Continue Online (Book 1, Memories) (19 page)

One
page after the other turned. The faces showed up in the distance,
some waved, others glared, even more still did nothing. Some refused
to show up at all, which was interesting. Maybe my actions offended
some.

Finally,
I picked someone a little bit outside my comfort zone. This might
remove the haunted look on the Voice's face. I stopped at the plump
woman who still cradled a baby.

“
Would
you like to dance?” I asked.

“
Tut.
What nonsense is this? I didn’t ask for this. Go away.”
Her head shook back and forth. Small children faded into being around
her then vanished moments later.

“
Trust
me. I could tell you needed a break, even if only for a moment.”

“
How
would you know anything of raising a child? I can see you’ve
never had a kit of your own. It’s as plain as the nose on your
face.” Her head shook in the negative. Hair was tied back with
a long faded scarf and both legs bent a little oddly.

“
I
have family, I have a sister, and I know the look in your eyes as
well as I know hers,” I said. The look was one of pure
exhaustion and an existence that only kept going because that was all
the mind knew to do.

“
For
one song, we’ll dance. Come on.” I held out a hand and
waited. This was so much easier with the program in my other room.
She never argued and was lighter by far. My mind was already whirling
through the few dances I knew to find something comfortable. And she
didn’t look the sort to find comfort in much.

“
Who
will watch this babe then?”

“
James,
can you hold a baby for a while?” It was his turn to answer a
question I believe. It was hard to keep track at this point, so much
of what we said was as natural as conversation. It didn’t feel
like an interrogation at all. Perhaps to another person, a more
suspicious one, or one who wasn’t used to baring bits of his
soul at a time.

“
I’m
not comfortable with children.” He nearly sputtered the words.
Clearly my choice had been a surprise.

“
Anyone
out there who can hold this little one?” I knew some of the
other Voices had to be watching. They always seemed to pipe in when
it was unwanted.

“
We’ll
watch him, Mister Grant Legate.” A child’s voice came
from nearby. I turned and saw the same young girl who had held a
book. She had been reading alone in a library. Her hand was being
held by the Angelic one with a faraway gaze.

“
Is
that alright, Miss?”

“
Maud.
Call me Maud.” She said.

“
Maud
then, would you entrust the little one to these ladies for the course
of a song?” I asked while gesturing to the two others. Maud
barely nodded before the girl took the babe away.

“
I
don’t know how to dance.” She had a slight accent and her
skin tone was hinting at another ethnicity. Were those cloven feet?
It was hard to tell from under the large wash maid's dress.

“
I
wasn't born knowing how to dance, I don't think anyone is. I could
teach you if you want?” I said. This was too fun. Could I even
act this friendly with real people? It was more likely I was able to
be so friendly because I knew they were computer-generated artificial
intelligence.

“
Yes,
please.”

“
Put
your hands up for a moment,” I remembered how the dance program
had walked me through all the beginner motions. There was a
walkthrough for so many dances, each with ranks and difficulties.
They had shown me how to lead, how to help someone else, and so much
more.

It
was my only real skill, well, perhaps along with talking to people. I
could dance my way to supremacy! All hail the dancing meat bag!
Please don’t turn me into sludge, future robot overlords. It
would just be my luck that this woman would have a brawn of one
million and squish my frail virtual form.

“
Ain't
funny to laugh.”

“
I’m
not laughing at you, Maud, I'm laughing at my own terrible thoughts.”
She flushed red for a moment, looking all too human, far more than I
expected. It made me laugh again. “Nothing so crass.” How
often did I get to use the word crass? Twice now! It was exciting.
“This seems very unreal to me.”

“
Well,
it's a bit too real to me." She huffed but kept right on going
along with our setup. I placed her hands in comfortable positions,
nothing intimate, professional and courteous.

“
James!”
I yelled behind us.

“
Grant
Legate.” Okay, the name thing was going to get old really fast.

“
Can
you get the music for a box step from my dance program?”

“
Certainly,”
James said.

“
Alright,
Maud, the box step is one of the easiest to learn, but it can still
take time if you’re not used to it. Step with me, like we’re
dancing a square. The music is our timing.”

“
I’m
not sure about this, Mister Grant Legate.” I managed to keep
from getting irked at my name being said so many times.

“
We'll
take it one step at a time. Slowly now.” And so we went. Our
path ventured back and to the side, forth and to the side again. On
and on. I commented on her hand placement, took strides with her. She
was a heavier woman, but it didn’t mean much in the face of
myself, a man who had let himself go. If anything we were almost
matched.

Once
upon a time I had been in shape but couldn't dance. That was years
ago. Now I was a man who wasn’t in shape because I had no one
to do so for and danced with a pale imitation of the past to prove I
was able to learn. I felt sad again for a moment, from another bout
of mood swings, but still danced.

Maud
didn’t carry herself with a clever air, but she wasn’t
stupid either. Once I fell silent so did she. Instead, Maud worked
extra hard not to step wrong like she had at the start. By the end of
our third song, two more than expected, she had the basic moves down
very well. We broke and I clapped and bowed.

“
Well
done, Lady Maud.” I could get used to this role playing thing.
The freedom of saying what came to mind instead of worrying about
anyone's impressions. I honestly enjoyed myself.

“
Heh.”
I laughed and shook my head. These quest texts were too quick and
funny. How on earth had they programmed something to line all that up
so fast? I guess that meant Maud enjoyed herself as well. Once our
dance was done she ran over to pick up her child. Her face was
flushed as Maud vanished into whatever version of virtual reality
housed the Voices.

“
Good
enough, James?”

“
Do
you feel like you did a good job?” He circumvented my question
with one of his own. This computer really stuck to the rules.

"It
was fun." A smile crossed my lips and a laugh escaped. My belly
jiggled. Poor Maud, to be stuck with me as a dance partner must have
been disgusting. Maybe one of these events was a shower or swim at
the beach.

“
What’s
next?” I asked.

“
What
do you want?”

Maybe
I was behind on my answers, or maybe James was being pushy.

“
I'll
give you the answer, but you'll need to understand where I'm coming
from for it to make sense." Dancing was easy. I felt like James
was going easy on me, though.

"Did
you get a chance to review my information?” He was a computer
program. James probably had a chance to study an entire library of
knowledge in the span of one dance.

“
Yes,
I did, Grant Legate.”

I
bit my lip and for a moment and tried not to put too much thought
into my next words.

“
You
may have seen that I’ve had a rough few years.”

“
Indeed.”
James was dry in his response.

“
Then
you might understand all I want is to keep myself busy and
distracted,” I said.

“
Why?”
James never tired of his endless questions.

“
It’s
my turn for a question, James. I think.”

“
Very
well.” He nodded in agreement.

“
You’re
kind of a half shrink, god, Voice thing. What do you think is the
most distracting thing I could do?” I closed my eyes briefly
and tried not to put too much hope into the question.

“
You
should already know the answer to that question. The most distracting
thing in life is simply living with all you’ve got. This is
true in both worlds.”

“
Right.
One foot after the other, forward march. Forward but never backward.”
I tried not to feel hurt. Of course a computer program wouldn’t
have an answer better than any other source. That left me with the
happy mask and baring my soul like answering didn’t hurt.

James
hummed and chose not to ask his question again. Instead he said,
“What would you like to do next, Grant Legate?”

“
I
don’t have any good ideas, James. Distract me. Please.”

“
Very
well,” He said. The room about us changed once more.

Session Six -
Feasts and Other Nonsense

I
frowned at the latest entry. At least it had gone better than the
needle in a haystack test. Or Trial as James called it. Four down,
six to go. At this rate, I would start playing the game on par with
first graders. We could totally duke it out over ownership of the
little dragon thing, which was still flying around.