Computer Dragons
There I was, sitting in front of my computer, waiting for the wretched machine to create a new executable. Okay. I should have warned you. I’m a computer geek; I make a living crunching out undecipherable lines of code watching little lines of gibberish-style text stream across my screen, which results in a tiny message prompting me to test the software I have created.
In any case, that machine was drudging along slower than ever. My eyes burned as I watched the same line of gibberish freeze on my screen for five minutes. I rubbed my eyes and yawned. That’s when I jumped.
Something had flashed across my screen. I examined the windows on the monitor; the text had not budged a millimeter. I saw it again. It darted from the right side to the left. It flew to the bottom. It flew to the top, then the right, then left, and down again until, finally, it stopped.
I leaned closer to see what lay on top of the window. It jumped and disappeared. I shook my head of this vision and looked again. Ah! Movement of text on my monitor. The computer finally was checking out the next file.
I waited and waited. Just like before, a sudden dash of red, gold, blue, and green flashed past my eyes, darting all over the screen. I breathed slowly to keep my calm. I moved my windows down to the bottom of the screen; I wanted them out of the way. Whatever flew past never went in front of the windows, only behind.
With the windows out of the way, I could just make it out. It was so small, so delicate. It weaved around in a space no more than one inch by one inch, happy just to be there. Every one of its miniscule scales shone independently.
Then it stopped moving. Just stopped. I stared, bewildered by such a beautiful sight.
Before I knew what was happening, this beautiful creature leapt out of the monitor towards me, landing on top of my head. Immediately, I felt covered with warmth, the type that reminded me of sitting beside a wood stove in the dead of winter. I felt it climb down me, spiralling around me as it were trying to grasp the type of creature I am. It slithered so smoothly, I didn’t feel its tiny, microscopic claws; I didn’t feel the hint of a tickle It spiralled downwards in a silent slither.
I watched it go down to my ankle. It stopped there and looked up at me. I couldn’t help but smile at the magnificent creature. A small light twinkled up to me and then it vanished, just like that.
I got up from my chair. I looked all over the floor, under my desk, in the garbage can. I looked on my monitor, moving the windows willy-nilly, here and there. It was gone.
I couldn’t help but feel that somehow I was responsible for scaring off the dragon from my screen. But then, it sure was brave coming so close to me. I couldn’t have scared off that tiny, little dragon. Could I?
Witness: Hortence Blamitchksy