5 Chapter 5 – Zack – Iteration 144 (1/2)
Zack turned off his cell-phone when reporters discovered his number, which was towards the end of his shift. By the time Zack got home, the news had run not only the picture Maggie snapped with her phone, but also the damning video from the store camera, which someone had uploaded to the internet. The confrontation with Lacey began the moment he walked through the door and lasted for over an hour, only ending when Lacey began to cry. Zack uttered false assurances that he was happy, did love her, and thought life was great.
They ate a dinner of tater tots and chicken nuggets microwaved to a soggy mess while they watched the local news. Zack listened to a segment on road construction around Pittsburgh while Lacey pushed food around on her plate. ”One of us needs to learn how to cook before the baby gets here.”
”I know how to cook,” Zack said.
”Microwaves don't count, hon.”
”I cook food at work every day.”
”That thing at your work is just a big toaster. I'm talkin' about real food.”
The news anchors began discussing a recent crime spree targeting hubcaps. ”Real food, huh? Don't you think it's hard to define real food when no one is certain what is real in the first place?”
”Real is when you can see and touch something. It's not complicated, Hon.”
”It's not just seeing and touching. It's perceiving and remembering, which are unreliable mental processes. Let's give a hypothetical situation where the world began five years ago.”
Lacey snorted. ”World's lot older than that.”
”How can anyone really know the age of the world? If the world sprang into existence five years ago, fully formed with a complete but false history, no one would know. Fake memories would match fake records.”
”And Santa Clause has a magic sleigh too,” Lacey said.
Zack smiled. ”Who knows, right?”
”Pretty sure I know.”
”You think you know.”
”I know what you do at work ain't real cooking.”
”How about making candy bar milkshakes? Is that real cooking?”
”Hell no. And you still owe me a new blender for that.”