Chapter 6: Somebody Signs

I refreshed the page three times.

Gray every time.

I opened my messages and typed to Josh.

"You can't take my name off my own code."

The little word under it changed to Read.

He didn't answer that night.

He didn't answer the next day either.

On the third day, Jenna posted a photo of Josh in a hard hat at a coworking space.

The caption said, "So proud of my CEO."

I turned off my notifications for her.

Then I started looking for a job.

I had a computer science degree, a portfolio, and an app with eleven thousand downloads that I wasn't allowed to put on my resume.

I sent out forty-two applications in two weeks.

I got five interviews.

The first one was on video.

The man saw my message in the chat box saying I would type my answers, and his face did something polite and cold.

He ended the call after six minutes.

The second one never confirmed the time.

The third was in person, at a software company in a glass building downtown.

The interviewer met me at the elevator. He was about forty, with a lanyard and a firm handshake.

I showed him my phone.

"Hi. I can't speak, but I hear fine. I'll type my answers. Thanks for seeing me."

He read it, and nodded hard, and then he leaned in close to my face.

"OKAY," he said, very loudly. "THANK. YOU. FOR. COMING."

The receptionist looked up.

I typed, "I can hear you. I just can't talk."

He read it and nodded again.

"GREAT," he said. "FOLLOW. ME."

He did the whole interview like that.

Every question, slow and loud, with big shapes on his mouth, while two people at the next table pretended not to listen.

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