Two-Sided Coin

"Excuse me," I said to the student worker in the college's post office. "I got a notice in my box that there's a package for me, is that right?"
"What's your box number?" she asked, fishing a clipboard out of the papers on her desk.
"Box 3977."
"Okay. Sign that while I get it for you, all right? God, it's huge—d'you need somebody to help you with that?"
"I can probably manage. Oh, great!" I exclaimed, catching sight of the label. "I thought it got lost in the mail, or stolen."
"What is it?" the student worker asked. "Hang on; I'm gonna have to take it around to the main door. It won't fit through the window."
"I got incredibly lucky and won this stuff," I said, "It's supposed to be some kind of virtual reality equipment for Internet games. It's probably really primitive to be a contest prize, but it comes with a total of 100 free hours on any of the company's VR games."
"What happens after 100 hours?"
"Then I have to subscribe to anything I want to keep playing. Oh, that's not too heavy, I can definitely handle that. Thanks!"
The box wasn't heavy, but it was a really awkward size, and I had a mini-adventure getting it across campus and into my dorm. Fortunately, as a senior I've learned the magic of pulling handles and turning knobs without using my hands. Eventually, I got the fool thing up to the third floor of the girl's dormitory and into my room.
'I hope this stuff is compatible with my machine,' I thought as I cut the box open and began to unpack. 'Headset, things like weird boots; what the heck are these?' I referred to the manual. 'Oh, I see. Those clip things go on the fingers and the oval thing goes around the hand...'
I skimmed through the manual while absently arranging the parts of the system on my desk. Apart from the usual assembly and accessing instructions there wasn't much to it, though it did include some safety tips on how not to run into furniture while playing the games. I began to set up the system—headset in the monitor, microphone, and speaker ports, hands, torso, and feet connected through one line into the mouse port—when I noticed the other piece of hardware. A bit larger than a cell phone, it had a small screen and several buttons; altogether, it looked like a hand- held video game.
I didn't remember unpacking that. Maybe it was just stuck to the back of one of the boots. I picked it up and tapped a few buttons, but nothing happened. Turning it over, I searched for a place to install batteries, but the thing was seamless apart from one deep groove that reminded me of a credit card scanner. Well, whatever it was, it didn't work. I set it down, switched on the computer and began to strap myself into the VR system. The desktop that normally would appear on the monitor flashed on the visor over my eyes. With my right hand I moved the mouse pointer to the Internet icon and selected it with a button on my palm. In that instant, the game-like device on my desk activated. I glanced under the edge of the headset's eyepiece and picked up the little beeping machine. There was a tremendous flash of white light, and when my vision cleared I could no longer see my dorm or any of the VR equipment except for the little game. Instead, I sat on a solitary stone, surrounded by a field of tall grass and, in the distance, a thick forest.
How weird. How incredibly real. A breeze rustled through the plants around me, and not only could I hear it, but I could feel it, cool against my face, carrying with it the scent of flowers and distant pines. I ran my hand over the surface of the granite boulder upon which I sat, startled at the rough, chilly texture. But—hadn't I been sitting on a plain wooden chair? What kind of technology could affect my sense of touch?
"Hi!" squeaked a cheerful little voice.
"Um...hello?" I said, hesitantly scanning the area for a sight of the speaker.
"Down here," the amused voice came from beside my left foot. I looked down and saw a brown- and cream-colored creature, almost hidden in the grass. It was about the size of a Pekingese, and at first I thought it was some kind of dog. Then it jumped up onto the stone, and I saw with surprise that it had ears shaped like little wings.
"What are you?" I blurted. For an instant I regretted my lack of tact, but then I figured that a creature in a computer game, however advanced that game might be, probably wouldn't take offense.
The creature answered cheerily, "I'm a digimon. You can call me Patamon. Would you like to be my tamer?"
"You look pretty damn tame to me already," I replied, wondering what the weird little thing was talking about. "What d'you mean, 'tamer,' anyway?"
"A partner," Patamon explained, looking surprised by the question. "I protect you and you help me get stronger."
'Oh, so it's that kind of game,' I thought. 'You start out with a weak little creature that fights on your behalf and gets stronger as you progress.'
"Okay, why not," I said aloud. The screen on the game device flashed, then a picture of Patamon appeared, followed by some brief information about it.
"Yay!" Patamon squealed, flapping its ears—or wings, I wasn't sure which. I couldn't help smiling.
"My name's Elizabeth. So, how do we start?" I asked, rising. Then I caught sight of my wristwatch. "Oh, no. I've got to cut this short; it's almost time for choir."
Patamon's batwing-ears drooped. "You have to leave already? Will you come back soon?"
"Probably tomorrow," I said. "My last class ends at noon on Wednesdays, so I should have more time." As I glanced around, wondering how to exit the program, I found a computer monitor sitting in the grass behind me, its screen tilted upward and facing the stone. "I guess this is the way out," I said, leaning forward to touch it.
"Bye," Patamon called sadly. As my fingers met the screen, I was again blinded by a burst of light. Then I found myself sitting at my desk once more, again wearing the VR equipment and still clutching the now-active device.
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I thought about that strange game through the evening and all the next morning. Though I scoured the manufacturer's list, none of the games described seemed to match the one I'd found. Before I tried it again, I decided to make a trip to the nearest mall and look for more information about it.
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