Installment #15 & #16

Installment #15

 Kevin and Greg

“Greg! You are as nervous as a cat on a hot tin roof. She is my mother, for crying out loud, not the Queen of England!” Kevin laughed as he caught Greg around the waist planted a big one near his eye. Then they both laughed. This was going to be fun. They were driving to Colorado this weekend and work was far away. This was a weekend to just cut loose and enjoy life. “Well, that is easy enough for you to say because she is your mother. What if she doesn’t like me? Have you thought of that?” Greg threw a sweater at the suitcase. “No. Why wouldn’t she like you? Besides I am going to be the one living with you, not her.” He stood behind Greg at the mirror and met his eyes. He smiled. “Damn! Don’t we make a great couple?” Then as an after thought, “ You take the wheel the first hundred miles and then we will switch. Where are we stopping for breakfast? I am already hungry.” Greg reached for the keys and picked up the suitcase with the other hand. “You did call her, didn’t you? She does know we are coming?” “Of course and she is making a big pot of Green Chile for you, white boy!  Mom is a great cook!” Kevin pulled the door shut and heard the lock catch. They hurried down the sidewalk to the drive and the car, ready for a big adventure like the overgrown kids that they were.

Installment #16

 Meg


Meg signed in to her email account and was rewarded with a note from redranger. “Meg, I have news. I will be in Denver next week and I would love to meet you.  Can you free up some time for me?”
Well, that was not at all what she expected. They had decided early in the correspondence that they would be friends and neither one wanted entanglements. Was Eldon changing the rules? She was tempted to act like she had not received the email, but then thought better of it.  Eldon was moody and knew how much time she spent on the computer. She decided that honesty was the best course in this case. So she hit the reply button.
“ Are you changing the rules? I thought this was going to be Internet Only.”
"I thought so too, but this opportunity has come up there in Denver and it seems rude to not meet you since I will be that close and I will have time on my hands. Nothing serious, just a cup of coffee on the fly. We are friends aren’t we? We have fun together on the net, we could surely have a few laughs in a coffee house.”
Meg chuckled. Of course he was right. What was she afraid of anyway? It wasn’t like it was a lifetime commitment. It was a lousy cup of coffee. “You are right. But when? My son is coming for a few days and I don’t want to run off and leave him.”
“I will be there next Thursday, the 15th and not leave until the following Wednesday. When will Kevin be there? I don’t want to step on his toes.”
 “Kevin will be here tomorrow and will leave Monday, so that is good.” She flushed at the thought of meeting a real live man. Eldon had intrigued her from the first email and now she wondered just what would be bringing him to Denver. But that would wait.
“Are you flying into Denver?”
“Sure am. Got a rental car thing so I have transportation. This is going to be great, Meg. Oh, gotta run. We will talk next week.” And he was gone.
He certainly was a man of few words. Meg headed to the kitchen to make a batch of cookies before Kevin and Greg arrived in the morning.

The pork was in the meat drawer so the Green Chile could be made in short order. She had gotten Kevin’s email and knew that Greg ran a pub and was a chef so she wanted it to be good.  It would be, but not the gourmet stuff that Greg did. She took a deep breathe and vowed that this would be a very pleasant weekend. Two days was not long, but it was all the boys could spare. It was an 14 hour drive so they would be tired. But they would split the driving so maybe not. As she emptied the last cookie sheet she realized that she was very tired . As she climbed the stairs she thought about all the bars on the windows and doors. Well, Kevin would know now. Well, not everything. She would tell him she was just getting old and wanting to feel secure. Surely he could understand that. She was living out here all alone. She suddenly remembered the tree and the perfect view that it afforded to her home. Was that just something bizarre or what? Why would anyone watch her? But her last thought as she lay in her bed before sleep over took her was not of the tree, or the path, or any of that stuff. It was of redranger and a man named Eldon that she would meet in less than a week. Sweet dreams tonight as angel wings swept over her bringing blissful sleep.