The Chat

456 0 0
                                    

By Paul Riches

Monday:

Sarah folds the sweater for the fifteenth time, always striving for the precisely right way, when she is happily disturbed by the beep from her computer.

Forgetting her all important task, she rushes over to her laptop and clicks away on the video chat function.  The end of the night is always like this.  A beep followed by fun.  Lots of fun.

Her desktop wallpaper, of waves gently lapping onto a beach, is replaced by two small screens, perfectly symmetrical to each other.  On the right is Sarah’s best friend, Joshua, smiling away.  He is almost always smiling, full of happy, which is good.  On the left is Sarah’s other best friend, Tracey, giggling away.  She was always giggling, full of fun, which was also good.  Every night, after chores and homework and dinner, is several stolen moments of relaxation with her besties.

“HELLO SARAH!!” shouts Tracey, looming her face up close to the screen, a move she does with incredible regularity.  Sarah could count Tracey’s filings with ease.  “Did you finish the geography homework?  It be due tomorrow!” she finishes as she plops back down into her chair.

“I am fairly certain it was the math homework due,” Joshua states factually, as he always does.

 “Awwww!!  You wrecked my perfect prank!  I almost completely totally had her convinced!”  Tracey scowls playfully.  She drags her finger down her face from her left eye.

 "Yes, I am that stupid, to fall for the same joke you have pulled all the time since grade five.”  Sarah laughs while shaking her head.  “You seriously need new material.  Josh, that is your new mission.”

“Aye aye Captain,” he says, executing a semi-perfect salute in the process.

 “And I thought we had all agreed, the whole world over, that geography was not a real subject.  It was declared.  Why do they still teach this drivel?”  Sarah is waving her hands in the air, encapsulating the wider world at large in her vision.

“Oh, it is still a real subject, but it is taught by not real people.  I liked our grade nine geo teacher last year, she was nice.  And funny,” Joshua pipes in that last part with an even bigger smile.

 “Yeah, I liked her to.  She only gave me detention twice.” Tracey had now put her feet up in the air, for some unknown reason.

“Ewww, smelly feet!”  Joshua plugs his nose with one hand and waves with the other, all to protect and dispel odours travelling over the internet.

“I seriously doubt that disgusting smells come through the camera, but knowing Tracey, it might be possible,” Sarah says then bent down to start checking her backpack for tomorrow.  “Josh, you still have my book,” she exclaims.  “And I want it baaaaaack,” Sarah completes with a whine.

 “I know, I know, but I can’t finish it.  If I finish it, it’s done, and that just makes me a sad Josh.”  He does the same tear motion Tracey had earlier.

“Yeah, I feel the same way.  It’s kind of a bummer when the story ends.  Are you still at the part with the trident fight?” Sarah asks, while still pillaging through her school bag.

Both of them stop and look to the side to see Tracey’s screen.  Alternating between feet, she is sniffing each one, and then shaking her head.

“Only you.  Only you,” Josh shakes his head in imitation.

“Now back to something called reality,” Sarah declares.  “What chapter of that stupid english book do we have to read by Friday?”  She plops a bunch of loose papers onto her desk, still trying to find her prey.

The ChatWhere stories live. Discover now