An efficient nod.

“Why didn’t you tell us?”

Why didn’t she tell me?

“Surprises are more fun, right?” Lucy clasped her hands together in her lap, feeling more and more eyes on her as her classmates began to make the connection.

Had her mom even for one singular second considered what this would be like for her? A nasal snort escaped. That would require her remembering where Lucy was, and the only thing her mom had an elephant-like brain for was where Lucy wasn’t.

“Any news from Stanford?”

Nishi finished reading the bios of the first two women and settled her eyes on Lucy’s mom. “Ms. Katz—”

Her mom’s nod mirrored Lucy’s. “Abigail.”

“Of course, yes, Abigail.” Nishi’s voice wavered, and her hand rose to her scarf. “Okay, I’m going to deviate here for a moment, because this is my first time meeting Ms. Katz—Abigail. And the little girl inside me clearly won’t be satisfied unless I do this. So, here goes.” She looked at the audience, her eyes meeting Lucy’s and holding her gaze, before facing Abigail. “While it wasn’t all that long ago when I could have been out there, in the audience, tech years aren’t like normal years. Things move fast, even faster now. I grew up with a mom who stayed home wrangling my three brothers and me, while my dad was a professor of history. Like many families, including Indian American ones like mine, family and education were the priorities. But for me that didn’t include anything related to computer science. Then, one day, I was at my cousins’ house when my uncle came through the door with one of the first iMacs, and I just wanted to wrap my arms around it and hug it.”

Abigail laughed, a sound strangely unfamiliar to Lucy. “It was adorable.”

“And blue! Computers weren’t blue.”

“Bondi Blue. Gosh, I can still picture it perfectly.”

Nishi motioned to the audience. “Phones down, everyone. You can google it after.” She faced Lucy’s mom again. “My uncle was so proud of acquiring one. We all followed him as he walked through the house, ending in my cousin Sanjay’s room. They turned it on, and I barely saw the screen flicker when my mind started racing, wondering how it worked.”

“Because you could see inside. Genius idea. Made computers approachable.”

“Coveted. Changed everything. Especially for me.”

“What did you do first?”