When she was small, Vesna insisted on bringing pajamas everywhere she went. Clothes, all the time, everywhere! Clothes were the hallmark of civilization; clothes separated us from the barbarian and the beast! It was travel that slowly weaned her from the habit; if every bit of space in the bag counts, ditching the clothes that aren’t for public wear is just common sense. By this point in her life, the one concession to being in someone else’s house is that when she slips under the covers, she’s still wearing her sports bra. (A spare; of course you bring a change of underwear to climbing a mountain.)

She lies there, in the unfathomable dark, and keeps staring up at the sky, at the stars, through a skylight. Maybe it’s because of a life spent staring at screens, but the frame of the window seems to impart some extra meaning to the stars. The shape she imposes on it is all in her mind, but even now she can see it: the hunter with his shining belt and his bow, immortal until people forget why he’s named Orion at all, until they stop being able to see the shape. [i]And he ran and he ran and he ran until she grew tired.[/i]

Eventually, she pulls the thick comforter over her head. Her hand sneaks out of the covers and grabs her phone where she left it on the nightstand. It’s on as soon as her fingers touch it; a perk of her hands, used in lieu of a regular password. And in the dark of the dark, there is light.

Another perk of the hands: her thumbs can go as fast as her thoughts. She’s not at her phone’s maximum input processing, but she pushes it harder than most people can. No need to worry about carpel tunnel here. So it’s a bit of casual work to shoot off a couple of emails and make a few OurSpaces posts to see who’d be available to help with archival. It’s only after that that she scans through her emails, sorting valuables from the detritus and chaff that everybody gets: newsletters you’ll never unsubscribe from, sales notifications that you’ll also never unsubscribe from, requests from old fans, requests from weird fans, and Did You Know November Posted This Photo (Please Follow The Link Because We Want You Lured Onto Our App)?!

What’s the gold this time? There’s always something interesting: an old friend reaching out, a crowdfunding announcement, or a sale actually worth the time it takes to scan it.