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“Great,” he replied, finally smiling. “You’ll have to come by and see for yourself. Bring the boyfriend.”
“I’d like that.” It had been weeks and it still seemed surreal. Sometimes I forgot that the man sitting across from me was my biological father. Dale was still wary, but he knew I was talking to Ben, that we met for coffee at least once a week. Ben knew Dale was suspicious and he had gone, without any prompting, and had a DNA blood test done. It was very expensive, but he hadn’t asked for a dime.
When I triumphantly told Dale that, he said, “I hope he isn’t going to try to show you fake test results. Maybe we should do another one?”
When Ben agreed to have his blood drawn again for a separate test, Dale said, “I hope he’s not long gone before these results come back.”
I could never win!
And I knew Dale was avoiding spending any time with Ben, refusing to get to know him. I was ready to lock them both in a room until they stopped the nonsense. Well, until Dale did. Ben had gone out of his way to be friendly and inclusive. It just made Dale look even more ridiculous.
“Hey, can I ask you something?”
“Sure.” I tore off the triangle at end of my scone, dunking it into my hot chocolate before putting it into my mouth.
“I have a proposition for you.” He cleared his throat, reaching under the table for his briefcase. I watched as he opened it, taking out a manila folder. He set it on the table and slid it over toward me.
“What’s that?” I asked, even though I didn’t want to. I’d swallowed my scone but it felt like it was still stuck in my throat. A little voice in my head whispered, “Dale was right all along,” but I tried to ignore it.
“Do you know much about the computers? The internet?”
“The what?” I shook my head, still looking at the folder on the table.
“Well, there’s this new thing… I guess it’s not really a thing and it’s not actually that new. It’s like a place, except it isn’t real.” Ben laughed nervously. “I’m not explaining it well. Listen, I build computers. That’s what I do. You can do a lot of things with computers and some day they’re going to be an integral part of our lives. They’re going to be like TVs. Everyone will have one.”
“You think so?” I frowned. Just this year the library had put computers in. They had card catalogs still, but you could also look books up on their computers. I hadn’t used them much. It felt too science fiction to me.
“One of the things people can do with computers is talk to each other.”
“Like on the phone?”
“No. You’re typing to each other, not talking,” Ben explained. “But the thing about it is that you can talk to anyone, from anywhere. You can be here in New Jersey and they can be in Bangladesh.”
“Weird. Why would I want to talk to a stranger?”
“Well, say there’s something going on in the news or entertainment. Something interesting. People could talk about it together.”
“You mean type about it?” I snorted. “I type with two fingers.”
“I know it sounds weird.” Ben flushed. “But it’s coming. And I have a friend—well, it’s a business associate, really. He’s come up with an idea that’s going to connect people like that. So we can all talk to each other.”
“Well you have to have a computer first,” I reminded him. The last time I’d seen a computer, outside of the library, was as a freshman in high school. They offered Computers 101 and we wrote code in something called Basic. All I remembered was I got a C in it and had written a program that asked your name, your age, your gender and your favorite candy bar.
“It’s new,” Ben agreed. “But we’re going to double, maybe even triple, our investment money.”
“Our investment money?” I glanced at the folder again. “But I don’t have any…”
Dale was right. Dale was right all along.
“I know you said you were worried about Dale and the money he’s spending,” Ben said. “Look, Sara, I want you to have a comfortable future. I don’t want you to have to struggle and paint designs on t-shirts for the rest of your life.”
That wasn’t exactly accurate, but I decided not to quibble about what I did at the print shop.
“The music business is tough. I mean, when I was a kid, there were tons of bands and music artists making records. But only a handful of them are still around. What happens to them?”
“I don’t know.”
“Most of them go broke.” He leaned back in his chair, briefcase balanced in his lap. “Because they spent all their money on booze and dope. They started rolling in the money and thought the money fountain would go on forever. But eventually the money fountain stops.”
