It seemed to John that the room was dark almost to spite the sun. Outside there was a deep blue sky, and a cool breeze, the trees were green and there were probably lots of good looking women in shorts.
But the venetian blinds were turned down. The glow of the computer seemed brighter than the sun.
He had actually been on his way out when Dave showed up.
They were now waiting for the computer to boot up.
"Dude, we should be outside," John repeated again with a sigh.
"What, are you my mother?" replied Dave, sitting himself in a low easy chair. He picked up a computer magazine and began paging through it. "What's there to do out there anyway?"
"I spend all week indoors hardly seeing the light of day, and you want me to do the same on the weekend."
"Alright, alright. You just gotta check my web site out. You can go outside afterwards."
"Whatever." The computer beeped its readiness and John started the procedure to log on to the Internet. "Don't you just wish these things worked like they do in the movies. Flip a switch and your there."
"One day. One day"
The modem screamed as it connected with his Internet service. John always thought it sounded like someone was in pain.
"I doubt it, by then they'll be starting to do matter transport over the web or, or... something. Anything to fill bandwidth. What Intel giveth, Micro-"
"Microsoft taketh away," Dave laughs. "You and your cliches. You got any food?"
"No, but I got beer."
"Oh, just as good."
Dave got up and went into the kitchen.
"So what's your address anyway?" John yelled opening up his web browser.
"Ummm, www, dot, breaker, dot, com, slash, house, underline, o, underline, dave, slash."
"dot, spelled D, O, T right?"
"Ha, ha. And underline is spelled u, n, d... Where's your bottle opener."
"Dunno. You'll have to dig around." John typed in the name and waited. No doubt Dave had loaded it up with tons of graphics. Who knows how long the download would be. "House_o_dave. Couldn't you come up with something more original?"
"I'm working on it" Dave said. Drawers were being opened and closed. There was the clatter of silverware. "Check out the video feed."
"Of what?" John clicked on the video button, not waiting for the whole page to come up. It seemed a bit of a mess anyway.
"My new office."
The picture came up a grainy shot of a large cubicle. One could barely make out things. John sighed, "So, this is to show people you work hard? Can't goof off though, can you."
"Sure I can, just get hook it up to a looping video tape."
"Clever. There is one thing though."
"What's that? Where is this stupid opener?"
"It's bor-" Someone blurred across the screen. It looked like they were carrying something. He laughed. "Well maybe this is pretty amusing. Try in the cupboards above the sink."
The figure came back into the cubicle and lifted something off the desk careful to remove the cables and such.
"You got a looped tape now, huh?"
Dave came back in a puzzled look on his face, holding an unopen beer. "No. Why?"
"Look," John said and Dave looked.
"Who is that?"
"Oh, come on your joking. Nice joke though. Ripping off your stuff," John laughed.
Dave didn't, he stared. "Holy shit! Call the cops."
"I'd have to break the connection, though."
"Oh."
They both watched. John trying to hide his smile. He couldn't help it! The figure came back in the cubicle. He was about to take something else, but he noticed the camera. He came up close to it, but they couldn't make out the face as it was covered.
The camera went black. John couldn't help cracking up.
"Holy shit! Call the cops!"
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