Chapter 3: Past the Line
Well, not even in the door and Felix has already begun to heck this one up. He was there at the door, and took a quick count. “There you are, Ash! And you brought along five people, I see. Well, here are your free lifetime passes. Glad you could join in!”
“Yeah, amazing I did, seeing how you named the place and the street after me.”
“Did I—Oh, well, what do you know. Huh, that’s a clever observation.”
The first thing I noticed when I walked in was that it was a whole lotta games. Actual ones, some I was legitimately curious as to how he got his hands on them. He might have just hacked them in, or could have actually spent the money to get and repair some of these cabinets. Mortal Kombat, the Mario Kart arcade games, even CarnEvil and Project X, which were pretty rare games. A few pinball tables as well. I hadn’t seen any games I didn’t like.
Actually, I was certain these were only arcade games I did like. Which was pretty curious. Actually, dare I say it, it was pretty intrusive. It’s not like I handed him a list of the arcade titles I liked, but yet here they all were. Franklin and Nathan had already headed off to find a co-operative game. I glanced down at my pass. It had my picture and “Ashley Smith” across the front, and a holographic strip across the back. I walked over to the Street Fighter II cabinet. It seemed that it (and probably all the games) were locked to a free-play mode. I pressed the insert credit button on the front of the cabinet and played a few rounds as Ken.
Well, it was Street Fighter. I glanced around and had lost everybody else. They had all gone somewhere else to find a game. I sighed and glanced back at the game. I tapped the button a few more times for more credits and got back to it.
“Great game, huh?” Felix said behind me.
“So did you hack these all in yourself?”
“Nope, bought each of the games here.”
“That had to cost a fortune.”
“Not as much as you think,” he said.
“Also, another question, how did—“
I had glanced back, only to see Felix was gone. I had no idea where he had gone off to. I finished up a round and let the game idle without continuing. I was still pretty miffed at Felix. He can apparently know everything and anything, but couldn’t foresee what would be written in that book. Not only that, but I was a bit miffed at mom for never telling me about dad. You’d think that if someone looked up to a guy, you’d let them know he did something bad instead of letting them sit in ignorance. Felix can move buildings, create them out of nothing, he could probably change anything or anyone in New Infinity and get away with it. But yet, he is oblivious to people and their histories.
I wandered around for a bit, in-between Donkey Kong cabinets and Playchoice 10s, and eventually found George at a Bomberman cabinet. He seemed to be enjoying it, and the same could be said for everyone else. As upset as I want to be about what Felix is doing, I really can’t just let him take this from them. I’m kind of stuck in a catch 22 right now. I found a bench along one of the walls, and took out my phone.
“Kinda missing home,” I texted Isaac.
“But you’ve been in town for almost a year now,” he replied.
“Yeah, but things were simpler. I’d go to school, come home and play some TF2, and that would be it. For the record, I am sitting in an arcade named for me, created by the guy who runs the town.”
“What?’
“Yeah, I don’t know, either. It’s just too much for me.”
“Well, maybe you can come visit us this Christmas. Jefferson is awful lonely. Tom’s moved out, too, off to Los Angeles to study animation at CalArts. James is still here, but he’s been busy with summer school.”
James, there's that name again. Ugh. I stuck my phone back in my pocket. Franklin and Nathan walked past, arguing over who got them both killed in House of the Dead, and I gestured towards them. “Hey, Ash,” Nathan said, “You doing alright?”
“Does any of this seem excessive to you?” I asked.
“Well, it is one of the largest arcades in North America at this point,” Nathan replied.
“No, but he named it after me, and these are all arcade games I enjoy. No cut the prize games or mobile ports in sight.”
“That’s pretty odd, I guess. Maybe Felix got lucky?”
“Or maybe he’s up to something. I don’t 100% trust him. He has good intentions every now and then, but the bastard’s erased my memory at least once. And he can just rearrange the town as a whole. This has to go deeper. Have you seen him recently?”
“He’s over playing Pac-Man that way.”
Got up and walked that way. Felix was somewhere about 20 levels into Pac-Man, still on the first life, and with what looked to be the ghost patterns mapped out on the screen with a dry erase marker. “Oh hey, Ash. What are you up to?”
“Care if I ask a simple question?”
“What’s on your mind?”
“Well, every last one of these games is one that I enjoy, with nothing I wouldn’t at all. In this entire building.”
He had taken his hands off the controls, and Pac-Man was destroyed by the red ghost. “What’s wrong with that?” he said.
“Well, I was just curious as to how you figured this out.”
“Oh, that’s nothing important,” he said with a shrug, returning to his game.
“No, it is kind of important. I never once told you about any of this.”
“Well, I just thought ‘What would Ash like’ and—“
“And? How’d you figure that one out, Felix?”
“Well, you don’t need to worry.”
“How intrusive did you get?” I asked him quietly.
“I might have data-mined your memories for some inspiration, but—“
“What.”
“Yeah, I just had to dump that for a moment and read through and find some games to purchase.”
“Felix, what the fu—“
“Now, before you get mad at me, you seemed to distrust me, and would probably have a cuss lined up if I asked anyways. I just wanted to help you and your friends.”
“Between this and my dad, you’ve got to pick. Are you intrusive or not?”
“Ash, you’re overre—“
“I have a reason to overreact, don’t you think? You can just mine people’s minds and take what you want for yourself, but can’t tell me about my dad in a better way? You made it so earnest. You made it seem like you were doing a good thing, but no, you let me learn the hard way that my dad murdered a guy!”
“Ash, I—“
“No, save it. Here, take your stupid pass, I’m going home.”
I stormed out and walked home in the dark. I made it home and went right to my room, and shouted in frustration. I’ve had it with Felix. He’s really lowly if he thinks he can get away with shit like that. I laid down, hoping that all of this was some twisted dream.
Apparently, I was out longer than I anticipated, as it was morning when I looked up. The arcade was still visible from my window, but now was just adorned with “New Infinity Video Arcade” across the front. I got ready for the day and headed downstairs. Alex was working on his laptop when I came down, and he looked up at me. “Doing better?” he asked.
“So what happened with the arcade?”
“He changed the name and the street name. It’s now 86th street.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, he was pretty upset when you left. It’s still open and he’ll honor your pass regardless, but he really felt like he hurt you. He left you a letter on the table."
I looked over at the envelope sealed with a wax stamp, and opened it.
“Dear Ash,
I apologize for my behavior over the last week. I just wanted to make your life a little happier after I learned of the tragedy your family endured. I never once stopped to consider it was actually hurting you. I am only as powerful as a programmer. I can dump logs and read the memories of the past, but have no real influence over the future or other people, and no way to dig deeper easily. I could not have known about your dad unless I was specifically looking for information about him. I will try to be more transparent next time. If you want to return any of your gifts, you can come leave them on my desk. I hope to see you in town more. Before you arrived and challenged my work, it was mostly just an endless dry run. You’ve helped me make so many changes to the town and bring it all together. It really feels like it’d fit in for real now. If anything, it’s better than any other town on earth now.
Thank you, Ash.
-Felix”
I gave it some thought that afternoon. I guess it was right in that he couldn’t have known, and just tried to handle it as best as he could. It was intrusive and poorly executed, yes, but I guess that’s just the kind of person Felix is. He was probably over at the café again today, sipping black coffee and considering what he had done. Never once did he blame me for what happened, so… I guess he is a bit trustworthy.
A bit.
ns 15.158.61.6da2
