Page 87 of Error Handling

“No.”

“I’ve been up since four, so I could have called much earlier.”

“I’ve been up since seven.” Simultaneously daydreaming and fretting about kissing Chris Butcher, I add silently.

“Anyway,” my mom says. “I’m flying in on Saturday morning at eleven.”

“I thought you said Sunday.”

“I changed my flight.”

An extra day with my mom. That won’t be stressful at all.

“Be at the airport by nine o’clock,” my mother continues. “I don’t want to sit there twiddling my thumbs if my flight arrives early.”

“Flights never arrive early. They’re either late or canceled.”

“There’s always a first time.”

I sigh. We’ve already been through this. It isn’t worth hashing out again. “I’ll get there early and bring my yarn.”

“What are you knitting now?” Mom asks.

“A blanket.”

“Don’t you have a few dozen of those by now?”

“I give them to Goodwill. But I’m thinking about setting up an Etsy shop.”

“Is that some internet thing?”

“Yes. It’s an e-commerce site.”

My mom pauses. “Oh. Well. If you could profit from all that time you spend with your knitting needles, it wouldn’t hurt.”

“I crochet, I don’t knit. It helps me relax.”

“That’s fine, honey.”

I sit on the edge of my couch, my back straight and eyes monitoring the street through my front window. “Did you just call me to tell me about your flight change?”

“Yes, that. And you’ll be proud of me.”

“What for?”

“I got online and rented a cottage on Folly Island for the week.”

My jaw drops. “Through VRBO?”

“Airbnb.”

“Usually, people book those a year or more in advance to get a better rate.”

“It was expensive, but I decided I wanted to be on the beach, and I thought it would make it easier for you to switch between your dad and me.”

The spring-break stress knots in my shoulders unravel a bit. But Earl is still spinning his wheel.

“And I don’t want to undo a year’s worth of chiropractic appointments on your couch,” Mom adds.