The Game (The Game is Life)

by Terry Schott

  “I’m right here, babe. Sure, let’s go swimming.”

  We go out to the parking lot and I unlock the car, a nice sporty job that my parents let me drive. I have a part-time job working to pay for gas and insurance. They never have to ask me to fill the tank or take care of it. I laugh at my friends who think their parents are such hardcases because they expect their kids to do simple stuff like that. I figure it helps me get the car easier when I need it. Parents aren’t so different from us kids; they just want some help from us when we can give it. I think kids would have better parents if they were better at being kids. Not all, but lots.

  Jane gets in the passenger side, and as I start up the engine, she turns on the radio. Windows down, we drive over to her friend Cynthia’s place. There are already twenty or so people there, standing around in groups and swimming.

  “Trew!” my buddy Rob calls out. I wave and walk towards him. Jane tells me she’s going to put her bathing suit on and I give her a kiss before she jogs into the house.

  Rob hands me a drink. “Nothing with alcohol, is it? I want to be able to drive home,” I ask.

  “No, it’s clean,” he laughs. Of course, it’s illegal to drink at our age… so we never do. Hahaha, okay, but seriously. None today for me.

  “You should really come out and play ball again this year, Trew.” Rob says. “You were MVP last year and we need you back on the team.”

  I shrug. He knows how I play. It was time to move on. I’ve known Rob my whole life and he’s followed me from sport to sport, activity to activity. First I leave, then he groans the next session how they miss me and I should come back. I shrug and ignore him, and soon he announces that he’s coming to join me in my new interest. It’s a regular pattern. I chuckle because he doesn’t seem to see it, but I am better at spotting patterns than most people.

  He laughs at my shrug and says, “So you liking the girl friend thing? Jane’s a catch for sure.”

  “Yeah, she’s a great girl. Lots of fun.” I look around, waving and smiling to the people gathered in groups. Most of them look towards me exactly as I shift my attention to them. I’m not the most popular kid in school, but I’m friendly with the most people. There aren't too many people I don't get along with. I think it’s my sense of humour and quick wit; even the groups that don’t like each other seem to enjoy my company. I play sports pretty well, and since I’ve played so many over the years, I’ve been in a class with most of the kids my age. Some people don’t like me because I breeze in for a short time and do better at their activity than they do, but that’s always going to happen. Like my Dad says, ‘If everyone says they like you, then some of them are lying.’

  Rob and I walk around and mingle; most of the time I practice my new home study assignment. I ask them about themselves, then sit back and listen. When I went looking for someone to teach me how to communicate better with others, the best teachers turned out to be living in my own house! My parents are both incredible with people, always comfortable with friends and strangers. We could go to a town where no one knew us and, in almost no time at all, my parents would have new friends and acquaintances to talk and laugh with. When I asked my Dad to help me improve my communication skills he laughed and said they’d been teaching me since I was young, but he agreed that there was some formal training to provide. Most people laugh when I tell them I’m training in communicating. They tell me we all communicate and not to waste time learning, just go out and do it! I’ve met some very awkward people who could benefit from training in this area. The truth is that not everyone can do it, and most can’t do it well. My mom says most problems in the world today result from poor communication, and she’s given me so many examples that it’s impossible to not believe her.

  So my current homework is to listen. Whenever I can talk with someone, my goal is to ask them some good questions, then listen. It’s amazing what you can learn, and what people will tell you when you are truly interested in them. I swear it’s like magic.

  I get so immersed in conversations that time passes quickly and before I know it an hour has gone by. I look around but still don’t see Jane anywhere. I excuse myself and go find Cynthia.

  “Hey, Cyn, you seen Jane around?”

  Cynthia looks real freaked out and starts looking back towards the house. “Um… hey, Trew. No, I haven’t seen her. I thought she came out to swim a while ago. Oh, actually, yeah, I think she went with Sally to go get ice at the store. She’ll be back soon.”

  Something doesn’t feel right. “Okay, thanks,” I say. I head into the house. I’ve got to use the bathroom anyway.

  The main floor bathroom is in use, so I head upstairs. I don’t know the layout of the house that well and I guess I must make a wrong turn. I hear moaning and kissing noises from the room to my left and I look to see who’s getting lucky.

  My emotions disappear, my heart stops beating in my chest, and it feels like the room has just frozen solid. There’s Jane, in her bathing suit, with her back to the door, making out with Ted, a guy from school. He opens his eyes and sees me; his eyes start to twinkle with laughter. He kisses her for another couple seconds, then stops and says, “Run along, Junior, big kids are playing.”

  Jane turns around and looks towards the door. She giggles but quickly stops, trying to appear upset and sorry. “Oops,” she says. “Sorry, Trew.”

  I just stand there, not knowing what to say. It could be worse, I guess. I could have spent more than a month with this girl before finding out she’s not really into me. But still, this is pretty embarrassing.

  Instead I just look at her and say, “There was no tingle with you.”

  “What?” she asks.

  “When I kissed you,” I say.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she says.

  I just turn and walk out. I hear Ted yelling at me from the bedroom. “Hey, Trew, don’t you want to kick my ass? Come on, man, you may have beat me when we were eight in karate, but I could clean your clock now. I just stole your girl, Trew! Don’t you want to fight?”

  I stop and go back to the doorway. I see Ted smiling and I’m pretty sure he just wants to make me fight him. I smile back. “I’ll fight you any time, Ted. You suck at it, but if you want to get knocked out, I can help you with that any time.” I point at Jane. “She’s not my girl, though, and definitely not worth fighting over.” Both of them say nothing, their mouths opening and closing like fish laying on the deck of a boat trying to get a breath. I walk downstairs and out to the back of the house.

  Rob sees me and comes over. From my look he must be able to tell that something isn’t right. “Hey, man, you okay?”

  “Yeah, I’m fine,” I assure him. “Look, man, I’m gonna head out.”

  “Okay, no problem. Where you going?” he asks.

  Still remembering the tingle of that kiss on her birthday, I answer, “I think I’m going to go call my girlfriend.”

  Chapter 36

  The Game isn’t working. Does anyone even remember what it was designed for? Oh, yes — to educate our children and help them become wiser and more productive members of society. Has that actually happened? ‘Difficult to track,’ is the answer I get whenever I make an inquiry. Difficult to track? It shouldn’t be too difficult to track, but sure enough, it’s not only difficult, it’s downright impossible! Can anyone tell me where the consistently top players are since they retired from the Game? They’re super-rich celebrities who spend all their time partying and waving to their adoring fans. Sure, the good to mediocre players retire to go on and get good paying jobs, live middle to high class lives, have children and do their thing. But is that what we should be expecting from enlightened individuals? Hell, they’re doing the same things our parents did before the Game, and they’re not any happier or fulfilled. Divorce, scandal, murder, crime, you name it — they all still exist with veterans of the Game. There’s a problem here. It’s the Game, and everyone is too busy watching it and wasting all their time following thei
r favourite players to even notice. The only ones better off are Brandon Strayne and his crew of wealthy business owners. And, let’s face it, folks, they were very well off before this nonsense even started all those years ago.

  Excerpt - The Game Is Killing Society

  Danielle - 17

  I hear my computer chirp, and I’m both happy and upset to recognize the unique tone that announces the caller. I consider not answering it — he hasn’t answered any of my calls this past month; maybe he should know how it feels.

  I really want to talk to him though. Life can get busy, and it’s okay that he hasn’t been around. I let it ring a few more times, then answer it. He pops up on my video screen and I give him my best grin. I’m not going to be one of those nagging girls. Can’t stand them, won’t be one of them. Besides, it’s not like we’re dating or anything. “Hey, Trew, what’s new?”

  “Um… hey, Danielle. How ya been? Sorry I haven’t been around lately.” He sounds nervous and twitchy. Boys. Who can figure ‘em out?

  “I’ve been good, thanks. Really getting into this biology thing. The Eastern medicine is looking like the best stuff out there.”

  “Really?” he asks. Talking about interesting stuff seems to snap him out of whatever daze he was in.

  “Oh, yes,” I say. “If we’re just inside a game and our bodies are simply digital avatars, then our bodies behave much like any other machine or vehicle you would ride in.”

  “Makes sense,” he says.

  “So just like a car, it only works as good as you treat it. They’ve known for thousands of years how to take care of their bodies in the East. Here in the West, we seem more concerned with just fixing the body once it breaks, or pumping foreign chemicals into it to hide the real symptoms.”

  “So when we put the wrong gas into our bodies, and toxic chemicals, and we don’t sleep right or exercise, then we’re setting ourselves up for being unhealthy,” Trew says.

  “Exactly. You’ve been paying attention in biology.” I smile. “There’s more to it than that, though. You ever hear about chakras, acupuncture, or Reiki ?”

  “Acupuncture I’ve heard of. And I might have heard chakras mentioned in some old Japanese cartoon.” He grins and looks right at me through the camera. “I haven’t heard about Reiki, though.”

  That grin. It always makes me stop and forget what I’m thinking about. I pause for a second to try and remember. Ah, yes, “It’s all very important stuff. One of us should study it if we want to keep these machines of ours healthy as long as possible,” I say.

  “Just one of us?” he asks in a teasing voice. “If I learn Reiki, then how am I going to be able to help you from all the way up here in Canada?”

  “Reiki is about energy, and you can actually send it over long distances. The other two might be a bit tough, though. And then there’s chiropractics.”

  “Oh, no thanks,” Trew says. “I’m not too keen on that one. Back cracking doesn’t sound like a good thing for my machine.”

  “The back cracking part of it is called osseous adjusting and I agree we should stay away from that. Gentle manipulation of the spine is much more effective. It’s possible to practice chiropractics without cracking bones forcefully into place. Studying applied kinesiology would be helpful too.”

  “Okay, sounds good,” he says. Trew’s awesome that way. Once he hears the basics he’s always ready to join the adventure.

  “Great,” I say. “I was also thinking…”

  “Hey, I have a question for you,” he says.

  “Okay.”

  “We’ve known each other for a long time now.” He sounds nervous.

  “Yes, we have,” I agree.

  “And I like you a lot,” he says.

  “Yeah, I like you, too.”

  “So… would you like to be my girlfriend?” His face turns red as he gets all the words out.

  I smile, getting a bit warm in the face myself. “Well, I am your girlfriend, Trew. I’m a girl. I’m your frie…”

  “Yeah, I know, Danni,” he says hurriedly. “But we get to see each other every few weeks, especially since we started driving. And that kiss we had on your birthday… I can’t stop thinking about it.”

  I don’t want him to squirm, even if he’s cute when he’s doing it. “Sounds good to me, Trew,” I say with a smile.

  “Really?” His grin is huge. I grin back. “That’s great!” he says.

  “Maybe,” I say. “But I want to ask something.”

  “Sure, anything,” he says.

  “I don’t want to lose what we’ve had all these years, Our friendship. I’ve had a couple of boyfriends, and —”

  “You have?” he interrupts. “I had no idea. Were they recent? Serious?”

  He looks like he’s getting ramped up to ask a lot of questions, so I stop him. “Whoa, there, buddy. Of course I have, and I bet you have too. No, no, don’t answer. I don’t really want to know, and I don’t think we should bother to ask each other questions about that, at least right now. It doesn’t matter, because it’s in the past and it has nothing to do with our relationship. Here’s what I was getting at before you interrupted me…”

  “Sorry,” he says. Then he winces, realizing he’s just interrupted me again. He does that a lot, and gets away with it because he’s so damn cute and funny.

  I sit quietly for a second and smile. “Before your repeated interruptions,” I pause but he remains silent, “I was going to say that I want to make sure we keep our friendship intact. People start to become romantic, and no matter how hard they try, it ends, and the friendship disappears with it. I don’t want to do that with you. Dear and close friends are the most precious treasure in this world, I think. If I had to choose between you as a boyfriend and you as a lifelong friend, I’d choose lifelong every time. I know there are no guarantees, but I want to start off this relationship with us both saying out loud that we agree to be friends no matter what. That we will do our very best to always remain friends first.”

  He thinks about it for a few seconds, then nods. “Friends. First and always. I agree to try my very best.”

  I smile, “All right then, Trew Radfield. I’ll be your girlfriend.”

  “Awesome!” he says. “Although I’m a bit sad already. Long distance relationships are tough. I guess my talent only has so much power because, quite a while ago, I put out there to the universe that I wanted us to live closer together. Oh, well… it’s still gonna be great.”

  “Funny thing, that.” I’m still smiling. “I was thinking the same thing years ago when I put that exact desire out to the universe. But you know what George says, the universe takes its own time bringing things into play. I would have told you sooner, but you were busy this past month…”

  “Told me what?” Trew asks.

  “Well, boyfriend, my Mom got transferred to a new position and location. I’m moving to Canada next month. Toronto, to be exact. Less than a couple miles from your house. Know anyone willing to spend time with me to show me all the cool spots?”

  My speakers almost shatter at his whoop of delight!

  Chapter 37

  Of course the Game works. Or it doesn’t. It all depends on what side of the argument you want to come in on. Ask a kid who fails out of the Game at 15 and they’ll tell you the Game is horrible, but ask an 18 year old who retired from the Game able to get a good job, house, and a sizeable bank account for her efforts; she’ll say the Game is an incredible opportunity, both for learning and for advancement. When a citizen of Tygon places a bet on a player in the Game and wins, they are much happier than if they lose. No matter what type of system we have, there will always be those who support it and those who attack it. The fact is, this world of ours was heading towards ruin before the Game came along. Are we perfect now? Well, of course not. But we’re still here and thriving as a society. I’m happy to come and defend the Game in the face of any attacks. And to those who step forward to attack me, I say; you are welcome, my friends, even thoug
h you are too bitter and angry at yourselves and what little you have accomplished to thank me. There is always an angry bully who comes along to kick over the beauty that others are building. I’m glad those people are not the majority.

  Interview excerpt from “The Game: Twenty-Eight Years Online”

  Brandon Strayne interviewed by Melissa W.

  The mood in Zack’s command central office was extremely positive. There was a cake in the centre of the table with 20 candles in it and the message ‘Happy 20th Trew!’ written in icing. Monitors in the background showed Trew and Danielle partying with their friends and family; the joy and happiness on the screens also showed on the faces of those inside the Tygon command centre. After just a little over two weeks of Game play, with many stressful moments and almost no sleep, the combined team took a few moments to enjoy themselves and celebrate their accomplishments so far.

  As the two inside the Game left their families and went out to party at a favourite bar, Brandon called for order and began a brief recap meeting.

  “I know most of us are so focused on our own particular areas of speciality that we don’t always get to see the big picture. So let’s hear how our kids are doing overall. Michelle, would you please bring us up to date?”

  “With pleasure, Brandon.” Michelle stood up and moved to end of the long desk, opposite where Brandon and Lilith sat.

  “First off, I’m happy to report that Trew and Danielle are both happy, healthy, and alive.” This statement brought cheers and applause. It was extremely common for the players to still be in the Game at 20, but everyone in the room had seen enough in their careers to know that it could have been tragically different with just a little bad luck.

  “From a fan base perspective,” Michelle continued, “Zack is now officially one of the most popular players of all time. He’s surpassed many of the top veterans and preorders are flooding in for his current play. Millions of dollars are being deposited for the opportunity to First him when he completes this session. His one channel has been expanded to three in order to accommodate the number of viewers following him. Merchandise is through the roof! You name it, people are buying it, as long as it has a picture or slogan from Trew on it. If any of us were actually able to go outside of this office and mingle with the population, (this comment drew laughter from many), then you would see that Trew’s name is on the lips of most people. Speculation on what’s happened so far, what might be coming next, and how it might all turn out are the buzz of the world, as well as of the media.”