WRITERS AND TECHNOLOGY

Hi Writers,

I love my computer. It’s a beautiful little MacBook. It welcomes my writerly thoughts and stories and remembers them. It helps me edit my writing. It organizes my illustrations. How wonderful is that? I open the cover and a picture of a café in Paris appears. I could be sitting there, writing. My computer is my friend.

But not always. Sometimes it acts up and hides the cursor, pops on to an unrelated topic of its own accord or loses drafts for no reason, never to be found again. These are heart-sinking moments.

Here’s my flash fiction story about such times.

The mom was sitting in front of her computer, a vase of yellow daisies just touching the edge of the screen. Her head was down.

She heard her ten-year-old son come into her study and quickly dabbed at her eyes and lifted her head.

“Wait,” he said. “What? Mom are you crying?”

“Of course not!”

“You are,” he said. “You’re crying.”

She turned toward him and saw a look in his eyes—so wise beyond his years.

In the kindest, gentlest tone ever and without making her feel bad, he said, “I can help you with that, Mom.” He retrieved the lost document—bing, bing, bing.

Her heart filled. When did it happen that her son took care of her? So loving. So kind.

Her eyes misted over again. This time for a lovely reason.

Happy writing everyone and may all your computers behave.