She slid her right hand up to grab his arm. It relaxed immediately, but not before she felt that his biceps and triceps had become massive sometime in the recent past. Why hadn’t she noticed these changes in her own husband? “Uh, you’ve been getting yourself in shape?”
“I, ah, uh… exercise relaxes me,” he said with an embarrassed shrug.
“Are you trying to hide it from me?”
“Uhhh, it makes me look… kind of funny.” He blushed, “I’m sorry.”
She drew back to look at him, wondering if he were kidding. He really did look like he felt uncomfortable about it. “Oh, I don’t think it’s anything to be sorry for, my man.” She grabbed the bottom of his shirt and started lifting it again, “Let me see.”
He clamped his elbows to his side and hissed, “Not in the kitchen!”
Lisanne giggled. Vaz had always been surprisingly prudish for a man. She’d practically had to seduce him early in their relationship. When she asked him about it, he’d freely confessed to being a virgin, something she thought most guys in their twenties would have hidden. Inexperienced or not, he’d been pretty enthusiastic about sex once she’d introduced him to it. Of course, as shy as he was and as difficult as he found it to even talk to others, he’d never really had many male friends. So, no one to corrupt him with boorish male attitudes she guessed. And she’d been his first girlfriend. He’d really only been out on a few semi-dates before she’d… cut him out of the herd. Not many women would have found his combination of extreme shyness and mental brilliance all that sexy. She readily acknowledged that she’d been the aggressor in their relationship. “OK,” she tapped him on the shoulder, “but when we get upstairs…” she waggled her eyebrows, “I’m gonna want to see what we’re workin’ with here.” She patted his butt and looked into his eyes, not sure whether he was looking embarrassed or horrified by her behavior. “Shall I call the kids?”
He gulped and nodded.
Lisanne said the blessing, then started dishing up the food. “Dante, how did your big Chemistry test go?”
Dante sighed in a long suffering fashion, “Mom, please, please call me ‘Don.’ You know I hate my name.”
“OK ‘Don,’” Lisanne quietly sighed, “how did your Chemistry test go?”
“Fine.”
Lisanne closed her eyes, “Don...”
“Ninety two.”
“Thank you. Why do you make me pull it out of you?”
“Don’t think it’s any of your business.” Dante mumbled.
Vaz tensed a little; then calmed himself. Lisanne would handle Dante much better than he would.
Lisanne calmly said, “If it isn’t your parent’s business, then you need to move out of your parents’ house. I would be delighted to be rid of your surly attitude.” She tilted her head questioningly and brightly asked, “Are you ready to take care of yourself?”
Taking a large bite of his pasta Vaz glanced back and forth at the members of his little family. He saw his daughter dart a surprised look at her mother. Lisanne didn’t take a hard line very often. Vaz had been wondering if the backtalk their two teenagers had been giving Lisanne might be getting under her skin. It only bothered him a little, but he had long ago reconciled himself to the fact that many things that irritated other people didn’t bother him. Conversely, some things that absolutely infuriated him didn’t seem to bother others.
Speaking with his mouth full, Dante said, “Can’t freakin’ wait!”
Vaz looked at Dante in surprise; then shifted his gaze to Lisanne. Lisanne’s eyes had focused intently on Dante who suddenly looked a little pale. Lisanne, still with a calm tone, said, “OK, find yourself a place to live and I’ll help you move out. You can stay in your bedroom until then, but this is the last meal we’ll make for you and if you eat food here in the future, you’ll need to pay for it.”
Dante stared wide eyed at his mother a moment then glanced at the expressionless Vaz. Turning back to his mother, he swallowed with some difficulty, “You can’t do that!”
Lisanne put her elbow on the table and rested her chin on her hand, gazing steadily at Dante for a minute. At the end of that minute he was shifting in his seat. “Mmm,” she mused, “I reviewed the law recently in view of your increasingly difficult attitude. As I read it, at age seventeen, if you refuse to obey reasonable rules set by your parents, you forfeit your claim to parental support…” She tilted her head questioningly, “Do you think that a judge would find our rules and expectations unreasonable? Because, if you do, you may want to take us to court.”
Dante, though he hadn’t put anything else in his mouth, swallowed again, still staring at his mother. He glanced again at his father, then looked back at her. “Mom…?” he began uncertainly.
Into his pause Lisanne quietly said, “Son, we do love you, we just don’t like you very much at the moment. I actually can’t stand you the way you’ve been acting lately. So you’ve got a choice… act like someone we can love, or go ahead and move out, get a job and get on with your life. But you don’t have the right to stay here making us miserable. I hope that when you’ve matured we can be friends again.”
Vaz swallowed the bite he’d taken a bit ago. He looked around the table at the tense faces of his family and wondered if he should say anything. No, he decided, Lisanne’s handling this much better than I would. I’d certainly make things worse. He took another bite and tried to relax his shoulders.
Wide eyed Dante croaked, “I thought you wanted me to graduate and go to college?”
Lisanne closed her eyes a moment then whispered, “Of course we do… But, we don’t want you destroying this family’s peace and happiness. If you hate us, or hate living with us, so much that every word from your mouth must be contentious or derogatory or dripping vitriol, then we’ll all be happier with you free and on your own, don’t you think?” This last was uttered with an attempt to sound upbeat. “What’ll it be?”
“But…” Dante glanced at his expressionless father again, then at his sister. Tiona looked appalled. Her normal pinched and offended expression had vanished and her face had paled. Dante closed his eyes… when he opened them he said, “Sorry Mom.”
Lisanne nodded her head, “Thank you son. Might I suggest that you speak to your family members as you would to strangers? In other words, say ‘please, thank you,’ and ‘sorry’ as if you were trying to smooth a social situation with someone outside of your family.”
Dante gulped and nodded.
Lisanne turned to his sister, “The same issues have cropped up with you as well Tiona. I’m going to ask you to follow the same suggestions.”
Tiona’s face had now reddened. Her lip twitched as if undecided about beginning a sneer, “Or what? Are you going to throw me out of the family too?” she hissed.
Lisanne’s eyes narrowed and her gaze became intense but when she spoke she still sounded calm, “No. By law we must provide support to you for two more months, until you turn sixteen, or we may be charged with the crime of ‘non-support.’ However, we are not required to provide more than shelter, sustenance and health care.”
Tiona’s lip did curl, “That’s all I need.”
Vaz’s eyes widened and he wondered how Lisanne would respond to this.
Lisanne looked sadly at her daughter, tilted her head querulously, then said, “OK,” She spoke to her AI, saying, “Please disconnect Tiona’s AI from the family’s network plan, she will purchase her own connection if she wishes to be connected again.”
Tiona’s eyes widened, “You can’t do that!”
“Hmm, I believe I can. Do you want to check and see if you’re still connected?”
“But I can’t do my schoolwork without a connection!”
“Shelter, sustenance and health care, Tiona. You don’t have a right to be connected. But, we’ll be happy to let you use the house AI to do your schoolwork.”
“In the family room?!”
Lisanne nodded.
“How am I going to talk to
people?!”
“In person. Or buy your own connection. But you’ll need a job, even the cheap connections are kind of expensive and I don’t think you’ve saved very much of your allowance, have you?”
“Where am I going to get a job?”
“Well, now, that’s not really our problem, is it? But you could work right here in our home. Cook dinner, breakfast, make lunches, clean, do laundry.”
“Mom!” Tiona looked as aghast as if she’d found her mother stomping kittens.
“Yes?” Lisanne asked, a gleam in her eye.
Tiona sank sullenly back in her chair, “OK.”
“OK what?”
“OK,” Tiona curled a lip, “you win.”
“Oh, I don’t want to win, I just want you to speak when spoken to, and speak pleasantly. And to help out around here instead of complaining all the time.” Lisanne turned to Dante, “That goes for you too Don, instead of complaining about the lunches we make for you, you’ll make your own in the future, OK?”
Dante nodded, Tiona got up without asking to be excused and took her plate to the sink. She went upstairs, but then called back down. “Mom!”
Lisanne glanced toward the stairs but said nothing.
Tiona shouted again, “My AI’s still disconnected.”
Lisanne grimaced and took another bite of her pasta.
Vaz stared at Lisanne with an awed look.
Tiona flounced back down the stairs. Demandingly, she said, “Mom, reconnect me…” then paused and sullenly said, “please.”
Lisanne tensed a moment, then visibly relaxed herself before looking up at her daughter. She indicated Tiona’s chair and said, “Please sit. Don’t tower over me.”
Tiona went around and dropped into her chair, crossing her arms and staring at the table.
Lisanne sighed, then gently said, “First, you apologize, then you speak to us, pleasantly, like we’re strangers you’re hoping to get something out of.”
“Fine,” Tiona pasted a patently fake smile on her face, “I’m sorry. Please reconnect me.”
Vaz relaxed, not recognizing the false nature of Tiona’s smile or the lilting spite in her request. Lisanne put her chin in her hand and stared at Tiona, saying nothing.
Tiona stared back a long moment, then her bravado crumpled. “I’m sorry,” she whispered, a tear trickling down her cheek, “Please reconnect me.” She smiled at her mother, though her lip trembled a little.
Lisanne spoke to her AI, “Please reconnect Tiona to the family plan… in two hours.”
“Mooom!” Tiona exclaimed plaintively.
“Sorry Kiddo. I don’t want you to think you can treat us badly, then apologize if you make us mad enough to cut you off and expect to get right back on. I plan to disconnect you for much longer in the future if your offense is egregious.”
“Yes Mom,” Tiona said throatily, “May I be excused?”
“Yes, thank you for asking.”
Vaz was rearranging the basement to make room for the equipment he’d ordered when Lisanne came down the stairs. She felt great after her success dealing with the kids.
“What’cha doing?” she asked.
He shrugged, “I ordered some stuff. Trying to make room for it.”
Lisanne tightened a little, but then relaxed and leaned up against him, “Not expensive stuff, I hope?” She slid her arms around him and under his shirt, marveling at the hard feel of his musculature.
Vaz shrugged noncommittally. He hated liars and refused to lie himself. He did, however, not speak sometimes—thus allowing Lisanne to believe what she wished. Usually he felt terribly uncomfortable about it and this was especially true just now as he thought about how much money he’d just spent ordering equipment.
Lisanne didn’t push him because she really wanted to see what was under that shirt. She began to slowly lift the bottom of it, leaning back to look at what she revealed.
He tensed, and then visibly forced himself to relax.
Lisanne kept pulling the shirt up. He’s absolutely ripped! It caught at his shoulders. “Bend over,” she said and pulled it off over his head having to work it loose over his shoulders. Which, she realized, were massive. With the shirt off, he sat on his chair, crossing his arms in front of him as if to cover himself like a shy girl. “Oh Vaz,” she breathed. His body was magnificent. How had this happened without her realizing it? How could he have hidden it from her for what? Months?
Lisanne straddled his lap and wrapped herself around him, marveling at how his body felt. After a minute she reached down for his belt.
He stiffened, “Uh, the kids…”
“I locked the door,” Lisanne said breathlessly and pulled the band out of her hair, letting long waves of lustrous blond hair fall…
Upstairs, as he waited to fall asleep, Dante mused about his family. He hated that they were poorer than his friends’ families. He hated that his Dad wasn’t at all interested in sports and that his friends thought his dad was weird. Some of his friends hated the way their fathers focused on sports all the time and pushed them to compete. But Dante’d been on the wrestling team for two years and his dad had only made it to about half of their local matches, and of course none of the away matches. Many of his teammates complained about the way their dads acted at meets, but Vaz just sat there. Of course, Dante thought, he wouldn’t know anything about wrestling, so it’d be hard for him to shout suggestions without sounding like an idiot.
His parents assumed that Dante’d go to college, but it didn’t seem like they could afford it. Even though his dad had a PhD it seemed like he was more of a lab tech at the company where he worked. Dante’d seen one of Vaz’s pay deposit notices he’d accidentally left up on the family room screen. It wasn’t anything to brag about.
He wondered if he could get a wrestling scholarship. He’d been winning a lot of matches.
***
There wasn’t much that Vaz could do the next couple of days. Until the equipment he’d ordered arrived he couldn’t test any of his hypotheses.
So first he bent himself to the task of cleaning and reorganizing the basement. He went out and bought more lighting, cabinets and benches. He assembled and installed them. Then he carefully packed all the stuff that had been stored in the basement into a single large storage cabinet. Once the space was ready he began re-educating himself on nuclear physics. Once he was back up to speed with what he’d learned back in school he started pushing past it. During breaks he would try to ponder other mechanisms but he had become completely convinced that no electrochemical event could have provided sufficient power for what he’d seen that day in the lab. He worried that he might have blinders on, so every so often he’d recalculate the output of the various chemical reactions that might have occurred, versus the heat needed to melt the quantity of stainless steel that he estimated had been in the apparatus. It wasn’t close, but the fusion explanation just seemed as ridiculously unlikely.
***
Vaz pulled into the garage from his session at Mike’s and saw that Lisanne was already home. He still felt astonished that she liked the hard lumpy muscles his body had acquired, but he certainly appreciated the way she had been excited by it. He came in the door from the garage feeling some anticipation.
Then he saw Lisanne standing next to a large stack of boxes. Her hands were on her hips and she didn’t look happy. “What’s all this, Vaz? Scientific equipment? Why? Don’t you get enough of that at work?”
His eyes shifted from place to place as his mind raced. “Uh, I had a really interesting finding at work. It doesn’t really apply to the job but I want to follow it up.” He carefully didn’t say that he didn’t work at Querx anymore and felt horribly guilty for the lie of omission. Lying and liars, something he despised, and yet he’d as much as lied by avoiding the question. Just like he’d been lying by omission about the money in his royalty account. Even though he was glad he didn’t work at Querx anymore he also had some sense of embarrassment that he’d lost his job. He
knew that most people would be horrified to have been “fired” though he wasn’t really sure why it was such a big deal.
He knew she’d find out someday but he just couldn’t face it now…
“How much did this stuff cost Vaz?”
He shrugged mulishly, not wanting to answer that question either.
“Vaz,” she said dangerously.
He glanced at the boxes and recognized the labels of the companies for the five big ones. His facility with numbers let him add them up and he added a fudge factor for the unknown contents of the small boxes. He shrugged, “Thirty five thousand.” He suppressed the fact that he’d ordered another $500,000 worth of equipment that just hadn’t arrived yet.
“Vaz! We need that money for college for the kids!”
He shrugged and ventured, “I think this finding might be worth quite a bit of money.”
“Come on Vaz. We can’t risk the kids’ education for a ‘might be!’”
He stared at her a moment, wondering if he should tell her about the royalty account? But then he’d have to explain why she didn’t already know about it. Why they’d never gone on a vacation like she’d wanted. He blinked, “I think we’ll be able to get them through college anyway.” He licked his lips nervously.
Lisanne tapped the biggest box peremptorily, “I want you to send this stuff back.”
Vaz stared mulishly, “I need it.”
“You do not ‘need it.’ Your kids need educations. Send it back.”
Vaz blinked again, then, without responding, turned and went down the stairs to his basement. He locked the door behind him and told the house AI not to unlock it for other family members besides himself. He’d felt calm on the way home from Mike’s because of the exercise he’d had there, but now he was shaking again. As he ripped through another set of pull-ups he heard Lisanne knocking on the door at the top of the stairs. She stopped before he’d finished his sit-ups. After the sit-ups he still had to pound the heavy bag a while before the endorphins finally flooded over him.
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