Story Four · Legacy
Someone New
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Five years later, Sarah’s Sidekick lit up on the corner of her dorm-room desk.
“Family game night starts in five minutes.”
Sarah looked over from her laptop.
“I know.”
“You said that ten minutes ago.”
“I also knew then.”
Her roommate glanced up from the other bed.
“Does it always argue with you?”
“It learned from my family.”
Sarah saved her work and turned her chair toward the screen.
The family had started game night years earlier so Ron could play from the Community. After he died, nobody formally decided to continue it.
They just kept showing up.
Not every week. Not always for long. Sometimes they played something. Sometimes they spent forty minutes trying to pick a game and never got around to it.
Tonight, Maya and James were already waiting on the screen from home.
“Hey, college girl,” James said.
“Hey, old people.”
Maya looked offended.
“We are not old.”
“You called me yesterday because you couldn’t make the printer work.”
“The printer was being difficult.”
“The printer was unplugged.”
“That sounds like a design flaw.”
Sarah laughed.
“Where are Connor and Amy?”
“Late,” Maya said.
“Again.”
“They said they were coming.”
Sarah leaned closer to the Sidekick.
“Livonne, start without them.”
The game board appeared beside the family video.
James shook his head.
“That’s cold.”
“They know the rules.”
Sarah chose a category. Maya immediately complained about it. James answered the first question with complete confidence and was completely wrong.
Then Connor and Amy appeared.
They were sitting together in their living room, squeezed unusually close into the frame.
Sarah noticed first.
“Why do you both look like that?”
Connor frowned.
“Like what?”
“Like you’re trying not to laugh.”
“We’re not.”
Amy looked at him.
“You are.”
“So are you.”
Maya leaned toward the Surface.
“What’s going on?”
Connor held up one finger.
“Before we start, Amy and I have something.”
The game board disappeared.
For a second, the shared screen went blank.
Then an image appeared in the middle of it.
Gray and grainy. A small curved shape surrounded by darkness.
Nobody spoke.
Maya stared at the ultrasound.
Sarah’s hands rose to her mouth.
James looked from the image to Connor and Amy, then back again.
“Oh,” he said.
Amy started laughing.
That broke the silence.
Everyone began talking at once.
“How far along are you?”
“When did you find out?”
“Do Mom and Dad know?”
“We are Mom and Dad,” James said.
“You know what I mean.”
“Is everything okay?”
“Yes,” Amy said, still laughing. “Everything looks good.”
Sarah pointed at herself.
“Wait. I’m going to be Aunt Sarah.”
Connor nodded.
“That is generally how this works.”
“Oh my God.”
Maya had not moved.
Connor looked toward her.
“Mom?”
She blinked.
“I’m here.”
“You okay?”
Maya laughed, wiped beneath one eye, and shook her head.
“Yes. I just—”
She looked at the image again.
“You’re having a baby.”
Amy reached for Connor’s hand.
“We’re having a baby.”
The questions started again.
Sarah wanted to know the due date. James wanted to know whether they had begun thinking about names. Maya asked whether Amy was feeling all right, then apologized for asking too many questions before immediately asking another one.
The game never came back.
Eventually, Sarah’s roommate reminded her that quiet hours had started ten minutes earlier. Amy yawned. Connor promised they would call again over the weekend.
One by one, the windows closed.
Maya remained in front of the Surface, staring at the ultrasound picture.
James came up beside her.
“Can you believe we’re going to be grandparents?”
He smiled.
“Can you believe they’re going to be parents?”
That made her laugh again.
“They have no idea what they’re getting into.”
“Neither did we.”
“We were a little more prepared.”
“No, we weren’t.”
Maya considered that.
“No,” she said. “We really weren’t.”
James slipped an arm around her.
For years, their family had used Livonne to keep people from drifting too far apart.
Now there was someone new on the way in.