Page 22 of Snowballing

Not surprisingly, the hospital was pretty quiet. Once we signed in at the visitor’s desk, the receptionist gave us directions to Sam’s room.

I could hear Nancy’s voice as we approached, sounding cheerful as always. She spotted us as soon as we entered.

“Oh my goodness, Eli, you didn’t have to! Oh, and Trey!”

Nancy swooped in for a hug. I think Trey liked the attention, but he was getting to the age where it was harder to read him, though we’d been neighbors with Nancy for almost eight years. She was practically his grandma.

“How you doing, Sam?” I approached his bed, hand extended.

Sam crushed it in his vise-like grip, but still with the usual twinkle in his eye. “This is the only way I could get a break from all the work she makes me do.”

“You cut that out, mister,” Nancy scolded, bouncing back to his side to take the seat she likely hadn’t left since their arrival. We piled the plates of food and sweets on top of Sam’s across-the-bed rolling table.

“Any word on when you can go home?” I asked.

“Likely tomorrow. Just in time for Santa.” Sam gave Trey a wink and a nudge.

“They’re waiting on one more blood test,” Nancy explained. “Oh, I also texted my friend’s son - he’s such a sweetheart - and he’s got some free time. The one that’s a manny on the side.”

“You’re getting me a manny?” Trey looked up from his phone. “What am I? Like five?”

“Oh, so you are here visiting our friends and neighbors?”

He ignored me, and went back to his phone, likely playing Pokemon Go. He’d been addicted for over a year now, and had even asked me to take him to Chicago for a Pokemon festival thing earlier this year.

“It’s just the professional name for a babysitter.”

“Nice, Dad. So, I’m a baby now?”

I did not want to be having this argument in front of Nancy and Sam, especially after they’d already dealt with so much. And I hated to bring out the big guns, but it would be the quickest way to end it.

“If you can’t cook mac and cheese on your own without starting a fire, you can’t take care of the entire house by yourself.”

It was three months ago.

I forget why Nancy couldn’t have popped in, but I was late coming home from the office and Trey had tried to make mac and cheese. Luckily, he was smart enough to dial 9-1-1, and the house was saved, but most of the kitchen had to be gutted.

Parts of the house still kind of smelled like smoke, but I knew he already felt bad enough.

He grunted and went back to his phone.

“I didn’t know that happened, Eli. We must’ve been out for dinner.”

“It’s really okay, Nancy. It was months ago. No harm done.”

Unless you counted the burnt mahogany cabinets that actually ended up burnt.

“Here, I’ll text you Gareth’s number. He’s staying in town for Christmas, so he’s around. I’m not sure what your timetable is like, but I told him you’d likely be texting.”

“Wonderful. Thanks so much! You’ve met him, I presume?”

“Oh, yes. Many times. Gareth’s such a sweet young man. I think he was the valedictorian of his class at Chelmsford.”

Maybe he could help Trey with some of his subjects. That was one thing he did not want help from me with. It always led to a fight lately. Gareth was younger than me and from the area. Maybe he’d understand the new curriculum better than me? Somehow, math in school wasn’t the same as the math I did for a living.

“He sounds great.”

“He sounds like a dweeb.”