“These are new,”
Jean said, as she looked at the computers.
“Were not there any
computers the last time you were out of the Emerald?” Sandi asked.
She was wondering how long Jean had been in there. 'Long enough for
these computers to be surprise,' she thought.
“They did exist, but
they weren't advanced enough to be used as a cataloguing system in a
High School library.” She looked to be in awe at the advancement of
technology.
“Interesting,”
Sandi stated. She then wondered how they could be easier used. She
decided that voice recognition would be interesting to have: At
least that is what it is called in those shows that Stacy watches,’
she thought. She grabbed the emerald, which was on a necklace that
she was wearing. ‘Good thing that its green matches that of my
eyes.’
“I
wish that the computers in the school will be able to be controlled
by voice, and that they would have the components necessary for that
to work,” she said.
“This
will take a few moments,” Jean said. She closed her eyes and
concentrated as she and the emerald scanned all the computers in the
school. (She had been aware of them earlier after Sandi had wished
for her to be on the enrolment records, but now she needed to
understand them better.)
After
scanning the hardware and the software of every computer in the
school and then understanding all of them, she was ready. She
granted Sandi’s wish. A barely visible ripple emanated out from
Jean and the emerald, carrying the wish granting sound with it. As it
struck each computer in the school it changed them, giving them
microphones, speakers and voice recognition software compatible with
the operating system that the particular computers were running.
Where
there wasn’t enough hard drive space, the wave increased the
capacity of the drive to compensate. All the computers in the school
were affected, from the more recent Pentium II’s running Windows 98
and iMacs running MacOS 8.5, through to the 386’s running Windows
3.11 and Macintosh II’s running System 7.5. Jean also placed some
‘Easter Eggs’ on many of the computers...
“The
wish is granted,” Jean said, once the conversion processes were
complete.
“I
would have thought that it would have been quicker,” Sandi said.
“The
bigger the wish, the longer it takes to be completed,” Jean said.
Sandi gave this some thought. “I suppose so,” she said. She lead
Jean over to the closest of the cataloguing computers.
“Catalogue:
Like, show me the listings for any books containing information on
genie legends,” she said. After a few seconds the database software
returned Sandi’s query. There were 3 books.
“Cool,”
she said. She took out a notepad from her purse and wrote down the
Dewey Decimal numbers that had come up.
“Let’s
go,” she said to Jean as she went towards the first relevant
section of the bookshelves.
However,
Sandi did not know that the School Librarian, Michaela Daniels, had
seen and heard everything after her wish for the computers to be able
to be controlled by voice.
As Sandi
and Jean walked into the midst of the non-fiction section she ran
what happened through her mind. Sandi’s wish, Jean’s response and
gesture, the wish granting noise, the ripple carrying the wish
granting noise, a different noise coming from the computers in the
library as they were altered and Sandi ordering books via voice...
She came to the conclusion that Jean was a genie (though she still
didn’t know her name).
Meanwhile
at the front of the school, Stacy Rowe and Tiffany Blum-Deckler had
arrived. “Whe-ere’s Sand-di?” Tiffany asked after a minute of
looking for her.
“I
don’t know,” Stacy said. ‘Maybe she is late,’ she thought.
Tiffany reached into her handbag and took out her cell
phone.
“Tooo
bad Sand-di doesn’t ha-ave her own Ce-ell Pho-one,” Tiffany said.
“You
could try her house,” Stacy said.
“Oh
Yeaaah,” Tiffany said, as she dialled the Griffin’s home phone
number.
“Hello;
you have reached the Griffin’s Residence, we are not at home now.
Would you please leave a message,” came the recording of
Linda’s voice from the Griffin’s answering machine.
Stacy
looked at Tiffany. “We will wait for Quinn. She will know what to
do,” she said.
“Oh
Yeaaah,” Tiffany said. She placed her cell phone back into her
handbag and took out a mirror. Stacy sighed.
Back in
the library Sandi was talking to Elias Howarth, whom she had dated a
couple of times.
“...Like,
I am looking for a book for class. Mr DeMartino gave me a C on my
last test. My Mom insists that I keep a B average,” Sandi said
after Elias had asked why Sandi was in the library. ‘And most of it
is true,’ Sandi mused. Linda did insist that she had moderately
good grades and Mr DeMartino had given her a C on her last test.
“That
is fine, Sandi. It’s not like you’re a brain, like a certain
Junior I have often run into,” Elias said.
‘While
dating Quinn no doubt,’ Sandi thought.
“Anyway,
who is this new friend?” Elias asked.
“Hi
Elias. I am Jean Jenner. I am on exchange from Britain, staying with
the Griffins. It seems that I have picked up the American accent
well.”
“Interesting.
If you are available at Recess I would like to find out more,”
Elias said.
“Sure,”
Jean said. Elias said goodbye to Sandi and left.
“He is
a little geeky, but, like, his cuteness makes up for that geekiness,”
Sandi said. She then found the first of the books that she was
looking for. She grabbed it from the bookshelf...
Meanwhile
Quinn Morgendorffer had arrived at school. She had walked up to Stacy
and Tiffany and asked; “Where’s Sandi?”
“We-e
Dooon’t knooow,” Tiffany said.
“I
thought that maybe you would know,” Stacy said. Quinn thought for a
few seconds.
“Something
may have come up. I am sure that we’ll see in her in class,” she
said.
“Oh
Yeaaah.”
“That
is a good idea, Quinn,” Stacy said. The three friends then went
into the school.
Michaela
had gone to the CD-ROM reference computer and had started to use the
voice recognition software. Elias noticed her and went over to her.
He was quite sure that even if voice recognition software existed
that the school wouldn’t be able to afford it. “Since when do we
have computers with voice recognition software?” he asked, the
curiosity showing in his voice.
“I am
as confused as you are,” Michaela said.
“Really?”
Elias asked, surprised that the librarian would admit that.
“You
have met Sandi’s new friend?” Michaela asked. Elias nodded in the
affirmative and she continued, “She could be some kind of genie. I
think I heard Sandi wish for the computers to change.” She also
explained Jean’s body language and the strange sounds.
“That
is only a possibility. There could be others,” Elias said. He was
uncertain. A genie could explain at lot of things. “I will
investigate Jean, that is the name that she gave me, and I’ll get
back to you,” he continued.
“That
would be a good idea,” Michaela said. Elias went over to the
Cataloguing computers.
Ted
Dewitt-Clinton was already at the cataloguing computers, looking
something up. Elias could see that Sandi and Jean were out of sight,
somewhere in a distant corner of the library. He decided to tell Ted
the librarian’s suspicions.
“Ted?
Have you seen Sandi Griffin this morning?” he asked.
“Why do
you ask?” Ted asked, curiously.
“She
had this person with her. It wasn’t one of her usual Fashion Club
friends,” Elias said.
“Yes. I
did see her and someone else enter the library earlier,” Ted said.
“Anyway,
Ted, Mrs Daniels thinks that that person is a genie,” Elias said,
hoping that Ted did know what a genie was.
“You
mean a genie like one in the old Arabian tales, or like the more
recent Disneyfied versions? Why would she think that?” Ted mused.
“The
computers in the library can suddenly respond to voice commands,”
Elias said to Ted. Then to the computer “Computer: List all works
by JRR Tolkien.”
Ted gave
Elias a dubious look as he gave his answer but then he looked at the
screen.
AUTHOR
SEARCH: JRR Tolkien
Lord
of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring TOLK 5 copies
Lord
of the Rings: The Two Towers TOLK 5 copies
Lord
of the Rings: The Return of the King TOLK 5 copies
Lord
of the Rings: Omnibus Edition TOLK 4 copies
The
Hobbit TOLK 6 copies
The
Silmarillion TOLK 2 copies
The
Unfinished Tales TOLK 1 copy
“Amazing!”
Ted said, more at the computer having voice recognition software,
rather than the school having multiple copies of most of the Middle
Earth Legendarium, although he appreciated the latter too.
“See?”
Elias asked. He already knew that the library had multiple copies of
LOTR.
“Ok.
Possibly, I will look into it,” Ted said, thinking that there could
be other reasons why the computers suddenly had voice recognition
software.
“Cool.
I will do so as well, but we have to be discrete about it,” Elias
said.
“No
problem there,” Ted said. Then the bell rang. They quickly left the
library, not knowing that Sandi had heard most of their conversation.
“Gee,
Jean, I hope that they will not, like, confirm their suspicions,”
she said.
“You
could have made a subtler wish,” Jean said. Sandi placed the book
she had been reading down next to the cataloguing computer, glancing
at the Tolkien list.
“Maybe,
but now I have lost track of time. Quinn could be turning Stacy and
Tiffany against me,” Sandi said.
“In
fifteen minutes?” Jean asked as they left the library.
“You
don’t know Quinn! Let’s go to homeroom. You did put yourself into
my homeroom didn’t you?” Sandi asked.
“Yes,
of course I did,” Jean said. They went towards the building in
which their homeroom was...
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