Internet Breakdown - Maria

Winner, February 2010 Writing Contest

One day I came home from shopping with mom and sat down to do some research on the Internet. The Internet couldn't display the web page. "O well," I said, "I'll try another web site." It said the same. Again I tried and tried and tried. It kept saying the same thing over and over again.

"Mom!" I shouted, "The Internet keeps saying it cannot display the web page."

Mom tried over and over again, but it was still the same. "O well," mom said, "there might be a storm somewhere that's stopping the internet from reaching us."

That night dad came home from work. "Dad,'' said my brother Christopher, "at school the computers were not working today."

"And I couldn't get on after shopping today, either,“ I said.

"Oh, I forgot to tell you that this afternoon at work the radio said there is a big problem with the internet, and that no one will be able to get internet for a whole year all over the world, " said Dad.

"You've got to be kidding,'' said my mom.

"No, I'm not kidding. They said it as clear as a bell on the radio, and you have had trouble getting on the internet today, so that makes it even more true."

"Do you know why?" She asked.

"It was because of a very big solar flare,“ said Dad.

"Wow," I said. "So there really isn’t going to be any internet for a year."

"That's right," said Dad.

"O well," said Christopher, "It’ll cure Mom's computer addiction."

"Mind what you say young man,'' said Mom. "Help clear the table."

"Yes, mom."

"If the internet hadn't got cut off, I would have been able to publish my books faster,'' said mom.

"Oh no," said Anna, my sister, "I was looking forward to seeing a book that you wrote, even if it was not that interesting."

"How did they do it back then? '' Said Christopher.

"It was harder to do,'' said mom.

"Well, they did it,'' said Christopher.

"Do you really want to go to bed this minute?"

"No."

"Then be quiet."

"Must you really argue over the internet?‘‘I said.

"She's right,'' said Dad. "It’s gone. It is gone."

"That means your Lifesite News is gone too,'' said mom.

"Well, what can I do about it?"

"He's right," I said. "We’re just going to have to live without it."

"I don't think we can,'' said Mom.

"There, Dear, it's not the end of the world,'' said Dad.

"It's the end of the computer world."

"Only for a year, not forever."

The next morning, I did the normal things I always did in the morning, including going on the computer. The internet wasn't working. Then I remembered what had happened the other day.
"Oh well," I said, "as Christopher said yesterday, it'll stop our computer addiction." Just then I remembered my friend across the country; no more emails from her. I didn't even know her mailing address, so I couldn't contact her for a year. I began to cry.

Dad came down stairs and said, "Why are you crying?"

"It's because I can't contact my friend, Emma, for a year."

"Oh well, you can still phone her. Don't you have her phone number?"

"Well, yes."

"Then do that."

"All right, after lunch I`ll phone her."

After lunch I called her.

''Hello," someone on the other side of the phone said.

"Uh, hi. May I, um, please speak to Emma?"

"Sorry, wrong number."

I quickly hung up the phone.

"What is it?" asked Mom.

"Um, I just dialled the wrong number.''

"Try again," Mom said.

I did. That time I got the right number. "Hello, Emma,'' I said.

"Oh Rosie! Did you hear?"

"Yes, I did. Our internet's not working either."

"Oh, I was so worried we wouldn't hear from each other again,'' said Emma.

"Oh well," I said, "I'm upset that it shut down, but what can we do?"

"That's right,'' she said, "we're just going to have to live without it."

"Mom,'' I said, "I need a book about rabbit breeds, for school."

"Look it up on the internet."

"Mom, the internet is not working, remember?"

"That darn solar flare! It’s making me pay more money for gas!"

"Why?" asked my sister, Jane.

"It takes gas to get to the library," Mom said.

That afternoon we went to the library. There was a huge line up at the door when we got there. "Wow, that's a lot of people," said my sister, Emily.

"Why is there so many?'' asked Jane.

"We'll be waiting for ever if we stop here,'' said Anna.

"You're right," said mom. "We'll go shopping."

"But the line up will just get bigger,'' I said.

"Why did the internet have to shut down?'' said mom.

"If it hadn't shut down, we wouldn't be here,'' said Christopher.

"You two stay here," mom told Christopher and me. "Take as many books out as you need."

"All right, Mom," we said. We waited and waited and waited. Finally we managed to squeeze into the library. When we got in, what a sight met our eyes! Lots and lots of people that we had never seen before were there. The bookshelves were piled high with old and dusty books that had never been used before. They were being used now. We pushed and shoved through the crowd to get to the kid books. There we met a lot of our friends. We talked for a while, then we got our books and left.

That first week was a strange one without the internet. I forgot about it a couple times and attempted to go online, but when it said no access to what I wanted, I remembered. Two weeks later I saw the mail lady drop off our mail. She seemed to stay by the mail box for about a half an hour and then she left. I ran to the mail box, and when I got there the mailbox door was open, and inside the mailbox were dozens of letters and bills.

I ran inside and grabbed a bag and put all the letters and bills into it. Then I ran to Mom and Dad’s bedroom. "Mom, Dad, '' I said, "look at all the mail we got today."

Mom stared in amazement. Dad laughed. "I had a feeling we were going to get more mail then before,'' Dad said.

"Let's sort it out,'' Mom said.

There were lots and lots of letters, ten to me and twenty to mom. Mom’s friends had written her lots of letters. There were a few for Dad and four for Christopher. It was like that every week while the internet was off. The mail piled and piled so that the mail lady just brought our mail to the door.

A few weeks later, something else different happened, too. "Mom, the phone is ringing,'' said one of my siblings.

"Okay," said Mom, running to the phone. "Hello,'' said mom.

"Hi, it’s hydro." They talked for a few minutes then hung up.

Five minutes later, "Mom, the phones ringing."

"Okay,'' she said. "Hello."

"Hi, Bridget, it’s your mother." They talked for about an hour or two, then hung up. The rest of the day someone seemed to call every hour. It was like that for almost every day. My Mom said phoning short distance was cheaper than writing to someone that you saw every two weeks. We were getting kind of annoyed by all that ringing, so we decided to unplug the phone during our quiet time.

Six months had gone by since the internet shut down. We seemed to be going more places than we used to. Mom was writing more and more on paper and had one book done called "Ruth". It was hard to go without my online book club. I wrote a lot of my stories on paper, but only the friends near to me could read them. Sending them by mail was more expensive , So I didn't do it often .
"Rosie,'' my friend said, "do you know what day the internet will be on?"

"I don't know, Sarah,'' I said.

"I have an idea," she said. "Let’s have a guess on what day the internet is going to come back. We can get all our friends to write, on a piece of paper, what day, time, and month it’s going to come back. Whoever wins will get a laptop."

"Who is going to provide the laptop?''I asked.

''Me," said my friend. "I have two brand new laptops I got for my birthday."

"How did you get two?'' I asked.

"Well, my grandma gave me one, but my parents didn't know that she was getting one for me so they got one for me too."

"Didn't you try to get rid of one of them?"

"Well, my Mom was thinking of giving it away, but my idea might work better."

"I think so. Why not ask your mom about it? Anyway, our only friend who has a laptop of her own is you."

"And what if I win?" she asked.

"Well then you will win, um, two of the books, of your choice, that I had published. Agreed?" I said.

"Agreed,'' she said.

"Ask your mom and then tell me if she says we can. Even if she says we can't use the laptop for the prize, we can still do the prize that you would get if you win."

My friend's Mom said that we could use the laptop as the prize, so all our friends wrote on a piece of paper what day, time, and month the internet would come back. "Well," I thought, "it’s been six months since the internet has been off. It’s May now so it should be back by November, but the radio said that the internet may not be back for even maybe more than a year, but definitely not two years. I think it will be fully back by December 25 at 4:00 am."

The months went by. Everything new that happened since the internet shut down began to feel normal. The telephone ringing, the mail loads, the library busyness, driving more often, and even the internet being gone was starting to feel normal.

One day, in the middle of November, some people started to check their computers to see if the Internet was working yet. A few days after that, one man in South America got one webpage up, but that was it for most of the month. Then on December 5, there were two web pages up, but the contest that my friends and me had started, said you had to be able to send and receive emails t o win. By December 16 there were seven web pages up, and on December 19 there were ten, but no emails yet.

On Christmas morning at 3:30 am, I went down stairs and looked at all the presents that were under the tree. Then I remembered the contest. I had picked December 25 at 4:00 am. I ran to the computer and turned it on. I tried to send an email, but it did not work. The clock ticked 4:00 am and I was able to do it. I was so happy I wrote an email to Sarah and said, "Sarah, I won, the email is working!".

As soon as I had sent it, an email had come to me. It said, "Rosy, I won, the Email works!"

I was shocked. I looked at the contest chart and found Sarah's guess, and it said the same as me, so we had tied. That afternoon we gave each other the prizes. I got the laptop, and she got the two books that I had written and that had been published. I also gave her another book as a Christmas present that had just been published. It was called, "Internet Breakdown."

The laptop that I got worked fine and I was finally able to go back to the online book club. Everything changed, less mail, fewer phone calls, not so busy at the library, except the day after the internet shut down, because people were dropping of their books that they had borrowed, and more people on the internet then there had been in a year.

However, we were not as attached to the internet as we were before the internet shut down. Christopher said, "It’ll cure your computer addiction," and it did. We all lived happily ever after until ten years later when the internet shut down again, not for one year, but for two. But that's another story.