From that day on, the patterns around Alex shifted. Instead of a safety net or a constricting trap, he saw a way forward. A way to move. His inner eye followed sidewalks, roads, even plants that leaned away from the lake he’d grown up at the bottom of.
Alex’s mind, and his heart, were set on a path to the southeast.
He got into the habit of keeping quiet and keeping his head down at home. That routine left him lonely, but he was grateful for the calm. At school, though, he embraced the opposite and excelled beyond his own vague ambitions of living somewhere else. His love of math and the sure answers it provided refined into a passion, as did his perhaps less endearing habit of taking apart everything mechanical he could get his hands on.
People in Alex’s life, even his parents, eventua
