“They wear helmets, too,” said David as he buckled in.
“Safety equipment is very important,” said Larry, gazing expectantly at Crystal.
“Oops.” She grabbed her own seat belt.
He smiled. “Fighter pilots have really cool flight suits.”
“And parachutes,” chimed David.
“That’s right,” said Larry as they pulled out of the day care’s pickup lane and back into traffic. “Do you know what happens if a fighter pilot pulls the ejection lever?”
David’s voice was hushed. “What?”
Crystal found herself paying attention along with Jennifer.
“The aircraft canopy comes off, an explosive charge goes off under his seat, and he and his chair are propelled at twelve g’s into the air where a parachute deploys, sending them safely back to earth.”
“And then the plane blows up,” said David.
“It definitely crashes,” Larry agreed.
“What if there are people underneath?” asked Jennifer, her forehead furrowing.
Larry cast a worried glance into the rearview mirror. “There usually aren’t,” he said in a cheerful voice. “A very small percentage of the earth’s surface is populated. Add up all the deserts and jungles and farmland. Did you know that seventy-one percent of the world is covered in water?”
Jennifer went from worried to impressed. “Do you know everything, Uncle Larry?” she asked.
Crystal’s and Larry’s eyes met over the honorary title. She wasn’t touching it with a ten-foot pole.
“I know a lot of things,” he told Jennifer. “Mostly scientific things.”
“Arithmetic,” said David with a scowl.
“Arithmetic is important,” said Larry. “You can’t be a pilot without learning arithmetic.”
“I guess,” said David, drumming his feet against the back of Larry’s seat.
“Anybody up for South Park Mall?” asked Larry.
“Milkshakes,” sang David.
Jennifer sat straight up, looking to Crystal. “Can we?”
AT THE ELECTRONICS STORE, Larry urged David toward the toy section, leaving Crystal alone with Jennifer.
“Do any of your friends have cell phones?” Crystal asked, as they slowed beside the display case.
“Melinda Bergman has the AS-207, so she can take pictures. And Alicia Wong has a Blingbot. But her parents are rich.”
“Have you ever thought you might like one?”
Jennifer looked at her curiously. They both knew Amber wasn’t into extravagant gifts, and Grandma thought a land line worked perfectly fine, thank you very much.
“I was thinking,” said Crystal, lifting a slim, pearlescent pink model. “That having one might be handy.”
“Mom would just say no,” Jennifer sighed, her attention going to the shiny black one at the far end.
Good taste, that girl. It was top of the line.
“It would be very practical,” Crystal continued. “Like, I could call you. And you could call me. It wouldn’t matter where you were, or what you were doing.”
Jennifer looked at her, a light obviously going on in her brain. “Like when Mom was late or something.”
“Yeah,” Crystal admitted. “If Mom was ever late.”
Jennifer chewed her bottom lip.
“You could call your friends,” said Crystal.
“It’s not my birthday.”
“No, it’s not.”
“And it’s not Christmas, or even Easter.”
“Mayday?” Crystal tried.
“It’s June,” said Jennifer.
“Special Secret Surprise Present Day?”
Jennifer giggled.
“I just decided when that should be,” said Crystal. “Right now.”
Jennifer looked at the phones and sobered.
Crystal crouched down so that they were eye level. “We both know your dad can be unpredictable.”
The young girl nodded.
“So, just in case. Just for emergencies, like when you practice fire drills at school. Mostly you’ll be calling your friends at recess. But we can put my phone number on a speed dial button. And you can call me. Anytime.”
“Like, if David has a bad dream. And Mommy won’t wake up?”
“Sure,” said Crystal, forced to blink back tears for a second.
Jennifer nodded. “David might need you.”
“He might,” said Crystal. “And he’s too young to take care of a phone.”
Jennifer nodded again.
“So, does it seem like a good idea to you?”
“Melinda Bergman would sure be surprised.”
“She will,” Crystal agreed with a smile, just as Larry and David appeared.
“So, tell me,” said Larry. “Which is the coolest phone here?”
Jennifer’s shoulders squared, and her chest puffed out ever so slightly. She pointed to the slim black phone with the touch screen.
“Excellent taste,” said Larry, lifting it up.
Crystal silently and sarcastically thanked him very much on behalf of her credit card provider. It was going to take her a few months to pay the darn thing off. Still, if it meant Jennifer would keep it charged and with her, it was worth it. You couldn’t put a price on safety.
“The LG-Quantum it is,” said Larry, flagging down a sales clerk.
Before Crystal knew what was happening, Larry had handed over his credit card.
“Oh, no, you don’t,” she muttered to him, following one clerk toward the cash register, while another walked Jennifer to a demonstration counter to go over the phone instructions.
“You said I could,” Larry countered, putting an arm around her shoulders to slow her down.
“I did not.”
“You said I couldn’t spend money on you unless we were dating.”
“That’s ridicu-”
“Well, we’re dating now.” His voice went lower. “By any benchmark, we are totally dating.”
“I never said you could spend money on my niece.”
“The phone’s not for your niece. It’s for you. To give you piece of mind.”
“That’s the lamest, most convoluted-”
“Most logical argument you’ve ever heard.” He talked right overtop of her.
“Would you care for one of our prepaid plans?” asked the clerk.
“Yes,” said Larry.
“No,” said Crystal.
“There’s a fifteen percent discount on plans over twelve months.”
“Sounds good,” said Larry.
Crystal gritted her teeth. “I’m paying you back.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, good luck with that.”
“You are impossible.”
He nodded toward the kids. “Look.”
Jennifer stood with rapt attention, watching the phone demonstration. The clerk handed her the phone, letting her try something. Another phone, somewhere in the store, rang, and she grinned.
Then her phone made a chiming noise, followed by a screeching rock song.
“Pick that one,” said David.
Jennifer shook her head, while the ring switched to symphony music.
“Your card, sir,” said the sales clerk, and Crystal admitted defeat.
Jennifer had her phone. That was the important thing. And Crystal would figure out how to pay Larry back somehow.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
AFTER THEY PURCHASED THE phone, Larry wanted to make sure that David didn’t feel left out. So he’d offered everybody a ride in his airplane.
Crystal graciously wedged into the backseat with Jennifer, and David spent the entire hour in the copilot’s seat with his nose pressed up against the glass.
Afterward, they stopped for burgers at a fast food restaurant. It was nearly bedtime when they stumbled laughing up the stairs to Crystal’s apartment.
“Can Rufus sleep on my bed again?” David called as they piled through the doorway.
Feeling unaccountably good, Larry draped his arm loosely around Crystal’s shoulders. Then he stopped short at the sight of Crystal’s mother standing in the kitchen.
She took in Crystal and the kids, and then her gaze stopped on Larry.
“Larry Grosso,” she confirmed, her expression not nearly as welcoming as it had been the last time they talked.