Sticky Keys

Co-written by: A Friend and LJ


Travis stared open-mouthed at the screen. “What the hell happened this time?” he muttered in disgust. He tried repeatedly to correct the mistake, getting more worked up by the minute. Unable to figure it out, he went into panic mode. Then he did what he always does when in a panic…..he went looking for his man.

Travis knew where Callum was. He’d been hearing the cello for the better part of an hour. Tearing down the stairs, he ran across the wide lower hall and skidded through the entryway of the music room in his sock feet, coming to a stop next to Callum’s chair.

“Callum, our computer is acting up. I need you to fix it!” he breathlessly informed his partner.

Callum let the last note trail off and set the cello aside along with the bow. He quirked a brow at Travis and then smiled. “What is it doing?” he asked as he stood and stretched. God that felt good. He’d been sitting in one position far too long apparently. “Lead on.”

All but dragging Callum up the stairs and into the office, Travis halted and point at the computer. “See? I think it’s been attacked by a virus or something.” Seeing Callum’s blank look, Travis glanced at the screen and saw the screen-saver on. He jiggled the mouse and the page he had been working on came up. From the expression of Callum’s face, he figured further information was required. The Reader’s Digest version would work.

“I saw a comic I needed and made a bid of 10 pounds, but the computer changed it to 1000.” Travis collected comics. Each one was a prized possession kept protectively encased in its’ own plastic envelop.

Callum was in danger of losing the eyebrow forever in his hair when he heard the amount but knew that it would be rectified in short order. He sat down and began to type, fingers flying over the keys as the frown on his face became deeper. A few of them seemed sluggish but that shouldn’t have anything to do with why it wouldn’t go where he wanted it too. He grabbed the mouse and went to start and brought up the protection plan. It hadn’t lapsed. So he set it to looking for viruses and stood back up.

“There isn’t anything we can do until the virus program runs through. It won’t take long I hope, because that is a lot of money to pay for a comic and it will take you a long time to pay it back into the account.” Callum was already thinking of worst case scenario and transferring money from one account to PayPal to pay for it. There had to be a lesson in here somewhere. He just wasn’t seeing it yet.

Travis had watched, amazed at the speed with which Callum worked his magic on the keyboard.

“You think there is anyway to reverse my bid?” he asked hopefully. “I mean even with my promotion and raise, I don’t want to pay that kind of money out.”

“We can’t reverse it yet, but I’m hoping it’s just a little bug that can be found quickly and gotten rid of with this. If not, then I think you’re screwed.” Callum looked at the screen and found the check was done and all was fine, as far as the computer was concerned. “It’s not a bug.” He frowned at the machine for not behaving and sat back down and tried a few more tricks...nothing.

Pushing back from the desk, he laced his fingers together and put them behind his head to think. Not a bug, nothing amiss, damn machine should work then.

“Travis, walk me through what you did; each step,” he said, not opening his eyes. He was thinking of this as an acting scene and wanted to ‘see’ as well as hear.

Taking the request seriously, Travis started a tedious, long drawn out description.

“...then when I saw the comic I needed to complete my set, I posted a bid of 10...but two more zeros added themselves. It wasn’t my fault...I didn’t do anything...just hit the one and the zero and clicked on ‘continue to cart’.”

Callum sat back up and brought up word and then hit the naught key. There it went, right across the page! Now why on earth would it stick like that? He touched it again and it felt fine. Then he tried a few more keys and some stuck a little bit and others not at all.

“Travis, are you leaving something rather important out?” Callum turned the chair and looked up at his Brat.

Travis blinked and reviewed in his mind what he had just told Callum. “Nooo....” he said slowly, shaking his head. “I told you everything.”

“Well then, I’m afraid you are going to have to try and email the seller. Let’s see if we can get back to the site.” Callum turned around and began to type some more and as he did, it seemed the problem was getting worse and worse. He frowned. Almost like glue. “Did you spill something in here?” he asked distractedly as he waited for the computer to go to eBay. When the shut down message came up, he sighed and hit ‘send error report’ and was taken too Microsoft. Fat lot of good that did; it told him nothing. “Okay, can’t change it, can’t email, can’t even bloody get in.”

By now Callum was muttering to himself and threats were being made to the computer gods. All to no avail though as the machine happily thumbed its’ chips at him.

“I haven’t spilt anything since the ice cream episode.” Travis made a face. That hadn’t ended too well as his rear-end could attest to. He closely examined the keyboard. “Hmm, maybe I didn’t clean up as good as I should have,” he mumbled.

“I’ll just go get the alcohol and Q-tips to do a better job,” he suggested and turned to leave the room.

“Sounds like a plan to me,” Callum said and flipped the keyboard over to see what kind of screwdriver it took. If this was from that time, then they would have to clean the inside too.

He got up and went to get a Philips head and by the time Travis was back, had it part and the pieces carefully placed for maximum safety. He had had to shut the machine down and unplug everything first and now he was wondering just how long before he would have to set it all back up again. He had done this once before and ended up having to start from scratch.

“This is what happens when we eat near it, Travis. This is what I was trying to get across to you. What’s happened here,” he took the alcohol and cotton bud, “is it stuck in there, gumming things up and now look at what a job it’s become? Now do you understand?”

“Yes, Callum, and I’m sorry. I haven’t eaten in here since....” he sighed and stared remorsefully at the disassembled keyboard. “It’s going to be a lot of work, isn’t it?”

Callum hummed as he worked and still wondered why people paid someone to do this for them. It was the same with VCR's when they came out; pay someone to run a cotton bud over a few things and charge you thirty quid.

He was not a tight man. On the contrary, Callum was generous to a fault but he did not believe in throwing money away on stupid things and to him that was bloody stupid.

The machine now void of ice cream, was soon re-assembled and turned back on and that answered that question. Apparently it did not mind being on hiatus for short periods. He quickly logged in and went to eBay again and there was Travis’ bid, nice as you please. He nearly snorted a laugh but held it in.

“Well, boyo, it looks like you won’t be outbid on this one, that’s for sure. I think you scared any others off with that amount of money, although they may be wondering if the comic is printed in gold.”

“Let me see that.” Travis was more that a little ticked. Sitting down at the desk, he glanced at the screen and did a double-take.

“Whoa! Look at this, Callum. You guessed wrong. Someone did out bid me!” He bounced excitedly in his chair. “Hey, that must mean the comic has more valuable than I thought. Maybe I should up my bid too. What do you think would be a good one?” He grinned and turned to face his Top with a sparkle of delight in his eye.

Callum’s first thought was no. That was far too much to spend on a comic book. What he considered the lowest in reading material but he knew how much this sort of thing meant to Travis and he put it on a par with his art.

He looked at that gleam in Travis’ eye, the smile on his face, the absolute pure joy of it all and grinned back. “Go for it.”

Travis rubbed his hands together, bent over the keyboard and taking his time, typed in £1010 and clicked the necessary keys to complete his bid.

He jumped up and threw his arms around Callum. “Thanks, love.”

The End