“Isn’t that stealing?”
Miss Ellis thought a moment. “Technically, yes, but the theft is so small and spread out that no one would notice. Besides, it’s the only way I can arrange it.
“So, Tony, would you like to attend telepresence school?”
- “Yes, Miss Ellis, very much,” he whispered. After all, he told himself, it couldn’t be completely wrong if the teacher was willing to do it.
“OK, but we can’t let you enroll as Tony, because the other students know who you are.”
“Does that mean I have to be white?”
“No, Tony, of course not. No one else has seen your real appearance but me, so you can look like yourself if you wish. That’s no problem. But we’ll have to call you by a different name, and probably pretend that you live somewhere other than Manhattan. Will that be OK?”
“Fine. Ummm… Miss Ellis?”
“Yes?”
“Why are you doing this?”
Miss Ellis frowned, and for a moment Tony worried that he had just said the wrong thing. But then she smiled. “Never mind, Tony, it isn’t something you need to worry about. In the meantime, you’d better give me your phone number and go home. Tell your mother I’ll call her tonight.”
“Excellent work, Howard.”
“Thank you, Miss Ellis,” Tony said. For three months now he had been enrolled at the telepresence school, in the same class that he had visited using Andrew’s spex. Tony now had spex of his own, along with a full simulator, and had begun to strike up a few friendships with the other students, including, oddly enough, Andrew.
Of course, they didn’t think of him as Tony. He was “Howard,” from a middle-class family living in Forest Hills on Long Island. Forest Hills had once been a part of the city, but was now a neighborhood in one of the three independent boroughs, a place where it was reasonable to assume that a family had the money to send a child to telepresence school.
At first, Tony felt strange pretending to be from someplace where he was not. But Miss Ellis had brought him through a virtual representation of the neighborhood before bringing him into the school, and fortunately, none of the other students had tried to trip him up with questions about his hometown.
Which was good, because Tony was happy here. He couldn’t remember ever having been happier.
“Howard? Are you with us?”
“Oh, sorry, Miss Ellis, I was just thinking. ” Tony felt his cheeks flush as the rest of the students turned around to stare at him in his back row seat. Fortunately, no one could see his embarrassment in the virtual classroom.
“As I was saying, it’s time for playground recess, so everyone get ready.” With that, Miss Ellis tapped at the air next to her ear, and the class was virtually transported to the playground “outside.” They did this every day of school, but it never ceased to amaze Tony. He always felt a warm sun and cool breeze playing against his face, which seemed perfectly real, even though he knew it had to be an illusion.
He closed his eyes and took in a deep breath; the stale air reminded him that he was really in the simulator back in his apartment. As he was about to breathe out, he felt someone tap him on the hand.
“You’re it!” He opened his eyes; it was Andrew who had tagged him, and who was now running as fast as he could go. Tony usually played with Andrew and Janice anyway, so he smiled and raced toward Andrew as fast as he could go, on virtual legs.
They played tag and ran around for most of the recess period, and near the end, the three friends sat down on a bench to rest up. It would soon be time to return to the classroom. Janice took a minute to catch her breath, then jacked out to get a glass of water, leaving Tony and Andrew alone.
“Boy, that was fun!” Andrew said.
“Yeah, it sure was.”
“Listen, Howard, I’ve been thinking. You live in Forest Hills, right?”
“Ummm… yeah, I do.”
“Well, that’s practically next door to me! Why can’t we get together in the real world?”
Uh-oh. Tony had been afraid that Andrew would suggest something like this. “Wouldn’t it be too difficult? I mean, you don’t really live next door.”
“So?”
“So it would be a problem for me to come out to Port Jefferson.”
“Hey, is that all? My Dad can drive me to your house, then, no problem. He usually has business to do in Manhattan anyway, and sometimes lets me come along with him. I think I can get him to drop me off at your place for a day.”
That was the last thing Tony wanted to hear. “I don’t know,” he replied, speaking slowly. “I don’t think my Mom wants me to have friends over.”
“Can’t we just go hang out in Forest Park or something? We wouldn’t have to spend the day at your house. My Dad could just drop me off there.”
“Well…”
“Besides, we can invite someone else along too.”
“Who?” Who lived close enough to join them?
“Sheryl.” Andrew smiled. “I’ve seen the way you look at her. You like her, don’t you?”
“No,” Tony lied. He felt pained.
“I know! Let me go ask her now! We can try to get together this weekend!” Andrew jumped up and started shouting Sheryl’s name.
“No! Andrew, please don’t!” Tony started to cry.
Andrew sat back down. “Howard, what’s wrong? I’m just suggesting a little friendly get-together.”
“We can’t get together at my house. We can’t.”
“Why not?”
Tony thought hard. He liked Andrew, and he knew that Andrew liked him. They hung out together almost every recess, and usually worked together when Miss Ellis made everyone find partners for school projects. Surely Tony could trust him, couldn’t he?
Besides, he still felt very bad about lying. No matter how much he wanted to be here, no matter how much Miss Ellis said he had a right to be here, it still bothered him. Perhaps if someone else knew, someone like Andrew, it would make him feel better. After all, Andrew liked him. Surely Andrew would keep the secret.
And, come to think of it, there was no way Andrew would tell anyone. If he did, his father would find out about the time Andrew was careless about his spex.
“Howard? Why not?”
A deep breath, then: “Because my name’s not Howard. It’s Tony.”
Two days later, on Friday afternoon, Miss Ellis asked Tony to stay after school so they could have a private talk. After all the other students jacked out, she asked, “Tony? I notice that you and Andrew don’t seem to be getting along as well as you used to. Is there a reason for this?”
Tony squirmed in his seat. Miss Ellis wasn’t smiling. “Uh, no, Miss Ellis.”
“Are you sure?”
He remained silent for what seemed like a minute.
“Tony, did you tell Andrew about our little arrangement?”
He didn’t say a word. He couldn’t; his throat was choked with fear.
“Tony? Did you tell Andrew?”
He croaked out a whisper. “Yes, Miss Ellis. I had to.”
She sighed. “Tony, I was afraid of this. You shouldn’t have told him.”
“But Miss Ellis, he wanted to come over and visit me. I couldn’t let him. I had to tell him why; I wasn’t about to lie to him.”
She smiled bitterly. “No, I guess not. Tony, I applaud your honesty, but this afternoon you and I are going to have to face Mr. Drummond.”
“Mr. Drummond? Do you mean Andrew actually told his father?”
“Yes, and it gets worse. Mr. Drummond is a lawyer, and he’s on the board of trustees of the telepresence school program. Do you know what that means?”