A Treasured Memory
By
Tevon Evans
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PUBLISHED BY:
A Treasured Memory
Copyright © 2013 by Tevon Evans
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This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously.
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A Treasured Memory
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“Toby?” her voice called out to me like a bird singing in the early morning. I turned, facing the girl I had longed to be with since childhood. Her light brown hair danced in the breeze, as if Cupid himself were attempting to give me a sign that she was the one.
“You’re giving me that look again, Toby,” she giggled.
“Oh! Sorry, Celia.” It never ceased to amaze me that I could be so absent-minded and let my real feelings for her show. Even so, she never seemed to return those feelings back to me. I was forever doomed to be nothing but a close friend to her. None of that mattered though. As long as I had her by my side, even as just a friend, nothing in my little world could ever go wrong.
“Something’s been on your mind lately. Is it that new job with your father?”
I nodded. We lived in the year 2078, in the midst of an age where science and technology had undergone great lengths in order to better both the lives and living conditions of humans. Celia and I had just finished high school and had originally planned to travel around the country before going off to college. But things had changed for me when my father introduced a new concept to the world: Virtual Reality. I guess you couldn’t really call it a “new” concept since it had been created years prior. But, like many things, time has a way of changing things.
My father felt that humanity should never waste the ability to create and explore the vast reaches of our own imaginations. As a result, he created the first virtual reality simulation: Dream Rift. He named it such to emphasize a break in the barriers of reality and dream, a truly remarkable experience.
Of course like every other breakthrough of this age, his experiment needed countless trials before it would be shown to the world. Therefore, as it was now, it was merely a concept that had millions of people across the globe held in wonder. And I, being the son of such a brilliant scientist, was obligated to help him live his dream. How could I say no? He was my father, my own flesh and blood.
I gave a Celia a small nod as I turned the corner and walked towards my house. Ordinarily Celia would have walked the opposite direction and gone home. Today however, she followed me. Our eyes met and I felt that in that moment I should tell her how I felt. Something held me back though, something like a feeling of dread. I shook it off and kept going.
“Why aren’t you going home?” I asked, trying to keep my composure.
“I feel like seeing what’s gotten you so worked up. We can’t travel with you all stressed out, now can we?” She gave yet another light-hearted giggle. I smiled in response as we continued the trek to my house. I lived in a portion of town most would consider a bit upper-class. That’s what came from being the child of a successful scientist though.
“Dad, I’m home,” I called out to my father as the door slid open. A shuffling of footsteps could be heard above us as a portly man excitedly ran out to greet us. This man was none other than my father, Dr. Tobias Weissghart, Sr. He smiled wide, the sort of smile only a scientist would have been able to give.
“It works, Toby, it works!” He ran back into his office, or lab rather. I knew that expression all too well. For him to be that excited over his work, it meant that he had made a breakthrough. Without warning Celia ran up the stairs after him, eager to see for herself what the commotion was all about. As I watched, she followed my father into the chamber and I took note of the tiny gasp she emitted. It was an adorable gasp, not that I was shocked. Everything about her was adorable as far as I was concerned. For that moment, I was actually glad that she followed me home to see my father’s invention.
I followed the two of them into the spacious room that my dad had claimed for his lab. Numerous inventions and beakers lined the walls, but these were just small projects to my father, little things to pass the time. His true passion lay in programming and the infinite potential possibilities associated with them. This is what led to his breakthrough after all. Virtual Reality was merely a program that would allow any user to escape reality, to literally break down the barrier of reality and enter into a brand new world.
In the back of the room, a large chair sat against the wall. This wasn’t any ordinary chair, however. It was in fact the Dream Rift my father had created, the very invention he wanted my help with over the summer. Wires ran everywhere, linking it with the massive supercomputer that powered the machine and to a pair of glasses that lay next to the chair. I despised the invention, knowing my summer plans with Celia were on hold because of this thing. But there was no way I could have said no to my dad. It would have killed him had I done that.
“What is it?” Celia asked, her eyes still wide with wonder. I wondered idly if I’d have to pick her chin up off the ground. My dad chuckled and a warm rumbling sound quickly echoed throughout the large chamber.
“This, my dear girl, is the Dream Rift. It is a machine with the wonderful capability of placing the user into any world they want. They can be kings of a long forgotten civilization, simple farmers in a peaceful harvest season, or even relive crucial moments throughout history if their imagination so wills it! The limits of reality simply do not exist within the Dream Rift. One could even be the god of a new universe in there.”
“How do you know it works?” I asked, not quite hiding my doubt. My father laughed once more, waving away my feeble protests.
“I just finished running the program before you came home. I wasn’t able to venture into the world myself, but everything was running perfectly! The probability of a failed test run at this point would be a billion to one!”
“Can I try it?” Celia spoke up. My jaw dropped a little. The Dream Rift wasn’t even fully tested yet, but she wanted to be the first person in existence to use it. I sighed; there was nothing in the world I could say to stop her. Once her mind was made up there was simply no changing it. She was as stubborn as the proverbial mule.
“You may, but only on one condition, Celia. Toby must accompany you inside your session. As I stated a minute ago, I was only able to successfully run the program. You will be the very first person to actually enter this form of virtual reality. You won’t be able to move here in reality, but your mind will feel as though the other world is real. I am not sure how the other senses will react, but you can tell me all about it when you return.” My father led her over to the chair and pulled a spare set of glasses and a controller from behind his desk to hand to me.
“Toby, you have been such a wonderful help to me in developing the Dream Rift. I know how you wanted to travel the country before college,” his eyes found mine in a solemn gaze before twinkling in a bright smile, “And since the program is running so well, I won’t need your further assistance beyond this first test.”
My eyes lit up as he said this. Immediately, my head filled with all sorts of plans to finally tell Celia how I felt over the summer. It was possible it would be my only time to do so before we went to separate colleges.
“What do y
ou want me to do?” I asked. “There’s only one chair.”
“Your glasses are for monitoring purposes. You will remain here, detached from the Dream Rift and control a program that will move inside of Celia’s imaginative world. While her brain waves will interpret that world as real, you will be able to interact with her safely in the case of emergency. You should be familiar with that controller, it is modeled after your video games after all,” he laughed, starting up the machine.
Celia placed the glasses over her eyes and took a deep breath as my father powered up the Dream Rift. The machine was surprisingly silent for something so large. In a matter of moments the program would boot up and whisk us away into the far reaches of her mind.
“I’ll be with you in there, just in case anything happens,” I calmly said to her. I don’t even know where the words came from. I felt like seeing her like this gave me a new level of courage to be honest with her. My father started uttering something, but I couldn’t take my