Ready Player None

Chapter 15.2 - Raymond "Book Of Dreams"

"Callie, please come down to the living room." My voice echoed in the quiet house, and although there was no response, I knew she heard me. I knew everyone had heard me.

Liz and I agreed that we had to do something. Calliope, the quiet one, was having the most trouble adjusting to life without the OASIS. She had built most of her self-esteem around her popular online avatar, and had withdrawn to heavy-lidded silence once that world was no longer available. It pained us immensely to think of her creative, adventurous mind being locked away permanently. This was parental rescue attempt #1 of who knows how many.

I saw one eye peek around the corner of the hallway. It was puffy and red; she had been crying again. I said, gently, "Come on in, hon. Sit with me. I've got something to show you."

In pajamas, walking slowly towards the couch, our almost-teenage daughter seemed to be about five years old again. I half expected her to be carrying one of her tiny comfort blankets, with the worn corner where her thumb always was, but of course those were packed away in a hope chest upstairs.

She sat close to me, which was a good sign.

"Your mother and I know that this has been tough on you. We probably don't understand exactly how bad things have been without the OASIS, but we definitely know that it was your way of expressing yourself, and learning about the world, and we hate that it's been taken away from you."

She burrowed into my shoulder a little more closely, which was also a good sign. I handed her a fairly heavy package wrapped in a towel, with a small bow made from a ribbon my wife had separated from a dress.

"This is for you," I said.

Callie sniffed. "What is it?", she asked, not very impressed by our impromptu attempt at gift wrapping. She had already started pulling the towel away, so I waited to answer. She held the gift suspiciously, and read the cover. "Foundation?"

I said, "It's a book. We found it up in the attic when we first moved into this home. We had tossed out all of the useless stuff we found up there, but never had the heart to throw away any of the books. I'm certainly glad we didn't."

"What does it do?" Callie asked.

Inwardly smiling, I responded, "Well, it really doesn't do anything. You read it, and there's a story, and sometimes there are a few pictures. But mostly, you use your mind to learn about the world that the author invented. The man who wrote this story was named Isaac Asimov, and he spent his life writing books to explain things and to guess at the way the future might work out."

She flipped through a few of the pages. "Did he guess that the OASIS would go away?", she asked, sounding a bit more interested.

"Well, not exactly. The OASIS didn't exist when he wrote the book. But he did think that someday we'd use computers to do everything for us, and that sometimes it wouldn't work out the way we planned. If you read the stories in the book, you will find out what I mean."

She held the book to one side as she leaned over, and kissed me on the cheek. "Thanks, Dad. I like it."

"When you're done reading your new book, we can look through the ones still in the attic. There are many kinds of books up there, written by different authors." There was actually another one by Dr. Asimov, named 'Nightfall'. Wonderful book, but it hits just a bit too close to home right now. We hid it away with a set of true crime novels in their traditional red and black color scheme. "Some of the parents I spoke with think we could find even more books by exploring some of the Community's uninhabited units, assuming that we could find a few kids who feel adventurous enough to go look for them." I tried to surreptitiously gauge her reaction to that idea, and was rewarded with a visible spark of interest.

She started to bolt away to her room, the book in her arms. "Okay, I'll hurry and read it!" she said, already down the hall.

I called out after her, loud enough so that my wife would know things went well, "You don't have to hurry, sweetie. Enjoy your book. We've got all the time in the world."