The Locked Room

The school had finally gotten its hands on a machine, but it was kept in a locked room, strictly out of bounds unless you were enrolled. To qualify, you had to be in the top maths class. I cleared that hurdle, but the school then required at least five students for the course to run. Out of a year of around 120 kids, including twenty-odd in the top maths set, only two signed up: Alan Dolby and I. Because of that administrative quota, the class was summarily canceled.

The machine remained inside that room, sitting idle and untouched. While subjects like electrical or car mechanics were open to the whole year, this specific future was restricted to a small group that, for the most part, showed no interest in it. I never got any closer than the doorway, where I would occasionally see it from a distance, shrouded in mystery and verboten. I believe it may have been a Research Machines 380Z, but since I never laid hands on it, I could not say for sure.

Read more in Chapter 2 of my ongoing, serialized memoir, “The Locked Room,” now playing over at my Substack.