The room fell quiet.
Carlos sat on the couch with his phone.
Elena folded towels and shirts in a chair nearby.
Mateo spread his collection of toy cars across the carpet.
At first, the afternoon felt painfully familiar.
Everyone was in the same room, yet emotionally separated by their own thoughts.
Carlos scrolled through messages without really absorbing them.
Elena worked through the laundry with mechanical efficiency.
Mateo rolled one car across the carpet, then another.
Outside, the rain continued.
Inside, almost nobody spoke.
But Mateo possessed something the adults had temporarily lost.
He could still transform an ordinary object into an entire imaginary world.
For him, a plastic car was never simply a plastic car.
It could become a race car, a rescue vehicle, a spaceship, or a secret machine built by a team of invisible inventors.
That afternoon, he decided to organize the greatest racing competition in the history of the living room.
