{"id":26,"date":"2024-06-23T14:45:00","date_gmt":"2024-06-23T14:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/100springs.com\/?p=26"},"modified":"2024-06-23T14:45:00","modified_gmt":"2024-06-23T14:45:00","slug":"flash-fiction-ctrlaltlove","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vinaya.com.np\/theword\/2024\/06\/23\/flash-fiction-ctrlaltlove\/","title":{"rendered":"Flash Fiction: Ctrl+Alt+Love"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"46098212fc2f9bee8b0ca8ef084d6029\" data-index=\"1\" style=\"float: none; margin:10px 0 10px 0; text-align:center;\">\n<script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-5781035789902986\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block; text-align:center;\"\r\n     data-ad-layout=\"in-article\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"fluid\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-5781035789902986\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"5291051281\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n\n<p>In the cyber space, a girl meets a boy, and the boy meets the girl. They send messages, they reply messages. Ask me what they write, I will tell you everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Boy:&nbsp; Thanks for accepting my friendship, you look nice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Girl: D<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Boy: Why don\u2019t you go online? Do boys bother you? P<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Girl: Will be online for you: D<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Couple of days later the boy and the girl are in the chat room. Here is an excerpt from the middle of the conversation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He: How old you became on August 13?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She: 22.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He: I&#8217;m 17.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She: Wow! Are you serious?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He: Serious. Don&#8217;t you believe?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She: How can you be that clever at 17?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He: I was born this way!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She: Cool! Baby I was born this way! Oh yeah!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He: I don&#8217;t like Gaga&#8217;s songs, but she is cool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She: I like Alehandro.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He: Never heard! I love Pink Floyd and Jim Morrison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She: Never heard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He:&nbsp; Jim Morrison died in early 70&#8217;s and Pink Flyod was popular in the eighties, you were not born when they sang.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;She: Aha right! But neither were you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He: Well actually, I listened to them as a child in 70&#8217;s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She: Aha! Stop kidding me, you guy!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He: Well actually I&#8217;m 47 years old, married with a lovely wife and a child<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She: That sounds cool. So you have missed the 4 with 1? They actually seem alike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;He: What does that mean?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She: 17-47.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He: So you are doing mathematics?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She: Aha forget it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He: Forget everything, I&#8217;m neither old, or too young.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She: Who cares! You are you! And that\u2019s wonderful!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He: Well actually I was trying to be funny with a funny girl.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She: Me vice versa. Aha&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The next day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She: Hi!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He: So early?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She: Yeah! How are you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He: I just woke up and logged to see if you were here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She: Oh! Wow!&nbsp; I too, just woke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He: It is 10:45 AM here, a rather hazy day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She: Here 9.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He: I&#8217;m going to eat, drink and be happy. What&#8217;s in your mind?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She: I\u2019m going to eat chocolate and go to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He: After you have taken the first bite, save a piece for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She: Aha! Ok. I\u2019ll take another bite then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He: Got to go, have a nice day!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She: You too! Take care<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And then the next day&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI&#8217;m gay,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;\u201cThat&#8217;s ok. I\u2019m working on a gay company, everyone around is gay,\u201d she tried to assure him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cReally?\u201d his eyes were pulled to ears. She smiled. \u201cI hope to work with lesbians some day,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhy lesbians?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cMaybe I could correct my orientation,\u201d he was somber.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She looked surprised. \u201cYou want?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;\u201cI don&#8217;t want, but the laws in this country are tough,\u201d he replied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThat doesn\u2019t mean correcting,\u201d she looked straight into his eyes. \u201cYou should want it, otherwise no sense.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cYou are correct,\u201d he said. \u201cBut my family needs to understand this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cDo you think gays are born that way, or is that a choice?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cSome are born that way, and some choose.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAnd you?\u201d she looked persistent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He laughed. \u201cI choose to joke!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cHow\u2019s that?\u201d Her eyebrows were stretched.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cSee, I can choose to joke about myself.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cSo you are not?\u201d She grabbed his arm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI was trying to be funny,\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAha&#8230;kill you, I believed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He smiled. \u201cWas I funny?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cNah!\u201d she shook her head. \u201cI don\u2019t think gay people are funny. But it\u2019s funny that you joked!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Next day&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8230;and it continues in the Age of Algorithms<\/p>\n<!--CusAds0-->\n<div style=\"font-size: 0px; height: 0px; line-height: 0px; margin: 0; padding: 0; clear: both;\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the cyber space, a girl meets a boy, and the boy meets the girl. They send messages, they reply messages. Ask me what they write, I will tell you everything. Boy:&nbsp; Thanks for accepting my friendship, you look nice. Girl: D Boy: Why don\u2019t you go online? Do boys bother you? P Girl: Will [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":330,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-short-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinaya.com.np\/theword\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinaya.com.np\/theword\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinaya.com.np\/theword\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinaya.com.np\/theword\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinaya.com.np\/theword\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vinaya.com.np\/theword\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinaya.com.np\/theword\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinaya.com.np\/theword\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinaya.com.np\/theword\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinaya.com.np\/theword\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}