Stress Ball

“Welcome to Apple Computers Tech Support, my name is Amy, how may I help you today?”
“Uh, yeah hi. Okay so I have this desktop, that I’ve had for a while, and I tried to turn it on and the home screen thing won’t open.”
Amy slumped in her swivel chair and began to spin around continuing to talk to the customer on her headset so her hands could be free. “I’m so sorry to hear that sir. Can you be a little more specific with your problem please?”
“Okay, so like, the login thing that pops up when I open the computer is stuck. Like, I put my username and password in, but it won’t open.”
“Don’t worry sir, I’m sure this is an issue we can solve easily.” Amy paused turning back to her desk and picking up the new stress ball she had been given for her just yesterday. It was a squishy pig who’s eyes popped out of his head when squeezed. Amy thought it was kinda cute if  you ignored the rips forming around the edges.“Have you tried turning your computer off and then on again?”
”Oh please. If it was that simple, I would have been able to fix it. I already tried that and the same thing happened.”
Amy started to squeeze the stress ball. This was her third one this week and with the way this call was going, she was gonna need more.“Alright sir, have you tried unplugging it from the wall and plugging it back in?”
“I just told you that wasn’t working!”
At the neighboring desk, her coworker looked over, a sympathetic smile on his face. Clenching her fist in frustration, Amy sighed. The googly eyes of her stress ball popped out and Amy could almost picture the customer on the phone in the pig’s place.“I’m sorry sir, but this is different from just turning the computer on and off. Why don’t you try it anyway, just to see?”
There was a pause on the other end, then some shuffling and mumbling. Amy had just calmed herself down enough to release her death grip around the ball when he responded,”It’s still not working!”
Amy sighed, but kept her voice light,despite the fact that she wanted to punch someone.
“Alright sir, why don’t you tell me what generation your desktop is and I’ll see what advice I can offer?” Stress ball back in hand, Amy waited for a response.
More shuffling on the other end,”It’s uh, it says it’s a IMAC G3 Slot-Loading.”
The stress ball in Amy’s hand did it’s best impression of a balloon as it ripped apart with a pop! All that remained in Amy’s hands was a sad scrap of pink silicone and a lone googly eye.
Amy tried her best to control her voice and not growl at the customer,”Sir...May I ask how long you’ve had this computer?”
“Uh, I dunno. Since it came out I guess?”
Amy slowly sat up straighter in her chair and took a very deep breath. With no stress ball to calm herself, Amy was glad the customer couldn’t see the look of murder in her eyes.“I’m sorry sir, but the IMAC G3 came out 17 years ago. I’m afraid there’s nothing I can do, but  recommend you get a new computer.”
“I should have known better than to call tech support! All they want to do is get me to buy more of your products! Well you won’t trick me! You know, my sister’s an engineer and she warns me all the time about people like you. I’ll just call her instead!” -click
Amy gave a long suffering sigh and stood up, in desperate need of a coffee break. Before she could so much as leave her cubicle she heard the phone ring again. Amy was on the brink of ripping the phone out of the wall and throwing it out the nearest window. Although that was very tempting, it probably wouldn’t go over well with her boss. Resigning herself to her fate, Amy sat down again and reached into the bottom drawer of her desk. Inside there was a colorful array of hundreds of cheerfully smiling stress ball. Reaching in Amy picked one that had a bright yellow smile across it’s face.
Amy began to squeeze the stress ball as she spoke,“Welcome to Apple Computers Tech Support, my name is Amy, how may I help you today?”