1. Thrown Out

There comes a time in every young man’s life when he has to buckle down and work for his future.  This time escaped Donny Summers by squirming under the door one night when he was distracted by a combination of performance diminishing chemicals, FullSenz^® game play and the effects of a daily regimen of oversleep and Real^™ beer.  One bitterly cold January morning in 2044, he woke up in his parent’s basement rec. room with his buddy, Mickey Humboldt, and found out he had nowhere to live.

“No more 'free lunch',” said John Summers, Donny’s almost-always-absent father, known to his colleagues as the “uncivil” engineer.  “Your sister is three years younger than you and yet she's finished graduate school and now has a high paying job!”

“Yo, Porsh!” Donny was so happy for his sister that he turned to Mickey, who raised his head from a wide circle of sleep-spit soaked carpet, and shared a high-five.  “No more high school. Yes!”

“Very crunchy,” croaked Mickey.

“No, you slug!” said Donny’s dad.  “Portia earned her Master’s in Psychology. She works for a big corporation in Florida.”  His father was growing very red in the face.

“She’s moving out?” said Donny, saddened.

“Moving out?  She’s engaged to be married.  She hasn’t lived here since 2041!”

Donny decided not to speak again.  Through the mental fog, he was surprised that his little kid sister would get hitched – but live and let live.

“You are moving out right now,” said his father.  This was a threat that Donny had heard before and he remembered vaguely how to defend against the monster.

“No, Dad, I gotta find a job first!  I’ve got to be able to fend for myself.  You can’t just throw me out into the cold.  I’ll become a homeless street kid!”

“Street kid?  That pitch went wild a long time ago!”  Donny’s father grabbed the young men by the scruff of their florescent-plaid, funfur overalls.  “You’re mother has finally given me permission to take out the trash!”

Moments later Donny found himself outside, in the back yard, in the snow, on his behind.  His aged and somewhat ragged parka came flying out and then his big felt-lined rubber boots, his big mitts, and his friend Mickey, who somehow had managed to don his overcoat before being expelled from the house.

Donny looked up to the raised deck to see his mother standing in a business suit, not looking at all upset but rather relishing cruel satisfaction in the moment.

“Mom!  Help me Mom!  Where will I go?”

“Don’t come back until you have a life, Donny!” responded Hailey Summers, the town's Friendly Pharmacy manager.

“What did she say?” asked Donny.

“Don’t come back until you have a wife,” said Mickey.

Donny’s face betrayed his fear and then he realized just how cold his cheeks felt.  Donny rapidly pulled on his outdoor wear while trying to think.  He was a little dazed, which felt normal.  Donny wasn’t worried about where he’d sleep or eat or how he’d live; he just couldn’t believe his parents hadn’t also sent out the FullSenz^® Player.

“Where is it?” he asked.

“They’re not keeping it,” said Mickey.  “They can’t.”

“Yeah, it’s mine!”

“No, it’s mine, you busted yours when you fell on it,” snapped Mickey.

“Oh, yeah.”

Donny’s father returned to the back door with a suitcase full of florescent clothes and threw it over the rail.  “There you go, son.  Good luck.  There’s a $500 card in there; use it wisely.  It’s the last money you’ll ever see from me.”

“Dad, the Pheely-box, it’s Mickey’s…”

His mother arrived at the door with a thin white laptop-like devise and assorted cables.  She threw the player over the deck rail and Mickey leapt up, grabbed the FullSenz^® in mid air and landed on top of it, sending up a puff of new-fallen snow.

The sliding glass window closed and the curtains fluttered together automatically.

“Is it hurt?” asked Donny.

“I don’t know, plug it in!”

Lyle “Googie” Green strolled onto the driveway and crouched down beside his friends as they crawled along the wall, searching for something.  Like Mickey and Donny, Lyle was wearing horn-rimmed glasses with the capital letters SPECTACL emblazoned across a wide headstrap.  He was also wearing a green parka and a purple fake-fur hat and had a scarf around his face up to his eyes.

“Why’d you go offline?”

“Donny’s been kicked out,” said Mickey, scouring the wall for an exterior power box.  “For good this time.”

Lyle despaired.  “Then I’m next.”  Lyle’s mother, the nurse, was a good friend of Donny’s mother.  Mickey had already been booted out of his stepfather's condo months ago.  Both Mickey and Donny’s first hope of sanctuary had been the garage in Lyle’s parents’ house.

They found an outside electrical outlet at the front of Donny’s former home and Mickey frantically plugged in the FullSenz^® while Donny and Lyle stomped their feet and slapped their arms together to stay warm.  The green light informed them that it had booted up and they plugged cables into their SPECTACLs in a panic.

---

Warmth. Summer twilight in Hawaii. The surf rolling in. Mickey and Donny were sitting between two gorgeous, nearly-naked blondes with exceptionally-distorted proportions. Lyle was already riding a curl.

The FullSenz® was okay. Donny and Mickey were swept over by a sense of well-being. In the distance, over the roar of the surf, Lyle could be heard squealing like a teenage girl, which was appropriate, since that was the character he was playing in the game.

“Mick,” said Donny. “Why don’t we just move to the real Hawaii?”

“They sold it to the Chinese,” answered Mickey from behind his Wayfarers. “Come on, let’s surf!”

“Okay,” said Donny, grabbing his board and jumping into the salty, pink water just behind his buddy.

Next: Waking Up