Page 114 of Force At Third

“Yeah, it is, but you don’t get that I have a way of fucking things up.” He shakes his head. “Too much sun and drink. I’m going to sleep it off. Thanks, man.”

“Hey, Nour,” Gwen says, and he looks back. “If you ever need a break, you know where we live. Come anytime.”

He looks at me for confirmation.

“Yeah, anytime.”

* * *

Twenty-Nine Weeks

August

I wake from a dead sleep when I hear my wife yell, “Oh my God!”

Flying out of bed, stubbing my toe, I hop into the bathroom. “What is it? You okay?” Only to find her unable to pull her most stretchy yoga pants over the dugout.

She turns and looks at me. “Don’t say it.”

I hold my hands in the air. “Not saying anything but good morning.”

“You’re going to say Dr. Chang says everything is progressing nicely, and if the baby comes early by some chance, there’s still a good?—”

“Lil Lockett’s strong.”

She throws her hands in the air. “FaceTime them then.”

“You serious?” I ask, suddenly wide awake.

Throbbing toe? What throbbing toe?

Ten minutes later, we’re sitting in front of the laptop, waiting for my parents to figure out how to join the online meeting.

Gwen giggles when my phone rings, and it’s Dad.

“Hey, Dad, need some help getting set up?”

I hear a bit of shuffling, and then my mom’s voice, tinged with excitement and confusion, comes through.

“We’re here, sweetie! But your father can’t figure out the video. All we see is a black screen!”

I smile, picturing Dad squinting at the monitor, jabbing at the keyboard like it’s the enemy.

“My Mrs. Locke will have to take this one. It’s beyond me, too.”

“Did this crap during COVID, not sure why they changed it,.” he mumbles.

I’m pretty sure they didn’t change it, but I’m not saying anything.

“Okay, first things first, we need to check if the program has permission to be used.”

More shuffling. “The cameras are working, but there’s this little red light next to them, and I can’t get it to go green.”

“That means it’s on standby,” she explains. “Let’s get into the settings. Open the video conferencing app and find the little gear icon for settings.”

“Found it!” Mom voices triumphantly.

“Great! Now, go to ‘Video’ or ‘Camera.’ You should see an option to select your webcam. Make sure it’s chosen, not disabled.”

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