J
“Here, sweetheart. Have an orange. I peeled it for you.”
“Thanks, Gram.”
“Did you find a way to get the chickens in the coop without running?”
“Yes. I built this.” I show her a cage with a door made of flexible plastic rods. “I saw it on the internet. This long part down here keeps the rods in place so the chickens can go in but not out.”
“Wow! What a fantastic contraption.”
“It wasn’t my idea.”
“Yes, but someday, you’ll have a big idea, and someone will share your idea with THEIR friends.”
I grin. “I already have an idea. I want to make an app.”
“How lovely.” She kisses me on the head. “Sometimes I think God slowed down your heart so He could speed up your mind.” Gran puts the tangerine in my hand. “Now eat up. Cheers!”
“Cheers!” I laugh and tap the tangerine slice against hers.
“Did she just say something about tangerines?” a dark voice says, pulling me from my dreams and into reality.
“Did you understand her?”
“It sounded like gibberish to me.”
“I heard tangerines too,” someone else says.
“What does it mean when someone wants tangerines in their dreams?”
“How the hell am I supposed to know?”
“I think Martina brought oranges yesterday. I can bring them up and waft them under her nose.”
“Zane, don’t do that.”
“By the way, oranges and tangerines are different things.”
“What are you? The tangerine police? Screw off, Sol.”
“Get out. All of you.” The words boom without ever being loud, and I know exactly who spoke.
“But Finn…”
“Wake her and I’ll?—”
“Rearrange our teeth?” someone whispers.
“Use our intestines as jump rope?”
Finn growls, the threat unspoken but just as deadly as their suggestions.
“Okay, okay. We’re leaving.”
Footsteps patter and then quiet settles in the room.
“Does she normally stay unconscious for this long?” Finn asks.
