The New Laptop

Charles loved his new laptop. He had wanted one like this since he first saw them being used in American TV series. They were so sleek, so stylish and always being used by the heroes, the creatives, the problem solvers and he just loved its silver stylishness.

That said, he had opened it for the first time about an hour ago and was having a devil of a job getting to grips with the touchpad. He had been working solidly but the little cursor arrow representing where the ‘mouse’, if there had been a mouse, should have been kept disappearing off the sides of the screen.

He was not allowing himself to get disappointed or angry, he had wanted this laptop for too long to be upset. He was just frustrated. He had spent almost exactly one hour staring at the screen trying to edit the work in front of him but his control of the touchpad was making it almost impossible.

“I will pick it up’, he reassured himself as the arrow left the screen again. He took his first break, sat back and lifted his eyes from the screen. ‘Perhaps a cup of tea’, he thought, ‘No, coffee, people who use this laptop always drink coffee.’

He allowed his eyes to focus on the room and as they did he began to notice changes. His chair had moved, the magazines were spread over the floor, his picture of Marilyn Monroe was on a different wall. The more he stared the more changes he noticed, some more subtle than others.

His eyes settled in the corner of the room where his cd collection used to be and he saw it. It was unmistakable but still made him rub his eyes. It was the ‘arrow’ from the screen.

Without taking his eyes from the arrow he moved his fingers over the touchpad. Gently he rolled his fingertip across the surface. The arrow followed across the room.

He sat back in astonishment. Looking at the pad he held down the bottom of the pad and moved his finger. He looked up in time to see the arrow on his sleeping cat which was being lifted from the sofa. He carefully positioned her on the windowsill and took his hands away from the laptop.

In one movement he moved the arrow from the room to the centre of his screen and opened up an internet page. He typed in the model name of his laptop and the problem. A chat room instantly opened. The very first answer was about his very issue.

‘Some of these models leave with the factory setting LIFE and not SCREEN. Go to settings and change to SCREEN and remember lock or it will open in LIFE again when you restart.’

Charles opened settings and sure enough, it was set for LIFE. Having adjusted the controls he returned to editing his work. ‘What a relief,’ he thought as he stroked the silver casing, ‘what a relief.’