my $form = Curses::Forms->new({ 'Y' => 1, 'X' => 0,
                'LINES' => $LINES - 2, 'COLS' => $COLS });

        $form->add(
                { 'type' => 'list_box', 'name' => 'Orders',
                'ypos' => 0, 'xpos' => 25, 'cols' => ($COLS - 27),
                'lines' => 8, 'title' => ' Orders ', 'list' => ["blah","blah2"] },
                { 'type' => 'txt_field', 'name' => 'Status',
                'ypos' => 10, 'xpos' => 25, 'cols' => $COLS - 27,
                'lines' => $LINES - 14, 'title' => ' Status ',
                'content' => '(no record selected)' },
                { 'type' => 'list_box', 'name' => 'Menu',
                'ypos' => 0, 'xpos' => 0, 'cols' => $COLS - 57,
                'lines' => $LINES - 4, 'title' => ' Menu ', 'list' => [],
                },
                );
        $form->tab_order(qw( Orders Menu));
        $form->bind(
                        ["Orders", "[ \n]", "Mod_Oth", \&get_menu, "Menu"],
                        ["Orders", "[\n]", "Nxt_Wdgt"],
                        ["Menu", "[ \n]", "Mod_Oth", \&do_somthing, "Status"],
                        ["Menu", "[hH]", "Mod_Oth", \&get_help, "Menu"],
                        ["Orders", "[rR]", "Mod_Oth", \&refresh_win, "Orders"]
                   );

        $form->set_defaults ( DEF_FUNC => \&clock);
        $form->activate();

##</code><code>##

        local *do_somthing = sub {
                my $list_ref    = shift;
                my $menu_ref    = shift;
                my $status_ref  = shift;
                my $selected;
		my $blah;
                my $selected_num = $$menu_ref{'selected'};
                my ($id, $menu) = split(/ /,$$menu_ref{'title'});
                $selected = $$menu_ref{'list'}{$selected_num};
                print "$selected\n";
                $selected =~ s/\s+$//g;
                if ($selected eq "VIEW CONFIGURATION") {
			$blah = &external_subroutine($id);
			$$status_ref{"content"} = $blah;
		}
		elsif {
			$$status_ref{"content"} = "HRMM";
		}
	};

.....
.....
..... outside this whole block of code

sub external_subroutine {
	my $id	= @_; # IM THINKING THIS MAY BE THE PROBLEM
	$id =+ 10;
	return $id;
}