Round 30

Laurent Lapierre

The game began while Sophie was in a different place.

Laurent was there, floating in the dark void like a video game player ready to begin a game. He was wearing jeans, a white t-shirt and to give a strange impression of normalcy, a wallet filled his back pocket. Laurent wasn’t supposed to be playing himself, Sophie was the featured character.

Once the viewers realized it has him, his human form blinked a handful of times as it was replaced with the image of Sophie. In the swap, the image of his daughter was also wearing the same clothes but fitting her smaller body. In her back pocket dangled the scarf she had given Milly earlier.

By now, after 29 games won easily, Sophie’s father was a pro at this interface. He lifted a hand, and the music around him changed. He was in character playing his daughter and Sophie was not into music with a single exception zooming her way at thousands of kilometers a second. Mall-ik was nowhere in sight. Sophie’s favorite song from LO began. It was what the computer had first played during her flight from the Hotel to the Electoral Center. It had connected the girl to the force dormant in her mind.

But today Marilyn would not allow Laurent to play himself, he was to fly in the Dot as Sophie and to simulate how the notes would hit deep inside. He would feel as she does. Sophie, if standing here would feel emotionally fragile, the waves from the system were already making him/her into a creature with raw nerves. Laurent started tearing up the moment he saw his daughter’s hands.

“The Dot,” said the black physicist.

Ahead, floating in dead space, was a dark mirror, its edges, like the ruptures between the Purple and the Cold, shimmered with Purple energy. In the center, in what looked like a kaleidoscope of images, the Dot's reflective visions began to slow down and no longer rotated between the thousands of destinations connected to the Nexus. The Dot was the entryway to a network between worlds of the Multiverse.

“The real Dot is no portal, it is a wound. Nothing shot of a black hole in our world. Yet to the Attractor it can be this,” said Marilyn.

Laurent, playing Sophie, raised his hand again and closed his eyes. The fast flow of worlds inside the portal slowed to a crawl and was quickly replaced with a cascade of images from different places on earth and mars. Images flashed, the father was looking for something. Like one surfs the internet, he moved until he got closer until Laurent saw the inside of the Electoral Center as the game unfolded. Looking at the real world , he saw the Command Room along with his deformed body and moved the view by a simply twist his wrist. Images moved easily; he was surveying the place. The images were now and the real world outside of Marilyn’s control. Sophie was now in her bed, lifeless and flanked by Dr. Shin, who closely monitored the Rho wave monitor. She was a mother to the young woman.

“Forgive me, sweet daughter,” he said out loud looking at her. “You will forgive me if you truly love me as much as I think you do. I can feel this is where I must go.” Laurent touched his digital body as Sophie in the digital world. “You do not care for saving the world, and I agree. I promised myself that, if I was ever given a single moment of true life back, I needed to do one thing.” He raised his hand like a bold wizard ready to control the portal. A woman named Amy Winehouse started singing. The beat was strong, and her voice cut deep.

He then punched control buttons. “Electoral Interface, please state your desire,” said a neutral version of the voice of the digital goddess.

“I need to revert and play as Laurent, not Sophie.”

“Only the Attractor can travel the Dot. Other players like yourself can only travel the Nexus.”

“What does that mean?”

“Decide.”

“I need to be Laurent.” He transformed back to himself.

Back as himself, he waved his hand. The images of earth were gone. “Laurent,” spoke Marilyn.

“I need to travel time.”

“You cannot.”

“Sophie can travel time.”

“Correct. One thing only has the power to see or touch time as it stands well beyond our dimensions. You picked your own body. You were warned as you selected.”

“You owe me. Mall-ik could help but let’s make peace. You are a prisoner of our world, what would you give for one hour in another world?"

There was a long silence as he floated in space. “You do realize every living creature in the Multiverse will see this escapade of yours.” She continued, “No need to answer. Except for two or three humans, your species is so predictable.” Laurent knew what was coming next. He used his forearms to wipe away the tears. “But hear my compromise. You see her at the dance, not your wedding night. This is not negotiable. For the record, I owe you nothing. I am paying forward for what I must do to you in two weeks.”

“Of course, the dance is a wiser choice.” The pair only knew.

“Sorry for back there in the makeup room.”

“Apologies... partly... accepted.” The images in the center of the Dot changed. In the glassy surface, images of a young lady appeared. The seventeen year old was wearing the sweetest sheep costume. Her face’s makeup paired with the cute ears. In the vacuum, Laurent’s outfit also changed; he now wore what appeared to be a hand-made costume of a brown wolf. These were children-made Halloween costumes, there was sweetness and purity in all of it. This was how he was dressed the happiest day of his short life. His eyes teared up as his body floated toward the Dot on his way to the destination. It would soon be plain to all what he planned to do.

“My cardinal.”

***

Laurent was anxious about the Fable Dance in the school’s gymnasium; he now appeared at most sixteen. Like all good mothers, Shanon was dropping her son Laurent in the parking to the Halloween dance hosted by the school seniors. Looking quickly at himself, he was a young teen. For a moment, he allowed himself to love Marilyn because he loved this. Laurent knew one thing, after an hour of this, he was ready to die. This was the happiest night of his short life, the day he would meet the woman who he would marry and give birth to Sophie a decade later.

He could not focus on his mother, today he had just enough emotion for Susan. She awaited. Nervous, the teen slammed the old car door out excited by the event.

“Midnight, young man,” snapped Laurent’s mother from the driver’s seat, “not a moment later. No alcohol, no vaping, no nothing!” He already was terrorized by what would come next. She blew a kiss his way as he pulled down his long snout mask. “Your tail, it’s crooked!” She offered. Benton Harbor was already snowy in late October. “No drugs,” she added loudly enough so others could hear.

“Ma!” replied Laurent's body without his control. Marilyn was helping him manage the transition. Seeing his long lost mother might be too much, and she wasn’t tonight’s focus. Marilyn had to keep some level of control. Laurent tested how much control he had. He ran to the driver’s window, asked her to roll down the window and just added before darting out. “I love you so damn much,” as he kissed her forehead. As any good mother, she never questioned when kindness came her way.

Laurent’s heart was beating at 180 as he walked up the steps of the building, made passing jokes to friends about his costume and stepped onto the dance floor. Under the mask, tears were running wild down his cheek. He was unable to regain his composure. Laurent had a moment of hesitation, he should not be playing recklessly with the past, but this really could not be the past. He reminded himself he was playing a game. Sophie would be disappointed if he did not try to help her, and for once, Laurent was being selfish. He reminded himself Sophie did not care about the game, she wanted him to be happy.

Mall-ik was also probably excited to see him happy.

Laurent wanted this, he did. Sophie had halted the doomsday clock just long enough to give him one last perfect night.

Unknown to him, every human was connected on a deeper level with him. They not only felt the physical reality, but they also shared his emotions. Ahead stood Susan, his Susan, Sophie’s mother. She and she alone had the real power of judgment over him. Sophie did not yet exist in this reality, and in the present-day, Sophie would avoid watching any of this.

It was bliss. The next hour unfolded as could be expected. The sweet young couple met on the dance floor as they used their pairing costumes as the basis for an introduction. Laurent, as he had back in those days, kept his mask as long as he could to preserve his identity secret.

Over the loud music, Laurent offered, “I am the big bad wolf!”

“Susan! My name is Susan Thompson!”

“Laurent Lapierre,” he replied, introducing himself formally. Marilyn, with her power, sped the sweet reunion and moved things along. While Laurent was allowed to savor every second of the pointless teenage discussions, for the viewers, most of it was cut short. Laurent, in heaven, pulsed and radiated happiness, and this energy fed the viewers.

“Laurent,” said the voice of Marilyn to his inner voice, so the young Susan was unable to hear it. “If you do not mind, I will take over the timeline and unfold the conversation as it truly happened back in those days. I know you cannot recall what happened. The words that will come out are actually them as you spoke them were actually uttered. I have recordings from the event to prove their veracity.”

The warning was quite a buzzkill. He wondered what Marilyn meant.

“Pizza?” asked Susan.

“I am hungry,” growled the shy teen playing the wolf.

In a matter of minutes, both kids were sitting at a school lunch table, in the privacy of a room filled with hormone driven kids who could not care about the two of them busy in their own world. He finally removed his mask as he sat down.

“I know you,” she said.

“You do?” answered Laurent. He did not recall any of this as specific. Marilyn wanted to show him something. It came.

“Not really, I saw you in a dream. Funny, I saw myself married, much older. We had a family, a beautiful little girl.” Susan realized how forward this sounded and blushed. “It was just a dream. I saw you though, I promise.”

“I know you, much more than you know.” Laurent did not remember he'd said these words, but they were what he would have said had he been in control. The words were odd, his teenage self would never had uttered them. “We should call her Sophie,” added the young Laurent. He did not recall the encounter down to this level of precision. He never would have suggested the girl’s name, he thought to himself. “She will be critical,” he added. Inside his younger shell, Laurent was overwhelmed. He was overrun with emotions.

“How so?” asked Susan to her future husband.

“We will have the most independent and strong girl. The world needs one.”

“A boxer?”

Laurent chuckled. “Of course not. The type of person that isn't disturbed by anything. I see her fighting the world, politics, and even the universe itself. She will stand there defiant as things fall like dominos around her.” Laurent was shocked as every word came out of his mouth.

“We must be the first people to talk about the future this way on a first date.” Susan had just called the encounter a date. Laurent blushed. “What made you think of that?”

“Not sure,” he lied.

They finished the slice of pizza. Laurent knew Marilyn had a reason for the manipulation. The young girl reached below her shirt and pulled out a piece of jewelry. She opened it. It was a crystal, containing swirling colors. “My father sells these in his store. They are called ‘Attractions.’” Laurent had no recollection of this event.

Laurent touched the necklace, and as he did, Susan’s face drew closer. “Great name, Attraction,” he was incredibly close to her face. “You are my first Attraction.” He found the courage reached out and kissed her gently.

She smiled and counted, “Well, I am not as pure, you are my Sixth Attraction.” They then kissed again, and again, and again.

The camera panned out, giving the sweet young couple some well-needed privacy.

Laurent was Susan’s Sixth Attraction.

There was a long and lucrative commercial break before Emilio was given the stage.

Laurent never had cried as much in his long trauma-filled life. This was strange. Was the Sixth Attraction all a dream, he wondered to himself. Was he stuck in the. Digital world all along? It mattered not.