Chapter 1: The Day the Water Ran Cold
I WALKED INTO THE KITCHEN TO FIND MY ABUELA SCRUBBING MY $2,000 MACBOOK IN A TUB OF SOAPY WATER, BUT HER HEARTBREAKING APOLOGY CHANGED EVERYTHING.
I honestly thought I was hallucinating.
I had just stepped through the front door of our house in San Antonio after a grueling morning of classes, practically dragging my feet, when I heard the distinct sound of splashing and scrubbing coming from the kitchen.
My grandmother, who we affectionately call Abuela Rosa, is seventy-two years old and an absolute clean freak.
If it sits still long enough in our house, she will wipe it, dust it, or bleach it.
But what I saw when I moved into the kitchen doorway made my bl00d run completely cold.
There was Abuela Rosa, wearing her floral apron, humming a cheerful tune.
On the kitchen table, she had set up a large blue plastic wash basin filled to the brim with sudsy, bubbly water.
And submerged right in the middle of that water, being aggressively scrubbed with a yellow dish sponge, was my $2,000 MacBook Pro.
"Abuela!
No!" I screamed, dropping my backpack on the floor.
"What are you doing?!"
She jumped, startled by my shout, but kept her grip on my laptop.
She looked at me with pure, innocent confusion.
"I'm washing it, mija," she said calmly, dipping the sponge back into the water and squeezing more suds directly onto the keyboard.
"Look at how much dirt is coming off!
The keys were all sticky, and the screen was covered in fingerprints."
I lunged forward, physically snatching the dripping, soapy piece of metal out of her hands.
Water poured out of the charging ports.
Suds dripped from the trackpad.
I was hyperventilating.
My entire life was on that hard drive — my final year architecture portfolio, my client files, all my family photos.
"Abuela, you can't put a computer in water!" I yelled, frantically grabbing a dish towel and trying to dry it off.
"It's electronic!
You just ruined it!"
"But I wanted it to be nice for you," she stammered, her eyes widening as she realized I wasn't happy.
She held up a blue plastic bottle.
"I even put a little cap of Downy fabric softener in the water so it would smell pretty while you work."
Fabric softener.
She had soaked the motherboard of my work laptop in fabric softener.
I fell into one of the kitchen chairs, clutching the ruined, dripping laptop to my chest, completely unable to process the disaster.
"I lost everything," I whispered, tears immediately blurring my vision.
"All my projects.
They're gone."
Abuela Rosa's face crumpled.
She looked at the blue basin, then at the towel, and finally at my crying face.
"Don't turn it on, don't press any buttons," I muttered to myself, jumping up.
"I have to take it to the repair shop right now."
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Could they save it in time — and what did Abuela Rosa do next that left everyone in tears?
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