The Game

ThPaul wasn't sure what time it was. The graphics of the computer game he was playing took up the full screen and he hadn't looked around at the clock in hours. Vaguely he had the gnawing feeling that too much time had passed, but he was so intent on the game that it didnt matter to him. He had no intention of taking his mind off the game long enough to find out what time it was, or to even care about the time.

When he had bought it the game seemed standard enough fare, but it turned out to be much more than that. The ins and outs, the complexity, the characters, the action, the graphics and the sound all combined to draw him deeper and deeper into the world of the game. He was hooked. No drug could have ever made him as complete an addict as the game had.

On the table beside him last night's supper continued to spoil. He was oblivious. Dehydration had driven him to drive a straw into a two liter bottle but that was the only concession he had made to nature. Later in the day his mother was sure to find out how he had solved yet another biological necessity and since it did not involve the little room at the end of the hall she was certain to be furious, but Paul couldn't care less. Food, his mother, and biology had nothing to do with the game and so held no interest for him.

The phone rang, but Paul didn't hear it. It sat on the hook beside him buzzing angrily but since it had no part of the game, Paul didn't notice. The buzzing ended, but Paul didn't know it. In its place his mother began to scream at him from the kitchen, but Paul had no idea. For him there was only the world of the game. The real world was more of a hazy memory than a reality.

His mother pounded on the door, saying that a friend was on the line. Paul didn't hear. She jiggled the knob, but the door was stuck again, as it had been so many times before. His mother lacked the strength to open it and his father was away. She banged on the door crying to him to let her in, but Paul did not know she was there. His whole world had become the game. He had no mother or father, no room, there was no door - the real world had ceased to exist. There was only the game.

The day passed into night, not that Paul knew it. The two liter was empty and his "solution" was now overflowing, but he didn't notice. From time to time his mother came again banging on the door pleading with her son to open it, but he never heard. He couldn't hear. There was nothing to hear. His mother only 10 feet away from him on the other side of the door was in a different dimension, a dimension that no longer touched his.

Hours melted into days, but Paul had no conception of the time passage. He no longer even felt a vague disturbance as the real world passed him by. The food beside him was moldy, he had had nothing to drink and his pants had only begun to dry because his kidneys no longer had anything to do. Paul was oblivious, nothing of the real world was real, only the game was real. His universe existed only in the electronic pixels on the screen before him.

More than a week had passed before finally his father came home. His mother's incessant pleas had been long ignored, too long ignored. The door refused to yield to his father strength until a crowbar was employed. Eventually his parents succeeded in bursting through the door. Paul didn't know. Paul would never know. He sat staring at a screen which had been blank for two days with eyes that had been dead for four.