Sleeeep, sleepy sleep.

I took my clothes off, fell over my bed, and the lights went out instantly.

Almost the next second, I heard some noise.

“Tock, tock. Tock, tock.”

A woodpecker somewhere, doing her work.

“Tock, tock.”

“Dolores? Dolores? Oh, honey, you are naked? Dolores, honey, there is a young man for you here? Should I tell him you are sleeping?”

“Mmmh?”

Fucking, fuck! I am no longer sleeping!! You wake me up to ask if I am sleeping?

“Let me lead; I'm not sleepy.”

I instantly let White Flower lead. She turned graciously in the bed, covering herself with the blanket.

“Oh, Mrs Robertson? I beg your pardon? Who is here?”

“Gonzo!”

The voice resounded from the living room. I do not think he was answering me; I think he was speaking with Mr Robertson.

“Oh, Gonzo!”

I completely forgot about Gonzo and that he had promised to bring the bike during the week. Fuck I should have called him; I had his number.

White Flower covered herself with a thick cotton bathrobe and went towards the door. I saw Mrs Robertson intended to protest at my too light dress, she took air into her lungs, but before she could say anything, Flo was already outside.

“Hey, Gonzo!”

She said that with a cheerful voice.

“Dolores! Hey lady! You look beautiful today! I brought your bike, but I heard from Robert here that you are looking for a real bike? Why did you not tell me that lady?”

“Ahem, well, I wanted first to gather my finances. Do you have bikes to sell?”

Gather her finances? What is Flo talking about?

“If I have bikes? Gonzo bikes is my company, young lady. If I don't have the bike you are looking for, I can procure it faster than anybody else, or else you get it for free from me!”

The discussion about bikes continued, Mr Robertson was very interested, asking questions, and Gonzo had an answer to everything. He knew his work; it was clear bikes were his passion. Flo was having fun talking with them, the only problem being her too easy manners. She behaved like the fairy she was, not caring if she was revealing too much skin, and at a particular moment, I saw Mrs Robertson alarmed eyes looking at me as Flo had put a leg up on the chair and rested her elbow on the knee. But she was doing everything so naturally that even Mrs Robertson ceased to look funny at me.

After some time, the Robertson retired themselves to Clara's room. I guess they thought Gonzo was courting me and decided to leave us a bit more space. Soon the conversation became quieter as Flo did not have any questions about bikes, but she had other questions:

“There is something that bothers you!”

She was watching him attentively. He raised his eyes and looked back, surprised.

“Well...”

He sighed, then looked back at the carpet as if trying to learn the intricate theme.

Flo grinned:

“It's a girl.”

He raised now his eyes again, watching me alarmed:

“No, no... How do you know?”

“Oh, come on, Gonzo, it is written all over your face. What is the problem? Is she not answering as she should?”

“Answering what?”

“Don't tell me you haven't even talked to her.”

“Oh, yes, I did...”

Flo sighed.

“Sure, you did, but not about what you want to talk about with her. Isn't it? Why?”

“I did not dare. What if she laughs at me? What if she feels upset?”

Flo shrugged.

“What if she expects you to talk and is disappointed that you do not?”

“But she should show me somehow that she would hear me?”

Flo laughed softly.

“What should she show? Do you expect her to blink an eye? What did you expect?”

“No, not that... I don't know...”

“Who is she?”

Why does she ask? I cannot possibly know her except... Oh, fuck me? I was very disappointed when he said:

“Helen. Helen Dostovsky.”

Why was I disappointed? I did not really like him.

“Oh, the gamer girl! Dotty!”

“Dotty?”

“Dotty is her gamer name!”

It was strange to see that she remembered. I forgot Dotty's gamer name, but she remembered. For me, Helen was too shallow. Just a typical brunette with black eyes. Big black eyes. Ubiquitous oval face, a small nose, a bit upturned, chestnut brownish hair cut short.

His eagerness to bring Mike's device back made sense suddenly. He needed a reason to visit the gamers; that's why he took that device from me.

The conversation continued for the next ten minutes about Helen. What do they have to talk about her? I was getting tired and wanted to go back to sleep, but then Flo said that she wanted to send a small present to Helen because she had sent me that email. Oh, this he can do for me. So he promised to buy a bar of chocolate and a flower and bring them to Helen from me.

"Not any flower, a flower that you really find beautiful! OK?"

"Sure, lady!"

He also promised to come tomorrow evening to take me to his offices where I could look for my bike.

Finally, he left, and Flo closed the door behind him.

“Why did you spend so much time talking with him?”

“Why do you sound so... bitter? Oh, you are disappointed that he did not have a crush on you!”

Yeah, she got me. Well, it is my alter ego; she knows me. She continued to hammer hard on me:

“It's because you are so desperate to get the attention that you want any and everyone to look only at you. He likes you, but he was already hooked by Helen. The funny part is that she seems to be totally oblivious to it. The question is, why are you so petty?!”

“Petty me?”

“Yes, you. He is a good guy, and he helped you at the moment when you needed desperately help. Was this not worth anything for you?”

Uh, when she puts it like this, it really pained. Yes, true, it would have been a fantastic night to walk with the broken bike by my side all those kilometres back. Probably I would have left the bike somewhere on the road and walked alone in the dark? Ahm...

“OK, you are right. So you decided to play the coupling agent as a reward?”

“I decided to help him as a reward. You complain that you are lonely; is this how you reward people who help you? Is this what you do for your friends?”

Uh, she was hard on me.

“He is not my friend!”

Oops. I said that aloud. Do I have this AI to tell me... She is not an AI; she is my alter ego.

I sighed.

And she is right.

“Yeah, OK, you are right. Let's go back to sleep now.”

“You got that email from Helen; I want to know what she wrote. She promised to write when they would find a way to get back to the other world!”

I sighed again. The other world...

“If there is something from the game still running, we can try to log in. OK, let's see what Helen did write”

Actually, I was not so sleepy anymore, but I had one of those headaches. I went back to my room and sat at the desk.

I turned the display on, and the pc woke up. The display lighted in a couple of seconds, and I touched the email icon. New mail! Yep!

Dear Zetta, I found at the hammer gang's site the info of a proxy that provides the needed access. The setup info is attached. Be aware that it is not a proxy verified by us! Please use it with care!

I can confirm that the connection through it works. We observed that it bypasses Dreamland's login servers! Warning: do not use the complete logout. If you have already used the complete logout, your character is on Dreamland's servers, and you cannot use it with this setup; you need to start with a new character.

Cheers Dotty

I had the satisfaction of seeing my alter ego confused:

“I am not sure I understand?”

“It means it works. I did not use the complete logout; Cala is still inside the game. Look, Flo, that world is not a real world. It is a world supported by computers. It is a simulation.”

“What is a simulation?”

Sometimes my alter ego seems to understand everything and sometimes asks such stupid questions.

“It is as if you would build up a world using sand that should look like the real world. Now you move your little sand people and put them to fight each other. You can try to simulate a real battle and see what could happen in reality, but you need all those mages that will create and manipulate all those small golems. Does this help make things clearer?”

“So you mean my world is a world of golems, and I am such?”

The best is to be honest with yourself, isn't it?

“Yes, it is a world of golems, but you are part of me; you are no golem.”

“And how do you think I exist?”

She seemed confused.

“I created you when we made that spell inside the game. When we did that, I created you in reality in my head.”

“Hm. I think that you are completely missing the truth. Why do you tell me this now?”

“You should not be too disappointed when we do not find what we are looking for inside the game. You can think about computers as being the mages who create and maintain all that world made of sand; they maintain those golems in the simulation. If some mages are missing, then parts of the buildings, part of the golems will be missing.”

“OK, I got it, then maybe we'll get the answer to who is right and who is wrong soon. Bring us inside this game world!”