Forgotten Times 12/17
By Debbie Eng (wan-ping@juno.com)

*******

	Peter blinked in confusion as he left his secret place.  Where
was he?  The only thing he could see was the ceiling.  He could hear the
sounds of keys clacking away.   He turned his head.  He could see the
glint of gold from the shelves on his right.  He was back upstairs in his
room.  What had happened?  How had he gotten back up?

	Kermit was getting a mite frustrated at Peter as he typed in
another word.  He muttered under his breath, " Teach him everything you
know and how do they reward you?  They lock their stuff so that you can
no longer get in. Must mean that he's learned his lessons well, "  Kermit
continued typing in words.  After helping Paul bring Peter back to his
room, he had decided to try and hack into the laptop.  He wanted to
surprise Peter with a couple of new upgrades.
	
	" Frog Man?" Peter called.  Kermit looked up at him.  He had
known the exact moment when Peter had snapped out of the spell.  " Yes? "

	" There isn't a password, " Peter said, " I never put one in
because sometimes the other kids would want to play solitaire on it. " 
Kermit had a shocked look on his face, and repeated what Peter had told
him, " You didn't put a password on it?  All of those lessons on
protecting your files, wasted?"

	" Not wasted, if it fooled even you, " Peter said smiling.  He
pushed himself up with his good arm, " What time is it?  I have to
finish..."

	" Dinner should be ready any minute, " Kermit grumbled as he
deleted the word he had just inputted and pressed enter to send in a
blank line.  What he saw impressed him, the only things that he could
read were the words solitaire and email in one of the program groups. 
The rest looked to be in gibberish, " What the hell is that?  Doesn't
look like any code that I've ever seen."

	Peter got off the bed and looked at the screen, " Chinese. 
Spelled out Peter styled."  Before their eyes, the screen started
flickering like crazy.

	Peter apologized, " I'm sorry.  I couldn't protect it.  You
trusted me with it and I couldn't protect it."

	Kermit looked puzzled.  What was Peter apologizing for?  What was
he talking about?

	" You lent me your laptop and I couldn't protect it, " Peter was
looking down at his feet.  Kermit stayed silent and let Peter continue.

	" I....When I was at the Andersons...," Peter had a hard time
getting it out, he the memories of what had happened that night, were
still clear.  He could see it like it was yesterday while he told Kermit
what had happened.

	 It had been a week after the crash.  Peter had withdrawn into
himself.  He was no longer interested in soccer and he couldn't leave the
house.  Anderson had hit him before and there was now a large purple
bruise forming on the side of his face.  He hadn't yet thought of an
excuse to give for it yet.  But he had wanted to talk to someone, anyone.
 He had decided to email Kermit a letter.  Mrs. Anderson had always
allowed him to use the phone lines after 10 in the evenings.  He had been
hooking into his account when Mr. Anderson had wandered in drunk.

	" What the hell are you doing, boy?"  Mr. Anderson had asked.

	" I...I was just emailing my friend....," Peter said hesitantly.

	" Friend?  You don't deserve any friends.  If you treat your
family this way, then your friends will thank me for keeping you away
>From them, " and with that Mr. Anderson had lifted the laptop and threw
it against the wall.  Peter had ran towards it, not seeing the fist that
had descended on him from behind.

	Peter continued, while still looking down, " When I woke up, I
managed to get the computer to boot up and everything, but I think that
there's something loose in the screen.  I can't get it to stop flickering
like that.  I'm sorry, its all my fault, I'll pay for it somehow, really
I will." 

	Kermit didn't say anything until Peter dared to look up, " Peter,
" he placed an arm around Peter's shoulder, " Listen to me, it was not
your fault.  You didn't do anything wrong. "
	
	Peter opened his mouth to contradict him, but Kermit stopped him,
" No Peter.  Anderson was wrong.  You are a very good person.  And don't
worry about the computer, " Kermit said shutting it down, " Its been
through worst.  I used it on some mercenary missions, this is nothing
compared to what happened to it in Germany."

	Peter was interested, " Germany? "

	" Yeah, I'll tell it to you later, but right now, Annie's calling
us for dinner.  "
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