A Simple Life: Chapter 88 (Patreon)

After the chuckles Briar asks Amos if she could pet his kitty.  He is only too happy to let her.  She picks up Brutus and the pair of them begin to fawn over the kitten.

“Well Avery.”  Cheryl says.  “If you came out to help, you might as well come help.”  She turns and heads back out the garage door.

“Oh.”  I glance at Winona and she gives me a reassuring squeeze of the shoulder.  “C-Coming!”  I slip from her arm to follow her mother.  I hurry to catch up then walk along beside her as she leads me to the back of Amos’ SUV.

“Talk to me.”

“Mmm?”

“Tell me about yourself.”  She says.  The interrogation wasn’t over, it was just friendlier.  “What do your parents do?”

“Oh, um.”  I swallow.  “M-My Dad is a p-prison guard on the mainland.  M-Mom…um…she l-lives with her new b-boyfriend in town.”

“What’s she do?”

“Um.”  I think of a polite way of putting it as I’m not sure ‘drinking and complaining’ really counted as a profession.  “Sh-She’s a homemaker.”

“Ah.”

“D-D-Dad’s got his new f-family and Mom has her b-boyfriend.”  I say.  “I don’t r-really see them that m-m-much.”

She looks at me a moment then opens the back door of the car.  “Brothers?  Sisters?”

“One s-sister, two b-brothers.  All older.”

“The baby!”

“Yes M-Ma’am.”  I say as I look at the boxes stacked in the back of the vehicle alongside a computer, screen, printer, and the various accessories.  “P-Paige works in DC.”

“Oh?”

“Sh-She’s a clerk in the Ehkolie Commissioner’s office there.”  I grab one of the boxes and discover that it was quite heavy.  “My b-brother J-J-Jack…he’s in c-c-construction.  And Josh drives a van.”

Hugging the PC tower to her body she takes it and we turn to carry our loads back to the garage.  “Winnie tells me that Mike is your grandpa.”

I smile. “Yes Ma’am!  I d-didn’t know you met him.”

“I didn’t.”  She says.  “Just heard Amos talk about him.  Sounds like quite a character.”

“Yes Ma’am.  G-Grandpa is one of a kind.”  I say as my heart warms.  “I…I l-love him very much.  H-He’s the best!  H-He’s my h-hero.”

She looks over at me.  “What a sweet thing to say.”

“Sorry.”  I bow my head as I realized I’d overshared like an idiot.  I was so bad at knowing what normal men were supposed to say.  I always ended up blabbing too much or too little.  Sensing her eyes on me I can feel my anxiety beginning to rise again.  The walk in the woods had sure helped but the lack of sleep last night was starting to fray at my edges.  “Um…”

“No need to apologize.  Just saying.”  She says.  “I’ll say this.  Your folks did a good job with you Avery.  I’ve never met such a polite young man.”

“Th-Thank you.”  I am still blushing as we enter the bay.

The moment we make our appearance the enormous Amos is pointing at tiny Briar, their difference in stature continued to amuse me.  “Briar’s a computer genius!”

“Pff!”  Briar giggles.

“She works on robots and stuff.”

“Artificial Intelligence systems actually.”

“I bet she can get our computer set up in no time.”  He chuckles.  “It’ll be child’s play for her.”

“Dad!”  Winona rolls her eyes.  “She’s not some minimum wage tech support geek, she’s a serious developer!  I can do it.”

“Oh, I don’t mind!”  Briar says brightly.

Winona actually face palms then shoots her dad a dirty look.  “Are you going to put ALL my friends to work?”

“Hey.”  He laughs a merry laugh.  “If they want to help I’m not going to stop them.”

“It’s cool Win.”  Briar says.  Handing Brutus to Amos she walks up to Cher and takes the tower.  As a group we walk into the customer service area of the garage.  She sets it down on the counter and I set the box on the floor to the side.  “Let’s see what we’re working with here.”  Turning the computer toward her Briar looks it over.  “Oh my God!  Compaq!?”

“What?”  Amos asks.

“I haven’t seen one of these in ages.”

“Built to last!”  Amos slaps the top of it.

“He got it in a blowout sale like 12 years ago.”  Gripes Winona.  “It’s still got XP on it.”

“No way!”  Briar’s brown eyes light up.  “Ha ha ha!  I cannot wait to see this!”

“It can’t even talk to the new POS system we got!”  Winona says.

“It’ll be fine.”  He says confidently.  “Right Briar.”

“It’ll be a challenge.” She says, her eyes alight.  Taking out her phone she places it beside her and taps the screen.  “Meadow.  Brush up on Windows XP and point of sales systems.”

“Yes Briar.”  A woman’s voice replies.

As the rest of us look at each other Briar turns the computer to look at the side and back. “Could I get a screwdriver?”

“Hooold on a second.”  Winona points at Briar’s phone.  “Is that Babe?”

“Whose Babe?”  Amos asks Cheryl, who shrugs.

“More like Babe’s mother.  Mmm, more like his God really.”  Briar says.  “Babe is just Kayla’s local…”

“It’s been listening in this whole time!?”  Winona exclaims.

Briar laughs.  “Don’t trust computers?”

“No!”  Winona says.  “Geez!  I thought I was safe out here.”

“You are.”  Briar assures her.  “Meadow is only listening when I contact her, and only to my voice unless I tell her otherwise.”  Tapping the screen again she says.  “There are some nice people here that want to meet you Meadow.  Say hello to them.”

“Hello nice people.”  The voice says with an unnervingly natural cadence.  “Always a pleasure to meet friends of Briar’s.”

Amos and Cheryl look at each and then back to the phone.  “Hi Meadow.”  They say as one.

“Ack!  Don’t talk to it!”  Winona waves her hands.  “Shhhh!”

Her mother shushes her right back.  “Would you stop.”  She comes around to stand beside Briar.  “Start at the beginning.  Who is Babe, who is Meadow, and how are they going to help set our computer up?”

As Briar sets into her answer Amos snaps his fingers and mutters.  “Screwdriver.”  He heads back into the bays to get one.

Winona grabs my hand.  “Let’s get outta here!”

Happily I follow along.  I cannot help but smile at Winona’s near phobic reaction to the AI.  Not because it was funny but because it was different.  One of those little quirks that, when combined with all her other facets, made Winona different than anybody else in this whole, wide world.  What someone else might think a silly flaw I found wonderful and beautiful.

“Meadow.  Babe.  Yeesh.”  She gripes as we grab another load of stuff.  “Gives me the creeps.”

“I l-like your mom.”

“Hm?  Oh.  Good!  She seems to like you too.  I’m surprised.  ”  She says.  “What you’d say to her?”

“I c-called her Ma’am.”

“She would like that.”

I grin.  “And I t-told her to g-get stuffed.”

“Pbst!  You did not!”

“I did.” I say impishly.

“Ha ha ha!”  Winona guffaws as I giggle.  “A little sweet, a little sour, that’s just her flavor.”

When we get back inside we find Briar with her nose stuck into the guts of the computer as Winona’s parents stood listening to Meadow tell them about the basics of artificial intelligence.  Back and forth we ferry the items from the SUV as we chat and laugh, our conversation always hitting an abrupt pause each time we enter the service area so Meadow couldn’t listen in.  After the final load Briar was already well on the way to getting the system set up.  Winona and I wander back outside.

With shrug back toward the building she says.  “So much for our quiet little lunch.”

“Yeah.”  I say, my hole twitching in memory of the incredible oral it had been receiving before we were interrupted.”

“How you doin?”

“Tired.”

“Me too.”  She yawns.  Slipping her arm around me she pulls me to her side and rest her cheek on my head.  I rest mine against her shoulder…and we both let out a long, contented sigh.

Once more our privacy is quickly invaded.  Approaching footsteps followed by the snikt of a lighter sparking up breaks our quiet moment.

Lighting a cigarette Cheryl comes to stand beside us.  “Aren’t you two cute.”  She says.

I look over at her, my eyes glued on the rosy bud at the tip of her freshly lit smoke.  Filthy gray smoke curls from the tip to get caught on the breeze.  The tip glows and the smoke disappears as Cheryl draws the cancerous smog into her body.

“Hey, Briar’s got a class she’s got to get to soon.”  Cher says.  “And she was hoping for a ride back.”

“I bet.”  Winona quips.  “She damn near had a heart attack getting here.  Didn’t she Sprout?”

“Mm.”  I hum as ash is flicked away from the cigarette to reveal the smolder once more, that same sickly fire that was right now eating away at her lungs.

“I wouldn’t mind heading home myself but Amos needs the car so…”

“I’ll give you guys a lift.”  Winona says.  “No sweat.”

“Oh no!  No way!”  Cher says emphatically.  “I’d like to survive to see my next birthday.  I thought if Avery wouldn’t mind…”  Just then she notices my peculiar focus on her.  “Avery?”

“Um.”  My breath shudders.  “Um…d-d-did you know th-that sm-smoking isn’t g-good for you?”

She lets out a confused laugh.  “Uh, yeah.”

“Um…um…it’s b-b-bad…”

“Sprout?”  Winona whispers, her arm tightening around me.

I shake my head.  “S-Sorry.”

Cheryl gives her daughter a wary look at my weirdness.

“Sorry.”  I say again.  “What did you w-want?”

“I was wondering if you’d give Briar and I lift into town then bring Amos’ car back.”

“Oh!  Yeah.  No p-problem.”  I smile.  “Amos d-doesn’t mind me d-driving his car?”

“Nah.”  She says.  “Thanks Avery.”  She takes another suffocating draw of her smoke.  “I’ll let her know.”  With that Cher heads back inside.

“You cool babe?”  Winona asks the moment her mom was out of earshot.

“I’m cool.”  I assure her.  “I can’t believe your dad is trusting me with his nice SUV.”

“He’s the trusting sort.”  She kisses my head.  “Hey, since you’re heading into town anyway…”

“Mmm?”   I look up at her.

She peers back, a twinkle in her eyes.  “…if you wanted to…grab a toothbrush…change of clothes…”

“Oh?  Oh!”

“Just sayin.  Sometimes it gets a little cold and lonesome out here at night all by myself.”  She winks.  “All I’ve been thinking about all day is getting you in those nylons.”

“Ohhhhh!”  A heady rush washes up and down my body.  Suddenly I wasn’t tired in the slightest.  “Me too!”

She pinches my butt, her eyes twinkling.  “Then you better start thinking about which pair you’re gonna let me rip.”  Nuzzling in she nibbles at my ear and whispers.  “Don’t worry baby girl, Daddy’ll always buy you more.”

“OH!”

Chapter 89