My Mom Said It Was Just A Toy When My Brother Ruined My Research Computer Before Graduation

rattle the picture frames.

The silence that followed was absolute.

I slid down the wall slowly until I was sitting on the floor, buried my face in my hands, and smelled the burnt plastic in my lungs. My defense was in seven days. My thesis was on a dead machine. On the face of it, I was finished.

But then a memory surfaced. Not of this apartment, but continue reading …