Deacon Locke Went to Prom by Brian Katcher

Author:Brian Katcher
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2017-03-07T05:00:00+00:00

I lean over and turn off the radio. Jean stares at me over her cup of coffee. I smile sheepishly.

Jean picks up the box containing the cell phone that the radio station overnighted to us.

“I guess he was just joking about those Tony Bennett tapes.”

“Sorry, Jean. Do you want the phone?”

She passes it to me. “No, Deacon, something tells me you’re going to need it.”

I sit next to Soraya on the bench in front of the cellular store. She called me after school to congratulate me on the interview. When I told her about my new phone, she offered to take me out here so I could activate it.

That part was fun. But now she’s insisting on setting me up with a social media site. I could do without that.

“And when’s your birthday?”

“March eleventh. Seriously, what’s the point of this?”

She doesn’t look up from my phone. “It’s a good way to keep in touch with your friends. Especially when you graduate and you won’t see them as much.”

I’m not convinced. “I prefer to stay in contact the old-fashioned way. Next year I’m going to take a photo of every meal I eat, and when I get them developed I’ll drive to my friends’ houses and show them off.”

Soraya ignores me. “Help me fill this part out. What kind of music do you like?”

“What do you call the stuff Madcap Mike plays?”

“I dunno, Top Forty?”

“Yeah, anything but that.”

She keeps entering information. I stretch to see what she’s doing, but she hides the screen. “Almost done. Now we just need some pictures. Smile!”

“Huh?” Too late.

She shows me the photo and grins. “What do you think?”

“You can see right up my nose.”

“Everyone can see up your nose. Let’s try again. Smile big. No, try not to grimace. Oh, good grief.”

Suddenly, she wraps her arm around my neck. She stretches up so our faces are on the same level and snaps a selfie of us both.

Now there’s a real smile. On both of us, actually.

“Soraya? Can you set this as my . . . what do you call it?”

“Profile pic? Sure.” She hands me the phone.

My online persona is kind of sad. I have one photo (though it’s with an amazingly pretty girl). I have one friend (Soraya) and one pending (Elijah). One “like” (Madcap Mike of KZAR, Tulsa).

When Jean was my age, her online profile wasn’t this pathetic, and they didn’t even have electricity back then. I remember that photo of her, hanging out with her big group of friends. I’d like to be able to show off a picture like that one day.

“Soraya? You’re not teaching a class today, are you?”

She shakes her head.

“Want to go do something? Maybe see what’s happening on campus?”

“That sounds like fun. Actually, I think Jason’s band is playing at Java Jim’s. We could stop by.”

“Or . . . maybe we could visit the pig again.”

We stand. As I move to slip the phone in my pocket, it vibrates. Elijah has approved my friend request. And uploaded a photo, it seems.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.