“Well, look who’s finally up.” His father was at the kitchen table casually reading an engineering journal as if it was one of those “guess who showed her crotch getting into a car” celebrity rags. His kind eyes glistened behind glasses that were something of an engineering feat in their own right, held together by faith and more than a little tape. It was cheaper than buying a new pair and Mr. Kramer was never one to put the needs of Big Lens ahead of his own interests. “Thought you’d want to get that computer going right away. Even I wanted to open it, but you know, proper decorum.” He emitted a burst of high-pitched laugher, but quickly regained a serious demeanor. This was an issue of importance and that was not to be forgotten.
“Sorry Dad,
I was just real tired.” The younger Kramer began filling a bowl with a cereal
that had more in common with the items found in the candy isle than the bread
one. Coated on sugar glistened in the noon sunlight, reflected off the drifting
snow outside the house.
“Well, a
growing boy needs a lot of sleep. That’s what they say.” The bespectacled gaze
remained fixed on a peer-reviewed article about new advances in engine
tolerance. Silence, broken only by the steady crunching of a not-quite-complete
breakfast now prevailed. It wasn’t long before an empty bowl clattered its way
into the sink.
“Ok Dad,
let’s pop this sucker out.” The excitement that had been barely bottled up over
the past month, since the gift’s selection became official, now came in one
nearly overwhelming rush. He felt light-headed, despite the ample amount of
simple sugars now powering the organic machine. This was, after all, his first
time. Using the school computer lab didn’t count. This time the sweet fruit of
centuries of applied mathematical and electrical research was all his, to have
and to hold.
Erik had
recently turned seventeen and was working on his Junior year. It had been a
year spent buried in studies, frequent visits to said computer room and more
and more isolation from an increasingly irrelevant peer group. For the most
part it wasn’t missed and he could easily convince himself that nothing of
value was being missed by forging friendships primarily with inanimate devices,
but sometimes the loneliness would creep in and start to gnaw. The solution was
to retreat further. He’d started taking his lunch in the chemistry room and
sometimes passed entire days without saying more than a few words to someone
his age.
No loss,
though. They were just fucking wasters and jocks and rich phonies anyways. Last
year, for example, they made a hero out of a Freshman who knocked some other
knuckle dragger out. Yeah, what a hero. Fuck ‘em.
Discarded plastic bags, packing
peanuts and the like soon blanketed the floor of the living room like a highly
unusual indoor snowfall. From these various baby-chokers emerged the various
components that would provide the necessary vehicle for the journey down the
amazing highway of information that was slowly emerging as something Big
Business regarded as a fad with limited mainstream appeal and many from the
older generation regarded as the new C.B. Radio.
Not his
father, though. This was one of the nice things about having a tech-geek in the
role of Baby Daddy. If anything he was the one struggling to keep up while Dad
rattled off technical specifications as if they were statistics from a hero
athlete or something. Erik was just glad to upgrade from a word processor that
was little more than a glorified typewriter to a true cutting edge machine that
would probably stave off obsolescence for at least six months, maybe even a
year.
“She’s a
beauty all right. You be sure to treat her like the lady she is.” The computer
now occupied the place of honor formerly reserved for the King Typewriter, Mark
III. With that special combination of grinding, flashing and fanning that
signals the beginning of any true romance the device came to life. The day was
finally here. From now on every event would be designated by whether it
occurred before or after the beginning of the personal internet age.
It didn’t
take long to get online and begin the journey down the amazing hole of technology.
At some point his father left the room, but the departure went completely
unnoticed. It was almost a form of the astral separation, leaving the mortal
shell to become part of pure technology, no more distinction between man and
machine. Dinner was replaced with a bag of chips and a bottle of carbonated
sugar and even that seemed like a considerable imposition considering the
importance of the techno-merger that was being consummated. By the time Erik
came up for air it was eight the next morning. He noted the time, shrugged, and
went back into the online life substitute.
A full week
passed and it was time to go back to school. While other human units had
stories of vacations and family and all that other flesh-n-blood In Real Life
nonsense, there was only one issue of concern for the newest citizen of the
online world.
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