"Look, Richard, little Ricky's about ready for a new com-plant. I do believe he is growing out of his baby one!" Jenny grabbed 3 year old Rickie & hugged him to herself. "What a big boy you are getting to be!"
"He sure is!" exclaimed his father, Richard. "You'd better make him an appointment at the Facility this week." Ricky jumped down from his mothers lap & toddled off to play.
"The Facility!" this from 12 year old Leslie, "Won't it hurt him when they-"
"SSHHHH!" both her parents cautioned, looking after Ricky, "Why would you say that, Leslie? You probably don't even remember when we took you to the Verizasoft Facility to have your toddler com-plant exchanged for the one you have now." her mother pointed out.
"Yeah, but the kids all say-"
"Don't believe those kids," said Richard, "They are just trying to scare you. They give you some anesthesia so you don't feel a thing. Besides, you wouldn't want to be without your com-plant, would you?"
"No way!" Leslie & her mother shuddered, "How would you live?!" Jenny wondered.
In the corner of the living room a very old man stirred. He was called Grandfather Longbeard & was Richard's grandfather. He had been alive for longer than most people, born at the end of the 20th century. He spoke to his Tempur-Pedic chair & it promptly changed positions to sit him upright & then Grandfather Longbeard peered out from under his bushy brows, waggling them.
"You kids have it easy! Back when I was a boy, things were a lot different!" Grandfather pounded the arms of his chair with gusto. "Nobody had com-plants back then, I'll tell you!"
Jenny eyed Richard & whispered, "Now he's going to go off into one of his never ending rants about those archaic smartphones of yesteryear."
"I like to hear Grandfathers stories!" said Leslie, who didn't know any better. She got up & went to sit next to Grandfather Longbeard. "Tell me, Grandfather, how did you communicate with the world if you didn't have a com-plant?"
"When I was a boy, I had something called a Blackberry."
"You mean like the fruit?"
"Just the name, little lady, just the name," Grandfather chuckled. "It was a big & bulky thing - 'bout as big as the palm of my hand!"
"Wow - that IS big! How did they insert it under your skin?" Leslie asked, with saucer eyes.
"No, no, they didn't attach the Blackberry's to us. Not everybody had the same kind either - some kids had something called the iphone. We had to carry our devices around with us in our pockets. Tho I remember my mother, (she would be your great, great grandmother Helen, I believe), she was always telling me to 'put that thing down!' She didn't have one, see-"
"She didn't have a communication device at all?" Leslie demanded.
"Well, she sure could yell - I guess that counts!" Grandfather Longbeard roared & slapped his knee.
"Now, Grandfather," Richard spoke up, "We know they had devices called 'cellphones' even back in the 1990's. Your mother HAD to have had one. You are teasing Leslie!"
Grandfather bristled & gave 40 year old Richard a 'that's-enough-out-of-you,-little-boy' look. "You may think I am telling stories, but there are worse things than that! All true, I might add."
"Well, you'll have to excuse me while I get dinner started." Jenny said. She stepped over by the window to be polite & began speaking to her com-plant, which was inserted under the skin on the back of her hand. In the kitchen, some appliances made their grumbles of awakening.
"Worse!" Leslie bounced up & down. "What could be worse, Grandfather?!"
"Well, in my day, we had to go outside to get to school. We didn't just lounge around at home watching School-Vee!"
"Outside! Where is-" Leslie knitted her brows.
"He means beyond the glass." Richard pointed to the window.
"You've - you've BEEN out there?" Leslie was incredulous. "What about the diseases!?"
"Remember your studies, Leslie - you've learned all this. The bio-war did not occur until the 2040's." Richard exchanged a glance with his grandfather. "Those were some hard times for everyone, as we all know."
"That's true, sonny." Grandfather agreed. "But those times came later. What I am about to tell you happened during my boyhood - & nothing can compare with the horrors that took place back then - not even war!"
There was a pregnant silence. Then Leslie asked, in a hushed voice, "What, Grandfather, what then?" She scooted closer to her father.
"It had to do with the internet!" Grandfather exclaimed.
"The internet?" Leslie's jaw dropped. "You mean the very heart of the Facility itself?"
"Right, lassie, your online connection. Things didn't used to run as smoothly as they do now, oh no!"
Like a child watching a scary movie, Leslie wrapped a blanket around herself like a cocoon. "Oh, no?"
Jenny entered the room in time to hear this last exchange. Quickly she gave Richard a Look & said quietly, "Don't you think she is a little young to be hearing about this? I don't want her to have nightmares!"
Richard shot a glance at Leslie, "No, I think she's old enough, Jenny. We can't shelter her forever! Go ahead, Grandfather Longbeard." Jenny took a seat on Leslie's other side.
"The internet, then." Grandfather Longbeard leaned forward, his eyes misting over with recollection. "In the beginning there was what they called a 'dial-up' connection. People who had 'dial-up' had to wait for up to 25 minutes just to download a three minute bit of music."
Leslie was horrified. "25 minutes! You must be joking!"
"No, it's true," Grandfather reached across & patted Leslie's knee. "I heard it from my own mother. She experienced it herself."
"Oh, my God!" Jenny gasped & wrapped her arms around the blanketed Leslie, "To think someone in our own family had to go thru that!" Both Jenny & Leslie's eyes filled with tears.
"Now, now, girls - that's all in the past, all gone, all forgotten. The people who survived that unspeakable ordeal are mostly dead & burned by now." comforted Richard, "Right, Grandfather?"
"True, true enough." Grandfather shook his head, "Besides, remember, ladies, my mother & the other people of her generation did not know any better. It was all new to them. They were grateful for what they had, I'll tell you! After all, that wasn't the worst of it-"
"Now, Grandfather, I think Leslie has had enough for today..." said Richard.
"No!" said Leslie, "No, Dad! I am willing to hear the rest. I am almost a woman. Plus, I have you and Mom here by my side. I will be all right..."
"Okay, then, Grandfather, go ahead & tell her." Richard sat back, resigned.
"Well, it's a good thing you ladies are sitting down for this part." Grandfather noted that Leslie was clasping her mothers hand until her knuckles were white, preparing herself for this last final outrage.
"Sometimes," Grandfather Longbeard took a trembling & suspenseful breath, "Sometimes the internet connection actually ... dropped!"
As Richard carried Leslie, who had fainted, to her bedroom, while her mother Jenny ran to fetch Leslie a glass of water, Grandfather Longbeard adjusted his chair.
"Kids these days!" he said to himself, "They don't know how lucky they are!"
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