Chapter 64

Flashback – Masha – The technician finishes

I watched as the technician used a cable to connect my desktop computer to the Internet box. She started the computer and asked, “Ms. Reynolds, what would you like to use for your username and password.”

I shrugged my shoulders and said, “I have no idea, is it important?”

She replied, “Yes it is. Once it’s set it isn’t easy to change the username and your password needs to be strong enough to thwart hackers.” She thought for a moment and asked, “Do you have a gmail account?”

I held up my mobile phone and replied, “Yes I do.”

She questioned, “Do you know your username and password?”

I confessed to her, “I have no idea.”

She requested, “Please unlock your phone and let me see it.”

I complied. She pulled out a piece of paper, made a note and said, “This is your username and we should know your password soon.” The phone beeped and then she continued, “That’s an e-mail with your password.” She wrote the password on the paper beside the username and suggested, “I think we should use your gmail credentials for your computer.”

I agreed, “That’s fine with me.”

She finally turns on the computer then goes through a lengthy setup which asked many questions about which I had no idea. It finally asked for my username and password which she copied from the piece of paper. She handed the paper to me and remarked, “After you memorize the information you should destroy this.”

I asked, “Would it be okay if I kept it someplace safe?”

She laughed and said, “I figured you might say that. Tell me Ms. Reynolds have you ever used a computer?”

I replied, “Please call me Masha, and the answer to your question is no.”

She said, “Well, let me get the laptop set up on the Internet and we will go over some computer basics for you.”

I called out, “Louise, the technician needs your laptop!”

Louise walked into the room with her laptop and said, “I hope you don’t mind but I already turned it on and went through the setup procedure.”

She smiled and said, “That’s good since at least you’re not a computer newbie like Masha. Now let’s connect you to the wireless part of the router.”

The technician looked at me and asked, “Masha did the ISP leave any paperwork when they installed the Internet.”

I replied, “They left too much paperwork but that was not all the left!”

Louise added, “Masha is angry at the ISP installers because they made a huge mess that she had to clean up.”

I said, “Let me gather the paperwork.”

I went to my bedroom, opened the file cabinet, removed the folder with the ISP paperwork and brought it back into what used to be Jack’s room. I handed it to the technician, she paged through it and declared, “That’s what I needed!” She took Louise’s laptop and in a couple seconds she announced, “There you go - and you now have Internet.”

Then she turned to me and said, “Okay Masha, let’s go through some things about your computer. First, your computer will automatically update all of the installed software. Now let’s setup your e-mail. “ She then launched a program from the toolbar and said, “Remember the gmail information? We’re going to enter that into the e-mail program.”