Once upon a virtual time, there lived a virtual girl.
Not a virtual princess or anything, although she could be virtually whatever she wanted to be,
she was content to be just an ordinary virtual girl.
This virtual girl lived in a virtual world on a virtual planet called, what else, Virtualis,
in a virtual country called Libertas, in the virtual town of Evolo,
All, of her own virtual creation.
This is her story, but I will tell you of her virtual life in virtual brevity first,
and get to the virtual details later,
for I am that virtual girl.
She explored and wandered her virtual world until she met a virtual boy.
They virtually fell in love, for virtually anything can happen in a virtual
world, and eventually he virtually asked her to virtually marry him.
So they became virtually engaged.
They had a lovely virtual wedding, followed by a virtual honeymoon and virtually explored
each other, their virtual universe, and had all sorts of virtual adventures together.
Anything and everything their virtual minds could virtually imagine,
and they lived happily ever after, virtually, of course, because that is where such things ever do occur happily, after.
But this is only the virtual end of the virtual beginning.
First this virtual girl must create herself, then create her virtual universe.
And so it begins...
Once upon a virtual time, there lived a virtual girl.
(to be continued...at least in part, not intruding on any virtual privacy)
Not a virtual princess or anything, although she could be virtually whatever she wanted to be,
she was content to be just an ordinary virtual girl.
This virtual girl lived in a virtual world on a virtual planet called, what else, Virtualis,
in a virtual country called Libertas, in the virtual town of Evolo,
All, of her own virtual creation.
This is her story, but I will tell you of her virtual life in virtual brevity first,
and get to the virtual details later,
for I am that virtual girl.
She explored and wandered her virtual world until she met a virtual boy.
They virtually fell in love, for virtually anything can happen in a virtual
world, and eventually he virtually asked her to virtually marry him.
So they became virtually engaged.
They had a lovely virtual wedding, followed by a virtual honeymoon and virtually explored
each other, their virtual universe, and had all sorts of virtual adventures together.
Anything and everything their virtual minds could virtually imagine,
and they lived happily ever after, virtually, of course, because that is where such things ever do occur happily, after.
But this is only the virtual end of the virtual beginning.
First this virtual girl must create herself, then create her virtual universe.
And so it begins...
Once upon a virtual time, there lived a virtual girl.
(to be continued...at least in part, not intruding on any virtual privacy)
+ + +
She awoke one virtual morning
....completely unaware of being so(u)ley a binary indweller.
All she knew was, she existed. Simplistic.
She yawed, stretched, climbed out of bed and went to the bath
to relieve her bladder from it’s eight hour suppression.
She did the necessaries (wiping, flushing, hand washing) and, as
she stood in front of the sink, stared into the eyes of the
person looking back at her from the cabinet’s mirror (tho for
some odd reason, had she always pronounced it ‘mare-or’ until,
after being corrected numerous times, now enunciated it specifically with
thought, ‘mere-or’.)
She moved her face closer to her double, just a few inches from
touching nose to nose, looking speculatively at the girl.
She wondered if, when she, herself, left this room to start her day,
if ‘she’ did the same? For, when looking aback, she was not there.
Or, did she return, after she, herself, left and closed the door?
What life did she lead? The girl who was the exact opposite of her.
Her reversed twin. This duplicate doppelgänger.
Was it the same as her own, or completely different?
She had caught glimpses of her, which she, herself, called ‘flesreh ehs’, occasionally, in glass,
water, other ‘mere-ors’, but, was it just coincidence?
Did ‘flesreh ehs’ follow she, herself, just to taunt or toy?
Was the other ‘her’, sentient, as she, herself, was?
She, at least on the brief glance encounters, could say they both had excellent
fashion sense.
And, although these were the type of thoughts that engaged her,
for she was most curious about all things,
on this morning it was not getting her anywhere but late for work!
So she apologized to the reflective girl, in case her boss was as irritable as her own about
tardiness, and they hurriedly brushed their teeth, showered, combed their auburn hair,
gave their noses a quick powdering, glossed their lips, then she, herself,
dressing appropriately for the season, grabbed her keys, bag, and
dashed off to work.
+ + +
She, herself, got in the car, put the key in the ignition, and as the engine turned over,
adjusted the rear view ‘mere-or’.
There ‘flesreh ehs’ was again.
Their lives were ever intertwined.
She, herself, had never spoken to ‘flesreh ehs’, the reflected girl.
She was afraid to.
Fear, that enigmatic emotion, as much her enemy as it was her protector.
She, herself, worked in a library. Books were her world.
They could take her wherever she wished to go, both in words and pictures.
She, herself, thought mostly in words,
and wondered if others did the same?
If other animals thought in their specie’s language,
for they all had their own, she surmised.
Humans, having evolved theirs even into ‘subspecies’.
She mused as to whether the thought itself was the same,
just the form and utterance being different?
Or, did some think solely in pictures? Or a combination of both?
This, she thought, as she pulled into the library lot,
parked in the designated area for employees and with keys in hand,
as it was her job rather than the actual head librarian’s, to open.
She liked the library when it was empty. Just her and
all the worlds imaginable to human fancy, in facts and fantasies.
She felt safe here. These were her friends, for she knew what was
inside them fully and they never caused her any hurt.
Never lied. Just put forth in letters for her to interpret as she wished.
Never did they harm.
They were her time machine. Her escape from reality into someone
else’s world. For she knew their beginning, as well as their end.
Walking to the main hall, she whispered, ‘Let there be light’,
her sound breaking the silence, as she flipped a switch, and there was light.
One, following the other, until the entire room was illuminated.
Darkness, overcome by enlightenment.
She was becoming aware.
+ + +
First on the agenda, shelve any books left lying about.
As she did so, her mind wandered. As it was wont to do.
She, herself, was a lover of words. She understood them. Well, most of them, and those
she didn’t understand she could easily look up in a dictionary.
Sometimes, though, the stringing together of them is what confused her.
Their meanings could change, depending on what context they were used in.
What punctuation was used.
Unless precise and to the point, they require some amount of interpretation.
But she felt, nonetheless, comfortable with them.
Not so with numbers.
Especially when they would, periodically, in mass, flash in her mind. And, at times,
even appear in front of her. There, in thin air. Floating in a sequence, then jumbling
together in chaos and were gone.
She had mentioned it to her opthamologist and he just yammered on about ‘floaters’
and seeing signs that appeared closer than they were and misjudging distance, and was she
wearing her contacts or glasses at the time, because everything looked in order, her eyesight
hadn’t changed, yadda, yadda, yadda.
So much for that.
It still bothered her, though. These ‘episodes’.
She disliked numbers. She knew the necessity of them in human conception, but in the
overall, what purpose did they serve?
Science tried to reduce everything to a numerical sequence or complicated equation.
Do other species care a fig? Other than, of course, there being safety when more than one?
She like letters much better.
She sang as she continued to re-shelve those books, carelessly left on the library’s tables when they were no longer being used, to their proper locations.
‘A BEE SEE DEE EE EF GEE, AECH I JAY KAY EL EM EN O PEE (she giggled at that, then continued) CUE ARR ESS TEE YOU VEE, DOUBLE U, EX, WHY and ZEE...’ her voice trailed off as the Head Librarian entered the room.
The children of the Charter School would begin their scheduled arrival shortly. There wasn’t room enough for a suitable library in the building that housed them, so an agreement was made to use the University’s.
All need be in readiness.