It made Ed miss Abella even more and dragged his mood into a sudden forlorn misery. He sat motionless for a while before picking himself up to reflect on the positives. He felt reassured that Abella had become so committed to the company and seemed to be taking it all forward. He was glad she had found the energy and motivation to continue, but deep down he still couldn’t help feeling bereft that she was living her life without him. It felt like they’d lived for each other and that anything else was out of the question.
The thoughts rushed through his head like fireworks in an empty gas tank. He wondered what to do. Could he contact her? How he would love to log onto his email and send her an email. How would she ever believe him though? He reflected on what he would say;
***
-----Original Message-----
From: Ed Trew [mailto:edtrew @ CubiZ dot biz]
Sent: 07 November 2011 21.09
To: ABELLA TREW
Subject: Re: I am a cat and was previously a tortoise
Dear Abella,
You do not need to worry. I am currently a cat in Basingstoke and was previously a tortoise in, well somewhere near Basingstoke I guess. I am not in pain and I am hoping to find a way to get back to you. I am sorry I died and although I would like to say that I won’t do it again, that would be a white lie because sadly I have to kill myself every four days. Annoying but sometimes you need to go with the flow.
Trust me when I tell you that this is not easy to explain.
I love you so much and miss you even more.
Love. Ed
***
No. I can’t send anything like this. It would just open up the wound again and she’d just think it was some digital prankster and be angry.
Ed sat back a little from the computer and slumped with misery, not knowing what to do.
“I’m dead but I have an opportunity to contact her. This would be redefining Ouija boards and séances. Speaking to the dead in the twenty-first century. Just hit send and you and your loved one will be digitally connected with our 100% authentic Ouija app,” joked Ed to himself. He loved her so deeply though. Of all the things to lose with his passing, his relationship with her was undisputedly top of the list. However, he knew he could not send her an email. It would be so cruel and destructive. He sat quietly with his sadness for a moment before sitting bolt upright again, looking at his reflection in the computer screen. A proud Egyptian-looking cat browsing online. How modern can you get? Soon he was focused back on the laptop and navigated to the home page of the CubiZ website and on to the products page.
It listed a number of new products that he had not seen before. Solar powered shoes with thermal feet warmers, tents with solar panel material that powered little LED bulbs in the roof, solar powered flasks that would keep coffee warm for days and even a solar powered crash helmet that could blow either hot or cold air inside. The list went on and on as Ed scrolled through, amazed at how everything had come together. He glanced down again at the bottom of the screen to check the time. It had crept on to 21.19. He figured he had half an hour left before Ali and Frank arrived back home from the match.
He navigated back to Google and typed in; free anti virus download.
Soon he was on the site of ‘Zap a spam MO-FO’ and was downloading and installing the program. He was getting comfortable with the paw and claw motions on the touch pad, speeding through the process of putting the product on the laptop and updating the anti virus definitions. In no time he had clicked on the scan option and the computer was having its hard drive trawled through for nasty, unnecessary and downright bloody annoying infiltrations from some spotty anaemic computer hacker in Eastern Europe or the Far East.
Why do they even bother in the first place? They can’t see when they have zapped someone. What’s the point? thought Ed, as the scan completed itself.
1246 problems found. Do you want to quarantine and delete these problems.
YES? NO?
Ed happily clicked on ‘YES’ and watched the anti virus strut its funky stuff as it zapped each and every one of the invaders, proudly showing a bloody scene of a computer hacker being shot in the head at point blank range each time. That amounted to 1246 re-runs of the gruesome scene and took over fifteen minutes.
Right then. Turn on automatic updates, close down the internet browser and brush my paw marks off the touch pad, thought Ed, as he tidied up the scene and tried to get the computer back into position on the table before jumping down onto the chair and then onto the floor.
He meandered out into the kitchen and lapped hungrily from his saucer of milk before returning to the living room and the comfort of his basket. He got back into his now familiar recline with his legs poking out and his head resting over the edge of the cut out at the front. Soon he had nodded off, only to be abruptly awoken by a slam at the door and loud footsteps approaching along the passageway and bursting into the living room.