WELCOME TO MY WORLD

As I dispense with the second book and look again at the pile at my side, I wonder again why exactly I do this. Books and books - they descend on me like pigeons on the tourists at Trafalgar Square, their dry wings fluttering. Too many subjects, too many teachers, too many people, too many facts. Normal school, A-Levels, shooting, waterpolo, hockey, guitar …. what do I think I'm doing?!? I must be insane. After coming to this fascinating (and completely pointless) conclusion, the bell rings and it's off to Science.

At least here I know what I'm doing. The extra hours working at my A-Level in the holiday have paid off and I not only understand the work we're currently doing, but I'm pretty confident that I'm fine for the next six months or so. The same goes for quite a few of my classes. Thus, after dawdling through noisy lesson after noisy lesson, the final bell rings and there are only the trials of the afternoon and evening to be survived.

The sweltering heat hits me right in the face as soon as I walk outside. The World's force is palpable and standing it in very good stead in it's fight to rid Africa of human inhabitants. After trudging through the afternoon's sport practices and classes, World finally appears to get bored with torturing us and relents a little. The heat begins to abate. We are not allowed to relax, however, oh no. Just when we thought it safe to hold our heads up and breathe again, World hits us with another devastating blow, right in the solar plexus. Bending over and gasping for breath, we realise that it is the three hours of Study that we should have feared all along.

Finally I reach my bed, completely exhausted, and collapse. I drop off to sleep, my thoughts full of papers, numbers, dates and exams.

****

When I surface it is into a cold and cloudy evening. It is drizzling and the biting cold is only barely held at bay. All around the trees peer down at me, still clad in the black of mourning after the loss of their leaves. As I weave my way between them, there being no path to speak of, the half-frozen earth crunches under my boots. Darkness approaches swiftly, along with its companions - rustlings in the undergrowth and calls in the distance. I shift my throwing knives into a more accessible position. Eventually the house comes into view, a structure built of solid blocks of granite. To me, it is a beautiful thing. A perfect shield of apparent rusticity.

I enter straight into the basement, through what might appear, even to the not-so-casual observer, to be an old-style coal cellar. The room lights at my entrance, as does the video-conferencing wall. It is currently in four divisions, each quarter holding a still pic of the person who had called and the message they had left. None appear to declare a new mission and so, dismissing them as unimportant, I proceed into the workroom.

Computers line the walls, all chattering with information. The upper half of one wall is occupied by clocks, each with the name of the city whose time it displays. All this can wait though, too - right now hunger takes precedence. I walk up into the kitchen and empty my carisak onto the table. The rabbit which I snared looks good - I set about skinning and jointing it. After washing my hands clean of the pure, hot blood, I build a fire in the hearth, shunning the technology crying out to be used and hoping that my partner will arrive back soon. I can smell the rabbit roasting.

This is my World. My perfect VR World. This is exactly why I stand all the books, the subjects, the teachers, the people, the facts. So that one day I can create this, exactly as I dream it. So that one day I will stand before you, a perfectly computer-generated image, and proudly say "Welcome to my World".