Cwdw ^new^ -

The proctor’s voice was a dry rasp. “Pencils down.”

The Last Question on the Exam

He nodded once.

I looked up. No one else seemed to see it. The girl to my left was doodling a maze in the margin. The boy in front was erasing a smudge on his palm. They saw the neat rows of algebra. I saw a crack in the floor of reality. The proctor’s voice was a dry rasp

I wrote one word: “Everything.”

Then I closed the book. The world didn’t shake. The fluorescent lights didn’t flicker. But as I walked up the aisle to hand in my test, I noticed the proctor glance at my final page. For a split second, his stern mask cracked into a smile so small and so sad it looked like a secret. No one else seemed to see it