Chapter Thirty-six – 'Beautiful colors'

"Why do I always have to say goodbye to everyone I meet?" Lisa rhetorically asked. This was the first time she had rolled doubles which meant leaving as soon as she found the statue. "At least at the train station, I had some time with Mr. Bergstrom before I left. I don't want to leave immediately."

"Tell me about how you made it here while I walk you out." Colin inquired about her journey during their last minutes together. "Something seemed... different about you. Are you really in the second grade?"

She thought about her answer as they proceeded back toward the beginning of the tour at the loading docks. Her answer was far-fetched but it was her truth. "I... I... Long story short, I'm playing a game with a life-changing grand prize of a nuclear power plant."

Colin stared blankly at her and slowly nodded. It made no sense to him. "How would a second grader become involved in this?"

"I won a lottery drawing along with five other people, then we went to a billionaire's mansion and were teleported to inside this game." The further she explained, the more lost Colin looked. "I really am in second grade, mainly because my parents wouldn't let me skip first grade."

"I hope your smarts help you in this game. I don't really know what to say..." Colin carefully thought of his next words. "I wish we had more time to chat but my teacher is calling roll and I have to leave as well."

They entered the loading docks and the bay door was open to her race car. The red hologram was standing in the token and staring at its wrist where a watch normally would be worn.

"He looks displeased." Colin broke the silence of the awkward moment.

"Yeah... another hologram told me he was strict on the rules to ensure we are playing fair..." Her answer annoyed the hologram because it was further delaying the game. "I'll be ready in one second..."

The hologram scowled at her to try to speed up her goodbye. "One..." The red hologram mocked.

"Colin!" A female voice came from the next room.

"Lisa!" A mechanical voice called from outside the loading dock.

"It seems we both have to leave. I wish you good luck." Colin concluded. The game was important to her but did not know how he could help her.

"Where will I find you if this property was just a field trip for you?" Lisa asked but Colin did not have an answer. "This may be a final goodbye." Lisa waved and turned toward her race car. The red hologram appeared to be a few shades from crimson. She took a few running steps and leaped into the back of her token. "I'm here now." She whispered as she took one last look at Colin leaving the room and the door closing behind him.

"Did you ever look at your MyPad to see what you rolled and where you are going next?" They both knew the answer as her MyPad vibrated to get her attention.

"Six." She plainly said. "Are you happy?" Lisa rolled her eyes in anticipation of the red hologram disappearing. "I have no idea where I'm going. If I do the math for multiples of tens, I know where I'm not going... anyways can I get on with the game since I've said goodbye to Colin. Please let me go."

"Before I take my leave, a small piece of advice for you if you want to succeed in this game: I would not become attached to any of the non-game people in this world. Remember your objectives and do not get distracted." It seemed cryptic but Lisa was open to any advice.

The hologram disappeared as promised and Lisa took her seat in the race car. It slowly accelerated and the loading dock bay door shut to signify the end of the chocolate factory... for now. Lisa rounded the corner of the factory just in time to see the school bus fade into the sunset.

The race car headed in the opposite direction. Lisa frustratingly propped her feet on the dashboard and stared at the MyPad. "It shouldn't take long to get to the next property since I'm only going six spaces." This got the gears turning in her head of ways to pass the time and how to enjoy her game.

It was a few seconds later when a row of trees in the distance blocked her path from proceeding. She thought for a moment what it might mean. The closer she got to the trees, the more colors appeared beside green and brown. Shades of red, orange, and yellow filled the branches while blue and purple blooms covered the base.

"This scenery here is beautiful compared to the train station and the chocolate factory. But if I remember correctly, our game started from a scene of emptiness and became a colorful landscape."

The token slowed down as it approached the wall of trees and Lisa had a thought. The game was moving slowly in between turns, so she jumped out of the race car to gather some flowers.

"White daisies, yellow roses, purple lilacs, and blue..." Lisa froze as her worst nightmare appeared before her. "...hologram. How did you get here so quickly?"
"We are everywhere. We can teleport wherever we are needed at any time. We know everything that occurs in this game." The hologram answered her.

"We? How are you using the plural? I only see one of you." Lisa was confused.

"Then let me introduce you to my friends. I heard you like all the different beautiful colors." The hologram snapped its fingers and nine holograms matching all colors of the rainbow plus a few colors appeared in a line. "Say hello to my little friends." The blue hologram smirked as he started to name the colors. "Starting on my right are the ones you have already met. Green, Red, and Purple."

They nodded in unison after they were introduced. Lisa's attention then turned to the others.

"My next set of friends you will meet in the game less frequently, but they are important to your progress." Blue turned towards the left and pointed at each color one-by-one. "Orange. Yellow. Black." This group waved as their names were called.

Lisa waved in return and wondered what their function in the game was. "Can I ask what services you provide in this game?"

"You may ask but I won't answer until summoned for my purpose." Yellow replied. "But don't worry, as all the properties are bought, you will see me soon and often."

"I think I have a guess..." Lisa started.

"You think about that while I introduce the next two holograms: Gold and Silver. One is good. One is bad. I'll let you figure that out." This intrigued Lisa as the Blue hologram walked down the line to the remaining mysterious hologram. "Lastly, and perhaps my favorite hologram. Introducing: White."

It looked as non-threatening as the others, but Lisa was far from correct.

"You meet me and it will be the last thing you do." White spoke these ominous words then disappeared.

She hesitated before speaking. "I hope... I never... run into the white one."

"I concur." Blue said to the agreement of the holograms. "Anyone have any parting words?" The group was silent for a few seconds before Blue continued. "Good luck to you. I think you have a chance of winning this game. Please return to your token."

Lisa smiled upon hearing these words, picked two white daisies for prosperity, and jumped back into her race car. The tree branches opened like curtains to show a path through the forest. Lisa proceeded in her race car along the path seeing a rainbow of flowers on her left and empty branches on her right.

"This game has so many symbols to it. Maybe I should pay attention to the landscape." She watched as the colors shifted through the visible spectrum and jumped across the path to the right before fading into all gray.

The token emerged from the thick forest and overhead canopy into a lesser dense shrub wall blocked by an iron gate. Lisa's instincts kicked in as she scanned her surroundings looking for clues, but all she found were symbols carved backward into the shrubs.

"I think I can make... out a few..." She strained her brain and read what she saw. "Three, J, A, Five? That makes no sense." She looked to the right of the gate. "Rof? What's a rof? I'm so confused. Maybe I should just go investi..."

"You have arrived at Marvin Gardens. You may now exit the vehicle." The MyPad announced and directed as it showed the six spaces Lisa had traveled through the forest.

"I don't remember it saying that before..." She shrugged it off and leaped out. "Charge!" She ran toward the gate and bounced off an invisible barrier with a loud thud. "Owwwwwww!"

"Sorry!" Someone yelled from inside the gardens. "We're closed for the evening."

Lisa thought for a moment. "But I have to come in. I don't have anywhere else to go for the night."

"I can let you in so you can call your parents." The voice countered. "I'll be there in a second."

She thought she would try one more line. "I'm an important part of a game controlled by a corrupt billionaire and..." Lisa said the right thing to get the answer she wanted.

"This changes everything. I'm on my way." A click was heard as the gate opened and Lisa was greeted by a mysterious man. "I wasn't expecting anyone else tonight. I locked the gate once I thought no one else could make it this far today. The one currently in jail didn't get out, I thought you were too far away, and the player after you is always past this property."

"So much information I didn't even ask for." This informed Lisa of the status of the game without searching for clues. All it took was a knowledgeable person with loose lips. "Well... that tells me where two other people are." She paused for a moment before exploding with her own information. "Let's see... Jasper was before me, so you're telling me he is in jail... I hope nothing bad has happened to him. And last was... Smithers and you said he is already past this property."

The man realized he had said too much. "Forget I mentioned the position of the other players. The Mayor warned me about that but I can't help it because my mind drifts and I think about this game because it interests me so much." He kept talking as he invited through the gates and showed Lisa his work. "If you stop here and look behind you, I did what Mayor John said and cut the words 'For Sale' into her main gate shrubs."

"So that's what it says." It clicked with Lisa as she had read it backwards from outside the gate. "Thanks for letting me in. You said you didn't expect me here today because I was too many spaces away, but I took two turns since I rolled doubles."

"Mayor John told me you were coming a little bit ago, so I needed to clean up the place after our last elementary school tour earlier. I locked the gate and cleaned until I heard you." The man described in detail how he took care of the grounds while the Mayor was away. "I remember one day when John stepped out for a day trip, and I was here when a stone statue got delivered..."

Lisa's eyes lit up as she knew where the destination was but not exactly. She just needed to wait for the man to overshare but the anticipation was getting to her. "Statue! Let's go see it. Where is it? I can buy this entire place. Don't worry, you can still work here."

"As I was saying, the stone statue was delivered, so I had them set it in the most protected place in the gardens." The man was excited to show off his work to Lisa on the way to taking her to the statue and the Mayor. "I'll give you a free tour and let you see the statue and meet the Mayor. Follow me."

"Do you have colorful flowers? Reds, whites, blues, and..." Lisa was excited to continue her tour after the blue hologram shortened the free flower picking outside the forest.

The gardener lead her past the circular fountain with all white blooms surrounding the water and the yellow sunflowers along a winding path on the way to a large greenhouse on top of a small hill. "This is our pride and joy. We grow everything in here and ship it all around the world. Flowers, plants, crops, hops, barley, tomacco, left-handed tobacco, and anything else that grows."

"I'm not sure you should have... nevermind, I'm only here for... well I don't think..." She could not string a complete sentence to convey her disapproval.

"Keep that in mind if you buy this property." The gardener reminded her.

She thought about this as they approached the doors. "If I buy this property, I may have a talk with the Mayor to discontinue growing certain things. That tomacco experiment my dad did was dangerous. You don't have any plutonium stored inside, do you? That's something else I need to discuss with the mayor."

"The Mayor is in here, so here you go." He opened the door and announced their presence. "Mayor John!"

"Professor Frink!" Lisa yelled louder and ran inside the greenhouse. "Is it really you?"

"Hoyvin Glavin! How did you know I was here and how did you..." Professor Frink realized who just walked in the door. "Lisa?"

"You recognize me?" This shocked her as he knew her name and she knew his. They had met before and both remembered, unlike... "Mr. Bergstrom..." She said in a sad voice but finished in a louder voice. "I meant Professor Frink." Lisa knew she had two important tasks now, maybe even three. "Professor Frink!" She ran to hug him as the gardener decided to leave.

Frink wondered what was happening outside the game as Lisa wondered the opposite. "So tell me about..."

"I'll tell you anything if you reciprocate." Lisa wanted information from him but knew she had a higher priority. "First, can we finish my turn and then we have half a day to exchange stories. Where is..."

"The statue?" Frink completed her sentence. "It is next to the rose bushes. In front of the red ones and beside the white ones." Frink thought for a second. "Although the white roses have started to darken ever since that statue was placed next to them." He lead her to the back of the greenhouse underneath a series of skylights.

They approached the stone figure of Burns and Lisa knew what to do. "Before I do this, I want to know how you created this. The statues, the holograms, the entire world. Burns said he left all the development to you." Lisa placed the MyPad into the statue's hands and a hologram appeared and shifted through all ten colors like a slot machine before settling on green. "Did you program that?"

"The special electronics in the MyPad interacts with the sensors in the statue which transmits its signal through the Stone Statue World Wired Web to check game statuses, money, properties, and turn order." Frink rambled on to the displeasure of the hologram. "The holograms are an extension of the stone statues and are programmed with artificial intelligence designed to run the game with no outside input from Burns..."

"Greetings." The hologram interrupted. "Shall we proceed with the game?" Professor Frink nodded. "Welcome to Marvin Gardens. This property is for sale and can be purchased for two hundred eighty dollars. Upon visiting, a guided tour of the grounds will cost twenty-four dollars." The hologram concluded its standard programmed speech. "If I may add, no one has bought any of the yellow color-group properties yet. Make your decision."

"I don't remember programming free thought for checking the game status and giving advice." Frink noted.

"Yeah... I've noticed the holograms doing whatever they want..." Lisa added as the green hologram began tapping its toe to speed up her decision. "See..." She reached up and press the 'Buy' icon as three pieces of paper printed below the MyPad. Lisa grabbed the papers and her MyPad from the statue. "We can talk now."

But the hologram didn't disappear.

"Sweet glavin." Frink said. "That's not how it works. The hologram circuit is directed connected to the electrical contacts in the hands of the stone statue. If that's the case, I need to glavin the electronics in this stone statue and possibly send off for a replacement."

"The statue is working fine. The holograms will appear and disappear when we want." The green hologram said then disappeared.

"In their defense, I have seen them appear without being near a statue." Lisa explained. "On the way here in front of the woods..."

"That's not how I wired and programmed them. Someone may be messing with the game..." Frink concluded.

Lisa quickly checked her papers. "Six hundred dollars remaining. Is that enough money at this point in the game?"

"I wouldn't know. My game was short against Burns. It only lasted two turns..." Frink saw the third paper in Lisa's hand and it was addressed to him. 'The more you talk, the more I listen. - Signed CMB'

Loud booms were heard outside and the tall weeping willow trees shook. Lisa knew what this meant and so did Frink. "Can I give you the twenty-four tour? We have time now."

"Are there daisies and tulips on the tour?" She asked and Frink confirmed. "We have a lot of catching up to do and I need to know everything you know."

"Let's talk a long walk around the glavin-fountain and I'll tell you the tale of the first Monopoly game played between myself and Burns, and how I ended up here." Frink was saddened by his fate but saw a potential end to this. "Is there a way out back to Springfield?"

"I'm not sure. Ned, Luann, Jasper, Moe, Comic Book Guy, and I were transported into this game. Oh, and Smithers." She went into detail.

"It was always Burns' intention to have Smithers play..." Frink reassured as he closed and locked the greenhouse door behind them.