Hi Dad.” Jennifer Jackson pulled her hair back into a ponytail and rubbed sleep out of her eyes with the back of her hands as she crossed the dining room, heading for the coffee pot on the counter. Andrew looked up from the newspaper he had spread out on the table and gave his daughter a smile.
“Hi kiddo,” he said. “Have a good sleep?”
Jennifer nodded as she poured a steaming cup of brew into her favourite old mug. “I slept like a log,” she said. “I was really tired I guess.”
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“Life is exhausting,” said Andrew. “I get tired just thinking about it.”
Jennifer seated herself at the table and reached for the sugar. “Yeah, no kidding,” she said. “It does not help to stay up every night till past midnight, I am discovering.”
“I wouldn’t know about that,” said Andrew. “I stay up till midnight on New Year’s Eve. The rest of the year I try to be in bed by 10:30.”
“Of course you do,” said Jennifer. “Because you’re old. Nobody expects you to be up after 10. All your friends are fast asleep by then.” She heaved a sigh. “I, on the other hand, have all kinds of people texting me and tweeting at me till all hours of the night. And I can’t just ignore them. They’ll take it personally if I do.”
Andrew raised an eyebrow. “Isn’t there an app for your phone that automatically tells your friends when you go to bed?”
“Whoa,” said Jennifer. “There isn’t, but that’s a great idea! Somebody should invent that! An app where you just click on a button labelled “goodnight” and it sends a message to all your contacts on all your platforms and devices telling them to shut up and let you sleep!” She took a sip of her coffee. “You should patent that idea and then just wait for someone to come up with the app so you could sue them for royalties. And then when people asked me where I got the money to buy a brand new Porsche I’d say, “my dad is a patent troll,” and all my friends would freak out and think you were super cool.”
“All this talk of platforms and devices is beyond my level of technological know-how,” said Andrew, “but patents and lawsuits I understand.”
“Well,” said Jennifer, “patent trolls have made something like half a trillion dollars in settlements since the beginning of the digital revolution, so obviously that’s where the money is.”
Andrew thought about that for a second. “How much do you want to bet someone has already patented that idea?” he asked.
Jennifer smiled. “I don’t think I’d take that bet,” she said. “Not without some long odds in my favour.”
There was a brief silence, as neither of the two could think of a reason to discuss that topic any further. They sipped coffee in silence for a few minutes, while Andrew turned his attention back to the newspaper. He finished the article he was reading and turned to the next page. “So, what are you up to today?” he asked without looking up.
“I’m going out to the farm,” said Jennifer. “Kendra and I are going riding. We’re gonna check on the sheep and the cattle and then ride down to the river and have a picnic.”
Andrew looked up and then turned his head to look out the window. “Better today than yesterday,” he said. “It was freakishly hot out yesterday.”
“Yeah, no kidding,” said Jennifer. “Yesterday would have been like riding ’cross the desert on a horse with no air conditioning.”
Andrew chuckled. “Good one,” he said. “Good song too. Although I could never figure out why, if they were riding all the way across a desert, they didn’t just give the horse a name.”
Jennifer laughed. “The song wouldn’t have been the same,” she said. “Riding ’cross the desert on a horse named Trigger just doesn’t have the same ring.”
“How’s Kendra?” asked Andrew. “I haven’t seen her for ages.”
“She’s good,” said Jennifer. “Madly in love. I think she might get married next summer.”
“Really?” said Andrew. “That’s too bad.”
“Huh?” said Jennifer. “Why would you say that? You suddenly have something against marriage?”
“No, no,” said Andrew. “She’s just too young. What’s the rush?”
“OK then,” said Jennifer. “I hope you’re gonna be more supportive when I announce that I’m engaged.”
“If it’s within the next two years,” said Andrew, “don’t count on it.”
Jennifer grinned. “No worries,” she said. “Not till I’m 30.”
Andrew raised his mug. “I’ll drink to that,” he said.
Jennifer raised her mug. “Down the hatch,” she said.
