The laptop from a garage sale

You just asked me about the photo below the windows logo. I have a story to tell:

I am a great fan of garage sales. Though I get into the nerves of my mom occasionally for bringing back from neighborhood what she sold recently, it is such fun.

One day, as usual, I was wandering about in the late morning, to look for my other jobless friends – it was summer vacation, and staying at home could attract chores.

I was passing by a house with huge lawn, and a colorful umbrella in the sunlight attracted my attention, with the board GARAGE SALE beneath it.

I went in to check out, and saw some nice things – a key chain with a globe, a straw hat, bound volume of comic books (I am fond of comic books, secretly, because I am now too old for that. I buy those pretending those are for my younger sister.)

I reached the second row and found a box – a laptop – wow! Checked the price and it was just $20. Configuration details looked pretty impressive. It is definitely not more than one year old. Unbelievable! Probably something is wrong. No fool will sell this laptop if in workable condition at $20.

“Does this work?” I asked the person, who was sitting below the oak tree, and looked like a chauffeur.

“How old are you?”

“I am sixteen, but why?”

“Little master of the house wanted it sold only to boys aged sixteen or seventeen.”

“Boy, that is a strange condition” I thought, no one could beat me in visiting garage sales, and I have not come across something like this before.

“But, does this work?”

“I know nothing about it.”

Hmph, that was definitely helpful.

I was in a big dilemma. If I take it and it does not work, entire pocket money gone. If I leave it and it is actually good, that is a loss I can’t bear.

“OK, let me take a risk.” I thought. If it does not work, I will have mom sell it, anyway it is only $20.

I dropped the other items and bought it. I brought it home, excitement mounting.
I did not want anyone to know until I was sure it is working. But mom found out as I sneaked it in.

In her usual self, she wanted all details:

“What is it Tom?”
“It is a laptop.”
“A laptop? Whose?”
“I just bought it.”
“Where did you get the money?”
“Mom, I got it in a garage sale. It is only $20.”
She gave a long square look. Fortunately, she can easily tell when I tell the truth, and she let me go.

I unpacked it and my joy doubled as I saw the charger, a cordless mouse and USB adapter for it. It also had a pack of CDs with the operating system, office packages and other utilities.

I opened it and pressed the power button.

As the windows loaded, I saw the photo of a boy of around sixteen with smiling face beneath the windows logo. “This belonged to a nerd.” I thought “he knew how to have this photo there, and he must have damaged this piece”
But it mounted as normal; I saw the icon of anti-virus package flashing. “So far, so good” I thought, and stood there watching the desktop icons come up, as the proud owner.

Just then, I saw a notepad open.

It said “Dear mom and dad, I am sorry; I know you are proud of me and I will never be forgiven for letting you down, but I have no other go. I am a drug addict. Since the time I won this laptop for the competition for creating games, I have been using this to create malware which helped forgery of bank accounts. I used the money I got to pay for drugs. I may be caught any moment, and don’t want to bring that disgrace upon you. Also as a shameless brother, I stole July’s pendant to buy drugs when my money got over. Please sell this laptop in garage sale for $20 and buy her a new one for me. I want a boy of about my age to get it, and I want him to know that he shouldn’t be like me. Box for this laptop is below the table; it has the charger and some CDs. Please give away those along with this.

Once again, sorry mom and dad, please tell July that I died in an accident”

“Oh, god” I was not sure whether I made the sound, but then saw mom standing behind me.
I slowly closed it. Just then another notepad opened.

It said "Dear friend, I know you must be happy to get this, and my previous note must have made you worry. By now, I wouldn’t be there anymore, as the drugs and crime got the better of me, and I had to decide to fall off a cliff. I wanted you to get it, and promise me that you will use this only for noble cause. Please study well, be what I could not and make your parents proud. You must have seen my crazy face showing up in the beginning. This laptop has all software that I can think of loaded, but you can clear it all and install fresh using CDs if you don’t like my face. Wish you all the best.”

By then, I could feel my mom’s palms pressed on my shoulders, and tears rolling down my cheeks.

It has been two years and I still see him every time I switch this on. I still have the notes; I just suppressed those coming up every time, those are sad to read. But it will be wrong if don’t mention that my academic records improved since that day, and I don’t mind too much to do the chores at home.

(Word count: 992)