Everyone stood around and looked at each other.
Everyone stood around and looked at each other.
“Maybe you can make them a coffee?” I suggested.
Tex turned to me, blank faced.
I felt a little sorry for him, I mean, I knew how he felt.
“What’l it be?” Indy asked, “Tex is the best barista in the Rocky Mountains, whatever you want, it’l be fantastic.”
“Latte?” Mom said.
“Just coffee for me,” Blanca said.
Tex lumbered behind the counter.
“He’s a little strange, isn’t he?” Mom leaned in and whispered to me.
“He’l lay down his life for you, or, more to the point, for Jet,” Indy answered in a voice that said she meant it.
Mom and Blanca looked at each other.
That was enough for them.
* * * * *
Twenty minutes later, Al y and Kitty Sue walked in. “Blanca! Qué pasa? How’s it going, Nancy?” Kitty Sue peeled off and went to sit with them and Al y came to me.
She handed me a shiny, new, very expensive, cel ular phone.
“Mom and I got you that. I already programmed everyone’s numbers in it and it’s charged. You should text everyone so they’l have your number,” Al y said.
I looked at the phone, I looked at her. I opened my mouth to speak but she got there ahead of me.
“Think of it as a Christmas present,” she said, waylaying my denial.
“It’s October,” I told her.
She shrugged.
“I don’t know what to say,” I said quietly.
“How about, ‘thank you’?” Mom yel ed from across the room, using The Voice.
Tex let out a guffaw of laughter, then snapped his mouth shut and I could swear his cheeks got a little pink.
I looked at Al y and swal owed.
“Thank you,” I said.
Crinkles came to the corners of Al y’s eyes, “My pleasure.”
I texted everyone Al y’d programmed into my phone, including Indy, Al y, Tod, Stevie, Daisy and yes, even Eddie, with my new number.
Kitty Sue left and then so did Blanca. Tex loaded Mom’s chair and bag in the back of the El Camino, loaded Mom in the front, and roared off with Carlos Santana’s “Winning” blaring from the eight-track.
Duke showed up just before Tex left and fifteen minutes after, the bel over the door went and Vance walked in.