[Celebrate, Success]

  I walked all over the city, grid by grid, street by street. Nothing was as interesting as the central plaza, the video game that created life, food and water as long as the player was alive. As I’d wasted my time searching for what I knew not. Nyxi had stayed right in the plaza.

  Nyxi seemed to know more about this city than I did. She trotted right to the game from the main gate. I’d looked over the game and then searched, instead of focusing on what was right before me. Hind sight made me reconsider my plans and strategy.

  Maybe what I needed to do was to beat the game. I have no idea why the tower would want that. But why does it make me eat peas? It’s ten to fifteen years ago when I last beat the easier NES version of the game. I’ll use up to twenty quarters today, trying to win. The shadows are already lengthening, it'll be night soon, and a desert town will probably be cold. All I have are the light clothes on my back, plenty of empty shelter, but no wood that I’ve come across after wasting a day running around searching.

  My first quarter I make it as far as world six, using a few warps but die in world 6-2, My next quarter I make it to world 7-4, before dying. On the third quarter I made some terrible jumps and died in 6-1. My fourth quarter I felt more like my old self finally dying in world 8-3. My fifth, I made it all the way to the boss battle, where I allowed myself to be defeated. Finally on my sixth try, I managed to beat the game. I started looking all over the plaza for a glowing portal. I didn’t see one but I did see a man in a pith helmet moving toward a side street. I sprinted after him, shouting granddad, then when that didn’t cause him to turn around I yelled Colonel Henry Holland. He seemed to pause mid stride, but then he flickered out of existence.

  The Attract Mode must have reset the game. Damn. If that was granddad he had to have come down this street for a purpose, there was no exiting the city on this street if you follow it to the end, you hit one of the cities walls. As soon as there was light enough in the morning I was going to search this street for any signs of him.

  I made my way back to the plaza, chose a building close to the game machine, called Nyxi, and settled down for an uncomfortable night. Nyxi climbed up onto my chest, and radiated heat, but the rest of my body touching the cold hard floor leached away warmth.

  I woke up the next morning cold, stiff and sore. I was glad that my friends weren’t here this morning as I would have bit their heads off for no good reason. I lifted a still sleeping Nyxi from my chest and gently put her on the floor. I went outside and started to do some jumping jacks to get the blood flowing, warm up, and loosen up the stiffness.

  Then I used a quarter to get some water and five kabobs, four of which I stuck in my back pocket so that they wouldn’t disappear. Eating my kabob I walked up the street that the pith helmeted man had disappeared on. When I arrived at approximately where the man had disappeared I started to search the building. In hopes I’d find something granddad had left behind. But my hopes were dashed when I searched the last building. I’d found nothing useful, nor any indication that he had ever been here.

  I ate another kabob on the way back to the plaza. I’d beaten the game, but not my preferred way. I like to play every level in every world, could that be the answer? Nyxi was sitting by the game. I went over to her, giving her head a good scratch, and a kabob. I finished my kabob, wiped my hands on my pants. I didn’t want a bit of grease to ruin a good run.

  It took about twelve quarters before I won the game, and I sprinted for that street to see if it was granddad, but I didn’t see a pith helmeted man today. But I reasoned that it took me much longer to win the game without warps if these people were the same as a movie repeating the same actions over at the same time the man would have gone up that street a half hour ago. I raced back to the plaza in time to see the portal wink out of existence.

  That’s all right, I knew exactly how to get out of here, and I was confident I could do so with twenty or so quarters, and I had one hundred and fifty one left. So the next move was to beat it again with the warp zones then run to identify the man. So it only took a few quarters to beat it with warps and again I zoomed off and up the street, I yelled for Colonel Henry Holland, this time he turned around it was him. Unlike all the other ‘film’ figures in this world. It seemed that granddad could hear me.

  The problem was to catch him in the plaza, I’d need to leave the game before winning, and I’d only have thirty or forty seconds before he flickered out of existence. This was like the day loops over and over for granddad but he doesn’t retain his memory, only I do.

  So now I have to decide, do I just beat the game and then jump through the portal. Have I learned everything that I can? If not, what can I do differently? I can’t beat it any quicker, thereby intersecting granddad in the plaza, the longer win puts him even farther away. Maybe I could come back here with another fan of the game, that way they could play the game and I can stand in granddads path. Draco showed me a shortcut to the tower. There may be a shortcut here. I’ve seen and searched enough that I can give him a good description of the place. I really didn’t want to spend another night here. I called Nyxi over and gave her another cold kabob. I wanted her nearby. If I managed to open a portal we had nothing with us thus nothing needed to be taken home.

  It took me fifteen quarters on hard mode and the portal opened, I scooped up Nyxi and we stepped through. The familiar stone corridor, I was back in Tregaron. I wondered how long I had been gone this time, five days in tower time.

  “Nyxi, this is your new home. Let’s go to the kitchen to see what the cook has for you and if they have something we can use as a box for you. Then we have to see if everyone made it home safe. Then I’ll show you our room. Then we find Frida and get hugs and kisses, does that sound good Nyxi?”

  Cook set us up with a bowl of fish and a metal box with sand that Skye helpfully carried to my room for me as my arms were full with cat and food bowl. We put the box in the bathroom, and the food and water bowls in a private space besides my dresser. After I was sure Nyxi was alright, I went in search of my friends to make sure they were all back safe.

  I went down my tower steps to the front door, when I saw Harry, Draco and Groucho walking down the corridor from the eastern tower. I ran to greet them. Harry was carrying my knapsack.

  “Hey, are you guys just getting back?”

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “Yes, you walked through the portal and it just disappeared. What happened to you?” Draco asked.

  “I stepped through and I was in a deserted city, Nyxi led me to a mysterious videogame and when I finally figured out what to do I jumped back here, about half an hour ago.”

  Harry said, “I was on watch in the bungalow living room and the portal just appeared again, about half an hour ago, so when your portal opened, ours must have reopened. But someone was next door ‘talking’ to Lola”, luckily the portal remained open.”

  “Draco, do you know the way to an adobe city? It was very beautiful but deserted. I saw granddad. None of the other people could see or hear me, but granddad turned when I called his name. He could have turned for a different reason but I’m hoping I can go back with someone who can play the game. I might be able to speak to him.”

  “Sorry Jaq, I have no memory of a floor like that, it might have been one that Merlin designed. If we come across him in the tower, maybe he can direct us.”

  “Jaq, are we going back in tonight?”

  “No Groucho, I hardly got any sleep last night and I’m sore all over from sleeping on the ground. How about tomorrow night if a portal opens, a rest day might do us all good.”

  “Yeah I didn’t get much sleep last night either I was up ‘talking’ to Lola, Harry says talking is the polite way to say you were having sex with someone. I think that must just lead to confusion. Suppose Maz wants to talk about something. Then the next day you ask me, Groucho, what did you do last night? So what am I supposed to say? I talked to Maz, now you think I had sex with Maz. Which I definitely didn’t do. What do you think Jaq.”

  “That’s a tough one Groucho, maybe you could say that you were rubbing her feet, that’s probably something you don’t do with Maz right.”

  “Yeah from now on when I say foot rubs I mean sex, but talking is just back to plain old talking alright?”

  “Sounds good to me, well as long as you guys are all safe, I need to find Frida and find out how long we’ve been gone.”

  “Going to give her a foot rub Jaq?”

  “Ahem, you are all welcome at dinner, just let me know so I can tell Collins.”

  “I’ll be there Jaq.” said Harry.

  “Me too," said Groucho.

  “I’ll be in the corner. No need to tell Collins.”

  “Alright see you most of you tonight.”

  “Very witty Jaq.”

  “Thanks Draco.”

  I went to find Collins, informed him that Harry and Groucho would be joining us and asked that he put Groucho next to me, away from Grandma. Then I finally went to look for Frida. I looked in her room, outside in her favorite sunning spot, the library. She was nowhere to be found. I headed back to my room to take a bath and get ready for dinner.

  When I got back to my room, Frida was lying on my bed cuddling Nyxi.

  “Jaq, she is adorable you’re keeping her aren’t you.”

  “Yes, she helped me out quite a bit in the tower. I’m so glad you like her. I missed you so much. How long have we been gone?”

  “Four nights and five days, Four very long nights Jaq.”

  “Very long nights for me too Frida. Want to take a bath with me, I really need one before dinner.”

  “Sure Jaq, you run the water, I’ll run and get my dinner dress, be back in a minute.”

  I went in and started the bath, put in some bubbles and came back out into the bedroom to take off my clothes, Frida was back in just a flimsy robe that looked wonderful on her. I was just starting to get undressed. When I heard a POP.

  “Okay Jaq, you naughty girl, I don’t know where you were hiding yesterday, but you’re going to have to pay double tonight. Now strip. Oh what have we here, nice rack lady, are you going to play too?”