Tiny Tim полностью

I had fully expected her to protest. Instead, she stood up, wrapped her arms around me above my shoulders, and pressed her breasts into my neck as she hugged me. For a woman of 58, they were surprisingly firm. Not that I had much to compare this feeling to, though. For all I knew, this could just as well just be her bra. Then she gave me a kiss on the top of my head.

“For a while, pumpkin. We will be here for a lot longer than planned, it seems. Remember to call if you need anything.” she said with a resigned sigh before pausing for a moment. Then she continued in a quiet, sad voice. “Are you really sure this is the best way?”

“Let’s be honest here, Granny. They didn’t even notice I was gone. The only reason they did find out after Six! Days! ... was because you went into my room and started asking questions. What’s that telling you? They didn’t miss me at the breakfast or dinner table, they didn’t have anything to talk about that would require them to seek me out, and they never went into my room for any reason. Seriously, how long do you think it would’ve taken them to notice my absence if you hadn’t arrived today? Think about that when they act all sad about me being gone. My last birthday was just the last straw in a long series of ‘Fuck You!’s, which you should be well aware of. They won’t miss me. I just refuse to go on like that.”

For some reason, they both regarded me with yet another alarmed look. It wasn’t sadness about me not wanting to fix what they broke. It was more like they were genuinely concerned for some reason, when I finished my little rant. Then Grandpa suddenly burst out his question, in a hurried tone.

“But ... but you’ll show up for Thanksgiving, right?”

I thought about that for a long time.

“Sorry, Grampa, but I don’t think so.” I finally answered while leading them to the door and showing them out.

I went to bed that evening contemplating their strange behavior. I could accept them being put off by me leaving, especially if they finally realized why I left. But I simply couldn’t understand where those repeated alarmed looks came from. If they were worried about something, they should just come out and tell me.

The next morning, I was awoken by my phone ringing. It was Bill.

“Yeah?” I asked, trying hard not to sound like I had just slept eleven hours for no apparent reason.

“Listen, Kid. I need you to come to the office real quick. My laptop is somehow frozen and it may froze while showing something I wouldn’t want the wife to see.”

“Did you try turning it off and on again?” I asked, smirking about how true that famous line from ‘The IT Crowd’ was.

“Can’t. I was working on a proposal I haven’t saved yet.”

“You don’t want your wife to see a proposal? Is it for your girlfriend?”

“I was ALSO working on a proposal. Happy now? How about you try to be less of a smartass and more of a loyal employee that doesn’t ask so many questions!” he said, before hanging up the phone.

I made my way to the office in my rusty Junker-Jeep and quickly took care of Bill’s laptop by killing the Firefox process. I made a mental note to add the thirty-minute drive to my timesheet, instead of just the one minute it took to open the task-manager, when Bill spoke.

“Tim, do you know anything about digitizing VHS-Tapes?” he asked.

“Yeah, did it before. It’s not that hard, just tedious. You need a VHS-player with separate audio and video outputs to plug into a capture device. Problem is, you can’t really do anything while the video plays.”

“Good. That’s pretty much what the guy in the store told me as well. I’m working on an anniversary gift for my wife, but my twenty-year-old VHS-player doesn’t have any ports for the new capture-thing I bought at Walmart. Here...” he said, moved over to a cabinet holding everything he purchased so far and asked me to look at it.

“Oh, there’re adapters for that. I’ll go get one and help you set it up. Give me ... two hours?”

He nodded and then I made my way out the door.

Since he bought the capture device at Walmart, that’s where I went for the adapter too. When I reached the electronics section and looked through the various adapters they had on display, I heard familiar voices drift over from the next aisle.

“Mom, stop freaking out. Slow down! He won’t want anything!” That was Logan’s annoyed voice. “Let’s just get a cake or something if we absolutely have to.”

“No, dammit! I can’t believe this happened again!” Claire answered in an almost desperate tone. “It’s too late for cake ... I need something better. Why does none of you know anything!?”

“Honey ... I told you, I don’t know anything about this geek stuff. The kids don’t know either Wouldn’t it be better to just get him money, instead of an obvious last-minute attempt he probably wouldn’t like anyway?” Aaron asked in a distinctly disinterested voice.

“Yeah, Mom, Daddy’s right. I mean, did you look at his room before he moved out? There was nothing really showing what he’s into. Other than his computer and fridge.” Ava added.