Betrayed by the Smartphone

As we all know, there are essential ingredients for a good result in moving house. Muscles, of course: furniture and furnishings do not move by themselves. But also delicacy, in order not to leave marks on objects: brute force alone is not enough. The last ingredient, absolutely essential: impeccable organization. Logistical and procedural organization, to be planned in detail. First the kitchen or first the living room? Is grandfather’s shop window to be empty immediately, or at the end? There are choices to make.

Amber retraced the steps already taken, checking the various TODO lists on the appropriate application on her smartphone. A real personal assistant, inseparable. Together with her trusted digital organizer, she was preparing for the worst. They were now in the hottest phase of the move. In full force: half of the stuff in the old house, half in the new house. At this point she was mostly worried for the friends involved. After all, they were not professionals, unlike the boys sent by the “EASY removals, moving stuff since 1910”. And then…

WhatsApp! “We are all below, we are coming up. P.” “Ok” A familiar noise at the door. “Hi love, we’re here.” Petra was already back, early from work, and signaled to her companion that she was in the company of Lenny and Mark, two old friends. Disposable arms!

“Thanks for coming so early,” said Amber.

“You’re welcome! You know it’s a pleasure,” replied Lenny.

“Always!” adds Mark.

“Something to drink?” said Amber.

“No thanks, we’re good.” replied Lenny.

“But, nice house. It’s a shame to leave it.” said Mark.

“Ah yes, by dint of being in Italy it’s the first time that you’ve come to our house! But we came to visit you… now you have to see the new one: it’s much brighter!” Petra replied.

“Now back to work.” Amber was directing, of course.

“Here, get up from here… Well done… Watch out for the door! Perfect. Lift.”

Then came the time for the boxes, diligently stacked at the entrance.

“I would kill for a glass of water now,” said Mark.

“Coming! I have left four chairs there on the veranda,” Amber was the queen of the house.

“Did you check the shortest road? It’s rush hour, and it seems to me that there was a metro strike, there will be chaos,” Amber said.

“I’ll take care of it,” Mark said. Zac! In an instant he was online. The best route was soon indicated. Perfect.

“But you don’t you have an Italian SIM? Earlier it sucked all your credit to download two roaming emails, now you play with maps?”, Lenny wondered.

“Oh but no, it’s the wifi,” said Amber. “The wifi? But there is a very long password!”, Petra noted…

Right. How could Mark have guessed the wifi password? Miracles of Italian telephones? A flaw? An application to crack passwords? But no, it had taken a split second, he had done that typical “blip”, known networks available, automatically connected. But then…

An embarrassed silence fell, one could almost hear the sound of the reasoning that everyone made on their own.

“Oh, curious, wifi works. Strange. I didn’t even notice it,” Mark said.

Meanwhile Petra was thinking. There was only one explanation. Mark had already been to their home. He had already connected to the wifi network, with the very long password marked under the the router. But how was that possible?

“What network company do you use here, Sky?” Mark asked. “No, it’s Vodafone, isn’t it, love?” replied Petra. Amber hastened to confirm, yes of course, she knew it well, she was the one to take care of all the bills, among a thousand other tasks.

“Ah, the mystery is explained. I hooked up to a free Sky connection, it will be your neighbor who is not very attentive to privacy!” Mmm. Ok. Ok.

Later, Petra tried to find that famous open network. Because she didn’t remember ever noticing it. And in fact there was no open Sky connection. The previous doubt had become a certainty. Mark had already been there, and for a long time. With her partner!