“Oh, aren’t you being a sweet little brown-noser?” she teased as she took her first sip of wine. “Let me guess, do you need to borrow money or something?”
“You know better than that,” I said.
“I know. I was just giving you a hard time,” she replied.
“By the way, where’s Dad?” I asked.
Although I knew exactly where my father was I asked the question anyway.
“What day is it?” She asked.
“Uummm, Wednesday,” I answered.
“And what does your father do every Wednesday?”
“Oh…that’s right. He’s playing golf.”
Since retiring from the military a few years earlier my father had played golf nearly every Wednesday with a group of friends. Afterwards they always went out for cocktails and dinner.
“Yep,” she said. “He won’t be home until at least 9 or 10.”
Mom and I continued to make casual conversation for the next half hour or so until I finally asked about her computer.
“Oh yeah, that’s right,” Mom said as she stood up and walked over to the small corner desk where she kept her laptop.
Handing me the laptop she said, “Your Aunt Carolyn sent me an email a week or two ago and I’m not able to open the link she attached to the message.”
“Uumm, isn’t this the same issue you had a few months ago?” I asked as I opened up the computer and waited for it to boot up.
“Yeah, I know,” she admitted. “But you know I’m computer illiterate and I honestly couldn’t remember what you did before to fix the problem.”
“Yeah, sure,” I teased. “You probably just made this up so you would have an excuse to see me.”
Mom just smiled and said, “Whatever.”
As soon as the computer booted up I clicked on her email account and was asked for a password.
“RobertW1969,” she said.
“Hmmmm…that’s me!” I said proudly.
“Yeah, but don’t go getting a big head or anything,” she teased.
As I entered the password I instinctively looked at my watch and saw that it was almost 2:30pm.
“Do you have somewhere to be?” Mom asked.
“No, not at all,” I replied casually as I opened my aunt’s email. “Just a habit I guess.”
I was lying.
Mom watched closely as I scrolled to the bottom of the page where the web-link was located. It really wasn’t a link though, it was simply a web address that my aunt had copied and pasted into her email.
“Most of the time when someone sends me a link to a website there is a line under it and all I have to do is click on it,” she said. “But this one isn’t like that.”
“Yeah, this is exactly like the one you had trouble with before,” I said teasingly.
“I know…I know,” she answered.
“It’s not a problem,” I said. “But watch what I do this time so you’ll know how to open it next time.”
I highlighted the web address, right clicked the mouse, hit the copy button, pasted the info into her web browser, and then hit enter. When the website appeared Mom reached over and squeezed my upper arm in appreciation.
“Hmmmm, someone has been working out,” she said.
“Uuuhhh, yeah,” I quipped sarcastically. “I’ve only been working out for the last twenty years or so. I’m glad you finally noticed.”
“I’m just teasing sweetie. You need to lighten up and quit being so touchy.”
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