she brought hirn sandwiches and told hirn about her cat,
her parents or her ex-boyfriend, Jason, She showed Gus an-
other life, and he found himself falling in love with every-
thing about her. But she was only 23 and he was 56, In
despair, he realized he was too laie,
His creativity began to suffer, and management started
to worry, The game had to be ready in time for Christmas,
but Gus couldn't finish the central character - the Princess,
Finally, when asked yet again about deadlines at a meet-
ing, he t hrew his coffee at the wall and locked himself in
his office,
After a while, there was a ping from his computer:Will you buy me a drink, Rambo? lol!He followed her to a pub and, for the next two hours, he
talked. About his lonely childhood, the mother he looked
after until she died, and the hours wasted on computers
since university,
"No," she said finally. "You didn't waste your t ime. 00
you know what makes your computer characters so special?
They're not jus! bits and bytes - you give them souls. You
make t hem come aliye." Gus's heart ~ and he feit
dl.ut w ith love. They sat in silence for a moment longer.
"Let's go back," he said, "I can f inish it now."
In a corner near the pub door sat three noisy and drunk
teenage boys. As Lol walked past, one of them stopped her.
".G.i.m.m..e. a kiss, babe. It's my bi rthday!" he said, pulling
her onlo his.lID2. Without even thinking. Gus helped her gel
free and kicked the boy's chair backwards. There was a
crash as beer glasses !Iew everywhere.
"Run!" she shouted and they.ib..Q1 through the door,
down Ihe streel and back to The Gherkin, not stopping un-
l il they were in the lift. Gus could feel the adrenalin pump-
ing through his body as the lift went up.
"You really are a Rambo. aren'! you?" she said.
"Not normally. Are you all right?"ambulance [ 'a:mbjJI'llls1
back [b:ekj
bug [bAQ 1
capture I'ka::p!];,]
cleaners [ 'kli:nn]
corne alive LkAm ;,' lal\lJ
dizzyl'dl zij
fiilinto place: all-the pieces -
Krankenwagen
schon damals
Insekt, hier: Softwarefehler
(einliangen
Reinigungspersonal
lebendig werden
schwindelig, benommen
al les ergibt sich von selbstI.fJ~feature lntuIfi:!---'-]J S:I __ --:=====~~:-::-; Funktion
gherkin ['Q3:krnJ (Essig-IGurke; hier: Spitz-
name eines Hochhau~s
iJ ' me
I.
i:
Milli'lN
"With her bright clathes,
clear skin and lang hair,
she seemed ta Game fram
a distant planet"
" Yes," she said, and kissed his cheek. "Thank you."
"See you l omorrow," said Gus, st epping out of the lift.
" 1'11 be worki ng late lonight." She smiled as I he doors
closed, making his heart beat even faster, and at thaI mo-
ment somelhing happened. It was as if a giant hand was
pressing his ehest. He st aggered into his office and fell
into his chaif, hardly able to breathe. He thought of calling
an ambulance, but gradually the pain went away. And so,
he began working at his comput er, forgetting everything
else. It was easy now, and all the pieces fell jnto place.
This time he could watch the rising sun wit h the Princess- made in Lol's image - finished on the screen in front
of hirn, He caut iously touched his ehest. False alarm, thank
goodness. He remembered a joke Lol had once sent hirn
and clicked it open:
Q: What happens when programmers fall in love?
A; They break their hertz. lol!Gus laughed, clicked the screen back t o Lol's face again
and relaxed, suddenly feeling very tired, He would just
close his eyes fo r aminute. When the cleaners lound hirn
in hi s chair, shrouded in red-gold light, he was dead. [JA geek is someone who loves technology, and
computers in particular, but who olten lacks
social sk i ll s. Uber-can mean that somebody
is the very best in his field. It comes trom the
German "über-", particularly tram Friedric h
Nietzsche's Übermensch.101 [1001,101] is an example 01 an email or
instant- messaging acronym, and it means
" Iaughing out loud", It emphasizes that you
think something is funny. or that it is meant
as a joke. Really funny jokes are accompanied
by ROFL ['roof~ll or ROTFL and are short lor
"rolling on the ' Ioor l aughing".CID listen to this story on Business Spotlight AudioJAMES SCHOFIELD teaches business English at
Siemens. He IS co-author of the Double Dealing se-
ries and has publlshed several business short stories.
The most recent is Double Trouble (Summertown).
Contact: [email protected]Business SpoUight 79