The Advent Of Smouse - Chapter 5 - A Computer Dies

Join Estelle as she presents, chapter 5 of The Advent of Smouse, a story, half-fantasy, half-reality, that uses non-violence as the solution. In this chapter, A Computer Dies, our hero, Smouse and Mentr, discover a disturbing feature about the Black's new computers. Within the drama are subtle key guidelines to living a harmonious life.

Transcript

Welcome back to the advent of Smouse,

Chapter 5.

A computer dies.

All is not going well in the Black House.

Dinners,

If Vera Black is in painting mode,

Are haphazard to say the least,

And usually left to Perry and X or their father.

When in hostess mode,

Vera is a fantastic cook.

Tonight,

However,

Completely rattled by the experience with the computers,

She takes charge in an endeavour to calm her nerves.

Nothing seems to work.

The meat is ready before the vegetables,

And therefore overcooked.

The vegetables are almost raw.

Martin Black paces back and forth,

Offering advice in an effort to hurry things up so that he can sort the computers.

Perry and X,

After laying the table,

Nervously keep their distance.

They eat in silence.

After dinner,

Perry and X escape the dishes by offering to go next door to see if Tamari or her father Taku is free to come and look at their computers.

Their father impatiently waves them off.

Taku,

With Raz at his heels,

Answers the front doorbell with a huge,

Welcoming smile.

He invites X and Perry to come in.

Raz gives them both a welcoming lick.

They enter and immediately feel the calmness that is always present in their neighbour's home.

The family is still seated around the dining room table,

Being entertained by the youngest member,

Two-year-old Bubbles,

So-called because she loves making tiny bubbles with her mouth.

Bubbles is demonstrating her newly acquired knife and fork skills.

It's a little bit hit and miss.

Raz hovers close by,

Hoping she will drop some of her food.

As soon as Perry and X enter the dining room,

Shiro invites them to join the family at the table.

Amidst the hilarity,

Tamari and her younger brother Sam quickly pull up some extra chairs.

Flustered,

X almost trips as he takes the chair next to Tamari.

Perry squeezes in between Bubbles and Sam.

Unperturbed by the interruption and enlivened by the new audience,

Bubbles continues to entertain.

When Tacko can at last get a word in,

He invites Perry and X to explain the reason for their late hour visit.

As X seems to have lost his tongue,

Perry outlines the problem.

Tamari and her father immediately offer assistance.

They quickly help clear the table and,

Despite Sam's plea to join them,

Leave him to help his mother bath Bubbles and put her to bed.

Raz follows close behind.

Smouse and Mentor return to their observation spot just in time to see Tamari closing her front gate,

Leaving Raz standing forlornly in the garden.

They watch as she follows her father and her two neighbours along the street towards the pedestrian gate into the black's front garden.

The trio enters before Tamari,

Leaving the gate open for her.

Mentor makes a snap decision.

Quick,

Smouse,

We need to see as well as hear.

Mentor is across the now quiet road and standing outside the gate before Smouse's time to think.

He hastily follows suit.

Merging and blending with the surroundings,

They slip in before Tamari,

Who,

Sensing their presence,

Hesitates momentarily and glances around before closing the gate.

Seeing nothing,

She shrugs and hurries to catch the others.

Anxious to get things moving,

Martin Black takes Taku and Tamari straight up to his study.

He directs his children to collect their laptops from the studio and to let their mother know where they'll be.

Hex and Perry dutifully comply.

Mentor and Smouse,

Invisible in their merged state,

Follow the three upstairs.

When Tamari stops and turns suddenly,

They instantly freeze.

A little puzzled,

She pauses.

Nothing is there,

So she continues into the study.

It is a large,

Sparsely furnished room with huge windows overlooking the foreshore.

The computer is set up on one end of a spacious table which occupies the centre of the room.

Several chairs are placed around the table.

A two-seater couch is positioned against one side wall and a simple sideboard on the opposite side.

Tamari and her father listen attentively as Martin Black describes in detail what happened.

Mentor quietly settles herself between the end of the couch and the windows.

Smouse perches on the back of the couch from where he has a perfect view.

When he finally focuses attention on the computer,

He is shocked.

Hex and Perry find their mother in her studio seated in front of her computer.

Hi guys,

Any luck?

She turns to face them.

Hex answers.

Yeah,

Dad's taken Taku and Tamari up to his study.

Good,

Mine's working okay.

Try yours.

Hex and Perry both switch on their laptops.

They're still both dead.

They turn them off and together with their mother head upstairs.

They arrive to find Tamari seated in front of their father's computer,

Fiddling with a few buttons and switches in the back.

Taku stands behind his daughter offering advice.

A faint hazy white light gradually appears on the screen.

Tamari presses some more buttons and the power supply increases and the screen sharpens to display a strong image of a family photo.

One by one the program icons reappear.

She turns to Martin Black and asks,

Can I try opening a program?

He nods quickly.

Please do.

Tamari double clicks one of the program icons.

It instantly opens.

She tries another and another with equal success.

Try the internet Tam.

She acknowledges her father's suggestion and performs the operation.

Once again it opens immediately and displays a broad network map of all the connected sites.

Tamari is astounded at the extent of the network.

It's huge,

Worldwide,

Encompassing most countries of the world.

She leaves it open and hands it back to Martin Black.

You're a genius.

He breathes a sigh of relief.

What about the children's laptops?

As Tamari relinquishes her seat,

He impatiently settles down in front of his computer.

His wife shakes her head in despair.

Sorry,

She apologises to Tamari for her husband's abruptness.

Tamari is sympathetic.

Not a problem,

I understand.

She turns to find her father,

Laptop in hand,

Seated at one end of the couch with X balanced on its arm.

Peri passes Tamari her laptop and suggests she sits next to her dad.

She then balances on the arm of the couch to watch.

The two Shiro's work together.

X's laptop responds first.

The sequence is almost identical to that of the main computer.

First a faint hazy white light gradually appears on the screen.

Then,

As if the power supply progressively increases,

The screen sharpens to display a strong photo image.

A tiger for X and the comic book character Shuri for Peri.

One by one the program icons reappear.

X and Taku exchange high fives.

They both give their attention to Tamari.

Peri's laptop is more slowly coming to life.

Perched on the back of the couch,

Smouse has an excellent view of the whole proceedings.

He has had to remain perfectly still,

Because each time he moves,

Tamari turns to see if something is there.

He knows she feels like she is being watched.

He finds one thing about all the computers very concerning.

Vera Black is watching her husband as he works at the computer.

It seems to be alright.

He logs into his emails and selects one in particular.

Its contents make him bristle.

Vera can see the anger building him.

She rests a hand on his shoulder.

As she does,

The power fades.

The flow of anger hits Smouse like a physical blow.

He loses his balance and momentarily his camouflage.

Peri shrieks as a silver ball of fur rolls over Tamari's shoulder,

Off her legs,

Onto the floor and disappears under the couch.

Rat!

It's a rat!

She frantically jumps up onto the couch,

Shrieking over and over again.

Tamari,

Her father and ex spontaneously react to her terror,

By leaping up from the couch.

Vera and Martin Black immediately switch their attention to the drama.

Instantaneously there is a loud bang and a red explosive flash on the screen of Martin Black's computer.

The remaining light source is sucked into a black hole.

A red zigzag line streaks across the screen and disappears.

Then there is just the blank screen.

In the ensuing silence,

Smouse,

Wits gathered and camouflage restored,

Scurries from under the couch into the safety of Mentor,

Who is hidden deep in the corner between the couch and the window.

Martin Black is the first to recover.

He is not happy to discover his daughter standing on his couch.

Peri!

Stop making a fool of yourself.

Get down off the couch.

There are no rats in here.

He gives a glimpse of a smile before adding,

Your mother wouldn't allow it.

Ex chips in,

Nor would Scat.

He quickly checks under the couch.

Nope,

Nothing here.

Not even a speck of dust.

His mother recovering her focus playfully pretends to cuff him,

Which releases the tension in the room.

Peri sheepishly climbs down off the couch.

She mouths a sorry to Tamari,

Who is standing awkwardly next to the couch,

Laptop still open in her hands.

She smiles and assures her that it's okay.

What happened?

Tamari's father returns his attention to his neighbour's computer.

I was distracted by the,

He hesitates before adding,

With a twinkle in his eye,

Mouse.

I've no idea,

Martin Black replies.

There was a loud bang,

A flash of red.

And then it all seemed to be sucked into a black hole,

Leaving the screen blank.

Both men examine the machine.

Nothing they do produces a response.

The computer is dead.

Two hours later,

The mouse and mentor tentatively leave their hiding place.

Tamari and her father have departed,

Tamari taking Peri's laptop and promising to sort it out in the morning.

Martin Black,

Even though it's late,

Has headed back to his office in an endeavour to resolve his business problems.

Peri,

Hex and their mother have retreated to the lounge to watch the television.

Mouse and mentor quietly head straight over to Martin Black's dead computer to examine that part of it that really concerns Mouse.

As mentor watches,

Mouse clambers up onto the desk and checks it out.

He points to a small coloured badge fixed to the bottom left hand corner of the screen frame.

His eyes widen.

The image on the badge is of a small devil with a forked tail.

She sucks in her breath and her black spots turn white as she reads the words printed alongside it.

Black Diablo.

She looks up at Mouse.

The Black Devil.

Mouse nods and adds,

The two laptops have the same image and name.

He thinks for a moment.

Do you think perhaps the mother's computer is different?

It didn't have the problem.

You could be right,

Mouse,

Mentor frowns.

We need to have a look.

We have to find her studio.

Mouse slips to the floor beside her eager to go.

She turns to him and asks,

When you were listening earlier,

Did you get any sense of where the studio might be in relation to this room?

Mouse mentally replays the conversations in his head,

Assessing the volume and delay in the reception before replying.

Ground floor somewhere further back from the road.

Without waiting for mentor to respond,

He scoots out of the study.

Mentor hastily follows him,

Internally urging him to be silent.

Mouse tracks the remembered sound waves along the long hallway,

Carefully past a room from which the television is blaring and down a flight of stairs.

He stops outside a closed door at the back of the house.

Mentor comes to a halt close behind him.

Even from mentors back,

The handle is too high for Smous to reach.

Before she can remind him of the dangers of transporting into an unknown environment,

Smouse is gone.

Mentor shakes her head in disbelief.

Too late,

Smouse remembers the recommended procedures for transmuting,

Transporting and transforming.

When he reforms,

He finds himself precariously perched on the edge of an armchair,

Staring into the outraged eyes of a large black cat.

Momentarily terrified by the sudden appearance of this strange ball of fur,

Scat,

The cat,

Leaps up onto the back of the chair,

Arches her back and hisses wildly.

Smouse hastily retreats,

Desperately seeking shelter under the chair.

Scat prepares to leap.

Her momentum is interrupted by a vision of and the smell of warm honey milk.

When she refocuses,

She is staring into the bright green eyes of a pink dog.

She leaps off the chair,

Races across the floor towards the windows and disappears through a flap in the glass.

Smouse heaves a sigh of relief and emerges from under the chair.

Not your best effort,

Mentor tries not to smile.

Smouse has the grace to look abashed.

Mentor quickly returns to the task in hand.

Let's find the computer.

Come on,

Before the cat is back.

She weaves her way between the easel and table and finally located at the far end of the room.

Smouse swiftly joins her.

He springs lightly onto the computer table.

There is neither a badge nor a name on the front of the computer.

Smouse looks at the signs.

Here,

Mentor.

He points to a small badge and some fine print on the left hand side.

The pair studies it carefully.

The badge is a six-sided geometric shape within a black circle.

The writing reads,

Black Enterprises.

No devil,

Mentor voices what they are both thinking.

Could that really account for what's happening though?

It doesn't emit much energy.

Smouse is unconvinced.

Mentor nods her head.

I agree,

She replies.

There has to be something more powerful.

We'd better get back and report to Ag and see what he suggests before that cat returns.

Back in the space orb,

Smouse fires up the communication system.

Within seconds they are connected and Ag's face comes into view on the communication screen.

Mentor quickly assures him that they are both well and then outlines all that has happened,

Finishing with their conclusions.

Ag is impressed with their progress,

But like them,

Baffled by Madrog's choice of Martin Black's computers as a source of power.

He takes some time examining the possibilities.

Smouse and Mentor watch the changing expressions play over his face before he makes a decision.

You have to get closer.

It's becoming urgent.

There are signs here that the power base is building.

You need to find a way to meld with the family.

I think you have to show yourselves.

A nervous quiver of his whiskers betrays Smouse as a vivid picture of Skat passes before his eyes.

But he says nothing.

Ag observes his reaction and directs his response to Mentor.

It'll have to be expedient and plausible.

I have every confidence that you'll find a feasible solution.

Remember,

Humans love pets.

Ag pauses before adding,

And Smouse,

I suggest you read the guide.

He blows them a kiss as the screen goes blank,

Terminating the session.

Smouse turns to Mentor and asks,

What's a pet?

She quotes from an Earth dictionary.

A domesticated or tamed animal kept for companionship or pleasure.

Seeing his blank face,

She explains how on Imperium,

Quadrips evolved from pets into being a much more respected,

Intelligent,

Integral part of the ecosystem.

Mentor and Smouse explore the pet option.

It seems to be the most obvious solution,

But its implementation could be tricky.

Mentor decides to sleep on it and then see what the morning presents.

She reminds Smouse that he has to read the guide before he can retire for the night.

She curls up on her bed and instantly drops into a deep sleep,

Leaving Smouse to wonder which part of the guide he should read.

After unravelling his scarf to retrieve his copy,

He flips the pages and lets one fall open as he settles back and lets himself drift into space.

The book opens at a section called On Trust.

Smouse starts to read,

But it's not long before his eyelids start to droop and then close.

Within minutes,

He is fast asleep.

It's been a long day.

In his dreams,

He vaguely recalls the words from the guide.

If you ask for help,

Trust that the universe will answer your call.

It will support and guide you.

Be open to all possibilities.

And next time,

Chapter 6.

See you then.

Reviews

Listened thru 5 so far. Relaxing, fun, and I'm curious to see how the story evolves.