Computer Clues Read online

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  Published by

  Dell Yearling

  an imprint of

  Random House Children’s Books

  a division of Random House, Inc.

  1540 Broadway

  New York, New York 10036

  Text copyright © 1998 by Judy Delton

  Illustrations copyright © 1998 by Alan Tiegreen

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the Publisher, except where permitted by law.

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  eISBN: 978-0-307-80008-4

  v3.1

  For Roxanne Lien:

  Party giver, storyteller,

  beast keeper extraordinaire!

  Long live the liens d’amitié

  among us!

  Contents

  Cover

  Other Books by This Author

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  1 Looking for Excitement

  2 Meeting Mr. Machine

  3 The Magic Laptop

  4 Too Many Birds!

  5 Lost in Cyberspace

  6 ESP to the Rescue!

  7 Snail Mail Out—E-mail In

  8 Molly’s Secret Admirer

  9 “Oops!”

  10 The Treasure Hunt

  CHAPTER

  1

  Looking for Excitement

  “I wish something exciting would happen around here,” said Rachel Meyers. It was autumn, and the Pee Wee Scouts were on their way to Mrs. Peters’s house for their meeting. They met every Tuesday in their leader’s basement. “In my cousin Courtney’s school in New York, they have a computer lab,” Rachel continued. “They get to do all this fun stuff using the computer.”

  “I know,” said Patty Baker. “In Ashley’s school in California, they play computer games and send electric mail and learn about baby whales.” Ashley was Patty’s cousin. She was a part-time Pee Wee Scout. When she was in California, she was a Saddle Scout.

  “It’s not electric mail. It’s electronic mail,” said Kenny, Patty’s twin brother. “And we can learn about whales and stuff in the encyclopedia. We don’t have to have a computer.”

  “Pooh,” said Rachel, kicking at a big pile of red maple leaves. “Books are old-fashioned. Courtney says people who still use books are roadkill on the information superhighway. She says the big cities all have state-of-the-art stuff in their schools. She says Minnesota is way behind.”

  “That’s not true!” said Mary Beth Kelly to her best friend, Molly Duff. “People in Minnesota are just as smart as people in New York. My mom says Minnesota is a good place for kids to grow up. There’s more fresh air and lakes, and you don’t get run over by taxicabs.”

  “My uncle did,” said Roger White. “Right on Main Street. Pow!”

  None of the Pee Wees had anything to say about Roger’s uncle. They were all too busy thinking about computers.

  There were twelve Pee Wees. Twelve and a half counting Ashley, who came to Scout meetings only during the half year when she was visiting her cousins.

  “All I know is that Minnesota is not as exciting as New York,” said Rachel.

  “And not as exciting as California,” said Patty.

  “My dad’s got a computer,” said Roger. “Right here in Minnesota. It has everything. Even Outernet.”

  “Outernet!” laughed Rachel. “It’s Internet, not Outernet!”

  Roger liked to laugh at others, but he didn’t like it when others laughed at him. His face turned bright red. “Inner, Outer, what’s the difference?” he said. “My dad’s computer can do everything.”

  “Does it wash the dishes?” asked Sonny Stone. “Does it take out the garbage?”

  “Hey! Does it drive a car?” roared Tim Noon.

  “How about doing homework?” asked Tracy Barnes.

  “It does homework,” said Roger. “And it does lots of other stuff.”

  “My dad has a computer at the office,” said Molly. “He can even use it to order groceries from the market.”

  “A computer can’t go to the market,” said Tim. “No way.”

  “It can,” said Jody George, who was in a wheelchair. Everyone liked Jody. He was smart and he was nice. The Pee Wees liked to ride in his wheelchair. They all wished they had one, too.

  “If you have a modem, you can connect with places all over the world,” said Jody. “I can even put CDs in mine. I have one CD with a whole encyclopedia on it.”

  Molly was pleased that Jody was taking her side. She was not surprised that Jody had his very own computer. The Georges were rich. They had a big house with a swimming pool. There weren’t many swimming pools in Minnesota. It was cold and snowy half the year. When Molly was old enough to have a boyfriend, she decided, it would be Jody. If she married him someday, when she was grown up, she would get to ride in his wheelchair as often as she liked.

  The Pee Wees arrived at Mrs. Peters’s house. They went around to the back door and down the basement steps to start their meeting. It felt good to get indoors away from the brisk fall wind.

  “Hello!” called Mrs. Peters. “Hurry in. There’s lots of excitement today! We are going to earn a brand-new badge. Guess what it’s for!”

  “Tying knots?” asked Sonny.

  “Hiking?” said Kevin Moe. Kevin liked the outdoors.

  “Skating?” asked Tracy.

  Mrs. Peters shook her head and smiled. “Something more exciting than all of those,” she said. “Something brand new that we have never done. We are going to learn to use computers!”

  CHAPTER

  2

  Meeting Mr. Machine

  The Pee Wees couldn’t believe their ears! Could their leader have read their minds? Was Minnesota as up-to-date as New York and California? Would the Pee Wees be able to compete with Ashley and Courtney on the information superhighway?

  “We were just talking about computers!” Kevin told Mrs. Peters. “We must have ESP!”

  What in the world does ESP stand for? thought Molly. Enemy Spy Police? Enter Secret Pal? Every Sad Petunia?

  “My uncle has ESP,” said Mary Beth. “When he plays cards, he always wins. He can’t help it. He just knows what cards other people are holding in their hands. It’s like he can see right through the cards. My dad says it’s ESP. My mom says he cheats.”

  Many of the Pee Wees looked puzzled.

  “ESP stands for extrasensory perception,” said Mrs. Peters. “Mind reading. Nobody knows for sure if it’s real. Sometimes it seems as if someone knows what you’re thinking. But it may be just a coincidence.”

  Molly remem
bered a time last week when she had been thinking about her aunt. While she was thinking of her, there was a knock on the door. When Molly answered the door, there was her aunt! Could that have been ESP? Could Molly herself have it? She would have to pay attention and see.

  Meanwhile, the Pee Wees were excited about the computer badge.

  “What do we have to do to get the badge?” asked Roger. Roger didn’t like to work very hard for his badges.

  “I’ll tell you all about it,” said their leader. “Just as soon as you take your jackets off and settle down.”

  “We don’t have a computer, Mrs. Peters,” said Tim, hanging his jacket on the back of his chair. “My mom said we can’t afford one. I won’t be able to get my badge if we need a computer.” Tim looked as if he might cry, Molly thought.

  Mrs. Peters held up her hand, a signal for quiet. “None of you need to worry about having a computer of your own. We have a computer here that we’ll use.” She pointed to a machine in the middle of the big desk. “And some of you have more than one computer at home that you can share with the rest of the group. If your family computer is busy, or if you don’t have one, we have permission to use a computer in the high-school computer lab,” she said. “The principal has set up one with our own address for electronic mail, [email protected]. PWS is short for Pee Wee Scouts. So feel free to use that computer. No one needs to buy a computer, or worry about owning one. Do you understand?”

  Everyone nodded.

  “Mrs. Peters, we have two computers,” said Kevin. “I’m sure my dad would let someone use one of them.”

  “So do we,” said Jody. “I’ll share mine and help someone learn the software programs.”

  “Why is it soft?” asked Sonny. “Is it made of foam rubber, like pillows?”

  The other Pee Wees looked at one another and chuckled. “Dummy,” said Roger. “Software is discos you load on your computer so you can do stuff, like play games and listen to music.”

  “Disks,” said Mrs. Peters. “But we’ll go into all of that later. Right now I just want to tell you what we are going to do in the next weeks to get our new badge.”

  The Pee Wees sat up straight to listen. They loved new badges. And they wanted to know what they had to do to get this one. Molly didn’t care how hard she had to work. It was worth it. She loved collecting bright, colorful badges. And for every badge she earned, she had learned something new.

  “First of all,” said Mrs. Peters, “we’ll talk about some of the things that computers can do to help you. I’ll also show you some basic steps so you can use computers yourselves. Then you’ll have to do three things to earn your badge. The first is to write a short report, using information you find on the Internet. The second is to contact your friends via E-mail. And finally, to celebrate our new badge, we’ll have a treasure hunt. All of the clues will be given to you by E-mail.”

  “What if we want to use a book to do research for our report?” asked Tracy.

  “No books,” said their leader. “Books are wonderful, but this project is all about computers. This is not a book badge. This is a computer badge. You’ll find all your information on the computer, and you’ll do all your writing on the computer.”

  Hands were waving. “Is Internet like a fishnet?” shouted Tim.

  “I already know how to use a computer, Mrs. Peters,” said Mary Beth.

  “What kind of report?” Sonny asked.

  “I’ll tell you all about it,” said Mrs. Peters. “And I’ll introduce you to the machine.”

  “Hello, Mr. Machine,” said Roger, putting his arm out as if to shake hands with the computer. “My name is Roger.”

  The Pee Wees giggled and Mrs. Peters frowned.

  “Next week,” she said, “we’ll pick papers out of a hat. Each paper will have the subject for a report written on it. Each subject will be different. Your reports will be on items found at the fairgrounds here in town. That’s where we’ll have our treasure hunt. The subjects will be things like local birds or buildings or trees.”

  “I don’t like birds, Mrs. Peters,” said Tracy. “I’m allergic to feathers.”

  Molly could think of a million questions. How do you find something on the computer if you don’t know how to spell the word? And how can you write on the computer without a pencil? How can everyone read it? Molly started to get the same scared feeling in her stomach that she got when she was in school and she didn’t understand the directions for a test.

  But why should she worry? Mary Beth was her best friend. And Mary Beth knew about computers!

  “How do you write on a computer?” she whispered to Mary Beth.

  “You need software,” Mary Beth whispered back. “A program.”

  Programs. Software. That was no help at all. Those words didn’t tell her anything!

  “Mrs. Peters will explain it to us,” added Mary Beth.

  Of course! Mrs. Peters said she would help them! Why was Molly so impatient?

  “Now let’s not jump the gun,” said their leader. “First things first.”

  Was jump the gun a computer term too? wondered Molly. And what did guns have to do with computers? Her mother didn’t like guns. She would not be pleased if Molly had to use guns on a computer.

  Most of the Pee Wees were frowning. Mrs. Peters pointed to the computer on the desk. It had a screen like a TV and a metal box. There was also something that looked like part of a typewriter. Mrs. Peters wasn’t wasting any time. She pressed two buttons and the machine began to hum and lights began to flash.

  “What program are you using?” asked Rachel. “We are getting a new computer that will have four different word processing programs. One of them has an entire dictionary on it. There’s so much storage on the hard drive that it can hold jillions and jillions of words.”

  Word processing. Molly had heard about processed cheese. But how do you process words?

  “Right now,” said Mrs. Peters, “I just want to show everyone how to turn the computer on and off.” She explained the two buttons. One for the screen. One for the hard drive.

  “I can’t drive, even if it’s easy drive!” cried Tim. “I’m not old enough to drive!”

  “Hard drive does not refer to driving a car,” said Mrs. Peters kindly. “It means the part of the computer that stores information.”

  Molly was glad that there was someone who knew less than she did. Even she, Molly, knew they would not be driving a car!

  CHAPTER

  3

  The Magic Laptop

  Mrs. Peters showed the Pee Wees the little pictures on the screen. Then she held up a small plastic thing and said, “This is called a mouse.”

  The mouse was connected to the computer by a wire that looked like a long tail. But otherwise, it didn’t look much like a mouse. For all Molly knew, mouse was one of those words that could be spelled two different ways. Like moose, the animal, and mousse, her mother’s chocolate dessert.

  “If you want to use the Internet, you take this little mouse and move it until the arrow on the screen is on this picture of a phone line,” Mrs. Peters said. “Then you click the mouse twice. The Internet is full of information about all kinds of things. You will find information for your report on the Internet under www.exploreminnesota.com. Just like you would in a book about Minnesota.”

  Molly wanted to ask, Why not use a book, then? but she didn’t.

  “When you’re ready to write your report, you put the arrow on this picture of a blank sheet of paper. Then you click the mouse. A blank screen will appear for you to write on. It looks just like a piece of paper.” She clicked and showed them. Things whirred and buzzed. Something came on the screen, but it didn’t look like a piece of paper to Molly.

  Then Mrs. Peters showed them how to press buttons on the keyboard to make letters appear on the screen. It was like magic! You didn’t even need a pencil. Mrs. Peters put letters together to make words. She wrote their names. Then she wrote, “The Pee Wee Scouts are all here today to le
arn about computers.”

  It was fun! Even Tim, who sometimes had trouble with his letters, could read it.

  “How do you get your words onto a piece of paper?” asked Lisa Ronning.

  “When you are finished writing, you turn on the printer, and put the arrow on ‘print.’ Then you click the mouse,” said Mrs. Peters.

  Mrs. Peters let everyone take a turn writing their name on the screen, along with a few sentences. Then she printed them out on real paper.

  “This is easy!” said Lisa.

  Molly couldn’t believe it was so simple. Was it possible she had been worried for nothing?

  But when it was her turn to write, Molly’s mind was as blank as the screen!

  Jody had written, “I like to work on computers.”

  Tim wrote, “Eous fun and jumpe.”

  Rachel wrote, “Our new computer is exciting.”

  When it was Molly’s turn, she wrote, “I am sevenal years old.”

  That was wrong! She did not remember pressing the a and the l, but there they were! Now Molly’s words would be printed wrong, too! They would look as silly as the words Tim had written.

  “Now, boys and girls, this is a perfect time for me to show you how to correct a mistake on the screen,” said Mrs. Peters.

  A perfect time, the wrong Pee Wee, thought Molly. Why hadn’t Mrs. Peters corrected Tim’s sentence?

  Mrs. Peters pressed a button that moved the little flashing line, which was called the cursor. It went back to the word seven. She put the cursor on the a and the l and pressed a button labeled DELETE. The letters were gone! More magic!

  “Delete means erase,” Mrs. Peters explained. Then she printed out Molly’s corrected sentence.

  “And now I think that’s enough work for one day. It’s time for our cupcakes, our good deeds, and our song. Then we’ll call it a day.”

  Molly put her printed message in her pocket to show her parents. It looked good, after all. No one could tell there had ever been a mistake! It was even easier and cleaner than using the pink eraser in her desk at home. She was on the way to a new computer badge! Rat’s knees, she could quit worrying. At least for now.