The story, as filed
Kevin was sixteen in the summer of 1984. The walk-in closet in his bedroom was the largest room in the house that nobody else wanted.
He bought a home computer with two years of paper-route money and taught it to keep time for two keyboards and a drum machine. Nobody he knew had done that. He did not mention it to anyone who would have been impressed.
He wrote most of the music and almost none of the words. He played seated. At shows he looked at the machines, and the machines did what he asked.
From 1986 he repaired televisions at a shop on Ogden Avenue and took classes at night. He kept the closet.
Now. Lives in the western suburbs. Still repairs televisions, by appointment. The closet is a closet again.