I've always been interested in code of any kind. I figured out Java Script (as shitty as it is) when I was seven, and just had a general knack around electronics of any kind. I got so good at reading binary when I was in college that it was like reading a story from a book, just with commands.

Morse code was the first code I learned. Not quite the same, and not nearly as eloquent, but my dad taught me, and it was our thing. We used to drive mom bat shit tapping out signals to each other at the table. She used to ban us from using "that damn tapping code!"

It was only a few months ago that I got the call from mom. She broke down the minute she uttered the phrase "he's passed on." It wasn't really a shock, we had known the cancer was eating him away for months now, but it didn't make it any easier.

I'm laying on my bed now, my heart hurting from missing my dad this much. I start tapping little phrases to myself in Morse code until my fingers hurt.

Then I start blinking it.

Then I start mixing my code that I've been struggling through at work with my Morse code from my dad and blink

C-O-N-S-O-L-E.

An instant blue hue falls over my vision and the words "welcome, kiddo" pop into my vision.

what. the. fuck.