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"I'm going to look for something. Why don't you go into the front room." It worked! She said, "okay." How she appeared so calm when she had to be shaking inside is beyond me, but she was handling her part well.

She keeps some family heirlooms and pictures in that room, so that's what I acted like I was looking at, but I coyly kept the screen in my periphery. The devil has quite a poker face. Not only didn't the computer move, but the screen didn't do anything either - not even a blink. It was as if the devil were struggling to keep the shut down from occurring, but the devil plays tricks on people. I watched for about ten minutes.

I don't know how mom does it, but she timed it perfectly. She distracted the computer, without a shred of fear in her voice, by acting like she was asking me, "is everything all right?"

I leapt like a cat to the part that has the switch, and began wrestling with it. We rolled and tumbled, and just as Satan was about to get the better of me, I grabbed the plug and pulled it! It seemed to work, but I kicked it a couple of times to make sure. Then I put a cross on it.

Mom was finally free to release her fear, and she cried at my bravery while she salvaged what she could of the heirlooms. Then she called the repairman.

When he got there, I told him what happened. He went through it completely, replaced a few parts that were broken, and said he could only find a virus. Alas, I may have saved the world that day, but the devil got away.

As I was waiting for the pill he gave mom to give me to take effect, I told her about the other guy who has a computer, the trip to the moon, and the aliens. I warned her to never take a space walk, don't dig in craters on the moon, and to never, never go into suspended animation. I even told her about the monolyth. Then I told her about the devil, and why I thought it was him.

Just before I dozed off, she and I both agreed: no cameras; no mics.

Learn more about this author, Tom Koecke.
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