Chapter Three: Testing
"Weird...these weren't here before," Nathan said as he crouched down and picked them up. He straightened up and then held the items flat on his hands so the others could see. "I've never seen anything like this before. I wonder what they do?"
"They look kind of like toys to me," Cameron said. Then he took one out of Nathan's hands to get a better look at it. It was a small rectangular gadget that looked to be made out of plastic. There were several buttons on the front, and the whole thing was white except for what felt like handgrips on each side colored in red. He looked at the one – because now Marissa held one too – that Nathan had in his hand, and saw that the grips were dark gray on his. What looked like a screen was placed in the middle, but at the moment it was blank. A small antenna jutted out from one side of the item. It looked to be pocket sized overall, and was fairly lightweight. Aloud, he said, "You guys have any idea of what these things do yet?"
"Not me," Nathan said.
"Hey, maybe they're one of those portable video games!" Marissa suggested brightly.
"I thought of that too, but I don't see anywhere to put a game, not even a CD," Cameron noted. "So how could you play anything on it?"
"My thoughts exactly," said Nathan. "So, what else could it be?"
"Why don't we try making the screens come on? Then it'll probably give us a clue."
Marissa's idea was as good as any, so they tried it. They pressed variations of buttons, tried touching the screen, looked for a power switch, and even shook them, but to no avail. "What are these things supposed to do, then?" Marissa demanded, rather frustrated by now.
"I haven't a clue," Nathan replied. He turned the object in his hand and randomly pressed the buttons. All of a sudden, his screen flared to life. "Hey!" he said in surprise. Cameron and Marissa looked over at him and then crowded around to see what had happened. "Well, whatever I did, it worked!" he said, pleased.
"What'd you do?" Cameron asked.
"I just turned it like this, and pressed the buttons." Nathan demonstrated. The other two followed suit, but with no success. "Why don't you try it standing where I was?"
"Might as well," Cameron said. Nathan moved, and Cameron stood where he did and pressed the buttons. Everyone jumped as his screen came to life as well. "All right!" he said, interested again. "Now let's see what this thing will do!"
"Hey, wait! I want to get mine on too," Marissa added. As she went to move into Nathan's spot and Cameron stepped out of the way, her object slid in her hand. She quickly grabbed at it, and Cameron noticed that it had blue grips, even as it lit up. "Mine wasn't facing the same spot as yours, but it still came on. I guess I hit the buttons when I caught it..."
Nathan looked thoughtful. "Then it must be something besides where it's pointed." He looked around the room, trying to get an idea of what could cause the items to work. Then it hit him, and his eyes lit up almost as bright as the screens. "The computers!"
"Huh?" said Cameron and Marissa in unison.
"It's the computers!" he repeated. "It's not the spot at all. I had my antenna pointing towards the computer when I pushed the buttons on my device, and it turned on. When yours turned on, 'Rissa, you had rotated it in your hand, so it faced the other way. But there are computers all behind us, too. That must be what does it!"
"If you say so, Nathan, I believe you," Marissa replied. Then she happened to look up at the clock. "Oh man!" she exclaimed all of a sudden.
"What's up?" Cameron replied.
"I have to be home in five minutes! I gotta go right now!" She practically ran out of the room as she said, "I'll talk to you guys later. See you at lunch tomorrow or something, right? Bye!" With that, she hurried out of the door and was gone.
Cameron laughed. "And she talks about me being late all the time!"
Nathan grinned. "Yeah, tell me about it. Anyways, I'd better get going too. My folks will think I had to stay after with a teacher again for a lecture about 'working up to the best of my ability' and all that kind of stuff."
"All right, then," Cameron said. "See ya tomorrow."
"Bye."
Just before Cameron left, he happened to look around the room. *I wonder what it was that made the monitor act like that... And where'd those other things go?* He looked around again, but he was alone in the room. *I guess 'Rissa and Nate took the other ones with them. Hey, we found them, so we can keep them, right?* With no one around to answer his question, he put the item in his pocket, turned, and left the room.
It was later on, after he had been home for a few hours, before Cameron remembered the object he had found. The reason it came to mind was that his attention had been caught by something in his jeans. Whatever it was, it was poking him in his leg, and it had become very annoying. He paused his game of Dragon Knight and reached in his pocket to remove the offending thing. When he saw what it was, however, instead of tossing it across the room as he did with other things that interrupted his gaming, he put it down on the bed next to him. * I'll look at it later, * he told himself.
Several hours later, he happened to hear a strange beeping coming from somewhere in his room. * Did I leave the cordless off the hook again? * He stood up and began to look around for it: under the bed, beneath the pillows, on the floor under his dirty clothes – until he realized that the phone had been on the charger all day, so the batteries couldn't be low. With a frown, he sat back down and resumed scanning over his reading assignment. The beeping continued, driving him slowly crazy, until he finally jumped back up and looked around again. Finally, his eyes saw it – the strange little object with the red sides, its screen glowing and a soft but high pitched beeping coming from it.
He snatched it up and looked closely at the screen. He blinked, rubbed it off with his shirt, and then looked a second time. Although it hadn't been there before – since it hadn't been on before, at that – he had to figure that there was some reason for him to see text appearing across the screen...well, besides the possibility that he was hallucinating, that is. "Umm..." Carefully, he began reading the words aloud as they materialized.
"Hey, this is Nathan, just so you know. I just figured out something that these things do. Earlier, I was messing around with this thing when a little tiny pen fell out of it. It looked rather like a light pen. Well, guess what? When I write on the screen, it puts the words up – kind of like a Palm Pilot, you know? Anyway, while I was trying that out, I saw a flashing icon, so I touched it with the pen. It's the one shaped like these things we found, only the antenna has curved sound wave lines coming from it. I got the idea that maybe this is a communications device. But is it doing anything? If anything does happen, push the icon and write something so I know!"
Intrigued, Cameron looked all around for the little pen that Nathan had mentioned in his message. With quite a bit of trial and error, he found it, partially because he dropped it on the floor and the pen popped out. Ignoring the fact that he hadn't really dropped it accidentally, he picked up both things and began writing. "Nate! This is Cameron. How'd you figure out that writing on this thing works? Oh yeah, and you'll know I wrote you, because these things beep like crazy when you do. Talk to ya later."
A second or two later, the thing resumed beeping, so he looked around for something to stop it. After pressing a few icons on the screen and the buttons on the sides, he realized that pushing the icon Nathan mentioned let him see if there was anything for him to read. Instead of it being Nathan like he expected, however, the new message read like this. "Cam, Nate, this is so cool! Can you imagine how useful something like this could be on test days? :) I wonder what else these things can do? You know, we should experiment with them sometime. Let's make a date for next week! ...Well, not a date-date, but you guys know what I mean!"
For the rest of the night, the three of them sent notes back and forth like that, talking to each other as they bounced ideas around of what the full functions of the items they had found really had. They finally agreed to Marissa's idea of meeting up after school to tinker with the objects – now that they knew how to turn them on and they knew the things did something, of course.
"Weird...these weren't here before," Nathan said as he crouched down and picked them up. He straightened up and then held the items flat on his hands so the others could see. "I've never seen anything like this before. I wonder what they do?"
"They look kind of like toys to me," Cameron said. Then he took one out of Nathan's hands to get a better look at it. It was a small rectangular gadget that looked to be made out of plastic. There were several buttons on the front, and the whole thing was white except for what felt like handgrips on each side colored in red. He looked at the one – because now Marissa held one too – that Nathan had in his hand, and saw that the grips were dark gray on his. What looked like a screen was placed in the middle, but at the moment it was blank. A small antenna jutted out from one side of the item. It looked to be pocket sized overall, and was fairly lightweight. Aloud, he said, "You guys have any idea of what these things do yet?"
"Not me," Nathan said.
"Hey, maybe they're one of those portable video games!" Marissa suggested brightly.
"I thought of that too, but I don't see anywhere to put a game, not even a CD," Cameron noted. "So how could you play anything on it?"
"My thoughts exactly," said Nathan. "So, what else could it be?"
"Why don't we try making the screens come on? Then it'll probably give us a clue."
Marissa's idea was as good as any, so they tried it. They pressed variations of buttons, tried touching the screen, looked for a power switch, and even shook them, but to no avail. "What are these things supposed to do, then?" Marissa demanded, rather frustrated by now.
"I haven't a clue," Nathan replied. He turned the object in his hand and randomly pressed the buttons. All of a sudden, his screen flared to life. "Hey!" he said in surprise. Cameron and Marissa looked over at him and then crowded around to see what had happened. "Well, whatever I did, it worked!" he said, pleased.
"What'd you do?" Cameron asked.
"I just turned it like this, and pressed the buttons." Nathan demonstrated. The other two followed suit, but with no success. "Why don't you try it standing where I was?"
"Might as well," Cameron said. Nathan moved, and Cameron stood where he did and pressed the buttons. Everyone jumped as his screen came to life as well. "All right!" he said, interested again. "Now let's see what this thing will do!"
"Hey, wait! I want to get mine on too," Marissa added. As she went to move into Nathan's spot and Cameron stepped out of the way, her object slid in her hand. She quickly grabbed at it, and Cameron noticed that it had blue grips, even as it lit up. "Mine wasn't facing the same spot as yours, but it still came on. I guess I hit the buttons when I caught it..."
Nathan looked thoughtful. "Then it must be something besides where it's pointed." He looked around the room, trying to get an idea of what could cause the items to work. Then it hit him, and his eyes lit up almost as bright as the screens. "The computers!"
"Huh?" said Cameron and Marissa in unison.
"It's the computers!" he repeated. "It's not the spot at all. I had my antenna pointing towards the computer when I pushed the buttons on my device, and it turned on. When yours turned on, 'Rissa, you had rotated it in your hand, so it faced the other way. But there are computers all behind us, too. That must be what does it!"
"If you say so, Nathan, I believe you," Marissa replied. Then she happened to look up at the clock. "Oh man!" she exclaimed all of a sudden.
"What's up?" Cameron replied.
"I have to be home in five minutes! I gotta go right now!" She practically ran out of the room as she said, "I'll talk to you guys later. See you at lunch tomorrow or something, right? Bye!" With that, she hurried out of the door and was gone.
Cameron laughed. "And she talks about me being late all the time!"
Nathan grinned. "Yeah, tell me about it. Anyways, I'd better get going too. My folks will think I had to stay after with a teacher again for a lecture about 'working up to the best of my ability' and all that kind of stuff."
"All right, then," Cameron said. "See ya tomorrow."
"Bye."
Just before Cameron left, he happened to look around the room. *I wonder what it was that made the monitor act like that... And where'd those other things go?* He looked around again, but he was alone in the room. *I guess 'Rissa and Nate took the other ones with them. Hey, we found them, so we can keep them, right?* With no one around to answer his question, he put the item in his pocket, turned, and left the room.
It was later on, after he had been home for a few hours, before Cameron remembered the object he had found. The reason it came to mind was that his attention had been caught by something in his jeans. Whatever it was, it was poking him in his leg, and it had become very annoying. He paused his game of Dragon Knight and reached in his pocket to remove the offending thing. When he saw what it was, however, instead of tossing it across the room as he did with other things that interrupted his gaming, he put it down on the bed next to him. * I'll look at it later, * he told himself.
Several hours later, he happened to hear a strange beeping coming from somewhere in his room. * Did I leave the cordless off the hook again? * He stood up and began to look around for it: under the bed, beneath the pillows, on the floor under his dirty clothes – until he realized that the phone had been on the charger all day, so the batteries couldn't be low. With a frown, he sat back down and resumed scanning over his reading assignment. The beeping continued, driving him slowly crazy, until he finally jumped back up and looked around again. Finally, his eyes saw it – the strange little object with the red sides, its screen glowing and a soft but high pitched beeping coming from it.
He snatched it up and looked closely at the screen. He blinked, rubbed it off with his shirt, and then looked a second time. Although it hadn't been there before – since it hadn't been on before, at that – he had to figure that there was some reason for him to see text appearing across the screen...well, besides the possibility that he was hallucinating, that is. "Umm..." Carefully, he began reading the words aloud as they materialized.
"Hey, this is Nathan, just so you know. I just figured out something that these things do. Earlier, I was messing around with this thing when a little tiny pen fell out of it. It looked rather like a light pen. Well, guess what? When I write on the screen, it puts the words up – kind of like a Palm Pilot, you know? Anyway, while I was trying that out, I saw a flashing icon, so I touched it with the pen. It's the one shaped like these things we found, only the antenna has curved sound wave lines coming from it. I got the idea that maybe this is a communications device. But is it doing anything? If anything does happen, push the icon and write something so I know!"
Intrigued, Cameron looked all around for the little pen that Nathan had mentioned in his message. With quite a bit of trial and error, he found it, partially because he dropped it on the floor and the pen popped out. Ignoring the fact that he hadn't really dropped it accidentally, he picked up both things and began writing. "Nate! This is Cameron. How'd you figure out that writing on this thing works? Oh yeah, and you'll know I wrote you, because these things beep like crazy when you do. Talk to ya later."
A second or two later, the thing resumed beeping, so he looked around for something to stop it. After pressing a few icons on the screen and the buttons on the sides, he realized that pushing the icon Nathan mentioned let him see if there was anything for him to read. Instead of it being Nathan like he expected, however, the new message read like this. "Cam, Nate, this is so cool! Can you imagine how useful something like this could be on test days? :) I wonder what else these things can do? You know, we should experiment with them sometime. Let's make a date for next week! ...Well, not a date-date, but you guys know what I mean!"
For the rest of the night, the three of them sent notes back and forth like that, talking to each other as they bounced ideas around of what the full functions of the items they had found really had. They finally agreed to Marissa's idea of meeting up after school to tinker with the objects – now that they knew how to turn them on and they knew the things did something, of course.