Chapter 36

And so I went to school, worked when Doug needed me to, studied, forgot about Craig—good luck with that—forgot about Todd—ditto with that luck thing—and then, in my spare time, when I wasn’t rescuing kittens from trees or helping old ladies cross the street, even when they neither wanted nor needed my help, I searched for my parents in the cave/basement/laundry room. It wasn’t The Den, but it’d do in a pinch. And Doug wasn’t Craig, but he’d do in a pinch, too.

My mind moved fast, the computer slow. We were frequently at odds. I’d be well-caffeinated; it’d crash. I’d open up too many windows; it’d crash. It’d even crash for no reason at all. I thought it was being spiteful, resentful of how far its brethren had gotten. I mean, it saw all those snazzy, newer models in the online ads, right?

I asked Doug for a raise, to buy a new computer. He told me that I’d have to get the coffee orders right, first. In other words, I grew to tolerate the crashing.