The Walking Game Chp. I

I stared at the ceiling not wanting to pull myself out of bed. I could hear my mom and dad calling out in unison, telling me it was time to wake up. I sighed and pushed myself up with my arms. I stared out of my window towards the grass in our backyard, and quietly wondered what it must feel like to just run through it. Through the green grass, barefoot, without a care in the world. Legs pumping, sweat pouring down my brow. I sighed and shook my head back into reality. That wasn’t going to be happening anytime soon. I scooted myself closed to the edge of the bed. Grabbing my legs I swung them over until they touched the floor. I couldn’t feel them or the floor, but my eyes told me they were there. Seeing them was the only proof I had that my legs even existed anymore.

I inched myself even closer to the edge of the bed and reached for my chair. My parents always made sure that every night, my chair was only about 5 inches away from my bed. They both knew that I hated being taken care of, it just made me feel like I wasn’t in control of my life. I couldn’t use my legs but that didn’t mean I couldn’t take care of myself. I let them sneak into my room at night though, because pushing my chair closer to my bed made them feel needed. Like, no matter how old I got, them checking in at night gave them an excuse to think that I was still their little girl, but I wasn’t. I wasn’t that little girl who used to wake them up crying because I couldn’t get to the bathroom or kitchen for a glass of milk. I was strong.

I smiled thinking about how hard it must have been to raise me, and how much they must have loved me. I pulled the chair towards me and slowly sat myself down in it. Shuddering as the bars and cold leather touched my skin. It was cold and metallic. The doctors assured me for years that the wheelchair was supposed to give me the feeling of safety and comfort. I always thought everything he said, was just a lame excuse to say that it was the only way I was gonna feel normal. Or that it  was going to be the only way I was in control of my own movements. I guess I just hadn’t reached the point where it felt like any of those things yet. The chair had always felt like just another restriction on my life. Sure I could move, and get around, but even so my motions were limited. I still couldn’t use the stairs like a normal person. I couldn’t make quick split leg-themed decisions like a normal person. I wasn’t normal. I understood that, and I’m okay with that, but it still sucks.

My hands tightened on the wheels as I rolled myself out of my room and towards the kitchen. “I’m coming!” I yelled down the hallway smiling. At least I could yell at my parents like a normal person. When I reached the kitchen I caught my mom and dad kissing. “Mom, Dad I’m in a wheelchair not blind. Please don’t do this over the breakfast food…” They broke apart almost immediately giggling like schoogirls before turning around and smiling at me.

“Good morning honey!!” My mom chimed while running towards me, dropping down to give me a kiss. It was a little sloppy for my taste. Probably because she was still coming down from her makeout session with Dad. Yuck.

“Morning Mom, breakfast smells great!” I smiled and turned towards my father, “Dad.” He saluted me and then ran up and smacked my mothers bottom. My jaw dropped to the floor...What in the hell was going on.

“Richard she isn’t blind remember?” My mom's cheeks were starting to flush red.

“Oh come on honey, she doesn’t mind. Right Aura?” He gave me a little wink and placed his hands on his hips like some arrogant super hero.

“Actually Captain Morgan, I do care and please...please don’t ever wink at me again. Old men winking in just creepy!” He nodded with a look of understanding then said “See honey she’s fine with it” and smacked my moms’ bottom again. Nope, her face was definatelty red now. I pinched my nose and looked up at the ceiling. Not understanding why the universe was punishing me. They put me in this situation and didn’t even give me the decency of having legs to run away from it.

“Actually Aura, there is something that your father wanted to tell you! Isn’t that right Richard!?” I could feel the excitement radiating off of her. I knew something was up, they never acted like this...well not while I was around. It had to be a very special occasion.
 

“Uh, okay….what is it? Did dad get a promotion or something? Or... Oh my God Mom are you pregnant!?” My mother started laughing and shook her head no. It had to be the promotion thing then, Dad had been talking about how over the past few weeks, his boss had taken a particular liking to his ideas.

“Not exactly baby girl, see you know how I work in the virtual reality division of the game company?” There was no way I couldn’t know that. My dad had been talking about his new job for weeks. Every time I asked him to pass the salt or something he would talk about a new level or something he developed or say, “Oh we could have a salt castle level!” My mother usually had to snap him out of it.

“Well anyways my boss has taken a special liking to a game I designed... for people quite like you.” I tilted my head not quite sure what he meant by that.

“And by me do you mean...it’s designed for girls? Oh please Dad tell me you didn’t make a virtual reality game to give girls a fake boyfriend? I told you and mom I would get one when I’m ready!” He put his head down and shook it. My mother gave him a nudge of encouragement. Their excitement seemed to have died down. They looked...serious for some reason.
 

“No Aura, people like you. You know with disabilities.” I nodded, should have seen that one coming. But it wasn’t like people like me couldn’t play regular video games. Why would my father be working on a game just for us when, we weren’t incapable of playing regular ones.

“What makes this one so different? I mean why not just make a regular game?”

He smiled like I was missing out on the biggest joke ever. “Aura, this is a virtual game. Played by placing a helmet over your head. It links with your mind to help create an avatar of yourself inside the game. The cool thing though is that avatar is the utmost perfect version of yourself. Any..." He seemed to struggle finding the right word to say. ..."faults that you have in the real world are gone. Illness, sickness, amputations, paralysis….” He fell off on that last word, as if hinting something to me.

I thought about it for a second until it snapped. A game that creates a perfect version of yourself. Full. Whole. No problems, it all started making sense now. Why it would be designed for people like me, why his boss would start to feel like it was such a  great idea. That’s because it was, it was actually the best idea. I could feel my heart start racing. I needed to know. I had to know if this meant…

“Are you saying that...this game that you're making. Inside of it... I can walk?”

My father and mother beamed at me in excitement. “Yes honey that’s exactly what we’re saying.”

I started crying. I couldn’t believe it, I shook my head and wiped my tears. Normally I would have felt...Wronged that my father had develped a game that made it seem like I needed to be fixed or needed help. But even I wasn't dumb enough to pass up a chance to walk, even if it was for a few seconds or a few hours. I was going to walk and to me that trumped anything else at the moment.

“We need some people to test run it for us only a few, but I figured you might want to do it. So I told you about it first. What do you say?”

What do I say?! Was that even a question? There was no way I could pass this up. My dream of staring out into the backyard and running through the grass? It was about to come true. Even if it was a just a game I was about to be walking. I said the only thing that a sane girl in a wheelchair could say.
 

“Let's roll-out, I'm in!!”