Takes place in the current time. i.e. it's been 12 years since Kerry and Kim last saw each other.
oOOOOo
"Mama- you need to get a girlfriend."
Kerry glanced over at her son and narrowed her eyes for a second before she looked back to the road, "Why do you always choose when we're in the car to grill me young man?"
Henry Weaver smirked and chuckled, "'cause I'm... wiley... Uncle Carlos says so."
Kerry sighed, "Uncle Carlos... so, how is your Uncle doing?"
"His computer broke... the motherboard fried itself, so we had to talk on the phone."
Kerry gave a faux gasp, "Oh no... the phone."
"Ha. Ha..." He paused, "Ha..."
Kerry chuckled, "Sorry, but you know Henry..."
Henry rolled his eyes, "It's your job 'cause you're my Mom... I know."
"Because..."
"Mama..."
The passenger in the other back seat prevented mother and son from having any more of their conversation as she let out a mighty yell for Mama as well. "I think Lee's hungry."
"We're almost home-"
"Can I-" Henry trailed off as Kerry cleared her throat. Henry rolled his eyes, "May I go to Roger's house after lunch?"
Kerry nodded, "Yes. Just..."
Henry cut his Mom off again, "Call you if I'm gonna- going to have dinner." He paused, "Are you going to go on a date sometime though?"
"You're not going to stop unless I say I will huh?"
Henry shrugged, "Probably not."
Kerry smiled as she pulled into the driveway. "Do you have anyone in mind Cirano?"
Henry shrugged, "No... but, that's your part. I mean, I'm not going to go all crazy if you don't, or if you know. You know?"
Kerry turned off the car and lowered the garage door. She turned to Henry. "You and Leonora... you're all I need Henry."
Henry got out of the car and went into the house without another word. Kerry got out too and released Leonora from her seat, "Ready for lunch Lee?"
"Yes Mama."
"You don't care if I have a girlfriend or not, right?"
Leonora looked over at Kerry with a puzzled look on her young face, "Girfend?"
Kerry smiled to herself. "That's my girl."
oOOOOo
"When are you gonna give up?"
Kim sat back and ran her hand through her unruly locks. "I don't know, when the dates stop sucking?"
"You're too picky."
Kim shrugged, "Maybe... but, I found a new site."
The blonde sitting across the small table from Kim groaned, "Kimmy-"
"Katie- I tapped out the Chicago vein, so, I went online. Now, this one keeps almost all the personal info hidden. Well, hidden from the other users, not from the administrators."
Kate frowned as she watched Kim tap on her laptop's keyboard, "Even gender?"
"Yep."
"Ah..."
Kim looked up, "What, you don't think that I can figure out who's a male and who's a female online? Trained psychiatrist remember?"
Kate glanced through the coffee shop's window and across the street, "Yep, but, does it still count if you're running a garage? Wouldn't that make you more of a trained mechanic?"
Kim carefully closed her laptop and gulped down the rest of her coffee, "Yeah, well-" She stood. "I should get back there."
Kate didn't catch up with Kim until she was nearly back to the garage. "Hey- hey- I was just kidding around. I'm sorry."
Kim leaned back against the wall and closed her eyes. "No. I'm sorry Kate. Today's just... It was two years ago today."
"Oh shit Kim, I'm sorry."
Kim pushed herself off the wall, "S'okay. Let's get your car."
Kate caught Kim's arm, "Hey- I didn't mean." She looked up at the wooden sign above the garage's doors that red 'Legaspi's Garage'. "He'd be really proud Kim-"
Kim sighed and pushed through the human sized door. "no... none of them would be anywhere near proud of me at the moment. That much I do know."
oOOOOo
Kerry laid her head back against the couch for a moment. Both Henry and Leonora were finally in bed.
After a few moments she pulled over her laptop and booted it. She looked through her mail, personal and work. Surfed a few of the news sites and then after a moment's pause, clicked on a bookmark that was buried deep in her folder structure. It was put there just to make sure that if either child ever got onto her user they wouldn't just stumble onto it.
Kerry shook her head and mumbled to herself, "Online dating. What am I doing?"
She opened it up and signed on. She had two new people with whom she was 'alike'. She clicked on the first and winced, "Nope."
She clicked on the second one, someone with the username 'Chicagoan768111' and to her surprise, read past the first sentence of the person's description. The descriptions on the site weren't really supposed to be height, weight, color hair, eyes, etc. From what Kerry had seen on the site it was supposed to be some high falutin philosophical statement about yourself. She was pretty sure that hers probably came off as that anyway.
Kerry read through the description again. She, Chicagoan768111, and Kerry was pretty sure that it was a she, was born and raised in Chicago, other than brothers no family to speak of. Kerry frowned at that. Not sure what it meant. But, other than that the woman seemed funny. Joking in the description about how she'd tried every other dating site and so she was trying the site that pretended not to be a dating site.
Kerry's mouse hovered over the 'MSG Chicagoan768111' link. Kerry loved Henry and Leonora, but she knew deep in her heart that something was missing. She was missing adult companionship. Someone to talk to, to listen to, to be loved by and to love who could also vote, drink, rent a car.
She clicked on the link and the message box popped up.
I'm not sure what to call you so, I think I'll stick with Chicagoan for now (and that is a lot of numbers after your name, there must be a story to those). I feel like I'm writing a cover letter. I'm an only child and my parents died awhile ago. To make up for that I have two kids, a boy and a girl. They're the light of my life. If you haven't stopped reading yet. I too have had a bumpy road when it comes to relationships and am not sure why I'm still trying.
This is short, but, I'm not entirely convinced you'll respond, or that this isn't some very complicated Turing Test.
Regards,
H_LsMom
Kerry sat back and glanced towards the back of the house where Leonora and Henry's rooms were. She hit Send before she could think better of it and closed her eyes. "That was such a bad idea."
oOOOOo
"I'm fine Christy- no, no- I'm not at home. I'm still at work." Kim stifled a groan, "No, I'm not going to do anything stupid. I'm past that. I just need some time alone tonight." Kim closed her eyes as Christy finally wound down. "Yeah, I'll see you tomorrow. Bye Christy."
Kim let her cell drop onto the workbench and pushed the carburetor she'd been working on to the side. She stared down at her hands.
After a long moment she shook her head, wiped her hands off and pulled her laptop over from the desk she used for paperwork. She pulled up the dating site and perused all the messages she'd gotten since the last time she'd logged on. Some were flirty, others way too serious and a few were just disturbing.
She raised an eyebrow when she came to the username 'H_LsMom'. "Well, I gotta open that one..." she smiled to herself, "Probably a woman, although... you never know."
She read it silently and by the end found herself smiling. Not the smile she gave nearly everyone, not the smile that still had pain in it two years later, but a real smile that only her brothers, and nephews got to see.
Kim thought for a moment, then opened a reply.
I don't think I'm a computer, although these days I work with too many for my liking. Are you a computer? I'll work under the assumption you aren't either (and will be ignoring your question about the numbers for now, but, yes, there is a story, multiple stories actually). I can tell that you haven't done this much, which is okay, since I think I've done this too much.
I take it you're a Mom. Although, now that I think about it, H and L could be cats, dogs, or gerbils. I have none of the above. Way too busy. No human kids either. The timing never seemed to work out right and now...
What am I doing? This is supposed to be me being light and fun, so, enough of my sob story. Your favorite book, favorite movie and favorite TV Show?
I leave it at that for now.
~Ms. Turing
Kim sat back and looked over the message. Nothing too involved, but still a little something of her was in there. She hit send and went back into the garage proper. She ran her hand along the dark green side of the half repaired motorcycle that sat in the very back of the two lift garage. It was a Harley Davidson, a Knucklehead, "You don't have a computer brain- no rebooting required. Simple. Uncomplicated."
