After a few unsuccessful tries, Sarah came across an unusual webpage while searching for the store named, "Top 20".
It was a geeky comic store at the mall that also catered for Dungeons and Dragons and action figures and the like. Sarah had passed by the store and looked through the enough times to know there was nothing in this world that would make her go inside.
Sarah had clicked on the most likely link, thinking it would take her to the shop's site:
<http://www.superultimatetop20.com>
The page was almost blank, aside from a single line of white text on a black backdrop. The text was underlined to denote it as a hyperlink and read:
Click Here & We Will Grant You Twenty Wishes!
Curious, Sarah clicked the link.
A pop-up immediately filled her entire screen. The pop-up was similar to the page that spawned it, except this window contained numerous white text boxes. Above the list of boxes was the instructions:
Enter your name and email address below. Tell us your wishes and then hit Submit. Then we'll grant your wishes right away! Go on, make your dreams come true! Find out what kind of person you are! Don't forget to forward this page to a friend!
The first two text boxes asked for Sarah's name and email address. The next twenty were numbered and were obviously there to fill in the requests. One last box asked for someone else's email address. Finally there was a tick box alongside the message, "I wish to receive news and information about future offers." This box was, of course, checked by default.
"Ooh, I love doing these personality quiz things!" Sarah smiled. "I don't have time for this though."
Sarah tried to close the pop-up. It didn't budge. She tried to click on another program from the menu bar. The pop-up stayed on top.
"How do I get rid of this thing?" Sarah asked herself.
An idea suddenly hit her. Sarah filled in her details and tabbed to the first 'wish' box. She typed carefully:
I know what Freddie wants most for his birthday.
Sarah clicked submit, but the following error popped up:
ERROR: Please fill out all fields and then press Submit.
"Aw, what??" Sarah said with exasperation. "Guess I have to do them all, huh?"
She reached for the power button on the tower and said to the webpage, "Guess again!"
Unfortunately, pushing the button had no effect on her computer.
"Turn off, damn you," Sarah begged. "Reboot!"
In desperation, Sarah went to the wall and unplugged her tower. To her surprise, her PC continued to whir away as if nothing had happened. Sarah crept round to the front of her machine and stared at the monitor. The site was still up there, the pop-up window was still covering her entire screen.
"What the hell?" she gasped. "How???"
Sarah sat back down at her desk.
"How are you still on?" she asked her PC. "Is this site... is it special somehow? What power is it running on?"
She looked at the list one more time. How hard could it be to come up with as many as twenty wishes? It looked an interesting quiz too. Sarah wondered how it would manage to predict her personality from boxes that allowed her to type just about anything, which seemed more advanced than other tests she'd done in the past. The fact that her computer kept running without power sort of backed up that theory too!
Sarah admitted to herself, she was pretty curious - but could Freddie's present wait?
