July 5, 2016
Ben Song sits on a leather couch in the Dixon family home in London, Ontario, just having heard that Amber Nicole Dixon would commit suicide in three months.
"I know that simply restraining her in October would only kick the can down the road," says the leaper. "What happened?"
"Nude pictures," says Addison Augustine. "From what Ziggy's been able to tell, the pictures were shared through a subscribers-only web site. It didn't stay there, it circulated, and the boys at their school saw the pictures."
"And she killed herself out of shame. What happened to Ashley?"
She ran away from home in February. She wasn't found until April 2018. Her body was found in an alley in Toronto, dead from a fentanyl overdose. It turns out she became a prostitute on the streets of Toronto after running away."
"This life-changing event that sends that family down that destructive path will happen soon, unless I do something," says Ben, standing up. The leaper yawns. "I'd better get some sleep."
ooooo
July 6, 2016
Ben wakes up to the feeling of someone pushing him.
"Addison?" he asks, still feeling very sleepy.
"No, this is Amber."
Ben looks up and sees the 14-year-old girl with blond hair. Amber Nicole Dixon is wearing a blue leotard.
"C'mon," says Ashley Nadine Dixon's identical twin sister. "Zoey's mom's gonna be here in thirty."
"Thirty?"
"Thirty minutes, not thirty hours."
Ben sets his feet on the soft carpet. He is wearing a soft nightgown.
Amber tosses him something., Ben looks and sees it is a red leotard. He immediately removes the nightgown and puts on the leotard, which feels a little tight. He walks out to the hallway.
"How do I look?" asks Ben.
"You look great, Ash," replies Amber, who stands near the top of the stairs. "Don't forget your purse."
"Of course," says Ben. Even after having leapt more than once into persons of the female sex, there are some things he has not quite gotten used to,. He picks up and expensive-looking handbag. He walks downstairs.
Amber opens the Kenmore refrigerator and pulls out this can, handing it to the leaper appearing to be her sister. Ben looks and sees it is a Monster energy drink.
"It seems early in the morning," he says.
"You didn't have breakfast, for Monster'll have to do. And you have to get dressed."
"I'm already dressed."
"C'mon, you know you need to cover the leotard while out in public. We can;'t just teleport to the park." The teen takes a deep breath. "Can't believe it. I'm sounding like Mom, or what Mom would have sounded like if she were raising girls our age."
Ben recalls that the twins' mother died a few years ago. "Yeah, I guess so. I guess I'm stressed, that's all."
Ben goes back up to the girls' room. He quickly dons a T-shirt and a pair of short blue denim shorts to wear over his- or Ashley's- leotard. Going back downstairs, he looks around.
"They're here!" exclaims Amber.
Making sure he has Ashley's purse, he walks towards the front door. Going outside, he sees a girl with crimson red hair, wearing a T-shirt and a skirt over a dance leotard. Parked on the street is a green 2012 Cadillac Escalade with Ontario license plates.
Ben follows Amber into the back seat of the sport utility vehicle.
"Amber, Ashley," says the woman driving the car.
"Hi, Mrs. Blake," says Amber.
"Hi," says Ben.
Mrs. Blake puts the SUV in gear and pulls forward.
I got the eye of the tiger, a fighter
Dancing through the fire
'Cause I am a champion, and you're gonna hear me roar
Louder, louder than a lion
'Cause I am a champion, and you're gonna hear me roar
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
You're gonna hear me roar
The Escalade drives along the streets of London. Ben notices the tree-lined streets and the other cars on the road. They pass by corner shopping centers with clothing stores and fast food places and bars and gas stations. They pass by a bus, and Ben sees a poster on the side of the bus, advertising The Secret Life of Pets.
It is not long before the Escalade pulls into a small parking lot in a public park. A one-story building is just a few feet away.
"Thank you," Ben says to the driver.
The leaper follows Amber and Zoey into the building; other girls sporting leotards are already walking in.
The leaper enters the reception area of the building, which has a desk and some benches and a bulletin board with papers advertising various events happening in this community center in this London park.
He walks into a room. There are mats on the floor, and several young girls wearing dance leotards already stand there.
The oldest of the people here is a woman with light brown hair, wearing shorts and a T-shirt, appearing to be in her early thirties.
"Good morning, Rose," says Zoey.
"Good morning," the woman replies. She looks towards the girl, and the leaper who appears to be a 14-year-old girl. "I am glad you are all here. I am sure you have done your stretching exercises."
"Yes, ma'am," the girls reply.
"All right," says the dance instructor. "Let us begin. We will train."
And so Ben and the girls start practicing dance moves. Rose often gives instruction for the girls to modify their moves. The leaper notices that Rose has some sort of charisma. As Ben practices dance moves, he wonders if he is somehow accessing some of his leapee's instincts.
He moves, stretching his- or Ashley's-body in ways he did not know possible. Modern music is played from a boom box.
"Listen to the music," says Rose. "Listen to the beat."
Ben continues to dance, letting the rhythm and Ashley's instincts guide him. The girls take a break, drinking water from water dispenser at a corner table.
Then dance practice continues, with Rose continuing her advice.
"All right, we are done," says Rose. "We can see you next week? Any questions, you can e-mail me or message me on Facebook or InstaGram."
"Nice leotard," says Addison. "Looks interesting on a forty-year-old man."
Ben turns and sees the observer. "Leotard's form fitting," he says.
"Just remember," says Rose. "You are not just dancing here, you are dancing for the world, for all humanity."
"How about we go to lunch?" asks Amber. "Pay your own way, of course."
"I'm in," says Zoey.
Ooooooo
After riding on the London Transit Commission bus for five minutes, following a ten minute wait at a bus stop by the park, Ben, Amber, Zoey, and other girl named Mel get off at a shopping center at a signalized intersection.
They all walk into this place that specializes in salads. The line is not long, and the leaper reaches the counter, with Zoey, Mel, and Amber behind him.
He looks up at the menu, which offers various sorts of salads.
"I would like the wedge-ish salad," he says.
"Okay," says the cashier, a girl only a few years older than the Dixon twins. Ben pays her. The other girls give their orders to the cashier.
"A wedge-ish?" Amber asks the leaper who appears to be her twin sister.
"I haven't had a wedge salad in a very long while," answers Ben.
"You have to limit your heavy food intake," says Amber. "We had pepperoni pizza on Sunday night!"
"Better watch yourself," says Mel.
It is not long before Ben picks up his order. He sits at a small table, with Amber, Zoey, and Mel joining them. Ben sticks a plastic fork into some iceberg lettuce, which is covered in blue cheese dressing and blue cheese crumbles. He savors the combination of sweetness and tanginess. Also in the salad are sliced cherry tomatoes, and Ben chews the cherry tomatoes slowly. He notices that the other girls ordered much lighter salads.
Mel takes out a Samsung Android smart phone and snaps a picture. "Gotta represent for this place," she says. She then eats her citrus salad.
Amber holds up her iPhone. "Check this out," she says. "It's from Amanda Anisimova."
"Who?" asks Zoey, looking at a picture of a teenage girl with blond hair, holding a tennis racket and standing on a tennis court.
"She's a tennis player. She's fourteen years old, like me and Ashley. I follow her on InstaGram."
Addison smiles. "When I was their age, I had a flip phone, and I could only make voice calls," she says. "How times have changed."
"Here's a video on YouTube," says Zoey, holding up her own smart phone. "It's a clip from the Ninja Turtles movie."
Addison looks at Ben and the girls, smiling. "Amazing," she says. "I didn't have a cell phone at their age. And the girls who did, they were those flip phones the size of remote controls. If we wanted to listen to music, we had to use Walkmans. And we couldn't have video on the go. If we wanted to watch someone, we had to go home."
"Yeah, it's amazing how much technology has progressed since we were...- Ben looks at the Amber and the other girls, recalling that they and Ashley are much chronologically younger than he is- "..born."
"So how did my mom and dad post on InstaGram?" asks Zoey.
"I don't think InstaGram was invented yet," says Mel.
"Did they even have airplanes then?"
"Would you like to appear on our subscription-only vlog tonight?" asks Amber.
"I have other plans," says Mel.
"Maybe, if I ask my mom and dad," says Zoey.
"This is like an alien planet," says Addison. "None of the cool girls at school had v-logs when I was fourteen."
"This is Rose's InstaGram," says Ben, holding up Ashley's phone so that the observer can see. Addison looks at the images, seeing various photos of Rose, many of them advertising her dance class. "This one had us."
"The fashion show in Vancouver," says Addison. "That's definitely Amber and Ashley." She can see the two identical-looking blond-haired girls, distinguished only by their outfits.
"and Ash- I got this message from Rose."
Addison reads the message, which is Rose writing how good Ashley is.
"That;'s great," says Mel. "You girls were like born to dance."
"That's right," replies Amber. "Our mom used to take us to dance lessons when we were like four years old.."
"I think I've met her," says Zoey. "I mean, before the funeral."
"Yeah, you did."
"She was great," says the leaper, before briefly wondering if he somehow felt Ashley's feelings.
Oooooooo
Zoey walks along the concrete walkway to the Dixon family home and rings the doorbell.
The door is opened and a man with blond hair, appearing in his mid-forties, opens the door.
"Hi, Mr. Dixon," she says. "Are Amber and Ashley there?"
"Yeah, we're expecting you."
The teenage girl walks into the living room. She had been here before; it does not look like anything out of the ordinary.
"By the way?" asks Max Dixon. "How are your parents"
"Fine."
"I haven't seen them in a long time. Maybe I should invite them for dinner."
Ben walks down the stairs. "You're here," says the leaper who appears to be Ashley.
Zoey follows Ben upstairs to the twins' bedroom, where she sees the two twin beds, as well as the two small desks with the iMacs.
Amber is also in there, wearing a stylish outfit- a miniskirt and a sleeveless blouse.
Ben sits at the iMac, on the web site.
"We're gonna start in just three minutes," says the leaper.
Addison appears, projected by the Imaging Chamber. "Okay, let's see what this v-log stuff is," says the observer.
And then the live broadcast begins.
"Hi there, I'm Ashley," says Ben.
"And I'm Amber," says Amber.
"Welcome to our live webcast. Tonight, we have a special friend."
"Hi, I'm Zoey," says Zoey.
"First of all, I'm wearing an outfit from by Blinn," says Amber, pulling on her blouse. "I will share this on InstaGram with a special discount code. Now, I know you want to meet Zoey here.:"
"Say something," ben says to Zoey.
"Hi, I'm Zoey," says the Dixon twins' guest. "I live here in London. That's the one in Ontario, Canada, not the one in England. I'm heading into tenth grade, I like dance and horseback riding and watching movies. I liked the Ninja Turtles movie. Tyler Perry stole the show! Anyway,. I knew Amber and Ashley since the third grade. And you know what, I saw a trailer for this movie called Captain Galaxy. It's like based on this really old TV show, which was broadcast in my grandparents' time."
Addison presses buttons on her handlink. "The movie came out in December of '16. It was based on a sixty-year-old TV show."
"Wait," says Ben. "I should be able to share the video." He types into the address bar in Safari, to get to the YouTube site; he notices that Ashley is signed in. Typing "Captain Galaxy" into the search field, the first result is the trailer. "All right, we're sharing our screen here, and let's play the trailer." the leaper presses the button and the trailer for Captain Galaxy is shared with the viewers of this webcast.
"That was a fun trailer," says Zoey. "I'll put it on my list of movies to watch." She then continues to talk, while she, Amber, and Ben watch the live chat from their viewers.
"We're not gonna take off our clothes!" exclaims Ben.
Amber presses the button on the remote mouse. "Okay, let's have a talk," she says. "You shouldn't have said that out loud."
"I saw that comment," says Zoey. "It was wrong."
"Well, we should not say it out loud. Just block the commenter as I am doing now." The 14-year-old girl clocks the mouse. "There. And see, the other commenters are calling that creep out. Now let's continue."
And so Zoey continues to talk, with both Amber and Ben occasionally asking question.
"Let me tell you about heroes," says Ben. "there are people out there who go above and beyond. Let me share this article."
Ben shares an article on Yahoo! News which is dated October 10, 2013. A picture of a woman in her late twenties, with light brown hair and wearing sandy-brown camouflage, is featured.
"That's me," says Addison.
"First Lieutenant Addison Augustine, U.S. Army, was awarded the Silver Star for her actions in Afghanistan," reads Zoey.
"Wow," says Amber.
"It helps if we sometimes take a look around, to gain a different perspective," says the leaper. "We could all use a better understanding."
"Ashley's right," says Zoey. "We can take a step back sometimes. There are amazing people out there."
"Yes," she is a hero," says Ben, reading a chat message from a commenter about Addison.
"Well, one of my favorite adult role models is Rose," says Amber. "She's the head of this dance and fashion day camp, and she was a substitute teacher at our school. She'll do anything for us, to help us grow and develop us. She took us and some other girls in our camp to a fashion show in Vancouver a few months ago. Our dad even invited her over for dinner once last year. Yes, she even advises us and the others on how to use InstaGram and Facebook and these subscription-chat sites. As she said, she wants us to grow up to be ambassadors for humanity, spreading peace and love and good tidings. That's what we want."
"I have a dog," says Zoey, replying to a question in the chat room.
The chat continues.
"Okay," says Amber. "We are done here."
"Goodbye, you all," says Zoey.
"And, uh, goodbye," says Ben. "We are signing off."
He clicks a button to end the live stream.
"I'd better be on my way home now," says the Dixon twins' guest. "Where's your dad."
"He's down the hall, doing work.," says Amber.
Zoey walks down the carpeted hallway and knocks on the door.
"Yes?" asks Mr. Dixon.
"Mr. Dixon, could you give me a ride home? It's only a ten-minute drive."
"I'll get dressed," he answers from behind the door. "Make sure to call your parents."
"I'll text them," replies the girl, taking out here Samsung smart phone.
Mr. Dixon comes out, wearing blue jean shorts and a T-shirt, and Zoey follows him downstairs.
Oooooo
Ben walks downstairs to talk to Addison. He sits on a leather chair in the living room and places Ashley's iPhone next to his ear in case Amber or the twins' dead comes downstairs.
"Anything bugging you?" he asks.
Addison presses a button on the handlink, and she appears to sink to the floor, so she can be at eye level with the leaper. "I've just gotten a glimpse into the life of the cool girls," answers the observer. "When I was their age, I was focused on sports and studies. I was never invited to the cool and Ashley and Zoey definitely have status."
"Your life took a different path. I mean, you did become valedictorian at your school, which was one of the reasons you were admitted to West Point, became an Army officer, and joined the project. You were able to observe the past. You even lived another person's life for a few days."
"Yeah, I have an interesting life. Still, I wonder what it would have been like to taste the life of a cool girl.
"And here's the thing. I was here thinking there was something wrong in Amber and Ashley's lives, something must have went wrong if Amber kills herself in a few months. But everything seems to be fine. I used to tell myself when I was in high school, that the cool girls had their own problems behind closed doors. And yet, I can't see what's wrong with the twins' lives."
"I agree. Those pictures were just the trigger. There's a root cause. I'll need to live Ashley's life for a while to figure it out. Or maybe preventing the trigger will give the family enough time to resolve whatever issues they have on their own."
"Maybe you'll figure something out tomorrow. You may be one of the popular girls now, Ben, but even popular girls need to sleep."