“I didn’t cheat, Sheldon. I just saw a different path.”

“Hello?”

“There is only one path. The correct path.”

Paige leaned forward, her chin resting on her hands. “Okay, but what if the bath isn’t Markovian? What if there’s memory?”

“What’s the prize?”

He spent all Friday night programming it. Button by button. Press. Store. Recall. Execute.

As for the TI-30? I kept it on my desk for forty years. It never solved another differential equation. But every time I looked at its faded screen and the coffee-stained '7' key, I remembered that being outsmarted isn't a defeat. It's a lesson. And sometimes, the most important variable in any equation isn't X or Y.