Every morning Joel Hardy was awoken by his alarm at precisely seven thirty-five. He would have a shower in the master bathroom on the third floor of his home. He would then eat a hearty breakfast, (prepared by his beautiful wife Joanne), with his daughter, Jennifer. Then he hopped cheerily into his new Mercedes, and started to work. Joel worked at Virtual Tech. Computers, a new computer company that specialized in virtual reality. Joel was the chief design editor and brought home a handsome one hundred and twenty thousand dollars per ear.
Joel had many friends, both at work and in the community. Joel sounded his horn as he came to a stop in front of Kyle McNeil’s apartment. Joel did this every morning as Kyle was a very close friend of his, and worked in the same company. Kyle however, was not a lucky as Joel, Kyle did not have the three story home that Joel did, nor the outrageous salary, nor the beautiful wife and daughter. He did not have the luck of being at the lab when the reality-cam was finished, the idea that gave Joel his claim to fame. If it ould have been Kyle working that shift maybe things would be different.
Kyle was a loner, and a struggling loner at that. “Good morning Kyle,” said Joel. “G’ mornin’,” mumbled Kyle in a saddened voice. Joel instantly sensed that something was wrong and upon further questioning found that Kyle had lost yet another one of his bimbo type girlfriends. Joel pretended to be sorry for him for a while, then they spoke of work. Kyle never really envied Joel’s success or his life until that day. Kyle was trying one the new reality simulators called “American Dream”, which was a rogram which enabled the user to have an ideal American life.
Kyle experienced things that he had never before experienced; the love of a child, the security of your own home, and the devotion of a loving wife. Kyle eventually became obsessed with the simulator, using it for four and seven hours per day. He began watching happy situation comedies on television instead of violence filled action movies. He was captivated by the idea of having a family, love, and without knowing it, Joel’s life. Kyle never told Joel about his new fixation, nd continued to travel to and from work with him as if nothing had changed.
Sometimes Kyle would stay all night in the simulator, and all of the next day, it was an obsession in the true sense of the word. Kyle didn’t want to live his family life in a fantasy world anymore, he wanted to try and invent or create something that would give him a raise and the money to start building his dream. Joel was working on a new program that would revolutionize the computing industry. He kept it secret, only working on it at home. He didn’t even tell Kyle about it.
But one night, while watching a football game at Joel’s house, he discovered that Joel had left his computer on and unprotected. Kyle sat down just to browse around, but upon finding the new program he saw that this could be the key to his new house. Kyle quickly copied the program onto a disk and took the disk with him. The next day at work Kyle took this disk to one of his superiors and by the end of the day Kyle had a new job, car, and house. All Joel had to say was that he was proud of Kyle, and that it was ironic that they were both working ecretly on the same idea.
They just chuckled and smiled together for a while, then Joel stopped, but Kyle kept on smiling. Kyle’s girlfriends were now substantially more classy, but still none that stayed with him. He wanted a wife. He wanted a partner. He wanted Joanne. That night Kyle invited Joanne somewhere secret and special. A place that would intrigue any bored housewife, a romantic park, in a dark wood. Kyle had a blanket, and on it burning candles, and incense. Joanne, for one short passionate moment fell in love with Kyle. But that was all it took.