Distant knocks on a wooden door, wrinkled thumbs stop their scrolling motion across the massive phone screen.
The eighty-year-old white woman looks around the small bedroom for the source of the knocks. She's dressed in a pristine white bathrobe and sits with her legs straight in a single bed placed in the middle of a minimalist room populated by a bedside lamp, a big wardrobe, stacked boxes, framed GIFs, and a robotic walker.
The old lady frowns, waiting for the sound to repeat. When it doesn't, she turns her attention back to the 11-inch, paper-thin screen in her hands and its endless stream of news.
"Those Selenites... always the same BS..." she mumbles while reading the captions of a short video showing a group of dignitaries shaking hands. A blue UN flag on one side and a black flag with a single white circle on the other.
More knocks on a wooden door. The elder woman sighs.
"Miguel! Someone's at the door…!" she yells while clicking reaction buttons on the phone.
"Yeah! It's me!" says the boy's muffled voice in the distance.
The old woman huffs, lowers the phone, and waves at the bedside lamp as if it were a pet.
"Come on Joe! You heard him! Open the darn thing!"
The wardrobe's door pops open, revealing a mess of clothes, cardboard boxes, and rows of silver and golden statues inside. The old lady groans.
"As useless as always. No wonder they dragged and shot you on live TV..."
She turns in the bed, pushes herself towards the edge, and slides her bare feet in the white slippers waiting on the carpeted floor.
The door knocks again.
"Maybe I should've called you, Ted. Just as useless as Joe, but at least the memes were funnier when they lynched him..."
She ties the string of her bathrobe and walks out of the bedroom, holding on to nearby walls and furniture for support.
The door knocks again, the old woman lets out a chuckle "And those were some funny memes... I wonder if I can find them..."
She has almost reached the small house main door when she pats her bathrobe's pocket and stops. She pats her other pocket, sighs, and turns back around.
"Was it Ted or Mark the one who squealed like a piggy when the mob finally caught him...?" she shakes her head, "That was so random..."
***
Outside, surrounded by the bushes from a garden in dire need of a prune, Miguel leans with his back against the wooden door and knocks again. Caro sits on the head of a big porcelain Goomba nearby, her chin resting on her fists.
"I'm starting to understand why you're always late to class..." she muses.
Miguel chuckles, "No, no, this is normal, only two or three more knocks left. When I'm late for school is for another reason..." he chuckles, notices Caro is waiting for him to elaborate and panics. He babbles for a different topic, "A-anyway, this stop won't take long. I just gotta store this week's food, take a quick shower, and we can leave."
Caro perks up, "Ah! Think I could take a shower too? It's been giga hot today...!"
Miguel hesitates, struggling to find a reason to deny her request. But before he can answer, the door behind him opens, and he falls back, narrowly avoiding landing on his butt.
"Ah! Miguel. Was it enough money to buy cream cheese?" the old woman says, fiddling with her massive phone as the boy struggles to regain his balance. He shakes his head, she huffs, "Oh well, maybe next weekend."
"Y-yeah abuelita, we'll have flautas next time…" says Miguel, giving her a quick hug, then he hurries to carry his massive shopping bag inside the house.
Caro raises her bag too but stops near the entrance, unsure whether to follow him inside. The old woman finally notices her and smiles.
"Ah! Charles. Glad to see you so early." she crosses her arms in front of her as if caught, "Sorry to welcome you in my pajamas! I didn't know you were visiting. Want to come inside?"
Caro smiles and nods, walks inside the house carrying her shopping bag, which she places with a thud next to Miguel's.
The boy is already busy storing the food inside the fridge and cupboards. He notices Caro approaching and stands up, gives her a quick explanation of where everything goes in the kitchen.
"Got it? Yeah? Don't worry if you put them whenever, I'll reorder them later."
Caro nods and starts taking food items out of the bag. Miguel turns and rushes to the bathroom, stopping before he almost runs over the tiny old woman who stands in his way.
"Hey, where are you going?" she asks, unfazed. Points at Caro in the kitchen "You're making Charles store the food?"
"Oh! N-no, no Abuelita, it's just so I can go shower in the meantime. We're running late!"
Carolina yells from the kitchen, "Ah! Remember I want to shower too!" she leans by the doorframe, looks at the old woman and adds "Um, if that's okay with you…"
"Oh, yeah, yeah, it's fine, you both look like you survived a wildfire…" the elder says waving a hand, then raises her eyebrows "Hey, why don't you shower together? That's what we did back in the day to save water."
Both kids stop in their tracks, throw awkward glances at each other.
"Um... I-it's okay abuelita! Water isn't scarce anymore. We've talked about this before, remember?" says Miguel in a steady, practiced tone of voice. He chuckles, "And we're not in that much of a hurry anyway."
He turns to leave but Caro interjects again, "Ah! We ARE kind of in a hurry! The first movie starts in half an hour." she pauses, makes a little shrug, "Maybe showering together isn't such a bad idea..."
The boy stops once more on his way to the bathroom, looks back at the Asian girl who watches him expectantly, biting her lip.
He babbles and continues walking backward, waving with his hands, trying to form an answer. But before he can begin, he notices he's already standing by the bathroom entrance and jumps inside.
"I'll be real quick!" he yells and slams the door.
Caro drops her shoulders and turns on her heels, disappointed. She returns to the shopping bags and continues storing items inside the fridge.
The old woman remained silent throughout the kid's interaction. She ponders for a moment, tilts her head, and enters the kitchen, mumbling words as she fiddles with her phone. Caro notices her approaching and throws a questioning look.
"I'll schedule an Uber so you don't miss your movie," she explains, "Although for some reason I can't find the App…"
Caro frowns "A what...?" she shakes her head "Um, it's okay! Really! We'll just have to ride our bikes faster." she stands up and closes the fridge, starts storing the rest of the food inside the cupboards "We've seen this movie before anyway..."
"Oh…? I thought I heard Miguel say you were going to a movie premiere. Is it a re-release then?"
The girl smiles, confused "Ah... no. It IS a premiere for a new movie. Just one we've seen many times."
"A remake then?"
Caro shrugs, amused by how off the mark she is, "N-no. That's another thing entirely. This is a mix made with a series of..." she stops, shakes her head, "We're watching a movie..." she says simply.
The old woman nods and stores her phone back in her pocket. Pats her sides "Well… do people still eat popcorn at the movies?"
Caro nods while pouring flour inside a glass container. The elder woman smiles and opens a nearby drawer, starts gathering small items from the inside in her palm.
The girl throws glances at the old lady as she finishes storing the rest of the dry food, unsure what she's up to. The old woman closes the drawer, beckons the girl to get closer, and deposits a handful of wrinkled bills and rusty coins in her hands.
"Here, get Miguel a big, BIG bag of popcorn. He's so skinny!"
Caro holds the coins in her hands as if they were artifacts from a museum "T-thanks! But...! Um... people don't accept these anymore? And even if they did, I don't think they're enough for..."
Her words trail off as she watches the confused smile of the old woman. The preteen girl shakes her head and stores the money inside her hoodie's kangaroo pocket. She smiles and hugs her.
"Thanks! I'll make sure to buy your grandson something nice."
"Thanks Charles..." says the old woman tapping her back, "Oh, but this money is for Miguel! My grandson perished in the war."
Carolina separates with a confused look "Ah... Mmh... Then how are you two related...?" she shakes her head "No, it doesn't matter. Oh, and by the way, I'm not going by 'Charles' nowadays? I'm back to 'Carolina', or just 'Caro'… B-but it's okay! You can still call me Charles if you want."
The old woman blinks and smiles, no longer able to make sense of their conversation. The tween chuckles and shrugs, also giving up. They stand smiling in place, enjoying their generational confusion.
"Ready!" shouts Miguel from the other side of the house. Caro excuses herself and rushes to replace him in the bathroom.
She bolts inside but doesn't slam the door. She slowly peeks over the doorframe to the next room where a naked Miguel dries himself with a towel, his tanned bubble butt perking each time he bends his body or shifts his weight.
Caro gulps and bites her lip, raises her phone and starts recording. Her eyes dart between the screen and the olive-skin boy as he turns his white NASA shirt around, wondering whether to wear it again.
"You're not going outside with that thing, are you?" says the old woman walking past Caro who squeaks and recoils back inside the bathroom.
"Uh? Why not?" says Miguel "It's still clean..."
"It's old! All your shirts are old! What happened to the money I gave you to get new ones?"
He sighs. "We've talked about this, abuelita. Clothes are expensive now! Remember? The money you gave me was barely enough to pay for your bathrobe."
"What? This silly thing? How much did it cost?"
The sound of their argument continues for a short while, then silences once Caro closes the bathroom door.
To be continued…
***