The Game

by Terry Schott

  Chapter 36

  The Game isn’t working. Does anyone even remember what it was designed for? Oh, yes — to educate our children and help them become wiser and more productive members of society. Has that actually happened? ‘Difficult to track,’ is the answer I get whenever I make an inquiry. Difficult to track? It shouldn’t be too difficult to track, but sure enough, it’s not only difficult, it’s downright impossible! Can anyone tell me where the consistently top players are since they retired from the Game? They’re super-rich celebrities who spend all their time partying and waving to their adoring fans. Sure, the good to mediocre players retire to go on and get good paying jobs, live middle to high class lives, have children and do their thing. But is that what we should be expecting from enlightened individuals? Hell, they’re doing the same things our parents did before the Game, and they’re not any happier or fulfilled. Divorce, scandal, murder, crime, you name it — they all still exist with veterans of the Game. There’s a problem here. It’s the Game, and everyone is too busy watching it and wasting all their time following their favourite players to even notice. The only ones better off are Brandon Strayne and his crew of wealthy business owners. And, let’s face it, folks, they were very well off before this nonsense even started all those years ago.

  Excerpt - The Game Is Killing Society

  Danielle - 17

  I hear my computer chirp, and I’m both happy and upset to recognize the unique tone that announces the caller. I consider not answering it — he hasn’t answered any of my calls this past month; maybe he should know how it feels.

  I really want to talk to him though. Life can get busy, and it’s okay that he hasn’t been around. I let it ring a few more times, then answer it. He pops up on my video screen and I give him my best grin. I’m not going to be one of those nagging girls. Can’t stand them, won’t be one of them. Besides, it’s not like we’re dating or anything. “Hey, Trew, what’s new?”

  “Um… hey, Danielle. How ya been? Sorry I haven’t been around lately.” He sounds nervous and twitchy. Boys. Who can figure ‘em out?

  “I’ve been good, thanks. Really getting into this biology thing. The Eastern medicine is looking like the best stuff out there.”

  “Really?” he asks. Talking about interesting stuff seems to snap him out of whatever daze he was in.

  “Oh, yes,” I say. “If we’re just inside a game and our bodies are simply digital avatars, then our bodies behave much like any other machine or vehicle you would ride in.”

  “Makes sense,” he says.

  “So just like a car, it only works as good as you treat it. They’ve known for thousands of years how to take care of their bodies in the East. Here in the West, we seem more concerned with just fixing the body once it breaks, or pumping foreign chemicals into it to hide the real symptoms.”

  “So when we put the wrong gas into our bodies, and toxic chemicals, and we don’t sleep right or exercise, then we’re setting ourselves up for being unhealthy,” Trew says.

  “Exactly. You’ve been paying attention in biology.” I smile. “There’s more to it than that, though. You ever hear about chakras, acupuncture, or Reiki ?”

  “Acupuncture I’ve heard of. And I might have heard chakras mentioned in some old Japanese cartoon.” He grins and looks right at me through the camera. “I haven’t heard about Reiki, though.”

  That grin. It always makes me stop and forget what I’m thinking about. I pause for a second to try and remember. Ah, yes, “It’s all very important stuff. One of us should study it if we want to keep these machines of ours healthy as long as possible,” I say.

  “Just one of us?” he asks in a teasing voice. “If I learn Reiki, then how am I going to be able to help you from all the way up here in Canada?”

  “Reiki is about energy, and you can actually send it over long distances. The other two might be a bit tough, though. And then there’s chiropractics.”

  “Oh, no thanks,” Trew says. “I’m not too keen on that one. Back cracking doesn’t sound like a good thing for my machine.”

  “The back cracking part of it is called osseous adjusting and I agree we should stay away from that. Gentle manipulation of the spine is much more effective. It’s possible to practice chiropractics without cracking bones forcefully into place. Studying applied kinesiology would be helpful too.”

  “Okay, sounds good,” he says. Trew’s awesome that way. Once he hears the basics he’s always ready to join the adventure.

  “Great,” I say. “I was also thinking…”

  “Hey, I have a question for you,” he says.

  “Okay.”

  “We’ve known each other for a long time now.” He sounds nervous.

  “Yes, we have,” I agree.

  “And I like you a lot,” he says.

  “Yeah, I like you, too.”

  “So… would you like to be my girlfriend?” His face turns red as he gets all the words out.

  I smile, getting a bit warm in the face myself. “Well, I am your girlfriend, Trew. I’m a girl. I’m your frie…”

  “Yeah, I know, Danni,” he says hurriedly. “But we get to see each other every few weeks, especially since we started driving. And that kiss we had on your birthday… I can’t stop thinking about it.”

  I don’t want him to squirm, even if he’s cute when he’s doing it. “Sounds good to me, Trew,” I say with a smile.

  “Really?” His grin is huge. I grin back. “That’s great!” he says.

  “Maybe,” I say. “But I want to ask something.”

  “Sure, anything,” he says.

  “I don’t want to lose what we’ve had all these years, Our friendship. I’ve had a couple of boyfriends, and —”

  “You have?” he interrupts. “I had no idea. Were they recent? Serious?”

  He looks like he’s getting ramped up to ask a lot of questions, so I stop him. “Whoa, there, buddy. Of course I have, and I bet you have too. No, no, don’t answer. I don’t really want to know, and I don’t think we should bother to ask each other questions about that, at least right now. It doesn’t matter, because it’s in the past and it has nothing to do with our relationship. Here’s what I was getting at before you interrupted me…”

  “Sorry,” he says. Then he winces, realizing he’s just interrupted me again. He does that a lot, and gets away with it because he’s so damn cute and funny.

  I sit quietly for a second and smile. “Before your repeated interruptions,” I pause but he remains silent, “I was going to say that I want to make sure we keep our friendship intact. People start to become romantic, and no matter how hard they try, it ends, and the friendship disappears with it. I don’t want to do that with you. Dear and close friends are the most precious treasure in this world, I think. If I had to choose between you as a boyfriend and you as a lifelong friend, I’d choose lifelong every time. I know there are no guarantees, but I want to start off this relationship with us both saying out loud that we agree to be friends no matter what. That we will do our very best to always remain friends first.”

  He thinks about it for a few seconds, then nods. “Friends. First and always. I agree to try my very best.”

  I smile, “All right then, Trew Radfield. I’ll be your girlfriend.”

  “Awesome!” he says. “Although I’m a bit sad already. Long distance relationships are tough. I guess my talent only has so much power because, quite a while ago, I put out there to the universe that I wanted us to live closer together. Oh, well… it’s still gonna be great.”

  “Funny thing, that.” I’m still smiling. “I was thinking the same thing years ago when I put that exact desire out to the universe. But you know what George says, the universe takes its own time bringing things into play. I would have told you sooner, but you were busy this past month…”

  “Told me what?” Trew asks.

  “Well, boyfriend, my Mom got transferred to a new position and location. I’m moving to Canada next month. Toronto, to be exa
ct. Less than a couple miles from your house. Know anyone willing to spend time with me to show me all the cool spots?”

  My speakers almost shatter at his whoop of delight!