The Broken Laptop

Iris was finishing her English homework when the laptop screen suddenly went black. She had written two pages about her favourite film and added a photograph, but she couldn't remember when she had last saved the document.

At first she pressed the power button several times. Nothing happened. Her deadline was the next morning, and the thought of writing everything again made her feel sick. She called her brother, who asked a simple question: “Is the charger connected?”

Iris checked the cable. One end was plugged into the wall, but the other had come loose from the laptop. She connected it properly and waited. After a minute, the screen came back to life. She opened her writing program and saw a message offering to recover an earlier version of the document.

Most of the work was there. Only the final sentence was missing. Iris read through the two pages to make sure the text was complete, added the sentence again and saved the document with a clear filename. Then she emailed a copy to herself.

The next day, Iris handed in the homework on time. She told her teacher what had happened, and the teacher showed the class how to save their work automatically. Iris was glad the laptop had restarted, but she was even happier to know what to do if it happened again.