At the end of the day Jackie made her way back homer. She let herself in, thankful her mother was not yet home. She raced upstairs and closed the door. She smiled into her miror, and suddenly her reflection began to change. Soon it was Sarah smiling back at her. Jackie grinned a huge grin. "Hi, Sarah."
"Hello, Jackie."
"Can you step out of the mirror?" Jackie moved backward as she slowly did so. "Wow, well," she grabbed her desk chair and set it up across from her own. "Please sit down so we can talk."
Sarah moved to the chair and sat down upon it. "This is a beautiful house," her eyes followed the room and landed on her computer. "Oh..is that a computer over there?"
"Yeah..oh you've heared of one?"
"Well, I've overheard so many people speak of them and this...what is it called..internet? But I've never actually seen one. May I see it?"
"Sure!" Jackie watched as Sarah moved over to the machine and stared at it, looking at every button on the keyboard and every wire.
"This is fascinating, Jackie! Oh, if only Dr. Franklin were here, I do not think he would be able to believe this!"
"You'd be surprised how many things we can do with it now. I mean, I bet you didn't know we can now send messages and letters with electricity!"
"Really? You can, how?!"
Jackie came over to the computer and leaned on it. "Would you like to see?"
"Indeed I do!"
Jackie pulled the desk back to the computer and sat down upon it. Turing it on. She went over to her e-mail and tapped out Inez's e-mail address while Sarah watched intently.
"Amazing!"
"See, what we do now is we have to sign up for what we call an e-mail address. As soon as we get one,l we can make contact with another person with an e-mail address. See, this is Inez's e-mail address. And here is where we type our message. She quickly typed.
Hey, girl, Sarah's here! Can you come over to my house when you get this message so we can all chat?
Jackie.
She then hit 'send on the computer. "See, and now the message is sent, and it's in Inez's computer mailbox, and when Inez turns on her computer, she'll see it."
"Oh so you do not have any written letters anymore?"
"Oh, we still do. Some people don't want to send e-mail messages, some people just fel like writing, and of course we still have taxes to pay to the government."
Sarah nodded. "So you still have letters?
"Yep,. We do." She quickly turned off her computer. "In order to send e-mail, we have to log on to the interbnet, which is connected to phone lines, so we can't leave the computer on for long. That's why some people choose to send long messages through letters."
"Well, that's good," Sarah said. "I would hate for Dr. Franklin's efforts to establish the mail system fade away."
Jackie leaned forward. "We learned about that in school. So, Benjamin Franklin established the mail system, did you get to see him do it?"
Sarah grinned, "We got to help him." Her eyes glazed over at the memory. "I shal never forget that adventure. The British were bribing the postmen of the time to rummage through the mail so important documents concerning the war couldn't be sent. Dr. Franklin had a sack of mail he needed to have delivered. James and I volenteered to help him,.and we carried the mail al the way to New York."
"Wow, I bet that was so exciting."
"It was. Of course, I was still a Loyalist at the time, so my views were a bit biased, as were James's. But all in all it was a huge adventure that was not to be forgotten. But along the way we were almost acciosted by British soldiers."
"Really? Weren't you scared?"
"Terrified. I bet James was as well, but I do not think he would ever admit it."
Jackie laughed. "Men are the same way today, let me tell you." Both women laughed.
"But James was truly a brave person."
"You were as well, Sarah."
"That's exactly what James said to me." She sighed. "Oh, I do miss him, Jackie, but talking about him helps so much."
Jackie smiled. "Tell me some more about him." Just then they were interrupted by the door knocking and a woman's voice calling.
"Jackie? Are you home, honey?"
"It's my Mom," Jackie quickly stood up. "I'll come right back, I promise. Go ahead, you can look around." Jackie ran downstairs, knowing she didn't have to worry, Sarah could only
look, not touch.
