laptop revisited

There are messages waiting for him. There is a certain degree of humiliation in asking the nurse to help him with this.

Facebook. How do you describe something like this without the words you might need to do it. He mimes typing. She says 'computer' and he nods emphatically. He draws a line in the air between himsel and her as if the two of them were joined by an invisible thread. He points to the computer. This is a rough description of social networking. He uses his good left hand like a beak to talk talk talk. He points to her mouth.

She says 'talking'. Yes. He nods. He makes big exclamation marks in the air with his chin.

"Talking on the computer?"

Easier than he expected, but no, it couldn't be quite that simple.

"Skype" she said and he tilted his head from side to side. Not quite right, but almost.

She clicked the computer open for him. There was a plug for him to connect to. She put it into the side of the machine. He watched her moving the mouse, clicking on icons, everything too fast and strange for him to remember. I used to do this, he thought. I used to do all of this without assistance.

Skype. She clicked and there was a list of names. He tried to focus on them. They were people he would know.