IN THE NEAR FUTURE…

STAGE: Bluebonnet Lake

TIME: 12:15 AM

DATE: Friday, October 7th, 2016

Kieren’s Memory Bank: Accessing Memory… 

Cool October eve air had blown in from across the pines. It was actually beautiful out here. The iridescent full moon illuminated the waterfront in such a way that every ripple twinkled like stardust. The lake itself was a crystal-clear complexation amidst the leftover greenery of the surrounding autumn woods. It was worth coming out here, even if it was a bit cold. A wooden bridge overpass arched over a portion of the water. Across that very bridge was another overpass of a road connecting to the rest of the freeway. Only crickets and the occasional caress of the tall leaves in the breeze were the only ambient sounds, a calming heartbeat crafted by nature itself. Everything was serene, still, and just a little alarming. Did places like this exist? Why was everything so smooth? Well… Not everything…

Bianca and I were drifting inside a canoe on the water. Bianca sat in front of me at the canoe’s backend. I should have known it would end up like this. With few things to look at on the serene lake, I was forced to watch her as she frantically manipulated a book near the canoe's edge. Strategically, she had adjusted the open pages so the moon’s light could fall upon it, making it into her own personal reading lamp during the dark eve. As brilliant as Bianca was, she should have known better than to try reading a book at night. Even with a full moon, it was downright unbelievable. She constantly pushed up her thick-framed glasses while attempting to hold the book at the right angle. As amusing as it was to watch, sadly, it did not work. The book kept shifting due to us moving and rocking on the water. The moonlight was not enough to help her make out the fine characters in the book. And above all else, she could not concentrate over my sarcastic adlibs of disbelief. Exasperated, Bianca sighed, closing the book and putting it away in her backpack. She gave up, something that I did not think she knew how to do. 

The Bianca I had become acquainted with was a tenacious girl. A significant number of months older than me, she still looked younger than me due to our height difference. So… I actually might be overselling the height difference… In truth, she was shorter than me by less than a finger’s length. Which finger, you might ask? Well, between a pinky and a thumb, I do not know which one is longer. Whichever one is, it would be half of the other one. See what I meant about overselling? 

Foolishly, I returned to my phone, squinting at the confusing map on the screen. My glasses hung from my shirt collar, so I could barely see a thing. Call me overprotective. But with the rocking boat, the dark of night, and my natural athleticism, I was not desperate to take my attention away from the lake around me. I was not afraid of the water, but instead, it was the history behind it that made me want to avoid messing with it. Periodically, I glanced up now and then to see if the land around us matched the image on my phone. But like I said, honestly, I could not see a thing. 

“I give up!” I exclaimed. Bianca was puzzled. She did not need to even say a word. Her judgmental stare gave me goosebumps. “Maps,” I was floundering. “Any map–geographic, topographic, or whatever you call it.”

“Those are essentially the same thing,” Bianca corrected.

“Like I said,” my eyes rolled, “whatever you call it.” 

Determined, “lemme see,” Bianca shifted towards me. I flipped my phone around. She leaned in closer. Seeing her struggling to see as well made me feel less useless without my glasses. Even with the moonlight, truly it had to be dark. After barely a couple of squints, she looked to her left and then to her right. Puzzled, I stared at her. She stared at me. “Nope. We’re not there yet,” she simply said. I was a fool to think I would hear something profound come out of her. “Judging from the outline between the grass and water, we’ll be there in about twenty minutes.” I stood corrected. Just how? 

Left amazed, I slunk my phone into my pocket in defeat. All I could say was, “You’re the Know-All for a reason. How did you even conclude that just by looking?” 

“You should pay attention in science class.” 

She was too snide and had to be put in her place. “First off, we haven’t even learned about maps yet. Second, I only pay attention when I care. Except, I don’t care,” I sassed, unclipping my glasses from the collar of my shirt and sliding them on my face. I was done operating at a handicap, for comfort, of course… 

Bianca blinked twice. I knew because I counted. That face she made when processing what I said was parts amusing and, well… Oh, I am not going to say it… 

“You just made an oxymoron,” she pointed at me. 

“You’re an oxymoron,” I retorted. Bianca neither laughed nor responded. Just staring blankly at me, she made me feel so small. React, please! I sighed at my failed attempt at humor – a joke that clearly did not land, no matter how hard I tried. “Relax, it’s just a joke,” I tried to recover what little dignity I had left in the moment.  

“I didn’t get it,” she wounded me more. 

“It’ll sink in,” I said, hoping a miracle would happen. 

“Nothing is going to sink in. I was commenting on your use of an oxymoron in your previous sentence. Then, you responded by saying I am such a literary device....” But suddenly, she stopped talking. Her eyes darted back and forth, possibly processing what I had said. “Oh!” She definitely got it this time around. Laughing, “It’s a pun! You were calling me a moron!” She continued laughing until her eyes watered. Was it pity? Was it just her not getting it? I would have thought her to be teasing me if it was not for the water show I was witnessing. What a weird girl! I just could not understand how anyone could have this strong of a reaction to a pun. But as her laughter turned to snickering, I could not help but laugh too. That is, I laughed until I felt self-conscious that the two of us were laughing alone, at night, on a canoe. What was this Rom-Com scenario? As a result, she, too, became aware. It must have bothered her, too, because she immediately stopped. So did I. Silence ensued yet again. It was preferable. It was not as awkward as me making jokes that…Then the reality of the situation hit me yet again. Even without laughter and engagement, I was still alone, in a canoe under the night sky, with whom I considered an attractive girl whose face was beautifully illuminated under the full moon's light. This type of setting was something ripped straight out of one of those cheesy, young-adult romance novels. Clearly, I was not this type of guy, right? I was not a dude that serenaded women. I never intended to drag Bianca into this scenario or enact this romantic fantasy. I had to think fast.

Without hesitating, when I definitely should have, I reached into my backpack and took out a game card carrier. I really should have slowed down, but I tossed it at her in my haste. “Catch!” Startled, she still managed to catch it. Thank God for her reaction time. I really liked that thing. “Which one should I play?” My even more professional-sounding tone expertly covered up my stammering words. Yeah… My voice did not crack at all. So, I did not fumble while taking out my Odyssey-3DS console. It was a sleek and compact gaming device with two screens, one of which was touch-sensitive. The matte finish gave it a comfortable grip, and the buttons were easy to press. The screens were bright and colorful, perfect for playing games on the go. I loved how I could quickly close it shut and slip it into my pocket, always ready to play wherever I went.

Booting up the system, she looked at me, “Seriously,” disappointedly.

“What? It helps me think. What game should I play?”

Reluctantly, she opened the carrier and skimmed through my ‘modest’ selection. “Umm,” I could tell she was getting dizzy looking through all the game cards. Reasonably, it could be overwhelming to the uninitiated, but this collection resulted from a lot of hard work. It was my baby. “Ghost Pirate seems interesting,” she was unsure of her choice. 

“Poor taste aside, good choice.” 

“How do I make a good choice but still have poor taste!?” 

Bianca laid on her backpack as I took out the Ghost Pirate game card. Immediately, the save point from my last gameplay popped up on the upper display monitor. A ghostly pirate, surrounded by a green aura, stood behind the backdrop of the dimly lit woods–eerily not too dissimilar from our current setting. Call it attention to detail on the developer’s part, I guess–it was a frightening observation. However, I quickly shrugged it off as an errant thought. Although… And this might have been the situation and anxiety talking… The pirate stared at me, almost like he was staring past the screen and at the actual player, at me. 

The ghostly pirate’s dialogue appeared at the bottom monitor display. “Ye do nah belong here! Th’ poor soul who trespasses onto me territory ‘n ain’t worthy shall pay th’ ultimate price! A price paid by th’ tip o’ me cutlass!” Huh? That was oddly specific. I never noticed how immersive this game was. Or maybe it was just my overactive mind playing with me. 

Just as I was about to delve further into my gameplay... 

“Freeman... Freeman...” A creepy voice called out to me. It was feminine, a whisper that cut through me to my very core. 

“We’re not doing that again,” I reacted poorly, without looking up from my game.

“Doing what again?” Bianca stared at me in confusion. But she knew what she did. I had little patience for such childish antics. And frankly, I refused to be scared by her…again…on the same night.

“Freeman...” The voice called out. “Freeman...”

“That,” I said, looking up at her, “saying my name in that creepy whisper.”

Bianca sat up, “As I said before, nobody said your....” Suddenly, she stopped. Talking no longer mattered to her as a green glow illuminated her face, the source of which was directly behind me. She was staring, so I turned around to see. Just before us, the water was glowing in an awful bright green. There was no way that was a natural thing. Something strange was making its way to the top. An object covered by a green aura slowly rose from the water, hovering closely on the surface.

“Freeman...” The voice was getting louder. “Freeman...” The whisper of my name became more repetitive as the object’s aura faded. With the lights dulling, I recognized the object as a green crystal. I stood up, mesmerized by it. Gawking at it, I did not know what to make of it. I only knew that this was not my first time seeing such a thing. It looked exactly like the crystals illustrated in Dad’s journal. We came here to see the crystal, except this part was obviously unexpected. Without warning, the green crystal launched itself at me and phased into my chest, disappearing and knocking me back into the canoe. A hard hit, the wind had escaped my lungs, and my consciousness was fading fast. From what I could see before I passed out entirely, it was not alone. Three other crystals, one blue, one red, and one yellow, launched out from where the previous green crystal phased through. After that point, my vision became darker and darker... And my body knew it was time to sleep.