“He was so close with my baby. They would play games and talk all the time” she unloads to her friend sitting across the table. Her daughter, sitting in the living room, inside her own world with the VR headset on, not acknowledging they were talking about her.
“These kids!” she continues, ” They are stuck in that VR system all the time! I mean, her grades are high. Smart as hell. Exception her online teachers message me,” she continues.
“I mean it’s how it is now. Jr. is always on that headset too. Never leaves his room. In the dark! Pays us twice the rent we ask of him and get these metals sent to us. Groceries get delivered. Enough for us all. But I never get to see my baby boy’s face anymore!” replies her friend with her own grief.
“Dad always took us outside to sit in the sun. Baked. The baby played sand. Rocks. Jump on water puddles. He would have us ground.” she follows.
Her friend looks at her puzzled so she moves her palms up and down as if it better explains what she means. “We would sit on the ground with no shoes or socks, grounding. Channeling with the Earth.”
Her friend replies, ” Yew. People doing stuff like that is what killed them. All them germs and bugs and creatures on that ground. Barefoot outside in the dirt! Even breathing that air for a bit makes me uneasy. And you know she not a baby anymore. She is about to be a teen.”
“Dad liked the real world. So did I. And so did she!” she admits after taking a drag from her vape. She looks at her friend sitting in front of her in expensive clothes, jewelry and the newest smart glasses that she is using to communicate with her son without saying a word or typing a thing. Just looking at her looks like she is wearing dark shades and it would be difficult to know if she is paying attention to you or to her world inside her smart glasses.
“Times have changed hun! It ain’t like the old days when everyone was on Snap and Tiktok. That technology is ancient now! Everything is much safer and you can still experience the real world through technology without the dangers of getting sick and getting other people sick around you! People actually threw germ parties! Can you actually believe that! They would invite everyone to come to this sick party and passed the viruses around. Remember? I don’t mean like that party was sick bro. I mean the people announced they were sick and wanted others to come fest with them. Insane! Look! Look! Insaaane! I know you and your dad had touchy feely moments barefoot like hippies and such but that is unnatural.”
She is shocked at her friend, “what do you mean unnatural! It’s a part of nature. There is nothing more natural than that!”
“Don’t get bent out of shape. I am saying that you should be grateful that your daughter isn’t outside like those outsiders her age that cause nothing but destruction. Polluting the air. Not wearing masks or any protective guard amongst the presence of others. I can’t believe Texas still has not made it mandatory that all wear masks in front of strangers. It’s ridiculous!”
“You’re ridiculous” she tells her friend. “You know dad always said if we don’t watch it, eventually we will be injecting some big needle in the back of our necks in order to be even more ‘connected’ to that virtual world you and everybody obsesses about. Like he would say in the Matrix they were trying to get them things out of themselves to be in the real world or something. But before all that happens as consequence, it most likely was voluntary at first. Like everything else, they make it voluntary and even offer it for free, to get you used to it. Then you are forced to comply once most people already willingly gave up their rights.”
“Oh my universes! Get over it! The air and water inside homes is better. No one is fighting over land anymore because it is all virtual, and there is virtually unlimited amount of space! Get a hold of reality!”
“Reality!” she reacts astonished. “This is reality. You and I having a conversation. I can’t tell most of the time if you are actually listening to me or watching something on your glasses!”
Her friend replies, “of course I listen to you! I am totally up on the conversation. And so are the viewers. There is a spike in the interest of the topics we are talking about. Girl we are trending! What’s with you and this whole living in the past? You miss your pops?”
“Wait!” she replies as she points up. “My dad is up there.”
Her friend’s reply “He was crazy. Party animal. You would think he would stop sleepin’ around. They loved his “honesty is the best policy” bullshit. I think that sends him straight to hell.”
“What! No he’s up there…” she response angrily as her friend continues. ” Don’t get me wrong. I mean who knew! Well you knew and he did too I guess. People still trynna figure out if he predicted it all, wrote it as he planned it to be or wrote it as a journal then into stories. And you said he would always qoute that ‘Matrix’ movie! Creepy. What was it? You would tell me all the time. ” Would you have dropped it if I hadn’t said anything” Crazy talk.”
PEARLS EMPIRE 
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