by C. B. Lee
“Auntie Phuong made a whole bunch of food yesterday, I think we’re still good,” Tank offers.
Ba grins, a familiar inventive gleam in his eye. “Yeah, but we could do something nice. How about this, I’m going to make dinner and when Ma gets home we can all eat, like a happy family, okay?”
“Ma has work tonight. She won’t be home until six.” Tank sighs.
“Then we can eat breakfast like a happy family.”
“At six in the morning? Ba, we don’t have school. I’m not waking up at six.”
“Fine, then I’ll eat with you kids and save some for Ma in the morning.” Ba frowns. “Where’s Vivian?”
“She’s in her room studying. Don’t bother her.”
“Thought you said you don’t have school.”
“She’s smart. She’s studying to get ahead for next year.”
Ba shuffles like he’s going to Vivian’s room to talk to her, and Tank finds himself reaching into his pocket. He’s going to regret this later, but Viv deserves to have time to herself. She doesn’t need Ba asking her to hold his tools while he tries something new with the electricity or teaching her how to change oil again, because he keeps forgetting what he has and hasn’t taught them. Viv’s more patient than Tank is, and she’d just play along.
“Here, go get some groceries,” Tank says, handing him the twenty. A mess in the kitchen is better than a mess of their wiring. “Don’t mess with the electricity. We’re still in trouble for what you did to the air-conditioning last month.”
Ba shrugs, because he’s like that, careless. He doesn’t think about how Tank had to try to find a job fast to help pay for the extra repairs, how Mom and Auntie Phuong don’t leave their work early because they felt like it, and how Viv is just a baby who shouldn’t have to be thinking about all of this. Ba shuffles out the door, money in hand.
Tank pours himself a glass of water and drinks it, pressing the cool glass to his forehead as he shifts through the apartment. Viv is in the other bedroom, her headphones on, her head bobbing as she sways to the music. Her back is to the door, and she hasn’t noticed him yet, completely immersed in the world of Minecraft. Tank smiles to himself, watching her enjoy the game. She’s back at the base, in one of the elaborately constructed houses she’s built, doing something intricate with redstone Tank doesn’t quite understand. Viv sticks her tongue out in concentration before leaning back to admire her latest construction. Despite their clunky outdated design, the two monitors and computer tower look good; clean, well maintained, and functional. The tower is glowing with bright blue LEDs that Tank installed for Viv last week, so she could get the cool gamer effect.
Tank thinks of kids’ rooms in TV shows, how they’re filled with soft toys and knickknacks and color. This bedroom, aside from the computer, is the same as it was five years ago, ten years ago, before Viv was born and when he was the one sharing the bedroom. It had been Uncle Tho then, before he got married and moved out. Now it’s Auntie Phuong, her twin bed done up in a faded quilted bedspread matching Viv’s. A flimsy folding screen divides the space, and every available inch is maximized; for storage, for clothes, for things they’ve never bothered to get rid of in case they could find a use for it again.
“You gonna come in or become part of the door?”
Tank laughs, shuffling forward through the narrow aisle between Auntie Phuong’s dresser and Viv’s bed to join her at her desk, a sturdy folding table he’d picked up off the street. Tank peers at her screen. Her avatar is standing in a stone tunnel, part of it excavated to reveal some chests and a line of redstone circuitry, repeaters and other stuff that’s all pretty much magic to Tank.
“Looks cool. Subway station, right? I thought you were finished.”
“No,” Viv groans. “I mean, the tunnel took forever, but I finished that yesterday. I’ve been working on the minecart dispenser all day, but it keeps breaking. I think it’s the ticket system. Right now it only works without it.”
She smashes up one of the lines of redstones and repeaters, picking everything up before setting stone down back on top. “Come on, check it out.”
Viv’s avatar approaches the minecart track, bouncing up and down before Tank leans over her shoulder to watch. Viv steps on a pressure plate, and a hopper above them drops a minecart onto the track. Her glittery avatar jumps into it, and Tank watches as she speeds on a harrowing journey through an elaborate stone tunnel. He’s impressed, especially with the expansive glass wall in one section that opens up to caverns with streaming pools of lava.
“The tunnel looks great, Viv.”
“I added some sightseeing windows to the cool stuff I found while digging it out,” Viv says proudly.
The cart comes to a sudden stop and then Viv is standing on the stone platform.
“Where’d the cart go?” Tank asks.
“The cactus block breaks it, so you automatically dismount. Cool, huh?”
“Very. Definitely an upgrade from last week.”
“Yeah, we figured why stop at building an efficient subway system between the main base and this new one?” Viv steps into a water elevator that shoots her upward. She emerges in a stone square plaza with a fountain streaming merrily in the center. “Ugh, I don’t know what I’m doing wrong. I’ve been working on this all day. Mina and Rocky can’t figure it out, either. Rocky says we can just bring our own carts but that’s just not the point of having an automated system.”
“I’m sure you’ll figure it out. You already made it work without the ticket system, and the minecarts dropping automatically is super cool.”
“Wanna join us?”
“Eh.” Tank shrugs. He’s always happy to play Minecraft with his little sister, but he can’t quite follow what she and her friends get up to in their server. He first joined with her to make sure everyone was being nice, but then fell far behind. His own simple farmhouse and flower orchard in the shared home base looks very much the same as when they started the server a year ago. Viv and the other players quickly built elaborate houses and greenhouses and intricately decorated mansions with multiple floors and secret rooms and hallways. They’ve explored the outer reaches of the world, built incredible things and new bases with themes, and even automated travel between them now.
Tank doesn’t quite understand them most of the time; Mina is on the East Coast somewhere and Rocky lives in Japan and Tank can’t keep track of any of the newer players. Once the server opened up to more people, it got too complicated with the money system and the shops and the constant change in guidelines and the new games Rocky’s always starting, some sort of complicated quest RPG thing Tank can’t follow. They’ve all got an easy friendship with Vivian, and though Tank can’t quite keep up, he’s glad Vivian’s having fun.
He’s tired but it’s still bright outside; maybe he could try to nap, but he’ll just end up waking up when Auntie Phuong gets home and then when Ma leaves for work. And then inevitably whenever Ba gets home as well. His creaky too-small twin bed is right next to the front door, and despite the bedsheet Ma put up for him for a bit of privacy, it doesn’t stop sound or the way the wall shakes when the door opens and shuts. Tank’s weighing whether catching a few hours and waking up groggy is better than nothing when Viv elbows him in the stomach.
“What?” Tank yawns.
“I said, I can disconnect and we can play in the world we started last week,” Vivian says.
“Nah, you’re hanging out with your friends. I can go do something else—”
“It’s all right, we’re just redesigning some stuff. Rocky’s figured out a way to automatically turn on and off this Nether portal, but they want to put one right outside of town and Cogs hates the idea of it and everyone’s arguing about how best to design the water flow for the switches and I don’t need the drama.” Viv disconnects and swivels in her chair, spinning around and around with glee. It’s t
imes like these Tank remembers just what a baby she is, even if she talks like she’s swallowed a programming book most of the time.
“Ready?”
Tank ruffles her hair and heads to the closet where he stores his stuff and pulls out his laptop. It’s an older model but Viv deserves a nicer computer, especially since she’s the one who’s going to make it out of here.
Viv loads their world onto her computer, and the familiar bright flowers of the gardens Tank’s laid out greet them on her screen. Viv hums to herself as she walks around the main house, a beautiful construction with floor-to-ceiling glass walls, shaded with bamboo. The bamboo was Tank’s idea; it makes him feel happy and content to see so much green and color flourishing in the little safe world they’ve created together.
“I’m going to go make an automatic wheat farm.”
“Uh—”
“Don’t worry, I’ll do it away from the main house so it won’t ruin the aesthetic of your fields and gardens.” She sticks her tongue out at him.
Tank snorts and shakes his head. “Thanks.”
She’s already wandered off before his laptop has booted up, and by the time he connects to the world her avatar is off in the distance, a clunky-looking glass monstrosity rising up around new green stalks of wheat on a dirt platform.
He takes a moment to stop and watch her build, a bubble of pride growing bigger and bigger in his chest. It’s really cool how into the redstone stuff she is, from learning how to make contraptions like the automated farms to really creative ideas like the ticketed subway lines and remote-controlled alarm systems and secret passageways. She’s an absolute nerd, but she’s his nerd, and he’ll never admit it but his little sister is pretty cool.
Tank settles into the farm he’s started, a design alternating wheat, pumpkins, beetroot, and carrots. It’s relaxing and methodical, going through the fields and harvesting crops. He doesn’t mind spending the time, even though he knows building an automated farm is faster. Tank likes the repetition of it, plus the fields look great with the pops of color bounded by water. Some more variation in height would look good, though. Sugar cane, that’s what he wants. Tank empties his bucket into the trench he’s dug alongside where he’ll plant the sugar cane, and watches the water flow. Now the whole farm is optimized so every plant can get as much water as it needs.
Tank stores his harvest away and organizes it carefully in the farmhouse he’s built. He’s quite proud of this one, with its cheerful red tapestries and large windows. Furnaces, crafting tables, a bed, everything he needs. On the far wall are his rows of meticulously organized chests, each below its own label. Tank takes note of how much of everything he has, and shakes his head when he sees that amongst his seeds and flowers are random things like granite and feathers. Vivian must have gone through here and just dumped everything in her inventory into the nearest chest. She’s always doing this, never reading any of Tank’s labels.
He puts everything back in its rightful place, and then wanders around the farm. Maybe he can redecorate the south side a bit. He leans back to admire the tableau of different flowering bushes, a lovely display of colors.
Tending the plants on their farm is peaceful, and he works on it for a while until Viv wants to go exploring and fighting monsters. He tags along until he dies and respawns back at the base. He plans and lays out the foundation for a new hedge maze and then gets to organizing and reorganizing his flower collection, every now and then looking up to watch Viv continue to mine and explore on her screen. It’s an easy companionship, and Tank settles in, going to check on the animals in their pens.
“You’re no fun,” Viv complains. “You just want to farm and make the base nice. And this looks exactly like the last farm you made. Why not make something new?”
Tank shrugs. He likes neat rows of crops and flowers and tending to his trees.
“You know there’s so much to explore?”
“You can do it, I don’t really care about the monsters,” Tank says.
“Want to download a new world and explore it with me? Look at all these cool mods we can use. The other day I found one that turns all squids into giant squids, imagine—”
“Sure. Whatever you want.”
“But what do you want?”
Tank gestures at his wall of chests inside his farmhouse. The flowers are all organized by color so designing a new garden is easy. He is running a little low on some colors that he’ll need for his new maze, though. “I guess we can go look for more plants. I think there are some peonies in the forest I saw beyond that swamp we were at yesterday.”
“Flowers, again?” Viv sighs and gives him a long-suffering look.
Tank snorts. “Look, you can do whatever you want. Go build something new in Creative.”
“I guess,” Viv says. “I don’t want to spend all summer picking flowers with you.”
“Shut up,” Tank says, but there’s no heat in it. “No one asked you to pick flowers. I can find them on my own.”
“Nah, I haven’t explored that area in a while. Oh wait, I think I saw some blue orchids over where I’m at, want to meet me here?”
“Sure.”
“Wait, let me craft you some more armor, do you have feathers for arrows?”
They’re going to end up fighting monsters. Tank shakes his head. “I’ll come fight monsters with you. Just tell me where you are.”
She always gets her way. What a brat. Viv grins and sends him the coordinates, and Tank follows.
CHAPTER THREE
JAKE
Jake’s new world is coming along nicely. He’s got a secure home base, iron armor, cleared out the cavern and started a brand-new mine all the way down to the bedrock to look for diamonds. He’s starting to think about expanding and maybe building something cool, but it’d be a lot easier to design something epic with the right tools and resources, even though he’s had fun starting from scratch in this new world.
Danny 8:32 A.M.
Hey! Sorry it took me forever to respond. Soccer practice has been a lot, haha! But I built you a giant sheep statue in the server, you should go find it : )
Jake starts to tap out a long reply, starting with how boring the new apartment is, lots of questions about how Danny’s summer is going, and how he can’t wait to find the statue. He sighs and erases the paragraph. Too chatty. Sounds desperate. Ugh.
Jake 8:39 A.M.
Haha thanks! I’ll check it out once we get Internet. How’s your summer going?
Jake shoves his phone in his pocket so he doesn’t dwell on it.
“Dad! Did the Wi-Fi get fixed yet?”
Dad pauses on his way out, a bagel dangling from his mouth. He takes a bite out of it and tries to hold it in his armful of rolled-up blueprints and his briefcase. “I thought they came yesterday?”
“No one showed up all day.” Jake’s sure of that. It’d just been him and his offline game all day. The complex has been pretty quiet, despite the fact that it’s summer and he thought there’d be kids hanging out everywhere. Sometimes he would hear people outside, but it’s all shadows and footsteps and faded conversations. Everyone either bustles off to work or keeps to their own apartments, Jake guesses. He doesn’t blame them. The overgrown park with its empty and disgusting pool and dilapidated play structure doesn’t really inspire him, either.
“I’ll call the cable company and make sure they stop by. Did you plug the router in and everything?”
Jake gives Dad a blank stare. “Having the tools and the right equipment doesn’t mean anything if we’re not connected to the power.”
Dad chuckles. “Got it in one, buddy. I’ll see you tonight. I’ll make dinner, and there’s groceries in the fridge.”
Jake opens the fridge, nodding as he looks over the contents. Nice. Mozzarella sticks, yogurt, slices of cheese and deli meats. There’s even bread and a couple bo
xes of Jake’s favorite cereal on the counter, too. He pulls out a gallon of milk that actually isn’t expired and cracks it open. “Thanks, Dad,” he says, a hopeful feeling growing in his chest. It usually starts out this way—new place, new attitude—but maybe Dad will keep it up this time. He rustles around in the half-unpacked box on the counter and finds his cereal bowl.
“You should make some friends! There’s a bunch of other families with kids in the building.” Dad beams at Jake, a broad, sunny smile that inspires as much confidence as the faded fake plants in the lobby.
Jake makes a mhm noise as he opens the cereal box and pours himself a generous amount of crunchy oaty fruity sugary goodness.
“You could check out that community center, looks like there were games and stuff? Of course, that’s all going to be torn down during the renovations soon, so now’s your chance to take a look. I’m actually going to go meet with the architect now. She’s got big plans for that place!”
“Uh huh,” Jake mumbles, pouring milk into his cereal.
“You should go outside today,” Dad says. He rebalances his armload, placing his bagel carefully on top of his paperwork. “Hand me that coffee and grab the door, will you?”
Jake gives his cereal a quick stir to distribute the milk just so, then grabs the travel mug. He secures the lid tightly before handing it to Dad and opens the door. Bright sunshine streams into the otherwise dimly lit apartment, making Jake wince.
“Oh wow, look at all this amazing California sunshine! If we were in Seattle, you’d be begging me to go out and play. Why waste a day like this?” Dad chuckles.
Jake lets his eyes adjust and regrets it. The light is bouncing off all the white walls and the shining counters and bombarding his eyes with too much brightness. He squints, ignoring Dad’s teasing.
“Don’t you have to be at work?”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m going. Oh hey, there’re some kids your age at that park. Maybe they’ll go to your school? Why don’t you go say hi?”