December 31st, 2012
The room was buzzing with excited chatter as the Electronics Fair was starting to fire up. There were many people excited about Apple products, the new Samsung things, everything new and shiny. Behind the curtain on the stage, there was one man pacing back and forth, holding a headset in his hands. He pulled at the bottom of his white pinstriped shirt, smoothing his golden hair back.
"You know, you really don't have to be nervous. All the people you want to impress are willing to lick your boots and feed you caviar from a golden spoon." Another man with messy blond hair pushed back into some sort of loose hairstyle sighed, pulling at his black button-up shirt. Arthur Kirkland of Kirkland Technologies. He had the second biggest buy out on the electronics stock, right after Peiter with Vries Tech. "Mister de Vries, I don't think you'll have any problems this year."
"That's nice of you to say, Mister Kirkland, but your kind attitude and willingness to talk to me won't at all affect my feelings towards you and your company. You tried to sabotage me last year, and you're lucky I didn't press charges."
"I only took out the battery from the tablet you made. You still were this close to beating out Apple. But, then again, you may have another shot at that, too." Arthur sighed, reaching up to clap a hand on the much taller man's shoulder. Peiter de Vries was tall and handsome, thin nose, narrow jaw and a stare that could make the economy straighten up at one glance. With a straight-forward look, Peiter removed Arthur's hand and walked off. "...You know, I was going to offer you a bit of my company if I did well and beat you out, but that looks like it's not going to happen now, asshat!"
"Keep talking, maybe you could come up with a gadget that makes up for all the hot air you burn by talking." Peiter called back, getting ready for his showing of his new gadget.
"Now showing, Vries Tech with CEO Peiter de Vries." Clapping filled the auditorium, and it was Peiter's cue to step on. He wasn't much of a showman, but more of a demonstrator. Waving a bit, he went to center stage and turned on his microphone.
"Good evening, everyone. For years now, we've been interested in virtual reality. The Occulus Rift for games, Google glasses, augmented reality...it's all so close. Virtual reality is the next great step in technology. It would be wonderful to sit down and view games, videos and maps the way they should be. Right in front of you, easy to see. What if there were no more screens, no more staring..." He paused for a moment. He was starting to ramble. "...I could go on and on, but I could just show you." Holding the headset up, he gestured to it. "This is Vries Vision. It's a headset that interacts with the brain and creates a connection with whatever you want to connect to. A software game on your computer, a website with map directions, even the internet in a whole!" Striding across the stage to a comfortable looking chair, the view on the projectors changed. "It's quite easy. I just turn on the headset and adjust the sensors. Once they're calibrated," He paused, easily sliding the headset on so that it wore like a circlet with one sensor that rested right above the spinal cord. "It reads the brain and then-" He paused, closing his eyes just before the computer screens came to life, reading a message on the screen. 'Virtual reality is achieved!'. A quite life-like render of Peiter came walking up on the screen, leaning on the Serif-font letters. "Simple as that. To leave and come back to the waking world, I-" The power flickered, setting the screens to a bright white before they burst, sending sparks all over. In turn, so did the laptop computer Peiter had been using, fried and with a busted screen. Soon after, the headset fried, setting a small fire from the internal battery. Someone rushed up on stage, quickly pulling the headset off of Peiter's head and patted out the flames, trying to get him to wake up. Paramedics came to the scene, ordering the curtains be shut as they tried to do their best to make him wake.
Headlines read 'Horror at Electronics Fair, de Vries Unconcious'. 'de Vries Unconcious—Business Going Downhill?' 'CEO KO'd during Electronics Show'. Then months after 'de Vries still sleeping: Siblings still see hope'.
Three Years Later...
"...Now tell me, how long has it been since your brother had fallen into a coma?" The set of the morning news show wasn't flattering at all to Anri's complexion, and Luca looked just as tired and jet-lagged as she did.
"As I remember, it had been about three years. Three years exactly, really. December thrity-first." Anri nodded, glancing to Luca. He had his hair pushed back somewhat like his brother had used to do.
"In that time, reports had said that you had hospitalized him in America, then opted to move him. Why was that?"
"Well, it started out that we were trying to see if we had a chance of getting him awake. It's not really a coma, you see. Peiter had put himself in a sort of deep sleep and put his waking mind elsewhere. He's still there, but his waking mind isn't. His body still functions, he's still doing what he would normally do, but he's in deep sleep." Luca explained, taking a sip from the coffee the morning show had offered them. Of course, Luca took a cup, and then had it refilled a couple times. "So, we just brought him back home, hired nurses to take care of him and we live as we normally did...somewhat."
"Somewhat?"
"Somewhat. We stop in his room in the mornings, get breakfast for him, head down and get our meals started, head off to work, come home, talk to the nurses to see if there was any problems, check everything over, get dinner for Peiter, then...repeat, give or take a few things." Anri explained, heaving a heavy sigh. "...Occasionally I'll sit and read for him, Luca stops in with his violin occasionally, and other times, I just talk. In fact, the talking bit was actually a thing before this all happened. I used to go into his office and talk to him while he was coding, and he wouldn't listen, but I'd keep going and going and going..."
The interviewer smiled a bit, nodding along. "...Now, I've heard rumors that you thought about having him..." He paused, trying to put the word nicely. "Humanely put to rest." Luca caught on, furrowing his brows at the near insult.
"God no. We wouldn't kill our brother like that, he's still there." Luca gave a bit of a warning growl in his tone, glaring at the man in return. "It's come up in conversation, but Anri and I agreed that we wouldn't do that. If there were the chance of Peiter waking up, we'd be killing that chance of him coming back."
"But he's just sleeping away. He's not doing anything, you two are running Vries Tech an—"
"I'm sorry, but you're being rude." Anri stood up and started to take off the wiring and microphone, holding it up to her mouth. "To ask if I would murder my brother on international television isn't something to ask right now. If I were you, I'd quit my day job." Looking back at the interviewer, Anri huffed. "You should have stopped at that open question." She growled, setting the microphone on the table, took her coffee cup and walked off with Luca following suit.
Getting to the streets outside the studio, Anri hissed loudly. "That's the fourth time someone's asked if we'd euthanize Peiter! If I hear that question again, I swear I'm going to scream!" Anri pulled out her phone, dialing the cab company as fast as she could before the paparazzi came along. "Those reporters are so awful, I hate them all."
"No need to get so spiteful—they're doing their job, and I'm sure that he didn't want to ask that question, either." Luca sighed, pulling out a pack of cigarettes. He had taken up smoking soon after Peiter fell asleep, almost as if he were picking up where he left off. Checking his apple watch, he started going through his emails. "...I got another message from Peiter's business email. God, that thing is so buggy as of late..."
"What does it say?" Anri asked, still on her phone, waiting for the cab to pull up to take them to the airport.
"Just another bunch of garbled mess. The file size is huge, though. It must have took a lot to send this." He mumbled, deleting the message before going back to the other ones. "...Spam, spam, spam...junk mail, spam...Maybe we should go out for Indian tomorrow."
"...I just got an ad for an Indian place on my phone. I was thinking the same thing..." It was odd, but maybe technology was becoming smart in some ways. "We'll go tomorrow, but for tonight, back to the airport and back home...I'm tired from that stupid interview." Anri pulled the headband from her hair, shaking her loose blond curls.
"You'll have time to sleep on the plane, that's for sure. I'd personally like to stay another day in New York, but I'm not sure if I'd go home afterwards." Luca sighed lightly, taking another drag. "...I'd honestly love to travel, but we've got business to do, and I'm not at a spot to take vacations."
Soon enough, the cab came to pick them up, just as the photographers and interview people started picking up. Of course, the windows were tinted so that they couldn't see in, but the thought of snapping pictures and yelling with microphones made the ride longer. "I still can't wait to get home." Anri sighed, looking out at the endless buildings along the streets.
When they got home, everything was the same. The house was clean, the air was fresh, and it was more comforting to be in a place where everything was familiar. Putting her bags on the floor before running upstairs, she panicked a bit until she saw the live-in nurse in the bedroom with Peiter, who was just the same as when she left. "Thank God..."
"What, did you really think that little of me?" Erik chuckled, putting down his book for the time being before getting up. "He's had all his meals since he left, and I've noticed that some of his alpha-waves have been picking up. Not sure if it's good or bad, but it's different."
"Just make sure that you report it to the hospital just in case." Anri huffed lightly, taking her look over the feeding tubes and such. Being vegetative like this meant that he'd have everything through tubes and apparatuses. "Are the backup generators still functioning?"
"Nothing says otherwise. I would have gotten a notification about it if they went offline." Luca shrugged lightly, looking to the old pictures of the three of them. Peiter with his first hand coded motherboard, him at one of the tech museums, holding his first award for coding and such...there was so much that he could do, and all of it was locked away inside that mind of his.
"I'm sorry to bother you though, I need to take my leave and fill out my forms for the month. You two are still alright doing your part, right?" Erik asked, picking up his things—med bag, coat, a couple medication bottles and so on. "But, he's been repositioned, no bed sores, no rashes...everything seems to be good."
"Alright...I'm sure Luca and I could keep taking shifts and make sure that he's alright." Anri nodded along, pulling Erik into a hug. "Thank you so much for all of this...you know if he were awake, he'd be grateful for all you do."
"I know...Don't worry, I know." Erik sighed lightly in return, pulling back. "I've got to go. I'll be alright getting back to town, though. No need to worry about me." He nodded and gave his goodbye, pulling out of the driveway into his vehicle.
While it was just the same as usual between all of them, things were different. While Anri did her jobs around the house, and Luca worked on repairing little things around the house, Peiter would be in his study where all his machines and technology was. He was adamant on keeping his things out of the bedroom, knowing that work would affect his sleep, relationships, social life...and so on.
While Anri did her small little chores, she looked outside. Out here in the open, things weren't as beautiful as she had known them to be. The garden that Peiter used to tend to was lacking in several places. Even Luca couldn't bring himself to weed it. All the lilac bushes and the topiaries were overgrowing the tulips, and the weeds were choking out the more delicate flowers. It was saddening. "...Luca, do you think on a good day, we could try and do the garden some justice?" Anri asked, peeking into the sitting room where Luca usually did his work.
"...Sure. I don't see the point, though. Those Tulips are on their last year. We'd have to buy and replant all of them. And you know how Peiter likes them. Color blocked. Pink, red, yellow...then some red and white pinwheel that he likes." Luca waved his hand absently, rolling his eyes. With his bangs pushed back, he didn't look too bad...although he was borrowing one of Anri's pink clips to hold it back.
"Well, it'd be good for us. A bit of a small...relaxation time. When's the last time that you actually got out there and honest yard work? And calling the gardener doesn't count." Before he could respond, she only grinned and responded. "The next sunny day, we're going out, and we're going to buy all the brightest flowers, and we're going to plant the garden."
"I'm starting to wonder what's gotten you in a good mood recently. It's starting to worry me."
"What, can't I be excited about gardening?" On a rainy day, it was nice being able to anticipate a good day. Even if it would be a couple weeks until the next good gardening day, the duo would do the gardening and yard work justice. After all, the three of them did grow up with parents that could make anything grow. From bonsai trees in old Tupperware, to pineapples that made for wonderful grilled pineapple with ice cream.
Honestly...it made Peiter proud.
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