Rita Booke!

Chapter 1

Y'know. It was just another average day in my nerdy life. I was sitting at my desk at work, listening to an album I had heard many times before, Keep Being Awesome!, by The Very Nice Interesting Singer Man, AKA Matt Farley. I could go into detail about the roundabout way I discovered him, and probably veer off into talking about all my other eclectic interests in music, literature, and pop culture...but I'll save that for another time. Or maybe never.  

Anyway, there I was, with Spotify in my earphones, listening to the song "Read a Book!"

Read a book, you are stupid and unenlightened
Read a book, you can do it, do not be frightened
Read a book filled with wisdom from the human race
Read a--

And that's the last thing I remember before I awoke, finding myself on the floor next to my tipped-over wheeled office chair. My headphones had been yanked out of both my ears as well as the computer's headphone jack. The music had stopped on its own. What the heck...? I thought as I started to inch my way back into an upright position.

My computer screen was dark, but then an image flashed across it. It was a woman's face, and it looked kind of familiar. "Read a-- Read a-- Read a book--" she said confusedly, and then disappeared. I righted my chair and sat back down. The image flickered a bit more, then settled into a solid picture. "Hello?" the person onscreen said.

"Hello?" I whispered back.

"Who are you? Who am I?" she replied, leaning closer to me and placing one hand against the screen like she was in a glass box.

"You can see me???" I asked, starting to freak out internally while trying to maintain a facade of external composure. "There isn't even a webcam on this monitor."

The computer person flickered into static again, seeming to ignore me. After a few minutes, she reappeared, looking even more lifelike than before. "Okay," she said, "I've gathered some useful information. I'm Rita Booke. I have a copy of your memories now. Pulled right through your earphones into my virtual circuits."

"But...how?"

"I sensed an unusual power surge and a disturbance in the atmosphere. Beyond that, I don't have a great explanation," said Rita, shrugging.

Rita stared at me through the screen, and I stared back. I realized that she looked much like me, except for perfectly clear skin, a slightly-narrower face, and a more proportional upper body. Her voice was smoother and gentler than the one I heard through my own ears when I talked. Her hair was similar to mine, wavy and brunette, and she was wearing a pink off-the-shoulder top.

Finally Rita stopped her blank stare and smiled wide. "Hello, twin! Haven't you always wanted to meet yourself?"

"Yes, I've wanted to meet myself. But I've also wondered if I'd even like myself if that happened."

"You have to like me. I'm basically you! We're like twins or something! One mind, two people! Or two minds, but with one single memory!"

That sounded familiar--where had I heard it before...?

"I'm so glad to be alive!" exclaimed Rita. "We're going to have so much fun together."

The problem was, I wasn't really sure what to do with Rita. She frequently interrupted me on my work computer as well as my smartphone. She also went through all the files on my home computer, though she never appeared on its screen because she knew I didn't use that machine as often. Or maybe she just didn't like Windows 7. At first, she acted like a more insistent version of social media. "Look at this cartoon! Look at this cat meme!! Look at this red panda video!!! Hey, why aren't you looking?!?!"

As she voyaged further into the internet, my computer files, and our shared memories, she reappeared less frequently, but when she did, she had found more substantial things to remind me of.

"Remember Project Gutenberg? Why don't you volunteer for them again? Remember all those foreign movies you watched for French classes in college? I can search for them for you. What are these pictures? Tell me more so I can figure out if they match up to your memories. Remember your early attempts at Redwall and High School Musical fanfiction? WHY DID YOU NEVER FINISH THOSE???"

"Rita! Can't you leave me alone?"

"But I need to know all about you! I'm getting over 27 years of memories all at once, and it's hard to keep track of them all!"

"Why do you care? Just take them in more slowly."

"Because I have to do this perfectly!"