"Thanks for dinner mom."
"Yeah, your welcome. Tomorrow YOU cook, got it?"
"Well, you don't have to worry about me wasting my time on the computer do you?"
"No, and I don't have to worry about my latest story either, do I? Because from the looks of that machine, it's long gone."
"Sorry mom. Really. I love your stories, when they don't get too weird. I wouldn't trash them on purpose."
"I know, I think I will go back to the old fashioned way, writing on paper with a pencil."
"You still keep your journal don't you?"
"Not that it's any of your business, but yes, I do. And I had the good sense to print out most of my stories before you trashed yet another computer. What do you do to them anyway?"
"Mom, I have no idea." She patted the five diskettes she had in her back pocket. They were a little uncomfortable and she wanted to put them away in her room before her mom asked her about them. "I guess I'll go do some boring homework now."
"Praise be! You actually do homework?"
"Cute mom, you are just too cute."
"Why thank you darling, I always said you got your good looks from me."
Quietly she slipped down the hallway glancing at the computer that still had some smoke lingering out of it. Opening her door she looked back to see if her mom was watching her. She tripped and fell flat on her face.
"What happened?"
"Nothing mom, you know how graceful I am."
She stood up, looked to see what she had tripped over and then screamed.
"What is it?" Her mom raced down to her room and looked around. She saw people lying on the floor. "Holy shit!"
"Mom, I swear, I have no idea." Her eyes were wide and her face pale as a ghost. Terrified as she was, though, she was also fascinated by the beings on her floor. She began to bend down to look at the blonde one.
"Okay, Jess, let's get out of here, quickly and quietly, and call the police."
"No mom, wait, look at them. We can't call the police. I think I know who they are."
She grabbed JessiLee's arm and dragged her out of the room past the bodies on the floor and into the hallway. She shut the door. "What are you talking about?" She whispered harshly.
"Mom, who do they look like?"
"Hell if I know! Do you know them?"
"I think they are from the Lord of the Rings."
"Okay Jess, you have completely lost it. The Lord of the Rings is a book, not a reality. You need help and we need to get out of here, now." She dragged her down the hall and to the front door.
"Mom, wait, just listen to me. I can't explain it, but do you trust me?"
"What?" She stopped short of leaving the apartment.
"Do you trust me? C'mon mom, we are pretty close and always have been. You need to trust me on this. I've been on to something sort of weird."
"On something? Like drugs?"
"No mom, on TO something. It's nearly impossible to explain if you don't understand it and even when you kind of have an inkling about it, it doesn't make sense, but I really do think I know what happened, I just don't know how to 'un-happen' it."
"Are we in danger?"
"No mom, well maybe, but not from them in there."
"Okay, I am going to trust you. Who are they?"
"I think, but am not sure, but I think they are Legolas and Gandalf."
"Okay, I'll go with your idea here, why would Legolas and Gandalf be in your bedroom?"
"I downloaded them."
"Jess, you lost me. Are these some friends of yours from school dressed up for a play or something? Are you messing with me again? You know I love your practical jokes but I think you might have crossed a line here."
"Mom, please, I know it makes no sense, but they are the 'real' Legolas and Gandalf from the Lord of the Rings book. I was trying to download character information when the computer blew up. Mom, where are all our books?"
"What?"
"Our books, what happened to all our books?"
"As far as I know they were stolen when our apartment was burglarized."
"Ok, but why didn't they take anything else, like our TV or something?"
"We have been through this before. When the library was bombed, books suddenly became a hot commodity."
"Why was the library bombed?"
"JessiLee. Quit asking me questions to lead me to your point. You know I hate that game. Tell me what you think happened."
"I will mom, but keep an open mind."
*******************************************************************
Gandalf stood over Legolas staring at him, willing him to wake up.
His eyes fluttered open and focused on Gandalf first, and then the ceiling fan. He leapt up and looked around like a cornered fox.
"Legolas, calm down."
"Where are we Gandalf?"
"I am not sure, but we aren't in Middle-Earth anymore, that I do know."
Legolas nimbly jumped onto the bed and bounced a little. "Strange."
"Yes, there seem to be many strange things in this place. Look here." He led Legolas to the window.
Legolas looked out and then backed up quickly as if he thought he might fall. He fell backwards over a big stuffed donkey. Picking himself up acting as if nothing had happened his eyes darted around the room again.
"Calm down Legolas. I am here with you. We will resolve this strange situation and return to Middle Earth. I have been in worse places than this."
Legolas picked up the stuffed donkey and looked at its big sad eyes. "What have they done to this creature?"
Gandalf took the donkey from Legolas who looked as if he might just cry. "It is not real." He said reassuringly and patted Legolas on the shoulder. "Come, if we are to find out what is on the other side of this door, we must open it."
"Gandalf, I will follow you, but is that wise? It could be great evil there. I do not feel good about any of this."
"Nor do I Legolas, but right now it appears that only you and I are here, and we need to find out where 'here' is so we can return to where we belong." Gandalf carefully approached the door waving his staff in front of it and mumbling some incomprehensible words. Nothing happened. He took the knob in his hand and turned it ever so slowly and opened the door.
*****************************************************************
She studied her little girl. Keep an open mind. Okay, that seemed like a reasonable request in most circumstances, but this child had two full grown men in her bedroom and she had no plausible explanation for why.
Still, she had always been a good girl. Honest, forthright, gentle, kind and fun loving. How she had turned out to be such a decent human being was beyond her. Her upbringing was, to put it lightly, screwed up. Hell, look up the word dysfunctional in the dictionary and a picture of the three of them would likely be the best definition. Then again, Jess had been acting really strange lately, stranger than usual, but she had chalked it up to her being a creative person, not having lost it, but now, well, she should at least hear her out.
"Jess, I will keep an open mind, I will trust you on this, but you better be honest with me here okay, because I am really worried about you and this whole situation." Her voice gave away the uncertainty she felt. Scared was an understatement. Maybe she had not turned out so well as she believed, maybe the girl had gone over the edge.
"Mom, we live a world that is maybe not what we think it is, well, no, it is only what we think it is, oh geez, how do I explain this. I believe that this is all kind of like a dream and we are not really here, or maybe we are here but not like we think we are."
"Jess, honey, I love you, and I am scared for you right now." Once again her voice trembled slightly and her eyes misted.
"Mom, you said you would keep an open mind. I do not know how to help you understand this. Let's see. Okay. I will start with a secret." She took a deep breath and continued. "I have an alternate personality."
"Okay that's it! We are out of here."
"No, mom, listen, not a real personality, a cyber one."
"Jess, please."
"Okay, just let me finish. Don't interrupt no matter how weird it all sounds. I have a login right? My name is EloopE. You gave me that name. Well there is a whole world of people out there in the computer land and they gave me a different name. I go by that name sometimes. And they are different, not like us, not unlike us either." She stopped and stared at her fingers for a few minutes while taking a deep breath. Her mom sat watching her obviously confused and concerned.
"I think the world we live in is maybe like a virtual world, like a dream world, but I don't really understand it. It definitely has something to do with computers but whenever I feel like I might be getting my mind wrapped around it, I get zapped. But, okay, I think that since all reality is only what we believe it is, and I have spent so much time thinking about, putting my mind on, however you want to say it, the Lord of the Rings and the characters there, they have become 'real' to me and therefore my mind made them real. I think that's why the books are disappearing and the libraries are being bombed. Too many people are letting the their minds make things real and, oh, I don't know, just maybe whatever is out there doesn't like it."
"JessiLee, that is the scariest thing I have ever heard."
"I know mom, I'm scared too, but I think I 'thought' Legolas and Gandalf into our reality, or maybe I downloaded them into our world, and I don't know what else I may have done, but the idea scares me."
"What else did you download?" Her voice betrayed her fear and concern for her daughter's safety and sanity.
"Well, the biggest problem I see is possibly," she paused nervously, "Sauron."
"Oh shit."
"Yeah, that's kind of what I was thinking too."
"So if I am to believe this, which I don't think I can, because I don't understand it, you are suggesting that we are not 'real' in a physical sense, only in our minds. Which I don't quite get, because then how would we know each other? But okay, I will stay with your theory that all this is in 'someone's' control though we don't know who that 'someone' is and that 'someone' is losing control because we are thinking too much and letting our creativity and imaginations carry us away?"
"Right."
"Okay, so to continue with this interesting theory of yours, you made some of the Lord of the Rings characters 'real' by bringing them into our world through the computer?"
"Something like that mom, really, I don't understand HOW it happened only that somehow it's all connected."
"And then you tell me, oh by the way mom, if my theory is correct, we are in deep kimshee because I happened to decide to download the most evil being on middle-earth, Sauron."
"Yeah, kind of like that mom, but be glad I didn't download Melkor."
"Oh yes, so thankful am I for that!" she added sarcastically "And now I am expected to deal with the fact that my world is not real, my daughter is making her fantasy characters into reality in my not real world and Sauron is out there somewhere, while Legolas and Gandalf are sleeping in her bedroom."
"Kind of crazy huh? But it works."
They both turned and looked toward her room. There was suddenly a loud crashing sound in there. Jess started to see what happened but her mom grabbed her arm and kept her back. "We are here, by the door, so we can escape quickly if we need to. Let's just wait and see for a minute. If any of your wild theory is true, we will know soon enough, if it is not, then we can get out fast."
"Yeah, your welcome. Tomorrow YOU cook, got it?"
"Well, you don't have to worry about me wasting my time on the computer do you?"
"No, and I don't have to worry about my latest story either, do I? Because from the looks of that machine, it's long gone."
"Sorry mom. Really. I love your stories, when they don't get too weird. I wouldn't trash them on purpose."
"I know, I think I will go back to the old fashioned way, writing on paper with a pencil."
"You still keep your journal don't you?"
"Not that it's any of your business, but yes, I do. And I had the good sense to print out most of my stories before you trashed yet another computer. What do you do to them anyway?"
"Mom, I have no idea." She patted the five diskettes she had in her back pocket. They were a little uncomfortable and she wanted to put them away in her room before her mom asked her about them. "I guess I'll go do some boring homework now."
"Praise be! You actually do homework?"
"Cute mom, you are just too cute."
"Why thank you darling, I always said you got your good looks from me."
Quietly she slipped down the hallway glancing at the computer that still had some smoke lingering out of it. Opening her door she looked back to see if her mom was watching her. She tripped and fell flat on her face.
"What happened?"
"Nothing mom, you know how graceful I am."
She stood up, looked to see what she had tripped over and then screamed.
"What is it?" Her mom raced down to her room and looked around. She saw people lying on the floor. "Holy shit!"
"Mom, I swear, I have no idea." Her eyes were wide and her face pale as a ghost. Terrified as she was, though, she was also fascinated by the beings on her floor. She began to bend down to look at the blonde one.
"Okay, Jess, let's get out of here, quickly and quietly, and call the police."
"No mom, wait, look at them. We can't call the police. I think I know who they are."
She grabbed JessiLee's arm and dragged her out of the room past the bodies on the floor and into the hallway. She shut the door. "What are you talking about?" She whispered harshly.
"Mom, who do they look like?"
"Hell if I know! Do you know them?"
"I think they are from the Lord of the Rings."
"Okay Jess, you have completely lost it. The Lord of the Rings is a book, not a reality. You need help and we need to get out of here, now." She dragged her down the hall and to the front door.
"Mom, wait, just listen to me. I can't explain it, but do you trust me?"
"What?" She stopped short of leaving the apartment.
"Do you trust me? C'mon mom, we are pretty close and always have been. You need to trust me on this. I've been on to something sort of weird."
"On something? Like drugs?"
"No mom, on TO something. It's nearly impossible to explain if you don't understand it and even when you kind of have an inkling about it, it doesn't make sense, but I really do think I know what happened, I just don't know how to 'un-happen' it."
"Are we in danger?"
"No mom, well maybe, but not from them in there."
"Okay, I am going to trust you. Who are they?"
"I think, but am not sure, but I think they are Legolas and Gandalf."
"Okay, I'll go with your idea here, why would Legolas and Gandalf be in your bedroom?"
"I downloaded them."
"Jess, you lost me. Are these some friends of yours from school dressed up for a play or something? Are you messing with me again? You know I love your practical jokes but I think you might have crossed a line here."
"Mom, please, I know it makes no sense, but they are the 'real' Legolas and Gandalf from the Lord of the Rings book. I was trying to download character information when the computer blew up. Mom, where are all our books?"
"What?"
"Our books, what happened to all our books?"
"As far as I know they were stolen when our apartment was burglarized."
"Ok, but why didn't they take anything else, like our TV or something?"
"We have been through this before. When the library was bombed, books suddenly became a hot commodity."
"Why was the library bombed?"
"JessiLee. Quit asking me questions to lead me to your point. You know I hate that game. Tell me what you think happened."
"I will mom, but keep an open mind."
*******************************************************************
Gandalf stood over Legolas staring at him, willing him to wake up.
His eyes fluttered open and focused on Gandalf first, and then the ceiling fan. He leapt up and looked around like a cornered fox.
"Legolas, calm down."
"Where are we Gandalf?"
"I am not sure, but we aren't in Middle-Earth anymore, that I do know."
Legolas nimbly jumped onto the bed and bounced a little. "Strange."
"Yes, there seem to be many strange things in this place. Look here." He led Legolas to the window.
Legolas looked out and then backed up quickly as if he thought he might fall. He fell backwards over a big stuffed donkey. Picking himself up acting as if nothing had happened his eyes darted around the room again.
"Calm down Legolas. I am here with you. We will resolve this strange situation and return to Middle Earth. I have been in worse places than this."
Legolas picked up the stuffed donkey and looked at its big sad eyes. "What have they done to this creature?"
Gandalf took the donkey from Legolas who looked as if he might just cry. "It is not real." He said reassuringly and patted Legolas on the shoulder. "Come, if we are to find out what is on the other side of this door, we must open it."
"Gandalf, I will follow you, but is that wise? It could be great evil there. I do not feel good about any of this."
"Nor do I Legolas, but right now it appears that only you and I are here, and we need to find out where 'here' is so we can return to where we belong." Gandalf carefully approached the door waving his staff in front of it and mumbling some incomprehensible words. Nothing happened. He took the knob in his hand and turned it ever so slowly and opened the door.
*****************************************************************
She studied her little girl. Keep an open mind. Okay, that seemed like a reasonable request in most circumstances, but this child had two full grown men in her bedroom and she had no plausible explanation for why.
Still, she had always been a good girl. Honest, forthright, gentle, kind and fun loving. How she had turned out to be such a decent human being was beyond her. Her upbringing was, to put it lightly, screwed up. Hell, look up the word dysfunctional in the dictionary and a picture of the three of them would likely be the best definition. Then again, Jess had been acting really strange lately, stranger than usual, but she had chalked it up to her being a creative person, not having lost it, but now, well, she should at least hear her out.
"Jess, I will keep an open mind, I will trust you on this, but you better be honest with me here okay, because I am really worried about you and this whole situation." Her voice gave away the uncertainty she felt. Scared was an understatement. Maybe she had not turned out so well as she believed, maybe the girl had gone over the edge.
"Mom, we live a world that is maybe not what we think it is, well, no, it is only what we think it is, oh geez, how do I explain this. I believe that this is all kind of like a dream and we are not really here, or maybe we are here but not like we think we are."
"Jess, honey, I love you, and I am scared for you right now." Once again her voice trembled slightly and her eyes misted.
"Mom, you said you would keep an open mind. I do not know how to help you understand this. Let's see. Okay. I will start with a secret." She took a deep breath and continued. "I have an alternate personality."
"Okay that's it! We are out of here."
"No, mom, listen, not a real personality, a cyber one."
"Jess, please."
"Okay, just let me finish. Don't interrupt no matter how weird it all sounds. I have a login right? My name is EloopE. You gave me that name. Well there is a whole world of people out there in the computer land and they gave me a different name. I go by that name sometimes. And they are different, not like us, not unlike us either." She stopped and stared at her fingers for a few minutes while taking a deep breath. Her mom sat watching her obviously confused and concerned.
"I think the world we live in is maybe like a virtual world, like a dream world, but I don't really understand it. It definitely has something to do with computers but whenever I feel like I might be getting my mind wrapped around it, I get zapped. But, okay, I think that since all reality is only what we believe it is, and I have spent so much time thinking about, putting my mind on, however you want to say it, the Lord of the Rings and the characters there, they have become 'real' to me and therefore my mind made them real. I think that's why the books are disappearing and the libraries are being bombed. Too many people are letting the their minds make things real and, oh, I don't know, just maybe whatever is out there doesn't like it."
"JessiLee, that is the scariest thing I have ever heard."
"I know mom, I'm scared too, but I think I 'thought' Legolas and Gandalf into our reality, or maybe I downloaded them into our world, and I don't know what else I may have done, but the idea scares me."
"What else did you download?" Her voice betrayed her fear and concern for her daughter's safety and sanity.
"Well, the biggest problem I see is possibly," she paused nervously, "Sauron."
"Oh shit."
"Yeah, that's kind of what I was thinking too."
"So if I am to believe this, which I don't think I can, because I don't understand it, you are suggesting that we are not 'real' in a physical sense, only in our minds. Which I don't quite get, because then how would we know each other? But okay, I will stay with your theory that all this is in 'someone's' control though we don't know who that 'someone' is and that 'someone' is losing control because we are thinking too much and letting our creativity and imaginations carry us away?"
"Right."
"Okay, so to continue with this interesting theory of yours, you made some of the Lord of the Rings characters 'real' by bringing them into our world through the computer?"
"Something like that mom, really, I don't understand HOW it happened only that somehow it's all connected."
"And then you tell me, oh by the way mom, if my theory is correct, we are in deep kimshee because I happened to decide to download the most evil being on middle-earth, Sauron."
"Yeah, kind of like that mom, but be glad I didn't download Melkor."
"Oh yes, so thankful am I for that!" she added sarcastically "And now I am expected to deal with the fact that my world is not real, my daughter is making her fantasy characters into reality in my not real world and Sauron is out there somewhere, while Legolas and Gandalf are sleeping in her bedroom."
"Kind of crazy huh? But it works."
They both turned and looked toward her room. There was suddenly a loud crashing sound in there. Jess started to see what happened but her mom grabbed her arm and kept her back. "We are here, by the door, so we can escape quickly if we need to. Let's just wait and see for a minute. If any of your wild theory is true, we will know soon enough, if it is not, then we can get out fast."