His name was Mertle Jacobs. He was never comfortable in the presence of others. He preferred to be alone with his own thoughts. Bear in mind they weren’t bad thoughts, in fact they were always comforting and never made him feel anxious or nervous. He liked to play computer games and eventually started learning how to modify code to fix “problems” that the game designers either missed or didn’t care enough to do correctly.
On occasion, Mertle would have to go around security protocols in order to solve the problems created by others. He didn’t do it to be malicious, but he did it. He eventually started leaving a small “calling card” or “signature” as it’s called in the world of cybersecurity. Mertle didn’t know about that but he always hid the word “Cranberry” in his code.
The word Cranberry was a moniker given to Mertle when he was in the 8th grade. His Uncle Archie had given him a Walkman portable cassette player and a single cassette. It wasn’t a store bought album, it was a Maxell cassette with two songs on it. “Jump” by Kris Kross and “Zombie” by the Cranberries. Mertle didn’t care much for “Jump” but “Zombie” resonated with him. His early childhood was complicated. His mother was pregnant at 16 and would not divulge who the father was. He lived with his Grandmother and although his basic needs were met, he couldn’t remember ever being held, hugged, or comforted. Mertle found his comfort in a single song taped off of a radio with a few words spoken by Casey Kasem as an intro to the song. With cassette whirring and headphones on, Mertle Jacobs sat alone in the corner of the lunchroom moving rhythmically to the song and singing along What’s in your hea-d, in your he-ad Zom-bie Zom-bie Zom-bie. When he looked up there were several other children standing nearby laughing. He had been singing much louder than he realized because of the headphones and a awful shade of crimson flushed his cheeks. Cranberry that was his new nickname. He hated it of course, he hated everything that focused attention to him, but in the unlit corners of his mind he knew it was better than Mertle.
To Be Continued…
-David Starling