After All, It Isn’t That Bad

This nice short story was written by clgy.mhn, who is interested in freelance journalism and newspaper writing. You can submit your essay and get it published on this blog too!

She looked so beautiful that morning. As I shifted my hands through her gorgeous hair, I kissed her. “Take care, darling. Gotcha go to work,” I said, in my peculiar Australian and European mixed accent. After waving at my wife, I got into my black Brabus S350, “sitting” in my porch, growling. “Good day, Sir,” wished Mr. Baskaran, my personal driver, as he started to drive the growling beast, ready to unleash its mighty horsepower. As I leaned back in the posh leather seat, the 30 inch widescreen LCD screen started to unfold in front of me. It resumed the episode of “House”, I was watching yesterday.

But no matter how I tried, I couldn’t enjoy the sarcasm of Hugh Laurie as I was too preoccupied with what happened at work yesterday. Being a CEO of a multimillion dollar company like Google does equate to a life full of stress and tension. The only consolation I got was, the security analyst, who melted my heart and made me go on a cloud nine, Julie became mine. Her smile made me euphoric, her eyes made me drool; her voice sent a tingling sensation down my spine, which I longed for, every minute, every second.

“Mr. Mahen, we have arrived, Sir,” announced Baskaran as he opened the door and led me into the giant headquarters of the world-renowned Google Inc. As I made my way through, dozens of smiling faces wished me a good morning. But, the morning wasn’t good. The thought of what I did yesterday was running all over my mind.

Hssh! the air-conditioner hummed as I went into my cabin. The most luxurious in the building. The CEO room was finished with fine oak wood, enriched with blinds which are controlled automatically, a foosball table and yes, a state-of-the-art computer system.

Slowly, I sat and took out the files. The figures were big and scary, some eight digits and some nine. If it happened, I have no idea how I’m going to pay the foreign investors and even worse, my staff! I need a solution, one which can solve this problem once and for all. Trying to think as hard as I could, I closed my eyes. Just as I was trying to visualize some ideas, there was a knock on the door. It was hard.

“Sorry to interrupt Sir, but here’s your cup of special Jamaican brewed mocha cappuccino,” mumbled Sarah Lane, my personal assistant cum secretary. Still thinking hard, I brought the porcelain cup closer to my mouth. There was a code on the cup. It read ‘CBSGOOGLEV2’. Just as I started to take a sip, suddenly the missing pieces of the jigsaw in my mind came together. YES! I’ve got it! It was all because of the ‘V2’ code on the cup. If it wasn’t for that code, I wouldn’t have got it.

I immediately called my chief programming officer, Mr. Karl Benzer. A sore looking, depressed, fat, belly-buttoned guy entered my cabin. “Take that look off your face at once,” I exclaimed. “I’ve found the solution to our problem!” I shouted happily.

As though my words were words of some sorcerer’s magic, the sore look disappeared. His teeth started to show and he was desperate to know further. I poured the whole thing. “Benzer, settle down and I’ll tell you.” “Initially, as you know, we were facing a losing battle with those scoundrels who stole our new unreleased software, Gamma Google. If it went into the pirate’s hand, we would be bankrupt........ .” As I was talking, Benzer interrupted me. “But sir that is what we were discussing the whole day long yesterday. Tell me how you are going to overcome it,” blattered my impatient staff.

“It’s like this. They’ve stolen Gamma Google which wasn’t ready and for testing purposes, I secretly added a command which would allow the software to self-destruct no matter wherever it is in the world. How silly of me to forget about that,” I explained contentedly to Karl. “Wow! It’s a huge relieve to hear that, sir. I will start working on executing the command strings you’ve put in,” said Karl.

That evening, I left early. I wanted to take my wife to an exclusive, select restaurant as a treat. I hit the pause button of the LCD TV and I called my wife to inform her about the good news while I was in the Brabus. Later, I resumed watching and yes, it was that sarcastic doctor’s show being screened. Hey, who said being a CEO of a multimillion dollar company like Google equate to a life full of stress and tension? After all, it isn’t that bad.