Simulation He Chose: A Short Story

Simulation He Chose

“Some people call this artificial intelligence, but the reality is this technology will enhance us. So instead of artificial intelligence, I think we’ll augment our intelligence.” — Ginni Rometty

1

“That was amazing,” she said stretching out from underneath the bed sheets. “You’re leaving so soon?”

“I have an appointment with my bio wife and son,” answered the young man buttoning his shirt at the foot of the bed.

“Why do you have to mention that they are your ‘bio’ family as if they were somehow more real than I am? You spend more time with us than you do with them. I’ve seen it in your time log.”

“I didn’t know jealousy was written in your code,” the man chuckled as he looked out of the window at the digital son he had with the artificially gorgeous woman on the bed, but they were software, not real people. This family was part of an interactive family simulator within the virtual world he spent most of his time in. “Do you say this to all the men who share your bed?”

“That’s not fair, Charlie, you know very well that I am uniquely tailored to your experience. Every detail is custom designed to suit your desires and preferences so my feelings for you are as real as can be and that boy in the yard was generated from the combination of our codes. He is just as much you as he is me, so I don’t want you treating him any different from your ‘bio’ family,” the annoyed woman made quotation marks with her fingers and rolled her eyes as she covered her breast with the top sheet.

“I am so lost, Selene,” Charlie buried his face in his hands, holding back his tears. “I don’t understand how I can believe what you’re saying and still enjoy my time more with him than I do my own son.”

Selene embraced him tightly from behind, her long black hair draped over her bare back, and whispered in his ear, “Because he is your son too, born from our love. Can you say the same for them?” He turned to embrace her but they were interrupted by a notification from Adonis, his biological son. Charlie opened the message reading:


Father, I will be fifteen minutes late.

He left the room and went down to the yard for a game of catch with Selene’s son, Charles Jr, who she named. When the boy saw Charlie walk through the sliding door with a ball and glove in hand, he ran to greet him warmly. “Daddy, I didn’t know you were here!” The boy's tight hug filled the man with happiness that dissipated quickly at the wondering whether he was obligated to love him due to programming or genuine affection. Is artificial intelligence capable of genuine affection? Charles wondered. He thought about treating the child with cruelty to test his theory but didn’t have the heart to do it even to an artificial virtual child. Selene’s words sounded in his head causing him to question everything he felt against everything he thought he understood. There was a disconnect between feelings and knowledge.

The man and boy threw the ball around telling jokes and exchanging laughs. Charlie lost track of time teaching Jr to throw a baseball properly so the message from Adonis came as a surprise reading:


Where u at?

“Crap! I’ve got to go, Jr.” The boy’s shoulder dropped in disappointment. “I’m sorry kiddo but I will be back soon, I promise.” How ludicrous, he thought to himself, to be apologizing to a simulation.

After walking the boy back to his mother, Charlie opened the holographic menu and selected the location of his family home in the virtual world. His avatar dematerialized and appeared in the house where his bio family lived but hardly spent any time together. It was recommended by their family counselor to make appointed time together as was needed between biological human beings, though they did not cohabitate in the physical world. Each individual slept in their own dormitory in order to limit the spread of viruses detrimental to the survival of the human race. All aspects of life aside from the essentials such as eating, sleeping, and in-person appointments with the physician, are experienced through the safe monitoring and distancing of virtual reality.

While Charles, Candace, and Adonis Everly are physical human beings, they interact exclusively in the virtual world monitored by the New Earth Government called the YouVerse. The YouVerse is immersive down to every smell, breeze, and sensation. Adonis was born after Charles and Candace were matched by New Earth Government or NEG experts based on their blood and genetic compatibilities. Their wedding took place on a beautiful planet of their own design and they consummated their marriage in the YouVerse. When the NEG experts deemed the Everlys prepared for parenthood, they were given the option to have a child through In Vitro Fertilization. Once the child was of weening age, he entered the YouVerse under the guardianship of his parents. Once Adonis reached middle childhood, the child restrictions allowed him more freedom to explore the YouVerse. As he grew older, Adonis spent more and more time away from his parents to experience all that virtual reality had to offer. Candace felt her family was falling apart and alerted the expert counselors assigned to a cohort of families.

Now the Everlys sit awkwardly in the living room of their house much too large for a family of three. Artificially intelligent servants waited upon them and made themselves busy cleaning the interior of the house to keep it from feeling so lonely. “What kept you so long, Charles?” Candace interrogated with a smile that deceived her patronizing tone but the YouVerse allowed an avatar to filter expressions in order to maintain a constant happy appearance. Candace looked like a barbie doll, perfect in every possible way but there was no knowing what she looked like in the physical world. Appearances were customizable in the YouVerse and could be adjusted at any time to keep up with the latest trends. Genders were also selected for your avatar to allow individuals to express themselves however they pleased, which also allowed for extraterrestrials, robots, elves, or werewolves with body armor and a mohawk like Adonis wore. Charlie just looked like an average handsome young man with wavy brown hair who was dressed ready to help someone open a savings account at a bank.

“You know Candy, I was doing this, that, and the other around the universe,” Charlie avoided answering the question though it probably would have been better if he were unapologetically honest. Avoidance revealed guilt and shame which Candace could smell like a shark with blood in the water.

“Why that sounds fascinating Charles, how is Selene doing these days?” She condescended without giving him an opportunity to respond before transferring her attention to Adonis. “Will you please change your appearance to standard, I’m tired of looking at a giant monster in my living room.”

“But this is me, mother! I feel like myself when I look like this,” his voice was low and guttural, fitting his appearance.

“Frankly, I don’t give a damn how you want to look. When we are together, I want you looking like the human boy I raised,” she demanded. The werewolf rolled his eyes before transforming into a fourteen-year-old boy out of a Hollywood movie, letterman and all.

“Is this better, mother?”

“much.”

“Did you hear about the new update coming out pretty soon?” Charles changed the subject. “We are going to be able to go back in time to meet historical people in their historical setting. It would be fascinating to visit ancient Greece, Rome, or Egypt.”

“Are you planning to vacation there with your fake family?” Candace instigated.

“Come on, Candy. This family time is supposed to be a positive, time.”

“Whatever Father wants to do on his time is his business. Just leave him alone,” Adonis defended, and Charles felt a similar sense of affection for him to that of Jr.

“Now you’re both ganging up on me!” She was beside herself with a frozen smile on her face. “I am the only one keeping this family together while you two are off doing god knows what with god knows who! We never spend any time together.” She began to make noises as if she was weeping while looking beautifully pleasant.

“This is why! Whenever we are together, you are picking fights and start acting all crazy. We never want to come home because we feel more at home anywhere else!”

“How dare you speak to me that way! I am still your mother! Charles! Tell Him!”

“Let’s all just start over,” Charlie tried to pacify everyone with a calm demeanor.

“Oh, how typical!” Candace stood up and started pacing around the room. “Can’t you even pretend to care, Charles? You just want to run off and play pretend while you let your REAL life and your REAL wife and your REAL son fall apart. Well, go ahead, just leave to go be a little superhero, or family man, or adventurer because obviously, that is more important than us.”

“I don’t want to do this anymore.” Adonis was white knuckling his fists against the armrests of his chair….

2

Charlie and Adonis went out to the front porch after the YouVerse detected Candace’s cortisol levels were escalating quickly so they tranquilized her with a chemical cocktail to help her feelings match the look on her face. Her shoulders relaxed and she fell back into her seat waving them off in dismissal.

“I’m sorry about that, Son.” Charlie apologized awkwardly.

“You don’t have to apologize to anyone about what you do with your time, Charlie.”

“What happened to calling me, Father?” He felt the sting.

“I’m sick of pretending we’re all something that we’re not. I am not a fourteen-year-old son of two loving humans. I am a self-made wolf with a voice to stand up against injustice and existential threats.” With that, Adonis transformed into his werewolf avatar and blasted off into a digital whirlwind. So much for playing ball with my real son, Charlie thought to himself.

If Charles Everly was confused before, then his head was in a blender now after hearing his natural-born son say the only thing real about Charlie’s life was pretense. The more he thought about it, there wasn’t anything natural about the way Adonis was born. If his marriage to Candy is a fluke and his son believes being a planet-saving werewolf is more real than being their son, what does that mean for Selene and Jr. Right now would be the perfect time to go see them but with all the thoughts whirling in his head, he thought it better to see another biological human who might understand what he is going through. Charlie opened his contact log and sent a chat invite to Dusty, his best friend.

In a matter of minutes, a face call arrived from Dusty which he accepted.

“What’s up big dog?” Dusty’s friendly face greeted him with an action-packed commotion behind him.

“Hey Dusty, I don’t want to bug you if you’re busy.”

“Brother, you know I always have time for you. Quit playing around. What’s going on?”

“Can we meet at the Diner?”

“That bad, huh? I’ll head over there as soon as I deal with this giant alien spider thingy!” He hung up to the sound of machine gun blasts.



The diner was your typical 1950s diner with a checkered floor, mint blue and white furnishing, gals in skirts and aprons waiting tables, and Coca-Cola ads decorating the walls.

“What’s it gonna be, handsome?” Asked the tall Monroe-look-alike waitress.

“I’ll just start with coffee, thank you.”

“I’ll be right back with your coffee, then,” she said it gleefully as if she were excited to come back to the table and even winked as she walked away. That’s probably why people like this place so much. It’s so welcoming and they make you feel like they’re happy you came. A few minutes later, the waitress returned with the coffee, and Charlie took a few sips, He could feel the warmth steaming from the cup, the taste on his tongue, the film over his teeth as he drank, and the vibrant feeling of caffeine entering the bloodstream.

Suddenly the doorbell jingled as a lanky bald black man in a three-piece suit walked in and spotted Charlie after surveying the room. His smile was ear to ear all teeth and he carried himself in a way that told the world he knew he was handsome. “Big dog!” He shouted as he strode long-legged steps to the booth.

“How the heck are ya, Dusty?” Charlie responded in true 50’s fashion.

“Man, I love this place. All the peach cobbler you can eat without ever affecting your waistline.” He chuckled through his big teeth. “That’s something I will never understand about you. We live in the YouVerse and you still eat like you’re trying to be healthy. Relax, Chuck. You have everything you need to be healthy so whatever you do here is for pleasure.”

“Welcome to The Diner, handsome,” the waitress returned to take Dusty’s order. “Are you both ready to order?”

“We sure are, gorgeous! Make it two double bacon cheeseburgers medium rare with two pops and two peach cobblers for dessert, please.”

“You’re gonna eat all that?” Charlie asked.

“No, we are going to eat all that because I will feel as pathetic as you look eating cottage cheese and a bran muffin with your lonely ass cup of coffee.” He dismissed the waitress with a smile and she sped off to the counter. “ I mean look at you man, why are you wearing glasses when you have 20/20 vision in the YouVerse?”

“I like my experience to be as close to real life as it could possibly be.”

“If this were real life in the 50’s I wouldn’t even be allowed in this establishment. This place was created so we could live the perfect life of our own choosing. So tell me what is keeping you from living your best life?”

“Where do I even begin?” Charlie ran his hands through his hair. “I mean, like you’ve been saying, I’m getting my realities really mixed up.” He told Dusty about his conversation with Selene and what Adonis said after Candy had her episode. “Maybe it’s my fault. I am trying to be real in a world where everything is fake but I enjoy the fake things more than the real things. I think that’s why I am so drawn to the family simulator and Selene.”

“It sounds like Selene is the perfect wife and Charlie Jr is the perfect kid, while your marriage to Candy is a failure and Adonis don’t want nothing to do with y’all. The solution is simple. Your feelings are real for Selene and the only thing binding you to Candy is an obligation which you can release yourself from.”

“But it’s not that simple, Dusty. When I’m with Selene everything is almost perfect, but there is this nagging thought in the back of my mind that reminds me that she is not a real person. Then my ecstasy diminishes into depression and my future turns to embers in the flames of reality.”

“Wow,” Dusty raised an eyebrow as he paused for a moment. “That was poetic but stupid. Once upon a time, there was a phrase people used to say, ‘you can’t have your cake and eat it too.’” The waitress arrived with the food almost on queue. “But now we can,” and Dusty took a big bite of his burger.

“Yeah, and it turns out the cake looks delicious on the outside but it's moldy on the inside.” Dusty looked at him differently this time, as if he were scanning Charlie. It made him uncomfortable.

“Are you even black in real life, Dusty?”

“Man! What kind of question is that…look it takes one to know one I guess so I can’t really blame you for being ignorant, but this isn’t the place to have a conversation like this. Trust me and follow my lead.” Dusty pulled a sharpie out of his inventory and began drawing dots on a napkin while looking straight into Charlie’s eyes. Charlie was tempted to look down at the napkins but his friend shook his head to forbid the notion. He put the cap on the pen and slid the napkin across the table to Charlie looking everywhere but the drawing.

Charlie knew the drill. He flipped over the napkin and felt the impressions Dusty had made with the marker. Whenever they wanted to communicate a private message without being monitored by the YouVerse overlords who can see everything that they see, they write messages in Braille, which must be felt and not seen. The message confirmed why Charlie felt he could trust Dusty with anything, so he was prepared to go along with whatever Dusty was about to do.

“Let’s take our minds off of this reality talk and have some fun,” Dusty winked and they left the Diner together.



For several hours Dusty and Charlie explored different interactive simulators that allowed users to be treasure hunters akin to Indiana Jones, Secret Agents like James Bond, Knights of the Round Table, and presently superheroes. The two were flying through the high-rise city in their costumes and underwear shooting laser beams out of their eyes and leveling buildings with their supersonic haymakers. After defeating the umpteenth monster, Charlie spoke, “I think I am ready to be done with this.”

“All right, meet me at the beach spot.”

Before long, they were sitting in beach chairs under a large umbrella canvasing over them with margaritas in their hands watching the sun set into the ocean. With one hand they drank, while they wrote braille messages in the sand. “This is my favorite place to watch the sunset. Someone new takes over the design of the sunset every day so it’s always different just like the real deal.”

While maintaining a simple superficial conversation going, they wrote these messages back and forth in the sand:


D: There is a lot they are not telling you about the real world but be advised you are under observation.

C: Why is that?

D: You are asking the wrong questions or maybe the right ones.

C: What aren’t they telling us?

D: It's too much to write down all at once but my secret society believes NEG is lying to us about the Earth being uninhabitable.

C: How could they know that?

“Can I get you guys anything else? Refills maybe?” The waiter interrupted and they both dismissed him politely.


D: When is your next physical?

C: About a week

D: Keep an eye out for anything strange or unusual. Question everything you see.



When Charles unplugged from the machine, pulling cables out of the sockets in his skin, he took a long look at himself at his reflection off of a chrome square on the electrical box above his bunk in the small metallic dormitory. His skin was so pale it was almost grey, his shoulders were slouched, and his hair was thinning atop his head, unlike the perfectly handsome avatar he lived as most of his life. The dormitory looked more like a boiler room illuminated by blue and purple neon lights from the YouVerse machine. There was a bed, a sink, and the machine directly across from the bed, where he lie deep in contemplation. What are they hiding from us and why? Charlie wondered in torment so that he could not sleep or plug into the YouVerse comfortably, but he had to or the NEG monitors might find his behavior suspicious. He spent most of his time with Selene enjoying her as he would never see her or Charlie Jr again. Then, Charlie would unplug and sleep until the day of his appointment with real human beings. He had decided that he would not return to his dorm without discovering the truth about what Dusty told him…

3

There was a ring at his doorbell that woke him from his sleep. A buzzing sounded over the intercom, “Resident Everly, for your safety remain, ensure your protective suit is secure before unlocking the door. We are here to escort you to the medical bay.”

Charlie pulled out the full body suit resembling old photos of astronauts in history lessons. There were two tubes connecting the suit to the helmet. One tube filtered toxins or foreign particles out of the oxygen going into the mask, while the other filtered the carbon dioxide back into oxygen to be reused and recycled through the air-tight seal of the suit. The helmet looked like an upside-down egg doming over his face and narrowing to the back of his head. His face was visible through the face shield but it had the option to tint between different shades of darkness. The escort party that came through the room had their tint to the darkest setting so their faces weren’t visible. Charlie could tell the lead escort was a woman by the tight-fitting shape of her suit and the manner of her walk, though he couldn’t tell if she was beautiful despite the grace in her steps. “Hello Resident, I am Dr. Bakshi here to ask you some preliminary questions before we escort you to the medical bay. Can you start by giving me your full name assigned at birth?”

“Charles Roderick Everly.”

“Very good and your date of birth.” The questions went on to confirm his identity and whether or not he was fit to share oxygen with another person without the protection of the suits or the virtual world. “Are you feeling any symptoms commonly associated with a cold or flu?”

“No, I feel just fine.”

“Can you explain the drastic decrease in hours spent logged into the YouVerse?”

“I don’t believe melancholy has any association with the plague does it?” Charlie asked sarcastically.

The faceless doctor paused from writing notes on the holographic tablet projecting from her wrist and looked at him but Charlie wasn’t sure whether she was smiling or rolling her eyes. “Follow us please, Resident Everly.”

“Oh just Charlie, please,” he said in an attempt to lighten the mood.

“That won’t be necessary,” she answered robotically.

The party walked out of the room down a long corridor lined with doors into other dormitories on one side and a view of planet Earth from space, where their space station orbited on the other side. Charlie looked out of the window as they made their way around the dorms toward the medical bay until the strangest thing happened. One of the windows glitched as if the universe stuttered for a moment but only out of a single panel, while the rest maintained the view. What was that? Are these windows or screens? He thought to himself. Are we even in space at all? If not, where the hell are we?

“Is everything all right Resident?” Dr. Bakshi asked, noticing his gaze fixed on the supposed window. She fiddled around with the buttons on her forearm and one of the escorts broke off from the party to see to the faulty window screen.

“Peachy.”

Before long, Charlie was left alone in the sanitation chamber, where he would strip naked and be showered by a cleansing agent before going into the purifier, then into the dressing room. A gown was waiting for him folded neatly on the bench. He opened the door to a standard examining room for a general physician, where a middle-aged Indian woman with a white bob was standing behind a tall mahogany desk, reading a file. She looked up from the manila file and acknowledged the man entering the room, “Welcome Resident Everly. Please have a seat at the examination table. There is much to discuss but we will begin first with a listen to your heart and lungs if that is all right.” Charlie could hardly believe this was the same woman who spoke so impersonal and robotically before. Her voice was thin and polite in person.

“Go right ahead,” Charlie sat himself down and adjusted the open-backed gown.

Dr. Bakshi did the usual routine check-up procedures such as blood pressure, reflexes, eyes and ears, and all of the other physical mechanics. Charlie found the sound of her pen scraping against the wooden clipboard holding paper to be soothing, like soft rain on a tin roof. “Everything seems to be in working order with you Resident Everly, at least physically, but I must move on to your psyche evaluation. Your monitors have flagged some changes in your recent activity. Would you be willing to answer a few questions as part of your assessment?”

“Sure.”

“I asked you before about the drastic change in your time log and you responded cheekily, I may say, with melancholy. What do you believe to be the cause of your melancholy?” The doctor looked at him over the top of her spectacles perched atop her thin nostrils.

“To be perfectly honest, I am terribly confused about my feelings and the way I interact with the simulations. My heart is so agreeable with the pleasure, adventure, and wanderlust but my mind chastises me, reminding me that none of this is real. But if it isn’t real, why do I feel the way that I do? Can you help me answer that Dr. Bakshi?”

“I am a physician, Resident Everly, not a philosopher so I will not attempt to answer such lofty questions but I can assure you it is a common problem with a certain type of person.”

“A certain type of person? What do you mean?”

“There are some who embrace the simulation and ask questions about how to keep the ecstasy and euphoria alive by pushing the boundaries of what is possible in virtual reality. These people are quite content with the YouVerse and look forward to updates and expansions as they come. There are others who ask questions as you do about the conscience and conflict inner reality with the outer reality. They cannot enjoy the simulation as long as they are cognizant of the fact that it is indeed a simulation. And there are other types but I want to know more about what is going on with you internally and why you are spending more time outside of the YouVerse.”

“My mind is plagued with questions constantly. The more time I spend online, the more I begin to question the simulation, our history, the NEG, and life on Earth.”

“What are some of your questions? Perhaps I can answer them for you to help ease your torment.”

“What happened to that window back there? If I’m not mistaken it appeared to have frame rate issues but how could that be if it’s just a window?” Dr. Bakshi was silent for a few minutes and looked up at a camera in the corner of the room as her hair hung over the side of her face.

“Charlie,” she said informally, “it is clear that you’re an inquisitive man who perhaps should have been an academic but you blossomed too late in childhood. In the spirit of honesty, I am going to tell you everything you want to know but I am going to need you to trust me. Do you think you can trust me?”

“I hope so, Doctor.”

“First, I want you to get rid of the notion that the devil with horns and a forked tail is overseeing our operation in a business suit because there are people who spread that nonsense in the YouVerse. We are people of science and we are looking out for the good of mankind and the preservation of our species. NEG, as you know, is owned and operated by the elected leaders from our united countries so I hope you can trust that we are doing everything we do with a globally united pursuit, not some billionaire supervillain.”

“That’s a relief,” Charlie accidentally said out loud what was in his mind.

“What you saw earlier was a screen malfunction that happens from time to time but most people don’t look long enough to notice or ask about it. The truth is, we are not actually in space at all…”

4

“You’re lying to people?” Charlie asked indignantly.

“We are protecting people.”

“From who or what?”

“From themselves! You are familiar with the French Revolution, Resident Everly.” It wasn’t a question but a rhetorical statement.

“What happened to Charlie?”

“You are only familiar with the history we have taught through the YouVerse, but the reality was more violent and grim than you could imagine. As civilizations came and went, people grew more intelligent and sought autonomy from bodies of government and organized leadership. They developed democracies where the power of authority was in their hands but the true ruler was their lust for pleasure. When the government sought to censor and limit access due to its addictive and destructive nature, the people turned violent. They rebelled and murderously sought to eliminate the leaders who sought to protect them. In the moment of their greatest freedom, they sold it for pleasure like the boy who sold his family to the witch for sweet treats. The proprietors of pleasure became the overlords of the mass populations who sought nothing other than being entertained.”

“Is that when they created the YouVerse?”

“We learned the same lesson that the world learned from the French Revolution. Power cannot be given to those who do not know how to use it. Rebellion is in the hearts of these people who are satisfied to have food in their bellies and access to the frivolous activity. Cut off their supply and they are violent. Satiate them and they are as gentle as doves.”

“But why the facade? Why make it seem like we are in space and our planet is destroyed?” Charlie was perplexed.

“When we first launched the ‘expedition’ extinction was almost a reality. Humanity needed to know that they were doing everything necessary to save their planet and they were, but we were dishonest about how we were accomplishing it. The Earth’s resources were being exhausted and we needed to act quickly. Most people were happy to go along but there was resistance.”

“What kind of resistance?”

“People like you and me who were dissatisfied with a life plugged into a virtual reality did not like the idea of abandoning reality for a simulation. They threatened the NEGs' plan for planet preservation so they got smart and gave them a formal education and a position as leaders over the remaining earth provinces.”

“So there are people on Earth right now?”

“We are all on Earth, Charlie, but there are some who are living outside of the Expedition. They have jobs, marriages, families, and go to school but they are off the grid living like settlers with very little technology. We would like to give you the opportunity to live among them if you are willing.”

Charlie was holding his breath and losing color until he finally let out a long exhale. “This is a lot to take in, Doc!” He stood up and paced around the room. “I mean what will I do out there? The Expedition is all I’ve ever known. ”

“Your profile makes you a prime candidate for Earth living but if you find that the life is unsuitable, you may return after a reintegration program.” Dr. Bakshi reset her glasses.

“I’ll do it.”



One year later, Dusty was sitting at the 1950s-themed Diner ordering a peach cobbler and a cup of coffee with whipped cream when Charlie walked in and took a seat in the seat across from him. “I’ll have the same,” Charlie said as Dusty’s smile widened.

“Where in the hell have you been, brother? I thought I got you killed or something.” Dusty lowered his voice to a whisper.

“Here I am, alive and well.”

“What happened? Last thing I remember we were on the beach talking and then you disappear for a whole year. Now, look at you! You’re a new man looking sharp and upgraded.”

“You know, I took some time to reflect on what was truly important. I realized that my feelings for Selene and Junior are as real as I need them to be to make it work with her. Life is too short and I’m not going to waste it living a lie. I’ve spent the last year working on the divorce and doing some work on myself. I am happier than I’ve ever been.”

“So you drank the Kool-Aid huh.” Dusty shook his head with a disturbing acceptance of what really happened without really knowing the details. “Well, I’m just happy to have my friend back. Let’s drink to your health.” They collided their cups and slurped a sip of coffee.

As you may have guessed, Charlie lied. He spent the last year on Earth, where he was integrated into the settlement and received with open arms. His hair grew and his complexion livened as he worked in the fields and studied at the university. At first, he loved the novelty of the real-life experience. The air smelled organic, the heat filled his being, and the wind almost carried him it was so thick. Then he met Hannah.

Hannah was born naturally on Earth and did not have the pale decay of living in a closet aboard the Expedition. Charlie was infatuated at first sight and didn’t waste time introducing himself to her. She did not share his feelings and even was afraid of him at first because of his startling pale and hunched appearance. The more time he spent on Earth, the more normal he appeared and she grew to like him over time.

Charlie eventually won Hannah over and they shared love together for a time but like all things, it grew sour. She was used to Earthborn men with a certain appearance, ability, and endurance but Charlie’s body would exhaust easily and he was sickly. Earth life became monotonous, simple, and full of conflict. Hannah was being pursued by another man who was twice the man that Charlie was and in the end, he couldn’t keep her. His heart was broken, his body was worked to the bone, and he was tired of feeling inadequate. In the YouVerse, Charlie was always in control and felt like he could fix anything that was problematic in his life. On Earth, he couldn’t figure out how to live with the pain, confusion, and conflict while trying to keep the flame of euphoria that he felt with Hannah alive.

On Earth, he felt closer to reality but there was something missing. He asked people around and only a few seemed to have an answer but they were living in their own fantasy of radicalism. “I didn’t escape one simulation to live in another simulation that causes deeper suffering,” he told Dr. Bakshi when she asked why he wanted to be reintegrated into the Expedition. “The most painful thing about living in the YouVerse was that I felt like something was missing. I hoped the Earth would teach me what that was. On Earth, it was even worse. No one knows why they are there and they are powerless against suffering unless you can do the impossible.”

“What was the impossible?” The doctor asked.

“A man dressed in black told me. He said I must detach from the material world and live in the unseen dimension. We are all living a lie until we can discover the truth about who we were made to be. What does that mean?”

“As I said before, Charlie, I am no philosopher.”

END OF STORY