Read Brooks Berry In The Case Of The Stolen Season Page 4

  Chapter 4 Trojan Computers

  Before Brooks went to bed he flipped on his Mac computer and opened an internet browser so he could check the local paper's website. The site had the final score of the high school games: Tosa East lost 54-21 and Tosa West was able to beat Brookfield East by 62 to 17. The headline for that game was - MARC ILLE SETS SCHOOL RECORD WITH 420 YARDS OF PASSING

  Brooks slumped in his chair and turned off the monitor. "What the heck?" he muttered. He went to bed in a bad mood. Ripken jumped up on the bed with him to go to sleep and the bad mood escaped Brooks. Ripken was always able to cheer him up.

  Brooks woke up around 8am and headed downstairs to get breakfast. Ripken followed and Brooks let him outside into the backyard. He poured himself a glass of orange juice and sat at the table reading the paper. There was a note on the table from his parents, WENT TO THE NURSERY TO BUY SOME PLANTS, BACK SOON. His older sister Ally came into the room.

  Ally was 16 and a sophomore at Wauwatosa East. She was about 5'8" and very thin with shortish brown hair and a smile that made you think she was up to something. She was dressed in a white Under Armour t-shirt and a pair of gray shorts.

  "Bye Brooks, I'm off to go running," she said. She was on the track team and really quite fast. When she was younger she had been diagnosed with Diabetes. You'd never know it though, she was as active and as happy as any kid you'd ever met. She just had to check her blood sugar a few times a day.

  Just after the door slammed shut, she reopened it - "Don't forget to take mom's computer into the store to get it fixed this morning!" she yelled as she headed back out. Ripken pawed at the back door and Brooks got up to let him in. He petted his head as he passed him and Ripken returned the favor by stepping on his toe in a mad dash to get to his food.

  Brooks finished his breakfast, thought about taking a shower, and then decided against it. "Why shower when I have this baseball hat?" he asked himself. He put on his Red Sox hat, grabbed his mom's laptop and placed it into his backpack. He got his mountain bike from the garage and headed out.

  He had to drive by the high school to get to the computer store. The football team was given the day off after the game. School started next Monday, so there was plenty of activity still going on at the school even though it was a Saturday morning. As he rode by the football field, he saw Coach Vitrano out on the field by the new scoreboard. He rode his bike out onto the track circling the football field. The coach was just walking around looking at the field with a notebook in his hand.

  "Hey Brooks," he called out when he saw him approaching on his bike. "Hi Coach. What happened last night?" Coach Vitrano answered - "I wish I knew, Brooks. We looked so good in practice. We had some great plays worked out. The whole school district got these new high tech software programs that help us design and run plays online in virtual situations. Kopish and I went through them over and over at my desk for hours last week after practice. He knew the plays cold. Unfortunately, it seemed like everyone else knew exactly what play we'd be running also!"

  "Sorry Coach," said Brooks. "At least its a long season - you'll have more games to show them."

  Brooks looked over at the scoreboard. It was huge, probably about 50 feet high. 2 legs supported the huge screen. A door on one of the legs was ajar. Brooks walked over to it and opened it - it opened to a ladder so you could climb up inside the scoreboard. "Can I check it out, Coach?" asked Brooks. "Go for it," he answered, “just be careful, there’s a lot of expensive equipment up there.”

  The door was about 6 feet high, so Brooks was just able to squeeze into the opening to enter the leg. The hollow cylindrical leg contained a ladder with about 15 rungs on it. Brooks climbed the ladder and reached the main level of the scoreboard. Once inside the scoreboard he was overwhelmed by the smell of stale cigarette smoke. "Way to ruin a nice new scoreboard," thought Brooks. He stepped out on the catwalk that ran behind the board. The space was about 6 feet wide from front to back of the scoreboard.

  There were 2 more levels above this one with small ladders leading to each of them. Lots of wires and electronics snaked their way through different parts of the board to run the video screen and other panels that displayed various information during the games.

  Brooks bent down on the catwalk to look out a little slit in the front of the screen for viewing so he could see the field from way up high. From up here he had a great view of the whole field as it spread out in front of him. “They should sell tickets to sit in here,” thought Brooks, “they could make these the smoking seats!” He saw there were cigarette butts thrown on the catwalk too. "This is like a giant ashtray," he thought with disgust. He got out a piece of tissue and gathered up 5 butts so he could throw them away and try to keep the place clean.

  He stood back up, walked back to the entrance and headed down the ladder. He was starting to feel a little claustrophobic inside the scoreboard! After climbing down the rungs of the ladder he exited the scoreboard and threw the butts into a trashcan close by.

  Before discarding them, he took a look at them. They were strange looking cigarette butts. For someone that didn't smoke, Brooks had spent some quality time with the butts because his little league team sponsored part of a local highway. They kept the roadside clear of trash people had thrown out of their cars. For some reason a lot of people don't think throwing cigarette butts out of their car windows is littering! Brooks hated that since he took pride in the highway his team worked on.

  These butts had 3 rings near the part that goes in the mouth - black, metallic gold and red. Strange thought Brooks, never seen that before.

  "See ya, Brooks, I have to work on the game plan for next week," yelled Coach V. "Bye, Coach,” said Brooks as he hopped back onto his bike after gathering up his backpack.

  The computer store was about 2 miles away. The late August sun was pretty hot and Brooks was sweating when he pulled up. Trojan Computers was a pretty small store. Definitely not a BestBuy or one of those types of stores. There were a few computers built from parts for sale. Lots of monitors and cables.

  A short man was behind the counter cleaning out a keyboard with compressed air. He was about 5'8" with thinning brown hair. He wore a black golf shirt and jeans. Brooks walked up to the counter and pulled out his computer. "Hi can I help you?" the guy at the counter asked. "My mom called about fixing her computer - Stacy Berry is her name." "Oh right, I remember. Tell her I'll call her after I've done some work on it to see what the problem is."

  Brooks looked on the wall and saw a poster with the Tosa West football team's schedule on it. "Tosa West had a good game," said Brooks. "They sure did, and I'll bet they have a bunch more this season!" said the man. "We'll see about that," said Brooks with a smile.

  He handed Brooks a copy of the work order to bring back when the computer was done. He looked at the name on the paper and it said Gunther Arno. There was a business card holder on the counter that said "TROJAN COMPUTERS - Gunther Arno - OWNER" "Thanks" said Brooks as he walked out the door and headed to his bike. He entered the combination, unlocked it and headed home.