Dreamscape

This is a stand alone story about unintended consequences with a dash of humor. It is the typical tale of warning that you should read the fine print. Our hero Bradley discovered the fine print too late.

Rights reserved by author with usage permission granted to Big Closet only.

Bradley Marcus was the school social reject. Perhaps it was due to his physique. He stood about five foot seven inches and weighed close to two hundred pounds. If that was not the primary reason perhaps it was his general unkempt appearance or the fact he showered once a week most of the time, unless he forgot. Couple his appearance with his general attitude of his intellectual superiority. To say he had few friends would be too kind. He had none save a very few social outcasts somewhat like him. He was always tinkering with things mechanical hoping to be the first with the next break through. His many inventions had similar results.

He had invented the automatic Bread Butterer as he called it. The contraption appeared as a large butter dish with plastic cover. It was not too different than what you would see in the typical dollar store. It varied from the norm as it was attached to what appeared to be a plastic box on its underside. The box was an inch high and five inches wide. He proudly gathered his parents into the kitchen to demonstrate his invention.

Bradley placed a pound of butter in the plastic dish and a slice of bread into the tray beneath. Bradley then plugged in the contraption and gave his mother the honor of buttering the first slice of bread. Darla Marcus pushed the button which was her first mistake. The Automatic Bread Butterer began to smoke and shake from side to side. Then Mrs. Marcus made her second mistake she did not jump out of the way. Frozen in place she starred in horror as the machine spewed melted butter into her hair and face. The remainder of melted butter stuck to the walls. The plastic projectile flew over her head into and through the glass front of the china closet smashing more than one plate. It was a blessing for Bradley the circuit breaker tripped preventing a fire.

Darla spent many days chastising her son over the hundreds of dollars she spent at the hair salon to repair the damage. She frequently mentioned the doctor bills and cost of medications to soothe her minor burns. Mr. Marcus docked the boy’s allowance for the cost to repair and the china closet and replace the dishes. The parents refused admission to the kitchen making Bradley eat his meals on the closed in back deck.

Within a few weeks Bradley designed an automatic garage door opener to relieve his mother from the manual task of lifting the heavy door. The electronic lift would make things easier for her. After considerable apprehension Mr. Marcus using a ten foot handle pushed the button and to his surprise the door worked well. They all smiled from relief and with a smattering of pride over this achievement. A few days later Clayton Marcus heard a thump, thump coming from outside as he lay in bed. Wearing his pajamas he went outside to see the garage door repeating the up and down motion of opening and closing. The action was fairly rapid taking thirty to forty seconds in its round trip. Clayton rolled under the door to reach the electric panel to shut the contraption off.

It was in the morning when Darla found her husband lying face down with the heavy door pressed against his back. After calling 911 the very professional emergency crew pried Clayton free the door was not serviceable. The fire department has little regard for things like walls and doors that are in the way of their rescues. Perhaps it was the result of spending three days in the hospital or the back brace Clayton had to wear for the next three weeks. Perhaps it was the result of the man now having a permanent tick in his left eye. It did not help that a new door cost seven hundred fifty dollars and Clayton was in no condition to do it himself. Whatever, the exact reason Bradley was not allowed to go anywhere near that new door.

When you are as clever as Bradley set backs like this rarely deter because genius knows no master. A few days before high school graduation Clayton was working in the garage. He was mounting a new cabinet to the garage wall to store his tools. When he used his nail gun to attach the cabinet to the beams the recoil nearly knocked him down. The poor man had no idea his son modified the gun giving it a bit more power to make the job easier. Several nails flew through the beam and outer siding, gathered speed flying through the air like bullets. Mrs. Conway in her back yard more than a hundred feet away had just stepped back into her house as the nails slammed into the door frame.

Both parents breathed a sigh of relief just missing criminal charges. The civil liabilities were not all that severe as Bradley was required to replace a door frame. They were equally relieved as this week end their son was finally graduating. Hopefully the boy will be off to college. The problem was he would not be leaving until fall. Clayton battened down everything putting secure locks on every tool and sharp object.

For the most part of the summer Bradley stayed in his room. Due to his appearance no burger joint would hire him. His parents nagged him to clean up his act but they were silently relieved he only left his room to take meals. At least the boy was not doing anymore damage. But what of Bradley what was he up to?

Bradley was into his computer. He had a powerful gaming pc with 16 gigs of ram, a one terabyte hard drive and top of the line video card. The boy being a social outcast longed to be popular so he gravitated toward mud games. Due to his intellect and as evidenced by his mechanical creativity he had a great imagination. He could create characters and visualize scenes even though the games were text only. His problem was most games were of the hack and slash and world of darkness variety. He would spend hours creating a character and step out onto the grid only to discover instant death. He turned to games of the mush variety which required considerable character building. He avoided the ones that forced him to wait days for some administrator to grant approval. The ones he did find quickly dissolved into glorified chat lines rather than creative story telling.

The boy could be anybody he wanted to be and he was always a well endowed hunk. He enjoyed hitting on the girls even though he knew more than half of those girls were really guys. They all ended the same way, whoever he connected with wanted details. That ended his flirtations as he could not reveal his sorry self. The graphical online games were no better. What the boy hoped for was something where he could act out his fantasy without the possibility of people discovering the real Bradley. It appeared hopeless until he saw an add for Dreamscape.

He rapidly connected to the site so he could find out the details of this new world. It began by providing a fly over of the community of Crescent Beach. He saw neat homes of various styles from Victorian to classic log homes. Each were on large lake front lots with private docks. In the center was a large shopping mall with every possible need provided. The school appeared modern with large sports fields. Rows of business establishments lined the central inland streets. A large park occupied the outer edge of the business district. He noticed it bared a certain resemblance to the game the Sims.

Instructions stated the game was free and there were presently four hundred players. New characters would be closed off once they reach seven hundred fifty. Bradley also learned he could create the character of his choice and include minute details with their automatic character builder. The game included the ability to go to work, drive your own vehicle, take public transportation or walk the city streets. You can use the telephone and visit friend’s and neighbor’s homes. The interaction seemed limitless. Bradley was becoming excited and jumped right in.

“Welcome to Dreamscape” The opening screen declared as he hit the enter button. “Please read the rules as you will be responsible for your actions.” As to be expected Bradley scrolled beyond the three page disclaimer to click “I agree.” He missed the part that said the game runs continuously. “You must brake your connection to Dreamscape when not playing. Failure to do so allows other players to interact with your character. When such interactions occur you will be provided a video log of those events. Check your in game mail for notices.” As we have already learned Bradley was prone to jump ahead impulsively. This was no exception.

Bradley eagerly moved to the Character page. The first option requested he type in his character’s first and last name. Bradley thought for a moment trying to think of a strong name. It was never easy for him to select just the right name. He focused for a moment deciding on the name of Taylor Jordan. That was the name of the high school football team captain. He felt good using the name of a idolized local sports hero. Next came a request for him to select height. Bradley chose six foot even, not wanting to over do it. Next came weight. Bradley tipped the scales at two hundred pounds. Resenting his obese frame, he wanted to be skinny so he answered 140 pounds. He had no idea the desired weight for a six foot male was 179 and for a female 156.

Reaching for his sugary drink taking a deep swallow he moved to the next question. Body type select one, Athletic, bulky, skinny, fat, average. He selected athletic to fit his football hero. The screen flashed, “changing weight,” appeared. The weight shifted to 159 pounds. Bradley shook his head, ‘if that is what is required’. The next selection requested hair color, he chose light brown. In regard to length his choice was shoulder. His style became straight. After choosing blue oval eyes he clicked on the next button.

An odd choice appeared requesting he choose an accent. ‘Accent?’ he thinks, ‘they must have a voice feature rather than communicating via text. This will be interesting.’ He thought about it for a minute and chose Canadian. The others did not appeal to him. Rather than offer American it insisted upon regional accents. Too difficult for him to choose. Canadian it was. They were so particular they requested he select an option of vocal pitch, raspy, high pitched and so on. Getting tired and wanting to get through this he hit “average for the body type. Patience was not an attribute associated with Bradley.

Thinking he was done the pressed forward to the next screen. He saw the following request. “You must now upload a photo of yourself no larger than 75kb. “We need to see your face and the style of clothing you normally wear. This will enable us to present a realistic likeness for your online persona.” Bradley recoiled thinking, ‘they want to prevent those freak guys from playing females. That is what this is about’. He stepped back from the computer gazing into the mirror. ‘I can’t send a picture of this blob.’ There were no real pictures of him around anyway. He thought for a bit considering what to do. Bradley selected the option to save and return later. He broke the connection.

He recalled making hundreds of characters in his Sims game. All he needed to do was make an image of a guy with light brown hair. ‘That would work he believed how would they know?’ Bradley fired up his game looking for the right person. He found just what he wanted a set of twins named Taylor and Troy Morgan were college students. They were identical twin brothers with one exception Taylor wanted to be a girl and presented as one. He quickly captured a snapshot of Troy, renamed it Taylor so he could upload it. As he could not have two files with the same name he moved the male Taylor into another folder. Bradley shut down his pc determined to finish his game set up in the morning.

Bradley emerged from his room long enough to eat then retreated to his cave as his mother pressed him to look for a job. Ignoring that problem he fired up Dreamscape to resume. Again the program requested the photo. This time Bradley was ready to upload. He selected the Sims file he captured and began the upload which took but a flash. He marveled at the speed of the connection. A few more disclaimers fired up before the message reported successful character completion. “You now have your character and must proceed to set up.” It also reported that the game is in first person view. “You will see other players as they appear. Your character will appear to you as how you see yourself in real life. To check your appearance you must stand before a mirror or reflective surface.” This was reported in audio by a male voice.

Feeling somewhat excited and a bit impatient to get going Bradley viewed the option. He needed to pick a career. Options were given him as suitable for his character type. He did not like any of the several offered. The game maintained to get a balance for the community they assumed the ability to limit choices to the game’s need. It warned, “we don’t need five hundred lawyers.” Bradley understood that selecting Teacher because he thought that would be easy and he would be in charge of the work area. Once that choice was made the game offered another option. “You can choose not to play in occupation mode. In that way the game clock is set for evenings and weekends only. You don’t have to go to work. But be warned your character is subject to interaction with characters who chose to work. The game will auto respond for you. Points are awarded and your relationship score is reported in box, right side of the screen. This will inform you of the strength of friendships in a numerical score. The higher the number the closer the friend.”

Bradley shrugged at that considering it was similar to the method used in his Sims game. He quickly opted to not participate in the work hours. One reason was you had to spend game money on whatever you wanted and he did not want to waste it on clothes for work. He liked the idea of getting a paycheck without doing anything. Next he had to pick out a house which to his surprise did not cost him anything. He simply had to pick one from those available and within the price range of his occupation. He then found out the cost was actually deducted from his paycheck. Bradley groaned thinking, ‘this is getting too real.’

During the flyover he picked a two bedroom ranch with attached garage on the beach. It had a nice black SUV in the garage and the payments were small. He chose modest furnishing allowing the game to plug in a houseful of furniture. Again suited to his game persona. Bradley thought, ‘will I ever get to start this damn game?’

Dreamscape made another demand. It was bad enough he had to provide an e-mail address they now wanted a physical address. He opted to pass on that as it was optional. The game issued another warning. “With your street address we can send you our special head phone attachment. This option will present you with a the unique ability to feel and smell items in the game. It also eliminates the need to type your statements. When you type your comments the game translates that into speech. With this attachment you simply speak into the unit and your voice comes out in the tenor and accent of your character. You also have the advantage of directing your character’s actions by simply thinking what you want to do. Without it you must type directions such as, pick up cup or stand then walk to door”

Bradley’s eyes widen, ‘this thing is saying that I will actually be using a Canadian accent when speaking to others and there is no need to type. Cool.’ Bradley quickly typed in his home address and was advised he should receive the unit within a few days. He considered he was finished with all the setup and wanted to get into the game. He pressed enter.

The boy found himself standing in a garage looking at his black SUV. He glanced into the side mirror and saw his blue eyes smiling back. Yes it was the styled hair he created and he was wearing the same jeans and sweater the Sims character wore. He walked into the house noting the rather conservative furnishing and was pleased he had a big screen TV. The computer was rather decent but not the killer machine he had in real life. He noted the clock it read, 5pm Friday. Good to its word the game placed him at the weekend. The phone started ringing. His cell was sitting on a coffee table. Bradley noted his friends lists in the right hand box of the screen. There was Dave Blanchard with 25 points. Mark Billings 22 points Erin Gray 14 points. There were thumbnails of each and each were what you would call good looking. He thought ‘I need to get those points for Erin a bit higher.’

He answered the phone, “Taylor,” the voice began, “it’s Dave Blanchard. We talked at lunch today I wanted to know if you would help me with the teacher’s conference next Thursday?” Bradley a bit taken back suddenly remembered about the non work choice. ‘That’s how this guy knows me,’ he considered. Taylor responded typing a one word answer, “sure.” Bradley read his one word answer as it appeared on the screen. He began to regret opting out of playing work scenes. This guy he is talking to knows him but he has no idea of their interactions. He needs to review the file that is to be game mailed to him. Dave with a smile in his voice says, “you are typing right?” Taylor types “yes waiting for the unit.” Dave responded, “That’s why the delay. I hear you fine. Your voice comes across good.” says Dave adding, “do you hear me?” Taylor types “yes.” Dave answers, “it is better when you can hear your own voice.” He continues, “I will be looking forward to seeing you on Monday.” Bradley simply typed as Taylor, “ok Monday.” Bradley thought, ‘it takes too long to respond by typing. I best wait for that unit to arrive before going any further. I am curious to hear my accent.”

Bradley sat Taylor on the sofa while he reviewed the in box. The file stated the date and was titled Today’s Events. He watched as his character sat in a study hall monitoring students. It appeared to be a high school. Taylor walked out into the hall and down to the teacher’s lunch room. There was Erin, Dave and Mark talking with Taylor. They seemed to be enjoying themselves. To save bandwidth the vocal was missing substituted with a transcript readout. Bradley could still not hear Taylor’s voice. The scene ended and there appeared to be no hostility. In fact everyone appeared to like his character. ’That is a start,’ Bradley thought.

Out of curiosity he walked Taylor through the neighborhood meeting several people. A mixture of married couples and singles. He keep Taylor’s words to a minimum because of the annoying typing. Taylor received mostly smiles and nods. More than one invitation was given for cookouts and the like. Upon returning home Bradley noticed everyone he met were added to the box. He observed the points assigned and how the numbers were in single digits. Apparently none of the characters had piqued his persona’s interest. Bradley thought, ’none of them were single women’. He began to examine that relationship box to discover something interesting.

After the phone call from Dave the relationship for Taylor’s part showed Dave had jumped from 25 to 28. ’It appears we are going to be friends.’ Bradley thought. He noticed by clicking the options box he could see how the others viewed him. The numbers surprised Bradley. They read Dave 50, Mark 47 and Erin with the same 14. The single digits Taylor registered toward the neighbors were all in the high twenties in their regard for his character. Bradley thought about that and grew concerned. ’I’d better shut this thing down until the adaptor arrives.’ With that Bradley shut down his machine and began to lay out plans to endear himself to Erin. Now that he has seen her he decided she is beyond cute.

The next morning Bradley received a shock. His mother dragged him out of bed. “Bradley you have to get ready for work. Your father found you a job at his friend’s lumber yard.” Bradley gulped, “What!” “Yes son,” mother explained. “You will be loading building supplies on the delivery trucks. It is a good job and will help pay for college.” Bradley groaned pulling himself out of bed. “When?” “In an hour,” mother answered. Bradley groaned again.

It was three days later when Bradley dragged himself home from another day of drudgery. He had just completed loading a hundred bags of concrete onto pallets to lift on a delivery truck. He cursed his situation not knowing it was to become far worse. He took a shower for the second time this week bitching about having to do that. He gobbled down dinner having discovered the arrival of those head phones. He had to check the game.

He loaded Dreamscape to find it was Saturday morning. It appeared a whole week passed. Unsurprised as he did not opt for the work segment of the game. He checked the player box to discover his score with Dave moved up to 50 while Dave’s view of Taylor was at 90. Erin was reduced to negative numbers. ‘it not going well’ he thought. Bradley suddenly realized he could simply think about doing something and Taylor would respond. Taylor sat drinking a cup of coffee when speech suddenly occurred to Bradley. He spoke out loud saying, “another day what will I do?” The Canadian accent appeared very authentic, soft, warm and sexy. ‘Sexy? What the hell’ Bradley panicked.’ Taylor ran to a mirror, ‘Tits! I got Tits!’ Bradley’s eyes widened, ‘what happened.’ He quickly exited out of game play into setup. He looked into the picture file and realized he sent the wrong twin.

He tried to correct the image and redesign the character. The warning came “all selections final. You must create a new character to effect set up changes.” Bradley signed off and reconnected to the create a character page. The message read “Dreamscape at character limit. No new characters allowed.” He slumped in his chair defeated. ‘I don’t need this.’ Bradley tried to watch television but he could not hold any interest in the offerings. He returned to his room and sat in front of his computer. He shrugged, ‘it is an amazing game. I’ve played female characters before,’ he justified.

Back into the game Taylor answered the ringing door bell. A man handed her a bouquet of flowers. The note read, “thank you for the wonderful evening. Dave xxx.” ‘Oh shit!’ The soft Canadian voice responded though there was a noticeable smile from her lips. Bradley viewed the in box and watched Friday’s Events. He saw a woman wearing a short skirt exposing legs to kill for slide into a sports car. Sitting behind the wheel was Dave wearing a satisfied smile as his gaze was on those legs. They were seen eating at a beach front lounge both of them wearing smiles. Dave’s hand reached across the table to touch hers more than once. This was followed by a few hours of dancing where Dave rested his hand on her hip through most of it. Taylor appeared to not be offended in the least. To make matters worse with the head set he could not only hear their conversations but he could actually feel those fingers as they pressed against the hip. Then there was the good night kiss. Bradley thought he was going to have an orgasm as the temperature rose quite high. Taylor whispered “good night” in an inviting voice nearly melting her player.

With eyes wide Bradley sat there noting the relationship on Taylor’s part shoot over the 90 mark. ‘I am toast’ Bradley thought. ‘This Dave fellow is not going to go away.’ He though about those smells and the sense of touch. They were beyond anything that was technically possible. Then there was the ever continuing story that he could not control. ‘I shut off the damn machine and my character goes out on a date. How in the Hell can I shut that action down. This game has a life of its own.’ Bradley sat there starring at the screen his fear heightened. He could not nuke the character. There was no method that he could find to resign. His concentration was broken as Taylor sat on the porch swing. Mark was standing there with an alluring smile. Taylor glanced down to see she was wearing a short skirt revealing more leg than she wanted to.

Mark greeted her with, “hi I was just walking by and saw you sitting there.” Taylor nodded a, “hello.” ‘God my voice is sexy thought Bradley. May as well play along with him.’ Mark sat next to Taylor. Closer than was comfortable. He touched the nape of her neck. She turned to face him, unsure uncertain and unnerved. “Mark don’t do that.” Mark pulled back surprised, “are you sure? I thought you liked me.” Taylor shifted to her right the few inches the swing would allow. “Not in that way,” she answered. Mark leaned forward slipping his hand onto her left breast squeezing gently. Bradley jumped nearly freaking out. ‘I could feel that. This is too real.’ He hit the power button and sat there starring at the dark screen.

Bradley avoided the game for nearly two weeks. The boy was terrified out of his skin swearing he was not going to go anywhere near it ever again. As these things are prone to do curiosity was killing Bradley, he had to know. With great trepidation he logged on for what he hoped to be the final time.

He saw Erin sitting on the sofa next to Taylor. His view was from Taylor’s eyes providing a partial glimpse of his character’s body. Erin spoke through an instant message. “At last you are here we thought you were seriously hurt.” Surprised Taylor answered “Shaken really shaken.” Bradley of course did not read the logs so he was his clueless self and faked it the best he could. Erin nodded taking her hand whispering, “Dave never left your side.” Taylor smiled as Bradley noted the relationship numbers were at the apex for Dave and Taylor. “What happened?” Taylor asked. “You were nearly raped. Mark had most of your clothes torn off and you were unconscious.” Erin touched Taylor’s cheek, “the cuts are mostly healed. Dave came along catching him beating the shit out of him. Before the cops dragged him off. He is still in Jail. As you know there is no bail for charges of rape. We can’t get enough women to live here as it is. The law strongly protect us. Attempted rape or worse brings the death penalty.” Taylor blinked her surprise. “It is good Dave loves you it makes you safe.” Erin added.

Erin once satisfied that Taylor was ok stood up to leave saying, “Dave should be along soon. He had to take care of some business. I am not sure what. She gazes into Taylor’s eyes looking for something. Uncertain she speaks, “it is hard to tell these things are usually transparent.” Taylor with an odd expression quips, “transparent?” Erin nods, “I can usually tell right away if a man has planted his seed. It is the only way we can get new females to stay here. So many pass through so few stay. Once the seed is planted you are drawn here.” Taylor looks at the woman with a blank expression then nods as if she understood. The girl answers, “no seed.” Erin smiles, “in due time. Wayne and I are expecting which excites me because I so wanted to stay.” Erin stands, “until later” and hugs Taylor.

Shaken from the weirdness Bradley pulls back exits the game and searches for the help file. He reads the disclaimer that warns if female characters become pregnant their players are drawn into the game. The warning strongly suggested that players should not create female characters without considering the risk. He also learned that you cannot play a character of the opposite sex because the required picture contains data which can be read to determine your true sex. Gender will be assigned to your true sex. This is the reason you are not allowed to state sex when your character is created.

Bradley considers that. The twins he created were identical males. He used the same body form for both. He then remembered the program he had downloaded that allowed you to have the game treat your character as either male or female. In that way you could allow your male character to wear female clothing. He quickly checked the characters in the Sims game. The program he downloaded allowed him to check characteristics by a right click. He checked Troy yes he was a male. He checked Taylor it reported male treated as female. Next period starting Thursday, not pregnant, but fertile. ‘Shit’ he thinks I only wanted to soften his appearance.’ That answered the question of why the game assigned female to Taylor. They read the data those words, treat as female, period and fertile. Shit what is this crap about planting seeds and being drawn into the game world? Not possible.’

He clicked back into the grid to see Dave standing before Taylor with an expression of relief. Dave was unbuttoning her blouse and quickly nuzzling her breast with his lips. Taylor stepped back. Dave raised a brow. “Oh you want to fade to black and rejoin after?” Taylor’s eyes widen “I’d rather not do anything right now I am still shaken.” Dave nodded, “not now? All right I will respect that but,” he paused taking her hand placing it against his member. Bradley can feel it he can actually feel the pulsing. Shocked, Bradley recoils but Dave holds Taylor’s hand firm against it. “Please, it will only take a moment.” He was nearly pleading. Taylor unzips Dave’s pants and began to stroke with her fingers. Bradley was in a state of shock as he could feel every pulse. He could feel the tightening and the sudden explosion into his palm shocked him. Dave was smiling as he released. Through Taylor’s eyes Bradley viewed the large deposit in her hands. Dave reached into it with his fingers then traced Taylor’s lips with the residue. The girl seemed to enjoy it. She then cleaned him up using a towel. Bradley sighed with relief it was not something else that the girl used. Dave kissed her with passion which Bradley felt down to his weakening knees.

Once Dave had left Bradley viewed the two weeks of logs to find out Dave and Taylor had sex three times. It was a wild and passionate affair. He could feel the heat and experience the release of pleasure with each scene. With assurances that Dave would not come back this night Bradley left the game grid. He considered there was no way he will return. He did not wish to ever fondle Dave again or suffer his penetrations Bradley considered this world was far too realistic for him.

The news files revealed that Crescent Beach was on a planet colonized by an advanced society in need of raw materials. Due to the dire need and a falling economy there was no trouble finding workers to locate off planet. The problem was getting women to migrate. Few women were willing to exit a life of leisure on the home planet. There were enough prostitutes to satisfy the miners. There were also a few women who married the migrating farmers.

The problem was the lack of professionals. The professional class was relatively soft and had no desire to venture off planet. Since women were allowed few professional positions they targeted new male college graduates. The promise was a beautiful community, a good well paying profession and trophy wives. But where to get the women? The advanced technology allowed for “pulling” people in through their computer connections. Earth was a ripe target because of a large population of people with an entitlement mentality. They expected things given to them without accepting responsibility. The intelligent level was high enough to placate prospective husbands as long as the physical features were rewarding. Dreamscape focused on those who fit the profile.

Dreamscape was developed to allure players. They did not want any males and most were discouraged. They frequently left believing the world was not for them. A few remained but none were “drawn in” As for the women once a member of the professional class planted their seed marriage was automatic and the female became part of the community. They had very little resistance because the women were in love to begin with. They were pampered and were given a regal life. The ability to measure the photographs was infallible. That is until Bradley’s simulation appeared. Those who tried to fake gender were quickly found out and purged.

Bradley was shocked to discover the fine print. He had no desire to become Dave’s trophy wife. The problem he had was ever frequent dreams of the man and passionate feelings impossible for a male to sense. He decided not only to quit the game but to reformat his bloody hard drive. Two hours later with a blank drive and no sign of an operating system Bradley powered off the computer going so far as to unplug the thing. He even took his first shower in two weeks to clean off the dirty feeling he had. He dreamed of his fingers around Dave. That thought drove him out of bed two hours before he had to go to work.

His parents thought the boy was obsessed as he not only could not wait to work he now volunteered for all the overtime he could get. He worked 21 days in a row until his boss ordered him to take the week end off. He was losing weight and gaining muscle. Bradley for the first time in his life began to attract women. In another two weeks he would be leaving for college. A now trim young man who showered every day was an astonishment to his parents. Then it happened. He woke up grabbing his stomach complaining of pains. His mother rushed to his room just in time to see him throwing up. This occurred three days in a row. Finally his parents took him to the doctor.

Dr. Southern rubbed his chin as he addressed Bradley and his parents. “If I did not know better I’d say you were pregnant.” The parents gulped, Bradley nearly panicked. “Pregnant! How? what are you nuts?” The doctor replied you have all the symptoms but obviously that is not possible. It must be some form of virus.” He gave a prescription advising the boy come back in another week.

Bradley did not want to go near that game. His computer was still not restored and it would not be. He was terrified of it. His mother kidded him asking “when he was due.” Clearly he had a small mound in the right spot. He regretted losing the weight because that bulge became obvious. Excitedly he got ready for bed. The good news was he had not had any Dreamscape dreams over the last three weeks. His total hard drive wipe must have worked as there was no sign on life on the machine. He studied the bed and the small red button that would start his new invention. The Ultimate Massager he built into the mattress will provide a soothing massage throughout the night. He was all done with video games. Bradley crawled into bed, rested his head on the pillow and pushed the button.

In the morning Mr. and Mrs. Marcus starred at the hole in the ceiling that extended through the roof. “Mother,” he began, “they claim the force catapulted him three blocks.” As Mrs. Marcus wept her husband was heard saying. “Well you can say the boy was ahead of his time.” Shaking his head, “he should never have used that turbo booster. Come along now we need to go to the service.”

Taylor woke from a restful sleep her hand fondling her husband Dave. She kissed him gently as he rolled over to rub her belly. “No bad dreams last night love?” She, in a half whisper, “I think those silly dreams are gone forever.” Dave smiled, “I can’t imagine my beautiful wife ever looking like a fat slacker boy.” Taylor laughed, “it must be a crazy side effect from my pregnancy.”

On the other side of town Erin sits drinking her coffee talking to her husband. “Hon I know the government is having a terrible time getting women to come to this outpost but don’t you think Dreamscape is a bit too radical?” He kissed her while tracing the woman’s cheek, “don’t you think Bradley is much better off?” She tilts her head to regard him, “I suppose.”