“If that’s what they’re called.”

He pulled over the creaky desk chair and sat down. Lena stood behind him, hands on her hips, watching intently.

Lena leaned closer. Leo gestured for her to try. She placed one finger on the Ctrl key, a little stiffly, and rolled the small wheel between the mouse buttons.

Leo didn’t know what to say to that, so he just patted her shoulder and went back to the couch. But Lena stayed at her computer for another hour, scrolling up and down, making the icons big, then small, then just right. She felt like a giant rearranging the furniture of her own little world.

Lena gasped. “Oh! Oh, that’s lovely.”

“Okay,” Leo said. “First, you click on an empty part of the desktop. Not on an icon. Just the background.”

Her grandson, Leo, was visiting for the weekend. He was fourteen and spoke about computers the way old sailors spoke about the sea—with a mixture of reverence and impatience. He was currently sprawled on her couch, scrolling through his phone.

“That’s it,” Leo said. “You can also right-click the desktop, go to View, and pick Small icons. But the Ctrl-scroll thing is faster.”