Thursday, September 1, 2011

Handful of Sand Chapter 38 Page 2

All through the year, Sandy had often dreaded classes and longed for break time. That moment, when school was essentially one long break time, she was b-o-r-e-d. If only there was class. That was at least something to do.

School was boring. There had been no attempted kidnappings. The redhead Connie was no longer around to spice things up. And Annie was as uninteresting as the books and notes she had been studying. If the situation went on long enough, Sandy would die of boredom and she really, really did not want to expire.

At least, not before she received her inheritance.

Maybe Sandy should join a club. Before that, she needed information on the available clubs. How would she go about gathering such information? Barging in on a club meeting was not very nice. She could not ask her friends or classmates since they were not around. Maybe on the Internet. She had heard that all sorts of information could be found there.

The only place in the school where she could get an online connection, for a student without a laptop, would be the library. As strange as it might sound, Sandy had stepped into the school library before. It had been while doing research for one of her class projects.

No, she had not done it all on her own initiative. It had been a group project. At least she had learned a little on how use the Internet for research then. And back at home, Sandy had used the computer several times, when she had not been too lazy to drag a chair from the dining room to sit at the computer desk.

The school library was at the top floor of one of the school blocks. When Sandy entered, the middle-aged bespectacled librarian at the counter gave her a brief glance. The latter was buried in a book with several more untidily stacked beside her.

The computers were arranged in a rectangular group at the center of the library. Sandy picked one at the corner, the furthest from a couple of giggling girls at one of the other computers.

Sandy typed 'What club should I join?' into the search engine.

The webpages she got in response were very, very vague on the answer. She had a personality quiz. She had lists of reasons why she should join a club (but no recommendations). She had names of clubs she had never heard of. Where was the direct arrow pointing to the club that she should be in? If only life were that simple and... oooh, flashy button. Click!

That click brought her to a website of beautiful clothes, garments that she had only dreamed of presented clearly for her to see. Soon, she was clicking links to see shoes and makeup. Catalogs of stuffed toys and handbags also had her attention.

And that was the end of Sandy's quest for a club. Drawn into the curiosities, the pretty pictures and the assorted flashy treasures of the online world, Sandy was lost in the depths of the Internet.

Bad Ending: Swallowed by the Internet!

(Well, that would not do. If that happened there would not be a satisfactory end to the story. So let there be a distraction to bring Sandy back to reality.)

A chat window opened up in the corner of the monitor, urging for Sandy's attention.

It urged on for several minutes before Sandy finally tore herself away from the bright jewelry she was admiring. And it took her another minute to figure out how to work it.

"sandy gould?" the chat message had asked.

"Yes," Sandy replied, wondering who could she be speaking to.

"join the secret society?" the chat window asked.

"?" Sandy typed back.

"secret society. we talked at festival."

"you are red box?" Sandy referred to the red box containing the fire hose near the stairs that she spoke to during the School Festival.

"yes. join?"

The flashy picture of a shiny ruby on a sterling silver necklace appeared in the web browser. Sandy was hooked when she saw it. It was another minute before the chat window could get her attention again.

"join secret society?" the chat box tried again.

Sandy did not reply.

"we gv riches power" ('We give riches and power!')

Sandy still did not reply. She was not really interested, even at the mention of the word 'riches'. The Internet had her full attention, with images of sparkling stones and precious metals, worked into objects of beauty, things that she could buy when she was rich. On the other hand, the chat box's offer was only text, without the pretty pictures.

(By then, anyone would conclude that Sandy was an airhead, not suited for the intricacies of the Secret Society (whatever it was). The other person on the other end of the chat of course realized that and disappeared. Which suited Sandy fine, so she could continue looking at pretty things on the Internet.)

Bad Ending: Swallowed by the Internet! (For real.)

(The narrator gave up and went on to the next chapter.)

***

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