“That day? Nothing. My cousin Nadia and I were shooed out of the room. We weren’t allowed to touch it. I remember going home and falling into my mother’s arms, crying. She couldn’t understand what I was so upset about. But the next day, when I came home from school, an empty iMac box was on the dining room table. I searched the house, all my brothers’ rooms, the basement, even my parents’ room—and we didn’t go in my parents’ bedroom. But I couldn’t find it anywhere. When I sat down defeated at the kitchen counter, my father was smirking. He asked if I’d checked everywhere, and I said I had. He then said I may as well go start my homework. I trudged into my room and screamed.”

“He put it in your room.”

Nishi beamed. “My mother and I were on it so much, my dad had to buy a second for the boys.”

Abigail nodded and clasped her hands in her lap. “Thank you for sharing that, Nishi. Especially since, while a personal story, I believe it’s representative of the tenuous relationship between girls and computer science then as well as now.” Abigail shifted to better see the audience, her lecture face firmly in place. “Fifty-one percent of professional occupations in the workforce in this country are held by women. That number drops to twenty-five percent when it comes to computing.”

Nishi nodded to Abigail as she added, “And only twenty percent of Fortune 500 CIO positions are held by women. You are one of that twenty percent. And it all started with that iMac, which I didn’t learn until years later. You were on the team.”

Mom worked at Apple? Mom worked with Steve Jobs?

“For a short time. Intense doesn’t describe it. But it was a dedication that I internalized. I knew when I was in the position I am now, I’d be grateful.”

“When, not if,” Nishi said.

Abigail smiled. “Always.”

Nishi went on to her first question, and Lucy simply stared at her mother.

“She’ll never be me,” Lucy once heard her mother say to her father. Was this why? Why Lucy’s achievements were never enough? How could she compare to the woman who helped launch the product that made Apple Apple? And how had Lucy never known this?

Lucy shifted in her seat, wanting to be anywhere but here.

Maddie leaned in and whispered, “Are you okay?”

Lucy shook her head and blurted out, “Sometimes I feel like I don’t even know her.”

“Or don’t want to,” Maddie said quietly.

A lump swelled in Lucy’s throat, and she found herself reaching for Maddie’s hand. Maddie patted Lucy’s quickly before tucking both her hands under her thighs.

It wasn’t much, but it was enough.

*   *   *