Sarah Laker

2 - The Window Latch

"How's the video camera working out? Does the infra-red function okay now?"

Duncan passed Sarah his lit cigarette as he spoke. He didn't really like smoking but it was a ritual weekend thing between the three of them. For this reason he'd often start one off and move it on to her as quickly as possible.

Taking it from him, she brushed lightly against his long fingers.

"Yep. It seems to be all systems go. No more glitches. Don't see any millennial bugs going on in that one." She sniggered at the latest standing joke they shared.

"Oh, Christ. Did I tell you that woman called me up again yesterday?"

Duncan sat upright in his garden chair and put down his glass, making his hands free for the exaggerated gestures she was sure she would see from him, as he emphasised the coming anecdote.

After eating they had moved on from beer to whisky. Luke was laying back in his lounger, a cigarette in one hand, his arm lazily dangling over the side. His other hand cradled a tumbler of the tawny spirit upon his broad but strong stomach. He had his eyes closed.

"Well," Duncan continued. "Silly old bat wanted me to come over again, with a new keyboard and mouse again, 'cause she'd heard someone in the library saying that only newly manufactured equipment, from this year, could cope with the digits changing to 000. Work that out."

"I haven't heard that one before. But is there some truth to it? How do you really know what's going to happen when things change from 1999 to 2000? Is it in part of the programming or something?"

"Oh come on! I thought I'd explained this to you before. Boring."

Duncan faked a yawn and threw himself back in his chair before sipping his drink and rolling his eyes. The Chinese dragon tattoo on his lower left arm became visible as he lifted his glass. The big blue image appeared as his unbuttoned shirt sleeve slid up. He'd had it done on his twenty-first birthday in honour of his mother's Asian background.

Sarah kicked at the bottom of his seat, causing him to spill the whisky down his chin.

"Shit. Watch it will ya. New shirt, this."

"Don't be so cocky then Dunc... And why am I smoking again?" Sarah held up her cigarette and examined it from all angles, her vision beginning to double from the combination of strong liquor and exhaustion. "And who started the 'packet process' anyway? Luke or Clara?"

Keeping his eyes shut and raising his left eyebrow, Luke growled a reply.
"That would be Clara. She was desperate to get rid of the evidence before we got on the bus. I always had the walk from the bus stop to the farm to smoke up the last one. Complete waste of time though, my old man's been secretly lighting them up in the barn for years."

"Really?" Sarah interrupted, incredulous at the news. "The two faced old git. He had you scared out of your wits that he'd catch you with cigarettes. What was it that he always said he'd do to you?"

Unmoving, Luke opened an eye and peered at her.
"Said he'd light the whole pack and stick them all in every orifice he could find."

Duncan started laughing in his wheezy, squeaky way. "Yeah, thought it sounded like something lame Clara would come up with - The 'packet process.' How daft was that?"

Sarah jumped to her oldest friend's defence. "Well it stopped me from getting grounded with a clip round the ear from grandad. Saved Dunc from having his dad kick his arse, and Luke from having his bumfluff set on fire. And, it brought us all together."

Duncan sat upright again, fixing his pale blue eyes on Sarah's face. "How do you figure that one out then, Loopy Laker?"

"You really have no idea?" Sarah sighed loudly, plopped her glass onto the concrete with a clink, and leaned back in her chair. "That Friday, after the first week of college, we were all waiting for the bus home. Clara and me were trying to finish up the packet. We offered them to the girls from our theatre class but they were all goody two shoes - no drink, no smoke, no sex."