Chapter 23: Natalie @ 1.0x nhs
528 Words
Chapter 23: Natalie @ 1.0x nhs
“So, let me get this straight. You netflixed and chilled, but you actually netflixed and chilled. No making out, nothing?” Nat asked, incredulous.
Gal shrugged. “I leaned into his arms. We… caressed.”
“Caressed? What are you, 80?” Nat said, giving up.
Gal positioned herself in front of her friend and she said seriously. “Natalie, don’t have s*x, because you will get pregnant and die. Don’t have s*x in missionary position, don’t have s*x standing up, just don’t do it, okay, promise?”
Nat mouthed a few replies and then stopped. “What the hell are you saying?”
“We’re watching Mean Girls. You and me, right now.” She fired up her laptop.
“No, come on, I’m not in the mood for a movie, how about a YouTube clip, something no longer than three minutes or so,” Nat complained, trying to wiggle away.
Gal pulled her by the arm. “Boo, you w***e!”
“What did you just call me? Are you having a stroke or something?”
“On Wednesdays, we wear pink.”
“What. The fu-”
“Sit your butt down.”
Hours later, Gal was alone. Nat had gone home. She claimed she didn’t really like the movie but Gal could see her chuckling all the time.
She played with her lips for a while, then decided to dust the place. After 20 minutes of light cleaning, she placed the printout of her thesis in front of her, and stared at it.
It stared back.
“This is so stupid,” she said to herself. “Okay, here it goes: It is by will alone I set my mind in motion, it is by… something something, Sapho something. What were the stupid words again?”
She looked it up.
“It is by will alone, I set my mind in motion. It is by will alone, I set my mind in motion.”
She recited the mantra a few times. It was dark, getting late. She had a clear mind, and it was quiet outside.
“It is by will alone, I set my mind in motion.”
She picked up the thesis, and found a part that needed editing, noted in red ink. She read it for a while.
Had she really written that? The words were familiar, but it seemed distant. It was as if someone else had written the thesis and she had half-heard it somewhere.
Fourteen months. That was how long that thing was sitting there, gathering dust, getting dusted, gathering dust again.
She pulled her laptop close and started writing.
A couple of pages.
Success!
Progress, even if it was pathetic. She had inched towards completion, far more than she had done for months now. She congratulated herself with a chocolate bar, then she watered the cactus, then she went to her balcony. Simba was nowhere in sight, probably chasing some bird or something. She poured fresh water in his bowl and went to bed.
She felt good, productive.
She loaded the code she had written on her veil and watched as the incorporeal letters shone in light blue on her ceiling. It was the app for underlined speed reading. Couple of ideas came to her. A bug here, a quicker fix there. An idea about the code automatically distinguishing between a screen and a paper. Screens had fixed aspect ratios, 4:3, 16:9, whereas papers were usually A4 or book dimensions, it was easy enough for an algo to spot that.
She fell asleep, smiling, dreaming in code.
- Writer
