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"What do you think?" Jessica asked. They had returned late from their visit with Scott and stayed up even later. Alex had awakened to the smell of coffee and sounds from the kitchen. About what? The mess I've got to deal with. We've got. "I like it," she said after a few moments. I was daydreaming again. How long? "It's beautiful. And if you're there, even more so." Do I love Jessica the way she obviously loves me? I want to think so, but I don't know what I feel about anything. Sometimes don't seem to have any feelings. Did the chemicals burn them out? "If you don't see any problems with it, I'm in. Close to Scott. Guess we hung together a lot back in the day. Away from most of the world." "You and Scott spent a lot of time together. Probably more with each other than anyone else. You were more like brothers than just friends." Guess that's a good place to be then. "I'm trying to remember Julie. Was he married to her then?" "Part of the time. She was a year younger than you and Scott. She went to school at Cherry Valley, she and Scott were married for about five or six years, they she left him. She was a little wild, a lot wild I guess, and never could settle down. Just after they were divorced Scott moved to Jonesboro and went to work for the school district." OK, got it. Don't remember any of it. Maybe I will when we talk about it. "I'm going to put in a couple of hours on the website before we go out there. Anything I need to do to get ready?" "No, it won't take long for me to get everything together. Go ahead and get started and I'll come watch when I'm finished." Gonna have a smoke first though. He opened the small box of cigarillos and took one out. He'd bought a carton at a tobacco store in town after having smoked one with Harry a few days ago. Al Capone. Pretty good, brandy flavor, or cognac, something. Not to big or too small. Maybe add an inch but don't really need it. He walked out on the back deck and lit up, watched birds flitting among the trees, bare limbs of a few weeks ago now becoming covered with green. Finishing his smoke he went inside and returned to his work.
"How's it going?" Jessica set two small duffel bags down and came to look over his shoulder. "Pretty well. I've got the page templates built and starting on the content. Here's the important part - the contact page." He clicked a link and the page came up. "Real simple, it'll put their contact info and messages into a database. I'll set it up to send an email alert. It should be ready to go in a couple of days, at least for a start. We'll see what happens. "Time to go?" "About," Jessica answered. "We've got a few minutes if you need more time." "No, this is a good place to stop. Let me make a backup and I'll be ready." He inserted a USB stick and waited for it to mount, then opened another teminal session and entered a few commands. When the backup was complete he dismounted and removed the drive. "OK, all set."
"Come on in," Michelle said. She was on the front deck when they arrived. "Scott's out back cooking. How do you like your steak?" Beats me. "Still medium whatever I guess," Jessica said. "Do you remember, Alex?" Don't remember steak. Much less how it's cooked. "Yeah, whatever I used to do. I'm easy." "Don't let that get around," Jessica said to Michelle. "Now I've got him back I'd like to keep him." I like happy Jessica. Hope I can keep her that way. Michelle and Jessica laughed and Alex followed them inside and out to the back deck. Scott was tending several steaks. "Hey man, come on back. Have a beer." He fished two Heinekens out of a cooler and opened them, handed one to Alex. Alex took a swig of the ice-cold beer. I used to drink this stuff? Not bad. Different. Memories? Something. Just flashes, get them sometimes. Thinking they were just stray thoughts. Daydreams. What'd Brenda say, about that? Phone. Jessica's. Jessica was talking to someone. It wasn't a long conversation. "That was Harry," she said. "He wants to meet, next day or two. I told him we'd be back Thursday." Wonder what he's got. "He has a couple of developments, not urgent but interesting." "That's encouraging," Alex said. "I think." |
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