"And those three over there are the Wise Men."
Grandpa Joe chuckled and called to his wife.
"Did you hear that, Ma? Those three stars are the Wise Men."
"Aren't they?" A crinkle of worry appeared on the little boy's forehead.
"Oh, you bet they are! It's just that Grandma never got a chance to study up on all this when she was your age, so I wanted to make sure she heard."
The boy asked whether Grandma went to school and Grandpa said sure she did.
"But it was different where she went to school, over in the Ozarks. The school was just a cave up in the hills and all the kids wore animal fur to keep warm."
"Really?"
"Yep, and they had shoes made out of potatoes. And you had to travel in packs to make sure the wolves didn't eat you up!"
"Uh-uh!" the boy squealed and toppled over laughing.
Grandma came out on the back porch carrying the boy's little sister. Freshly bathed, the girl's eyes were closed, lips tight around her binky.
"Don't get him all riled up before bed."
"Oh, come on, Ma. It's summer."
They all sat and listened to the crickets chirp. The boy asked if they could talk to his mom and dad again on the computer.
"It's about four in the morning over there now," said Grandpa. "Your folks need their rest."
Grandma got up to take the little girl back inside.
"Don’t stay out too long, Joe. The bugs are starting to bite."
_____
Image: Evenings On The Porch, by talented Flickr user Lizard10979, used under a Creative Commons license.
“Aw-righty then folks,” he said through his mustache, “we’re going to start in about ten minutes. Once again, follow your team leaders to the designated...” and at this point no one was listening anymore, and everybody knew it.
Afterward Rajesh stopped by Melody’s cube, something he did throughout the day. He asked Garrett, her cube mate, if Melody knew about the fire drill.
“I think so?” said Garrett, with as much certainty as he said anything, which wasn't much.
“She should be done by now, don’t you think?”
“Yeah?”
As they spoke Garrett’s right eye darted between his monitor and his phone.
“Did she say whether she would be coming back after her appointment?”
“Probably?”
“OK,” Rajesh said, and walked back to his desk. Talking to Garrett always made him feel like punching Garrett.
When Melody got back to the building, she went straight to the women's restroom on the mezzanine level. It was smaller and out-of-the-way, and particularly in the late afternoon it provided a haven from the pressure cooker up on the ninth floor. Because it was connected to the restaurant on the ground floor, a fancy place with cloth napkins, it had nicer smelling soap and higher quality paper towels. And unlike the bathrooms on the ninth floor, you rarely heard anyone crying in the next stall.
Melody leaned toward the mirror to check for swelling and dried spit, setting off the automatic faucet in the process. She washed her hands and stuck a finger in her mouth and pulled her cheek aside to get a better look. Today had just been the prep work for the once and future crown on her lower left second molar, yet the temporary crown looked like a legitimate tooth.
“Way to go, little guy,” she said as clearly as her half-numbed tongue would let her.
She ran her hands under the water and dried them. She wondered how long she could get by on a temporary crown. She wondered if she would be able to pay for the crown by the time the bill came. She wondered if they repossessed dental work. She moved to a stall and had just sat down when the first alarm went off.