Tactical Texter

2-2-2 "C". One blink. Two blinks.

2 "A".

5-5-5 "L". One blink. Two blinks.

5-5-5 "L".

Space bar

6 "M".

3-3 "E". 

Space bar

9 "W"

4-4 "H"

3-3 "E"

6-6 "N"

Space bar

9-9-9 "Y"

6-6-6 "O"

8-8 "U"

Space bar 

4 "G"

3-3 "E"

8 "T"

Space bar

6-6-6 "O"

3-3-3 "F" One blink. Two blinks. 

3-3-3 "F"

  Brian looked at the screen. Again. He was SOOOOO proud of himself. He had FINALLY been able to make the message appear in record time. Record time for him at least. He had watched ALOT of others learning this 'new' way of sending and receiving messages almost INSTANTLY. At first he felt a bit irritated about the whole idea of sending messages. 

"Why don't people just call each other anymore? Way easier to get in contact with the person on the other side.", he argued diligently with those who had boasted of becoming expert texters. He thought it a "waste of time" as he had seen many tapping away at their dial pads. Every now and then expressing frustration when they would miss a letter and had to repress it once or twice too many times. 

   But NOW, he stared at the screen ONE more time before PROUDLY pressing the send button on his phone. Not on the screen but on the actual dial pad. He still had one of those flip phones that didn't have a touch screen. The ones you STILL had to tap the numbers the adequate amount of times to get the appropriate letter in place. The world had advanced while Brian obviously hadn't. 

   He knew deep within himself that him barely having mastered texting at all was outdated but WOULD NEVER admit that to himself. Nor to ANYONE else for that matter. Brian thought of himself as too 'old school' to have to move as fast as the rest of the world seemed to BE going. Hell he STILL had the original internet at home. Yep. AOL dial up was what linked him up to the world wide web. And even that wasn't in use. The little circles going around in a circle  in the middle of the screen when loading a page had gone from slow to completely frozen. And the REASON he hadn't gotten that fixed was because they (AT&T) had wanted him to update his ENTIRE system. EVERYTHING! Cables, connections, and also this thing-a- magiggy called a rou-something or the other that directed the signals around the house 'wirelessly'. He still couldn't quite wrap his head around all that mess so he just put it off. He would just use the internet at his business. He didn't for much more than business anyways. 

   He looked at the little icon flashing on the screen of the phone. It was one that resembled a paper airplane. Since it was such an old model, the pixels that made up the design could be seen. The bunched up little squares were well defined and looked just like a bunch of little squares in the shape of a paper airplane, unlike the newer versions that looked way smoother. 

   In intermittent motions, from left to right, the icon flashed across the screen several times,  'dissappearing' on one side and reappearing on the other. It did it a total of three times before NOT reappearing but instead a check mark with a circle around appeared with the confirmation message underneath that read "message sent". And with that Brian grinned at himself for his successful text message milestone he had FINALLY reached as he closed the phone by placing his index finger on the top and slowly bringing it down the screen to connect to the dial pad. 

"The tactical texter", sounded delightful as he said it to himself.

  "OH NO!!!", he heard his own voice scream in his mind immediately after the sound of closing the phone had finished being satisfyingly registered into his memory of accomplished goals. Instantly replaced with a dissatisfying image.  An image that gave him a horrifying feeling that began right there in his brain, trecked down to his face wiping the grin off and turning it upside down and all kinds of ways. It then proceeded to his heart to leave a splinter of a mark behind as it made its way down the to pit of his stomach. Unsettlingly settling itself right in his gut. 

   He felt the acid build up then just as quickly, shoot itself in anxiety form back up through his intestines, through his chest, rapidly retouching the fresh wound of disappointment from moments before, through his shoulders, down his arms reaching his already trembling hands. His fingers desperately grasped the edges of the phone. With what felt more than the amount of force he needed to get it open, he flipped the phone ajar hard, making a not so familiar sound. A cracking sound that upped the one his nerves were already making within him even more. 

   The screen lit up displaying the bland home page with only time showing. He crunched the numbers in his mind as fast as his brain could 

process the computation he had just fed it.  

   "Let's see. Between the moment I press the send button, no from the moment the confirmation button appeared and I closed the phone, acknowledged my success sent and proudly basked in my glory and realizing...." 

   He scratched his head, "It couldn't have been more than a mere five seconds." 

   He felt a surge of hope. Maybe she hadn't even gotten the message yet? He wouldn't know since his older model phone screen did NOT display like the newer ones confirmation of both the message being delivered and read. He would have also known his mother was ALREADY texting him back as he would have been notified by the little bubbles in motion that formed on the screen when that was happening. But he didn't so he NEVER had a chance. 

"Maybe I still have a chance.", Brian thought to himself as he frantically searched for the number that represented the letter he needed to start the word he required to make better what had started this mess of a moment. Since he was in a bit of a panic, he experienced a brain fart by NOT 'finding' the number/letter fast enough even after he had memorized them. That's what had actually helped him become better at texting like this by having known exactly where each letter was in the number pad. But at that moment, he couldn't find it. He cursed at himself under his breath. 

7 "P"

5-5-5 "L"

3-3 "E" 

2 "A"

His mother didn't like for him NOT to use please when asking for something. Especially from her. And he would hear it if he DIDN'T get to send this message out in 'time'. 

7-7-7-8 "T"

He cursed at himself for having accidently pressed the 8 causing the letter to change. 

He clicked the back arrow and delete, making the "T" disappear from the screen.

7-7-7 "S"

3-3 "E"

But as soon as he put his finger on the send button, the phone buzzed. The screen displayed an envelope with a message stating he had received a message. He didn't even have to look at who it was from. He ALREADY knew by the pang he felt in his chest area. He pushed it down gently but with enough force to activate the circuitry inside to send off that one VERY important word. 

  The paper airplane icon went from left to right on the screen in ONE quick motion instead of the usual three steady blinks it had done before. The check mark with circle around it appeared. A moment later the screen was back at the home page. 

  He clicked on the open message icon to affirm what he knew what the message said, "A please would BE nice!", displayed the screen. 

And within a few more moments the phone buzzed again. Another message from his mother that he would have known she was sending had he had a phone that displayed the little bubbles in motion. 

He clicked to open it.

"Too late. You know you should get a newer phone so you can text...

Click. 

He closed his phone softly. 

He shook his head in slight disappointment with the unsettling truth that his mother had learned how to text faster than him on a new phone.