“Two hours, huh?” Lyra murmured calmly as she straightened her jacket sleeve. “That means we don’t have time to panic. So, are you going along with my crazy plan, or do you want to watch your project fly away?”
Ales stared at Lyra without blinking, his throat suddenly dry. “What do you mean, crazy plan, Ra? My main laptop short-circuited! Those CAD and SketchUp files are insanely huge. There’s no way a phone can handle opening them!”
“Who said anything about opening them on a phone?” Lyra snapped, exasperated. She strode quickly across the living room toward the dining table. Ales’s open-concept house, with no walls dividing the spaces, naturally connected the dining area and the TV lounge. On that dining table, Ales’s dead laptop lay in surrender, wrapped in a napkin.
Ales’s eyes widened instantly. “You mean... remove the SSD?”
“Yep, genius!” Lyra reached into the crossbody bag slung over her shoulder and pulled out a small transparent plastic box containing a precision screwdriver set, along with a black, rectangular aluminum device.
Ales stared at it, brow furrowed. “How do you even have an SSD enclosure, Ra?”
“Did you forget I’m an IT girl?” Lyra shot back casually.
“Sure... even though my GPA was mediocre in college and I only understood the basics, at least I’ve experienced having a laptop die while I was working on my thesis. That’s why I always keep an SSD enclosure in my bag, just in case.”
Ales stared, transfixed, at the aluminum device in Lyra’s hand. As an architect, he naturally understood what it did: an external tool that could turn a laptop’s internal SSD into a giant, high-speed flash drive.
“I’ve got my work laptop in my bag,” Lyra continued quickly as she rummaged through it. “The specs are just average, definitely not designed for heavy-duty work like yours. But if I only need to open a 2D CAD drawing, pull up your latest backup, and convert it to a PDF... my laptop can handle that!”
Ales’s heart pounded. The mental block that had stopped his brain cold suddenly cleared. It was a reckless choice—taking apart a still-damp dead laptop came with its own risks, and revising the design on an ordinary laptop with mediocre specs would mean suffering through nonstop lag. But at this moment, there was no other option.
“You... really sure about this, Ra?” Ales asked hesitantly, his voice trembling slightly.
Lyra turned around, folded her arms across her chest, and fixed Ales with the sharpest look she had today.
“It’s already 5:20, Ales. Do you want to stand there thinking about the risks, or do you want to start dissecting your laptop now?”
Lyra’s statement hit Ales like a slap in the face. Without wasting another second, Ales snatched the precision screwdriver box from Lyra’s hand. He pulled out a dining chair, positioned his dead laptop in a well-lit spot, and began turning the tiny screws on the bottom casing with trembling fingers.
One screw came loose... two screws... three screws...
“Careful. Don’t let the screwdriver slip and stab the battery,” Lyra whispered from beside him, using her phone’s flashlight to illuminate Ales’s work area.
CLICK.
The laptop’s bottom casing finally came off. The savory smell of baby porridge broth drifted faintly from inside the components. Fortunately, the porridge had only pooled around the cooling fan and the edge of the keyboard, while Ales’s M.2 SSD, positioned in the upper corner, still looked relatively dry.
Carefully, Ales removed the SSD’s securing screw, pulled out the tiny memory card, and wiped its edges with a dry tissue.
“Put it in here,” Lyra ordered, holding out her aluminum enclosure.
Ales inserted the SSD into the enclosure, secured it tightly, then connected the cable to Lyra’s laptop, which was already powered on atop the table.
The breath-stealing seconds began. A circular loading icon appeared on Lyra’s laptop screen. Ales squeezed his eyes shut, silently praying that his SSD hadn’t burned out along with the short circuit earlier that afternoon.
DING!
A new storage window suddenly opened on Lyra’s laptop screen: Drive (D:) - ALES_ARCH.
“IT WORKED!” Lyra cried out, giving Ales’s shoulder a hard slap.
Ales opened his eyes, and an immense wave of relief flooded his chest when he saw his project folders lined up intact on the screen. But the joy lasted only five seconds before his gaze landed on the clock in the bottom-right corner: 5:35 p.m. WIB.
They had only eighty-five minutes left.
“Okay, don’t celebrate yet,” Ales cut in quickly, regaining control of himself. He immediately took over Lyra’s keyboard. “I have to find the latest automatic backup in the drawing folder. Open Mr. Handoko’s revision notes draft email on my phone and read the points to me one by one!”
“Got it!” Lyra replied briskly, snatching up Ales’s phone.
The gloomy dining area suddenly transformed into an emergency control room. Sporadic keyboard clacks, Ales’s rapid-fire instructions, and Lyra reading out the revision points echoed back and forth, breaking the silence of the late afternoon.
“Point one: move the first-floor bathroom door!” Lyra called quickly from the phone screen.
“Okay, I’ve drawn the new axis line!” Ales replied, dragging his cursor, which jerked sluggishly as Lyra’s laptop began roaring with heat under the strain of running the design software.
“Point two: add structural columns to the back patio area!”
In the middle of that tense, minute-by-minute race against time, the bedroom door suddenly opened slowly. Ion rubbed his bleary eyes and staggered out of the room, hugging his stuffed cloth toy.
“Papa...” the boy called softly, his voice hoarse in the unmistakable way of a child who had just woken up.
Ales froze, his eyes still fixed on the laptop screen as it loaded, his head feeling ready to split open. But before Ales could panic about splitting his attention, Lyra had already dropped to her knees on the floor and welcomed Ion with a warm smile.
“Hey, the little champ is awake!” Lyra whispered sweetly, kneeling with her arms open.
Ion’s eyes suddenly went wide. His sleepiness vanished the instant he realized his favorite person was standing there. Without wasting a second, his little legs took off, charging toward Lyra with a beaming face.
“Auntie Lyraaa! Ion missed you!” the boy cried happily, crashing into her and wrapping his arms tightly around her neck.
Lyra laughed brightly and returned Ion’s warm hug while stroking his head. “You missed Auntie that much? Same here—I missed you a lot too!”
Once the hug ended, Ion’s gaze suddenly locked onto the bright-blue wooden bird whistle in Lyra’s hand. His face grew even more excited, his eyes sparkling as he stared at the toy without blinking.
“WOW! Boo bird!” Ion squealed, his enthusiasm skyrocketing. His little hand immediately grabbed for the toy. “Does it make a sound, Auntie? It’s so cute!”
“It sure does! But blow on it gently on the couch, okay?” Lyra whispered. “Go play with the blue bird on the couch for a little while, okay? Papa’s busy being a superhero racing against time. It’d be a shame to distract him.”
Ion looked at the wooden bird in his hands, then glanced at Papa, who was watching him from the dining table with a fond smile. The joy of holding a new toy and having his favorite auntie there made the boy nod enthusiastically.
“Okay! Ion’s gonna fly the bird on the couch!” Ion shouted excitedly before toddling toward the living-room sofa. Since there were no walls dividing the room, Ales could keep an eye on his son while holding the laptop.
Seeing how adorable and happy Ion was, Ales glanced over from the dining table and felt as if he’d just received a fresh supply of breath and energy. The weight in his head felt a little lighter.
Ales watched Lyra’s back as she made sure Ion was sitting comfortably on the couch with his toy, then returned to plop down beside Ales and slap the table hard.
“Focus, Ales! Don’t zone out—we’ve only got forty minutes left!” Lyra scolded firmly.
Ales smiled faintly, let out a long breath, and turned back to his screen with complete focus. Tonight, surrounded by a sudden deadline and an overheating laptop, Ales realized he wasn’t fighting alone.
6:57 p.m. WIB.
“Ales... we seriously have only three minutes left!” Lyra cried in barely contained hysteria, her eyes glued to the clock in the corner of the laptop. “Did you hit Send yet?!”
“Wait! The PDF attachment is still uploading. The signal keeps cutting in and out!” Ales shouted, cold sweat beading at his temples. His index finger pressed the Enter key with the emotional force of a high-stakes finale.
Lyra’s laptop screen spun for a moment... and then:
PLING!
**[Message Sent - 6:58 p.m. WIB]**
To: Mr. Handoko Subject: Final Revision of Draft Floor Plan & Structure - Ales
Silence rushed in. Ales immediately slumped back against the dining chair, gasping for breath as if he had just finished a twenty-six-mile marathon. Beside him, Lyra rested her head on the table and let out an incredibly long sigh of relief.
“I... survived...” Ales murmured, staring at the ceiling.
“I’m the one who saved you, idiot,” Lyra corrected hoarsely, turning lazily toward Ales with her face still pressed against the tabletop. “You’d better hope this project commission comes through. You’re treating me to ten servings of egg martabak.”
“I’ll buy you the whole cart, not just ten servings,” Ales replied with a weak chuckle.
BRRRT! BRRRT!
A shrill sound like a badly played trumpet suddenly rang out from the living-room sofa. Ales and Lyra turned in unison.
On the sofa, Ion sat cross-legged, cheeks puffing in and out as he blew into the tail of the blue wooden bird with complete concentration. The boy’s face was smeared with traces of egg martabak that had somehow been sitting open on the coffee table since who knew when.
“Ion...” Ales called, stunned. “Is that the egg martabak Papa ordered earlier this afternoon?”
Ion stopped blowing and looked at Papa and Auntie with wide, innocent eyes. “Yep! The delivery guy knocked on the door, Ion got Ion’s egg martabak and ate it. It was so yummy! Auntie Yaya want some?”
Casually, Ion held out a piece of slightly squashed, cold egg martabak with his greasy bare hand.
Lyra immediately burst out laughing, clutching her stomach. “Oh, little champ! No wonder you’ve been so quiet. You’ve been snacking on martabak all by yourself on the couch!”
Ales could only smack his own forehead, unsure whether to laugh or cry. He stood up, walked over to the sofa, and lifted Ion onto his lap.
“Papa’s smart boy, already shopping all by yourself. But look at those messy hands, oh my God...”
“Here, let Auntie clean you up,” Lyra said, shifting to sit on the carpet beneath the sofa and taking a wet wipe from the table. Patiently, she wiped Ion’s mouth and tiny fingers.
Ticklish, Ion deliberately pressed his still-greasy cheek against Lyra’s. “Auntie Lyra smells good, unlike Papa, who smells like sweat!”
“HEY!” Ales protested, offended, making Lyra laugh even harder until her eyes narrowed.
“See? You heard him yourself! Even your own kid admits you stink,” Lyra teased, sticking her tongue out at Ales.
Ales snorted, his eyes narrowing mischievously. “Oh, so we’re ganging up on me now?”
Without warning, Ales leaned forward, wrapping one arm around Ion’s neck and pulling Lyra’s shoulder in with his other long arm. Mercilessly, he pressed both their heads against his chest, which was genuinely soaked in cold sweat after the deadline marathon.
“Get over here, you two! Have a taste of a superhero’s sweat!” Ales shouted with satisfied laughter, deliberately ruffling Lyra and Ion’s hair at the same time.
“AAAAH! ALES, YOU STINK, DAMMIT! LET GO!” Lyra shrieked hysterically between bursts of laughter, struggling even though Ales’s hold was too tight.
Her face crumpled in disgust as her nose was pushed even closer to Ales’s sweat-soaked T-shirt.
“PAPA STINKS! AUNTIE YAYA, HELP ION!” Ion screamed gleefully too, his little hand still clutching the wooden bird as he smacked Ales’s arm and laughed until his eyes watered.
“No helping each other! This is punishment for anyone who dares insult Papa!” Ales hugged them even tighter, forgetting the fingers that had cramped earlier from his typing marathon.
The living room, which had been as tense as a battlefield, suddenly erupted with their noisy laughter and excited screams. After several seconds of shoving and carefree laughter, Ales finally released them, panting heavily.
Lyra immediately fixed her hair, which now looked like a bird’s nest, and laughed at Ales while catching her breath. Her face was slightly flushed, but she quickly covered up her fluster by throwing a couch cushion straight at Ales’s face.
“You’re seriously the worst, Ales!” Lyra grumbled, pretending to be angry even though she couldn’t stop smiling.
Ales caught the cushion easily, wiped his face, and looked from Lyra to Ion. In that warm living room, amid the scent of cold egg martabak and the lingering sound of laughter, his overwhelming exhaustion from the day’s disasters suddenly vanished.
NOTE! CAD & SketchUp: Applications for drafting floor plans and building designs. M.2 SSD & Enclosure: Tools for turning the memory from a dead laptop into an emergency flash drive.