Lonely iPad

I was on my way home from the library. The pavement was wet of rain and dirt and my sneakers were already soaked with water. I did not bother anymore to step away from the ponds, so I just walked through them. I looked forward to get home and take off the wet shoes and socks.
I had been at the library to borrow a new book and to get some homework done. I loved doing homework at the library, because no one would disturb me there.
I was the second oldest in a family of six siblings and two parents. It was never quiet in my house. Always someone laughing, screaming or talking. Always someone walking, running or jumping.
I loved my family, but sometimes it was just too much for me. Especially when it came to homework, I really needed silence. Because of that I very often went to the library.
I stopped by the zebra crossing and waited to pass the road. An old woman with a grey coat and two plastic bags in each hand stopped besides me, also waiting for a possibility to cross the road. Suddenly, I heard a rumbling sound getting closer and closer. I jumped away a second too late. Before I knew it, I was wet from top to toe. The truck had driven right through the major pond on the road and all the water had splashed on me.
I wanted to shout something after the idiot driving the truck, but I understood that it would not help for anything.
I turned to the woman besides me. She had also gotten wet. Her earlier grey coat, looked almost black bow.
In the shock she had lost two of her bags out on the street. Vegetables and packages of meat and yogurt lay all over the pavement around us. Luckily for her most of it was packed in plastic or in boxes. I helped her picking them up, wipe off some water and put them back in the bags.
"Thank you so much", she said thankfully.
I smiled. "Come let's walk over the crossing now. I'll take these two." I grabbed two of the bags and we walked over the zebra crossing.
"What an awful weather", the woman said and looked down on her coat. I nodded and agreed.
"Are you going home?" I asked.
"Yes," she said. "I have just been out buying food for the next few weeks. And I also bought some wool so I can start knitting a sweater."
"For who?" I asked.
"Myself, probably," she said. We walked a bit in silence.
"So where are you going?" she asked.
"I am going home," I said. "I've just been at the library and borrowed a book and done some homework."
"Which book?" she asked curiously.
"A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith." The face of the woman lit up.
"That is actually one of my favorites!" she said. "I read it the first time when I was at your age. It is written so beautiful and I just love the characters."
"Cool," I said. "My sister said it was really good, too. She recommended it for me." The woman nodded in agreement to my sister.
"You have a sister?" she asked. I smiled.
"Yes. Not only one. I actually have two sisters. And three brothers. I am the second oldest."
"Wow," she said. "My family was like that too. Except that we were seven siblings. I was the second oldest as you. It was very nice growing up with so many siblings, but it was hard sometimes, especially if I needed silence. The only time it was silent in my house, was in the middle of the night, around 2 am and 3 am. Then I used to be awake and read my books."
"Yes," I agreed. "But in my house it is not silent at night either. We have a baby, and he is always awake in the middle of the night. Because of that I go to the library almost every evening to read my books and do my homework."
When we started to get close to my house I remembered that my family was away. They were at the school for a concert of my little brother's class, and I did not have a key in the jacket I was wearing. I passed my house while talking to the woman.
Her name was Elizabeth Hudson, but she asked me to call her Eliza. She lived alone in a small flat, not far away from my house. She would not tell me her age, but she laughed and said that she was more than seventy, but not eighty yet.
I followed her to the door, and she asked if I had time to drink a cup of tea with her. I said yes, and we had a good time talking about books and what I was learning at school.
I also played on her piano. I told her that we had had an accustic piano like that at home before, but when we got the baby, we did not have space for it anywhere and had to sell it.
When I got a message from my mother that I had to come home, Eliza said that I could come back anytime I wanted to play on her piano or read or do homework in silence. I promised her that I would come back.
In the hallway a man stopped me.
"Have you been visiting Mrs. Hudson?" he asked. I nodded, a little bit confused of the question.
"She hasn't had visitors for years", he said with an impressed nod.

The following week I spent several evenings at Eliza's flat. She made me tea and I read, did my homework and played a little on her piano. She even helped me with some homework.
One evening when I sat on her leather sofa, she asked me if I could read out loud for her from my book. I did.
"I miss reading so much", she said with her eyes closed,
"Don't you read anymore?" I asked.
"Not so much anymore", she said. "My eyes and neck get so tired."
"Have you heard of audio books?" I asked. She had not. I told her about it.
"It's the best if you have a smart phone", I said. She showed me her mobile phone, and it was not that smart. It was a bulky little widget. I shook my head.
"But I have a computer", she said.
"Okay," I said. "I don't have any experience with audio books on computers, but I will find out for you by tomorrow! It's probably pretty much the same."

One thing I always wondered about when I visited Eliza was her family. Other than her parents and her siblings, she had not told me about it. I wondered if she had any children or grandchildren.
I understood she had been married, because she had a marriage photograph of herself and a man.
She was young, beautiful and had dark brown hair and freckles on her nose. The man had more golden blonde hair, and blue eyes. I thought he was very handsome. I wondered if he was dead, but I did not ask.
She also had pictures of some children, especially of this one dark haired boy.
One evening I asked her: "Who is this?"
She saw up from her knitting and looked at the picture."That is my son," she said. I saw that she smiled, but it was a little sad smile.
"He is my only child and he lives in Europe," she said. She came up to the wall and showed me some more pictures.
"Is that his father?" I asked and looked at the man on the marriage photograph.
Eliza nodded. "Yes, he died ten years ago."
She showed me a picture of the boy, which now had become a man, with a woman beside him. Eliza told me that they lived together and had gotten a daughter named Sarah Elizabeth. She showed me a picture of her too.
"Have you never met Sarah and her mother?" I asked.
"No," she said. "They live very far away and I have not traveled that long alone before. At a time I thought of travelling there, maybe move there forever, but then I stopped hearing from them a few months ago."
"Doesn't he have a phone or an email address you can contact him through?" I asked.
"Yes, he had a mobile number, but now I can't reach him on it anymore." She walked over to the cupboard and brought me something.
"The last thing he sent me was this," she said. I looked at the white package and took it out of her hands. It was an iPad.
"I think it is an electrical device, but I don't understand how to start it", she said.
I sat down on the sofa, and she sat down next to me. I took the iPad out of the box, found the charger and charged it a bit, before I could start it.
I got a bit surprised when I saw that her son had already made her an Apple ID, downloaded apps and filled up her contact list with people.
I connected her to the Wi-Fi and showed her where the email was.  also showed her how to make a password, but she told me she did not need that. To our surprise her son had also downloaded an audiobook app, which I showed her.
I opened the FaceTime-app and we called up her son. When his face come up on the screen and his voice said hi, Eliza smiled the widest smile I have ever seen.