A Twisted Web - Benoit Blanc

One - One Last Call

"Happy birthday, Granddad!" Flora called through the laptop screen, waving. She had been dreading the call, only going through with it for Harlan, and as soon as she saw her grandfather's smile, she knew it was worth it.  "I'm there in spirit! Party lots for me!"

"Thank you, Flora.  We miss you,"  Harlan said, blowing her a kiss.  "I'll eat an extra slice of cake for you."

"Thanks! Make sure it's big with lots of icing!"

"Oh, I will - I'll try and sneak it past Marta." Harlan winked, making her laugh. 

"Hey everyone! Flora's on Skype!" Meg, who had connected Flora's call on her phone, called to the group, instantly getting everyone's attention. 

Here we go...

Flora braced herself for the questions surely about to come:

When will you be home?

When will we see you?

Aren't you traveled-out by now?

The respective answers were, as follows: 'I don't know', 'I don't know', and 'no'.

Now, just like that, everyone was surrounding Meg, trying to cram themselves into the camera lens frame so they  could see her. 

"Hi Sweetheart."

"Hi Mom."

"Hi Princess," called her father, raising his wine glass.

She really hated that nickname. "Hi Dad." She held up her own wine glass, taking a gulp.  "Cheers Granddad!" She tried to go back to focusing on him, but Harlan was now mostly covered by the rest of the family trying to make it into the frame. 

"Jacob! Come say hello to your cousin!" Donna called.

"He's in the bathroom," Walt informed. 

"Doing God knows what," grumbled Meg. 

"Hi Flora! Where are you right now?" asked Joni, coming very close to the camera.

"Hi Joni. I'm still in London."

"Oooo very nice! When will you have the next blog post up?"

"I'm hoping to have it finished up by tomorrow."

"We'll definitely watch for it!"

"I bet you're having more fun than we are," said Harlan.

"Dad!" cried Linda. 

"Here's Great Nana," Meg said, moving around the room, the others trying to follow the phone camera. "Hey Nana, it's Flora on the screen, see?" Great Nana just blinked back as Flora waved. 

"Where's Ransom?" Flora asked, noticing the lack of presence of her brother. She was hoping to catch him tonight, as he wasn't returning her calls or emails. 

"Oh, he's not here," sighed her mother.  "He left about half an hour ago."

"Oh. I'll have to try calling him then." Again. Although, was it really much of a surprise that he had left early? If anyone disliked family gatherings like this more than her, it was her brother. And Ransom  didn't just dislike family gatherings, he hated  them. 

"I'm sure he'll be sorry he missed you."

Flora wasn't so sure about that, but it was nice of Linda to make an effort on behalf of her son. 

No one was making room for Marta, who was standing in the back. "Marta! Hi!" Flora called, drawing their attention to Marta who was also trying to say hello.

Marta stepped into the frame with a smile.  "Hi Flora! So nice to see you!  How are you?"

"Really good, thanks!"

"Have you been doing lots of traveling?"

"Yes,  I have.  I can't wait to tell you about it!"

"I can't wait to hear all about it-" The family basically shoved Marta out of the way, trying to all see Flora at once, and, as usual, talking over one another. 

"When do you think you'll be home?" her mother asked.

"Yeah Flora, when will we get to see you?" added Joni.

"Aren't you getting tired of being away?" put in her father. 

There it was. I am home.  "Not sure - I'd like to come visit soon though, I have to give Granddad his gift."

"Having you visit would be a lovely gift," said Harlan. He looked somewhat sad. 

"But I still have a lot of work to do, so if I did visit, it wouldn't be for a couple of months at least." 

"We miss you," Harlan said again.

"I miss you too, Granddad."

"Well, I have to go," Meg announced.  

"Already?" cried Linda. 

"I'm meeting some friends tonight. It was nice talking to you Flora!"

"Yeah, thanks, nice talking to you, too."

"Everyone  say bye!"

"Bye Flora!"

"Bye-" The screen went dark. As soon as it did, Flora exhaled a heavy sigh.  

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The next day she received an unscheduled call from her mother. They usually scheduled phone calls to avoid the long-distance charges. 

"Hi Mom. How was the rest of the party? I tried giving Ransom a call, but he didn't pick up, and he hasn't called me back-"

"Sweetheart." Her mother's voice  sounded hoarse, and her tone was serious. 

"Mom, what is it? What's wrong?" she asked, suddenly worried. 

"Granddad's dead."

(Speaking of celebrating grandfathers' birthdays, I started writing this on what would have been my own Grandfather's 100th birthday!  

Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed this introduction! :))