Like the first Computer Issues, this is based in reality. In fact, the cover photo is my laptop.


It was an icy, snowy day. The family was tired of being snow-bound. Michelle knew this, she knew tempers were short. Everyone went to their separate electrical corners. She retreated into her "safe place", the world of fan-fiction. She had just finished writing an emotion-packed chapter of her latest thriller when whines of "What's for dinner?" and "I'm hungry!" rang through the house. Heaving a heavy sigh, she sat her laptop on the table in the living room and headed for the kitchen. Spaghetti wasn't hard to fix and everyone liked it. 'That should be safe to fix' she thought.

Once the water was boiling, the sauce was simmering, and the meat was defrosting in the microwave, she returned to her laptop to make sure she had saved her last paragraph. To her abject horror, the screen was a menagerie of the colors of the rainbow…starting in the upper right-hand corner. "What…What happened?" she stuttered. Silence. "What happened to my laptop?" she repeated. Still no answer. She asked a third time. "Who shattered my laptop screen?"

Her son came down the hall from his room. "It wasn't me. I didn't hit it."

Her husband said, "I haven't moved. I told him to stop swinging the bat."

"The BAT?!" she shrieked. "Why would anyone swing a bat in the house? And what parent would sit there…" Realizing that it was hopeless, she picked up the laptop and walked away.

"What about dinner?"

Michelle washed her face and brushed her hair. She pulled on clean socks and grabbed her boots. Clutching her broken computer, she walked out the door and into the stormy night.

"Greetin's lass. What brings ya out on such a horrid night?" The ginger-haired computer guru looked up as she walked through the door of Celtic Computer Repair. "Ach! 'Tis yah agin! Wha' be tha problem, lass? No thee man agin?!" She shook her head no. "Lass, lass…Yah mus' talk ta meh. Wha' be tha problem?"

"Um, you really aren't going to believe this…While I was fixing dinner tonight, my son hit my laptop with a bat." she whispered.

"A BAT?!" he yelled, reaching for the laptop. Opening the electronic device, he shook his head sadly. "There no be much ah can do, lass. Ah can save wha' yeh have on here an' git it on another device fo'yeh."

"Could you?" Michelle's face lit up. Sheamus was amazed by the transformation.

"Come back tomorrow." he waved her out.

The following day, Michelle returned, thankful that the storm was over. Walking into Celtic Computer Repair, she was surprised to see the tall, muscular, pale-skinned, ginger-haired man leaning against the counter as if he was waiting for her. "Ah have yer files, Me-Chelle." he greeted with a smile. She smiled back. "Ah had no idea yeh were an author." Michelle paled as she realized that Sheamus was able to read everything that she had been writing…including the story about a Celtic warrior who rescued her from her monotonous life in which people looked right past her. The story where this pale-skinned, ginger-haired intelligent strong-man valued her and treasured her. The one where they ran off together and had some…acrobatic and intense relations. As she recalled what she had written, her coloring went from pale to bright red. "Ach! Don' be embarrassed!" He handed her a refurbished laptop with a smile. "Ah am honored to inspire such work." Michelle tucked her head and rushed out the door.

Reaching her home, Michelle was shaking as she turned on the laptop. The background was a beautiful Irish scene of rolling hills with a faint Celtic cross overlay. In the header was the message:

Protected by Celtic Curses; Continue to Dream Irish Dreams


In reality, my marvelous husband drove me to a store to get a new laptop and have all files transferred. No Celtic computer guru, no embarrassment...
And the chapter of Behind the Badge was saved before the smashing of the screen - THANK GOODNESS!