The Step Count Rivalry

Philippa and Rosalind Vance had been competing since the day they were born, mostly over who got to sit by the window in the car. By the time they were fifty, they had moved on to steps.

It began when Rosalind bought a Garmin vivoactive 5 and mentioned, very casually, that it buzzed whenever she'd walked past a certain number. Philippa went quiet. Philippa went out the next morning and walked the entire length of the lake.

By Thursday the family group chat was nothing but screenshots, and their mother had stopped replying and started sending a single thumbs-up to everything.

The truce was called for Sunday dinner at Philippa's. She had the Instant Pot going by noon, with a pot roast so tender it didn't need a knife, and Rosalind arrived having walked there on purpose, just to make a point.

They spent the meal arguing about stairs. Did the stairs at the library count? Were hills worth double? Their mother, at the end of the table, finally set down her fork and asked if either of them wanted to know how many steps she had taken.

"Nobody asked you," they said together.

Before she left, Rosalind slid a Laura Geller palette across the table as a peace offering. Philippa took it, narrowed her eyes, and said, "Fine. But I'm still ahead."

Back in the real world: the Garmin vivoactive 5 is a GPS smartwatch, the Instant Pot Duo is a 6-quart 7-in-1 electric pressure cooker, and the Laura Geller piece is a baked full-face makeup palette; the story is fiction, and prices are what I saw on Amazon on Oct 13 and can change.