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Antane's Anthology  by Antane

Computer Problems

Just a bit of silliness...

Frodo sat in his - well, really Sam’s - garden outside the smial the Elves had dug for him and Bilbo that was finished just in time for their arrival at Tol Eressea. But he wasn’t enjoying himself as he normally did. He stared blackly at the screen of his laptop that said ‘Page not available’ and muttered various dark imprecations under his breath. Or so it seemed, no one understood what he was saying.

“Conflustergation!” he exclaimed.

“Having troubles, my dear hobbit?” Gandalf’s voice came.

Frodo squinted up into the sun. “I can’t get in, Gandalf. Is the server down again?”

“Not that I know of. I was in earlier myself, reading the latest from Aragorn.”

“Well, it’s not up now. I can’t get into my e-mail and last night I couldn’t open that attachment Merry had sent of his and Estella’s wedding that he put on Youtube. I feel so cut off!”

“I assume you’ve tried rebooting?”

Frodo scowled. “Of course! Twice! It gets so far and I think it’s going to work, but it keeps coming up ‘Page not found’ or ‘Page unavailable.’ It did that to me last night too right as I trying to respond to Sam’s latest message. And my whole reply was lost and I couldn’t get it back. I could have screamed.” He looked back up at Gandalf. “You don’t think the message went to the Halls of Mandos and we could get it back?”

The Maia smiled and hated to disappoint the desperate hope in the hobbit’s eyes. “No, I’m afraid not. The Halls house the spirits of the dead, my dear boy, not dead messages. Next time, copy it instead into WordPerfect and if it’s lost again, you can simply paste it into a new message. That has saved me more than once.”

“I’ll remember that for next time. But I’ve got to get in, Gandalf! Sam told me months ago that I was an uncle again and he promised to send me a picture of my niece or nephew when they were born and last night, he said he would send it today.” He raised beseeching eyes back up at his friend. “Can’t you wave your staff at it or something?”

“My dear Frodo, computers can be just as surprising as hobbits. You never know what they are going to do next sometimes. I told you before there were some things stronger than me. Not even wizards can fix all the computer glitches in the world. Maybe you’ll get in later.”

“I’ve been trying all morning all ready!” This time fear was in the former Ring-bearer’s eyes. “You don’t think it got a bug in it like those midges that corrupted the message you tried to send to Aragorn’s blueberry, do you?”

“Blackberry,” Gandalf corrected.

Frodo waved a hand. “Whatever.”

“No, I don’t think that’s the problem. I don’t know what it is. It’s just about time for tea. Why don’t we have that and then I’ll talk to Lord Celdran about your problem and maybe he’ll have a solution for it.”

Frodo sighed. Just before he shut down his laptop, the screensaver he had made of pictures of Sam and his cousins and Elanor and the Shire showed Sam’s smiling, loving face and that calmed him some. He went back inside and brought out the tea kettle and two cups. After Gandalf and he had had their break, the wizard took the computer to be looked at and Frodo waited as calmly as he could for the problem to be fixed.

All his frustrations faded when the Elf lord returned his computer and watched the hobbit’s entire being lit up stronger than ever as he was able to log in and look at the picture of his newborn niece, held in the arms of her beaming, proud papa. “Oh, meldanya Sam,” he breathed. He touched the screen as though to stroke the cheek of the lass. “Aiya. Elen sila lumenn omentielvo.

He tore himself away from the site of the beautiful babe and his Sam to look up at the Elf. “Hantanyel, herunya,” he said with a deep bow.

“You are most welcome, Iorhael,” the Elf responded with a bow of his own.

A/N: For those whose Quenya might be a little rusty, meldanya is my dear. Aiya is Hail (Hello). Elen sila lumen omentielovo is A star shines upon the hour of our meeting. Hantanyel, herunya is Thank you, my lord. Conflustergation is from Queen Galadriel's story, Big Words.





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