Somebody punched a digital phone's keypad and a green light went on;
somebody else tapped a control on his or her wristwatch and lit the
face up.
The guide switched the lights back on, and there was a collective sigh
of relief to be able to see again. She said, 'We guides have a
standing bet that anybody leading a tour group that doesn't light a
phone or watch or even a cigarette lighter or key ring flash during the
thirty seconds of darkness here gets treated to lunches for a week.
Nobody has won the pool in six months.'
Again, the small crowd laughed, a little less nervously this time.
Howard looked at his wife and son, saw Tyrone smile at his girlfriend,
Nadine--who just happened to have the same name as Howard's wife.
Howard resisted the urge to smile at how cute they looked. Besides,
early teens were dangerous, they were either a million miles--or a
single step--away from adulthood at any given moment.
Right now, Ty and his friend were boomerang-throwing buddies. A month
from now they could be either indifferent or trying some entirely new
game that Howard knew they were much too young to be trying. Not that
it had stopped him from trying at their age.
Nadine--his Nadine--slipped her hand under his arm.
'Where'd you go? You just developed the long stare.'
He did smile at his wife.
'Just watching the kids.'
'Feeling old?'
'Oh, yeah. But that's only half of it. Feeling helpless is the hard
part. I have all this accumulated wisdom--' 'You wish.'
'--okay, experience, then, and Tyrone doesn't want to take advantage of
it.'
'You still talk. He still listens.'
'Mostly on autopilot. I don't think he's paying much attention to the
actual content.'
'Of course not. Did you pay much attention to what your parents had to
say at his age? Every generation has to reinvent the wheel, hon.'
'It seems like such a waste.'
'But that's how it is. Rain's gonna come down no matter what you want,
you can't stop it. You can stay inside, go out and get wet, or take an
umbrella, the rain doesn't care.'
'I knew there was a reason I married you,' he said.
'Your mind.'
'That's not what you used to say.'
'Well, I suppose you had a couple other attractions.'
'You mean you used to think so before I got fat and ugly?'
He turned and looked around behind him.
'What are you looking for?'
'For whoever you must be talking to. You sure ain't talking to me. You
better lookin' than the day we met.
Going senile and losing your mind, maybe, but fat and ugly? Sheeit,
woman, gimme a break.'
She smiled. He liked making her do that. Even after more than fifteen
years, it still made him feel good.
