Maurice & Patricia LeBeaux, Part 2

Maurice sat Indian-style in front of the 27-inch television playing Halo 2 with his California friends over a dial-up connection. How could Dad even call this a television? he though to himself. My iPod has a bigger screen than this. To add to Maurice's horror when he arrived in Hell-hole, Alaska, he found out that this particular TV, out of all the TVs in the whole world, didn't have the proper ports for connecting his X-box. Luckily, he found salvation on imagrue43's Ebay page in the form of an adapter. He had to use money from his sister's bubble bath fund to buy it, but he figured the risk of bodily injury was worth it.

"You know, leaning side to side with the controller doesn't help; it just makes you look more like a idiot," said the voice of a head swathed in a towel turban.

Without taking his eyes off the screen, Maurice began a lengthy geek-speech about the importance of "moving with the game." Patricia, still in her bath robe, serenely placed her white earbuds in her ears, drowned out her brother with the peaceful music of Yanni, and started preparing her dinner for the evening. When she finished, a turkey sandwich, a potato chip bag, and a glass of milk sat waiting for her on the table. It wasn't much, but it was all she knew how to make from scratch. Sitting down at the table, she recalled hearing about microwaveable bacon somewhere. Maybe she'd try a BLT one day--if she ever got tired of turkey, that is.

"I said, What am I supposed to do for dinner!?" came Maurice's cracking voice as he removed her right earbud.
"Oh, just find something! Make a sandwich. Eat the Lucky Charms you just had to have."
"Patti, Lucky Charms aren't a proper dinner!"
"I don't care what you eat, worm. I don't care if you starve. But I know I'm not going to, so let me eat my dinner in peace."
With that said, Patricia shoved the dangling earbud back in her ear and continued eating her sandwich.

Maurice hated this place as much as she did, maybe even more. He never showed it, though, because he enjoyed annoying her with his feigned indifference. But it was times like these when even he couldn't hold back his anger. Forced to work against his will and isolated in a frozen wasteland--what was this place, Siberia? Not even being able to irritate Patricia day and night was worth this. He could make the best of it and say that at least he had an internet connection to the outside world. Yeah, whatever. Dial-up, compared to broadband, is like slow torture and almost worse than no internet at all. It's like one of those nightmares in which you try to run, but can't because it feels like you're wearing concrete boots.

To Be Continued...