The Canterfiction Tales

Fall For You

NOTE TO READER: In the previous chapter Zephyr was 11 when he met his aunt Cliona. Future chapters with Cliona, Zephyr will be written as 8 months old.

It was 8 o'clock in the morning, and Eli Deslauriers was off to start his day. For three months he has been working for an older woman named Cliona Frollo-Tremaine as her landscaper. To his surprise, he really enjoyed what he did and was was very fond of his employer. She was a dignified woman, but very kind, generous, and down to earth. He also loved her black and white tuxedo cat Lucifer, whom she adopted from a kill shelter. It was his last day before he was scheduled to be euthanized.  True to his name, he was playful, adventurous, and very curious. Today, Cliona asked him to come in a bit early. As soon as he got out of the shower and settled down to eat his breakfast, which consisted of scrambled eggs, toast, and black coffee, he heard his phone ping. Still chewing, he reached

The Canterfiction Tales

over to grab his phone and read the text message. When he saw who it was from, his dark eyebrows rose. It was from Cliona. However, he couldn't quite understand exactly what his employer was trying to say.

Eli had just helped Cliona purchase her first smartphone. He had been willing to stay and help her set it up, but she insisted that she was capable of setting it up for herself and didn't want to keep him past his shift. Being 67, he figured that she wouldn't be used to this type of technology, and he was right. As Eli read the message, he couldn't help laughing to himself, clearly amused at the older woman's clumsy texting.

Cliona:  Good mourning Eli. I hop you remnant that I need you early toad. I have a favor to ask. See you soon. 💩

Smiling to himself, he texted back.

Eli: Good morning, Miss Frollo-Tremaine. Yes, I plan on leaving my house in 30 minutes. You know, you made me laugh. I guess I should have taken some time to teach you the basics. Although I'm quite proud of you, for getting that far without me. 😄 I will see you soon.

When Eli arrived at Cliona's home, he strode up to the front porch and banged the raven shaped door knocker three times, then twice more quickly, then twice again, but slowly this time. They had come up with a personal knock style just the two of them knew that way she would automatically know who it was.

"Come in." He heard her say. When he walked in, he saw her sitting on the couch with her legs crossed sipping her morning coffee with her tuxedo cat Lucifer perched next to her. She had her head down, her eyes following the words on the pages of her book she was reading. Eli stood there for a minute, watching her with a teasing smile on his face. When she looked up she smiled at him,

Fall For You

then noticed the look he was giving her. "What is it? Do I have something on my face?"

Eli shook his head. "No, but your text this morning..."

"Oh, you texted me back. I didn't realize, here let me look." She set her coffee gently down on the coaster and grabbed the phone and looked at his text. She read it then looked at him tilting her head a little confused.

"Look what you typed to me." He chuckled.

Cliona read the text and her bright green eyes widened a bit. "Oh my."

Eli chuckled again. "Looks like auto correct got you multiple times."

"Autocorrect?"

"Yeah, here let me show you." He walked over and sat down next to her on the couch. Lucifer stood up and stretched, then made his way over to Eli and plopped himself down in his lap. He smiled at the boyish looking cat. "Hi Lucifer." He said, stroking his neck fur making him purr. "Okay so when you text there is a bar above it. It's called an autocorrect bar. Sometimes the phone will try to choose words for you, which can be helpful, but sometimes it does more harm than help. If you're not careful, it could put words in there you don't want. And...um...the poop emoji, I'm thinking that was also a mistake?" She nodded a tad embarrassed. "Don't worry it happens to me all the time. But look, you got it up and running all by yourself. I'm very proud of you."