D. MacHale - The Reality Bug

“Then what do I do? Lie there and watch a movie?”

“You focus your thoughts. Think about a place you’d like to be. Or a person you’d want to see. That’s all it takes.”

“And it reads my mind? Like when my dog appeared?”

“Exactly.”

It seemed impossible, but Marley sure as heck looked real. It may have been a holographic illusion, but it was a good one.

“What if something goes wrong? Like if I get claustrophobia or something?”

“You won’t,” she assured me. “But if it makes you feel better, the vedders and phaders monitor all the jumps from the core. If something goes wrong, they’ll stop the event. Believe me, they know what they’re doing.”

I lifted my arm and touched the silver bracelet on my wrist with the three buttons. “What’s this for?”

“It’s your ultimate control over the jump. If you want to talk to your phader, push the left button. If you want to end the jump, push the right button.”

“And the middle button?”

“That’s for advanced jumpers. Don’t push it.”

Oh man, that was like saying: “Don’t look down.” Now all I wanted to do was push that middle button. “How long will I be in there?” I asked.

“I’m going to time your jump to last only a few minutes.

The point is to show you what Lifelight is all about. After that, I’ll be able to explain why Saint Dane doesn’t pose a threat to Veelox.”

We had come full circle. That’s exactly why I was here. This was all about figuring out what the turning point of Veelox was, and how Saint Dane had tipped the territory toward chaos. I was beginning to understand why Aja wanted me to see this for myself. Hopefully after I completed my jump, or whatever they called it, I would be up to speed and could focus on the main problem. Saint Dane.

“Now lie down,” Aja instructed. “Feet first.”

With a shrug, I laid down on the table. It was soft and molded to my body. Very comfy. I guess it would have to be if people were lying down for long periods of time.

“Try to relax,” Aja said in a surprisingly soothing voice. “Fold your arms over your chest. I’m going to retract the table and slide you inside. Be sure to breathe. If it helps, close your eyes. Then I’m going to close the front panel and the tube will go completely dark. It’s okay. That’s supposed to happen. Your job is to focus your thoughts.”

My heart rate started to climb. Should I trust this girl? Or was she sending me into some high-tech atom smasher that would pulverize me into pocket lint? But she was a Traveler. I had to believe she knew what she was doing.

“Ready?” she asked.

“Yes,” I lied.

With a slight shift and a soft hum, the table began retracting into the tube, bringing me along with it. Gulp. I wanted to yell: “Time out!” but that would only prolong the torture. I had to suck it up. A few seconds later I looked up and saw the top of the tube pass by my face as I slid inside. I didn’t close my eyes. Maybe I should have, but I wanted to see what was happening. I lay there in this tight, round tunnel, staring up at the top, which was only a few inches above my nose. I never had a problem with claustrophobia, but if there ever was a time to get it, it was now. “You okay?” Aja asked.

“Fine,” I lied again. I had one question. It wasn’t sophisticated. It wasn’t smart and maybe it proved I was a weenie. But I had to ask it. “Aja?” I asked, trying not to let my voice quiver. “Is this going to hurt?”

Aja leaned down until she was just behind my head. When she spoke, it was the first time I sensed that there was actually a human being with feelings behind those yellow-tinted glasses.

“Pendragon,” she said, “it’s going to be the most fun you’ve ever had.”

With that, the round panel hummed and began to close behind me. Seconds later the last of the light from the chamber room was cut off and I was in total darkness.

It was an act that required a huge amount of willpower.

Mark reached down to the floor and touched the black button on the small silver projector. Instantly Bobby’s hologram disappeared. It killed Mark to stop it, especially at such a crucial moment. Bobby’s image was about to reveal the mystery of Lifelight. But that’s exactly why he had to stop it.

Courtney wasn’t there.

Mark felt like he had already cheated on their pact by watching so much of the journal without her. But the hologram thing was so incredible, Mark couldn’t wait. In fact, he had been so captivated by the 3-D image that it took a while before he even realized what he was doing.

Rule #1 was that they would always read Bobby’s journals together. He had just broken it. Sort of. He would have to explain to Courtney how he was so surprised by Bobby’s image that it took him a while to get his head back together. He didn’t deliberately choose to watch the journal without her. It just happened. She would understand.

No, she won’t. She’s going to be totally ticked off, Mark thought.

He started getting sweaty. He had betrayed Courtney’s trust once before by not telling her that Andy Mitchell found out about the journals. Now he had done it again. Courtney was going to be mad and Mark knew she had every right to be.

He took the small, silver projection device and put it in his bedside drawer. He then crawled back into bed and tried to relax. He had trouble getting to sleep before the journal arrived. Now it was impossible. He was dying to know what happened to Bobby in Lifelight. The answers were in the drawer only inches from his head. Talk about torture!

In his mind he replayed all that Bobby had recorded. It was an incredible device. Not only did it look as if Bobby were standing in the room talking right to him, Bobby was able to act out the events he was describing. He played the different parts, changing his voice to mimic the different characters and using hand gestures for emphasis. Bobby knew how to tell a story, too. His written journals were great, but seeing him tell the story aloud was awesome. Mark couldn’t wait to hear more.

He ended up staring at the ceiling for the rest of the night.

When morning finally came, Mark tucked the silver device safely into a small zipper pocket of his backpack and took it to school. His hope was that as soon as Courtney saw it, her curiosity would overpower her anger. Neither of them shared any classes, so Mark didn’t see her all day. The best thing he could do was meet her after soccer practice again. He hoped she would have a better practice than the day before. He didn’t want her in an ugly mood.

Mark’s second day of high school wasn’t as painful as the first. That was because he mostly kept to himself. It wasn’t hard. His body may have been at Davis Gregory High, but his mind was on Veelox. The day went by without any major incident, until the end of last period. He barely listened to his chemistry teacher because he was spending so much time staring at the clock, willing the hands to move faster. The instant the final bell rang, he quickly packed up and was the first one out the door. “Excuse me? Mark Dimond?”

Mark spun around and saw a teacher calling to him from down the hall. His name was Mr. Pike, the physics teacher. Everybody knew who he was because he was one of the younger, cool teachers. His hair was kind of long and he wore jeans and a cotton sweater. To Mark he looked more like an artist than a science teacher.

“Yeah?” Mark answered tentatively.

“I’ve been looking forward to meeting you,” the teacher said, holding out his hand to shake. “My name’s David Pike. I teach physics.”

“Y-Yeah, I know who y-you are.” Mark wasn’t used to grownups introducing themselves by their first names. Especially not teachers.