Danny

I'm curled up in a ball on the floor, shivering, head against my knees.  I keep shouting for Mom in my head, but I'm still too mixed up to say it out loud. 

I guess I'm in the VR thing now, in the place where the guy named Freddie Mercury lived (copycat, I bet he stole the planet name idea from Bruno Mars).  I know all of this stuff is gonna be fake, and all in my imagination.  But I still don't know what to do except finally look up.

I can't see anything though, and my eyes still hurt really bad from the bright light that flashed in my face. But I'm starting to hear stuff. A lot of stuff, mostly people talking, but I can hear music in there too. The closer I listen, the more I recognize the song. It's that weird German dance thing about ninety-nine red balloons starting a war or something. Not my favorite song- but at least I know it. That makes me feel a little better.

Slowly, the spots start fading away. Now I can see. It's not as dark to me anymore. I'm in a sort of small dim room full of hats, bags, and coats that have tags. Not price tags, though; they've got handwritten names on them instead of numbers. I remember this is virtual reality stuff; I wonder how real everything will seem.

Hey!  Maybe there's a chance I can still get out of here. I'll try sending Mom a text.

So I pull out my cell phone, but before I get to the texting, I turn on the reverse camera, make sure I don't have snow white hair and glowing green eyes.  Don't laugh; if it happened to Danny Phantom when he messed with a weird machine, it could happen to me.

Luckily, my hair is still black, though a little messier-looking, and my eyes are still boring and brown.  Reassured that my molecules have not been rearranged, I clumsily type in, too frightened and tired (why am I so tired now?  That's weird) to punctuate like I should, "Im scared will u pls come 2 get me Im in secret lab wth big metal door HELP"

But when I try to send it, a little dialog box pops up that says "No service."  Even when I search for Wi-Fi connections, there's nothing at all.  That makes no sense.  I'm sitting in a great big computer room but even so there's no Wi-Fi signal.  Angry, I flip my phone closed and stuff it back in my coat pocket (yeah, it's one of those reeeally old flip phones that I have- but I'm the only kid in school who has one, and Lauren says that's actually pretty cool, so I don't mind).

I'm feeling so alone and so scared I almost start crying.  Then I remember what Mom says to do whenever I'm confused or really frightened.  That is, "Say a little prayer, sing a little song.  It won't fix it right away, but it sure does help."

So very softly I mouth, my hands shaking, God, thank You for today, and for all Your goodness and stuff- and, um, I know You're probably kinda busy right now, but if You could please tell Mom where I am, and help me out of here, that would be very nice of You.  Because I don't know how I'm supposed to wake up from this place and I'm actually pretty scared right now.  Thank you.  In Jesus's name, Amen.

Then I start singing the chorus of "When I Was Your Man" because I was just thinking about Bruno Mars, but that song doesn't help at all; it just makes me feel sad, so I sing the first verse of "Count on Me" instead. 

But then suddenly I start singing something else. It's a song Mom used to sing to me when I was little.  She doesn't sing it anymore.  I don't know why.  But it always makes me feel safe for some reason.  I think it's called "Let Us Stay Together as the Years Go By," or something.  I know I'm getting it mixed up with an Al Green song, I don't know the lyrics as well as I used to.  Still, I remember the melody well enough to hum in the places where I can't recall the words.

That's when I hear the door open.  I lift my head and crab-walk further back into the coats.  They feel so real it's insane.  This is way more intense than a plain old Oculus.  I can feel the leather, the silk, the velvet, the whatever else it is they make coats with slide against my face as I move.  But now that I've sung my song and told God what was going on, I feel much better.  Now I'm up for exploring.  After all, this stuff isn't real, nothing can hurt me here, right?

Some attendant who's dressed completely in black and white is pulling a shiny, vinyl jacket off the hanger, leaving the door still open.  Through the opening it looks hazy and crazy- and I can hear even more loud chatter and pulsing music.  When I listen even closer, I realize it's Prince: "-So, to-night I'm gonna party like it's Nine-Teen Nine-ty Nine!"

That's all I need.  I'm checking it out. 

When the attendant isn't looking, I sneak past her and dive into the party.

I immediately hug the wall and just take everything in for a few minutes, staying low so I'm not spotted.  I squint against the smoke all around - people here are actually smoking indoors, I don't think I've ever seen that happen before, in public anyway.  The first thing I notice is how everything is covered in black and white.  Even the people are dressed - those who are dressed, that is - up in it.  There's harlequin diamond patterns and flowers surrounding the pillars everywhere, all the same color, and waiters walking around with tray upon tray of drinks laying flat across their palms decked out the same way.  I even think I saw somebody dressed up like a zebra.  I look down at my own clothes- my red t-shirt under my black winter coat, blue jeans and white sneakers with purple laces.  I shrug.  I won't fit in, but I never do anyway. 

Summoning up all my courage, I very quietly walk toward what looks like a dance floor and slip inside to dance to Prince.  But as soon as I do, the song changes and turns into Pet Shop Boys.  "Opportunities," it sounds like.  I don't like the Pet Shop Boys, but everyone else here I guess does.  They start jumping up and down even more and acting crazy.  The lights change and flash to the music.  I jump up and down too, but I'm not having nearly as much fun as them.  They're laughing like maniacs and kissing and putting their hands all over each other, among other things I don't understand. 

"I've got the brains/ You've got the looks/ Let's make lots of money..."

It's getting hot in here; I try to take off my coat but people keep knocking into me.  A few look down and frown upon seeing me.  Maybe it's because I'm not wearing black and white.  Too bad. 

A couple of people near me -a guy dressed up like a shirtless policeman and a woman with a face made up to look like a lion- start laughing at nothing, and double over because whatever it is, is just that funny.  When they do, I catch a glimpse of two men a little ways off, closer to the middle of the dance floor.  Why they catch my attention, I don't know, but they do.  One of them does, at least.

Both the men are shirtless, and have dark hair and mustaches.  One guy is more obnoxious, sweaty, and rather ugly, getting all up in the other one's face.  He has a bow tie round his neck and ears that stick out, and he's acting like he's had way too much to drink. 

The other guy, though, is the one that really interests me.  He seems much cooler and a little calmer, sort of taking his friend in stride.  Unlike his completely bare-chested friend, he is wearing black and white suspenders, and he's smiling too, kind of; it's the sort of smile that Mom sometimes makes when she's distracted, not really listening.  I wonder what he's thinking about- and then, for some reason, I get this funny urge to push through all these nasty people and go give him a hug. 

His friend leans over to tell him something, and I stand on tiptoes to see how the man reacts.  But before I can, a big blonde lady who looks like Ursula from The Little Mermaid staggers into my view with a full glass in her hand.  She almost falls over.

"Watch out!" someone cries, and I scramble out of her way. 

Luckily someone with a great big toucan-looking mask laughingly helps her before she hits the floor.  She whirls around and yells something at them I don't understand, but she sure thinks it's funny - "Ich bin gefickt!  Ha ha ha!"- and then grabs at her collar and uncovers her big lady parts.  The man laughs some more; I don't know why that's supposed to be funny.  I just think it's freaky, and I cover my eyes and run away.

Mom, please come get me, I want to go home. This is way too creepy.

I can't take any more of this.  I tried going with it, but now I feel sick.  I start looking for the cloakroom again, but that's kind of hard to do when I'm trying to cover my face the whole time.  There's so much bad stuff here, and the smoky air is really starting to bother me.  Then I feel something cold and wet; somebody spilled their drink on my head.  So I pull my coat's hood on- and just in time, too, because now somebody's pouring champagne all over everybody, including me, as I break into a run.  I can't see where I'm going, and it's so loud I can't even hear myself think.

That's when I run directly into a man in a simple black t-shirt, almost knocking him over.  On instinct I stop and apologize, "'Scuse me."

But the man grabs my arm before I can run away.  He squints down at me and demands in a weird accent, "Who are you?"

I shrug and stammer, "Uh... K-Konnichiwa?"

"There weren't any babies invited," he snarls.  "Who brought you?"

"I'm not a baby!" I protest before I can stop myself.  "I'm nine!"

But the man doesn't answer, instead starts looking around and saying, "All right, who brought the feckin' kid 'ere?"

He acts like he owns this place, I think to myself. Maybe he's the Freddie guy.

But I don't stick around to find out.  He's mean.  So I bolt again, yanking my arm away and brushing against him as I run.  There's a door a few feet off, so I open it, about to dart in, but there's people in there, looks like two guys, holding each other, or it could be two girls dressed up like guys, there's a lot of that switcheroo stuff around here tonight.  Either way, as soon as I see them, I slam the door again and run some more. 

The guy in the black shirt sees me again, and he sneers under his stupid dark brown mustache which doesn't match the blonder hair on his head, but he doesn't come after me.  Instead, he disappears into the crowd of people on the dark dance floor, obviously looking for someone.

I gulp.  Is he going to tell on me?

I start running again, even more scared than before.  I don't want that guy to call the police, I don't mean any harm, even if it's not real I still don't want to get in trouble.  I'm just a kid.  I'm not a baby, but I am a kid.  I just wanna wake up.

MOM, PLEASE COME WAKE ME UP.

At that moment somebody grabs my wrist.  I scream, then look up.  My eyes widen when I see who it is.

Oh, thank you so much, God.  Thank you, thank you, thank you...

Now I know everything's going to be all right.