Written by Elfen Sciuridae
– Sleepless Nights At The Laptop Screen Glow –
8PM, Fernando stays on his laptop, testing the new DSL set up that was put in during the day before. Both Rachel and Jorge had their laptops connected but neither was using it at the moment. Fernando on the other hand was hacking away at various systems to look for very specific information. He uses several proxies as to not be traced back.
Soon, he was in.
“Welcome to the St. LoveJoy School’s Computerized Student Record System.
>>Choose Option:
1-View Student Academic Records
2-View Student Personal Records
5-View Student Attendance Records
4-Add/Change Student Grades
5- View Staff Records
6- Log Off.
?: “
“That is too simple, 2- View student records.”, Fernando says to himself.
“Input Student Name or Partial Entry for Search
?:”
“Input Lucy.”, Fernando says to himself as types her name in.
“There are 3 Lucy’s in the system. Which one do you want:
1- Lucy Chipmunk
2- Lucy Foxx
3- Lucy Squirrel
?:”
“Hmm… she is a chipmunk, too bad there is no entry for Lucy Shark.”, he says to himself.
The page fills up with her personal information, including parents’ marital status and emergency contact. He writes down her address and phone number.
He logs off the system and is connects, one proxy layer at a time. Soon the Internet is disconnected, and he shuts down his machine. In about a minute he was the living room, making a phone call.
“Hello? Is Lucy home? Thank you.”, he says and then waits. “Hello? Yeah, guess who. Don’t worry about how I got your phone number. About tomorrow, yeah, I’ll be there. I’m just calling to warn you if I get held up that I will be calling you. Just a fair warning. Look, I’m trying to be nice here. Yeah- goodbye.”
He hangs up the phone and goes to the dining room.
“Who were you talking to?”, Rachel asks as she was eating her dinner.
“Nobody important.”, he tells her.
“Oh.”, she says, bowing her head down and returns to her dinner.
After a while, Rachel finishes first, and goes up stairs when she puts her plate into the sink. Grandma cleans up the plate and puts it away. Then she goes to sit down with Fernando.
“What happened to get that girl upset? You and her were fighting?”, Grandma asks.
“No.”, Fernando tells her.
“Caution your words around me, grandchild. I don’t like being disrespected.”, Grandma tells him sternly.
Fernando puts his fork down. “Look, grandma. Sometimes I want to be left alone, and she won’t give me that privacy. She’s always around, being there! OK?”, Fernando tells her loudly.
“Boy, this is something you should sit down and talk with her about. But at the same time, you don’t yell at me about it. Learn to properly place your anger where it deserves to be placed and not at unintentional targets like me.”, she tells him with a scowl.
“I’m sorry grandma.”, he tells her.
“You also better understand that she is there for you. She gets you your breakfast, washes your clothes, helps clean your room, and cares for you when you are sick. Why? Because I told her she has to earn her keep by taking care of you. For you saving her from being attacked, that girl loves you. You don’t go throwing something like that into the trash. You respect and honor that. And you respect and honor her.”, Grandma tells him. “Now hurry with dinner so I can wash that plate and you go to bed and apologize to that girl.”
Fernando goes back to his meal. He finishes in a few minutes. Grandma takes his plate to the sink, allowing him to go upstairs to his room. He sits on his bed, seeing the bulge on the upper bunk, tells him that Rachel was in her bed.
“Rachel.”, he calls to her. Se does not answer. “Rachel…”, he calls to her again. Again, no answer. He climbs up the ladder to check on her, and then he nudges her. “Hey, Raych. Come down to my bed.”
“No. You been mean to me all day.”, Rachel tells him.
“No, I have been mean to you since the afternoon. I think we had a wonderful morning. And to that, I want to make sure that we have a good night.”, he tells her. “Look, I’m sorry for being mean to you. OK?”
Rachel does not answer.
“Look, I got something important to do tomarrow. So I might be waking up early and leaving soon.”, Fernando says before climbing down the ladder.
He gets into bed and under the blanket where it was warm. He takes his glasses off and puts them on the nightstand by the bed. He lies there with the pillow over his eyes to block out the light from the room.
After a while the lights go out. A moment later, Rachel joins him in his bed. A kiss on the nose and she holds him tightly during the night.
-End of: Sleepless Nights At The Laptop Screen Glow –