The Apple Logo Appeared

Right after the double episode, I put myself to bed and reached for my iPod. Pressed play. Nothing. Tried again. Checked the hold switch—off. Pressed every button I could think of, alone and in combination, long and short. The screen stayed black.

I got up, booted the PC, plugged it in. The software informed me, entirely unhelpfully: Connect an iPod. I reread that sentence. Reconnected the iPod. Same message. My iPod was dead, and the software was either lying or broken, and I didn’t know which was worse.

I was already composing the email to Apple support when I thought of the two old iPod magazines still sitting on my shelf—iPod Love and iPod Special, spared from a flea market clear-out for reasons I’d never been able to explain to myself. I pulled them out, flipped through, found it: slide the hold switch on and off, then hold Menu and Select simultaneously until the Apple logo appears. Repeat if necessary.

Once. Nothing. Twice. Nothing. Three times—and the logo lit up. My iPod shuddered back to life and immediately started playing Lolita Strawberry in Summer by SweetS.

I had saved a life. The feeling was disproportionate and completely real.