Dave Casler
PO Box 98
Ridgway, Colorado 81432
Young Adult Novels by Dave Casler...
I've been told by publisher after publisher that there's no market for Young Adult novels. I think they're wrong! So I'm putting my novels on-line for you. Forget the publisher! Read to your heart's content--it's free! And, I'd like to hear from you, too! Contact Page.
You're reading About Dan. Be sure to check out About Phillip here.
Dan is a normal kid who loves his soccer. Except everything goes wrong. Everything.
About Series Home
About the About Series
Index to All Chapters
Here are all the chapters, disguised as asterisks. Hover your mouse over an asterisk to see the title of the chapter. Click on the asterisk to go straight to that chapter.
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(About Dan Home) (Last) (Next)
The Recalcitrant Modem
Fall is the prettiest season in Boulder. The air is dry and clear; cool nights and mornings alternate with warm afternoons. Aspens turn yellow first at high elevations, then the yellow slowly sweeps down the mountainsides like a skier in slow motion. Closer into town are the cottonwoods: huge yellow giants against cobalt skies.
The nights are colder and the afternoons give way to sweaters and finally jackets. Storms linger for a day or two at a time. Rain turns to snow. If Coloradans are lucky, the first snowfall is in mid-September, setting the leaves for a spectacular fall. If not, the first snowfall waits until October or even November. The leaves are gone by then.
A snowy mid-October evening found Peter at Dan's house. Spread before them was Dan's computer. The banged-up cover was on the floor. The motherboard lay on its side with the desk lamp illuminating its innards; the light was as bright as a surgical lamp and as sterile. Various instruction manuals were strewn about, all useless.
"Yes, I've tried that," said Dan into the portable phone. "Look, I've tried everything in the manual. I've tried everything in the help file. The stupid thing just doesn't work." It was designed by stupid people, that’s why!
Peter tried to get his attention, but Dan was gesturing rudely at the tech support people.
"Yes, I’m quite certain it's a live phone connection. Yes, I know the modem works because it works fine in my mother's computer. Yes, I've installed the driver. Five times now! Yes, I've tried your diagnostics. Look, I just want the thing to work!" Idiots!
More listening.
"No, it's an older computer. Look, it's all I got and I can't afford a new one. All I want to do is e-mail and play some two-player games. Listen, why is this so stinking hard?" Totally idiots!
Another pause.
"I'm not shouting!" he shouted. "I'm being perfectly reasonable. But I'm sick of your lousy support. This is the fifth entire evening I've spent trying to make your lousy modem work. Why can't this be simple? Your manual says it's simple." Useless idiots!
Pause.
"What do you mean you don’t support it anymore? Look, if I could afford broadband I wouldn't be talking to you, would I? You are utterly useless!" Stupid, incompetent idiots!
Swearing so loudly that Peter jumped, Dan hammered the "off" key and threw himself on the bed.
"Those guys are idiots!" he yelled at the ceiling. "It took them half an hour to answer the phone and then some jerk tells us to do all the same things we did before."
He sat up, his bad leg unnoticed in front of him. Not paying attention to his leg cost him; he jumped up and immediately fell. He swore again, picked up his crutches, swore once more, then jerked his way back to the desk. Peter was wiggling the card yet again. They'd tried every card slot, they'd reinstalled the software and rebooted endless times.
They were at the end of the line.
"Dan, my son, take a chill break." Peter picked up a manual from the chair Dan had been on before; he threw it across the room. "Sit." Dan sat so heavily the chair creaked.
They both stared at the computer. Two minutes went by. Peter spoke first.