Chapter 2
The first of three computer administrative spirits
Mr. Cheese’s weak bladder had awakened him in the middle of the night as it had done so many nights before. He sat up in his bed and stretched his arms above his head, arching his back his old withered bones creaked and snapped like old twigs in the forest. With his wrinkled hands he rubbed his tired eyes and looked over at the clock on the nightstand which read 2:08am.
“How could this be?” Mr. Cheese said to himself “The spirit said I would be visited by the first of three ghosts’ at 1:00am.” Mr. Cheese began to wonder if the whole night had been nothing more then a bad nightmare.
He stumbled out of bed and down the hall to the bathroom, along the way passing the frost covered windows that lead to the cold outside. He paused for just a moment at the living room window scraping the frost with his yellow tinted fingernails. A horrible screeching noise pursued as the frost flaked off the window from his feverish scratching. With his head up against the glass he peered out into the winter bliss, his breath fogging the glass, he but saw nothing but the blowing snow wispily across his small yard. Even the thick smog from the factories had fallen silent.
After finishing his business he lay back in his bed staring at the clock. No matter how hard he tried to pass off the nights earlier encounter he could not shake the vivid image of the ghostly figure which stood before him just hours ago. The clock beside his bed now showed 2:30 as his eyes drew heavy. Slowly he began to drift back to sleep when suddenly a flash of brilliant light flashed before him at the foot of his bed. The entire room was basked in a warm glow. Mr. Cheese lay in his bed awe struck as the figure began to appear before him.
Before him now stood a very large man built from head to toe. Around his body hung an elegant white robe which seemed to trail far behind his feet. His face was broad, his cheeks full, and his eyes dark and full. He had a large well trimmed go-tee which hung from his chin like a soft fur coat. Around his head was a woven mesh of wires and circuits which blinked beautiful red, green, and blue LED’s.
“Are you the first of three spirits sent to visit me?” asked Mr. Cheese
“I am!” replied the spirit in a very low but soothing voice, much like James Earl Jones when he played the voice of Darth Vader.
“Well then, you’re late.”
“Yeah well seems as if someone disconnected their internet connection so I was re-routed to the Seattle head end, and then had to take 27 hops just to get anywhere near here.”
“Oh yeah, sorry….forgot about that, so who are you anyway?”
“I am the ghost of computer administration Christmas past.” The spirit announced.
Mr. Cheese got up out of bed and walked over beside the spirit, which towered over him several feet making him look like a midget. Mr. Cheese stood on his toes, tilted his head as high as he could and cupped his hand to his mouth as to whisper.
“Evil administrators past?” inquired Mr. Cheese
The ghost bent down to Mr. Cheese and looked directly into his eyes. “No, your past!” replied the ghost
With that the spirit extended his hand to Mr. Cheese. “Take my hand and surf the web with me.”
“But won’t we need a firewall?”
The spirit laughed and as his hand touched that of Mr. Cheese’s they were sent through the pipelines of the internet. Before Mr. Cheese could protest they found themselves standing outside in the cold of a small suburban neighborhood.
“Do you recognize the surroundings?” asked the spirit
“Recognize it; I know it like the back of my hand. This is where I grew up!” explained Mr. Cheese.
They walked down the road, Mr. Cheese recognizing every little detail as if he were there only yesterday. “And there’s Billy and Joey, look that’s the snow fort we made when I was twelve.”
“These are nothing more then your memories of past, cast before you now as if a grand painting on a magnanimous canvas before you.” The ghost explained “They cannot see nor hear us.”
Mr. Cheese’s face was filled with delight as they continued to pass more children playing, carolers singing, and memories that were once of a happy time. But why? What could bring a bitter old computer administration asshole to smile such as he was now?
They came upon an old house at the end of the street, as they approached the door it opened in front of them to let them in. As they entered they could see a small boy sitting by himself in the corner, tinkering with electronics and tearing apart the family BETA VCR. Mr. Cheese knelt down beside the boy and began to cry like a little girl as he stared at the image of his former self. The spirit came to his side resting his hand upon his shoulder. Mr. Cheese turned and looked across the room admiring the pictures above the fire place, pointing out each person by name, reminiscing old stories of good and bad, laughing at some and crying at others. If only the people he knew now could see him like this. His voice ringing out in confidence, his wrinkled face now smooth, his frown now turned into a smile. Surely they would not recognize the man they see before them.
He turned once again to look at the boy “I wish I could tell him how it is, how it will be, I wish I could show him, but it is too late.”
The ghost smiled and took his hand, “Lets move on to another Christmas shall we.”
As he said this the room began to change, it turned darker, and the little boy that sat in the corner in front of him now grew to a young adult standing at the window his hands crossed behind him. From outside footsteps could be heard coming up the stairs. The door busted open and a gleaming man came rushing through the door.
“My brother, I have come to bring you home!” the figure in the doorway shouted.
“Home, but why?”
“Well, I was downloading music on one of those……”
“Let me guess, file sharing programs, and you have spyware now?”
“Yeah………”
“Always getting into mischief your brother.” The spirit said “But a good heart he had.”
“Yes indeed” said Mr. Cheese “That he did have.”
They watched out the window as the two men got into the cab.
“He died with a child?”
“He was promiscuous” said Mr. Cheese “He died with many, many children.”
“Ah, nephews and nieces?”
Mr. Cheese seemed a little disturbed at the thought of just how many children his brother had and answered “Yes!”
With a blink of an eye they were yet again set in a new place, this time a busy street in a large city. Cars bustled about the streets, while people walked along the sidewalks. The spirit and Mr. Cheese stopped just outside of town in front of an old electronics store.
“Recognize it?” The spirit asked
“Recognize it, hell this is where I was trained as a young computer and electronics apprentice, it is what got me interested in computers in the first place.”
“You see how wrong it is now to try and peruse a career in computers don’t you?”
“Yeah, damn outsourcing!”
They went inside “Look there, it’s Mr. Jenkins, is he still alive?” inquired Mr. Cheese “I still remember the day he decided to take apart a power supply without first discharging it’s capacitors, we tried to warn him.” They continued to watch as Mr. Jenkins called out for Mr. Cheese. The two of them like a well oiled machine went about fixing and repairing any electronics that came though the door.
“You looked happy then.” Said the spirit
“You can’t even imagine, I had not a care in the world, I had great dreams.” Smiled Mr. Cheese
“Time is running short” the spirit observed looking down at his palm pilot “we must move quickly.
Once again they were brought before a new place, and once again Mr. Cheese was confronted with his former self, this time much older and in his prime. He sat at his desk playing countless hours of Ever Craft. Beside him sat a most beautiful woman. Her eyes filled with tears glistening in the dark against the glow of the computer screen.
“You pay little or no attention to me anymore. Your only ambition is a machine you call a computer. I have stood by and watch your aspirations fall to the side while you learn everything you can about this new technology.” The young lady said
“And even as I sit here now learning this and becoming the great computer geek that I might become, I have not diverted my attention away from you.”
“Have you?” she asked “You have changed, and the promises we once made to each other at a young age seem nothing more then a fairytale in an old book.”
“We were young, and foolish!”
“Are we still foolish.” She asked “Where is the love I so deserve, where is the man I married? It’s as if you don’t want me anymore.”
“Have I ever asked you to leave?”
“No, not in words you have not.”
“In what then?”
“In the way you have changed, in the atmosphere that surrounds you now, in your attitude towards me and everyone around you.”
His head now lowered “Your wrong!”
“Then correct me as I stand before you today!” she stammered
He said nothing, only listened as the sounds of her heading out the door and out of his life echoed throughout the house.
“Oh spirit…….show me no more” Mr. Cheese cried out as he held his face in his hands and wept “take me home…….I beg of you.”
“But there must be one more tonight.” The ghost explained
“No please……” but before he could continue they were once again brought in front of yet another memory from the past. This time it was of a small house filled with a happy family all gathered around exchanging stories with one another.
“Do you know what I saw on the way home today.” Asked one of the people sitting in the corner “I saw Mr. Cheese sitting there in his office all alone on Christmas Eve, as usual, typing away at his computer.”
“What could he have been possible been typing on Christmas Eve?” asked a young man sitting across the way
“Who knows, probably just another program no one will appreciate him for.” They all laughed together at this thought.
“Spirit take me away from this horrible place.” Mr. Cheese begged
“I show you only the past, it is your past, you made it, and I can’t change it, so deal with it.”
“Take me back, I don’t want to see the past anymore, please…..” he grabbed the spirits rob and held it to his face as he began to weep softly into it. “Please I beg of you, take me home……” He whipped the tears from his swelling eyes and looked up to see the spirit, but instead saw nothing but the ceiling of his house. In his hands now lay his bed sheet covered with his tears. He looked around the room, the warm glow from the spirit now gone. He was exhausted and without hesitation fell back upon his pillow and cried himself to sleep.
Mr. Cheese’s weak bladder had awakened him in the middle of the night as it had done so many nights before. He sat up in his bed and stretched his arms above his head, arching his back his old withered bones creaked and snapped like old twigs in the forest. With his wrinkled hands he rubbed his tired eyes and looked over at the clock on the nightstand which read 2:08am.
“How could this be?” Mr. Cheese said to himself “The spirit said I would be visited by the first of three ghosts’ at 1:00am.” Mr. Cheese began to wonder if the whole night had been nothing more then a bad nightmare.
He stumbled out of bed and down the hall to the bathroom, along the way passing the frost covered windows that lead to the cold outside. He paused for just a moment at the living room window scraping the frost with his yellow tinted fingernails. A horrible screeching noise pursued as the frost flaked off the window from his feverish scratching. With his head up against the glass he peered out into the winter bliss, his breath fogging the glass, he but saw nothing but the blowing snow wispily across his small yard. Even the thick smog from the factories had fallen silent.
After finishing his business he lay back in his bed staring at the clock. No matter how hard he tried to pass off the nights earlier encounter he could not shake the vivid image of the ghostly figure which stood before him just hours ago. The clock beside his bed now showed 2:30 as his eyes drew heavy. Slowly he began to drift back to sleep when suddenly a flash of brilliant light flashed before him at the foot of his bed. The entire room was basked in a warm glow. Mr. Cheese lay in his bed awe struck as the figure began to appear before him.
Before him now stood a very large man built from head to toe. Around his body hung an elegant white robe which seemed to trail far behind his feet. His face was broad, his cheeks full, and his eyes dark and full. He had a large well trimmed go-tee which hung from his chin like a soft fur coat. Around his head was a woven mesh of wires and circuits which blinked beautiful red, green, and blue LED’s.
“Are you the first of three spirits sent to visit me?” asked Mr. Cheese
“I am!” replied the spirit in a very low but soothing voice, much like James Earl Jones when he played the voice of Darth Vader.
“Well then, you’re late.”
“Yeah well seems as if someone disconnected their internet connection so I was re-routed to the Seattle head end, and then had to take 27 hops just to get anywhere near here.”
“Oh yeah, sorry….forgot about that, so who are you anyway?”
“I am the ghost of computer administration Christmas past.” The spirit announced.
Mr. Cheese got up out of bed and walked over beside the spirit, which towered over him several feet making him look like a midget. Mr. Cheese stood on his toes, tilted his head as high as he could and cupped his hand to his mouth as to whisper.
“Evil administrators past?” inquired Mr. Cheese
The ghost bent down to Mr. Cheese and looked directly into his eyes. “No, your past!” replied the ghost
With that the spirit extended his hand to Mr. Cheese. “Take my hand and surf the web with me.”
“But won’t we need a firewall?”
The spirit laughed and as his hand touched that of Mr. Cheese’s they were sent through the pipelines of the internet. Before Mr. Cheese could protest they found themselves standing outside in the cold of a small suburban neighborhood.
“Do you recognize the surroundings?” asked the spirit
“Recognize it; I know it like the back of my hand. This is where I grew up!” explained Mr. Cheese.
They walked down the road, Mr. Cheese recognizing every little detail as if he were there only yesterday. “And there’s Billy and Joey, look that’s the snow fort we made when I was twelve.”
“These are nothing more then your memories of past, cast before you now as if a grand painting on a magnanimous canvas before you.” The ghost explained “They cannot see nor hear us.”
Mr. Cheese’s face was filled with delight as they continued to pass more children playing, carolers singing, and memories that were once of a happy time. But why? What could bring a bitter old computer administration asshole to smile such as he was now?
They came upon an old house at the end of the street, as they approached the door it opened in front of them to let them in. As they entered they could see a small boy sitting by himself in the corner, tinkering with electronics and tearing apart the family BETA VCR. Mr. Cheese knelt down beside the boy and began to cry like a little girl as he stared at the image of his former self. The spirit came to his side resting his hand upon his shoulder. Mr. Cheese turned and looked across the room admiring the pictures above the fire place, pointing out each person by name, reminiscing old stories of good and bad, laughing at some and crying at others. If only the people he knew now could see him like this. His voice ringing out in confidence, his wrinkled face now smooth, his frown now turned into a smile. Surely they would not recognize the man they see before them.
He turned once again to look at the boy “I wish I could tell him how it is, how it will be, I wish I could show him, but it is too late.”
The ghost smiled and took his hand, “Lets move on to another Christmas shall we.”
As he said this the room began to change, it turned darker, and the little boy that sat in the corner in front of him now grew to a young adult standing at the window his hands crossed behind him. From outside footsteps could be heard coming up the stairs. The door busted open and a gleaming man came rushing through the door.
“My brother, I have come to bring you home!” the figure in the doorway shouted.
“Home, but why?”
“Well, I was downloading music on one of those……”
“Let me guess, file sharing programs, and you have spyware now?”
“Yeah………”
“Always getting into mischief your brother.” The spirit said “But a good heart he had.”
“Yes indeed” said Mr. Cheese “That he did have.”
They watched out the window as the two men got into the cab.
“He died with a child?”
“He was promiscuous” said Mr. Cheese “He died with many, many children.”
“Ah, nephews and nieces?”
Mr. Cheese seemed a little disturbed at the thought of just how many children his brother had and answered “Yes!”
With a blink of an eye they were yet again set in a new place, this time a busy street in a large city. Cars bustled about the streets, while people walked along the sidewalks. The spirit and Mr. Cheese stopped just outside of town in front of an old electronics store.
“Recognize it?” The spirit asked
“Recognize it, hell this is where I was trained as a young computer and electronics apprentice, it is what got me interested in computers in the first place.”
“You see how wrong it is now to try and peruse a career in computers don’t you?”
“Yeah, damn outsourcing!”
They went inside “Look there, it’s Mr. Jenkins, is he still alive?” inquired Mr. Cheese “I still remember the day he decided to take apart a power supply without first discharging it’s capacitors, we tried to warn him.” They continued to watch as Mr. Jenkins called out for Mr. Cheese. The two of them like a well oiled machine went about fixing and repairing any electronics that came though the door.
“You looked happy then.” Said the spirit
“You can’t even imagine, I had not a care in the world, I had great dreams.” Smiled Mr. Cheese
“Time is running short” the spirit observed looking down at his palm pilot “we must move quickly.
Once again they were brought before a new place, and once again Mr. Cheese was confronted with his former self, this time much older and in his prime. He sat at his desk playing countless hours of Ever Craft. Beside him sat a most beautiful woman. Her eyes filled with tears glistening in the dark against the glow of the computer screen.
“You pay little or no attention to me anymore. Your only ambition is a machine you call a computer. I have stood by and watch your aspirations fall to the side while you learn everything you can about this new technology.” The young lady said
“And even as I sit here now learning this and becoming the great computer geek that I might become, I have not diverted my attention away from you.”
“Have you?” she asked “You have changed, and the promises we once made to each other at a young age seem nothing more then a fairytale in an old book.”
“We were young, and foolish!”
“Are we still foolish.” She asked “Where is the love I so deserve, where is the man I married? It’s as if you don’t want me anymore.”
“Have I ever asked you to leave?”
“No, not in words you have not.”
“In what then?”
“In the way you have changed, in the atmosphere that surrounds you now, in your attitude towards me and everyone around you.”
His head now lowered “Your wrong!”
“Then correct me as I stand before you today!” she stammered
He said nothing, only listened as the sounds of her heading out the door and out of his life echoed throughout the house.
“Oh spirit…….show me no more” Mr. Cheese cried out as he held his face in his hands and wept “take me home…….I beg of you.”
“But there must be one more tonight.” The ghost explained
“No please……” but before he could continue they were once again brought in front of yet another memory from the past. This time it was of a small house filled with a happy family all gathered around exchanging stories with one another.
“Do you know what I saw on the way home today.” Asked one of the people sitting in the corner “I saw Mr. Cheese sitting there in his office all alone on Christmas Eve, as usual, typing away at his computer.”
“What could he have been possible been typing on Christmas Eve?” asked a young man sitting across the way
“Who knows, probably just another program no one will appreciate him for.” They all laughed together at this thought.
“Spirit take me away from this horrible place.” Mr. Cheese begged
“I show you only the past, it is your past, you made it, and I can’t change it, so deal with it.”
“Take me back, I don’t want to see the past anymore, please…..” he grabbed the spirits rob and held it to his face as he began to weep softly into it. “Please I beg of you, take me home……” He whipped the tears from his swelling eyes and looked up to see the spirit, but instead saw nothing but the ceiling of his house. In his hands now lay his bed sheet covered with his tears. He looked around the room, the warm glow from the spirit now gone. He was exhausted and without hesitation fell back upon his pillow and cried himself to sleep.
posted by Mr. Cheese @ 4:37 PM
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