Flag Race

by Felipe Valente

  “Of course I’ll go, Le!” She lifted up her beautiful green eyes and smiled at him as he added, “Just say where and when!”

  They kept on chatting excitedly, but in a low voice. Letícia knew that Thiago and Amanda were probably still watching them, but she tried not to care. After all, Amanda seemed to be entertained as well with her nerdy friend. She wasn’t in a position to judge her. Thiago, though... She didn’t want to think about him for the moment.

  When the physics class came to an end, they all returned to their usual desks for the following classes. Amanda soon congratulated Letícia. “Look, girl, I thought I knew what I was doing, but you’re on fire, huh?” Letícia gave her an inquisitive glance. “Seriously, wow, you kicked ass! I saw you noticed Thiago was looking at you and then you decided to just throw yourself on Pedro. Thiago must be dead jealous! What a great idea to give him a wake-up call!”

  Letícia gave her a half-smile. Why did Amanda insist on that whole Thiago thing? It was one thing for them to chase after him together with all the other girls in class. It was another thing completely to actually make out with him. He was handsome, indeed, and it would surely be great to feel the embrace of those strong muscles, but she saw who he really was.

  Though he seemed kind and fun when surrounded by girls, he never missed a chance to make a living hell of the lives of the other boys. She saw what he’d done to Daniel and Luiz. She knew it wouldn’t be the first nor the last time he’d humiliate anyone that got in his way. It made her sick to her stomach when she noticed that, even though this behavior disgusted her and she knew how awful it was to be humiliated, she found the whole bad-boy pose attractive.

  “And what’s your plan with the nerd over there, huh?” Letícia tried to take the conversation in another direction.

  “Oh, I... He’s kinda cute, you know?” Amanda confessed. She liked the way Daniel admired her. Though he desired her, she knew he’d never try to grab her or something. It was as if the other boys saw her as a piece of meat and he saw her as a goddess. “Besides, I’ve got to start learning how to deal with these situations right now if I want to pass my flight attendant examination, right?”

  “Flight attendant? But weren’t you—”

  “Oh, no, being a model is too boring! Flight attendants have much more fun and I still get to wear make-up! It’s always been my dream, you know?”

  Letícia laughed as she dove right into idle banter with her friend.

  Chapter 07

  Pedro was excited as he arrived home. Two days from now he’d go down to Letícia’s gym, where she had dance lessons, to watch her technosamba performance. Once again he’d get inline tonight to have fun with his friends. It seemed like everything in his life was in its right place.

  That feeling abruptly faded when Marcelo came up to him to ask for help in the afternoon. With tears in his eyes, he cried out he hadn’t done anything to his twin, and that Rodrigo got that way all of a sudden. As their parents weren’t home, only their elder brother could help him.

  Soon after running down the stairs, Pedro could see his brother fallen on the floor, struggling to breathe. His dun skin was pale, except for his lips and fingers, which were tinged in a worrisome bluish hue.

  Pedro didn’t know what to do, so he ran to his brother’s side, sat down on the floor next to him, and held him on his lap.

  “Breathe, Rodrigo! Breathe!” As he felt his muscles going limp, he began shaking him. “Rodrigo! Knock that off! Breathe!” He turned to his other brother. “Marcelo! Get me the phone!”

  After what seemed like an eternity, both his parents and an emergency ambulance arrived almost at the same time. Meanwhile, Pedro kept holding his brother on his lap, goading him into not giving up his struggle to breathe. Marcelo paced back and forth, bit his nails, and mumbled. As their parents and paramedics arrived, all hell broke loose while Pedro tried to explain to everyone the little he knew of what had happened.

  Pedro restlessly kicked about as he and his family sat on the waiting room’s couch at the hospital, until the doctors came back with new information on Rodrigo’s condition. Marta, the mother, kept her head resting on Antônio’s chest while he embraced her. It was scary to see how calm Marcelo was right now. In any other situation, he’d be running around all over the place, turning everything upside down. In his mind, the little boy now prayed with all his will.

  Finally the doctor came to them. He explained to everyone that Rodrigo was all right, his condition was stable, and he didn’t need oxygen therapy to breathe anymore. For the time being, little was known for sure about what had happened, but the doctor was already requesting several tests (to be carried out in the following weeks) to find out what had caused the boy’s sudden fit. It was recommended that he should spend the night at the hospital for observation. Pedro couldn’t think clearly through all that stress, but still he felt like the doctor wasn’t giving it the due seriousness. He seemed to believe it was nothing out of the extraordinary, nothing to worry about, quite unlike Pedro’s memories of seeing his little brother collapsed on the floor.

  After they went into Rodrigo’s room and saw him happily playing with some toys the hospital had given him, everybody allowed themselves to calm down a little. They spent a good deal of time together before they had to leave. Marta would spent the night with him at the hospital, while Antônio took care of the other kids at home.

  Pedro didn’t attend that night’s practice session. He did log on the Neuralnet, but his stability was at a mere 45%. I’m still too worried about Rodrigo... Of course my brain doesn’t feel comfortable here. He told his friends he couldn’t practice that night and logged off.

  On the following day, everything seemed to be back in place. Despite the fact Rodrigo didn’t go to school in the morning, by lunch time he was already running all over the place, with Marcelo giving chase. A feeling of relief came over the family. The only tension remaining in Pedro’s parents’ hearts came from the high costs for the tests, since they had no health insurance and they still weren’t in good condition financially either.

  When he got on the Neuralnet late that night, Pedro was sad to see none of his buddies were inline. He’d missed yesterday’s practice session, so if he wanted to practice today he would have to do it all by himself. Of course it would still be exciting, but it was nothing compared to the fun he had practicing with his team.

  Much to his pleasure, there came a notification from Mary as he was beginning to get ready to hit the court. She had just gotten inline. He soon received a message from her.

  “Hi, Ace! You’re the only one inline now?”

  “It seems so, Mary. I guess it’s just the two of us tonight.”

  The girl was thrilled. She waited a few seconds before replying. “What if we used our time for something else?” she said seductively, with an adventuresome tone in her voice. “We only ever meet each other in the HUBs, the game server, or in the court! What do you say about hitting some different loci?”

  “Oh, that’s fine, I guess... I really haven’t seen any others yet and—”

  “You’ve been practicing with us this whole time and you have yet to drop by any other locus?! I can’t believe it! It’s settled then. You’re gonna see some with me. I’m coming right now to take you to the coolest loci around!”

  Ace shrugged. It seemed fun, despite the chill he felt in adventuring around. But Mary knows what she’s doing... doesn’t she? he asked himself.

  He didn’t have to wait much for her on the server. Soon the girl arrived from behind one of the white-green doors, with her alluring green eyes and intensely red hair, casting a provocative glance on Ace as she gave him her hand. He held it while the girl turned back toward the door from which she’d come and concentrated, setting up their next destination.

  The door then opened to a perfect, heavenly beach. A comforting heat came down from the fictional sun high up in the clear, virtual sky. The landscape was framed by a variety of tropical plants, while sapphire-
blue waters reflected their soft glow, as they shaped themselves into waves of many different heights, according to the will of the users bathing in them. Mary changed her usual clothes for a nice red bikini before running off to the sea, inviting her friend to come with her. After he changed from his armor into his bathing suit as well, Ace felt his feet caressed by the virtual sand before going into the bluish warm waters.

  He realized they had a good deal of room for themselves, despite the fact there were many other people at the beach, and he figured that, just like at the Flag Race server, that locus was probably expanding and shrinking according to the amount of people accessing it. Mary dove into the water and splashed at Ace, laughing.

  “So, what do you think?”

  “It’s—” Mouth agape, he couldn’t even finish his sentence.

  “Almost better than reality, right?”

  He nodded, still dumbfounded at the beach’s beauty.

  While they went for a swim, he noticed there were dolphins, starfish, and countless types of fish swimming around. They seemed to dance and frolic for whoever stood by to watch them. One of the dolphins swam near Ace, near enough for him to read a message it had engraved on its side.

  “Mary! Why is there a soda brand on the dolphin’s side?”

  “Oh, the thing is, the brand owns this locus, you know? They let us access it only because we end up seeing their ads all over the place.”

  Ace grimaced. It was too good to be true; it was obvious such a paradise wouldn’t be available for everyone to use it for free. At the same time, it didn’t seem too costly of a price to pay for getting to enjoy that wonderful beach. He lived in Rio, and it wouldn’t be too much effort for him to enjoy himself at the wonderful beaches real life had to offer, but he figured many of those users lived far off the coast, and inline beaches were their only option.

  The place was so beautiful, and his company so wonderful, that he couldn’t help but allow himself to get carried away by it. They laughed, they swam, they made a little splash war (complete with the flashier extra effects virtual reality allowed) and raced to see who would be first to the shore, propelled by the waves.

  Ace felt he could stay much longer there, just enjoying the moment, but Mary wanted to go further. She explained to Ace that there was still much they had yet to see, so they spent the rest of their remaining time getting to know some other loci.

  They went to an amusement park with infinite roller coasters that could change themselves as they went along the rail; they braved the paths up virtual snow-peaked mountains, played in a zero-gravity room, went dragon-riding...

  At every locus they went to, there was always something that explained how each one of them was supported financially. Besides the ads everywhere, like at the beach, at some loci they were approached by salesmen asking if they were interested in accessing the supposedly much better, exclusive, paying-members-only Premium area, if they would authorize newsletters to be sent directly to their Neurolinks, or if they wanted to officially buy a part of that virtual reality.

  But Mary left the locus she knew would please Ace the most for last—the Star Effect one. Just as they entered it, Ace started acting like a kid who had just received his Christmas gift. Not knowing what to say, he excitedly flailed his arms around, smiling like a madman. He didn’t know whether to see first the series’ main character’s famous spaceship, the huge space station city, or if he wanted to enter the battle area instead, where he could help the forces of good protect the galaxy from the ancient alien race that threatened to devour all life in the universe.

  All around him, as expected, hundreds of other “Aces” could be seen. Pedro wasn’t the only one who was into the series; many users on the Neuralnet based their avatars off the main character. If, on one hand, this made him feel unoriginal, on the other, he liked seeing hundreds of other people who identified with the book, just like him.

  Mary transformed into the series’ protagonist’s companion, a delicate blue alien girl with small tentacles for hair. Then she turned to Ace and asked, “So? What do you think?”

  Ace hugged Mary hard, thanking her for taking him there. Despite the bluish hue on her face, Ace could see her blushing.

  They enjoyed it all together as much as their stability allowed, before they had to say goodbye and logged off.

  Though it had seemed much longer, only two hours had passed since he’d gone inline. Pedro still had several hours of sleep ahead of him, but he could barely get any shut-eye. Images of all he’d done kept repeating themselves in his mind. All the sensations, smells, and colors he’d felt in the virtual world seemed to be intent on carving themselves in his mind. All those stimuli circled around his memories of Mary and her hair, as her locks seemed to constantly wave and grow redder whenever she noticed Pedro looking at her.

  Such was Pedro’s ecstasy that it felt like his brother’s crisis had never even happened. This thought tormented him all through the following morning. He couldn’t allow himself to forget who he was. He was letting himself get carried away by the virtual world so intensely that he would grow insensitive to his family and his responsibilities in real life. This distressed him, as he felt stuck between two opposites, the wonders of the virtual world contrasting with the challenges of reality.

  During class, he tried to focus on the history teacher’s exposition, but failed.

  “So in 2013 several protests started taking over the streets in the country...”—Pedro blinked—“the reason was a twenty-cent increase in the bus fare”—his eyelids seemed to be magnetized!—“...and for that reason this was known as...”—he opened his eyes as much as he could, only for them to close seemingly by themselves seconds after—“...and at that time all women had color-shifting hair, especially on the heavenly beaches of Brazil...”

  He was startled when Luiz poked him with a chubby finger, drawing him back from his daydreams. They were about halfway through the geography class already.

  “Sorry to wake you, man,” Luiz apologized, “but the teacher said he was going to go through the exam material now.”

  Pedro nodded in embarrassment. The feeling kept him awake until class ended. As he left, his friends approached him and gave him a warning.

  “The term’s finals are next week already, man,” Luiz said, in his usual sullen mood. “I don’t want to act like your father or anything, but you’d better watch out, don’t do anything stupid.”

  “If you need to, we can keep waking you up whenever you fall asleep!” Daniel smiled. Ever since he was paired with Amanda for the physics assignment he seemed to have recovered his usual excitement. “But I think you should get some more sleep, buddy,” he added.

  Pedro knew his friends were right. He had to find a way to reconcile his time on the Neuralnet with his studies and sleep schedule. He said goodbye to his friends, while waiting for his brothers. Letícia passed by, then stopped a few steps ahead of him and looked around before bashfully addressing Pedro. “Erm... do I see you later then?”

  “Of course!” Pedro smiled. Letícia smiled back before leaving with hasty steps.

  A little while after, Pedro and his brothers were already in their father’s car, heading home. The elder brother analyzed the younger ones while they played on their tablets. Both seemed healthy. Maybe the doctor was right. Maybe it really was nothing more than a scare.

  Pedro started growing anxious that afternoon. Could it be that Letícia had invited other people to watch her rehearsal too? And if she had invited nobody else but him, what would that mean? He changed his clothes over and over again, until he found an outfit that he judged appropriate for the occasion. He started getting dressed early, because he knew it’d take him a good while to arrive at the gym in Leblon.

  Chapter 08

  As he stood on the last bus of the series of buses he’d taken to get to his destination, Pedro’s anxiety was quickly increasing. He felt silly for being this nervous, but still couldn’t control himself. More and more he was beginning
to realize how much he liked Letícia and wanted to hold her in his arms. Though they had never experienced anything together that came even close to what he’d done with Mary, he was incredibly attracted to the girl from his classroom. Liking her just seemed natural. Pedro wasn’t sure whether he believed in fate or not, but he liked the idea that they were made for each other. On such moments, he’d forget all the differences between them and everything that kept him from revealing his feelings to her.

  By the shore, under a clear sky and a scorching sun, Pedro saw the gym’s monstrous facade. He distanced himself from the crowd of beachgoers enjoying themselves at the Wonderful City as they strolled by the shore, and headed to his destination.

  The receptionist undermined his confidence right away using nothing but her gaze, before dryly welcoming him. “Good afternoon. I’m sorry to inform you, but we’re not offering trial classes anymore. It’s customers only now.”

  Pedro was offended, but he didn’t know what to say. Did she think he had come all the way from across the city just to take advantage of the gym offering trial classes? His clothes weren’t that bad to make her think he was there to beg for free classes! Or were they?

  “Pedro! You really came!” Letícia’s earnest smile washed away the feeling of indignation from his mind. She looked amazing. Her black gym suit had a few neon features, in strong pink and blue hues, drawn with that living dye Pedro recalled having seen personally only on his Neurolink box. Her outfit’s tight fabric highlighted her curves and accentuated her breasts, though it was still much more modest than what was usually worn in traditional samba schools.

  “You look... gorgeous!” Pedro allowed his tongue to slip, not really minding what he was saying. Never would he imagine he’d get to see her in such a sexy uniform as that. Letícia smiled, looking down. Then she turned around to the receptionist.