He went in, sat down, looked at the screen. The debugger was still running, the cursor steadily blinking. Waiting for him: suspended in the exact place he’d left it, unchanged. Here he could never disappoint; here he’d never have to feel worthless, unable to love; here there was no one and nothing to let down. All he had to do was enter a command, and everything would resume. Between one keystroke and the next, it would be as if nothing had happened—not the memories of Joanna, not his desire to blame her for everything gone wrong in his life, not the understanding that a person does not wait around, suspended, until you’re ready to have her in your life.