Empty Streets (6 page)

She read a thread of fear in his gaze. "So," Eri summarized, "they exist to keep people like you from exploring?"

"Yup. And to keep people happy. Sometimes, it seems like, people get bored or frustrated and I can hear yelling or stuff being thrown in a townhouse. Then I see the street cleaners show up and suddenly everyone is happy again. I don't know what exactly they do, whether it is deliver cupcakes or heroin or a threat, but it seems to keep the threat of the masses in the streets at bay."

"Do you think the masses are a threat? Like, are there more people like us, who are…curious?"

"I don't know. I am trying to figure that out. Sometimes I think I hear something, or see an unexpected shadow in the moonlight, and I wonder if there are other people outside, too. Maybe they aren't doing what I am doing, but they are outside and I think how ironic it would be that we are hiding from everyone, including each other. Maybe we pass, like ships in the night. It's just a feeling I have. I could be wrong." He stared down at his hands, thinking rapidly of all the times he got the feeling he wasn't alone outside. "You know, sometimes I think I could exist in this life, with things as they are supposed to be, neatly organized by The People. But part of me wonders, if I had the liberty to talk to anyone and say anything…might something better come of me?"

"I hadn't thought about it that way," Eri said, although that wasn't completely true. "Okay, another question. Why are we up here? Besides the fabulous view, of course."

"Because there is only one real way for us to get caught at night. There are night street cleaners who have heat-sensing cameras built into their dashboards. Take tonight, for instance. It is close to ninety-five degrees outside. We, being three to four degrees warmer than that, would stand out clearly on their cameras. But, up here?" Bodhi raised his hands to gesture at the world around them. "Safe."

"So, it's dangerous to be out here. Why continue doing it, then? It sounds like you have figured most things out already. What more is there?"

"Eri," he said, shaking his head, "there is more out here than you could even guess."

Bodhi reached over, taking her hand into his. She looked at their hands as her heart rate picked up. She could feel him looking at her, gauging if this physical contact was permissible. She stretched her hand and he loosened his grip as she intertwined her fingers between his. His hand felt different from anything she had ever touched. In her peripheral vision, she saw him look at their hands for a long moment before turning his attention back to the world.

"Have you ever been caught?" she asked.

"Yeah. Once. My parents had to pretend they knew nothing about me going outside. I was only eleven, so I pretended I wanted to go out and play, not knowing how dangerous it was. I got cut off from the Sims for three weeks. My parents also kept me inside for six months, since the street cleaners and cameras were trained on our house. But they moved on. I am not so sure they would be as lenient the second time."

Eri shivered in the heat, and Bodhi let go of her hand to put his arm around her shoulders, drawing her towards him. He smelled like soap and boy, unfamiliar to her nose. "Why does it feel different when you touch me than when someone touches me in the Sims?"

"Does it?" Bodhi frowned. "I haven't done much…simulated touching, I guess. What is different?" She tried not to roll her eyes at the way he asked, as if he needed a lab coat and a clipboard to record her answer.

"I don't know," she said, laughing uncomfortably. "I can't explain it. A real touch feels…warmer and stronger? No…I can't say exactly, other than in the Sims, I always knew it wasn't real and I could just turn off the machine and make it go away. No one was actually present with me. This is much more…permanent…like my brain knows it's happening to me, really happening, so I feel it and remember it with a different emotional attachment." She was certain she sounded like an idiot.

Bodhi nodded, removing his arm from her shoulder. "Are you going to school tomorrow? Same time? Sometimes I miss you. You must do the morning session."

"Why? We can't talk about any of this through the Sims anyways, can we?"

"No, we can't. But now, I really want to hold your hand there, too, to see if it feels different," he replied, smiling a lazy smile.

"So I'm a science experiment?" Eri pretended to be indignant.

"No! I just, I want to know what you mean is all." Bodhi tried to look innocent. She laughed at him. "Honestly, though, it might not be a good idea for us to connect through the Sims. It might be too risky," Bodhi said.

"Yeah, I get that, and…I don't want to taint this little bit of reality with the weirdness of the Sims. But, we have already talked in the Sims. It might be even weirder if we avoided each other." Eri shrugged, thinking about seeing him in the Sims. It would be hard to pretend she didn't know him.

Bodhi nodded, and then yawned. "Maybe it wouldn't hurt to have lunch together or maybe study for that history test." He smiled at her and this time she smiled an easy smile in return. Bodhi looked up at the sky. "And…I would guess it's about two in the morning. We should probably head home. I think we both have enough to think about."

He smiled. She leaned over and kissed his cheek. "Thanks for…for welcoming me to the outside. And saving me. I will be happy to keep you company as long as you will have me."

Bodhi touched her face briefly, dropping his hand as suddenly as he raised it. Eri noticed a mixture of emotions in his eyes as he lowered his gaze. "I'm more than happy to have you," he responded carefully. "Now, let's figure out how we are going to break you back into your house."

She smiled and then her stomach tightened as she thought of descending down the building. Somehow, that risk didn't seem nearly as large as the one she had just taken.

Before the Sims

Eri carefully placed her feet on the solid floor of her bedroom. She turned on her light and took off her muddy shoes and dirty pants and threw them in her clothing trunk. She took off her t-shirt, damp with sweat and smudged with dirt, and laid it on the ground next to the trunk to dry. She needed to figure out when laundry day was.

She pulled on her pajamas and tapped her lamp, laying down on her bed as quietly as she could. In the ten seconds before her lamp would shut off, she heard a rustling downstairs. She held her breath. She had not done a good job of reattaching the tarp to the window-since she planned on escaping again soon-and realized too late she needed to cover her tracks better.

She glanced at her bedroom door, thankful it was shut. She rolled onto her side, facing the wall. She breathed deeply when her lamp shut off. Seconds later, she heard her door creak open, softly, and then silence. She held as still as she could, and tried not to jerk away when a beam of light found her face before quickly shutting off.

From the hallway, she heard her mom say, "I told you she was asleep. What did you think?" Eri prayed they would stay in the hall.

Her dad muttered, as they retreated down the hall, "I don't know…I just had a feeling."

Eri opened her eyes in the blackness and tried to control her breathing as her heart raced. She would need to be more careful. Much more careful.

* * * *

Eri had never had a vivid dream in her life. Mostly, her dreams were hazy and grey, about school or her family. Once in a while she would dream of something bizarre and unreal, but would forget it quickly upon awakening. Tonight, however, she could not escape the strong images lurking in her subconscious. The dream started easily, as she found herself sitting in a sunlit field of soft, pink flowers. She knelt on a white blanket, taking in deep breaths of warm, sweet air.

As she sat, she could see storm clouds rolling in from a distance. She felt a moment of fear, realizing she was outside, but the fear quickly disintegrated into joy. She was going to feel rain on her skin. She had always wanted to stand outside in the rain. But as the clouds grew closer, she grew uncomfortable. They looked different somehow. Rather than large, smooth edges, the clouds looked dimpled and had dark spots throughout them. She peered up as the clouds came upon her and realized the clouds were made of faces, with pale grey skin and dark grey, empty eyes. They were staring at her, all of them, but there was no life in them. She cowered back towards the blanket, a shock of fear and confusion rolling through her stomach as she found herself surrounded by these pale, distant faces.

Where is the rain? Maybe that will make them go away.

Instead, a hot, dry wind pushed against her, driving the pink flowers to the ground. Eri looked for a path to get away, to get out of the center of these clouds, and then she saw them. Hidden amongst the bare, bored, empty faces were other faces, half-hidden, with mouths that would distort periodically, opening in silent screams. Their eyes, when she could see them, pleaded with her. Make it stop, she saw one of them mouth at her silently, its face contorting. Make it end.

Eri grew frantic as the flowers around her turned grey and began to dry up, withering at an impossible rate. The sun was blocked out completely and the clouds had begun to descend on her like a thick fog. As the clouds descended, her feelings became numb and she was calmer, cooler. A hand grabbed at hers, and she could see Bodhi, mouthing at her that she needed to run, to get away, but she stood rooted in the fog, an emptiness filling her mind. The emptiness was easy and painless. She no longer felt vulnerable. She sat down on the ground and found herself floating, whirling into the cloud. She looked back at Bodhi, knowing her face was now one of the hundreds of thousands he could see in the clouds. Too late, she knew. She was one of them, one of the bored, empty faces.

She jerked awake and lay on her bed, panting, the dream still upon her. She rubbed her hands over her face in the darkness, reaching over to tap her lamp. It was just a dream, she told herself. Just a dream.

She sat up in bed, an odd feeling settling into her chest. She was anxious after the dream, but as it faded from her consciousness, a new feeling took its place. Happiness? Curiosity? She thought of Bodhi and her stomach flipped. She could clearly remember his smile in the moonlight if she shut her eyes. She could see his dark hair, always moving with the wind, and his eyes, flecked with the colors of the earth.

She stood up, feeling exhausted. She wondered what time it was.

Eri changed her clothes and slipped into the hallway, moving quietly past Ezra's room. She stopped and turned back, pushing his door open farther. She could see him, sleeping on his bed, in his clothes. His hair stuck to his head with sweat and one leg dangled off the bed. Even in his sleep, he had purple smudges under his eyes. Eri stared at him for a minute before moving to the stairs. Something wasn't right. She would talk to him later.

Downstairs, she glanced at the clock and was startled to see it was almost noon. She inhaled a quick breakfast and washed up as quickly as she could before scrambling down the stairs to get onto the machine. She settled into the familiar process of hooking up her attachments, gloves and headgear.

Eri waited for her stomach to ache as she entered into the familiar world of the Sims. Her open eyes saw the slow transition from black eye gear to a brightly lit world filled with smells and sights and sounds. She had never appreciated exactly how nuanced the Sims were. There were breezes and butterflies, and perfect 75-degree weather. She could feel the warm sun on her shoulders. Just a few transmitters to my brain and I could feel anything, she thought. It could all feel real.

Eri entered her classroom and sat in her normal seat, just as her laptop appeared in front of her. She glanced back at Bodhi's seat; it was empty. She felt a drop of disappointment, as Ms. Fritz began describing a new "collaborative project" they would be working on. Eri tried to look happy, but was irritated with having to work with someone she didn't know. She glanced back again and saw that this time, Bodhi occupied his seat.

"Today," Ms. Fritz went on, "you will be assigned one of several topics on which to create a presentation. The options are: History of The People's healthcare system, History of The People's education system, History of The People's economic system, History of The People's social and interpersonal safety initiatives and History of The People's protections and security measures. So long as more than two groups aren't doing the same topic, I will allow you to pick your topic. Please see the assignment description downloaded on our class webpage. You can work with one to three people of your choosing."

Eri sensed a presence at her desk and glanced up to see Bodhi looking at her with a forced look of seriousness. His lips twitched.

"I know we haven't worked together before," he started, to which she hid a small smile behind her hand, "but I wondered if you might want to partner with me?"

Eri regained her composure. "Um…well…are you a good researcher? I don't want to be weighed down."

Bodhi coughed. "Yes, I believe I will be an asset to the team."

Eri shrugged. "Okay." She stood up to join him as they moved to sit at a table in the back of the room. The room had doubled in size, with tables throughout the back. Each table held "print" resources. She wondered why they bothered giving them digital material that they could pick up and "read" with their simulated hands. No one read anything on paper anymore, really, so it seemed silly to even bother simulating it.

They sat down next to each other, careful to keep a normal distance.

"Which topic would you like to research?" Ms. Fritz asked brightly. Her persona was interesting, with big blonde hair and black cat-eye glasses. Bright coral lipstick colored round, pouty lips. Ms. Fritz was curvy, and wore a modestly tailored blue suit with white polka dots. Eri was deeply suspicious that Ms. Fritz looked nothing like her persona in real life.

"History of education, if we could?" Bodhi looked so sweetly innocent, Eri's mouth dropped open. Stunned at his unilateral decision, she turned her eyes from him to Ms. Fritz as she recorded his request.