Computer Clues

“I
wish something exciting would happen around here,” said Rachel Meyers. It was autumn, and the Pee Wee Scouts were on their way to Mrs. Peters’s house for their meeting. They met every Tuesday in their leader’s basement. “In my cousin Courtney’s school in New York, they have a computer lab,” Rachel continued. “They get to do all this fun stuff using the computer.”

“I know,” said Patty Baker. “In Ashley’s
school in California, they play computer games and send electric mail and learn about baby whales.” Ashley was Patty’s cousin. She was a part-time Pee Wee Scout. When she was in California, she was a Saddle Scout.

“It’s not electric mail. It’s electronic mail,” said Kenny, Patty’s twin brother. “And we can learn about whales and stuff in the encyclopedia. We don’t have to have a computer.”

“Pooh,” said Rachel, kicking at a big pile of red maple leaves. “Books are old-fashioned. Courtney says people who still use books are roadkill on the information superhighway. She says the big cities all have state-of-the-art stuff in their schools. She says Minnesota is way behind.”

“That’s not true!” said Mary Beth Kelly to her best friend, Molly Duff. “People in Minnesota are just as smart as people in
New York. My mom says Minnesota is a good place for kids to grow up. There’s more fresh air and lakes, and you don’t get run over by taxicabs.”

“My uncle did,” said Roger White. “Right on Main Street. Pow!”

None of the Pee Wees had anything to say about Roger’s uncle. They were all too busy thinking about computers.

There were twelve Pee Wees. Twelve and a half counting Ashley, who came to Scout meetings only during the half year when she was visiting her cousins.

“All I know is that Minnesota is not as exciting as New York,” said Rachel.

“And not as exciting as California,” said Patty.

“My dad’s got a computer,” said Roger. “Right here in Minnesota. It has everything. Even Outernet.”

“Outernet!” laughed Rachel. “It’s Internet, not Outernet!”

Roger liked to laugh at others, but he didn’t like it when others laughed at him. His face turned bright red. “Inner, Outer, what’s the difference?” he said. “My dad’s computer can do everything.”

“Does it wash the dishes?” asked Sonny Stone. “Does it take out the garbage?”

“Hey! Does it drive a car?” roared Tim Noon.

“How about doing homework?” asked Tracy Barnes.

“It does homework,” said Roger. “And it does lots of other stuff.”

“My dad has a computer at the office,” said Molly. “He can even use it to order groceries from the market.”

“A computer can’t go to the market,” said Tim. “No way.”

“It can,” said Jody George, who was in a wheelchair. Everyone liked Jody. He was smart and he was nice. The Pee Wees liked to ride in his wheelchair. They all wished they had one, too.

“If you have a modem, you can connect with places all over the world,” said Jody. “I can even put CDs in mine. I have one CD with a whole encyclopedia on it.”

Molly was pleased that Jody was taking her side. She was not surprised that Jody had his very own computer. The Georges were rich. They had a big house with a swimming pool. There weren’t many swimming pools in Minnesota. It was cold and snowy half the year. When Molly was old enough to have a boyfriend, she decided, it would be Jody. If she married him someday, when she was grown up, she would get to ride in his wheelchair as often as she liked.

The Pee Wees arrived at Mrs. Peters’s house. They went around to the back door and down the basement steps to start their meeting. It felt good to get indoors away from the brisk fall wind.

“Hello!” called Mrs. Peters. “Hurry in. There’s lots of excitement today! We are going to earn a brand-new badge. Guess what it’s for!”

“Tying knots?” asked Sonny.

“Hiking?” said Kevin Moe. Kevin liked the outdoors.

“Skating?” asked Tracy.

Mrs. Peters shook her head and smiled. “Something more exciting than all of those,” she said. “Something brand new that we have never done. We are going to learn to use computers!”

T
he Pee Wees couldn’t believe their ears! Could their leader have read their minds? Was Minnesota as up-to-date as New York and California? Would the Pee Wees be able to compete with Ashley and Courtney on the information superhighway?

“We were just talking about computers!” Kevin told Mrs. Peters. “We must have ESP!”

What in the world does
ESP
stand for?
thought Molly.
Enemy Spy Police? Enter Secret Pal? Every Sad Petunia?

“My uncle has ESP,” said Mary Beth. “When he plays cards, he always wins. He can’t help it. He just knows what cards other people are holding in their hands. It’s like he can see right through the cards. My dad says it’s ESP. My mom says he cheats.”

Many of the Pee Wees looked puzzled.

“
ESP
stands for
extrasensory perception
,” said Mrs. Peters. “Mind reading. Nobody knows for sure if it’s real. Sometimes it seems as if someone knows what you’re thinking. But it may be just a coincidence.”

Molly remembered a time last week when she had been thinking about her aunt. While she was thinking of her, there was a knock on the door. When Molly answered the door, there was her aunt!
Could that have been ESP? Could Molly herself have it? She would have to pay attention and see.

Meanwhile, the Pee Wees were excited about the computer badge.

“What do we have to do to get the badge?” asked Roger. Roger didn’t like to work very hard for his badges.

“I’ll tell you all about it,” said their leader. “Just as soon as you take your jackets off and settle down.”

“We don’t have a computer, Mrs. Peters,” said Tim, hanging his jacket on the back of his chair. “My mom said we can’t afford one. I won’t be able to get my badge if we need a computer.” Tim looked as if he might cry, Molly thought.

Mrs. Peters held up her hand, a signal for quiet. “None of you need to worry about having a computer of your own. We have a computer here that we’ll use.” She
pointed to a machine in the middle of the big desk. “And some of you have more than one computer at home that you can share with the rest of the group. If your family computer is busy, or if you don’t have one, we have permission to use a computer in the high-school computer lab,” she said. “The principal has set up one with our own address for electronic mail, [email protected].
PWS
is short for
Pee Wee Scouts
. So feel free to use that computer. No one needs to buy a computer, or worry about owning one. Do you understand?”

Everyone nodded.

“Mrs. Peters, we have two computers,” said Kevin. “I’m sure my dad would let someone use one of them.”

“So do we,” said Jody. “I’ll share mine and help someone learn the software programs.”

“Why is it soft?” asked Sonny. “Is it made of foam rubber, like pillows?”

The other Pee Wees looked at one another and chuckled. “Dummy,” said Roger. “Software is discos you load on your computer so you can do stuff, like play games and listen to music.”

“Disks,” said Mrs. Peters. “But we’ll go into all of that later. Right now I just want to tell you what we are going to do in the next weeks to get our new badge.”