Free Simple by Dena Nicotra Page A

of the wood work ever since you showed up.”
    “It’s not because of this,” he said pointing at his tablet.
    “Then why?”
    “Hell if I know, Hailey, but it’s not because of any of our devices.  Giz and I are the most knowledgeable guys left from IDE and the lengths we have gone to in order to safeguard against detection are more extreme than you could possibly fathom, so please, with all due respect, just leave the technical aspects of this adventure to us, all right?”
    “I’d like to tell you where you could stick your devices, Mic.”
    “Our devices won’t do you any good up our asses, Hailey,” said Giz, which started peals of laughter from all of us.  When it died down, I said, “Lee.”
    “What’s that?”  Mic looked at me with an expression of confusion.
    “Call me Lee,” I said quietly.  It’s what my family called me.
    “Lee it is,” said Giz from the back.
    “Hey Lee?” 
    “Yes Jacob?”
    “Do you think you could call me Jake from now on?  It’s what my family called me.”
    “You got it.”
    “I go by Barb.  Barbie to some,” Barbara said softly.  I could tell from her tone that ‘Barbie’ was reserved for someone she’d loved and lost.  In an effort to keep the mood from going too far downhill, I decided to direct my attention to our geek squad. “So, Fish and Guts – “
    “It’s Giz, not Guts!” Giz said.
    “Whatever. So, what prompted your uniquely terrific nicknames?” I asked.
    “Well, if you must know, I was dubbed Fish after a speech I gave at a symposium in Atlanta, Georgia.  I said something about ‘give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach him to fish and’…yada, yada.  It stuck after that with the internal people at IDE.”
    “You’re leaving out the main aspect of that story, Fish,” said Giz.
    “He opened several free programs to inner-city children to teach them programming, and every year he takes the highest scoring student that’s eighteen or older from each state as an intern at IDE...or he used to, anyway.
    “I think that’s beautiful, Fish,” said Barbara from the back.
    “Okay, and you, Giz?”  I wasn’t feeling up to commenting on MicFish’s benevolent humanitarianism.
    “It kind of rhymes with Leonard, I guess,” his voice squeaked.  I tried to keep a straight face, but I just couldn’t do it.  I began to laugh so hard my eyes watered, and that got everyone else laughing again.
    “Someone started it at work and it just stuck,” he added in his defense.  In spite of our dire circumstances, it felt incredibly good to laugh.  I couldn’t really remember the last time I’d done so.  We drove on for another two hours before the landscape began to change.  Maneuvering had been challenging, and I was exhausted.  The road turned into a two-lane highway and the amount of abandoned vehicles lessened, making it a little easier, but my stomach was beginning to growl, and I was getting edgier by the minute.  I shifted in my seat to try to get some feeling back in my butt.
    “Want me to drive a while?”  Mic asked.
    “That would be great, what took you so long to ask?”
    “I figured you for the control-freak type and I didn’t want to piss you off.”
    “Smart ass,” I said, as I pulled to a stop.  We switched places and I put my feet up on the dash to stretch my aching knees.  The sun was just starting to go down, and the sky was a wash of gray and pale pinks.  I looked in the back and saw that the rest of our little group was fast asleep.  Barbara was leaning against the wall, and Jacob’s head was in her lap.  His little legs were curled up tight.  Giz was lying on his back, his head resting on his computer bag.  His mouth was wide open and he was snoring softly.  I guess without a connection he could finally allow himself to rest.  I spied the plastic grocery bag and remembered that it was filled with snacks from the vending machines. Ever so carefully, I moved back in the van and pulled