched out his hand to shake her but he paused, that was when he realized that his thumb has been in his mouth this whole time and now that was more embarrassing for him.
"Sorry about that, I hit the hammer on y thumb when I was...So I had to..." Chandler paused again, cleared his throat, and tried again after he heaved a sigh of relief trying to be calm.
"I'm Chandler and you?"
"I'm Alice." She replied with a smile, Chandler can already see that she was noticing how weird and embarrassed he sounded.
"So...Alice, that's a beautiful name. Do you stay around here because we just moved in?"
"Thanks and yes, I live just a few blocks down. So about the sign..."
"Oh yeah, the sign..." Chandler cut in as he wished that he didn't because he could not remember what she asked about the sign earlier.
"So...what do you want to know about the sign?" He felt more stupid now as he heard those words come out of his mouth and Alice was already giggling.
"We have a dog and I would love to bring so are you the trainer or your dad?"
"Oh that would be me, yeah you can bring the dog."
"Okay then see you later," Alice said as she waved him bye and walked away. She was a bit far before Chandler waved her bye too, he could not believe that he just ruined his first talk with the girl he was already crushing on.
He was already thinking that she would not wanna talk to him again so she brought up the dog story to excuse herself politely.
"I'm stupid" He muttered as he walked back in with his hammer.