Carol for Another Christmas Read Free Page B

permanently.”
    Once he told her he used to own all the buildings and computers and was the boss, she figured it was okay to be on the computer as long as he was with her. She couldn’t do much standing up, so she stacked books on the seat so she could reach the keyboard sitting, and piled books up to support her feet, and continued the conversation.
    The computer guy wasn’t always friendly and nice. He got mad when she couldn’t keep up with him, but when she was gone, on Grandpa’s days off, he really seemed to miss her, and when she came back, he was much nicer and more patient and explained more things. He told her that what they were doing was a kind of present, and whom it was for, and about when he had been a little boy. He even answered some of her questions without making her feel dumb.
    After a while, the two of them got to be real friends.
    Every night that she came to work with Grandpa, her new friend would have lots of work for them to do together. So much that she began sleeping days, too, and she wasn’t as lonesome anymore.
    The night before Christmas Eve, they worked all night. She recognized some words, but they weren’t in any kind of sensible order. Her friend told her, when she asked, that they were in something called code , which was what computer programs were written in.
    â€œIs that what this is?” she asked. “A program?”
    â€œNot exactly. It’s sort of an override.”
    â€œWhy?”
    â€œBecause it’s the most important thing that will ever play on any of these machines.”
    â€œWow! What is it, really?”
    â€œTina, do you know what a medium is?”
    â€œYou mean like a person who sees ghosts, not like what comes between small and large?”
    â€œRight, but the person doesn’t see the ghost; the ghost comes through the person. Well, this program we built is a little like that.”
    â€œSounds kind of scary,” she answered, and she was glad, as she sat alone in the dark room with just her friend’s letters glowing green on the screen, that the sound of Grandpa’s vacuum cleaner was coming from the next office.
    â€œDon’t be silly, Tina. The ghosts the Program Manager sends are to help people, not to scare them.”
    â€œHelp them? Is the Program Manager like . . . Are these ghosts really angels?” Wouldn’t that be a great Christmas to have made an angel on one of the computers! Maybe it would unfurl its big, white, floaty, feathery wings right there on the screen and fly out and hand her a kitty and fix her heart and legs while it was at it. I don’t think so, she said to herself, but her friend was typing back.
    â€œNot exactly, not all of them, not yet anyway, but—you ask too many questions. Back to work.”
    They wrote lots more stuff she didn’t understand except in little bits.
    â€œThere,” her friend said. “Now nothing else can play while this is running. We’ve set it up with the past, present, and future segments and customized buttons. We’re ready to run it. Excited?”
    â€œYeah.”
    â€œOkay, then, type the password and let it run!”
    â€œI’ve got to go home soon, and I won’t be back tomorrow because it’s Christmas and Grandpa doesn’t come to work. I gotta turn off the computer so Grandpa’s boss won’t think I was here.”
    â€œDoesn’t matter. Once it starts, it will run on all the other computers. Go!”
    She took a deep, rattling breath and typed, “Humbug.” Christmas music began to play and pictures flickered by on the screen too fast for her to tell what they were.
    Then, out in the hall, Grandpa started singing “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer,” which was their signal for her to hide. She hated to turn that computer off worse than she could remember hating anything, but she did, and then she curled up under the desk. “I forgot!” she said,