Darren Mather stares in awe at the eerie image of the Virgin Mary on his computer screen.

There, on the background of his Windows XP desktop could be clearly seen an 800 pixel by 600 pixel of the Lady herself! Mary Mother of God indeed!

Darren had heard of this phenomenon before. He had read about the image of Christ that suddenly appeared on the wall of a New Mexico family's home. He had watched the news when there were reports of some statue in Mexico crying tears of blood. He never bought into the grilled-cheese sandwich apparition of Jesus, but he was willing to suspend judgement on the Virginia man who claimed to be showing signs of the Stigmata.

Word of Darren's miracle spread faster than the Norwalk virus on a cruise ship, and soon people from all across the state were flocking to his tiny basement to see the holy image that mysteriously manifested on his 14" flatscreen Toshiba laptop monitor.

Crowds lined up for hours outside his modest home, lighting his driveway with candles, singing songs, and dropping to their knees in prayer. Parents brought sick children, hoping a touch of his screen would cure their ails.

At first Darren tried to oblige as many people as he could. After all, he's a nice guy, and if a kid with leukemia thought touching the computer could help, who was he to deny them? But as his screen gradually mucked up with greasy fingermarks, and his carpet became irreparably dirty, Darren started to see the background image as a curse. Some pilgrims left items by the computer: small statues of St. Christopher, a few coins, scented candles, an old sock. But other stuff disappeared as well: his clean socks, his Planet Of The Apes DVD collection, and his upright vacuum cleaner.

Perhaps it was a warning from God, he thought. A warning not to take things for granted. A warning to live each day at a time, to love one's neighbour, to pass the loaves and fishes and not take the biggest one in the basket.

Darren toyed with the idea of donating his computer to the local Catholic church, but before he could make up his mind someone tripped over the power supply, and the image vanished from his screen. When he rebooted, the image was gone, replaced with a generic Windows grassy field with a blue sky.