Or reading the news on her phone about a shooting she experienced firsthand.
She gets out of bed and sets her phone to charge at her desk.
The desk is an old DIY project with a chest of ebony drawers that her stepdad, Floyd, found at a garage sale. He tried helping her out so they could have a fun little bonding moment, but she was determined to do everything herself. The women in her family are builders. Her gran was a seamstress on the Upper East Side, and Dalma isn’t saying that people started walking around with more holes in their clothes after she retired, but it’s a hell of a coincidence. Her mother, Dayana, runs a small business where she gets paid bank to design websites for bigger businesses. Dalma first fell in love with user interface engineering from sitting side by side with her mother as she wrote code and made the internet a prettier place. Dalma herself will become a worldwide famous programmer once she comes up with her idea. And as for Dahlia, she’s got no clear vision just yet, though Dalma trusts her little sister will come into her own over time. Whether she’s a builder like the other women or more of a healer like her father or something else entirely, Dalma will back her up.
Because that’s how you show up for your family.
But since Orion rejected her help and Dalma is home alone, she’s going to choose herself.
Dalma opens her laptop, a present from her mother and stepfather for getting accepted to Hunter College. This really was the gift of gifts because it was impossible to download all the necessary software on her family’s desktop computer. Here she has a solid starter package for writing code and designing her future app, the very thing she’s focused on right now. She fights back a yawn, but she’s no stranger to working through the night. She’s going to get shit done.
Since Death-Cast is so hot right now, Dalma wants to create an app that ties into that program, knowing it’s the smartest, fastest way to get her work on everyone’s radar. Whatever it is, she wants it to be free. She doesn’t want to exploit Deckers, even if they might find themselves with savings they no longer need to hold on to.
She bites her nail, thinking.
Her earliest idea was to create a running feed like Twitter, but for Deckers to share their thoughts on how their End Day is going. She thought it would be a lovely way to humanize them in their final hours. Except she remembered how toxic social media apps are, and if people are already this horrible in life, how will they behave when they’re sure they won’t have any long-term consequences? Dalma is sure someone else will create a similar app and make billions, but she won’t create a stage for those voices. Especially not after everything she’s already endured as a young Afro-Latina in tech.
She could build something with a charitable component. Like what if a Decker sets a personal goal they’ve always wanted to achieve, and people cheer them on with donations? Similar to what people do for a track runner in a marathon. All the proceeds could go to that Decker’s family or a charity close to their hearts. That could work.
What if there was an app that’s basically Craigslist for Deckers who want to have an open house to get rid of their furniture? Though also what’s stopping Craigslist from creating that function themselves? Nothing.
Moving on.
Something that could also be very useful to the general public is to know where Deckers are congregating so they can choose to stay away if they don’t want to find themselves at risk of a sudden blast that may not kill them but could harm them. Ugh, no. Dalma hates everything about it. It not only tracks Deckers and doesn’t give them privacy, but it would ward people away from them like they’re lepers. Wow, Dalma hates the idea so badly she backspaces every last letter of that thought. She’d hate to die and have her family find this file and think less of who she was in life.
Maybe Dalma needs to keep the app simple, like a little to-do list for Deckers. But what sets that apart from all the others? Sure, feeling accomplished feels good and that feeling might be magnified for Deckers, but it’s not special enough. Anyone could have come up with this idea.