Page 94 of Resilience

When she nodded, he put his arm around her and pulled her close. They walked up to the house, its windows aglow in the dark. Tank ran circles around them as they went.

They went in through the back door because that was the door everybody who belonged there used. Sam’s mom was in the kitchen, sitting at the table with a cup of tea, a plate that had obviously recently held a slice of apple pie, and a novel.

“Hi, kids,” she said and signed. “What have you been up to this evening?”

Athena shot a look at Sam. She didn’t sign, but he knew what she was asking with that look: she was surprised his mom didn’t know where they’d been.

Unable to answer her now, he lifted his eyes upward, meaning he’d explain upstairs.

He told his mom, “Nothing big. Just hanging.”

“Well, Mace and I were on our own tonight, so we grabbed Larissa from next door and went into town for some pizza. There’s no fresh leftovers, but there’s still some chicken casserole left to heat up if you’re hungry.”

Sam had skipped dinner, but the events of the night must have killed his appetite; food did not sound especially interesting. Not even his mom’s BBQ chicken casserole.

“Hungry?” he asked Athena. She shook her head. To his mom, she signed, “No, thank you, Aunt Deb.”

“We’re gonna go upstairs. Is Mace up there?”

Mom laughed. “He bailed on us in town. Robbie and Colt were in Pagliai’s, and after they decimated the pizza, they all went over to the Sawdust. I don’t expect him back until late.”

The Sawdust Arcade was a retro arcade of the kind that Mom and Dad said were big deals back when they were kids. It was full of those big token-operated video game machines with seriously terrible graphics, like Asteroids, Frogger, and a bunch of other titles from ancient video game history. It had opened in the summer and was enjoying a nostalgia boom that Sam didn’t see lasting forever. He’d gone in a couple times right after it had opened and at first thought it was cool, but the games were lame as fuck. He enjoyed his PS5, his VR rig, and his Alienware gaming computer much more. But Mason was into vintage shit, and Robbie and Colt, his best friends from high school, were into it, too, apparently.

“I guess Larissa went home?”

“Yep, when Aunt Leah got back from the hospital.”

“Any change with Gun?”

Mom sighed and shook her head. “Not the good kind. He’s got some problem in his abdomen. They’re trying to figure it out.”

“Bad problem?”

“I get the sense that it’s not a life-threatening problem but a humiliating one.”

Sam had enough guesses about what kind of abdominal problems could be more humiliating than dangerous and decided to stop asking questions. “Okay. I’ll try to visit tomorrow. We’re goin’ up.”

Mom gave him a weird, sidelong look.

“What?”

She chuckled. “I don’t know. I think ... it’s fine.”

“Mom?”

Still smiling, looking at Athena, Mom explained, “I think it’s the first time you’ll be up there together since things have changed between you, and I had a little mom moment, wondering if I should tell you to keep your door open or something. But then I remembered that you’re adults, so ... I guess I’ll ask instead that you keep it down. It’s okay that you do grownup things together, but I’d rather not hear it, thanks.”

Sam was deeply relieved to see the bright, full smile on Athena’s face. “I won’t know how loud we are, but I promise I’ll be gentle with him,” she told his mother.

“Oh god, please go away now,” Mom replied, laughing.

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~oOo~

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Tank followed them into the room and absorbed most of their attention for a good five minutes of double-team cuddle time, until Sam told him enough was enough and sent him to lie in his bed in the corner.

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