Lockdown Summer

VIII. And Mindy

Lockdown Day 28

"Stop messing with her!" Pablo shouted at me.

"Stop anthropomorphizing your AI. It's a thing!"

"It's my thing, so I'll call it whatever I want! Stop messing with her!"

"I wasn't messing with it! I fixed and debugged it! See, it's doing fine!"

Mindy can now recognize anyone's voice, not just his. I also worked on how it can promptly turn the TV off.

"I can see that, Marco. But at least let me know when you're getting in—"

"Hey!" Rica's voice blended with Pablo's. She stood on the last step of the stairs and held on to the railing. "What's all the shouting about?!"

"He isn't happy that I improved his AI," I said, but I directed it to Pablo.

He's still flared and tried to walk away. He's about to open the front door for a dramatic exit, then he realized he had nowhere to go. So, he sighed and went to his room instead. He banged the door as we watched.

Rica shook her head and muttered words under her breath. I only understood "boys" and "ugh."

***

She emerged into the room from the door going to the hallway that we share.

"Ever heard of knocking?" I asked. "Seriously, I could be naked in here."

She leaned on the doorframe with a hand on her hip. "But you're not, and you never lock this door."

I winced when I realized it's true, but she'd only know it if she tried creeping in here from there.

"What do you want?" I asked.

"Apologize to Pablito."

"But I didn't do anything wrong."

She sighed. "Does it really matter?"

"Why is it a big deal to you, anyway? It's not like we never had spats in this house in the past. We learned to tolerate each other. That's why we're still here."

She dropped her hand. "Dinner's ready in five minutes," she said in a tone that's reminiscent of Dennis. Then she turned around and left the door open.

Our weird little makeshift family ate in silence until I broke it by saying sorry to Pablo.

"It's okay," he shrugged. "We're cool."

"I found errors in your codes, so I fixed it. But I should let you know first."

He nodded. "Yeah, I saw them too. Maybe... Maybe we can work on that together sometime."

I nodded and saw Rica trying to hide a smile as she chewed.

"What's the first thing that you'll do when this lockdown's over?" she asked.

"I'll take a vacation and go home for a while," Pablo said.

I wasn't going to say anything, but they had their eyes waiting for me.

"I'll...go to the Sports Complex...and run laps at the track."

I thought of a hundred different things to simultaneously do and one after the other when this is all over, but that's the first thing I was able to say. I used to run when I was in high school. I was in meets more than I was in class.

Pablo threw Rica's question back at her.

"I'll borrow your bike," she said to me, "and go around the neighborhood. I miss doing that," she dreamily added. "I used to do that at home."

Pablo and I exchanged unsteady stares.

"What?" she asked. "Is there something...about your bike?"

Pablo cleared his throat and stood up.

"It's a story meant for another day," I said.

There's silence around the house again. Then it's my turn to clean the dishes, so the clangs and water splashes were the only sound until Pablo woke Mindy up.

"Mindy, let's watch Money Heist."

We gathered in front of the TV. Pablo and I were on the couch, Rica was on the chair to my left.

She wore a purple-and-white striped shirt with the neckline hanging a little too low. I could see her cleavage when she leaned forward to the table and settled her phone there.

I wondered, then, if Pablo also sees Rica as a girl and not just one of the boys.

"Is it weird that we're taking advantage of Andrei's Netflix subscription?" she asked, pushing me out of my nasty thoughts.

And then we laughed. Together. All three of us.

That was, I confess, the happiest minute I've had since the lockdown began.

"I can't think of anyone else I'd rather be quarantined with than you guys," she said.

I pointed at the setup in front of us. "And Mindy," I said. "Don't forget."

Pablo beamed like a child.

Rica smiled at me. "And Mindy."