Technology Genius

• Kirsten Evans, Grade 2
• Short Story
• 2019

Do you have a big brother? Because if you do you know what they are like and Max was a brother like all others. He did what other brothers do best. On this particular Saturday morning you would have found him, like all earlier Saturdays, that’s right, playing computer games. There was always a click, click noise coming from his bedroom and on this day it was very loud. Saturday was the only day Mum could do her work around the house and that noise would drive her mad. You would always hear her yelling,’ Stop playing computer games’. In fact I think all of the street heard and often silently joined her. Max would never listen and month after month continued to frustrate Mum.

First, plan A saw Mum trying to drag an angry boy out to soccer games but after a while she just gave up. Plan B, Mum and Dad, after talking, decided to try and delete any game apps and added all helpful apps like reading and spelling apps but Max soon found a way to get his games back and those helpful apps just disappeared. Plan C, Mum tried to hide the iPad but this too failed. She even tried a reward program which of course never worked. After all, what can beat computer games for a boy? So it became normal to find Max always with his face in front of a screen. Mum had given up.

But she shouldn’t have got so sad as this was soon to change for on this very morning a car at Park Street would lose control and knock down a power line and so there was no power to that area. In fact for a whole week! So, what was Max to do when his iPad went flat? Now Max became so bored that he decided to do something about it,and just when Mum was thinking she loved this new peace and quiet, she heard a new sound. ‘Bang, Bang, Bang’. She went upstairs to see what was happening but the door was locked. The noise was so loud that Max didn’t hear her calling out.

A few weeks later after the banging had stopped, she heard a familiar clicking sound. It sounded like the games she was so used to hearing. How was this possible? She went to see and opened the door and there was Max playing ‘Smash it down’. A strange device was plugged into the iPad. “What’s that?” she asked. “Oh that’s my solar panel iPad charger device,” Max said. Mum was shocked. “Can I have a look?” she asked. In fact, the whole street soon came to look as Mum liked to talk. In fact, a famous photographer came and took photos for the magazine ‘Technology Genius’. As you know, brothers like to play computer games and Max was like all others. In fact he plays computer games all day and Mum is happy because that’s his well-paying job.