Mysterious happening....

My children's current writing project, for their writing lesson, is to learnt to write in the mystery genre.  Lo and behold, if I didn't have a mystery this morning, so here's my story.

The Mystery of the Self-typing Laptop

It was a chilly, winter's morning.  Outside, the frost clung to the branches, like tiny, jewel-encrusted swords, making the world sparkle in the sun filled morning.

It was Caroline's early morning routine to do her devotions and then check online with her emails and Facebook. She had, as was usual, several tabs open at once, working on different things. A message had recently been sent, in her private messages on Facebook, and still the tab was open.  On a new tab, her status was open, whilst she watched a video someone had posted there for her education and benefit.

Suddenly, the video stopped, and the tab with her private messages flicked to being the open one.  Mysteriously, like some "other-worldly" thing, a word started to type in the message box.  Caroline sat, with mouth agape, and hands in the air, shocked at what her eyes were seeing.

S - U - S - A - N - N - A, appeared slwoly before her, followed by a random list of letters, as if some small creature had just run over her keyboard, typing out a garbled message.

To say she felt freaked out would have been an understatement.

Puzzled.  Shocked.  Astounded.   Bewildered.

All these words would have done nothing to accurately sum up her emotions.

Her brain started to work overtime, trying to conceive how this could possibly have happened.  SURELY there was a logical explanation?

She put a message on Facebook, to say what had happened, hoping someone could shed some light upon the matter, and share a possible explanation.  Responses came in, and suggestions ensued.

Could it have been "ghosting"?

Could it have been a hack of some other sort?

Could someone know her Facebook password, and have signed into her account?

Could her children have signed in on another device?

Well, she knew that her mobile phone was right beside her, and not being touched.  Josh was playing Angry Birds on her ipod right by her side, and SHE certainly hadn't typed anything whilst watching the video on Facebook.

The only explanation seemed to be a sinister hack.  Advice came in about how to work out whether she had been hacked, by checking all sorts of files and registries that she had not much of a clue about.  Her brain started to whirl at the idea of having to resolve the issue.

It was time to bring her husband his morning coffee, and she brought it to him, along with the tale of what had happened on her computer.  The possible reasons for such an occurrence were relayed to him, post haste.

He (as men do) made a wry suggestion about it being the "ghost of Christmas past".

Such help.  Great.

However, he then proceeded to ask his adorable, wonderful, sensational, amazing wife (aherm) if any of the children had been in the school room that morning, particularly Susanna.

"Maybe," she replied. "If anyone, it was Susie."

"Was she touching the wireless keyboard?", her wonderfully handsome, witty and intelligent husband asked.

"I don't think so, but why would you ask?  Your computer is not even working or turned on!"

Being the dumb malteser that she is, an explanation was necessary.

"You have the wireless mouse for your laptop just now, as you dropped your other mouse into a glass of water, is that not so?"

"Yes", said she. Recognising the fact that most normal people manage to drop their mouse in a glass of water. Right?

"So, you have the wireless control plugged into your laptop?"

"Yes.......but does that not just control the mouse?"

Robert invisibly rolled his eyes in despair, and sighed an inaudible sigh, and said "It controls the keyboard, too."

"Oh", she said, in a short, stunned, and "I'm really thick" sort of way.

"Go and ask Susie if she touched the keyboard."

Off toddled the dim mother, into the girl's bedroom.  Susie was sitting on her top bunk, looking innocent and beautiful, as she so often, deceivingly, does.

"Susie......"

"Yes, Mummy."

"Did you touch Daddy's keyboard, for the computer that's not turned on, in the school room?"

"Yes", she said, with a cute, little, beguiling smile.

"What did you type, darling?"

"Well, just lots of random letters."

"So, did you type your name?"

"Yes!", she said triumphantly.

"Did you type anything else?", her, now smiling, mother asked, trying to make sure that her leading question was not procuring a false, Anne of Green Gables type, confession.

"Just some more random letters."

"Which did you type first, Susie?"

"My name, then the letters", she said, with pride beaming on her face.

"Ok.  Now, you mustn't touch Daddy's things again, do you understand?", said her mother, who was trying not to laugh out loud, as she worked out the solution to her mystery!

Back to Robert she went, confirming that his conclusion was, of COURSE, correct.  Being a husband, and all, who is most nearly always right, about everything?..... He sent her off downstairs, to get one of the other children to repeat the process, to prove it was a correct assessment of the situation.

Josh willingly ran into the school room, whilst Caroline sat at her laptop, waiting expectantly.

Her eyes were glued to the little message box on Facebook, waiting with anticipation to see what would happen.

Sure enough, moments later, letters appeared in the box before her.

"i  l-o-v-e  y-o...."

"MUM - where's "u" key?"

Caroline smiled to herself, as her mystery was solved, and her message was completed before her eyes.

The End.



(My children have very little computer time, hence Joshua's struggle to find the right key on the keyboard! Susanna seemed to manage to type her name quicker, interestingly.... *grin* )