I flip open the silver
laptop and press the
circle of a power button.
The overworked, underpowered
disk-drive grinds for a moment,
tiny LED lights test themselves under
the keyboard, and
the blank screen flashes in the familiar sequence -
black-white-blue -
before the loading window decides to
make an entrance. The G4
drive spins dangerously fast, and I
wonder whether it should be inspected or if
I should just wait for it to
catch fire
with the recalled battery. I
choose the latter,
log in without looking at the
illuminated keyboard,
and try to remember
why I started
the computer