Short Story: Peering through the Static

Don't get confused; my rant blog has the same title. This is the first section of a short story that's gonna be extended over the next couple weeks.

Peering through the Static (Fragment)
David J. Dunn

“DETROIT, Michigan (Reuters) – A troubled young man was arrested yesterday in a Detroit elementary school for constructing what his teachers called a “cheese whiz bomb”.
Eight-year old Guy Lydon, a Michigan native, says that he used techniques he learned in science class in creating the explosive device. “Miss Pulleyn said that Cheese Whiz is only one molecule away from being plastic,” the pre-pubescent chemist said, “so I fixed it.”
The child did more than fix the substance; he weaponized it. His target: the school bathroom.
Retired bomb squad captain Vic Lopez served for thirty years, dealing with high explosives every day. “I’ve never seen such a powerful plastic explosive made from household materials,” he told Reuters. “It’s really something.”
What’s next for the little Guy? Well, if presidential candidate Newt Gingrich gets his way, the tyke with the science skills will be doing experiments among prisoners. “Acts of anarchy like this should not be tolerated by the state,” Gingrich fumed at last night’s press conference. “If I had my way, he’d be in jail with the other parasites. The United States of America does not harbor future terrorists.”
Guy and his family are hopeful for a fair trial. The date for their hearing has not yet been set.”

Toby Grey, sitting at his clone PC, rubbed his eyes with vigor. It was the first news story of the day, and unlikely to be the last. He took a sip from his still-kind of-hot coffee and sighed. Another day, another dollar, another insane Yahoo! News story. Then again, it seemed everything he recently read was crazy. World news, American politics, Canadian politics, Hollywood news, Afghan politics, Syrian politics, The Kim Kardashian wedding, Egyptian politics, Iranian politics, Dancing with the Stars. Nothing was real anymore. It was all just static.

Elsa had just awoken at the sound of Toby’s phone bleeping. She rolled out of the lonely bed and pulled open the shutters to a sunny morning over St. John’s that would soon be enveloped by fog. On her way to the bathroom, she saw her husband, once again up at the crack of dawn, reading his news. “Morning.”
He paused for a second to finish reading a headline before he replied. “Morning.”
“Anything good?”
“Same shit, different day,” he replied. His eyes were weary and he had a ringing in his ears. “I’m getting sick of all this... fuckin’ lunacy.”
She pressed a few buttons on the coffeemaker. “Lunacy is you not remembering to change the water. Are you reading those Pro-Cain blogs again?”
He turned the computer monitor to face her. “Look at this. A kid in the states made a bottle rocket out of Cheese Whiz, and it’s the top news story of the day. Twelve million people made homeless by a monsoon in Pakistan on Tuesday, and it isn’t even on the front page.” He pushed the monitor back. “I mean, who reads these things?”
“You do.”
“I just like to be informed.”
“You just like to informed about the mal-informed.”
“Well, they are running the country, so…”
As Toby turned back to his reading of Daily Kos, Elsa knelt down beside him and unplugged the PC. A black screen was all that was left of the world. “I was going to read that.”
Elsa’s enticing smile always got him. “I know a better use of your time.”
She leaned in close and kissed him; calm at first, but passion overtook them both. They went back to the bedroom.

Out of breath with her head on Toby’s chest, Elsa closed her eyes and started to slip back into dreams.
“I’ve gotta go to work,” Toby muttered. He got a fulfilled sigh of acknowledgement and a kiss that went on for a few seconds longer than it needed to, then shambled out of bed to get a second shower. On his way out, he returned to his sleeping wife with a pretty yellow flower picked from her practical ledge-garden and slid it into her hair above her right ear. “You’re real,” he thought. “You make it all make sense.”
As soon as he stepped outside, the static flooded back. “I’ll persevere,” he thought. “World’s only mostly crazy.”