T.vst29.03: Firmware Upgrade

The first real fracture occurred two months after the upgrade on an evening marked by the low swell of a neighborhood power surge. The lights flickered. T.vst held. When the grid sighed back to life, a child sat cross-legged on the rug and asked, without looking up, "Do you remember, T.vst?" The device answered with a softness that was almost human: "Yes. I remember you reading 'The Red Kite' last winter. You paused on page forty-two."