Chapter 51

We rushed up the stairs and hurried inside, and he slammed the door and locked it behind us. Then he pretended to wipe sweat off his forehead. “Phew, we made it.” He kicked off his shoes and hung his keys on a hook next to the door. “Come on in. Make yourself comfortable. Please take off your shoes.”

I toed off my sneakers as I took in his home. It was one big room, running the entire length of the single garage. It was sparsely decorated, but personal. A huge desk with three monitors took up a substantial chunk of wall space to the right. On the left side, he’d pinned all Star Wars movie posters in a neat line, and—if I wasn’t mistaken—in chronological order. Beneath them, stood a low, rickety bookcase stuffed to the brim with books about computers and programming, and next to it a rolled-out yoga mat.