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 Phillip. Be sure to check out About Dan here.
Phillip is a computer nerd who suddenly discovers a liking for track. Everything would be fine except for his father.
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 Phillip Home) (Last) (Next)
Phillip Fixes the Computer
Mrs. Hardesty had made her sale and the parrot was ready to go out the door. But she was down on her knees behind the counter with her rump in the aisle. Phillip handed his bucket to Melanie and headed to Mrs. Hardesty’s aid. On his way, he straightened the bag of seed she’d knocked loose earlier.
Mrs. Hardesty spoke into the rat’s nest of cables as she jostled old receipt books and a bag of bird seed a customer had forgotten.
"Oh, hon, can you fix it again? The printer just isn’t working and I need to give this gentleman his receipt." She crawled backwards. There was a wood chip in her hair. "I’m sure the cable came unhooked again," she offered.
Phillip wriggled past her and got on his hands and knees. His skinny arm easily went around the clutter to probe behind the computer. He checked the cables by feel. They were mated properly. Mrs. Hardesty hovered behind him, craning her short neck to see what he was doing. Phillip was in his own world and ignored her. He pushed himself back and faced the screen. Mrs. Hardesty stood on tip-toes to peer over his shoulder.
Phillip whispered as he typed. "Printer icon. Yeah, it isn’t the default printer anymore. The software keeps trying to print to the old printer. Ok, left-click on printer, make it the default again. Let’s see—yeah—into the petstupid software, change printer. Thought so. It took a real idiot to write this. Gotta report the bug someday."
He pushed back from the computer and relinquished the keyboard. "There you go, Mrs. Hardesty," he said, avoiding the customer’s curious stare.
"Thanks, hon!" she gushed. "What would I do without you?"
He fled back to Melanie without replying.
"Why doesn’t she upgrade that old software, anyway?" he said under his breath. " That’s the third time this week it’s hung like that. She has to reboot if I’m not here."
"Why don’t you ask her to order updated software?"
"I don’t know. Never thought of it."
"Have you eaten yet? It’s almost seven o’clock. Should we wait until tomorrow for the budgies?"
"Mom’s saving some dinner for me at home."
"Oh." She looked disappointed. "We’re going to have to do the budgies first thing tomorrow. The store closes in five minutes."
"Uh, yeah. Budgies first thing tomorrow. We better put this stuff away. Guess I can’t avoid facing my dad. I don’t wanna miss my bus. Otherwise Mom’ll have to come get me and that’ll be one more useless trip by a polluting private vehicle when there’s perfectly good public transportation available." He picked up his bucket.
Melanie shook her head and smiled.