Page 42 of The Mayor and the Mystery Man

“Never heard of it. Where’d you get it?” I asked.

“I made it.”

I did a double-take at the screen, appreciating all the details of the animation and intricacy of the world. “Ari. You made that?”

“I took some free online classes in video game design and have been working on it since the summer.” He demonstrated which keystrokes to use to move in the game. “Did you want to play?”

“Yes. And I’m not saying that to be a nice quasi-uncle.”

Quickly, I was sucked in. The forest was a maze, intricately designed with endless paths and holes. I calculated in my mind how long this must’ve taken, how painstaking the detail.

My avatar died a few minutes later, but in the real world, I was all smiles. Ari watched me, waiting for an official response. I gave him two of my hardiest thumbs up.

“Really?” he asked.

“Oh, yeah. I know I shouldn’t curse around children, but holy shit, bud. That game rocks! When did you have time to work on this?”

“Usually when I’m at my mom’s. She doesn’t judge me for being on the computer all the time.”

“Your dad would love Forest Quest. The ingenuity—”

“I’m not showing him this,” he said with absolute certainty.

Honestly, I didn’t blame him. Leo did not hide his disdain for Ari’s hobby. Leo would be proud of his hard work, but I was concerned he wouldn’t take it seriously because it was video games.

“Your dad and I, we’re of a different generation where video games were fun, but not much more than that. There was the whole ‘Guy who lives in his parents’ basement’ stigma. But this is more like computer programming.”

“He won’t care. He’d be impressed if I was getting straight-A’s.”

I sat on his bed, trying to figure out how to broach this delicate subject. Major feelings were on the line. “Your dad has opinions on things. That’s just the price of getting older. You see a lot, so you think you know. But above all, he appreciates hard work. He works very hard, and when he sees how hard you worked on this game, he will know.”

We heard the front door open, and Ari immediately shut his laptop.

“Why don’t you lie down and get some rest. I’ll work on your dad.” I winked at him to let him know I had his back. I’d known Ari since he was a baby, googoo and gagaing across the floor. Now he was a full-fledged person with thoughts and ideas. Time was a funny thing.

Downstairs, Vernita poured herself a glass of water while Leo stood at the kitchen island, staring at the discarded orange rind.

“I was going to clean that up,” I said.

He looked at me, and orange skin seemed to be the furthest thing from his mind. “We need to have a little talk. We got some interesting data back on the campaign.”

Leo sat me down. He looked at Vernita, who shared his weighted look.

I crossed my arms, waiting for someone to break. “Jesus, what is it? If someone has cancer, then spit it out.”

Leo looked at me with dead seriousness. “We need to kiss.”

12

LEO

“What?” Dusty asked, just as flabbergasted as I was.

I couldn’t believe it either when Vernita mentioned it at the office. I thought this election should be about the issues. Oh, how naive I was.

Vernita whipped out a report and slid it onto the kitchen island. “The good news is that according to polling, the numbers are continuing to trend up.” She pointed to a graph that showed this exact fact. Up and to the left. What any organization or political campaign wanted to see. “Leo’s favorability and,” she cleared her throat, “likeability are up. We’re seeing great progress.”

“I’m confused. This all sounds like good news.” Dusty leaned against the island, looking only at Vernita. He had trouble meeting my eyes. “Yet you sound like you came back from a funeral.”

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