Two Simple Words

Chapter 4

Like most people in his generation, it seemed, Thomas Ashton, although he was constantly reminding the girls to make sure they had their phones with them, had been slow to adopt new technology for himself.

"Dad, I think it's time for an upgrade," Alissa said, looking at the flat black clam on the counter.

"It's cool!" he'd quipped. "It's a Motorola Razr!"

Melissa had jumped on that right away, "Dad. That hasn't been cool for years!"

"But it still makes calls!" he'd insisted.

"But you can't text!"

"You can't even Google anything!"

"I can text!" he said.

Both girls, rolled their eyes.

His two daughters, rarely on the same page about anything, agreed that it was not okay for their dad to be walking around with caveman technology in his pocket. So, Alissa decided something had to be done about it, and figured out how much she needed to make this happen. Unfortunately, even with the sales going on before Christmas when she dug deep into her high schooler's pockets, she came up a little short.

Melissa hadn't been thrilled about parting with her money, for something that was Alissa's idea, but was even less thrilled about all the glory that Alissa would probably get when her dad opened such a gift Christmas morning. How would she top it, or even match it? It seemed the best way to beat her sister this time, was just to join her and take as much of the credit as she could.

They went together to their cell provider's local store and after looking over all the smart phones, decided on a black iPhone 4, with a waterproof case.

Christmas morning he'd opened it and almost looked afraid of it, grimacing, making Melissa almost instantly regret her part in its purchase.

"Is that what's really in the box?" he asked, holding the small white brick with the apple logo on it in his hand. Thomas thought it might be one of those prank boxes like the, "Beer Beard" box Alissa had put his Father's Day gift in.

"Yes!" Alissa smiled.

"It was Alissa's idea mainly," Melissa announced right away, her face looking apologetic.

"That's not true!" Alissa said, correcting her, not feeling comfortable taking all the credit. "It's from both of us, Dad. We want you to live in the twenty-first century with us."

Thomas had turned the box over and over, not much expression on his face.

"Dad! Come on!" Alissa reached out and tugged up on the lid, revealing the phone inside. "We got you a waterproof case, too!"

"We can take it back if you want?" Melissa wouldn't mind getting her hundred bucks back if he hated it. She'd known it was a bad idea from the start. Can't teach an old dog new tricks, after all.

Brenda shook her head and laughed sardonically, "Good luck with getting him past the on button!"

Thomas was still looking at the box in his hands, expressionless. He didn't hear anything they were saying. He was holding by far the most expensive gift anyone had ever given him, and fought the urge to cry by laughing heartily.

"You girls!" he'd said when he finally felt he could speak without tears. He set the box down, and hugged his two daughters, "Thank you. So much!"

He'd been quite nervous about this newfangled gadget that people in this century were mainly using to argue with strangers, and share cute pictures of cats, but determined to honor his daughters' gift by really learning how to use it. He had heard from the grade school girl next door, that anything anyone wanted to know was on YouTube, so he sat down, reading glasses perched on his nose, and watched every instructional video he could find on the iPhone.