September 19

The monitor was off but the cursor still moved.

Not mine — something else in the dark, something that had been waiting for me to look away so it could start again.

I reached over and pulled the cable. The cursor kept going for three more lines, then stopped the way a conversation stops when you realize the other person left a long time ago.

The cat woke up and looked at the blank screen like she’d seen this before. She probably had. Thirteen years of monitors going dark, all of them saying the same thing: you can keep looking if you want to.