“Chrissake. Okay then,” replied his father begrudgingly before getting up and going to the front door to let in his friend.
“All right, mate. Come in. He’s in the kitchen,” said Frank as he let in the young track-suited hoodie.
Soon all three were tea in hand and Carter was at the computer clicking and scrolling.
“No problems here, mate. It’s running fine. Good to see you’ve put an anti virus on here last night. That will have solved a lot of it,” exclaimed the youngster.
“Antivirus? I didn’t put anything on there. I wouldn’t know how,” replied Ali, slightly confused.
“According to the history log on the computer you installed the software last evening at around 21.19, then you updated the virus definitions and deleted or quarantined 1246 viruses. Quite a handy bit of work. It was exactly what I was about to do. Why are you wasting my time getting me here to do it, for Chrissake?”
Carter was more than a bit pissed off as he spun round in the second-hand office chair.
“I didn’t. We were at the football then last night, weren’t we, Dad?” exclaimed Ali looking round at his dad.
“Yeah, we were, Carter. We went to the match. Maybe that damn machine is broken more than we first thought, bloody thing,” grunted Frank before getting back into his committed tea swigging.
“Well that’s what it says here and it does not lie. The system clock and date are correct. It definitely happened last night.”
“Maybe the anti virus is itself a virus. We left the computer on last night like you asked.”
“Antivirus? More like bloody antichrist if you ask me,” blurted his father.
“Whatever, dad! It’s important to me and I do lots on it so it needs to be right,” exclaimed Ali, getting only a grunt from his father in response.
“Well unless the cat suddenly started becoming computer literate then there’s no other explanation,” uttered Carter as he closed the application and went back to the desktop screen.
“Oh look, speaking of which, here’s a note from your cat.”
Carter had seen the word document Ed had typed the night before and saved to the desktop. He clicked on it and started reading it out as best he could with the typos, much to Ali’s amazement.
‘I amm aCat. My nsme is Ed, not friking Smunky. Whst is a Smmnky anyway? I am niot daftt or stuupid sndwould like to sit omn th sofa 3very now aand theen. I like th foopd you give me but I wa,mt more pleawse. Abnother thimg, you hsve comput3r problems b3cause you don’’tt hsve a proper anti virus instslled. If I hav3 time tomight, I will do thst for you. Llove. Ed’
Carter got more and more annoyed. “Right, this is a piss take. I can see that this document was created last night. I guess you’ve filmed making a fool of me for Facebook. Wanker! I’m off, and don’t ask for help again.”
Carter jumped up, leaving the cheap swivel chair spinning, and departed with haste through the room, down the corridor and out the front door, slamming it behind him. Ali was stunned and sat speechless whilst his dad looked on nonplussed.
“I don’t know what’s got into him, Dad. Why would he freak out like that? We told him we weren’t here last night. Did you muck about on the computer and mess anything up?”
“What do you think? I don’t even know how to use it. How would I start doing things on it all of a sudden? More to the point; why? I think it’s up the Swanee and you need to get a new one. Let’s see how work is over the next few months and see if I have any extra money. I’m not promising anything mind,” said Frank, trying to comfort Ali amidst the strange goings on.
“But if you didn’t do it and I didn’t do it, how could the document have the cat’s name in it? I’m very confused.”
“I didn’t touch the bloody thing, Ali, button it for Christ’s sake,” replied Frank assertively raising his voice.
Ali shut down the word document and computer, closing its upper surface into alignment with the lower and pulling out the plug at the wall.
“Whatever. I’ve had enough of that for one day anyway. Bloody thing,” exclaimed Ali disgruntled, before turning tail, leaving the room and heading upstairs, leaving his father ensconced in the sofa, remote in hand and ready for some light TV entertainment. The last thing Ed wanted was to listen to some hideous soap or comedy show and so he zipped into the kitchen and his secondary basket.
He slumped into recline and began reflecting disappointedly regarding the events of the evening and how his interference had turned out. It was not how he imagined it would be. He just wanted it to be a bit of fun. He also started to feel a little guilty about having to disappear from the duo’s life and give them another loss to deal with. It was a new twist of emotions that he had not foreseen.