“Upstairs? Sounds serious. What is it, dear?”

“Darling, it’s about the customers.”

“The customers? Did they do something in school today? I swear, if I have to pay for one more dead hamster, I’m gonna take my belt and-”

“No, darling, no, nothing like that. They’re just… well, they’re getting to that age.”

“I’m getting the picture. You want us to do a writeup explaining where babies come from.”

“What? No! The customers are just asking for a Kindle!”

“A Kindle? Wow. That’s a big responsibility. You have to walk it, and clean up after it, and make sure it’s fed… I don’t know if someone like our customers could handle a Kindle. Some of them don’t even read our writeups every day.”

“I know, dear. But when you look in their sad faces… oh, it breaks my heart to say no!”

“You want me to get my belt?”

“No! Well… No! But there has to be a solution!”

“I think there is, darling. When I was a young customer, I also wanted a Kindle. It was new, and flashy, and all the rage. I thought it would make me look cool. But instead, my parents got me an Asus EeePC 900 Netbook.”

“An Asus EeePC 900 Netbook? What a great idea! It’s so small, and cute! Just like a Kindle, but better!”

“It does a lot more, too! With 4 gigs of storage, there’s plenty of room for music and books, and video too. Plus you can do things like email and programming and surfing the web. Here, take a look at this old photo of me with my Asus EeePC 900 Netbook.”

“This is a photo of your belt.”

“Oh, sorry. Try this one.”

“Aw. It’s such a cute little 8.9 inch display. Is that Galaxy Black?”

“Yeah. I wanted Pearl White, but when I saw that Asus EeePC 900 Netbook, it was love at first sight. Did you know it runs Linux? And has 512 megs of DDR2 Memory?”

“HD Audio and built-in speakers too! And it’s got a rapid start-up time as well as 802.11b/g WiFi that automatically connects… oh, dear!”

“Well, well. Someone’s been doing a little homework!”

“Oh… I suppose I have been. Maybe I kind of want an Asus EeePC 900 Netbook around the house as well. My parents never let me have one as a girl. I always dreamed of dressing up the built-in card reader and having a tea party. It’s silly, I know…”

“Guess that’s the majority vote, then.”

“Oh, darling… you mean…”

“Tell you what, honey, let’s inform the customers at Midnight, Central time. We’ll tell them they’re getting an Asus EeePC 900 Netbook. And if they can prove themselves, maybe they’ll get a Kindle in a few years, when the prices come down.”

“You’re thinking they’ll forget about it by then?”

“I’m sure they will. And if they don’t, there’s always the belt.”

“I love you, honey.”

“More than the Asus EeePC 900 Netbook, I hope!”

“Hmmm. maybe just a little more. NO, NOT THE BELT! A LOT MORE! A LOT MORE! Oh, you were just joking. I love you so much.”

Back to top