You Win Some, You Lose Some

Coby stared at his cup of tea, like it had done something wrong even though he hadn’t taken a single sip. It was probably good. As usual. It was his favorite flavor of his favorite brand of tea. Coby had plenty of relaxing memories of sipping this tea in the morning while he browsed through the news on his phone.

But now...he was expected to just relax with the tea alone.

And as Coby had come to realize over the last few months...it just wasn’t the same.

“Oh honey, are you really still not over not having a smartphone anymore?” Coby looked up and saw his wife, Mikayla, had entered the kitchen and was looking at him with a raised eyebrow.

“Like you’re doing any better,” Coby scoffed as he finally sipped his tea. “I saw you yesterday yelling at the landline because of static.”

“I was not yelling!” denied Mikayla. “You always exaggerate. I was just a little frustrated because I couldn’t hear Angela and we needed to discuss the school bake sale.”

Screaming at the top of her lungs while trying her best to strangle the phone was only a little frustration?

“Which is the Friday after next, by the way,” continued Mikayla like she hadn’t just tried to gaslight her husband. “Put it in your calendar. You should be able to visit during your lunch break. Bring some of your coworkers too.”

“Um...okay,” Coby said, deciding to let the matter go for now before he took another sip. “Fridays are pretty much a wrap-up day anyway, so yeah, that shouldn’t be a problem. But why? Does the high school really need funds that badly? Or is Maia actually helping with the bake sale?”

“Both,” Mikayla said. “Someone on the PTA thought it would be a good idea if we could have the kids help out this year. Probably because we're having trouble gathering volunteers for obvious reasons. It’s counting towards Maia’s volunteer hours at least. And after the turnout at the car wash...yeah, the school needs the money.”

Coby nodded, remembering Mikayla’s meltdown when she got home that fateful day. Unlike his wife, he hadn’t been surprised that only a few people, himself included, showed up. It was right after the phone shutdown, so despite all the advertisements on the school Instagram, Facebook, and GroupMe pages beforehand...people probably forgot since they didn’t have a daily reminder.

Or they didn’t feel like getting cash when they used to be able to pay through Venmo.

“But that won’t happen again this time,” Mikayla said with a defiant gleam in her eyes. “We posted posters in all the local markets, and we got some of the churches to announce the bake sale at the pulpit. This will be successful.”

“Okay, let me put that down before I forget,” Coby said as he reached into his pocket. Only to remember at the last second that his smartphone was in their small family safe along with his wife’s and daughter’s.

Not just to keep it safe from any thieves thinking they could make a quick buck selling a ‘relic,’ but because it hurt to look at them, knowing that they wouldn’t be able to use them.

“You would think that your body would remember that you don’t have your phone anymore,” said Mikayla without any malice as she handed Coby’s monthly planner to him, a blue book that she had gifted him three months ago.

A thing he hated because it made him self-conscious of his handwriting. Especially when even he had trouble reading what he wrote down.

“You know that we still have our phones,” Coby said with a sigh as he took the planner from Mikayla and started to write the words, 'Bake Sale: Lunch' as clearly as he could. He grimaced when he was done, but at least it was mostly legible. “They’re just not working right now.”

Mikayla’s eyes narrowed, and her lips pursed. Coby knew that look. He had accidentally stepped on a landmine. But thankfully, just before she could start to argue, Maia chose that moment to enter.

“Morning, Mom! Morning, Dad! What’s for breakfast?” Maia said with a bright smile, like she always had been a morning person.

“Oh, morning, honey,” Mikayla said, her tone now much sweeter and her angry expression completely gone. “I’m afraid it’s just a cereal morning today.”

“Why are you saying like that’s a bad thing? Yay cereal!” Maia said happily as she walked over to the cabinet and took out Cinnamon Toast Crunch. “Oh, not that I don’t like your homemade breakfasts, Mom. It’s just that I like having cereal once in a while.”

Though cereal mornings have been happening more and more lately. Coby was fine with it too, honestly. But he knew that Mikayla, who prided herself on being a good cook and who loved looking up new recipes daily on TikTok, was not happy with the recent cereal mornings.

“Did you realize that the printer ran out of ink at the last minute again?” Coby whispered. Mikayla nodded once.

“Do you want me to get some on the way home from work?”

Mikayla nodded rapidly three times.

“Oh, what a beautiful morning! Oh, what a beautiful day!” sang Maia as she poured cereal into her bowl before pouring in milk.

“Did you make that up, dear? Or is it from somewhere?” asked Mikayla, her smile back on her face, if a little forced.

“It’s from Oklahoma. It’s this musical from the 1950’s. We had a sub in band yesterday, so we watched that,” answered Maia while she sat down and started to dig into her cereal. “We only saw a bit of it, though. I hope we get a sub again soon so we can finish it.”

“You actually want to finish it?” said Coby, amused as he took another sip of tea. “And here you once said that no one pays attention to the movies in class.”

“I know!” Maia said as she put down her spoon. “But with our smartphones gone and the sub not wanting us to talk during the movie, we had no other choice but to watch it. I actually kinda like it. I'm not the only one either. I'm…I can’t believe I’m saying this but...I’m glad our smartphones don’t work anymore. It’s-”

Before Maia could say anymore, Mikayla suddenly stormed out of the kitchen without a word.

“Uh oh,” Maia said, obviously having seen her mother’s face right before she left. Then she turned to Coby. “Dad, how much trouble am I in?”

“None. This was a long time coming. You did nothing wrong anyway,” Coby said with a sigh. Then he got up from his chair. “You keep on eating. I’ll do damage control.”

“Good luck,” Maia said, causing Coby to smile a little in appreciation. Then he lightly kissed the top of Maia’s head before he went after his wife.

Mikayla didn’t go far. Coby found her a couple of rooms away, sitting on the living room couch with her head in her hands. She only lifted her head when Coby sat down next to her and placed his hand on her back in support.

His heart winced in pain when Coby saw her tears.

“I’m envious of my own daughter,” Mikayla said quietly. “I’m a horrible mother.”

“No, you’re not,” Coby replied just as quietly as he pulled his wife into his arms. “The fact that you even admit that you’re envious is a sign that you’re a good one.”

“But…”

“No buts. And besides...I wish I could be glad about not having a smartphone too.”

“How though?!” exclaimed Mikayla as she snuggled against his chest. “We didn’t grow up with it like Maia practically did!”

“Maybe because we technically had them longer than she did?” answered Coby, though he was unsure if he was right. If he wasn’t, Mikayla didn’t point it out as Coby felt a tear seep through his shirt.

“Sorry about earlier, when I got on you for not getting over your smartphone. I was projecting.”

“I figured.”

“It’s just...the PTA wouldn’t be scrambling to raise money if we still had our phones. I wouldn’t have had to yell at the phone if I could have just texted her. I just needed one simple answer, but no. She just had to go on forever with that awful static in the background!” vented Mikayla, her voice growing louder as time went on. “And this morning...I knew I could have just brought the laptop into the kitchen, but after the shutdown, I'm terribly afraid to lose that too by accidentally getting oil in it or something. I could have made a recipe we already had, but I ran out of time! It took me so long to even find a recipe because barely anyone’s posting them on TikTok anymore! Then that dumb printer...why couldn’t it have told me yesterday?”

“I don’t know,” Coby said as he stroked Mikayla’s back. “I just know I just can’t look something up immediately anymore. I’ll have to read an encyclopedia or a dictionary. Or grab a newspaper because I don’t get constant news updates.”

“Exactly!” Mikayla agreed as she clutched Coby’s shirt. “If I ever meet the person who first suggested that stupid bet, I’m going to kick them in the stomach so hard that he’ll throw up everything he ate within the last day! All at once.”

**

Maia grimaced at her mother’s threat, which she could hear clearly from the kitchen. Though she would admit that she had similar thoughts when the smartphone shutdown went into effect. No one knows who brought it up first. The UN wouldn’t admit how it all started. But the most likely rumor was that they were arguing about how people were too obsessed with their smartphones and that they needed new internet safety laws. Then Country A implied that Country B wouldn’t be able to survive without their smartphones. This caused Country B to be insulted, and they said they would survive better than Country A. Then Country C jumped in just to stir the pot, and before the world knew it, the countries at the UN all agreed to a bet that they would forcefully turn off all smartphones in their countries and see who would survive the longest.

It has been three months. No one has backed out yet.

Maia had definitely been unhappy at first. She had used it for everything. But then Maia went to bed early because she hadn't been able to distract herself with Instagram. And she woke up...feeling refreshed. On the first day of school after the phone shutdown began, someone took out a hacky sack during lunch and let a few people try it out. Now almost everyone in school had one, and Maia was hopeful that she could make her goal of keeping her hacky sack in the air for three minutes today. And chatting with her friends over a landline was actually kinda fun and made it feel like she was living in the 90s.

As such, Maia wasn’t in a rush to use her smartphone again. Of course, if they ever get to use their smartphones again, Maia would definitely be glad to have it again. Some things were easier with a smartphone. Though Maia might uninstall most of her apps. But regardless of whether she did that or not...

Maia felt sorry for her parents. She really did. But Maia and her friends, old ones and the ones made within the last three months, were thankful for the break.