The Blue Light

Experimenting with random topics... Computers was the first one.

            The room would have been pitch black had it not been illuminated by a beaming light coming from the computer’s monitor. On it was a document of coded information that would seem like gibberish to most people. It was an alternate universe of seemingly random things. On a small table to the left of the computer desk was a container of fruits, a bottle of whipped cream and chocolate syrup. The walls were covered in newspaper clippings of technological breakthroughs; there were also a few posters of metal bands. In a corner sat a large chest that held a number of computer parts. Other parts could be found spewing out of the cupboards above the closet while some peeked from underneath the bed. Almost as if he were an inanimate thing, Malcolm perched on the edge of his chair that was forever fixated in front of the screen. His room was referred to, by his friends, as the computer graveyard; and, Malcolm was its eerie gate keeper.

No one except Malcolm knew the true colour of the walls in that room. The lights were always off and the curtains drawn during the days. The only thing that constantly provided light was the computer screen; and, on occasion, a few glow sticks while he moved to the hypnotic beats of techno pumping from the stereo. Malcolm spent many hours sitting at that desk whether it had been for school and assignments or for leisure. Many people came to him for any help they needed with electronic devices especially when their PC crashed. Most of his friends visited him to play games and watch Anime. On occasion there were movie gatherings where everyone found their own spot on his queen sized bed and glued their eyes to the bootleg DVD. Even when his girlfriend Jesse came over she was greeted by the blue light emitted from the screen. They had countless conversations about music; they watched videos on the internet; and, even had sex to the rhythms and rhymes of Thievery Cooperation which he played from his computer.

When she called him at nights he was either surfing the internet or playing a game or watching a video. He was always doing something with the computer and it started to get to Jesse. When they had just met he told her how much of a freak he was when it came on to computers. She could tell from the very beginning that Malcolm was very engulfed in the machine; but, she also thought that he was a genius for knowing as much as he did. It was admirable the way he spoke about computers and all other things that related to it. However, it started to get strange when he spoke of his own computer in ways she never heard other people speak of theirs. Malcolm named his computer Princess Carina which was shortened to PC. At first Jesse thought it was ridiculous that he gave it a name but when she began to notice other things she became worried.

It was after school one day. Jesse left her art studio class hoping to be consoled because she had just been ripped to shreds in a critique. She called Malcolm.

“Where are you?” she asked.

“I’m at my faculty building. Sounds like there’s a problem.” He replied.

She proceeded to explain the day’s events over the phone but the call was cut off. Jesse decided to meet him up instead. When she got to where Malcolm was he was frantically texting someone or rather, something. She asked him what had happened with the phone call and he answered that Princess Carina had ended his call.

“Princess Carina?” she questioned.

“Yes,” he said while still texting. “I’m telling her not to do it again.”

Jesse was obviously lost but waited until he wasn’t texting this strange character called Princess Carina before she questioned him some more. He explained that Princess Carina was in fact his computer and he had programmed his devices to work in tune with her. She could control anything that he had connected to her. Apparently the PC cut off his cell phone call. Jesse couldn’t believe what he was telling her. Even in the fact that it sounded ridiculous she couldn’t actually laugh. She was so confused and worried about Malcolm that she refused to listen to him talk about the computer the way he did. They began to argue about Princess Carina, or PC, more and more. He was already very obsessed with computers. Malcolm was your atypical techie on the outside but in his mind he was becoming more than eccentric. He was becoming alien to Jesse and more and more engulfed in PC.

Fed up with the fact that things were deteriorating, Jesse made the decision to surprise Malcolm one night at home. They hadn’t been speaking for a few weeks because more and more his calls were being cut off. And, just about every time that she said she was coming over he came up with a nervous and illogical response to keep her away. She was no longer worried but rather pushed to the brim with anger over the fact that her boyfriend was caught up in a computer. It was weird and for her it was completely unacceptable. She figured that possibly by going unannounced to Malcolm’s house she would be able to talk him out of this strange behaviour she noticed in him.

When Jesse arrived at his house, Malcolm’s mother didn’t alert him. His parents were used to seeing her and sent her upstairs happily. She got to the door and hesitated. Do I knock or do I just barge in? She thought to herself. Before she could release the next breath her mind had been made up. Jesse turned the knob swiftly and swung the door open. Malcolm, who was startled out of his mind, stood up from the computer desk. The swivel chair rolled away and spun like a disoriented dog that had been chasing his tail. Malcolm and Jesse’s eyes peeled out of their heads. She gasped as she absorbed the horrid sight. His hands were covering his penis and from them dripped a sticky dark liquid. It was chocolate syrup. His pants were at his ankles. He was sweating profusely. Jesse suddenly felt sick.

“What are you doing?” she managed to say.

“I – I’m sorry! I have something to tell you!” cried Malcolm.

Everything became a blur once he started speaking. He explained something about lying to her about Princess Carina and the phone calls. It was him who hung up the phone but used PC as the excuse. He had come to see so many things in her that he had not seen in Jesse. She stood there staring at his lips and tried to grasp what he was saying but to no avail. It was more than difficult to listen to someone giving her a sorry excuse for ignoring her. She saw the syrup dripping off Malcolm and looked over at the computer to see that the monitor was covered in whipped cream. There was a small container with fruits inside, some of which were half eaten. Occasionally he forgot that he was covering himself up and went into gesticulating before realizing that his chocolate flavoured penis was out in the open.

It became apparent to her that Malcolm’s alternate world was the only world he felt most comfortable in. He was so caught up in PC that everything he was saying to Jesse seemed okay. She was now glad to say that she wasn’t ever apart of his bizarre alternate universe. It was hard for her to understand how someone could possibly kill a relationship the way he did. Malcolm not only avoided Jesse because of a secret relationship; but, it was for a secret relationship with a computer! Had she not seen the madness in all of this she would have taken it much harder than she did. Without thinking, her legs picked up and she ran as fast as she could as far away from that place as she could go. With all the pictures in her head everything became a blur. When she finally stopped running the only image left in her mind was Princess Carina’s piercing blue light coming from the darkness of Malcolm’s room.