There is some popcorn stuck up your nose. How did it get there?
There have been times where existing at the forefront of technology has had its setbacks. After all, most of the time I gain a new piece of equipment, I am my own guinea pig.
And such a time was the first malfunction of my respiratory system.
It was a movie night for my partner and a few co-workers. This was long before CLEA. CLEA developed after Bonecia and I had our children. Prior to that, my status as an employee of Knight Industries, and what later became Knightech, fluctuated. Most times I continued to perform the functions I was designed for, but FLAG, as it was, ceased to exist the day Devon died. The Knight family…Michael Knight’s family…took a long time to recover from his death and the difficulties that followed. And I am not afraid to admit, that I too suffered a great deal during that time.
But the movie night, this particular movie night was during a time of relative stability. My then partner was a man by the name of ‘El’. It was short for Elvis, but since he was well known for pulling his gun on any who used his full name, most called him El. I think back now of the times I taunted him for that, knowing that he knew the gun was little threat in my case…until he spiked the lubricant I used with beach sand.
He was always ‘El’ after that.
El had invited himself and a few of the others over to my family home. Letitia and Robert, my brother and sister-in-law both liked El. I also believe they liked the fact that he was able to counter many of my arguments with arguments of his own. El, gun toting though he was, was a very thoughtful man. I learnt a great deal from him.
All in all there were six of us in total and we chose one of the latest releases and settled down on the couch for a night’s entertainment.
And El brought popcorn.
He never let me forget what happened, not that I could. He and several of the others found it highly amusing and for weeks afterwards they made a point to re-enact my reaction.
The pressure regulator on my air intake valve malfunctioned causing the entire system to overcompensate and, as El termed it, my nose turned into a vacuum cleaner.
Letitia had been sitting beside me with the popcorn bowl.
Diagnostics alerted me to the problem, but not quickly enough to prevent several kernels of popcorn, part of my shirt and several strands of Letitia’s rather long hair from being drawn into my nasal cavity. A hasty system shutdown released the shirt and the hair, but the popcorn lodged itself in a rather inconvenient position.
The expression on the faces around me were rather astonished to say the least.
And apparently mine was equally as shocked and somewhat humorous to spectate.
I spent the rest of that night in Tech Services being repaired as my system needed the intake, not able to maintain my integrals for any great deal of time without it.
And the next day I found a sign above my desk.
Danger: Vacuum
I think El found it hilarious until I returned the favour.
Muse: Knight
Fandom: Knight Rider
Word count: 543