Thursday evening before Spring Term begins. Caroline had cooked so Laurence and Kate clear. Caroline protests when Kate rises but Kate says pointedly, "Surely it's for Laurence to decline my help, not you Caroline." Laurence laughed as Caroline's jaw dropped open. "You turning down help, Laurence?"

"No, ma'am. Many hands, light work, etc." he said, the touch of formality in his voice undermined entirely by his grin. "You're outvoted, Mum. Go get your laptop and set up for the grand master planning session." When he noticed Kate's bewildered look, he explained. "Mum makes a calendar and to do list for us before the term starts. Keeps things organized for her...and us. You should probably grab your phone and laptop."

"I think I'll make us some tea and wait for direct orders." Kate said dryly.

"Resistance is futile, Kate, but I'll enjoy watching this."

As Kate puttered in the kitchen, Caroline claimed the dinner table, plugging in her laptop and typing away till Kate and Laurence joined her with mugs of tea. Caroline took a sip of hers and laughed.

"Kate, this is delicious but you'll put the brandy makers out of business."

"When I drinks tea, Doctor Elliot," Kate replied, "I drinks tea. When I want warm brown water, I wait for the urge to pass." Laurence laughed and Caroline retreated.

"Right, well then. Thank you. Now, as to the calendar, I've made one we can share in Google calendar.

"Do I have that?" asked Kate?

"Yes, Sweetheart. No teasing, please. It with your SH account." Kate looked at her blankly.

"Kate, your email account at school." Caroline said a bit waspishly.

"Our email has a calendar?"

"Kate, you know it does. I talk about the electronic calendar at staff meetings twice a week."

"I never knew." Kate confessed in a small voice.

"Well, how do you keep track of things. You never miss anything." Caroline was sincerely confused.

"When you mention things in meetings, I write them down in my weekly planner and if I'm uncertain about anything, I email Beverly."

Laurence began to hum the theme from The Twilight Zone and intoned in a deep voice, "then one day, a Lesbian Luddite crossed Dr. Elliot's radar." Kate burst out laughing.

Caroline looked from one to the other as they laughed and then laughed out loud herself. "I am so screwed with the pair of you, aren't I?" she asked. This engendered more laughter. She sighed. "Laurence, could you load up the calendar in your phone. Kate, give me yours and I'll show you how to set it up." The request set off another gale of laughter.

Kate stood, gasping and said. "Purse." and left the dining room in search of her bag. Still laughing when she returned, she doubled over at the look on Caroline's face when she handed her the flip phone.

Laurence jumped up and said dramatically. "My god, a dumb phone. I've read about these. Observed in the wild. This is fantastic."

Caroline now looked thoroughly confused. "You never, got an iPhone or a Samsung. Even a Windows phone?"

"Amazon made a phone, too." offered Laurence helpfully.

"No." said Kate, a bit embarrassed.

"People do you know." said Caroline. "It's not like eating meat from an endangered species."

"I can call you, read your emails and text you." said Kate firmly. "What else do I need in a phone?

"Laurence," said Caroline, "It is at this point you take over the conversation and remind me what a blessing teenaged boys can be."

"Well besides Mum's master calendar for life, what you can do with music is amazing. iTunes. Pandora. playlists. It's really not all the evils of modernity, Kate."

"But I have an iPod that does all that," she objected.

"Yes, well, it's one device. Phone, music, email, texting. Convenience factor is massive." As she continued to look doubtful, he added, "also, apps." And forestalling her protest, he added, "not just games. Look here." He pulled his own phone from his pocket and tapping quickly pulled up a folder labelled, 'French.' "Here's my Quizlet app for reviewing vocabulary words. And here's my verb conjugation app and my dictionary." He grows quiet as Kate takes his phone from him and begins flipping through the apps in the folder."

"This is huge." Kate says quietly.

"I don't really know much about this but Sam's a music freak and he says musicians can do crazy stuff with apps. There's all sorts of apps for making music, managing sheet music. Right up your alley."

"Exactly," said Caroline. "Thank you, Laurence."

"You've been kind of busy lately, Kate. You might have missed some of the buzz. " Laurence said in a kind, if unwittingly patronizing voice.

Kate grinned at him. "I've also been living in the 18th century. Me and Ned Ludd." Then she turned to Caroline.

"But no you're not going out to buy me some space age, cutting edge phone."

Caroline looked very disappointed. "It would give me so much pleasure." She pouted as appealingly as she could.

"It would be ridiculously extravagant, Caroline." Caroline paused and tilting her head back on her shoulders stared at the ceiling for a few moments. Then she smiled. "I've got it." She straightened up laid out her plan. "I will buy myself, the new iPhone 6 and give you my old 5. Not a 5s, so no touch entry, sorry."

"Don't worry," Laurence said in a mock whisper to Kate, "I'll explain later."

"Then," Caroline continued, "I'll simply be upgrading and no electrons will have been splurged in the exchange." Kate pursed her lips to think about it. "However, because I'm feeling so beneficent, I shall also upgrade Laurence to a 6, when I go to the store."

"Mum!" Laurence spluttered.

"You needn't sound so shocked. You've earned it. First, you helped me persuade Kate. He has persuaded you, hasn't he?" she turned to ask Kate. "No pressure, but this only works if you take my phone."

"Well," said Kate grinning, "I could hardly be so ungracious."

"Yes, my thought, exactly." Caroline smiled then turned to Laurence. "But also, by way of thanking you. It's been a completely crazy year for you and by and large you've been as good a son as any Mum could ask for and certainly more than I deserve." Laurence, remembering some less than stellar behavior in the last year and a bit shocked at his mother's spontaneity, blushed deeply. "We'll pick it up when we go shopping for mine. Do you know what you want?"

To Kate she added, "Up for a trip to Leeds tomorrow? The store is fantastic. I'll make an appointment with the genius bar for you. They can walk you through everything you need to know. Despite the fact that the genius will be 12, studded and tattooed, you know you'll take instruction from him far better than from me.

Kate nodded with a grin. Then Laurence answered her, "Well, Mum, not to make everything about me, as it happens, I have a note with a spec list. Let me text it."

"Can you turn the new one on and set it up yourself?" Caroline asked. "Otherwise, I'll have to take yours with me for the day."

"Right." Said Laurence sardonically. "How likely is that?"

"I'm feeling somewhat out of my depth, here." Kate's observed nervously.

"That won't be true for long, Kate. She's going to start you off with Google calendar and the next thing you know it will be statistical analysis apps."

"Don't know about that," said Kate. "We lowly French and Music teachers don't have much need of statistical analysis apps."

"Well at the very least you'll love the music ones. I'll get Sam to show you some once the genius bar guy has set you up." Then he turned to his mother. "You know, Mum, we should reschedule your master planning session till Sunday or Monday night. It will be so much easier once Kate's online."

"Sunday's out, we'll be crazed." said Caroline. "Well, I will."

"No, sighed Kate. "I will too."

"Monday's out, we'll be exhausted. First day back."

"Tuesday's rugby training," said Laurence.

"Wednesday?" asked Caroline. "Can everyone do Wednesday?"

"Yes," said Kate with mock seriousness. "I'll have the genius bar lad put it in my calendar.

They all laughed.

Then Laurence stood and said, "Well, I have a few aliens to kill." Then he stopped and smiled. "Thanks for the new phone, Mum." To everyone's surprise, he leaned over and kissed Kate on the top of her forehead. "Thanks to you too, Kate. This gay mum thing is going to work out ok for a growing boy."

"Laurence!" said Caroline, shocked. But Kate and Laurence just hugged and laughed.