So there I was, hunched over the keyboard, the monitors light almost glaring after a long day and several swigs of Wild Turkey. I mellow buzz, curtesy of a large dose of homegrown, had me more contemplative than normal. The lights of the basement were dim and isolating.
On the screen before me, my representative avatar worked diligently on a medium sized alpine style, virtual home. I'd built the structure, but as always, had slowed down during the texture and interior selections. I really should learn to build for a texture rather than build all frantic and then find that elusive mirage that will transform a pile of plywood into a palace or townhouse or outpost.
When I build, it is of consequence to note, I get tunnel vision and tunnel hearing. It becomes a matter of numbers and rotation and narrow strips of sunlit prim dissapearing as I nudge them gently together. It becomes a matter of, much to my dismay at times, symetry and order. IMs can go unoticed, and at times I even slide past an appointment within SL, unaware in my prim-induced trance.
So it's no wonder that my first inkling of her presence in the room was a hand on my shoulder. I won't lie and say that caused a smooth and well-oiled reaction within me; that my body and mind were one. Quite the opposite. My body seemed to hop about 3 inches into the air, leaving it's former position of being firmly planted on the chair, and testing the higher air for possible security.
My mind however did a slow (in terms of thought) and steady rundown of possibilities. First on the list was my ex-wife. I call her that even though we live together and we are still married. Don't misunderstand though. I love her as I can. And she loves me. But we have spent more of our 18 years of marriage apart, though still good friends, than living under the same roof.
As my head turned slightly, mid ass-jump, I caught a glimpse of a small t-shirted figure, half behind me. The t-shirt was a navy blue I'm sure..and I believe thier were, oddly or commonly enough, a pair of white cordoroy shorts covering it from waist to knee. Naturally, as my bottom found it's sudden place upon my chair seat once again, my head tilted upward, my eyes straining to the side, to see the face of whoever stood at my shoulder. It's strange that I didn't turn my body at the waist, or even really crane my neck, but merely peered around from the corner of my eyes, with the slightest of neck rotation.
And here is where the train leaves the tracks.
The face, at first a white blur surrouned by long, tangled dark hair, hovered far too close to me, over my shoulder. Any quick deductive path that led me to think it was my son, came abruptly to a halt.
The nose was too broad, and the eyes far too dark, with a moist, shining twinkle the only hint that they weren't dark pits. The lips, full but as pale white as the surrounding skin, were turned down at the corners. It was as if all the particular features of this face were clear to me, yet my mind refused to piece together a full image of just who this was or what they really looked like.
Meanwhile, the hand upon my shoulder, or the weight that I assumed was a hand, had subtley dissapeared, and so quickly that I immediately worried that it had been no hand at all, but imagination, magic or something even further afield.
Anyway..there it is.
Continue it, bury it, ignore it. As you choose.
I just think the forums should be fun and suprising again. Many of us lose track of the fun sometimes, in RL and SL. And fun should be kept close and cherished.

