"Michael! We're going out for coffee!"
The girls called out from downstairs in the foyer. Bed And Breakfast season was fast approaching and the girls needed all the time to themselves they could afford. Michael appeared coming down the steps and he asks,
"When will you be back?"
The look around and Shan answers sliding on her windbreaker,
"We won't be gone for long Michael. We're just going out then turning back around."
He looks down in that hidden sad way and says,
"Okay..I'll be here."
They step out the door and it wasn't until they were stuck in L.A. traffic that a word was actually said.
"Ya know I've been thinking?.."
Shan says breaking the silence. The girls tune in and Shan says from the back seat,
"Michael always looks so sad when we leave. And we're hardly ever right when we tell him when we'll be back. It honestly bothers me.."
"Same..." Dee says and she sighs. Faith leans on the window and murmurs,
"I never do wanna leave him all alone like that."
"Well. Do you think we could..I don't know...get him a cell phone?"
Shan tries and the ones in the front gawk.
Michael was notorious for losing phones and they didn't want to add to the purgatory that was his collection of lost phones. Dee shakes her head and swerves out of traffic,
"No. Absolutely not."
Faith and Shania look to her strangely and Faith sneers,
"Uhh Dee? Where ya going?"
Dee shifts gears and she still sticks to her story. "Nope. There's no way he's getting a phone. Nuh uh."
Shania looks out the back window unsure and mentions,
"Uh Dee. Starbucks was that way?"
Dee takes two more turns and pulls into the mall. The Sprint store sign still shining its neon open and she parks asking,
"Do you think he's an Apple or an Android kinda guy girls?"
~~
"Okay...Iphone 5s....he's got a charger in here...oh there it is.."
Faith says rummaging through the bag and she looks up quickly,
"Shit! We didn't get him a case!"
Dee scoffs pulling out of the parking lot,
"He can order his own damn case! He changes his favorite color everytime we ask him!"
Shan buckles up and says,
"We just just have to make sure he doesn't try to make any social media accounts. That will be a disaster."
They all agree groaning and Faith mentions, "Oh snap. We gotta put all of our numbers in here!"
"We'll do that at home. I'm sure he'll need some kind of tutorial. I bet he's never had an iPhone." Dee assures
~~
They look around opening the door without coffee and Dee calls out, "Michael?! We come baring gifts."
They continue to keep their heads on swivels and Shan jumps as he morphs beside her.
"I hate when you do that!" She gasps and they all sigh. Michael giggles and he says,
"I kid. What's this gift? You know I never ask for gifts."
He looks into the Sprint store bag and says, "Wait. This is a phone?"
The girls all nod and Dee interjects, "And it's yours."
He looks to them unsure and Shan steps in,
"You make it kinda obvious that you miss us when we're away. But we miss you too, if not more. So this is your way of getting in touch with us when we're away."
He looks to the bag again and he places the box onto the table. He struggles with the shrink wrap and peels it off anxious. It was a golden exterior and he smiles holding its weight in his hand. The tag for the screen protector flopped across the side and he asks,
"Do I peel this off?"
They nodded and Shan says,
"That's the best part!"
He peels the film away from the screen and smiles.
"I think I might like this. I've had cellphones before. But I'd always lose them in taxis or in limos. I was never good with keeping up with them. I'm rather guilty of that."
They scoff and Faith mentions,
"Keep up with this one okay? It wasn't that cheap but we love you so it still is a gift."
~~ Later that night.
"Wait so...what's FaceTime?"
Dee looks over to Michael as he loomed by the stove as she cooked and she explains,
"Its a video chat app on iPhone's. Here I'll show you."
She takes Michael's phone and opens the app. She shows the front facing camera to him and pulls out her own device.
"Here, tap on my profile then hit call."
He does as he's told and he waits. Dee's phone buzzes and she answers the call facing her camera. She smiles into the lense and he sees her on his screen.
"Oh. That's so neat!" He says and he presses the home button accidentally.
"Oh god. I've done that like twice. Hey Dee, is there anyway I can save pictures to my gallery?"
She nodded came to his side.
"Yes. The easiest way is to screen shot a picture then it automatically saves. Here I'll show you all the stuff I've saved to my gallery."
Suddenly the boiling pot in the stove, bubbles over with steam and she lays her phone down sighing,
"Wait. Lemme stir this real quick."
Michael becomes curious though and looks to her screen for the gallery. One folder was titled 'Moonwalker' and he tapped on the cartoon folder. He opens it up and his eyes widen the size of saucers, "Dee..." he gasps
She hums to him and he answers, "You have a folder full of my pictures..."
Dee stands in shock and she spins around. There, Michael was scrolling through her guilty pleasure pictures of him when he was alive and she shrieks,
"Get outta there!!"
She races over in a panic and snatches the phone away.
Michael laughs loud and he teases, "Dee, you have a folder full of me!"
She blushes bright red and she grumbles, "Keep it up mister and you'll lose your tech support, get me?"
~~
Faith lied in bed asleep after a long day. She rolled on her side mid snore and was jolted away by three buzzes to her phone. "Oh my god. What?!" She groans into the pillow and feels arounf for her phone. She sees on her screen Michael had texted her.
She rolls her eyes texting back answering
She rolls back over happily until the message tone sounds again
She slams down her phone and can't find the line between crying and laughing.
~~
Michael sneaks into Shan's room since Faith was no help and he finds her asleep. He could wait no longer so he sneaks over to her phone. He makes sure she really is asleep and he taps the home button to see her phone guarded by a passcode. He rolls his eyes and guesses shans birthday. 'Incorrect code'
He tries again and tries the day Neverland in was opened and that too, 'Incorrect code'
He scoffs silent and tries something from the back of his mind,
"If this works..."
He tries his own birthday and there the phone unlocks.
'You can't be serious.' His face said and he smirks over to her sleeping. He taps her phone contacts and scrolls down looking for one phone number in particular. He scrolls further to find his contact. 'PJ'
He taps on the emoticon hopeful and the name reads, 'Paris Jackson'
He sighs knowing this isn't the wisest thing to do. He lets go of the that thought and he memorizes the pattern of numbers as he taps it into his own phone. He leaves Shan's phone back on her beside table and he passes through her door and sits down on the first step to the foyer. He debated the thought of texting his daughter several times. And repeatedly deleted an unsent message of how to approach this.
'Hey..' and 'Guess who..' weren't good enough. He needed something subtle that wouldn't force her to answer back. He taps the message bar and sends the most subtle but honest thing he could think of. He hits send and immediately turns off the screen.
'What did I just do?' He thinks and he holds his face in his hands. He held her bracelet nervously and then, he felt the phone vibrate.
~~
Paris rolls over in bed and hears her phone vibrate. She opens her eyes sleepily and holds it up to her eyes. In the lockscreen flashed a restricted number and she furrowed confused. She unlocks with a swipe and finds the strange message. The apple emojis were the first thing to catch her eye. 'Apple?...' she thought and she rose up in bed. She tucked the blankets to her sides and it hit her all at once, 'Applehead..' she counted the emojis and she gasped noticing there were seven. Seven.
'Daddy's favorite number...'
She takes the phone back into her grip and texts, knowing it has to be him.
~~
Michael picks the phone back up and he sees her reply.
He exhales in relief, hoping her sense would tell her who it was. "That's my girl." He feels a second buzz and sees another message appear.
He smiles and taps on the screen to reply.
He puts down the phone still smiling and figures if he kept going she'd never sleep. He turns the screen off and lets his thoughts race across what memories he could find. He remembered blankets fifth birthday and how fun it was seeing them laugh trying to all blow out the candles at once. He giggled until his phone buzzed again.
"Paris Elizabeth...." he half growled reopening the sms app and his entity was moved by what he saw. She had sent pictures from that very day. Paris was clairvoyent and she could sense her father's thoughts beyond the grave and from miles away. He smiles looking at all the photos and even finds himself giggling. The last picture showing him with paris in his lap and the brothers on each side had a caption towards the bottom that he had to zoom in to make out. He smiles his widest reading it and holds down on the image to use it as his wallpaper. He smiles and reads it again in Paris' words,
'You were our life..'