After shutting down my laptop for the evening, I flipped the wireless mouse over and slid the power switch to off.
Why bother, my son asked. It won’t pull much power just sitting on the table.
Not much power is still some, I told him. I want to save the batteries.
It was a lie, of course. The mouse and the laptop had been carrying on a silent conversation for hours, cursor left and right, up and down, click and double-click. The mouse was abandoned as soon as the laptop went to sleep, no one to hear his messages. If I left it on, it would be asking Are you there? Are you there? all though the night. It would wait for a handshake that can never come, at least not until I bring the laptop back to life in the morning. I couldn’t live with myself if I did that, so I slid the switch to show red, the color of mouse sleep.
Sleep well, companions. Tomorrow will come soon enough.