Freddie and his two best friends had just left groovy smoothies and were on their way to the mall when his phone rang. Not recognizing the number, Freddie hit the ignore button. A few short minutes later, it chirped again, informing Freddie of a voicemail awaiting his attention. By the time the girls had done a fair amount of shopping, Freddie decided he was bored enough to actually check his voice messages. Most of them were the normal, three from the others in his A/V club, one from Shane confirming a video game night, and seven from his mom, either reminding him of various activities, or reading him the latest health study he needed to know about, one about the benefits of Cod Oil.
Finally reaching the latest voicemail, the contents piqued Freddie's curiosity.
"Yes, my Name is Oscar, and I'm trying to reach Freddie Benson. I was told by my daughter that you know a little about computers, and I need to hire you for some computer work for my wife's computer. She is a lawyer and got a virus on it that won't let her open any of her programs. It says it is an anti-virus but shuts down everything she does. It says everything is a virus!"
Freddie decided it was a good way to make some Christmas money and listened to the rest of the message getting the phone number and address.
A quick explanation to Carly and Sam, and he was on his way, arriving less than twenty minutes later by bus. The trip had taken Freddie into one of the wealthiest areas around Seattle. Houses were spaced apart, with large manicured yards surrounding each one.
The bus dropped Freddie off a short distance from his final location. Walking up to the house, he passed through a set of towering black iron gates with a large cursive P on them. It made him feel like he was walking up to an ancient stone castle, with two stories, but only this castle had plenty of windows. It was all light gray stone and black rot iron metal with tall doors at the entrance, another large P engraved into the dark wood. Freddie pushed what he assumed was the door bell and was rewarded by a man's voice on the other end.
"Hold on! I'll be there in just a second!"
Freddie tried to explain who he was and what he was doing there, but received no reply.
Finally the door opened and a short pudgy-muscular man smiled at him, allowing Freddie to introduce himself and offer a handshake.
"Hi!" He said in a friendly way that put Freddie at ease. "I am so glad you are here, and especially so quickly. My wife is ready to kill me. Come inside."
Freddie readjusted his bag and followed the man inside into a warm inviting interior to a small office nook connected to the kitchen overlooking a garden on the side of the house he hadn't noticed before. Oscar motioned him to a neatly organized desk on his left side. Freddie sat down in front of a green Pear laptop and surveyed the room. Comfortable but not very big, it didn't take him long to realize every piece of technology in the room was a Pear device. The computers, an MP3 player, even a very pink pear phone plugged into a computer directly facing the garden. The older gentleman showed him the problems the computer had, and Freddie got to work. He quickly found and deleted the offending program files creating all the headaches and the problem was solved quickly and easily by his standards.
Proud of his efficient work, he started closing the computer down. As he minimized the window, he thought he saw a picture of someone familiar on his screen. Before he could decide who, it changed to a background picture of Oscar and pretty woman Freddie assumed was his wife, a woman who looked nothing like the girl Freddie thought he knew. Freddie shook off the thought as he closed the lid and left the nook, heading towards the kitchen.
He walked in and leaned on the stone breakfast bar, watching the middle aged man cook.
"You know, your real problem is that your firewall-"
The elder gentleman held up his hand to stop Freddie from speaking any further.
"You sound like some of the guys I work with. It's all DNS this, and blah blah that. I can't understand a word they say." He laughed as he added in another ingredient to the pot in front of him. "I tried calling one of the guys who works for me, and he started talking all sorts of stuff I'd never heard of. Like he's asking what version my OS is. I really didn't have clue as to what he was asking. I'm glad my daughter recommended you. Have a seat; I'll get you a check just as soon as I can pop these awesome tots in the oven."
Freddie sat down on the barstool closest to him. They struck up a quick conversation while dinner was cooked, Freddie allowing himself to sample some of the cooking.
"So, everyone I work with keeps talking about WOW, right? And I, being the genius I am, ask 'Hey my I got that for my daughters for Christmas. Apparently, WOW isn't just a popular music mix CD, but some kind of on line game'"
Freddie laughed, know the reference. Both of his friends had gotten the WOW Cd for Christmas, while several guys from his A/V club were into the video game. Finally, after 20 minutes, Oscar left and came back with a check for Freddie, which he gladly took.
"Is that enough? I never know what to pay when someone comes out to my house to work on something. If it's too much, just call it a tip for now."
Freddie looked at the check he had palmed.
"Oh wow, two hundred, I didn't really do much."
Freddie watched the older man as he refilled his glass of water.
"Hey, Fred, don't worry about it, call it a retainer. If you can fix computers, you're worth your weight in gold to me."
Freddie smiled, imagining the Christmas gifts he would be able to surprise people with.
"Well, really, thank you Mr…"
Freddie realized he hadn't ever gotten his last name. He cheated a glance at the check, his eyes glued to the name on it.
"Thanks Mr. Puckett."