Claire LaZebnik - Knitting Under the Influence

Again, he thought for a moment. “I don't want mint ice cream,” he said. “That's spicy.”

“No mint,” Sari said. She squeezed Zack. “How about you, kiddo? You want ice cream?”

“You want ice cream,” said Zack, who was prone to be echolalic these days.

“I’ll take that as a yes.” Sari handed Zack to Kathleen, flicked the TV off with the remote, and held her hand out to Charlie. He took it and she hoisted him-with some difficulty-to his feet. “Let's go,” she said.

“Hey, look,” Kathleen said to Lucy as they moved toward the door. “I’m holding a baby. Do I look like a total mom?”

“Just don't drop him,” Lucy said. “And he's not a baby. He's a kid.”

“Oh, what's the difference?” Kathleen said. They followed Sari and Charlie out of the family room, then crept quietly through the house to the front door. They could hear the men desperately chatting away to Eloise in the dining room.

“Listen to them,” Lucy whispered to Kathleen. “Aren't they good guys?”

“Sure, rub it in.” Kathleen shifted Zack over to her other hip. “You and Sari have the best boyfriends ever and I have no one in my life. Are you happy?”

“Deliriously,” Lucy said. “Thanks for asking.”

Charlie hesitated at the front door. “Just ice cream, right?” he said suspiciously. “No doctor?”

“No doctor,” Sari said. “Why? Do they bribe you with ice cream when they take you to the doctor?”

“I don't know,” he said.

“No doctor, no mint ice cream,” Sari said. “Just lots of hot fudge and a friend.”

“Okay,” he said and held her hand as they walked out of the house.

As planned, Ellen was waiting for them at Ben & Jerry's, sitting at a table near the front window.

She rose to greet them as they all came inside.

“This is my friend Ellen,” Sari told Charlie. “Say hi to her and shake her hand.”

“Hi,” he said and shook her hand.

Everyone else was introduced and then Ellen asked Charlie what kind of ice cream he wanted.

“Not mint,” he said.

“All right,” she said. “They have lots of flavors that aren't mint. Come with me so you can order for yourself.” They walked over to the counter together. The others could see her prompting Charlie to speak directly to the ice cream scooper.

“So that's Ellen,” Lucy said. “Nice to finally meet her. She's not exactly what I pictured.”

“I thought she'd have short gray hair and wear a tweed suit,” Kathleen said. “But she's kind of a babe. For an old lady.”

“She's not that old.” Sari gave Zack's hand a squeeze. “Hey, guys, do you think in a parallel universe Ellen's my mother?”

“Yeah, and you're my sister,” Kathleen said. “In the perfect parallel universe.”

“What about me?” Lucy said. “Am I your sister, too?”

“Yeah,” Kathleen said. “You're the annoying much older one who's always telling us to get out of her room.”

“That's because you always mess up my stuff.”

“Come on, Zack,” Sari said. “Let's go get you some ice cream.”

“Just stay away from the mint,” Lucy said. “That stuff will kill you.”

Sari took Zack to the counter, while the other two pulled up some extra chairs to a table, and then they all sat down with the ice cream.

“Zack looks pretty comfortable on your lap,” Lucy said to Sari.

“He spends a lot of time here.”

“We all thought it was Jason you were in love with.”

“Nope. It was always this guy.” Sari cuddled him close. He had an ice cream cone, which he was steadily licking in the same spot, over and over again.

“So, Charlie,” Ellen said, “Sari tells me you like movies a lot. Especially science fiction movies.”

“Yeah.” He dug into his ice cream. There was, as promised, hot fudge on top.

“I want to see how much you know about movies,” Ellen said. “I’m going to ask you some questions, okay?”

“Okay.” He didn't look up from his ice cream.

Ellen said, “Who was Luke Skywalker's father?”

“Darth Vader,” he said. “Of course.”

“Good job. Who was his sister?”

Another spoonful of ice cream went into his mouth. “Princess Leia.”

“With the bun-bun hair,” Kathleen said.

“Shush,” said Sari, watching Charlie. He was methodically eating his ice cream, but he was definitely also listening pretty carefully to Ellen.

“What was the name of the elf in the Lord of the Rings movies?” Ellen said.

“Legolas,” he said. “And Gimli is the dwarf and Gandalf is the wizard and the hobbits are Frodo, Pippin, Merry, and Sam. Frodo has the ring.”

“Good,” she said. “Do you know this much about a lot of movies?”

“I know a lot more than that,” Charlie said. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “Those were easy questions. They were kind of stupid.”

“Charlie!” Sari said.

“No, he's right,” Ellen said “I don't know enough about these movies to ask really good questions, Charlie. I’m sorry. But I’m impressed with how much you know. And there's a reason I was asking you these questions. I have a friend who owns a video store. Do you know what that is?”

“You get movies there,” Charlie said.

“That's right,” Ellen said. “You rent movies there. And my friend told me he needs someone to help him out, someone who knows a lot about movies.”

“Help him out?” Charlie repeated. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, answer people's questions about movies. Like, if someone came in and said, ‘What's that movie with Will Smith where aliens come and try to take over the earth?’ then he needs someone who could say…” She waited.

“ Independence Day,” Charlie said.

“Exactly,” Ellen said, beaming. “And he also needs someone to help put movies back in the right places on the shelves and to restock things like candy and popcorn.”

“Restock?” Charlie repeated. Sari had never seen him question a word before-he usually ignored things that he didn't understand, but he was following this conversation eagerly. He had even stopped eating the ice cream, though he stayed hunched over it protectively.

“ ‘Restock’ means to put more out on the shelves. So my friend asked me if I knew anyone who could help him, and Sari told me she thought you would be really good at a job like that.”

“It's a job?” Charlie said.

“Yes,” Ellen said. “It's a job and you'd get paid for doing it.”

Charlie looked at Sari. She said, “I think you'd really like working there, Charlie. And you could buy all sorts of things for yourself with the money you made. It would be your money.”

“I don't know,” he said. “Does my mom say okay?”

“She will,” Sari said, and her eyes met Ellen's.

“Yes, she will,” Ellen said with a determined nod and Sari thought, Maybe this could actually happen. Ellen turned back to Charlie. “Now, Charlie, if you really want to have an adult job, you have to be responsible about your appearance and your behavior. You'll have to take a shower and shave every day.”

“My mother shaves me,” Charlie said.

“It's time you learned to shave yourself.”

“She says it's dangerous.”

“Not if you do it right. I can teach you. And you'll have to dress appropriately. Do you know what that means?”

“Sort of.”

She gestured toward the baggy sweatpants and the too-tight T-shirt he wore over his bulging stomach. “You'll need real pants. Some plain khaki ones would be nice and neat. And you need to wear shirts with buttons. Sari can take you shopping and help you get the right clothes. You'll want to look nice for your job interview.”

“Okay,” he said.