Page 5 of Guitars and Cages

“There’s a box for that, right?”

“Uh-huh,” he said, rummaging through the cupboards until he found it and handed it to me. I shrugged and grabbed the hamburger from the freezer, and then frowned, wondering what the hell to do next. Had I forgotten to mention to Kimber that my culinary skills amounted to barely palatable mac and cheese and whatever came frozen or spilled from a can?

“You’re supposed to thaw it first,” Rory said.

I sighed.

“Apparently. Now what?”

He stood there looking thoughtful for a moment.

“Why don’t you thaw it in the microwave?” he suggested.

“Won’t that cook it?”

“Not if you put it on the defrost setting,” he responded. “That’s what Mom does.”

“Where is the defrost setting?” I asked.

“I don’t know.” He shrugged. What a picture we made, standing there looking at my old microwave, searching for the defrost setting and hitting a ton of wrong buttons in our efforts to figure out how to use it.

“How long do we set it for?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” he said.

“Well how long does it take to unthaw a hamburger,” I asked, growing annoyed.

“I don’t know,” Rory said, sounding like he was getting annoyed, too. “Now I know how Mom feels.”

“What do you mean?”

“All those questions are annoying,” he declared.

“Yeah, well, I wouldn’t be asking if I knew the answers,” I grumbled. Somehow or other we managed a meal that didn’t suck, followed by several hands of Go Fish before I sent Rory to shower and then head to bed. After he was asleep I tore apart the hall closet, digging for a football, a baseball, anything we could throw around in the park.

Two fingers bruised by an old mousetrap later, I’d come across a scuffed and battered softball and a Frisbee with only one small crack. They’d do for however long Rory was here for, not like I was hoping it was gonna be long, mind you. As it was, as soon as I shoved everything back in the closet, I went looking for the new phone Kimber insisted I buy, to see if Alex or Michael or Cole had the decency to call me back.

One message. Please God, please God, please God....

Dammit!

I hit the button to call Morgan back, sighing as I listened to it ring.

“’Bout damn time,” Morgan snarled when he picked up; caller ID for the modern lunatic, now we didn’t even have to say hello before biting someone’s head off.

“Sorry, I left my phone in the bedroom; what do ya need?”

“You to cover a shift tomorrow night. Jimmy is outta town and that damned air-brained bimbo I told ya was gonna be a mistake ta hire called out sick again, so she’s fired.”

“Well, then you shouldn’t have hired her,” I said, chuckling as I listened to him hiss and sputter in response; riling Morgan up was an art form, too much and he went from annoyed to pissed, which was never fun.

“You coming in to work that shift or not?” he thundered.

“Kimber dropped Rory off morning before last. I’m stuck here with the kid while she’s in Canada.”

“What the bloody hell is she doing in Canada?”

“Something about a transfer and having to look for a place for her and the kid to live. Seeing as how the others were conveniently unable to be found, that left me, go figure.”