Chapter 3

Dana's first week in my life. Every day she was over. Every day, Mizz Lee queried me.

"Are you SURE, Edward? All you have to do is say 'no'."

"Mizz Lee, she's INTERESTING. Good kid."

"Yes, she is a good kid, Edward, and I find myself feeling inadequate to provide for her the things she will need. Monday we will see about getting her back in school. Once more, though, Edward – Are you certain that you don't mind?"

"I don't mind. She'll probably get bored with me pretty quickly when she starts school." And to myself, I admitted that I didn't like that thought at all. Dana is several orders of magnitude above the cat in alleviating loneliness that I didn't know I had.

You can bet one thing, though. We had waffles.

Tuesday morning she was over at seven, still in pajamas, carrying Mizz Lee's waffle iron.

"We need two of 'em," she said. "Throughput. The waffle iron is the bottleneck."

"Huh?"

"Once you get the batter made, then you're at a waffle every two minutes. I want two. You want two. Gramma wants two. So I brought her iron."

It was then a matter of her bumping into me in the kitchen as I whipped eggs, made batter, then we turned out a stack of the darned things. She called Mizz Lee to come over and share the bounty.

At the table, Dana looked at me. "Beats those toaster things, don't you think?"

"Does indeed, little one," I said.

"Gramma, he was eating toaster waffles. Told me it wasn't worth the trouble to make THESE."

"Not for one, Mizz Lee," I said. "But for sharing with friends, it's great."

"Don't let her push you around, Edward," Mizz Lee said.

Dana's smile was sublime. "Was a good push, though, wasn't it, Ed?"

"Yes, Dana. You get to be right."

"I am right a lot, Ed."

"Don't brag, Dana," Mizz Lee said. "It is uncomely."

"Uncomely," Dana repeated. "That's one of the happy things about Gramma being an English teacher. She has an actual vocabulary. Gramma, I love that. I love that you care about things like language and education."

"I just wish you to be a properly educated young lady."

"I shall be," Dana smiled.

After breakfast, we sent Mizz Lee home while we tidied up the kitchen. Mizz Lee likes her cup of tea and newspaper. For me, it's coffee and the Internet.

"Lemme go change clothes," Dana said. "I'll be back."

And that's how the week worked. I don't usually sleep late anyway, so every morning I get a text–"Breakfast time"–and Dana's at the door. By the third iteration, I gave her a key.

She clutched it in her hands. "You gotta trust me a lot to do this. I mean, I could walk in on you and some bimbo..."

"I don't do bimbos."

"I could haul in a horde of bikers and rob you blind..."

"You wouldn't do that."

"You trust me."

"I shouldn't?"

"No. That's not it. I believe you should. But you just sort of announce it."

"Another thing," I said.

"Another thing?"

"Yes. Here." I pushed a white box across the sofa to her.

She squealed. "This is an iPhone! Ed!"

"I got the newest one. I kept the older one for a backup. You can use it."

"But ... Cellphone account."

"Too late. I activated it on mine. Cost me ten bucks a month."

She just opened the box and held the thing in her hands.

"I thought every fourteen year old girl had to have a cellphone..."

"Yeah, right. Not with Mom. And I was gonna kind of feel out Gramma."

"I asked her if it was okay, already. There's your answer."

"But Ed..."

"Dana, it's no big deal. The thing was sitting in my drawer. I thought you might need one. The ten bucks is nothing." The bounce across the sofa ending with Dana planting a kiss on my lips? That was definitely something.

It was a short kiss. Maybe like a friend would get.

She pulled back, shook her head. "Maybe I got carried away." She suddenly looked shy, tentative. "But seriously, Ed ... Thank you."

"You're my friend and neighbor, Dana. I'm just trying to help you and your gramma."

"I don't have anybody to call except you, Ed."

"That's fine with me. Now, it's wiped clean, so you need to set it up."

"Come sit by me and watch." She patted the sofa next to her. "I promise self-restraint."

I slid over. "It's easy. Just hold the button down for a couple of seconds so it knows you're serious, then let it go."

She did that. Squealed when the Apple logo appeared. Followed instructions on the screen.

"Call me," she said.

I whipped out my own iPhone and woke Siri up. "Call Dana."

"Calling Dana, mobile," Siri replied.

A few seconds later, Dana's phone rang. I've spent a lot more money for a lot less payback than the smile on her face. She pushed the 'Answer' button. Side by side on the sofa, we said 'Hi' to each other, then she hung up.

"Now let me show you how to put that number in your phone book."

After mine, we put in her gramma's phone number. "There. Now, let's set up your email..."

"I don't have email."

"Okay," I said. "We can fix that."

Twenty minutes later she had an email account active on her cellphone. "Go get your laptop and we'll set it up there, too."

She bounced out the door. When she came back, Mizz Lee was with her.

"You gave her this phone, Edward?"

"Yes, ma'am," I said. "I kept it as a spare when I got the new one. It was just sitting there. And I put her on my phone plan."

"How much did that cost?"

"Ten bucks a month," I said. "Next to nothing. Got a year's payback when she smiled."

"Edward, you gave her a laptop and a phone..."

"Mizz Lee, it's stuff that would've stayed on the shelf. Giving it to Dana is the best use I could've gotten out of it."

"Don't spoil her, Edward," she said.

"He's not spoiling me, Gramma," Dana said. "And I am very thankful. I didn't want you to have to pay..."

"I would have gotten you those things. At least the computer, Dana. I don't know about the phone."

"Kids her age have phones, Mizz Lee," I said.

"Oh, I know ... Edward, I don't want her to be one of those children wandering around with their faces in their electronic devices."

"Oh, Gramma, I won't be like that," Dana assured her.

Mizz Lee touched Dana's head lightly. "Dear, don't take advantage of good people. Edward is a good person."

"I won't, Gramma. He told you that he likes having me around."

I'd said that to Mizz Lee because at every turn, she asked me if Dana was being a pest.

"Well, I will go to the Bridge Club this morning, then have lunch with the girls," Mizz Lee said.

"Keep it under three margaritas, Mizz Lee," I laughed. "You know how you ladies party!"

Mizz Lee gave me a glare, entirely in jest. "I will show self-restraint, Edward. And perhaps you ought to think about learning bridge."

"Thank you for the invitation, but we've had this talk."

"I know, Edward. One day you may relent. Dana, listen to what Edward says. I will see you this evening." She left, leaving Dana smiling, holding her laptop.

"Okay," Dana said. "I've seen us set up email on my phone. Is the computer harder?"

"Not any more," I said. "It's a Mac, and they've made things very easy for you. Sit down and boot it up."

"D'ya know what 'boot up' means? I don't, but you work on this stuff."

I explained some computer history that I'd learned. "Of course, all that was way before I came along. Computers weren't nearly as easy to use. Us IT guys were almost like a priesthood, keeping secrets that mere mortals couldn't handle. It's still like that sometimes."

"But you do it, huh? Gramma says you're smart."

"Your gramma was the best teacher I had in school."

"She taught English and literature, not computer stuff."

"I know. But sitting in her class was a great thing. She loved her subject and loved her pupils and wanted us to not only learn the subject, but to LOVE the subject like she does."

"Like you do about your work," Dana said.

"Me?!? Yeah, I guess that most of the time I love what I do."

"It shows. You're not a bad teacher yourself. You're teaching me this stuff and you're teaching me about reading and music. We don't just listen, we talk about it."

By Wednesday we'd sorted out Thanksgiving plans. Mizz Lee was going to join some of the other seniors with whom she played bridge and I was going to go visit my sister and her family.

"Dana's welcome to come with me," I told Mizz Lee. "Sis has kids. One of 'em's fourteen. My niece."

"What do YOU want to do, Dana? You're certainly welcome to accompany me," Mizz Lee said.

"I would be the only kid there."

"You'd be the only one under sixty-five there, dear."

"Ed says it's okay, so I'll go with Ed."

"You're sure you don't mind, Ed?"

"Nope. Like having her around."

Beautiful day. I said something about photography, ended up with my camera and tripod and lenses and Dana loaded in the car, headed to a bluff overlooking the ship channel. Actually, the bluff had the ship channel on one side and the marsh on the other and I have a telephoto lens that lets me do some long shots.

We packed a cooler with some sodas and some snacks and hit the road.

"You like having me around, don't you, Ed?"

I looked sideways at her. "Well, yeah ... otherwise I wouldn't have invited you along. Your gramma keeps asking if you're a problem. Problem is that I am getting used to having you around."

"Why is that a problem?"

"Because you're half my age and Monday you're going to a new school full of kids your age and you'll have new friends. By next weekend there will be a whole list of things for Dana to do, and hanging around with me isn't going to be on the list."

"You really think that?"

"I understand reality, Dana. You're fourteen..."

"What's that got to do with it?"

"Fourteen year olds..."

"Stereotypes..."

"Okay, then where's this heading?"

"I wouldn't keep coming over if I didn't like you."

"Okay. And I like you."

"I said 'girlfriend – boyfriend'."

"Only for a certain limit of the term, baby..."

"You call me 'baby'. What's that mean?"

"That I like you more than some random teen. You're my friend. Maybe more?"

"How much more?"

"More. Friend. More. The amount of time we spend together..."

"I'd be at Gramma's, bothering her. I love 'er to pieces, and I am very grateful that she came and got me, but she's not up to the things you and I have done. So that makes YOU special, that you'll make room in your life for me."

"You're a neat kid."

"Kid," she said. She crossed her arms. "Why do I have to be a kid?"

"Not MY fault," I said. "You're the one that's fourteen."

"And you're the one that has a fourteen year old girlfriend."

"You win. I accept that. Dana Wilkerson is my girlfriend. Okay? Now what?"

"We can hang out together."

"Like we don't already?"

"You're the one who just acknowledged a fact, Ed."

I looked sideways at her. She still had her arms folded, but she had a self-satisfied smirk.

"Please don't go around telling people I'm your boyfriend, though. Wait till you're eighteen, okay?"