Gaming

Gaming

This piece has not been edited by the ShortbreadStories team.

Mandy had never understood the attraction of computer games, she had railed and shouted at Tony, “How many hours are you going to spend there, couldn’t you come and talk to me, spend some time with me. I haven’t seen you since Monday and now all you want to do is shoot bloody aliens.”

He sighed and logged out, turned to her and took in the angry face the folded arms and the quickened breathing, snorting, just like the dragon she had become.

She would never understand, he had tried to get her to join him, offered to teach her, “Come on Mand. It’s fun, we can do it together, I’ll help you set up your Avi and everything. We can do it together.”

“Get lost, do you think I’m brain dead? It’s not real, anyone would think it was real the way you and Carl carry on.” She had turned and stormed out and that had been the start of another silent weekend.

It had all gone wrong hadn’t it, but was it really the computer games or was there more to it, a deeper dissatisfaction. He flicked the mains switch and slumped off to bed, what the hell, I’m not doing any harm, why can’t she just chill.

When he woke it was still dark, the curtains were drawn and the hump in the bed beside him was snoring quietly, he didn’t know what time she’d come upstairs but she’d pushed a pillow in the middle to separate them, make sure there was no physical contact. It made him sad and he didn’t know the way out of this. He thought back to the early days, to the laughing and the joking and larking about, and the sex, the hot regular fantastic sex. He couldn’t remember the last time that she’d really let go and enjoyed a good screw.

He slipped out from under the duvet, dragged a blanket from the chair by the window and went through to the living room. He switched on, booted up and opened the war game.

New character - Click,

Male or Female - Female – Click, and so he went on Mandy’s hair colour, Mandy’s build, something approaching Mandy’s face shape and Mandy’s smile.

Yes that wasn’t bad, it wasn’t her but it had her essence. Okay he had made the body shape a bit more, well, pneumatic and the hair was longer but he liked it. The screen was very bright, brighter than he remembered. It wavered and slipped in and out of focus, was that the result of his unshed tears. The tiny ephemeral Mandy grasped at the part of his heart that remembered his own wife in the days when she had been his friend. He reached to the monitor and gently his finger ends touched the shimmering picture. Come on Mandy come and play with me, he muttered. His whispered words were followed by a gasp and then he grinned as he took her virtual hand.

“Tony, Tony, where the hell are you. For Pete’s sake you’re not on that bloody game at this time in the morning are you? Oh, Tony, you’ve left the machine turned on as well you prat.” She flicked the switch, she didn’t power up the screen first, didn’t look into the scene, she didn’t see, she just didn’t see and she never understood how he could just go and leave her, leave all his things and not even a note. Most of all she couldn’t believe he had left his bloody gaming machine.

Read more: Short Story: Gaming | Shortbread