Brad reached for Alice’s hand and pressed a button on his phone and the both of them teleported to the front of virtual Disneyland, a lovingly recreated version of the theme park with several special features. A physical theme park is restricted to the space allotted. The theme park in Anaheim, California had unfortunately proven to be too small, which is why Walt decided to buy more land in Florida to create Disney World. In virtual reality you are not limited by space; virtual Disneyland was a giant amalgamation of all the Disney Parks that existed in the world including Tokyo, Shanghai, Hong Kong, etc. It gave the theme park infinite space and renditions to play with.

VR is also not limited by time, with Brad’s pass he could also select the theme parks at whatever point in time he wanted, this allowed for rides that did not exist anymore to be ridden again, and to relive days you might’ve had as a kid. The most expensive instances of Disney allowed you to essentially eliminate all other guests and have the park all to yourself on a dedicated instance on Disney’s servers. This was the special pass that Brad had. So popular was virtual Disneyland that the company decided to include a special add-on pass with their streaming service and closed several of their physical international parks.

The instance that Alice and Brad entered was completely empty save for the virtual NPC cast members that manned the stalls and mascots. It felt eerie, but exciting at the same time. They walked up to the entrance and passed through to see the iconic face of Mickey Mouse created by flowers.

“Brad?” Alice asked.

“Mhmm?” Brad responded. There was a strange awkwardness between the two.

“Hey, so I appreciate you setting this all up, I’m sorry if I’ve been a little...awkward.”

“Awkward?” Brad replied. He hadn’t sensed anything wrong.

“Yea, so this is actually the first time I’ve been to Disneyland. In real life and virtual reality.”

“Oh, that’s ok, I was nervous the first time I went in real life too.”

“Well, there’s a reason I haven’t gone in all this time. You know that we immigrated to California. I remember when we moved here I always wanted to go, but we were too poor at the time, and my dad promised that he’d take me one day.”

Brad remained silent and was focusing on listening.

“I’ve been waiting ever since. I didn’t tell you this, but my Mom and Dad are both on Mars right now. He moved there for his work a few years back to make more money.”

“I see,” Brad paused and listened to Sonder’s words that Alice still wasn’t aware of.

“Do you remember what year you moved to California?”

“It was 8 years ago, I was ten back then.”

Brad pulled out his phone and began to push some buttons to Alice’s confusion. Suddenly the world around them began to rumble. Massive spaceships from Star Wars land began to fly away, whole buildings and roller coasters started to hover out of the sky and disappear, and the sky took a slight sepia tone.

“I rewound the park back to 8 years ago so that you can experience it as it was when you came here. I’m sorry that your dad couldn’t take you, but would you be ok with me?” Brad asked shyly.

A great big smile slowly planted itself onto Alice’s face.

“Yea, you’ll do,” she laughed, “but can I request one thing, can you put the people back? It feels really weird when it’s just the two of us...and them.”

A Mickey Mouse mascot had been standing behind them the whole time with big, unblinking eyes waving enthusiastically at them.

Brad chuckled, “...sure, but are you ok with waiting in lines?”

“As long as you hold my hand while we wait,” Alice beamed.

Brad blushed slightly and turned away to change the theme park settings on his phone. Suddenly, people began to phase into the space around them and the sound of thousands of people living their individual lives filled the air. The sound of kids screaming in the distance, parents scolding, strollers rolling by, and the cacophony of individual conversations merging into one - they were comforting in a way. You were in public, but you could hide. You were alone, but together. The definition of sonder is “the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own.” Nowhere is that more prevalent than in a crowd like this.

“Brad?” Alice said, holding his hand.

“Mhmm?”

“Thank you.”

“Thank you for saying good morning to me every day at school,” Brad mumbled unconsciously.

“What?” Alice asked.

“I MEAN, ummm, thank you for, hey my favorite ride is the Dumbo one, can we ride that first?”

Alice, confused, but happy in that moment nodded her head and let it go. The two of them proceeded into the park to enjoy each other’s company…

“Sonder,” Brad’s dad said to the AI from his home office.

“Yes, sir?” Sonder’s robotic voice responded.

“I think my son is doing pretty well for himself, no?”

Sonder paused before responding, “he is doing as good as we could expect him, yes.”

“For the rest of the date, just monitor him, don’t answer his questions or give him advice, I’d like to see him grow.”

“Yes, sir.”

Brad and Alice finished getting off the flying Dumbo ride with smiles on their faces.

“Why is that one your favorite?” Alice asked while getting into the churro line.

“Why...um, because it has flying elephants.”

Alice laughed, “dummy.”

“No, it’s because I used to ride it a lot as a kid...I didn’t have too many friends growing up and it, um, kinda felt like all of the elephants were my friends.”

Upon hearing this, Alice held his hand tighter, “well it must be nice to take your girlfriend on the ride now huh?”

This flew over Brad’s head, but he felt like something had happened and he should respond in some way. Usually, Sonder would chime in at moments like these.

“Uhmm...yea,” Brad said awkwardly.

Alice felt a pang of regret for saying that brazenly from his response. Thankfully, they reached the front of the churro line.

“I’ll get it this time,” Alice said. She purchased a virtual churro which also entitled her to a real one she could have delivered to her at a later date. She ended up transferring the churro delivery ticket into Brad’s inventory when he wasn’t looking. She bit the virtual food and marveled at how accurate her taste buds felt in VR.

“Here,” Alice said, holding the freshly bitten churro out with both hands toward Brad.

Brad again expected Sonder to tell him what to do as he wasn’t sure what Alice was doing, but Sonder didn’t say anything.

“Uhm…” Brad proceeded to high five the churro.

“Take a bite silly,” Alice chuckled.

Brad bent down and took a bite. This was his first time sharing food with someone he liked. He wasn’t sure how to act and his mind raced and forgot to chew. He had the food stuck in his mouth, the taste of cinnamon and sugar slowly melting into a syrup in his mouth.

“You don’t like churros?” Alice asked, seeing Brad with the food awkwardly stuck in his mouth.

This brought Brad back to reality, he swallowed hard, almost choking himself on the sweet, sticky mess.

“I’m sorry, I like them.”

“Ok…” Alice said suspiciously, “where to next then?”

The date went on like this for the rest of the morning. Brad continued to be confused at Alice’s social cues while hoping for Sonder to chime in. He started to get frustrated and lost like a part of him was suddenly missing and felt self-conscious. Luckily for him Alice was still having a good time, but she did feel the awkward energy Brad was spreading. She worried if the “girlfriend” comment made him nervous or if that was too fast. The two of them decided to get lunch and Brad excused himself to the bathroom.

“Sonder…?”

No response.