Calling someone on the phone was something people did on TV reruns. I kept Mom’s old flip phone in my pocket during the school year, but that was only so she and I could reach each other in an emergency. It didn’t have a texting plan, and since I kept up with my friends online I never called anyone else on it. I was so jittery that I ended up writing a script for the conversation, and I asked Mom to look it over. “I’m not sure why you’re so nervous about this,” she said. “I never talk to old people except for Grandma. And talking on the phone is just…stressful.” Mom’s eyes got that faraway look. “My friends and I used to talk for hours on the phone after school. Daddy would get so annoyed. ‘Can’t you get all that out of your system at school?’ But we never ran out of things to talk about. And when a boy would call? Sometimes I’d be up past midnight talking on the phone, but I had to be secret about it.” “Okay, Mom. Enough about the golden olden days.”
