Chapter 1:
And So It Arrived!
The summer afternoon was hot and muggy. Clean laundry was piled high on the bed waiting to be folded. Flip-flops, sneakers, and sandals were thrown in a big pile beside the door. The floor of the bathroom was cooling off two dogs. Various items were cluttering up the floor by the back door -- a butterfly net, a jar for bugs, a soccer ball, an opened umbrella, binoculars, a stick, a swimming "noodle". Water, sweating off the pitcher of iced tea, was puddling on the counter. The iced tea was being gulped down in the family room. An old ceiling fan was loudly whirling overhead.
That's when the doorbell rang! Right at the end of chapter 2 of Gone Away Lake, right where it says, "...and then an enormous voice began to speak." That's when the doorbell rang. Bodies jumped up out of their comfortable positions, barefeet ran across the kitchen floor, a voice shouted, "Someone get the dogs!" Bark, bark, bark!
"UPS delivery, ma'am. Sign here, please." Anna Nolan, shaking a little bit, asked, "Right here?" "Yes. Looks like you got yourself one nice computer there. I have a Dell myself, but I hear Gateways are pretty good, too." Handing back the clipboard, Anna chatted politely, "Yes, we're all excited. It's our first home computer." "Well, have fun." The delivery man waved to the children as he left. They had been not-so-quietly standing behind their mother, waiting to touch the boxes that held their brand new computer. "Oh boy! I'm calling Dad," exclaimed 11-year old Rod.
By the time Chester was home from work, the family room was crowded with the computer boxes and the furniture was being rearranged to find the perfect spot for the family computer. Chester worked with computers everyday so it didn't take him long to hook up the new computer. After explaining all the different software programs ... demonstrating a document being printed from the word processing software, entering a check in the money program, finding the meaning of "benevolence" in the dictionary, and looking up "sharks" in the encyclopedia, Chester showed how to dialup to the Internet.
"All you do is double click this icon. Then you click the button that says 'Connect'. Next, you'll hear the dialtone," Chester explained in a matter-of-fact way. For the first time in the Nolan household the sound of a modem dialing a local Internet access number was heard.
Anna was a little hesitant of the Internet. She had read the reports of strangers e-mailing children, pornography sites that deviously come up on searches for educational information, and people who spend too much time on the computer becoming 'Net addicts. At the same time, she knew friends and family who boasted of the Internet's vast educational resources, support forums, and Christian fellowship & encouragement.
Her sister, Polly, who lived 500 miles away, had been pestering her to "get connected" so that they could chat and write more easily and affordably. Polly promised to teach her about 'Net safety and introduce her to all sorts of wonderful, fun and helpful Web sites. Anna listened as the modem connected and realized she was finally getting on the "Information Superhighway". She prayed silently, "Oh please Lord, help us to use this tool wisely and with discernment. Thank You!"
The modem successfully connected. 8-year old Sandy, who was sitting in the computer chair, double clicked the Web browser icon. With a double click, the Nolans were joining millions surfing the World Wide Web. "So what do we do know?"
Somebody let out a low whistle. It was done. The Nolans were on the Internet. Chester turned to see Anna looking a little nervous, but excited nonetheless. "So what do we do now," she repeated. There was a welcoming page, but no clear directions of where to go. "Click that," 5-year old Murray was pointing to an icon of a stoplight. "No way, that won't do anything," explained Rod. "We want to go somewhere, not just sit on this boring page."
"Okay, everyone quiet. And let's not all crowd so close," Chester remembered he was the only one that had regularly been on the Internet. The children had used it occasionally at their grandparents' home and at their cousins' home. Anna had sat next to her sister Polly while she surfed the Internet, but couldn't remember anything worthwhile right now. She did remember how she fell in love with the delicious cranberry tea Polly had made before getting on the computer.
"First, we are going to change the home page for our browser," Chester stated, taking charge. Sandy reluctantly gave up the mouse to her father, but kept sitting in the computer chair. Now that her hands were free, she put the puppy in her lap. "Dad, let's do a search on sharks. You know I'm reading everything I can about them," Sandy said in her nicest voice, while the puppy (Jonah was his name) licked the space bar. Rod voiced his disapproval, "Sharks again! And keep Jonah away from the keyboard."
Chester knew right away that he had to nip this bickering in the bud before the computer became a point of contention between Rod and Sandy. "Listen, both of you. We purchased this new computer for all of us. We are going to work on setting up some guidelines about using it. Each of us has some way that we can use the computer." Anna had an idea, "Let's pick a Scripture that will remind us of our purpose for this computer. We can hang it above the screen."
"How about 'Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good'?" Murray offered. He had been listening to his Scripture memory tapes earlier. Murray was lying on the floor by now, not interested anymore in the computer. His favorite part had been taking everything out of the boxes and helping his father hook everything up. He was busy drawing a schematic of which cords went where. "That's a good one, Murray," Chester replied. "Any other ideas?"
"How about 1 John 2, ummm, I can't remember the verse number, but it goes, 'Whoever claims to live in him' or is it 'abide in Him'? Anyway, 'Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.'" This was offered up by Anna, who was liking this part. She really had no idea what the Web held for her family, but she wanted her family to not lose sight of their position as God's servants.
"Hey, how about just putting 'What Would Jesus Do?' over the computer?" Rod was even getting into the swing of things now that he remembered he really did respect his sister's love of science. "You mean like the book by Charles Sheldon?" asked Chester. "Well, I guess so, but I was thinking of those bracelets that Sandy and I collected and gave away to unsaved friends," Rod explained.
"Maybe we need to post a whole series of Scriptures and sayings!" Sandy was obviously excited about this. She loved to draw and make posters. Anytime someone wanted a Scripture posted somewhere as a reminder, she would get out her art kit and work on several different ideas. It was obvious the creative juices were flowing and seemed that everyone had forgotten why they needed a reminder in the first place.
That's when Anna, feeling as though she was on a roll, suggested visiting the Christian Webbers Web page. Two of Polly's eleven children, Erasmus and Hyacinth, were home school graduates and working together as Web page designers. Polly had proudly told her how they had setup all sorts of ... "Oh, Chester. What is the term for it when one Web site has a list of other Web sites to visit?" Chester chuckled and told her it was "links". "That is a great idea! And it also reminds me that Polly has a surprise waiting for you on the 'Net." He kept chuckling, especially when he saw Anna's "worried" face.
"Where'd Murray go?" Rod had just stepped on Murray's wiring schematic. It didn't take long to hear the pantry door swinging, the sound of a cereal box being rummaged in, and the crunch, crunch of cereal. "Oh my! What are we going to have for dinner? I forgot all about it!"
"And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord;
and great shall be the peace of thy children."
Isaiah 54:13