Getting home after arriving from the diner, the phone rang Alan was in the bathroom, and Judith was upstairs.
Jake was at the kitchen table with Alan's anatomy book open in front of him. He looked at the phone on the wall. It rang again.
Jake got up and picked up the receiver.
"Harper residence."
A brief pause.
"Well," the other voice in the receiver said. "You sound very grown up on the phone."
Jake reacted and quickly went through these memories to remember this voice.
Evelyn harper.
"Hi Grandma."
"Is your father there?"
"He's in the bathroom."
"Of course he is." A pause that contained a small editorial. "And your mother?"
"Upstairs."
"I see." Another pause. "How is school."
Jake started his machinate in his mind, for him to enter high school it would take months, if not up to a year due to bureaucracy.
That said, Evelyn Harper was a very well-connected women, she probably knew how to sped thing up.
In the original show she had helped a gay couple adopt a chinese child, just to rattle Alan and Charlie.
With these thoughts Jake started talking
"Actually," he said, "I'm not going to be there much longer."
There is silence on the other end, different from the conversational pauses.
This one seem to have caugth her attention in it.
"What do you mean," Evelyn said.
"I tested with a private psychologist this week. Dr. Halpern in Encino. She's recommending I go to high school."
He kept his voice even and, matter of fact, the voice of a child relaying information.
"She said my IQ is 180. At minimum. She said she's never seen scores like mine in twenty years."
The silence this time was longer.
"180," Evelyn said.
"At minimum."
"In twenty years."
"Yes."
He could hear Evelyn recalibrating on the other end of the line.
The small sounds of someone sitting up straighter, of a glass being set down.
"Well," she said. "That's hardly surprising. The Harpers have always been exceptional." A pause. "Intellectually speaking."
"Of course," Jake said.
"Your father never applied himself properly. That was always the issue. The potential was there."
"I'm sure."
"High school," Evelyn said, more to herself than to him. "How soon."
"My mom is going to contact the district. But those things take time, apparently."
A pause.
"They don't have to," Evelyn said.
"I wouldn't know about that," Jake said. "I'm nine."
"Put your father on."
"He's still in the—"
"Put him on Jake."
Jake carried the phone to the bathroom while holding his nose and held it out to Alan, who was relaxing in the toilet.
"It's Grandma," Jake said.
Alan quickly took the phone with a hurried expression.
Jake went back to the table and sat down and opened Argus.
The stock market, bussines world, international news.
Everything that could happen in this world was being quielty noted in his mind.
Literally noted, since Argus had a note extension on it, sort of like a digital notebook.
The current main reason for noting those things down, was to test how different was this world conoared to the other one, since actors had turned into their fictional counterparts, there could be more differences.
Behind him he could hear Alan saying 'yes Mom' and 'I don't know Mom' and 'I'll tell her Mom' in the particular rhythm of someone being given instructions they had no intention of following but no energy to argue about.
Jake looked back, pretending to read a book while looking at the virtual interface.
Alan was still on the phone with Evelyn after ten minutes.
Jake looked up from the anatomy book.
Alan turned toward the window with the phone still at his ear. "Mom are you ... are you in the car right now?"
A pause.
"Mom you live in Beverly Hills ."
Another pause.
"Okay," Alan said, in the voice of someone who had stopped having opinions. "Okay. See you in a few minutes."
He hung up and looked at Judith who was standing in the kitchen doorway.
"She's coming over," he said.
"I gathered." She said with a harsh tone.
They never got along, and Evelyn calling her a "Mousey bitch" at their wedding didnt help one bit.
Maybe the disliked was rooted in ther similarities, although saying that aloud would possibly earn you a beating.
Evelyn arrived twelve minutes later dressed as though she had not simply driven across the valley on a sunday evening but had come from somewhere considerably more significant.
She kissed Alan on the cheek, nodded at Judith, and then looked at Jake sitting at the kitchen table with his anatomy book and stopped.
She looked at him for a Jake with an expression that was as close to openly affectionate as Evelyn Harper got in company..
"There he is 'Mister 180' " she said.
"At minimum," Jake said.
Evelyn nodded slowly, as though confirming something she had already decided on the drive over.
"I want to see the report," she said.
"Evelyn it's almost eight o'clock—" Judith started.
"The psychologist's report. Dr. Halpern's." She set her purse on the counter and sat down at the kitchen table. "I'd like to read it."
Judith looked at her husband for a moment, and was just found with Alan looking too interested in the ceiling.
Then she went and got it.
Evelyn read it with her glasses on and the focused attention of someone reviewing a legal document.
Jake watched her turn pages without speaking. When she reached the IQ estimate section she stopped and read it twice.
Then she took her glasses off and set the report on the table.
"In twenty years," she said, to Jake.
"That's what she said." Joked jake , but no one seemed to get it.
"And the district." She looked at Judith. "How long are they going to make him wait."
"We have to schedule a meeting. Then they review—"
"Who do you meet with."
"A Dr. Patricia Walsh. Director of gifted programs for the valley."
"Patricia and I are in the same book club." Evelyn examined her nails briefly. "We've been in the same book club for eleven years. She's never actually read any of the books but she makes very good canapés so nobody mentions it."
Evelyn picked up her purse from the counter. "I'll be outside."
"Evelyn—"
"Dont worry she'll take the call" She was already moving toward the front door.
She went outside.
Alan looked at his coffee while Judith stood at the counter with her arms crossed looking at the door.
"Did tell her you were going to high-school ?" Judith said, to Jake.
Jake looked up from the anatomy book.
"I mentioned I was going to high school," he said while tryng to sound innocent. "She seemed interested."
Judith looked at him with an expression that was not quite suspicious and not quite impressed and was possibly both
Through the kitchen window they could see Evelyn on the front path in the porch light, phone to her ear, talking with the measured authority of someone who never needed to raise her voice.
Occasionally she smiled, which from a distance looked more like a negotiating position than anything warm.
Narcissistic, manipulative, and emotionally distant was the impression Jake got from her in the show.
He was beginning to like this grandmother.
Evelyn came back inside nine minutes later.
She sat back down at the kitchen table and looked at Judith.
"Thursday," she said. "Two o'clock. District offices on Oxnard." She picked up her coffee. "Patricia will have her people there. The report has already been faxed."
"When did you faxed it," Judith asked.
"Oh, dont worry about it dear. You're welcome Judith." She set down the cup.
"..."
A silence, Judith was tryng to keep the composure.
"Thank you Evelyn," Judith said trough her theeth.
The words arrived carefully assembled.
Evelyn nodded as though this was the natural order of things.
Then she looked at Jake .
"High school," she said.
"High school," he repeated it while nodding.
She picked up her purse and stood and told Alan his coffee was weak and let herself out.
Alan looked at his cup. "I thought it was pretty good."
Nobody answered him.
Jake just turned the page of the anatomy book he was pretending to read.