As Evan entered his apartment, lights followed him from entryway into main living area. Cued by his mere presence, the screens hung on the walls blinked to life with images and videos of weather, current time, and news bulletins. As he moved from room to room, information followed, never skipping a beat as it streamed along Evan’s side.

His life flickered over slimline monitors. Awards and ceremonies intermingled with family photos, vacation clips, and calendar entries.

He paused in front of a screen before entering the bedroom. Above the bed, weather reports and a flicker of local news illuminated the room.

An alert on his mobile device instantly transferred to the nearest screen, in the kitchen.

A pop-up window filled the center of cabinet-mounted screen. Bright blue text read: MOM.

Evan sighed at the alert but conceded there would be no further avoidance.

“Answer,” he commanded into the empty space of the room.

His mother’s image appeared in the expanded box on the screen. Her pale blonde hair lay neatly coiffed in a short pixie style framing her wrinkled but joyful face. Her bright blue eyes lit up, though they searched the room with mild concern.

“Evan, dear!” His mother’s shrill voice cut through the silence of the apartment as the audio surround system picked up the signal.

“Hey Mom.” Evan continued through the kitchen, opening the refrigerator and ducking his head into the lighted space.

“Evan, are you okay? I've been trying to get a hold of you all day!” The glint of joy shifted to one of worry.

“I'm fine, Mom. Busy day is all.” Evan emerged from the refrigerator with a block of cheese and a container of cold meat slices.

“Busy?” The shifting expression on his mother’s face transformed once more to one of mild annoyance. “Too busy to check in about arrangements with your dear mother.”

Evan winced as he recalled the date. He set the meat and cheese on the granite countertop and returned to the refrigerator for a jar of mayonnaise and one of sliced pickles.

“Right. Well, all is well.” Evan shrugged as he retrieved a loaf of bread from the pantry. “I did not forget our plans for Thanksgiving.”

“Well, I certainly hope not.” His mother’s tone was still ripe with annoyance, though she seemed to be simmering down. “Evan, I wish you would at least look at a screen when I'm talking to you, dear.”

Evan turned to shoot a smile at the screen across from the countertop as he prepared his sandwich. He continued to smile as he chewed around the slice of cheese protruding from his mouth.

“Evan.” The knot between his mother’s eyebrows brought a broader smile to his lips before he closed them around the remaining tail of the cheese. “At least chew with your mouth closed,” the woman reprimanded.

“Yes, Mom.” Evan mumbled around a mouthful. “I haven’t eaten all day. You wouldn't want your poor only son to starve to death.”

“Dear Evan.” His mother rolled her eyes. Her sigh filled the surround sound system.

Evan completed the construction of his sandwich and returned the materials to their places. Sandwich in hand, he stepped through the archway from kitchen to main sitting room of the apartment.

His mother’s face appeared in a new screen, this one over sixty inches, and in high definition,  mounted across from the couch.

“Whoa.” Evan mumbled around a bite of sandwich. “Now you have me questioning this latest purchase.”

“Evan, can you please tell me if you received the electronic passes for the train to Las Vegas?” His mother’s image panned back enough to display her upper torso. Her arms crossed in annoyance.

Evan admitted defeat. He meant no real harm in irritating his mother. He simply enjoyed getting the woman’s ire up a bit now and again.

“I received the e-passes this afternoon, Mom. Don't worry so much. I will make it out there by tomorrow evening,” Evan consoled her before taking another bite of his sandwich.

“Good, dear. You know I still have a hard time trusting GlobeNet’s newest transit integration system. It doesn't seem to notify me when the tickets are cleared.” Evan could see his mother’s eyes wandering over the screens on her side of the transmission.

“Be sure to call the main line if you’re worried, Mom. They are good people and they will help you out. Promise. It's not magic.” Evan drew his mobile device from his pocket and keyed in a set of commands on the touch screen.

“You know, I'm not even sure I would want to bother your friends over something so silly though, Evan dear.” She reset a stray lock of blonde hair back in place with her neatly manicured nails.

Evan thought he could make out autumn leaves on her thumb nail.

“I have been calling the hotlines nearly every day this week as it is.” She shook her head and the stray lock freed itself once again.

Evan frowned. “Why all the calls to tech support?”

“Well, the outages of course.” His mother waved her hands at the screen dismissing the inquiring as if her son were pulling her chain again. “You know.”

The frown on Evan’s face deepened. “Mom, how long have you been having outages?”

“Well, it's been over a week now, at least, dear. I mean it's been a real disturbance. Before the few flickers and the strange error codes.”

Evan grumbled under his breath. This outage issue was more than a localized glitch as he had been hoping all day.

“You know this is stressing your poor uncle Fred out too.” His mother’s words drew Evan to raise his attention back to his mother’s image on the screen.

“Fred?” Evan scoffed at the mention of his mother’s older brother. “What does he have to worry about? This is a networking issue. It has nothing to do with the old Big Data systems.”

“Big Data? Oh, dear, don't go into the lingo and techno speak with me. You know it's all the same systems to me.” His mother waved her hand again at the mention of making a distinct difference between networking, signals, security, and data systems.

“Seriously, Mom, I tell you about all of this all the time. You know Fred has nothing to worry about with a few spotting outages in cellular signals.” Evan tried to keep his tone less than condescending.

“Oh, I don't know, Evan darling, but I do know he was quite a bit frantic when I connected with him a few weeks ago. He mentioned some new hackers. Wave7 I think it was.” His mother sighed in concern for her brother. “The two of you are so alike.”

Evan shifted from annoyance at his mother’s lack of technological knowledge to one of sincere concerns as he listened. “Wait. Mom, are you saying, uncle Fred was genuinely stressing over the drops in connectivity?”

“That's what I said, Evan dear.” A condescending tone from his mother was not something Evan was wholly accustomed to, especially during a technology based conversation.

“And you know such things aren't something Fred should be going on about in his condition. Getting his blood pressure up is only increasing the poor man’s risk of a stroke, or worse yet a heart attack. Oh, I shudder to even think of it.” Evan’s mother waved a hand in front of her eyes.

A red rim rose around the pale blue.

“Right. Well, a little bit of on-the-job stress comes with the territory. You should see what the board of directors over at GlobeNet dropped on my lap today. I think I'm in more jeopardy of having a mental break down.”

“Oh, but Evan honey, you handle these things so much better, and you don't go off and drown your stress in alcohol or eat your way out of troubling thoughts.”

“Right, Mom.” Evan nudged the coffee table, home to more than a few beer bottles, out of camera view.

“When you do meet up with your uncle Fred on the train tomorrow morning, please at least try to get him to order one of the more health-conscious meals for lunch. I tried to block in the order but I think he messed around in there and had it switched.” Evan’s mother contrived to control her brother nearly as much as her only son.

“Yes, Mom.” Evan paused. “Wait. What do you mean when I meet him on the train?”

“I got such a great deal on the electronic passes when I set an order for the same routing stations, I saw no reason not to book the pair of you together on the same train.” Evan’s mother shrugged her shoulders and twitched her nose, as she often did when she thought herself more clever than typical.

“Why did you do that?” Evan groaned.

“Oh, Evan dear, don't be like that. You and your uncle Fred have quite a lot in common. I wish the pair of you would talk more often.” Her arms crossed again in the manner Evan knew better than to disagree with, at least vocally.

As much as it was best not to argue networking and security with Evan, it was equally unwise to make motions on familial and relationship with his mother.

“I'm sure we do. Maybe we'll find out how much on our journey.” Evan offered a feigned smile to appease the woman.

“Wonderful!” His mother’s perfectly painted lips broke into a wide smile, revealing equally perfect teeth. “And remember to pick up some nice flowers when you get to the Las Vegas station.”

 As if the journey and subsequent visit to his mother’s home for the holiday dinner could be any more straining. His mother was forever going on about some new fad religion, political agenda, or protest of some manner. Evan didn't dare ask what the drama flavor of the month would be this time. The day had been too long as it was to go into more with his Millennial mother and her activism.

“Of course. I will remember. Tiger lilies like last year?” Evan offered the same faux smile.

“Perfect dear.” His mother smiled back with genuine pride at her son’s memory.

“Right, then. I’ll see you tomorrow, Mom. Love you.” Evan offered a half wave to his mother’s image.

“I love you too sweetie! Take care. Travel safe.” She blew kisses at the screen before Evan tapped the end call button on his mobile device.

Evan sighed into the back of the plush couch and tore a bite from his now dry sandwich.