Everything Is a Little Broken by Rebecca Sugar

Author:Rebecca Sugar
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Post Hill Press
Published: 2023-11-30T17:08:08+00:00

What Will We Do

Without Them?

Mira was at Mae’s apartment the next day setting up her laptop on the small kitchen table. There were papers strewn everywhere and as she collected them to move them out of the way, she saw that they were sketches of the Brooklyn Bridge, done in pencil. One after the other they were beautiful, skillfully done, and unfinished. Some had large black “X” marks drawn through them. One was ripped in half. She carefully placed them in a neat pile in the corner where they wouldn’t be disturbed.

She went to get Mae from her bedroom and sat her down in front of the screen. “Okay, we’re going to give this a try,” she said excitedly, wondering why she hadn’t thought to organize a Zoom call for Mae and her father before. When Aaron mentioned it, she stopped in her tracks and gasped at her failure to have thought of the obvious. Aaron laughed and said she shouldn’t be so hard on herself—it wasn’t really that obvious to think of technology and her father in the same sentence.

Mae sat as instructed, but still wasn’t sure what Mira had been talking about. She said they were going to call Matt, but she didn’t see a phone. Mira sat next to her, logged into Zoom, and waited for Gloria to sign her father in from his apartment in Manhattan. The alert sounded, and he was in the waiting room. She hit the “Admit” button and Matt’s confused face appeared, too close to the screen, filling it up almost entirely.

“Move back a bit, Dad,” she said as she positioned the camera on herself and Mae.

“Back?” he yelled, not understanding. “Back where?”

She laughed. “You don’t have to yell, Dad. This isn’t a tin can with a string. Just speak normally. Move back a few inches. We can see every pore. Can you see us?”

Matt looked amused. He had used Zoom a few clumsy times before but was always amazed by the technology. “Yes!” he exclaimed as though it were a miracle that he could. “I see you!”

Mae squinted at first through her thick-lensed glasses. Her mouth hung open a bit as she leaned in toward the computer, astonished. “Matthew?” she said as loudly as she could. “Matt, is that you, child?” she yelled again while lightly reaching her finger out toward the screen in amazement.

“You don’t have to yell,” Mira said gently in her ear, demonstrating the correct volume level for her voice. “You just speak normally, as though Dad were here with you at the table.”

“Who are you calling a child?” Matt laughed.

Mae shook her head and cried out with awe at a world she couldn’t imagine but found herself in. “Lord, have mercy!” was all she could say. Mira beamed with delight at the accomplishment. She watched each of their faces as the two old friends looked at each other and laughed at the absurdity and wonderfulness of it all. It took a minute before they could recover themselves and begin to talk.

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