Miracle Without Rabbit Ears

"I hope we don't get sick…"

The chills continue running down my back. Even after a hot shower, I struggle to sit comfortably at my desk.

"Achoo!"

Over on the dining table, the situation isn't much better for Mira. She manages to keep her pencil moving, but it's not difficult to see her fatigue.

"Finally done…"

She lets out a cathartic sigh and stretches backwards. My eyes are subconsciously drawn to Mira at every sound she makes, but I have to immediately look away like usual. Leaning back is all it takes for her stomach to come into clear view due to the blunder I made with her outfit selection. By this point, she enjoys wearing that cropped shirt and short shorts so much that convincing her to change is impossible.

Although, not being able to look at her has its benefits. The code editor is once again on my screen and once again flashing me red errors with every test. I've barely been able to make any progress on this project for over a week, long before Mira came into my life. Now that she's here, my progress is much slower and I can't be sure that I'll meet the deadline.

"This darn assignment…"

I stand up and start walking circles around the couch. It feels like I'm just a single step away from reaching the solution.

"Too hard for Noa?"

The young girl swings her bare feet back and forth as she watches me pace. One of those small feet is wrapped in white bandages.

"Imagine something ten times harder than geometry."

"Is that even possible!?"

"School only gets worse as you get older…"

Mira's face tries to twist with fear, but a heavy yawn interrupts her. I don't even need to check the clock to know that it's well past the time for bed.

"You can go to sleep first, I'll try to work quietly."

"Are you sure?"

She looks at me with concern as I reach my hand out to her. I feel her warmth once more while I support her limp towards the bed.

"It's something I just have to sit down and figure out on my own."

Once her body is fully submerged in the sheets, I turn off the lights until only the screen of my laptop and window provide light. It takes a moment for my eyes to adjust, but I'm soon back to typing away.

Write a few lines of code, test the code and receive an error, delete some lines of code, repeat. The quiet clicking of the keyboard fills my ears along with the light tapping of the now drizzling rain. All of this ambience and the darkened room allow me complete focus on a level that I haven't had in a while. Granted, no amount of focus seems to be getting me close to figuring out the problem.

"Noa?"

I hear the shuffling behind me before her voice. Turning back, I see Mira sitting up in the bed with her blue eyes glowing in the dim lighting.

"Is something wrong?"

"No, but…Noa just seems to be struggling…"

"I told you that it's fine."

Maybe I've grown frustrated at my lack of success or I'm simply exhausted mentally. I can tell that my response was a bit too curt.

"Ah, no…"

"Grrrr!"

Her blue hair waves behind her as Mira crawls to the end of the bed facing the desk. I don't know what to expect, but I instinctively close my eyes as she approaches.

Instead of any pain, I feel a light pressure applied onto my shoulders and head.

"I'll help!"

"W-What?"

Mira's hands grip onto the space near my neck and her chin rests atop my hair. It almost feels nostalgic having her lean on me like this, although my heart is beating much faster than last time. I can't see her face, but I can tell that her eyes stare at the bright screen.

"I'll help Noa!"

"What do you mean? You don't know how programming works…"

"I don't, but Noa can explain it to me!"

She tightens her grip on my shoulders as I start to move around in my seat.

"I'm going to take care of Noa one day, so I should be able to hear your problems!"

My attempts to shake her off are met with persistent grunts. Her body flinches every once in while when she adjusts her footing, likely from applying pressure where she shouldn't.

"Alright, fine…"

"Yay!"

I doubt that she would sleep even if I insisted. This back and forth isn't getting us anywhere and it definitely isn't helping Mira heal. She leans against my desk chair patiently while I drag over one of the dining chairs for her.

"What is this?"

The young girl plops down onto the chair and immediately displays her lack of knowledge in this area. All I can do is sigh and run through the explanation from the beginning.

"This is a computer program. We basically write these commands and the computer does work for us."

"So we can tell it to do our homework?"

"There are definitely applications for that…"

Leave it to Mira to be efficient and find the most convenient use for technology. Humans are inherently lazy, so we make these kinds of machines to do the things that we don't want to do.

"Regardless, this program simulates a reservation system for a movie theatre. You can buy tickets and reserve seats for some auditorium."

"A movie theatre?"

Her hair brushes against my arm as she tilts her head in confusion. I might have placed our chairs too close together, but I wanted to be sure that she could easily see the monitor.

"Like…what Silver did with the dolls but on a huge screen. Everybody sits in these rows of chairs and watches for hours. Maybe I'll take you to see one at some point."

"Sounds complicated…"

Mira must have trouble imagining things at large scales, which isn't particularly surprising. I don't even think she would enjoy sitting in one place and watching a movie. Regardless, that part isn't the issue with my assignment.

"Basically, if the seat somebody wants isn't available, the program has to find somewhere else that can seat the customer's party. It has to choose based on how close it is to the middle of the auditorium."

I completely forget about the girl sitting next to me while I enter back into work mode. However, my mind still remembers to talk about my current problem.

"I just can't seem to figure out how to search the whole auditorium. I've tried counting around from the middle, but it doesn't always work. If only I could find the distance from anywhere…"

A random homework problem pops into my head. It isn't actually from my own assignment, but from Mira's.

"Distance…distance…distance! This auditorium is a two-dimensional plane!"

Without much of a baseline, Mira obviously struggled with imagining the world in terms of x and y. One of the most common scenarios in a grid is figuring out how far one point is from another. The idea of viewing the seats this way had completely slipped my mind, but it solves all of my problems. There exists a simple equation for calculating the distance between two points and I've shown it to Mira just earlier today.

"That just might work! All I need to do is iterate over the rows and—"

I feel something knock against my shoulder.

When I look to my side, I see a white streak amongst a head of blue hair. Now that I'm no longer lost in thought, I can hear the soft breathing of the girl sitting beside me.

"Sorry to bore you with my work."

I can feel a smile forming on my face as I gaze at Mira's closed eyes and relaxed expression. I'm careful not to wake her as I carry her over to the bed and tuck her back in. For some reason, I can't stop looking at her sleeping face or the slow rise and fall of the blankets above her stomach. My hand reaches out and strokes the hair resting over her face.

"You really are some kind of strange miracle…"

Never in my life did I anticipate a rabbit of all things showing up and throwing my life into chaos. She makes me cry, she makes me scream, she causes me trouble in ways I never even knew I could be troubled. Yet at the same time, her actions make me laugh and her efforts make me proud. The me I knew last week feels like a complete stranger now. Who knew that such a small creature always chewing grass holds such power. Rabbits truly surprise me.

"Not that she even has rabbit ears to show for it…"

Mira is a human girl now, and that will only become more and more the case. However, that doesn't mean anything to me. Right now, and hopefully in the future as well, she is my miracle.