“Hey, sis!” I said, holding out the phone in front of me. “What’s up?”
Veronica appeared on the screen, no shortage of skepticism on her face. One look at her was all it took to know that we were related. We had the same dark hair and eyes, the only difference between our faces besides our genders being that I inherited Dad’s sculpted features of hard angles and high cheekbones, while Veronica sported the soft, delicate features of our mom.
“What’s the look for”?” I asked. As I spoke, Mick plodded into the room and dropped onto the big dog bed in the corner of the office.
“You know how rare it is for you to answer that quickly?” she asked. “Normally, it’s a whole damn process—I call you, you don’t pick up. Then I call again later, and you usually hit me back with a text telling me you’ll callmelater. Then I’ll have to send you a reminder that you said you’d call, and so on it goes.” She followed this up with a smile, letting me know she was just busting my balls.
“Well, here’s the difference—you’re usually calling me when I’m in the middle of doing work I enjoy. This time, you called me just as I was about to begin work that’s as much fun as dental surgery. I’d rather talk to you instead.”
I laughed, taking my feet off my desk and turning away from my computer.
“Anyway, what’s up?”
“Calling to see if you’d heard the big news.”
“Big news?”
“Mom and Dad are coming into town for a few days.”
“You serious? They’re taking time from their RV road trip across the country and gracing us with their presence?”
“Sure are.”
I was confused. “How is it that you know about this and not me?”
“Well, Dad was the one who spread the news around. And you know how big he is into email.”
I chuckled. “Oh, yeah, I always forget that the old man doesn’t trust texts.”
I turned back to the computer and opened my inbox. Sure enough, there was an email from Dad titled, “Last Minute Visit.” I opened it and gave it a quick read.
“Have to say, I’m a little hurt that he’s staying with you guys and not me,” I said with a bit of a wry tone.
“Oh, I’m sure you’re very broken up about it, Mr. Loner.”
“Not a loner—just like my quiet time, is all. And I’m only kind of joking about them not staying here. Do you have any idea how long I’ve been trying to get Dad to let me look at his back? I mean his son’s a world class ortho and he won’t let me near him.”
“You might be one of the best in your field, Val, but your skill is nothing compared to Dad’s stubbornness.”
“True, true.”
“Anyway, we were thinking of doing dinner here tomorrow night—Mom, Dad, the sibs, and the rest of the family. You in?”
I gave the matter a moment of thought, my schedule floating in my mind’s eye.
“Don’t eventhinkabouttryingto fit it into your schedule. The whole family’s never here like this, and I’ll drag you here myself if that’s what it takes.”
“I’m coming, of course,” I said. “Just wondering how long I can stay, I’ve got surgery in the morning.”
“Come early, leave early if you need to. Just be here.”
I opened my mouth to speak. Before I said a word, however, Mick jumped out of his bed and ran over to one of the windows, barking like mad.
“That Mick?” Veronica asked. “Not like him to bark like that.”
“I know. One sec.”
I got up to see what he was looking at.
