Double Mocha, Heavy On Your Phone Number

by June Kramin

  Gramps scoffed, apparently not even wanting to know what that was. “You just keep it up. I’ll be having you post pictures with my foot in your ass-book.”

  Ellie snorted and Bix laughed at her. “Do you feel the love?” he asked her with a grin.

  When they finished breakfast Gramps took his plate and glass to the sink.

  “Please let me help with dishes this morning.” Ellie stood up and carried her own over as well.

  “Nonsense. Guest don’t help clean up.”

  “But I’m not a guest. I’m a refugee. You have to let me do something.”

  He gave her a hard stare. “Well, since you put it that way, have at her. The dishwasher square thingies are under the sink. Use two of ’em.”

  “Ten-four,” Ellie said with a salute. She had seen a picture of him in the hall in what looked like a World War II picture. War stories were bound to come up later and she looked forward to them.

  “Mind if I steal Bix for a little bit out in the shop? I could use the help hauling in wood.”

  “Mind? Of course not. You two take your time and do what you need to do. Please don’t feel like you have to entertain me and just go about your normal daily activities. I’ll keep myself busy. I should probably make some more calls as well.”

  “All right. Come on, Bix. Get that city behind in gear.”

  “Right behind you, Gramps.” Bix stopped at the doorway and turned to Ellie. “You sure you’re all right by yourself?”

  “I’m fine. Really. You going to ask me that constantly?”

  “I’ve never had anyone faint on me before. I want to make sure you’re okay.”

  “I promise I won’t faint while you’re away or when you come back for that matter. I’ve never done it before and I don’t see it happening again.”

  “Will you promise to lie down if you need to?”

  She held up her hand. “I promise.”

  “I’ll have to trust you. See you in a bit.”

  After the dishes were done, Ellie took some time scrubbing the stove and countertops. She cleaned the grease off of some spice jars and the rack that held them that was mounted above the stove. After peeking out the window towards the shed and still seeing no sign of the men returning, she took a clean washcloth to the picture frames and began dusting them one by one. She made it halfway down the hall when she heard stomping in the mudroom. Bix took the corner and smiled at her, catching her trying to hide the washcloth.

  “Busted you. I’m going to tell.”

  “You hush. It’s the least I can do.”

  “I was kidding. I was going to get to that myself. Gramps is a great cook, but not so much for cleaning.”

  “Well, it’s a great day for it.” Ellie tossed him her rag.

  He grinned as he caught it. “Bully.” She went out into the kitchen and got another one and continued from the other side of the hall. Stopping to admire a picture, she took it off of its hook. It was Gramps at about the age of twenty-five. He was holding hands with a very stunning woman.

  “Is this your grandmother?”

  Bix walked over and took it from her hands. “Yup. She made the best vanilla fudge in the world.”

  “She’s beautiful.” Ellie was unable to take her eyes off of the photo. She looked up at Bix. “Which ones are your parents?”

  He went half way down and took another one off the wall. “This is them here.”

  She hung the picture of his grandparents back up and took that one from him. Smiling, she looked up at him. “You look just like your mom.”

  “Got that my whole life.” She asked about a few others as they cleaned and were done before they knew it.

  “What now?” Bix asked.

  “How much can I get away with?”

  “I’d quit there. Dusting pictures he’d never notice, but I wouldn’t go any further. I haven’t been here long enough to know how particular he is about things yet.”

  “What do you have for games?”

  “You mean not on computer?”

  She crossed her arms. “Yes. Not on computer. I bet he has a closet full of old board games somewhere.”

  “Let’s explore.” He took a step towards her and put out his arm for her to latch hers through and smiled wide when she accepted it.

  Chapter Eight

  “Id? That is not a word,” Bix protested. “According to the rules, you can’t use initials for things.”

  They had found a card game called Quiddler in the cabinet. Neither one of them had played before so they wanted to give it a shot.

  “It’s not short for identification card. It’s a word,” Ellie insisted.

  “What does it mean then, smarty-pants?”

  “The id resides in the unconscious. It’s the source of instinctive impulses that seek satisfaction. Something about being in harmony with the pleasure principle or something like that.”

  “I think I like this word.”

  “You would. There’s something about ego too, I forget the whole quote.”

  He laughed. “Twenty-two points to you. Where did you come up with this vocabulary anyway?”

  “I went to college. Did you think I’m just some stupid farm hick?”

  “Not at all. I’m sorry if that’s how it sounded. I had four years myself and never heard that. No offense, Ellie.” He put his cards down. “What did you go to school for anyway?”

  “Doesn’t matter.” Ellie pushed her chair back and stood up. “You want more coffee?”

  “No, I’m fine. Thanks.” He followed her to the kitchen. As she poured herself a cup, he asked, “Do you want to talk about it?”

  “Talk about what?”

  “Whatever it is you don’t want to talk about.”

  “That kind of defeats the purpose now, doesn’t it?”

  The door slamming shut and more stomping interrupted them. “I apologize for the slam. It’s still windier than heck out there,” Gramps bellowed from the mudroom. He walked into the kitchen. “Any coffee left?”

  “Sure is.” Ellie turned around and grabbed a cup off of a hook from under the cabinet then poured it for him. “That’s it. You want me to make another pot?”

  “No. This’ll be fine. What’re you kids up to?”

  “I’m kicking your grandson’s butt at Quiddler.”

  “That’s ’cause it don’t have no buttons.”

  “Keep it up you two,” Bix replied.

  “We can start a fresh round. You want in?” Ellie asked.

  “I can go for a round while I warm up. You playing ten point bonus round?”

  “Uh…we haven’t figured it out that far yet. We just kinda got the hang of it.”

  “Well, let an old man show you how it’s done.”

  He walked out of the kitchen and Ellie and Bix smiled at each other. Their conversation was put on the back burner for now. They both wanted very much to keep Gramps having fun.

  “Ae is not a word Gramps,” Bix protested, at the last round of the game. “I love you and all, but I’m not letting you cheat so you can go ‘out.’”

  Gramps looked at his houseguest. “Ellie?”

  “Means ‘one,’ city boy.”

  “What the hell are you two?” Bix laughed.

  Ellie and Gramps grinned at each other. Gramps finally gave in. “Scrabble champs, boy. You gotta know every trick.”

  “How did you know she played scrabble?”

  “You can cover a lot of conversation over a cup of coffee.”

  Ellie giggled as she put down her words, the last two cards being ‘X’ and ‘U.’ Bix counted out her points then subtracted the total amount on those cards.

  “That’s not minus, that’s a word.”

  “Now I know you two are pulling my leg.”

  “Vietnamese money, boy.”

  “For crying out loud. I call Uncle.” Bix laughed as he threw his hand down.

  Ellie reached over for the scorecard. “Gramps has a hundred and thirty four, I have one hundred and twenty
three and you have…uh…I can’t quite make out your handwriting, Bix. Is that a seven or a four?”

  “Yes, I have seventy eight.” He crossed his arms. Ellie could see he was pretending to be more upset than he was for fun’s sake. “Let me get your butt downstairs on Age of Mythology and see how well you do.”

  “I love Greek mythology. I’m game.” Ellie stood up. “Gramps?”

  “I ain’t touching that confounded contraption. I gotta go back out anyway. You two enjoy yourself. I’ll be back in soon and get dinner started.”

  “I can take care of dinner, Gramps. I’m sure I can come up with something for you two.”

  “Nonsense. I like to cook. You two go play that game. See you in a bit.” He leaned down and kissed Ellie on the cheek. She wanted to melt. Funny how you can get so attached to someone in such a short time. She promised herself she would come back and visit him later just for the company.

  It took Bix a few minutes to set up the two laptops. He put them back-to-back like they were going to play Battleship. He opened the program and explained the basics to her.

  “Are we playing online? ’Cause the connection out here is shit. It’ll be slower than you’re used to.”

  “I’ve beefed it up. Anyway, this isn’t online. It’s a program. I have all the computers networked together so they see each other.”

  “Oh.” Ellie acted like she knew what that meant.

  He sat down and the two of them started out each creating their towns. They talked and laughed as built them and assembled their armies. An hour had gone by before Ellie realized it.

  “So when do I get to kick your ass?”

  “Bring it on, sweetheart.”

  They enjoyed another hour of battle before Ellie finally declared, “Truce!” She dropped back in her chair and crossed her arms. “That was actually more fun than I expected. I never spent much time on video games or anything. My brothers had a Nintendo, but it didn’t do anything for me. I watched them rescue a princess over and over. Seemed boring.”

  “Games have come a long way. I really don’t mess around with them all that much either, but this one is fun.”

  “Whatever Gramps is cooking smells heavenly.”

  “He is a wonder in the kitchen. Another bonus of being here. I’m going to check on him. I’ll be right back. You want a drink or anything?”

  She looked at the clock. “It’s five already? Where did the day go?”

  “I believe you were kicking my ass.”

  She laughed. “If you’re having something, then sure.”

  “Be right back.”

  While he ran upstairs, she checked her e-mail. He really had beefed up the Internet speed. She wondered if he could do that for her. There were only a few junk mails so she logged right back off. He was back in five minutes with two drinks.

  “Thanks. I checked my e-mail. I hope that’s okay.”

  “Knock yourself out. The computers aren’t just for show.”

  “Do you have any web pages you designed that you can show me?”

  “You’re my new best friend,” Bix said with a huge smile. He walked her back over to the desktop.

  Chapter Nine

  Bix brought up a site he had done for a friend. The main page was a striking picture of an old-fashioned office. There was old wood furniture, antique stained glass in the windows, tiffany lamps, and old photos on the shelves. As he clicked each item, that opened up another page. When he clicked on the old style phone on the wall, it opened to a contacts page. Clicking on a pen on the desk brought up a blank e-mail to send. An old picture took you to the profile of his friend and an old record player redirected you a site of downloadable songs. Ellie was very impressed.

  “That’s amazing, Bix.”

  “This was one of the easier ones, actually. There’s really nothing to it.”

  “Easy for you to say. It takes me forever just to find a picture online when I want one.”

  “Do you use the images tab?”

  “The what?”

  “Come here.” He scooted back so she could sit on the front part of his chair. She walked over and sat down in front of him. “Act like you’re looking for a sunset picture.”

  “Is this going to make porn come up?”

  He laughed hard. “Everything makes porn come up.”

  She spun around. “I was looking for the Blues Clues site once and an ad popped up ‘Some of the best black ass you’ll ever see!’ I would have cried if my friend’s kid was right there!”

  Again he laughed. “Turn your safe search on if you have a kid around.”

  “How do I do that?”

  “Right here.” Bix pointed to the top right of the screen.

  “Oh.” She felt silly for not knowing that much.

  “Go ahead now. Pretend you want a sunset picture.”

  “I was told to talk to it like a two year old.”

  “That’s right. Keep it simple.”

  She typed in “Sunset picture.”

  He made a sound like a buzzer.

  “What did I do wrong already?”

  “Look right above where you typed.”

  She looked up. “Shit! Images? You have to be fucking kidding me.”

  She immediately covered her mouth. He dropped his head to her back laughing. “If it were a snake it would have bit you.”

  He erased the “pictures” from behind sunset, clicked on images, and hit enter. “Voilà.”

  She spun around and was almost nose-to-nose with him. “Show me something else.”

  He took his hand on hers and placed it on the mouse. He spent another half an hour showing her simple commands and some of his favorite sites for information.

  “How’d you get past twenty and not use the Internet?”

  “I use it only when I have to. I used Word for schoolwork and stuff, but I didn’t take the time to goof off on it. I was always outside on some machine or another. I didn’t want to sit at a computer and waste the day away. No offense.”

  “None taken.”

  “I only started using e-mail because I had to so I could get my grades.”

  “Ah-ha!”

  She spun around again. “What?”

  “That’s where we left off upstairs.” She suddenly felt very close to him and needed to scoot away. She stood up but he held her by a wrist. “You don’t need to make a run for it, Ellie.”

  “I’m done on the computer.” She shook her hand free and went and sat down hard on the couch. He joined her.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing’s wrong.”

  “Something’s wrong. Every time school comes up you duck your head in the sand like an ostrich. What gives?”

  “I don’t want to talk about school, okay?”

  “Okay. I won’t push you.” He paused and took a sip of his drink. “So, Ellie, can I ask another question?”

  “I don’t know if I’ll answer.”

  “Having an affair with your boss? Is that really the smartest thing?”

  “I don’t really see how that’s a concern of yours.” He had heard while she was on the phone. Good. “How did you know Fred was my boss?”

  “The day I was there you shouted back to a Fred that you were taking a break. I hoped I was wrong. He’s a little old for you, don’t you think?”

  “You could try minding your own business.”

  “I’m just saying. I thought you were smarter than that.”

  “You don’t even know me.”

  “Apparently not. I was a little surprised though.”

  “Why?”

  “You called him Fred.”

  “And?”

  “Who’s Tony?”

  Ellie looked up. “What? Where…why would you…how did you get that name?” Her voice was shaking.

  “You called it out in your sleep.”

  She hesitated a little too long. “I did not.”

  “Yes, you did. When you were fighting the fever. You wanted a Tony.”

/>   “I don’t even…there’s no Tony in my life. I wouldn’t have said Tony. You misunderstood me.” Ellie quickly downed her drink.

  “You may be good at Scrabble, but you’d be a horrible poker player. Who’s Tony?”

  “None of your business.” She tried to hurry towards the stairs, but he bounded over the back of the couch and blocked her way.

  “Look. I know it’s not my business, but it didn’t seem like it was a pleasant memory. You were really distraught. It seemed like it was a nightmare. I had half a mind to wake you up.”

  “That would have left you with nothing.”

  A smirk grew on his face. “Distraught or not, your comebacks are good.”

  “Can I go upstairs now?”

  “You’re not my prisoner. I was just trying to make conversation. I have no intentions of becoming another corner of your love triangle.”

  “Well that’s good because I don’t recall inviting you into it.” She stomped up the stairs determined to mix another drink good and strong. When she reached the kitchen she put on her best smile for Bix’s grandfather.

  “How you doin’, Gramps?”

  “Just fine.”

  “You need any help?”

  “Your timing is perfect. No.” Gramps chuckled.

  “Mind if I help myself?” she asked as she reached up to the cabinet where she saw Bix get the bottle of rum yesterday.

  “Go right ahead.”

  She got on her tiptoes to reach it, but Bix reached behind her and took it off the shelf. It startled her at first then she spun around with a glare. He whistled a few bars of Randy Newman’s “Short People” as he took her glass and added ice.

  “Thank you.” The comment was for Gramps’s benefit, but she still glared Bix.

  Chapter Ten

  Bix handed her the glass after he mixed her drink and she gave him a nod. He clinked glasses with her before walking out of the kitchen.

  “How’d you like that game on the computer?” Gramps asked.

  “It was fun actually. The details amaze me.”

  “I suppose I’ll have to get a peek at it someday. Well, I have time for a quick nap before we eat. I’ll come get you both in an hour or so for supper.”

  “You sure I can’t do anything?”