It did not. I was tugging on my boots before the coffee pot was even cool and stepping out onto the porch.
“If I shouldn’t go check on his house, give me a sign?” I said to the air around me.
In the fresh morning, I stood for a minute listening for any sounds of life, but only a few birds cawed, and the creek of the tall pines swayed slightly in the breeze, needles rustling.
Nothing. Okey dokey, that settled it.
I walked/jogged the steep drive to his place, slowing when I approached the front door. It was cracked open just a little. I hesitated only a second before closing it the last inch. I wasn’t going to go in. I wasn’t that nosy. I knew about laws.
The front porch was sturdy, my boots clomping loudly as Iwalked the length of it, peering into the windows as I went. Windows whose curtains were wide open, by the way.
“Wow.” It was gorgeous in there. Sleek, clean, and modern, with no signs of anything sketchy.
I jogged down the steps and around the side of the cabin to the big shack that had intrigued me when my phone vibrated against my butt. I didn’t even remember putting it in my back pocket, but I must have done it without thinking after years of always having it glued to me.
Still no service but?—
“That sonofa?—!”
On-screen, a message popped up reading, “Connect to Wi-Fi networkcleverwifiname?”
“Uh. Heck yes, please.”
He did not strike me as a customized Wi-Fi name guy, but alas, the dad jokes get us all in the end. I selected connect, but of course, the password option showed up. I tried the old standby of password and password1234, but neither of them worked. I tried various combinations of Ripley to no avail as well.Damn.
“Ugh. There isn’t even anybody around. Why would you have a password at all?”
Somewhere in the distance was a loud bang. It could have been anything, but it was enough to freak me out of my explorations and send me back to the house. I’d have to investigate another day. On the walk back to my cabin, I held up the Wi-Fi settings, waiting until the exact moment his internet name went away. It was maybe ten feet from the house.
“Stingy!”
There was nothing else to it. At this rate, it would be lunch before I returned from town, and I still needed to get work done. I didn’t even need food, and thinking of the drive made my motions sluggish.
“Blah.” I got back in the car, my sore backside remembering all the hours spent in the car yesterday, and began to make my way into town. Twenty minutes into the drive, I already decided that I would have to negotiate Dad down to once or twice a week tops, but even thinking about it caused my heart to clench with unexpected loneliness. I could hear his deep accent saying,but whadabout the daily Wordle?
As if with magic, my phone lit up on the dash, displaying the map that went out here about this part yesterday.
“Aha!” I checked the rearview mirror and pulled over to the side of the road. Two bars of service barely flickered with life. I pulled up the Wordle app, and slowly but surely, it loaded.
“There she is!” my dad said by way of greeting when I dialed him through the Bluetooth.
“Hey, Dad. Can you hear me okay?” I sat back against the seat and closed my eyes, surprised by the ache in my chest.
“It’s a little tinny, but I hear ya. Tell me all the details. Are you liking the place?”
“Yeah, it’s great. Not as—” I had been about to say, “not as bad as I was worried it would be,” but thought I better keep that one as an inside thought. “—close to town as I thought, though. We might have to cut back on the calls. I’m sorry. Just until I turn inthe story.”
“Aw, but whadabout the daily Wordle?”
I smiled to myself.
“We will still do it. Or at least you should.” I was going to lose my streak. It was over five hundred days at this point. Crap. This was more upsetting than I thought. “But this drive is just too far.”
“I understand. You gotta do what’s best for you. Nothing lasts forever,” he said gently.
“Sorry,” I said. “Let’s do the Wordle before I have to go back.”
I beat him by seconds with “rupee,” but the strain of searching for reception already had my power down in the red. Also, I forgot to charge it last night.
