Unplugged by Donna Freitas

Author:Donna Freitas
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2016-04-12T04:00:00+00:00

18

The real world outside

AT FIRST I was blinded.

The early-morning sun was a fiery round circle edging up along the horizon. My head swam like someone had spun me around, enormous bright spots dancing across my vision. I blinked and blinked, shocked by the brilliance of real sunlight. After a while, the stinging in my eyes lessened and shapes began to form, outlines of objects like silhouettes against a wall. A tree, tall and gnarled and thick, its branches heavy with green and stretching like long black fingers across the sky, and another with pointy oval leaves that fell like tears all the way to the ground.

I put my hand over my chest, trying to quiet my heart. Felt the smooth marble underneath my feet, saw the outline of the vines growing across the esplanade and the start of the grass. Heard the shhhhhhh of the wind across it. The air was cool against my damp clothing, and it brought that tangy smell of salt from the sea. The ocean was close, but I couldn’t see it. My heart pounded harder. The presence of so much reality made it race. The App World sky was beautiful, but knowing it was only virtual, that ultimately it was a projection, diminished the awe I’d had for it.

There came a singing, high and rhythmic. Insistent.

I closed my eyes and listened. Let it fill my ears until it was all I knew. The sound of it seemed to rise, grow bigger, as though it was aware someone had just tuned in. A sense of peace, of hope was carried atop its music as I realized its source.

Crickets.

They sang their last high notes as the night receded completely.

I remembered them from when I was small, how fascinated I was with every little thing that crawled across the earth. My sister had come upon me once, crouched in the grass one early morning like this one, staring at this strange, spindle-legged creature whose song I’d followed until I encountered its ugly brown-black body. She got down next to me, and before I could cry for her to stop, she reached for it—I thought to crush it—but all she did was capture it in her palm so I could get a better look. We watched it, studied its wings, its waving antennae, the way it rubbed its legs together, until it lost patience with us and hopped right from her hand, disappearing back into the grass.

My throat tightened. The crickets seemed to want to remind me of my family, to celebrate the reunion Jude and I would have once I left this place and found her, to tell her and my mother that yes, I was really here. That I’d come for them. I was back, as real as ever, and I’d never forgotten them, just as I’d promised.

The singing stopped abruptly.

The sun inched higher. The Keeper would be up soon. If I was to leave, I’d have to do it now, before she discovered that I was gone and I’d taken her key.

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