The Unforgettable 24 Hours

     I go home every weekend, although it is one and a half hours on the way. I go home because someone is waiting for me--- not only my parents, but also my newly-bought computer.

       I didn’t leave until noon last Saturday because of a shot of vaccine. I could hardly wait. I had borrowed the VCD of Brave Heart, but that was not exciting enough. In my bag there’s a disk copied from other. It was the first time I had copied a disk from other.

       I inserted it into my computer first thing I got home. It was a psychological test. After answering 187 questions, it would tell you your character type. When I had finished all the questions, it told me to stop pressing buttons. I obeyed. After some time, I discovered that it had escaped from that program without my order, so I had answered so many questions in vain!

       But I was patient enough. I pulled out the disk and inserted another one. Suddenly I felt something went wrong --- no sound! And the trumpet sign had also disappeared from the task bar!

       Then my nightmare began. I tried to find the cause, but that was out of my reach--- I had had my computer for only one month. I could only watch it getting worse and worse minute-by-minute. "Wrong operation." he told me at first. Then I tried to re-install Windows, but he said he couldn’t do it because of deadly mistake. For no reason, I inserted the disk again, and that surely sped up my computer's dying. The last word he said was "This disk is poor in quality." Then I even couldn’t enter Windows! My computer lay there, mad, collapsed, and dead. Facing him, I sat there, almost mad, collapsed, and dead too. Only one month. The most expensive thing I’ve ever owned. I lost him?

        I telephoned the service station, but no one was on duty. It was 8 PM, any way. It seemed that the only thing I could do at the time was to go to bed. I did sleep, but dreams kept me awake all night long. All kinds of bad dreams.

        Sunday came. I called again and got a solution. "It must have been computer virus." the man on the other end said, "You have to format your hard drive, and re-install all the things that have once been saved in it." I followed his instructions. It was really a long time. I inserted and pulled out quite a number of CDs and disks. My eyes fixed upon the monitor. Sometimes my computer would say, "the following process will last several minutes..." I knew he was hinting that he could do it himself and trying to persuade me to go to have a rest. But, thanks, I wouldn’t. I’d like to watch until you recovered.

        Sunday noon, at last, everything was all right. Despite some data missing, I was happy to see he re-gain his spirit. I, too, re-gained my spirit. In the past 24 hours, I had experienced something that I’d never experienced before: from excitement, to panic, then to desperation, and finally to relief. So much in 24 hours, those unforgettable 24 hours.