The Fairy Godmother Part 40

“The war wont progress if we stay holed up here,” Tom snapped as the last of the wounded disappeared through the door and it closed behind them. I was half expecting the door to vanish, but it stayed there. Once seen it was not erased.

“What war, this is a game and we need to get out of it,” I said. “As far as I can see, we gain nothing by pushing the enemy back or even by engaging with them, all we do is loose more people.”

“Put that way,” Tom sighed, looking round to one of his men. “Get everyone in here.”

“Yes Sir,” he replied, leaping to attention and dashing out to carry out his order.

“It just goes against the grain,” he muttered.

“Sometimes you have to look at the bigger picture,” I said.

“But,” he muttered and then stopped and shook his head.

“This is the nearest I can think of to putting this on pause, whilst we work out a way of getting out of here,” I said.

“I could put it on pause, if you like,” said Ethel looking up from her laptop.

“Do so,” I said and suddenly it was as if everyone but Ethel and I were greyed out.

“Right,” I said. “Can you end the game?”

“I can,” said Ethel.

“But?” I asked. “There sounded like there was a great big but in there.”

“If I do, all those who have died will stay dead and all the injured, those who have lost limbs and stuff,” Ethel paused.

“They will stay injured?” I asked.

“You’ve got it,” she smiled.

“So what do you suggest?” I asked.

“If we complete the game and win, then all our people will return in a triumphant march at the end,” she replied.

“So what do we do to win?” I asked.

“We have to capture their HQ, or their leader who is in it,” she said.

“Sounds simple,” I said.

“It is guarded by elite troops, thousands of them, and they are all heavily armoured,” said Ethel.

“They are on hold, as well as our lot?” I asked.

“Yes, of course,” she said. “How does that help.”

“They wont be able to do anything to stop us,” I replied.

“No,” said Ethel.

“If we capture their person in command, then we’ve won?” I asked.

“Yes,” she said, suddenly realising what I was getting at.

“We bring them back here, they sign the surrender, game over,” I said.

“Yes,” said Ethel.

“So, lets get on with it,” I said waving my wand.

Two minutes later, I had Tom and the leader of the enemy in the office, signing a peace treaty. After I’d explained it all to her, she didn’t see much point in continuing the war, because it wasn’t a war, just a computer game. The ink wasn’t even dry on the paper when there was a march past of all the people involved, we watched as they walked on past us to their homes, the office faded out and we were in the library in Tom’s home.

“Is everyone out of the game?” I asked Ethel.

“Everyone,” she smiled.

“Can you close it safely?” I asked.

“Yes,” she smiled.

“Now delete it,” I added.

“With pleasure,” she said, pressing the DELETE key.

“Is it all over?” asked Tom.

“Good question,” I replied.

“This has taken things back to before you meddled with the program,” said Ethel.

“So, no one will remember what happened in it?” Tom asked.

“Do you want them to?” I asked.

“No, I wouldn’t wish those memories on my worst enemy,” he said, sitting down heavily.

“That’s OK then,” said Ethel.

“I can remember,” he said. “Well, most of it.”

“It will fade, like a bad dream,” Ethel explained.

“And the others?” he asked.

“Some will have already forgotten, others may take slightly longer, but they will all forget,” said Ethel.

“So, do you promise not to meddle with things that you don’t understand?” I asked.

“Yes,” he said.

“But?” I asked.

“The lad’s, they just sit there all day on that blessed computer, it’s a wonderful day and they are missing it,” he said looking out of the window.

“It is a shame to miss it,” I said, waving my wand.

“What have you done?” asked Ethel.

“Dad the broadband’s down,” came a voice from upstairs.

“What happened?” Tom asked.

“I don’t know,” said young Tom.

“The game crashed, then disappeared and after that the broadband went down,” said young Tom’s friend walking into the room behind him. His phone made some strange noises and he looked at it. “Seems there is a major broadband outing and we are in the centre of it. It’ll take them ages to fix it!”

“Now what are we going to do?” said young Tom throwing himself down on the nearest chair.

“Well, I was just going to go to the boat house to check up on the yacht , would you like to come down with me?” Tom suggested.

“Could we go out on the lake?” young Tom asked eagerly.

“I couldn’t think of anything better to do,” said Tom.

“I think we’ve finished here,” I said to Ethel waving my wand and taking us back to the office.

“Is this what it’s like?” asked Ethel as Tom’s library slowly changed into the office of the Head of the Fairy Godmothers. I was surprised at the similarities, of the two rooms, though Tom’s library had a better view and fewer books.

“It can be,” I smiled.

“Glad to see you took my instructions seriously,” Enid said looking up from her desk and whatever it was she was reading.

“I want to see a report from each of you, on this desk first thing tomorrow morning,” she said. “And don’t write it together, I will know if you have done that.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” I replied.

“Neither would I,” said Ethel. “It would be like cheating in an exam.”

“Exactly,” said Enid.

“And it wouldn’t give you a full picture of what happened,” Ethel added. “Because we would be taking it from one perspective, rather than two, not that there aren’t more than two perspectives on any situation. I suppose there is one for each person there, it might be an idea to go back and ask a few of the people involved how they feel about it.”

“Go over there and get to work,” Enid told Ethel, pointing to a small desk on the far side of the room. “You can go back to your dormitory room and work there,” she said walking me to the door. “What have you done to her?” she hissed. “She’s said more in the last two minutes than she did in the whole of last year.”

“You were right, she needed to get out more,” I smiled. “See something other than a computer monitor.”

By Janice Nye © 2020