No Internet

 

That was the message at the top of my screen.  Suddenly I felt cut-off from the world.  Friends and family were gone, hackers couldn’t reach me, I was alone.  It felt cold and eerily quiet.  I could feel the internal thumping of my heart.  Is this what it was like before the Internet - just nothingness?

I went to the front door and stepped out into the darkness of the early morning, and away from the vacant glow of the monitor.

I walked along the deserted road, woods on either side of me.  Each woodland sound set me on high alert.  Would a wild boar charge me from out of the shadows?  Had the gators come up from the lake to snag a rabbit but now could see me instead?  Had I plunged myself into a nightmare?  And what about spell-check?  Had I left that behind as well?  Now THAT's scary.

Suddenly I felt foolish.  I should turn and head back,  play solitaire until the Internet and my sanity returns.

You go ahead and wait here.  This could take a while.