Factoring Humanity

1 Heather Davis took a sip of her coffee and looked at the brass clock on the mantelpiece. Her nineteen-year-old daughter Rebecca had said she'd be here by 8:00 P.M., and it was already eight-twenty. Surely Becky knew how awkward this was. She had said she'd wanted a meeting with her parentsboth of them, simultaneously. That Heather Davis and Kyle Graves had been separated for almost a year now didn't enter into the equation. They could have met at a restaurant, but no, Heather had volunteered the housethe one in which she and Kyle had raised Becky and her older sister Mary, the one Kyle had moved out of last August. Now, though, with the silence between her and Kyle having stretched on for yet another minute, she was regretting that spontaneous offer. Although Heather hadn't seen Becky for almost four months, she had a hunch about what Becky wanted to say. When they spoke over the phone, Becky often talked about her boyfriend Zack. No doubt she was about to announce an engagement. Of course, Heather wished her daughter would wait a few more years. But then again, it wasn't as if she was going to university. Becky worked in a clothing store on Spadina. Both Heather and Kyle taught at the University of Torontoshe in psychology, he in computer science. It pained them that Becky wasn't pursuing higher education. In fact, under the Faculty Association agreement, their children were entitled to free tuition at U of T. At least Mary had taken advantage of that for one year before... No. No, this was a time of celebration. Becky was getting married! That was what mattered today. She wondered how Zack had proposedor whether it had been Becky who had popped the question. Heather remembered vividly what Kyle had said to her when he'd proposed, twenty-one years ago, back in 1996. He'd taken her hand, held it tightly, and said, "I love you, and I want to spend the rest of my life getting to know you." Heather was sitting in an overstuffed easy chair; Kyle was sitting on the matching couch. He'd brought his datapad with him and was reading something on it. Knowing Kyle, it was probably a spy novel; the one good thing for him about the rise of Iran to superpower status had been the revitalization of the espionage thriller. On the beige wall behind Kyle was a framed photoprint that belonged to Heather. It was made up of an apparently random pattern of tiny black-and-white squaresa representation of one of the alien radio messages. Becky had moved out nine months ago, shortly after she'd finished high school. Heather had hoped Becky might stay at home a whilethe only other person in the big, empty suburban house now that Mary and Kyle were gone. At first, Becky came by the house frequentlyand according to Kyle, she had seen her father often enough, too. But soon the gaps between visits grew longer and longerand then she stopped coming altogether. Kyle apparently had become aware that Heather was looking at him. He lifted his eyes from the datapad and managed a wan smile. "Don't worry, hon. I'm sure she'll be here." Hon. They hadn't lived together as husband and wife for eleven months, but the automatic endearments of two decades die hard. Finally, at a little past eight-thirty, the doorbell rang. Heather and Kyle exchanged glances. Becky's thumbprint still operated the lock, of courseas, for that matter, did Kyle's. No one else could possibly be dropping by this late; it had to be Becky. Heather sighed. That Becky didn't simply let herself in underscored Heather's fears: her daughter no longer considered this house to be her home. HeaSawyer, Robert J. is the author of 'Factoring Humanity' with ISBN 9780765309037 and ISBN 0765309033.