Excerpt #36: The Art of Communication

From the author:

This third book in the series backtracks the timeline so that it overlaps the first two books. Two events from The Art of Introductions are mentioned here in letters Cameron is writing. The first paragraph describes Trevor and Alison meeting. The rest gives more detail about the time he was late for Tichu. It was more memorable from his perspective.

From the book:

    I’m afraid I’m not the storyteller that you are, but something kind of funny happened this week. My friend Trevor apparently made a fool of himself in front of some girl. I shouldn’t laugh at that, and I honestly feel bad for him. But the way he told us about it was just funny. He didn’t want to talk about it and just kept slipping out stupid things he said. If I pieced it together correctly, his grandmother somehow convinced him to go to a furniture store for his morning coffee, without which he doesn’t function well. There was a pretty girl there, and compounded with his groggy state, he said a lot of things he didn’t mean to say and might have offended her. Something about her must have really made an impression though because it sounds like he’s going to try to make it up to her.

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    Let’s forget about all that. You definitely don’t need to comment on it. To help us move on, I’ll tell you what happened on Friday. It was Tichu night, of course. When I went to start my car, the battery was dead. Elijah doesn’t get up until about ten so getting him up at seven would be kind of like the middle of the night for him. I went next door first. There’s an older guy over there I know a little, but he didn’t seem to be home. I didn’t want to bum a favor off someone I’ve never talked to so I went in and knocked on Elijah’s door.
    It is not easy to wake him up. Eventually, I was able to explain the situation and get him outside. As I opened my trunk for the jumper cables, I remembered loaning them to someone at work several months ago. I never got them back. Elijah said he didn’t know if he had any. He didn’t. We couldn’t find any in his car either. He told me that if I could find some cables, I was welcome to use his car. Then he handed me his keys and went back to bed.
    I was tempted to just stand in the street with the hood up to see how long it took for someone to stop and offer to help. But it was pretty quiet – we live on a dead end street – and the guys were already waiting on me. I realized I should have asked Elijah if I could borrow his car, but I couldn’t take it without asking or wake him up again. I called my parents. I was sure one of them would be willing to help. Now you can probably tell I was already getting frustrated when I had what turned out to be a very annoying conversation with my mom.
    My dad was doing a men’s retreat weekend and had already left for that. My mom and grandma had decided that with him out of the house, they would do some sort of weird girl stuff. She told me she was in the middle of something called a mud mask and wasn’t fit to leave the house. I told her she wouldn’t have to get out of the car at all, but she didn’t want anyone to see her through the windows. So I asked if I walked over there – they only live about a half mile away – could I take her jumper cables to use on Elijah’s car. Then she insisted that I should take her car and use it instead. When I pointed out that her car would be stuck at my house – or I’d have to drive it back and walk again – she offered to ride with me to drive it back. I said if she was willing to ride with me, why couldn’t she just drive over here? She laughed as she realized the flawed logic, and I thought she was about to agree. Instead, she said, “You’re right. Just keep my car, and we’ll figure out how to get it in the morning.”
    I had already started walking while we talked, and it occurred to me that Trevor and Ryan don’t live that much farther away. I told my mom I’d just walk there and deal with the car in the morning. Maybe I could borrow jumper cables while I was there. I texted Trevor to let him know I’d be late. Then I noticed the wind picking up and dark clouds moving in. You know how those summer storms are. I knew it was going to roll in and pour on me, and roll out again before I could get there. It didn’t even seem worth trying to jog. It kind of made me laugh though. Sometimes when things start to pile up, laughing is the only way to go.
    But barely a minute later, Ryan showed up to give me a ride. He volunteered to stop by in the morning to jump my car and said he would follow me to get a new battery, just in case. The night continued to improve as we still had time to play two games of Tichu, and I won both. It wasn’t Ryan’s best night because not only did he lose both games but now I know who to call first next time I have a problem.

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