Suzie’s House 210 : First Step of a Block

Ben sat down in front of his mother’s computer. He pressed the power button and waited while the computer busied itself with coming to life – a combination of flashing lights and sound.

He waited patiently. Oh so patiently. But really, it wasn’t all noble like that. It was cause he was making himself do this.

Yesterday Lisa asked what he’d written lately, and he stupidly told her. Nothing. He hadn’t written a single word since the day his mother swiped his flash drive. And even though he got it back, and Miranda helped him cover for sneaking into Mom’s room to get it back and even though Miranda hadn’t done or said anything so maybe she wouldn’t really hold it over him. Still, it felt weird.

He sat there with his flash drive in his pocket looking at his mother’s sappy screen saver of a couple of kittens in a basket, and thought about it. That was the problem too. Instead of thinking about what to write, his head kept going back to writing at all.

Should he plug in the flash drive?

What if Mom saw it? Would she take it? Or ask him about it? Would she get mad if she found out he was trying to keep it from her?

But if he didn’t put what he wrote on the flash drive, then where was he supposed to put it? Leave it on her hard drive to look at when ever she wanted?

If only he had his own computer. Then he wouldn’t have to think about it. With his one computer in his own room, he could write when ever he thought of something.

Suddenly it seemed like his whole world depended on getting a laptop of his own. Mom said he could have one, too, if he did some chores around the house.

So, instead of sitting here thinking about how much he wanted to write but couldn’t because if he did he couldn’t save it anyway, maybe he should be doing chores around the house. He should maybe hurry, too, because it seemed like every time he turned around, there was Gene already doing the chores.

Just yesterday he took out the garbage, did the dishes, even vacuumed in the den under Vin’s feet while Vin watched TV. Ben meant to do all of that, but hadn’t gotten around to it before Gene was already there.

So, if he ever wanted to write again, Ben had better figure out what chores needed to be done and do them.

That resolved, he kept the flash drive in his pocket and turned the computer off.

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