G - That was Fun.
I got the call to come and fix the letter G on a laptop and so I went to see what I could do. It was a memorable experience. A long dusty trail into the land of the shop. The banging of metal, the arc of the weld. Engines murmuring in the background. I walked along the outer perimeter carefully watching my path to avoid slick spots on the concrete. Like a lone bull elk whose time was past, I made my way slowly. After careful searching I spotted the laptop among the reeds and thrushes of the shop swamp. It was perched atop the rolling toolbox, nestled in the residue of grease.
I scanned the keyboard, looking for the "G". It took a moment, but there it was. Second row of letters, fifth key in from the left. Its neighbors F and H watched as I leaned in. A gentle prying motion was all I needed to lift the G key from the bed, followed by softly removing the retaining clip. Underneath was a small dome or ball-like button. I took to cleaning each of these components with a damp swab that had been moistened with rubbing alcohol. And since it clearly included the word rubbing, I knew what I had to do. It was tiny meticulous work, but gradually the grime began to fade. I could now see all the other keys were keeping the eyes on the G. Even the Q was pointing as the scene unfolded.
I reinstalled the retaining clip and positioned the G back in place. It got very quiet as we all waited to power up the laptop. I entered the password and the programs began to populate. I opened a blank document and the entire keyboard and I took a deep breath. Very slowly I typed giraffe, guffaw and giggle and every G showed up. A great roar from the keyboard crowd was heard. The exclamation point seemed especially excited!! I returned the laptop to its resting place. As I turned and walked away I looked back for a moment and the tilde just winked at me. It was a great feeling.