Mystery of the Destroyed Laptop - a postcard fiction flash story by Rob Hopcott

When the Reverend McArbuster violently destroyed his laptop with a pick axe on the rectory lawn, in full view of his departing congregation, the good ladies of Treadhampton exchanged concerned glances before hurrying back to cook their Sunday lunches in their neat Gloucestershire village homes.

When it was announced a week later at the Sunday Service that the Reverend had suddenly departed for a new position in Africa, even the regulars at the local Figs Ferkin pub joined in the speculation before raising a glass in sorrow for the departure of this popular local clergyman.

The mystery deepened, soon after, when the solitary figure of a slim blond lady was seen knocking on the door of the deserted vicarage.

Now, it came to pass, as it sometimes does in small villages, the local web site designer was also the brother-in-law of young Tom the junior dustbin man and by means that will remain unexplained, due to such small matters as the Data Protection Act, a certain recovered hard disk from a certain laptop came to be searched for clues to the mystery.

Almost immediately, the whole village was alive with the sad story. People said something had to be done and a committee was formed with the head of the Women's Institute acting as Chairman. The vote was unanimous and a collection was made at the packed meeting to buy an air ticket for one.

Six months later, the good ladies of the village, and even the regulars at the Figs Ferkin pub, all turned out to celebrate the marriage of their beaming vicar to a slim blond lady he had fallen in love with and wooed over the Internet.

As they sipped their celebratory cups of tea, the good ladies of Treadhampton commented wryly, that the course of true love never ran smooth and it was one thing to destroy love messages but quite another to destroy the means by which your lover could say 'sorry'.

The End

Bye for now.

Rob

(Rob Hopcott - online author - fiction - news - philanthropy)

Copyright Rob Hopcott 2007, all rights reserved. All characters and places in this short postcard fiction mystery story and other free on-line humor, short stories, flash fictions, micro-fictions, sudden fictions, post card fictions or very short stories on this site, are fictitious and no reference is intended to any person living or otherwise.