Category: Writers Block
Charles421 So, this is a story I wrote mostly for the sighted community, but which the blind one could enjoy as well. And, I do talk about the zone a bit, though, stuff is modified. The chatline is slightly different from ZBP, I thought I'd change it up a bit.
Note: see if you could identify some of these things and people. and, the last character introduced is interesting. iIt could be one of several people butit's a specific person.
Prologue
Beep… beep beep… beep beep…. Beep beep…. Beep….
I woke up from my sleep and rubbed my eyes. I sat up in my soft heavenly bed, and then, I walked to my little wooden desk to check the time. I knew what time it was as, my dormmate, taylor’s alarm clock always woke me up at seven, but I wanted to make sure. It was just a habit I suppose. I reached over to my Braille notetaker and felt the dots on the Braille display. It read 7:01:49 A.m. I stretched and yawned. And sat down.
I placed my fingers on the main six dots of the Braille keyboard as I thought. The Braille keyboard had three rectangular keys parallel and directly next to each other in the middle with a squarish space in between the two sets. Below the squarish space between the two sets was a longer rectangular button which was the space. And enter was another rectangular button to the right of the three right hand set of keys and the backspace was on the left next to the left set.
I only had a few minutes as I had to get ready for breakfast and then a full school day. I liked it though since school was fun and we goofed around a lot.
We at CSB or California School For The Blind don’t really like to be that serious. Most classes were fun. We did a lot and also goofed around a whole bunch. I know a few friends both on a site and by other means and there school seems to be the same.
I thought for a moment then decided I’d call up on the site’s chat line to have a chat and see if anyone was there. We were to get ready but we had until eight. The house parents don’t come check if we’re up until 7-30. I had a whole half hour to myself.
I got my cellphone out and dialed the number and logged in to my account on the phone part of the site. My tag with a bit of the beatles song, help, on it played and then the main menu came up. I clicked 6 to see who was on the system. I browsed through the tags and notice gina was on. I checked which conference she was in and notice she was in 4. I whent back to the main menu and clicked 2 for the conferences and then 4 for conference four. My tag played and the room silenced for a time.
“so, who came in or left,” said an unfamiliar voice. I’ve never heard this one before, maybe it was a new user on the site or one that I haven’t met.
“Juliet,” I said briefly in to the microphone thing on the phone.
“Hey, gal! What’s going on,” squealed gina excitedly. She sounded rather cheery at six in the morning her time as she lived in Alaska.
“Oh, nothing much, just chillin. You?” I said as I went over to my bed and laid down. I held the phone next to my ear.
“Just been on here. Talking to this bunch. And playing Keno on the site,” She said as I herd a distinct tingle which ment she won. I thought for a moment.
“Yo,who’s all in here?” I asked curiously, “It said there were four others so I make five.” I heard another tingle.
“Jill, me, jake, and Sarah. She’s new on the zone,” gina said. I thought for a moment? Sarah or Runner Up was on the zone for quite a while now.
“So, how does this chatline thingy work anyway?” the new voice asked, “I’ve never been on one of these things.” I thought for a moment. It must be Jill then. I knew everyone elses voice in here.
“erhm, you basically talk on this thing,” I said laughing, “You got here alright. But, there’s like 8 other rooms that you could go in. eight is the room for 18 and older and 9 is a private conference thing. If you are like a premium pmember you could create a conference.” I heard another tinkle and a gasp.
“Yeah, and the star menus is useful, you should look at that, it’d help you adjust the conference,” Jake added, “ and you press pound to get out.” We heard a slight click. She must have gone to check out the star menu.
“Hello, are you still there,” asked Jill after a little. We heard a sound from gina’s end, which meant she lost that round.
“Yep, we’re stil here,” Jill said as we heard another tinkle,” Well, and then there’s the messageing thing. You press 9 to get there. And you can probably find your way from there. And, the audio profile on one.”
“don’t forget, the entertainment center with the games, bulletin, and weather,” Sarah piped up, “you press the magic number three to get there. Oh, How I love blackjack!” Oh yeah, count on Sarah to gush over the games on the phone. She loved the zone. She really had no life and spent as much time as she could on the zone. We heard a sound on the phone system that told us someone came in and then the tag “Trevor”
“ooooooooooooo, It’s Trevor!!!!!!!” gina said excitedly almost shouting in to the phone. I rubbed my ears. Gina seemed to be excited about everyone, but especially Trevor as he seemed to get along with everyone including gina herself.
“Hello Gina,” he said ever so calmly. I distinctly heard her close up the games window.
“So, I was messing with JAWS and I turned the Forms mode off here. I forgot, how you turn the automatic mode back on,” she asked him as I heard the screen reader say JAWS. Jaws was the screen reader most blind folks used. I did as well or rather the CSB used it. I also had a copy at home though. It was a program that read everything aloud to us. If it was on the screen and sighted people can see it, JAWS could read it except for images.
Jaws could read a symbol, a letter, a word, a sentence, a paragraph, a page, a document, or even a book as long as it’s electronic. It all depends on what keys you press and how much you want it to read at a time. It could read e-mails people send, text posted on the web, or a document. Jaws could read menus and text boxes. It also echoed what you typed. Depending on what you prefer, words, characters, or nothing at all.
“well….,” he said starting to explain. He explained how to tturn forms mode on and we continued to talk about many things.
What happened then? Did I appear?