Into the Life of Hadji Part 2
Hadji and Miana had become very close in the space of
just a few weeks. Miana was spending a lot of time on the
Quest compound, and she had become like family to the Quests.
However, she was becoming more and more withdrawn, even in
spite of her and Hadji's happiness, and it had everyone
worried. There was one weekend that no one had heard from
her, and that had Hadji very upset and hurt. Hadji was alone
in his room pondering the situation when Jessie knocked on
the door.
"Come in."
"Hadji, I have something you may want to see." said
Jessie, handing him a newspaper.
"What is it?"
"An obituary-- for Luella Scolari, Miana's mother."
"Oh no... she mentioned that her mother was in the
hospital, but I did not know it was like this..."
"There is something more, isn't there?"
"I am not sure, but I think Miana is having problems
at home-- something to do with her father."
"You know, Hadj-- you could talk to Dr. Quest about her
coming to stay..."
Hadji's head snapped up.
"You know, I just may do that."
Days went by, and still no word from Miana. She had
started missing class, and finally Hadji took it upon himself
to go to her house. He rang the bell, and a lady not much
older than Miana answered the door.
"Yes?" asked the lady.
"My name is Hadji. I am here to see Miana."
"Well, Hadji," she said in a curt manner, "she isn't
here."
"And you are?" asked Hadji.
"I'm Mrs. Scolari. What's it to ya?"
Hadji started scratching at the back of his turban as
his eyebrows went up.
"Can you tell me where she is?"
"Hey Lester!" shouted Mrs. Scolari back into the house.
"That towelhead your kid has been seeing is here!"
"No need to be rude, madame. I will leave you now."
Just then, a kid on a bike rode up.
"You Hadji?" asked the unkempt little boy.
"Yes. And you are?"
"I'm Kenny-- Miana's brother. She left a couple of days
ago, and I don't know where she went!" continued the boy,
tearing up. "Please find her-- you're the only thing left
she cares about!", and the boy sped away on his bike.
"Hey!" came a shout from the house. "If you want to find
her, she works at Sam's Pub!", and the door slammed shut.
Hadji sped back to the compound and went in a frantic
search for Race.
"Race! Race!"
"Hadji, slow down! What's the problem?"
"Sam's Pub" panted Hadji. "Where is it?"
"You don't want to go there, Hadji-- it's trouble."
"Miana..."
"'Nuff said. Let's go."
Race and Hadji drove to the bar, which was in a
questionable part of town. They went in, and found Miana
behind the bar. Miana didn't notice who it was that came up
to the bar.
"Whaddyahave?" asked Miana, listlessly.
"An explanation." answered Hadji.
Miana looked up with tears in her eyes.
"I can't." she cried, throwing her towel on the bar and
starting to leave. Hadji grabbed her arm with a surprising
strength and pulled her up to him.
"I cannot help you if you will not let me. Where are
you staying?"
"In a sleeping room upstairs." she whimpered.
"Miana! Back to work!" shouted a fat, balding man.
"Screw around on your own time!"
"She is on her own time!" snapped Race. "She quits!"
They pulled Miana up the steps and found her room.
"What are you doing?" she shouted.
"Getting you out of here." answered Hadji. "Why did
you not tell me what was wrong and where you were going?"
"I didn't want to burden you with my problems."
"Why here, Miana?"
"I had no place to go. They needed help, and I needed
a place to stay. It was the best I could do on such short
notice."
"I would like it if you came to stay with us." requested
Hadji.
"Don't you think Dr. Quest might like to be informed?"
"He suggested it to my daughter." answered Race.
Miana broke down and fell into Hadji's arms. Race
gathered her few belongings and took them back to the
compound. Race called ahead and filled everyone else in on
the situation, and a room was prepared for Miana. By the
time they got back to the compound, Miana was asleep. Hadji
carried her upstairs and put her to bed. He kissed her
lightly on the lips.
"Good night, my love." he said softly as he was leaving
the room.
Hadji went downstairs and told everyone what he had
found out.
"It is apparent that her father remarried immediately
following his late wife's death. It is my impression that
Miana had problems all along, and could not handle this
latest development. As a result, she left without any notice
or preparation."
"What kind of person could do such a thing?" asked
Jessie.
"Obviously a man of limited character who cheated on his
sick wife and had no regard for his children." answered
Jonny.
"She is a really good actress. I would never have
guessed that there were any problems." stated Jessie.
"Obviously she wanted it that way." said Hadji.
"Well, I think we all need to give her the love and
support she never got at home and make her stay with us as
pleasant as possible. If my guess is right, she'll be here
for a good long time." replied Benton.
"I think the first thing we should do is give her some
sort of diversion to get her mind off her troubles."
suggested Race.
"I think a trip into Questworld would be just the
thing!" exclaimed Jonny.
"I agree, Jonny. However, I will go in with her. Dr.
Quest, would you monitor the system while we are in?" asked
Hadji.
"You going into Questworld? Man, that sure is a first!"
quipped Jonny.
"Of course, Hadji." answered Benton.
The next morning, Miana came downstairs to find everyone
sitting at the breakfast table. Hadji immediately got up
from the table and went to greet her.
"Miana, I have been so worried about you!" exclaimed
Hadji, taking her in his arms.
"I thought I was only dreaming last night-- I awoke, and
found myself here-- and was thanking God it wasn't. It's so
peaceful-- no screaming, no drunks, no insults..."
"That's how it was at the sleeping room?"
"No. At home. I took it that you saw my father?" asked
Miana.
"No, but I saw his new wife-- a very prejudiced woman."
answered Hadji.
"Ah! You met Sharon. I had many reasons to leave there,
but she was the straw that broke the camel's back. My father
is worse than she is, and wasn't happy to find out that I was
seeing you. His favorite term is 'towelhead'."
"That is Mrs. Scolari's favorite term as well."
"Oh, Hadji! I'm so..."
"It is not your fault. You are not responsible for the
actions of your family. Karma is watching them-- they will
see one day. Come and eat breakfast-- we have something to
show you."
After breakfast, they took Miana to the lighthouse and
told her all about Questworld.
"Virtual reality?! I've only heard about it! I didn't
realize that it was quite this advanced!" exclaimed Miana.
"Do you want to try it?" asked Hadji.
"Would I! I'd love to!"
Hadji and Miana both took a seat, and Hadji showed Miana
how to put on the headgear. The phone rang, and Jonny
announced to Benton over the intercom that he had a call.
Benton had Jonny come up from the house to monitor Hadji and
Miana while he was on the phone.
"You don't mind monitoring, then." asked Hadji.
"Sure, Hadj! No problem! Questworld logon: Subjects
Hadji Singh and Miana Scolari. Going hot!"
The computer counted down, and Hadji and Miana were
pulled into the fantastic landscape of Questworld. Miana
looked down at the standardized, vectorized body she had.
"Wish I was this thin in reality!" she quipped.
"You are beautiful to me no matter what you look like.
Jonny, two virtuaspeeders please."
Just then, two virtual reality hovercraft appeared
before them.
"Hop on, and follow me."
It took Miana a few minutes to get a hang of the system,
but soon she was off and running, and doing well. She had
followed Hadji through the streets of a virtual city, and
were heading out of it and into a barren desertscape.
Suddenly, Miana noticed virtual Hadji holding his head.
"Hadji! What's wrong? You are disappearing from my
screen! Hadji!!!!" screamed Jonny.
"Miana! My mind is being pulled... I have never
felt..."
All of a sudden, Hadji and Miana's virtual forms burst
through a ball of white light and appeared inside of a
translucent hollow ball. Outside the walls of the ball could
be seen a virtual landscape of a beautiful garden. The ball
set down on the ground, and expanded around them to encompass
them and the garden, and became to what appeared to be the
sky.
"My God!" exclaimed Miana. "This place reminds me of
the Garden of Eden!"
"We were pulled here, but where is here? This is not
any known part of Questworld."
"I don't know about you, Hadji, but I'm not complaining.
It's beautiful."
It was then that they turned around and noticed their
virtual forms were altered. They were still vectorized, but
more true to form. Miana's form was no longer thin, Hadji's
form was missing the turban... and both were missing other
things as well.
"My God!!! This computer stripped me! And I'm not thin
anymore!" panicked Miana as she was frantically trying to
cover herself up.
Hadji's handsome, lean, muscular form went over to her
and took her arms.
"No need to be embarrassed, my love. It is just the two
of us here, and you are still beautiful to me. Very
beautiful!" he said as he pulled back and fully took the
sight of her in.
Miana took the opportunity to look him over well and was
very impressed.
"And you look like this in reality?"
"Yes, I do." answered Hadji.
Hadji took Miana's hand and they went exploring the
virtual garden. It wasn't long until they had come to a
large meadow in the center of the garden. Hadji and Miana
looked around the garden and were getting so caught up in the
peace and serenity of it that they started to forget they
were in a game. Meanwhile, in the real world, Jonny was in a
panic.
"Hadji! Wake up! You're not on my screen!
DAAAAAAAAAD!"
Benton got off the phone and ran into the room.
"What's the problem, Jonny?"
"A few weeks ago, I found a game on the Internet and
incorporated it into Questworld. Obviously the game has some
dynamics that conflict with Questworld, and now Hadji's in
there and I can't get him out. They're forgetting they're in
a game, dad! They're losing touch with reality!"
"You need to go in after them." replied Benton.
Meanwhile, inside the game, Hadji and Miana were
enjoying the pleasures of the garden in ALL respects. Hadji
and Miana were oblivious to their surroundings. Jonny took a
seat next to them and put on the headgear, while Benton
prepared to log him in.
"Questworld logon: Subject: Jonny Quest. Going hot!"
The computer counted down, and Jonny appeared in the
same garden as Hadji and Miana, and in the same state.
"Oh, geez!! This game worked better than I thought..."
thought Jonny. "Uh, dad! Can you send some clothes in
here?"
"I can't, son. You are not even on my screen."
"The challenge here is how to get them out, as well as
myself. This place has quite an effect on a person..."
"Jonny, you need to try to get their attention. This
could be dangerous if they don't leave soon."
Just then, Jonny tried the obvious.
"Hadji! Miana! Where are you?"
After several attempts, Hadji and Miana emerged from
some bushes.
"Jonny! What are you doing here? How..."
"You and Miana got pulled into an experimental program I
put into the system. It needs more work before it can be
used safely. We need to find a way out of here."
"First, could there be a way we can find some covering?"
asked Hadji.
"No way I know of, unless we can pull some leaves down
from some trees or something," answered Jonny. "But we need
to find a way to get out of here. How did you get here to
begin with?"
"A bubble brought us here." answered Miana.
"A bubble?" asked Jonny.
"Yes. Look up. The 'sky' is the bubble that brought us
here. It found us in Questworld and brought us to this
place." answered Hadji.
"It 'found' you?"
"Yes. Can you think of how the normal game is supposed
to go?" asked Hadji.
"It runs according to the story of the Garden of Eden.
The way to end the game is to eat the apple, and then the
game ends." answered Jonny.
"In a normal videogame environment, that would be
simple. But enhanced by the dynamics of Questworld, that
could be a challenge."
"According to the story, the serpent took Eve to the
Tree of Knowledge, and tempted her with the fruit. If we
could find the serpent, we could find the tree." replied
Jonny.
"It would be easier to find a serpent than an individual
tree. But how do we find the snake?"
"How do you figure it would be easier to find the
snake?" asked Miana. "Trees are stationary, snakes are not."
"Never mind that." said Jonny. "We have no choice but
to do it the hard way. We look."
It wasn't as hard as they had thought, as the snake
found them.
"Ahhh, welcome players! How can I tempt you today?
What fantasies can I tease you with?"
"We're feeling kind of hungry." answered Jonny.
"You could have any fantasy fulfilled, and you want
something to eat." commented the serpent.
The snake lead them to a grove of exotic trees, and
explained in detail what each kind of fruit could do-- all
except for one simple apple tree in an obscure corner of the
grove-- almost to obvious to miss, despite its location.
They headed toward the apple tree.
"Oh, no. You wouldn't want those." scolded the snake.
"On the contrary, it's exactly what we want!" exclaimed
Jonny.
He threw Hadji and Miana apples. They all took a bite,
and immediately the large bubble that was the sky shrank
around them and took them back to Questworld. The bubble
disappeared, their forms were back to normal, and they were
seen on Dr. Quest's screen.
"Good job, son. Ready to come home, boys?" asked
Benton.
"Most definitely, Dr. Quest." answered Hadji.
"That's quite a game, Jonny. I think I need a shower."
replied Hadji.
"A cold shower?" teased Jonny.
Hadji looked embarrassed, and Miana followed closely
behind.
"I think the program needs to be encrypted until we find
out how to use it more safely." suggested Jonny.
"I'm inclined to agree, Jonny." replied Benton. "I'm
inclined to agree."
Hadji and Miana both cleaned up, and they were sitting
in Hadji's room in silence. There was an awkward feeling
between them that they had trouble dealing with.
"Hadji, is something wrong?" asked Miana. "You haven't
said a word to me since we logged out of Questworld."
"No, it is nothing with you. It is just ever since the
game, I feel so strange..."
"Vulnerable? Compromised? Violated?"
"No! Do not say that! I could never feel violated by
you! It is just that game was so intense! So realistic, and
for someone who has never..."
"Never?! You're a..."
"Yes, Miana. I am. What surprises me is your reaction.
I take it you are not?"
"It's not by choice. Let's leave it at that, ok?"
Hadji caught her meaning and dropped the subject.
"We'll never speak of it again." said Hadji as he
embraced her tightly. When he let go of her, he could see s
look of longing and desire in her eyes. She lowered her
head, and he tipped her chin up and kissed her with such
depth and power that the passion of it totally overwhelmed
her. Her legs lost stability, and she started to fall to the
floor. Hadji scooped her up and gently layed her on the bed.
They started to become passionate with one another, when
Miana realized what was happening.
"Hadji, we can't. Not now. I want to, but I just
can't."
"It is alright, love. It will just give us something to
look forward to."
Hadji went to bed that night full of desire and
longing... and loneliness. His bed was empty, and for the
first time in his life, he realized it. He felt a decision
had to be made, but it would take some time to think about.
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