The Things We Hide

Mara always leaves her laptop on the spare-room desk. On a gray Sunday it is gone, and with it seven years of photographs and two assignments due.

Laptop

The laptop was not on the desk.

Mara noticed this at three sixteen on a gray Sunday afternoon, the kind of afternoon when the light seemed tired before it even reached the windows.

Her coffee had gone cold beside a stack of unopened mail. A delivery truck groaned somewhere below the apartment, followed by the heavy slam of a door. In the kitchen, the refrigerator hummed against the silence.

Mara stood in the doorway of the spare room and stared at the empty place beside the lamp.

She always left the laptop there.

It was an old machine with a cracked corner and a space bar polished smooth by years of use. The battery lasted less than an hour, and the fan made a faint rattling sound whenever she opened too many tabs. Two stickers were peeling from its lid: a faded moon and a small blue whale.

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Quick answers about The Things We Hide

What is The Things We Hide about?

Mara always leaves her laptop on the spare-room desk. On a gray Sunday it is gone, and with it seven years of photographs and two assignments due.

Is The Things We Hide free to read?

Yes. Every story on RapidTale is free to read in the browser, with no sign-up and nothing to install.

How long does it take to read?

This story runs 1 chapter — most readers finish in one sitting, and you can stop and return to any chapter using the contents list.

Who wrote it?

Nimra Khan — original fiction published on RapidTale.