LELLO

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The doorbell rings, the electronic chime echoing throughout the house. Alicia's eyes open, disoriented at first, then realising the time is late in the morning. She has slept in longer than usual, missing her routine training regime.

"Fuck," she says, hating missing even one session, then recalls, Was that the door?

She rolls out of bed and stumbles down the stairs, opening the front door to find a large box at her feet. She picks it up and brings it to the kitchen placing it on the breakfast table. Alicia reads the label. The brand is LELLO and it is addressed to Julian. She steps back, the thought of confronting any activity related to her son too painful. 

It was she who set Julian up with his first Lello trading account. At fourteen years old, he'd been pestering her to let him buy and sell Tithion XUSB sticks. He wanted to configure these wireless storage devices so the AR gamers can use them to play certain games. She gave him two hundred dollars to spend, never expecting he'd make a profit. Then AR gaming blew up, kids who couldn't quite set these things up spent big bucks on pre-configured devices, and Julian ended up making a small fortune.

She made Julian promise not to tell his father. She knew Nathan would want to exploit this and push Julian for more. As a mother, she understood this was just a fad, and when Julian got bored of it, which in the end he did, it would only have caused conflict and disappointment. 

A high pitched sound vibrates the window. Sounding like a swarm of bees, the familiar noise zooms past outside, crosses over her house and settles at the front door. The doorbell chimes again, the tone emanating throughout the integrated house audio system. She checks the door again and finds another drone-delivered package, this time half the size. Again it is addressed to Julian. She unpacks the smaller box and finds it contains an electronic device, something called a logical switch. Alicia pauses, deciding to make a coffee instead. 

"Short black, please."

"WOULD YOU LIKE VERY COARSE," says the Falzone expresso machine loudly, "COARSE, MEDIUM-COARSE, MEDIUM..."

"How about you turn down the volume?"

The voice amplification decreases, "Fine, very fine ..."

"Fine," she yells.

The machine grinds the beans as per her request. She twists the portafilter handle in place and the brew pours into the cup. When ready, Alicia picks up the cup and takes it to the table, sits down and stares at the larger Lello box.

It crosses her mind that Nathan might be responsible for this, but she struggles making sense as to why he would do this. She studies the label, making sure it's meant to be shipped to her son, concluding that Julian may have ordered these recently and that the shipment had been delayed. 

The doorbell rings.

"Fuck this," she curses as she rushes back to the door, opens it to discover a human standing there. The young woman has purple hair with carefully coiffed layers and bangs, and seems nervous as hell.

"Hi..., I'm... Melissa," says the girl.

Alicia waits for more information, unnerving the visitor further.

"I'm looking for the Caveman," she says, adding an awkward smile. "He's not here by any chance?

Nathan?

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