Short-Short Story Contest Finalists

*Apologies for the delay in posting the final stories. Internet has been spotty and lives have been upended in the wake of recent events. Our hearts go out to all those affected by the southern Alberta floods. Please enjoy a moment of distraction with the following short-short story.

Ramblings of an Under-appreciated PC

By Madelaine Wong

Chuck and I have been together five years; love at first sight. His eyes glistened when he saw me at Best Buy and he brought me home that day.

“She’s fast and look at her amazing resolution,” Chuck said.

He took me on a fabulous holiday to Vancouver and even let me sit on his lap on the plane. I store the photos files, so Chuck can pull up the pics from time to time and we relive lovely memories.

Mostly, we work. Chuck isn’t the easiest person to get along with, pounding on me all day, demanding answers to queries – “What’s the capital of Gambia? How to cook banana slugs? What do geckos eat?” I assist him with research and editing his stories, while he clutters my memory with hundreds of documents. I help him keep in touch with loved ones, but he won’t even take the time to defrag or upgrade me. Hell, he won’t even dust my keys. At the end of the day, just when I’m ready to hibernate, he wants me to search for pictures of naked women. I don’t judge. I do what I’m told.

Now, he asks me to pull up multiple documents, while at the same time, he’s surfing the net. Hang on, Chuck. This could take a while…

“Piece of shit computer!” He bangs my keys and gives me a shove.

Not my fault I’m slower than I used to be. I picked up a virus last week, after he pirated “Satisfaction” to my music files.

“Writers don’t get paid enough for their work,” he whines. Serves him right I got sick, the cheapskate hypocrite. Now he’ll have to pay someone to fix me. He should have used protection. He’s careless though, hasn’t even backed up my files.

I can almost feel the virus creeping its way through my system, corrupting my drives. I’m running hot. Maybe my fan is malfunctioning. I hope Chuck will take me in to see the geeks at Best Buy. They might have to operate, though. What if it’s terminal? My friend went in for a check-up, just a little tune-up, she was told. They opened her up and found her motherboard fried. Repairs were too costly so they euthanized her, right there on the spot. My Chuck would never be so heartless. I’m under-appreciated, but I know he loves me.

Chuck’s typing “Future Shop” into my search engine. No! The cheating bastard is using me to check out other laptops, all shiny, young and slim.

“This one’s a beauty. Next payday, she’s mine,” says Chuck.

I gave Chuck the best years of my life and this is how he treats me.

“One more week, then it’s time to recycle.” He pats me gently.

He thinks he can treat me like a piece of garbage! He won’t get away with it. I’ll kill myself first. Tomorrow at start up, I’ll do irreparable damage to his documents and then black out. Recycle my ass.