Today I took a customers computer. After all the riff raff I had one simple question I needed answered and then we could both go our separate ways. I put this in the most simplest terms I could, “Does your computer have a password?”

The man looked at me, he stared at me but I got the impression he was staring straight through me, although our eyes met, I just felt like maybe like his eyes were having trouble not focussing on the blank wall behind me.

“Does your computer have a password?”

There was another moment of silence and then he responded,

“What do you mean?”

So I gave him the only response I could muster,

“Which of those words in my sentence did you not under stand? Was it the nouns or the words connecting them, or was it the silent part between each of the words? There is no simpler way of asking this question. When you use your computer, does it require you to enter a secret password before you may use it?”

I think he understood me, although for a while there I felt like I was speaking Mandarin to the white man. He told me he didn’t use the computer but he would ask someone if there was a password. He walked off and a few minutes later came back with his son. I decided to call him, Son of Stupid. Surely this boy has an Aunty, and maybe even a mother, but no doubt they are the same person.

I asked him, “Does your computer have a password?”

He replied.

“Ummmmm. What do you mean?”

I let them leave before they ran out of grey matter to rub together between their ears to form intelligent thought. After that I booted up the computer. Guess what! It asked me for a password.