said:
"Killed by MAD 2100—Don’t get MAD get EVEN".
Robert read the message. It looked like a joke from a kid studying programming and poetry. It made no sense so Robert went home early. It was Tuesday and Susan was out with her girlfriends until nine. She did this every Tuesday to get away from Robert, the kids and Buddy. Susan planned to be a famous novelist but after ten years and 66 rejection letters on four different books she took to something she was good at: drinking and laundry.
Laundry soon left the list after Susan’s cat Snookers died.
The animal hospital said the cat died during a spin cycle.
After seeing Snookers washed into cat heaven Robert decided on professional help. He found a psychiatrist named Francois and then bought Buddy, making sure the dog was bigger than the GE washer was.
Robert entered his ranch style home, sat down on his couch, and turned on the WebTele to watch the news and relax. He shut off the Webmail link; he didn’t want to be bothered with interruptions.
At 9:30 Susan opened the front door and saw Robert slumped into his chair. She could tell something was wrong.
"What’s the matter honey?" asked Susan.
"Ah. I should have stayed in school and been a professor."
Susan put her purse on the kitchen table and grabbed a tonic water from the GE-WebFridge 4000. She could program the GE-WebFridge 4000 to monitor all food going in and out to track freshness, calories and health content. It would even send her an e-mail when the kids or Robert ate too much. The black screen lit up in red text to automatically show food information on items that went in or out of the special refrigerator. For those on Weight Watchers there was even an internal lock on the 3 doors. Too many calories and you were shut out —unless you had a uranium-enriched blowtorch.
The tonic water was only 7 days old, had 42 calories and was rated 5 for health; neutral. Susan poured a glass of tonic water and took a Valium to relax.
"Would you like something to drink Robert?"
"Yeah—a beer and some potato chips please,"Susan grabbed a beer and potato chips. She scanned them: the beer was 12 days old, had 210 calories and was rated a 2; bad for health. The potato chips were worse—2 weeks old, 310 calories and rated a 1. A message popped up on the screen and a woman’s voice spoke: "Health is important. You are what you eat!" Susan looked at the screen but gave Robert the beer and potato chips anyhow.
Robert shook his head. "Can we shut that refrigerator monitoring system off? It’s annoying"
"If you didn’t eat so much junk food you wouldn’t hear all those messages. It’s good for your health to be informed."
Robert kept quiet.
"So what’s up Robert? Why do you look all stressed out?"
Robert popped open his beer and took a sip. "We have problems with the beta testing in Japan. Gill has ordered us to move out to Tokyo for the next year of installation."
Susan twisted her face and turned her head to look at her favorite painting in the living room; a picture of Paris in summer. Susan always wanted to be transferred to Paris. She wrote love stories about Paris although she’d never lived there. She was sure this was why her stories were rejected.
"I’d rather go to Antarctica." Susan liked penguins.
She looked at the WebTele and saw a fat penguin holding a beer can. The thought passed. "I’ll go, but if we go through the same situation we had last time, you know what I will do."
"Oh honey, that was a big mistake. It’ll never happen again. I love you." Robert remembered staying out all night with Gill at a late night Japanese party.
"You must make me one promise," asked Susan.
"Sure—anything. What is it?"
"I want to take a one month trip to Paris next summer when the project is over, without the kids or Buddy to finish my last book."
"Writing again?" asked Robert. His forehead perspired.
"Yes," said Susan proudly.
The
"Killed by MAD 2100—Don’t get MAD get EVEN".
Robert read the message. It looked like a joke from a kid studying programming and poetry. It made no sense so Robert went home early. It was Tuesday and Susan was out with her girlfriends until nine. She did this every Tuesday to get away from Robert, the kids and Buddy. Susan planned to be a famous novelist but after ten years and 66 rejection letters on four different books she took to something she was good at: drinking and laundry.
Laundry soon left the list after Susan’s cat Snookers died.
The animal hospital said the cat died during a spin cycle.
After seeing Snookers washed into cat heaven Robert decided on professional help. He found a psychiatrist named Francois and then bought Buddy, making sure the dog was bigger than the GE washer was.
Robert entered his ranch style home, sat down on his couch, and turned on the WebTele to watch the news and relax. He shut off the Webmail link; he didn’t want to be bothered with interruptions.
At 9:30 Susan opened the front door and saw Robert slumped into his chair. She could tell something was wrong.
"What’s the matter honey?" asked Susan.
"Ah. I should have stayed in school and been a professor."
Susan put her purse on the kitchen table and grabbed a tonic water from the GE-WebFridge 4000. She could program the GE-WebFridge 4000 to monitor all food going in and out to track freshness, calories and health content. It would even send her an e-mail when the kids or Robert ate too much. The black screen lit up in red text to automatically show food information on items that went in or out of the special refrigerator. For those on Weight Watchers there was even an internal lock on the 3 doors. Too many calories and you were shut out —unless you had a uranium-enriched blowtorch.
The tonic water was only 7 days old, had 42 calories and was rated 5 for health; neutral. Susan poured a glass of tonic water and took a Valium to relax.
"Would you like something to drink Robert?"
"Yeah—a beer and some potato chips please,"Susan grabbed a beer and potato chips. She scanned them: the beer was 12 days old, had 210 calories and was rated a 2; bad for health. The potato chips were worse—2 weeks old, 310 calories and rated a 1. A message popped up on the screen and a woman’s voice spoke: "Health is important. You are what you eat!" Susan looked at the screen but gave Robert the beer and potato chips anyhow.
Robert shook his head. "Can we shut that refrigerator monitoring system off? It’s annoying"
"If you didn’t eat so much junk food you wouldn’t hear all those messages. It’s good for your health to be informed."
Robert kept quiet.
"So what’s up Robert? Why do you look all stressed out?"
Robert popped open his beer and took a sip. "We have problems with the beta testing in Japan. Gill has ordered us to move out to Tokyo for the next year of installation."
Susan twisted her face and turned her head to look at her favorite painting in the living room; a picture of Paris in summer. Susan always wanted to be transferred to Paris. She wrote love stories about Paris although she’d never lived there. She was sure this was why her stories were rejected.
"I’d rather go to Antarctica." Susan liked penguins.
She looked at the WebTele and saw a fat penguin holding a beer can. The thought passed. "I’ll go, but if we go through the same situation we had last time, you know what I will do."
"Oh honey, that was a big mistake. It’ll never happen again. I love you." Robert remembered staying out all night with Gill at a late night Japanese party.
"You must make me one promise," asked Susan.
"Sure—anything. What is it?"
"I want to take a one month trip to Paris next summer when the project is over, without the kids or Buddy to finish my last book."
"Writing again?" asked Robert. His forehead perspired.
"Yes," said Susan proudly.
The
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