Lynn Patrick - The Long Road Home

“Pizza sounds good to me,” said Mia.

When no comment came from her older granddaughter, Mom tapped her shoulder. “Alyssa?”

Still no reply. The teenager seemed to be in her own world, one that contained only her and her smartphone, the fancy type with a screen like a small computer tablet.

Before her mother asked the question again, Priscilla raised her voice. “Alyssa! Excuse me, could you stop texting for a moment?”

The teenager looked up, brows raised.

“We’re deciding on what you’d like for lunch,” Priscilla explained.

Obviously having tuned out the conversation, Alyssa said, “Lunch? I don’t know...Thai...or sushi is okay.”

She should have guessed. “Sparrow Lake doesn’t have a Thai restaurant.” Though they did have a Chinese take-out place downtown. Priscilla didn’t think that would appeal to her niece, though. Too common. “Sorry, no sushi place either. How about an artisan cheese board with crackers and gourmet salad at a swanky establishment?” She could whip up something with escarole and nuts and dried cherries.

“The Main Street Cheese Shoppe?” said Mom. “I didn’t want to put you out, but that would be nice.”

“I like cheese,” Mia agreed with a grin.

“Alyssa?” said Priscilla loudly.

“Cheese is fine,” Alyssa replied.

Though the girl didn’t look up from her phone, which had beeped again.

In the rearview mirror, Priscilla saw Mom frown at Alyssa before turning to her younger sister. “Is something important going on? I mean, with your sister’s phone messages?”

“Nah, just the usual stupid gossip with her friends.” Mia gave a heavy, put-out sigh. “Alyssa’s addicted to her phone. She can’t even turn it off when she sleeps.”

“Oh, my,” Mom murmured.

Mia slipped a similar phone out of her pocket and showed it to her grandmother. “I have one, too, but I don’t have my face glued to it all the time.”

“That’s because you have no friends,” Alyssa told her sister with a withering glance.

She did listen sometimes, Priscilla guessed.

“Hey, take that back!” Mia leaned forward. “I have friends!”

“Just a few nerdy losers.”

“They aren’t losers!”

Mia looked as if she wanted to punch her sister, so Priscilla was happy that Mom grabbed the younger girl’s shoulder and drew her back. “Now, now. I’m sure your friends are quite nice.”

“I just don’t want to text all the time,” grumbled Mia as they pulled up in front of the cheese store. “I like to play games. Have you seen Furious Falcons Nightmare?”

“I have to admit I haven’t even seen Furious Falcons,” Mom told her.

As they entered the cheese store, Mia was happily explaining the ups and downs of the game to her grandmother.

Now if they could only get Alyssa halfway interested in something other than texting her friends.

They had barely claimed a table inside when Priscilla noticed Will Berger on the walkway outside the shop. In his early seventies, he had emphysema and so was pushing a portable oxygen tank on wheels. At the moment, he’d stopped and was swaying slightly as if he was having difficulties.

“Uh-oh, I think he’s got a problem breathing,” Priscilla muttered and raced outside. “Mr. Berger, are you okay?”

The man gave her a dark look in response.

“You can come inside my shop.”

“I don’t like cheese!”

“I meant you can sit for a while and can catch your breath.”

He shook his head. “Women always think they know everything.” With that he tottered on, pushing his oxygen tank and muttering, “And now they’re taking over our businesses, too!”

Which left Priscilla gaping after him for a moment before going back inside.

“Is everything all right?” Mom asked.

“Apparently. All but his rudeness. I simply offered him some help.”

“Berger is like that with everyone,” Mom said. “Once he came in the library looking for some old book that we’d retired because it was falling apart. You wouldn’t believe the way he insulted me, as if I’d personally made it impossible for him to get what he wanted.”

“I guess he’s always been like that.”

“Over the years, he’s gotten much worse. I’m beginning to wonder if he doesn’t have some kind of mental health problem in addition to his emphysema.”

“That would be a real shame with him living alone and all.”

Her father had changed, too, since he’d retired. Luckily, he had her mother to make sure he was all right. Mr. Berger had no one as far as she knew. His son Tim lived and worked in Racine.

Thinking she might interest her nieces in the kinds of cheeses and other foods she carried in the store, Priscilla realized her mistake as she looked at them—both were immersed in their cell phones. Great.

If she couldn’t figure a way to get them interested in other things happening around town, it would be a very long summer.

CHAPTER TWO

IT WAS GOING to be a very long summer. Alyssa nibbled at a few kinds of cheese and tasted her salad as the others chowed down. Soon her phone buzzed again. She ignored the disapproving look from her aunt Priscilla and slipped the phone from her pocket to read the new text. It was from Tisha. Luke was getting together with that new girl they’d seen at the coffee shop, plus Brad was angry and not speaking to anyone. Everything was going on and here Alyssa was stuck in a stupid, boring, small town out in the middle of Wisconsin! She heaved a big sigh that earned another snarky look from Aunt Priscilla, then she texted Tisha in return.

After lunch, they went upstairs to change their clothes, since Mia, the silly twit, couldn’t wait to ride the horses out on that farm they’d passed. In the bedroom she was sharing with her sister, Alyssa opened her suitcase but decided to wear the same jeggings. She removed her sandals, however, and slipped on a pair of over-the-knee high-heeled black suede boots. The day was a little warm so she also changed her T-shirt to a midriff-baring purple tank. She slashed on some bright lipstick and threw a beaded scarf around her neck, sighing anew at the idea of being isolated in Wisconsin. Why she and Mia couldn’t stay by themselves, she had no idea. She was only a year or two younger than the NYU students who populated their neighborhood, and they were getting along without their parents.

“It’s going to take her forever, you know,” Mia was saying as Alyssa came out into the living space of the apartment. She was sitting on the couch, still showing Grams the Furious Falcons game.

Grams looked up. “Oh, not forever. Here she is.” She rose to give Alyssa a hug. “You look so pretty!”

Alyssa hugged Grams in return. Grams and Gramps Ryan had always been nice to her. It wasn’t that she didn’t care about them. On the other hand, she hadn’t been around Aunt Priscilla all that much, and, so far, she seemed plenty annoying.

Right now, she was giving Alyssa a studied once-over. “Those boots are kind of fancy for riding, don’t you think?”

“Mia is the one who wants to ride. I’m just coming along.” No horse sweat for her! She suddenly wondered if she could get out of it. “Unless I can stay here...”

“No, no, I want to be with both my girls,” exclaimed Grams.

Alyssa assumed they were ready to go then, but Mia came off the couch, only to scrabble around on the floor. “I just had it.”

“What?” asked Aunt Priscilla.

“My stylus.” Mia tried to find it under the couch. “I was using it for my game. It’s got to be here somewhere. I don’t want to lose it.”

“A stylus?” Grams opened her large purse to rummage inside. “Don’t waste any more time looking for it. I think I have one.”