A New Playing Field
“Meet me online after school.” Said Paul as he locked his locker door.
“Alright! Talk to you then!” I said back, just starting to unlock my own. We were a great gaming team, we had won multiple tournaments together, and today he planned on introducing me to his friend from online. He’d never actually met this guy, but he’d talked a lot via voice chat, so they felt kind of close. My locker, as always, was pretty much empty except for my bag and coat, no stickers or mirrors or anything like that on the inside. Paul had bought me a miniature whiteboard, but I never seemed to get around to putting it up.
On my way home I noticed that there was construction across the street from my house, they were fixing a water main I think, I never did find out for sure what they were working on, all I knew was that they were using some pretty heavy machinery.
I knocked on my door, but remembered that my mom wouldn’t be home yet, she had to take my brother to the orthodontist today, I went around back and grabbed the extra key we always keep in the wood shed. Once inside I immediately went to my room and booted up my computer, assuming that Paul was probably already waiting for me, he had a bit of a gaming addiction, I really needed to find him a girlfriend. But, surprisingly enough, he wasn’t online yet, so I got up and got some soda while I waited. And, eventually, he came online. We immediately started up a voice chat.
“Hey man, how’s it hanging?” Said Paul in a laughably bad surfer dude impression.
“I just saw you like five minutes ago, do you really think that anything changed?” I said in return, laughing at how bad the impression was.
“Alright man, let’s boot up the game.” Paul said
“Alright.” I said, starting up the game. “Hey, dude, when’s that other guy you told me about getting on?”
“Pretty soon bro, don’t worry about it.” We decided to play a one vs. one match while we waited for this mysterious third person. Paul took the upper hand immediately, taking me out then burning down my base. I wasn’t as good as Paul at gaming, but at least I had a life outside of gaming and school work. I had a girlfriend, played on a lacrosse team, and overall, life was pretty good for me. Within fifteen minutes, Paul had already taken me out 31 times, plus built a giant spider mech.
“Take that, you peasant!” Laughed Paul into his microphone, which startled me, since he’d been quiet for a good 2 minutes. But, suddenly, the new guy joined the chat. His username was geocrafter1157, and his profile picture was a cherry tree in full blossom.
“Hello?” Said Geocrafter1157.
“Hi!” I said, a little louder than I meant to, which I think surprised him.
“Hey, you’re king of lore, right?” He asked, curiously enough, only at that point did I notice that he had a slightly feminine voice, but also a little nasally, definitely a voice I’d never heard before.
Yes, I thought, I am KingOfLore77, as that was my username. “Yeah, that’s me.” I said
“Alright why don’t we level the playing field a bit and put you on King of Lore’s team?” Said Paul, or should I say ‘XCaptainPotatoX’, as that was his username.
“Hey Cpt. Potato? Can you give us an extra starting couple soldiers, to make it fairer?” I said, because Paul was just that good. “You know, since you already have that massive spider walker, plus a massive fortress and an undead army.”
“I guess, though I’ll still beat you!” Paul said, a strong sense of cockiness in his voice.
So we played the game for a while longer, us eventually getting a mechanical Sandworm and taking Paul by surprise while he was refueling. Soon enough, the game was over, and Paul had to go, he said he’d be back in about an hour, and then we’d battle online as a team of three.
“So? Do you want to start up a new game, or what?” Said Geo, while customising the look of his character.
“Yeah sure, you want to play online or just versus each other?” I asked.
“Can we play against A.I.? I really am still figuring this game out.” Said Geo.
“Alright, I suppose you want them set to easy?” I asked, already setting it to easy.
“Sounds good, hey, can I ask you something?” He asked me.
“Sure” I replied, starting up the match.
“What would you do if you didn’t have a man your life, if everyone in your family were women?” He asked, a sense of sadness in his voice.
“Well, if there was no whatsoever, I’d wonder how anyone ever was born!” I said, trying to lighten the mood. Right then the game loaded
“But I mean, my dad died when I was little, and my both my grandfathers died before I was born, I have no male role models in my life.” He said, throwing a grenade into the elevator up to a starship’s bridge.
“Oh.” I said, lost for words, this guy was pouring his heart out to me, someone he hardly even met. Why did he trust me so easily?
“And all my friends always say that I’ve got a very feminine body, not a manly body at all. People mistake me for a girl all the time.” He said. “And my voice sounds girly too, I mean, even you can hear that, right?”
“Yeah, I kind of can.” I wanted badly to deny it, but it was true, and I think this guy really needed honesty right now, not lies. “But I mean, it’s still obviously a guy’s voice.”
“I guess. I just really don’t know what to do, the only people I’ve looked up to my whole life have been women, and…” His voice trailed off, like he didn’t know what to say next. I wondered again what I could do to help Geo out, but I really didn’t know, I’d never had a situation like this before. I had helped a lot of people out of a lot of tough situations, but this, this was not just a different ball game, but a whole new playing field. “But I mean, I don’t identify as a girl, and I’m not homosexual.”
“And it wouldn’t matter to me if you were.” I knew a lot of people who were homophobic, but I was certainly not one of them, not at all. I respected anyone who had the courage to come out as gay. I shot down another airplane with one of the massive guns we had just built on our base.
“But I’m not, but sometimes, sometimes I highly consider a sex change, I look and sound more like a girl, plus most of my opinions are from a girl’s sort of perspective, because of my family.” He said with a sigh. “Plus, most my family are confessed feminists, so get mad at me sometimes just because I’m a guy.”
“I can’t tell you what to do geocrafter1157” I said back, and it was true, this was not a decision someone could make for you. It was a decision you could only make yourself.
“What do you think I should do?” He asked again, he was really on the edge of crying at this point, and so was I. Here was someone who really needed my help, but I had no way of helping.
“I think you should do whatever you think is best for yourself.” I said, I may not have had a way of helping, but I sure was going to try. “Don’t think of others, think of yourself here. Only you can choose.”
“But I don’t know what to do.” He said.
“Do what you think is best.” I said. I heard a breath from the other end, like he was about to say something, but then the power went out. I couldn’t believe it, the power in the house just died, right in the middle of our conversation. How was I supposed to help when I couldn’t contact him? Just then my mom got home with my brother, I ran up and asked what happened to the power.
“One of the machines hit the power line in the construction across the street.” Said my mom. “It should be back on in about an hour, it wasn’t too damaged.”
I ran back downstairs and grabbed my phone and texted Paul, asking if his power was out too, but he didn’t text back. I sat, staring at the blank screen for almost an hour before I had to go get dinner. I must have seemed like such a jerk leaving him like that. Dinner was good, my mom is a great cook, but as soon as dinner was over I tried texting Paul again, still no answer. My phone was starting to run low on charge, and soon it died, and with the power out I wasn’t able to charge it.
My mom’s guess was off by a good 7 hours, and the power wasn’t on until the next morning, but I had to go to school and couldn’t call geocrafter1157, so I talked to Paul at school to see if he knew anything, but his power had died too, and he didn’t text back because his phone died too. I decided not to tell Paul about what I and Geo talked about, in case Geo wanted to keep it confidential. So after school I sprinted almost the whole way home, only to find that geocrafter1157 was an account that no longer existed, it just wasn’t on the database, he must have shut down his account. At that moment I realised that I had never so much as gotten this guy’s real name, nor he mine, So I would never have any idea what happened next to him. Maybe he sold his account to pay for surgery, or maybe he shut it down because he was just that mad at me for leaving, or maybe someone else shut it down. I will never know.