The Reality Bug (7 page)

“You shouldn't be surprised,” Aja said. “Everything is going to be right because it's coming out of your head.”

“But I can
feel
things,” I said. “And I tasted bacon. How is that possible?”

“You know how it should taste, so that's what it tasted like. Simple as that.”

Simple as that? Who was she kidding? This was the furthest thing from simple I could imagine. I had about ten miles of questions. “What if I hurt myself?” I asked, my mind racing with possibilities. “Do I really get injured?”

“No. You'll feel the pain if you get injured, and you'll stay that way until the jump is complete, but you're not really here. You're in the Lifelight pyramid. Nothing physical happens to you; it's all in your head.”

“So I can't, like, die or anything?”

“If you die, the jump is over.”

I looked at the silver wrist bracelet that had magically appeared when I began to remember Lifelight.

“Why didn't I see this at first?” I asked, holding my arm up.

“The goal of jumping is to completely immerse yourself in the experience,” she answered. “Having that control band on your wrist would be a constant reminder that none of this is real. You'll only see it when you need to.”

“Really? It's like my mind tells the band when to appear?”

“Exactly. Your mind controls everything.”

“So I could, like, wish for a pizza to appear? Or for a swimming pool to be in the garage? Or for a spaceship to land on the front lawn and take me to Mars?”

Aja laughed. That was a surprise. For a change she didn't sound annoyed. I think she liked showing off what Lifelight could do. “Sure, but only if those kinds of things would normally happen. Lifelight was designed to create a perfect experience. A
realistic
experience. You can't suddenly sprout wings and fly away. Your mind wouldn't let you because you know that can't really happen. You're governed by the rules of reality. But the thing is, it's a
perfect
reality.”

She reached over to me and lightly touched the middle button on my wrist controller.
Dingdong
. The front doorbell rang. Mom hurried out of the kitchen to get it.

“You expecting somebody?” she asked me on her way to the door.

I shrugged. I was expecting nothing … and anything. When she opened the door, I saw that standing outside was a pizza delivery guy from Domino's Pizza.

“Large pepperoni, extra cheese,” the guy announced.

Mom gave me a look. “No wonder you didn't want breakfast.” She paid the guy and took the pizza. “Do you have any idea how disgusting it is to eat this so early in the morning?”

“Uh, yeah,” I answered, dumbfounded.

Mom then smiled and said, “Fine, you can have this because it's game day, but do not give any to Shannon or Marley, or your father. And eat it in the kitchen.”

She disappeared back into the kitchen along with the pizza. She hadn't even said anything about Aja.

“Lifelight read my mind,” I said to nobody in particular.

“That's what I've been telling you,” Aja said.

“Why did you press the button? What did it do?”

“This starts getting a little advanced,” she explained. “When you started the jump, I told you to think about a place you'd like to be. Lifelight read those thoughts and created this house and your family. That's the basic jump. That middle button is only used if you want to vary it. Let's say your family wanted to go on a picnic, but it was raining. All you'd have to do is touch the button and the storm would clear. Or let's say you wanted an old friend to be part of the jump. Think about the person, touch the button, and they'll show up.”

“So it's like controlling the experience?”

“That's exactly what it is. But it's also a safety feature. When you first enter a jump, Lifelight creates the environment you're thinking of. Once you're in, Lifelight only reacts to what is actually happening. The trouble is, you can't control every idea that pops into your head. You might suddenly get a thought about being on a boat. But Lifelight won't do anything with that unless you push the button. If not for that button, there would be too much input coming from your brain and the jump would be a mess.”

“So I could think about climbing a mountain right now—”

“And nothing would happen unless you pushed that button. Then a friend of yours might show up to tell you he's going on a trip to the mountains and ask you to join him.”

“That is so cool!” I said.

“That's one way of putting it,” Aja replied.

“So then, where are you?” I asked. “I mean, Lifelight isn't reading your thoughts, is it?”

“I'm your phader for the jump. Remember the core we passed through on our way into the pyramid? I'm sitting in one of those control cubicles, watching your jump.”

“Those video monitors!” I exclaimed. “They're showing you what the jumpers are experiencing.”

“Exactly. The phaders monitor the jumps to make sure everything goes well. To be honest, it's a boring job. Things rarely go wrong. But every so often a jumper needs some help or his wrist controller needs replacing or some minor problem arises and we get sent into their jump. But the thing is, we can't become part of a jump unless the jumper presses the left button. That's why I was able to show up when I did. If you hadn't pressed that button, I wouldn't be able to join you.”

“So can you control the jump now too?” I asked.

“No, I'm only a visitor.”

“Bobby? Are you going to eat this pizza before it congeals?” asked Mom. She stood in the doorway of the living room.

“Uh, yeah. As soon as I finish talking to my friend here.” I had no idea how to explain Aja.

Mom gave me a strange look. “You want to run that by me again?” she asked.

“She can't see me,” Aja said with a chuckle. “I'm not part of this jump.”

How weird was that? Aja was like a ghost. There were a lot of rules to this bizarro experience.

“Never mind,” I called to Mom. “I'll be right there.”

Mom did a double-take, then left again.

“So what do I do now?” I asked.

“Anything you want. I think you have some kind of game to go to?”

“Yes! The basketball game! I can play ball?”

“If you want.”

“Oh, man, this is great! How long does this go on?”

“Don't worry about it. Have fun. When you get back, we'll talk about the big picture.”

“C'mon Bobby!” shouted Shannon impatiently. She stood at the door to the living room with her hands on her hips, looking irritated with me for holding up the show.

I looked to her and said, “Coming!” I then looked back to Aja, but she was gone. Just like that. My silver control bracelet was gone too. At least I couldn't see it anymore. I had a moment where I wasn't sure what to do, but then decided if I was going to learn all about Lifelight, I had to go along with the program. And heck, if it meant playing a little roundball, that wouldn't be so bad. So I decided to give myself over to the experience and ran into the kitchen and tucked into the most delicious pizza I had ever eaten. But better than that was being together with my family. Shannon told me all about a play she was in at school, Dad talked about a newspaper article he was having trouble finding the inspiration to write, and Mom announced she was up for a promotion at the library. It was all so … excellent. I was home. The only sour note was that I couldn't tell them anything about me. My guess was that would have thrown a monkey wrench into the whole illusion, so I kept quiet. Then again, nobody asked me anything either.

After breakfast we all piled into the SUV and headed for my basketball game. I had played some pick-up hoops with Spader on First Earth—when we went there together in pursuit of Saint Dane—but that wasn't the same as putting on a uniform and playing five-on-five in a gym. The last time I played organized ball was for Stony Brook Junior High. If I hadn't left home I would be going to Davis Gregory High right now. Question was, where would my mind take us? Junior high, or high school?

Dad drove us to Davis Gregory High. I had been there before and even played a city final in their gym, so I knew the place. I left my family and went right to the locker room, not entirely sure of what I'd find. For a moment it felt like one of those dreams where you've got to take a test, but suddenly realize you never went to any of the classes. But I didn't panic. After all, Lifelight was supposed to deliver a perfect experience, right?

It did. When I stepped into the room, I was thrilled to see all my teammates from junior high. But they weren't getting dressed in the yellow jerseys of the Stony Brook Wildcats. They were putting on the crimson jerseys of the Davis Gregory Cardinals. I had always dreamed about playing for the Cardinals. My dream was about to come true. Sort of.

The guys all greeted me, but didn't act like anything was out of the ordinary. I wanted to grab them all and hug them and tell them how psyched I was to be back, but I played it cool. For some reason I knew which locker was mine. Hanging up inside was a Cardinal jersey with my number: 15. Any doubt I had about being in the right place went away when I picked up that jersey, turned it around, and saw the stitched lettering over my number. It read:
PENDRAGON
.

As I look back and analyze what happened, I can figure out why Lifelight did what it did. But at the time, I was totally taken up with the illusion. Even though I knew what was going on, it didn't matter. I'm not sure if it was Lifelight doing it to me, or it was my own brain guiding things, but it was like I had forgotten that I was lying in a vast pyramid and mind tripping through a computer. As far as I knew, I was really there.

And the game was awesome. The stands were full, and rocking like it was a championship. The band pounded out a war rhythm. The cheerleaders fired up the home side. Our opponents were the crosstown rival Black Knights of Easthill High. Our starting five were the same as back in junior high: me, Jimmy Jag, Crutch, Petey Boy, and Joe Zip. Man, I missed those guys. Coach Darula was on the bench looking confident, the same as always. As we came out of the locker room and headed for the court, I got that old familiar feeling in my stomach. The butterflies. They always started dancing right before tip-off. It meant I was ready to play.

And man, did I play.

From the opening tip-off, I was on fire. Being a point guard, I was used to shooting and scoring, but what happened in that game was nothing short of phenomenal. Everything clicked. We played together like a dream team. Most every shot I took found nothing but the bottom of the net. I didn't gun the ball, though. Oh no. I dished it around. I shot no-look passes to Joe Zip, who laid it in. I alley-ooped a few to Crutch, who could leap high enough to jam it home. I stole the ball a bunch of times and generally ran the offense like a pro. It was a dream game. Yeah, that's
exactly
what it was.

We didn't win by a hundred points either. The game was close, which made it that much more exciting. With only a few seconds left to go, we were actually down by two points. Jimmy Jag passed me a give-and-go, I drove the lane, and as I went in for the lay-up, I got hammered by their center. Yeah, you guessed it. Two points down, seconds on the clock, and I was on the foul line. It doesn't get any sweeter than that. I stood at the line with my hands on my hips, totally exhausted and sweating. It was awesome.

I looked around at the crowd. Everyone was on their feet, cheering for me. The ref bounced me the ball. I dribbled once, bent my knees, lined up my shot and … swish. All net. The crowd went nuts. I took another second to soak it all in before my next shot. I gazed around at all the excited faces. Some I recognized, others were people I had never seen before. But they were all cheering for me.

Then I saw something that made a great moment even greater. Sitting on the bleachers behind our bench was my family. Mom, Dad, and Shannon. But that's not all. Sitting behind them was you, Mark. Next to you was Courtney. You were all waving and cheering. It was the best moment I could imagine.

The ref bounced me the ball; the crowd grew silent; I put up the shot and … oh yeah, it was good. The buzzer sounded. We were going to overtime. I jogged over to our bench while looking up at you guys. You were going nuts. I couldn't have imagined a better scenario. Come to think of it, from what I learned about Lifelight, it was the
exact
scenario I imagined.

The team manager threw me a towel and I sat down on the bench to catch my breath. I wiped the sweat from my face and did my best not to smile too broadly. That's when I heard a voice I didn't want to hear.

“Having fun?” asked the intruder.

I looked up and saw Aja sitting next to me on the bench. It actually took me a second, again, to remember who she was. But I did, and I didn't like it. I didn't want her there, no way. Not then. She was going to ruin it.

Aja looked around at the screaming crowd and added, “Wow, you really like to get the old adrenaline pumping, don't you?”

“Yeah, so?” I shot back. “It's my fantasy. I can do what I want, right?”

“Absolutely,” Aja continued. “Only one problem. Your jump's over.”

“What?” I shouted. “It can't be over, we're going into OT!”

“Sorry,” Aja shrugged. “I told you, the jump was timed.”

“Give me twenty more minutes,” I begged.

“Sorry. Besides, it's good to end like this,” Aja said. “It's the perfect demonstration.”

“There's nothing perfect about ending this now,” I complained. I then noticed that the silver band had returned to my wrist. The button on the right was blinking red. I didn't like the looks of that.

Aja picked up another towel and threw it at me. “Wipe your face. You're all sweaty,” she ordered.