The Television-Watching Ghost

Pete opened his eyes. He blinked a few times and saw the glow of his alarm clock. It was 2:02. His pajama top stuck to his chest, and his hair was plastered to his forehead. He felt his throat close up, and he swallowed when he heard the hum drifting down through the hallway. He stepped toward his bedroom door and prepared to face the ghost.

Pete fumbled in the dim light of the television’s bluish-white glow to find the remote. He finally spotted it over by his dad’s recliner. As soon as he turned the TV off, it flicked itself back on. He tried again. The TV came back on and started flicking through channels. Pete tried once more, but it was no use. The ghost wasn’t going to let Pete keep it from watching television.

Pete plugged his fingers in his ears and ran back to his room. He locked the door behind him and jumped into bed. He waited for several minutes, but it didn’t seem like the ghost was going to follow him. Pete sighed in relief and drifted off to sleep.

****************

“There’s a ghost in my house.” Pete stopped walking and studied his friend’s reaction.

“No way!” Mike laughed.

Pete gritted his teeth. “It’s true. Every day, at about 2:00 a.m., the television comes on by itself and starts flipping through the channels really fast.”

Mike shook his head and shrugged. “Whatever. Hey! Come on in and try out my new PlayStation games.”

Pete glanced across the street to his house. His mom and dad wouldn’t be back home for a few hours. “Sure!”

Trash was spilling out onto the ground next to the driveway. Pete noticed a box next to the can and picked it up, turning it over in his hand.

“Hey. What’s this?”

“Oh, my dad just got one of those universal remotes.”

“Huh?”

“You know, they work with your TV, VCR, and DVD player, so you don’t need three different remotes.”

“How does that work?’

Mike shrugged. “Beats me. All I know is that it does.”


****************


Pete held his eyes open with his fingers and tried to focus on the teacher’s lesson the next morning. It had been another sleepless night.

“How many of you have ever wondered how remote controls work?” the teacher asked.

Several students raised their hands, including Pete.

“Does anyone know?” the teacher asked.

No one raised a hand this time. The teacher smiled, passed out a handout, and began the lesson.

“This is a picture of what the inside of your remote looks like. The long greenish thing with all the holes and wires attached is called a circuit board. This is where everything is attached. The black disks on the circuit board are called contact points. When you press a button, the contact point registers the touch, and sends information down to the electronic chip, which turns the signal from the key press into something the TV can understand. Each button has its own code of electronic pulses. The chip sends these pulses down to the transistor, which makes the signal strong enough that the television’s receiver can recognize it. The little raised bump at the end of the board is called an LED, or light emitting diode. It sends the electronic pulses out to the TV by way of infrared light. Infrared light is invisible to the naked eye. The TV’s sensor picks up the invisible light and responds.”

Pete thought about his conversation with Mike the day before. He raised his hand and waited to be acknowledged before he asked, “What about a universal remote? How does that work?”

“Well, it’s the same idea, really. Each manufacturer has their own code that they put in that their appliances will recognize. When companies make universal remotes, they program the most commonly used manufacturer codes. Then the remote sends out a signal that will correspond, hopefully, with one of those codes.”

Someone else asked a question then, but Pete wasn’t listening. He was thinking about Mike’s universal remote and how it might work with his own TV. He raised his hand again.

“How far do those signals reach?”

The teacher looked puzzled at first, but came up with an answer. “Well, it all depends on each remote’s individual strength, but most signals can at least reach for several feet – sometimes further.”

Pete nodded. He’d figured out the mystery of the television-watching ghost.

****************

That afternoon, Pete confronted Mike with his suspicions.

Mike grinned. “That was a pretty good gag, huh? You should have seen your face!”

Pete punched his friend lightly on the shoulder and laughed at himself. He would sleep much better now that he knew Mike was the ghost.