Solitude Creek

A fan of video games forever — he still played them regularly to relax — March had decided to create one himself. It would be about gladiatorial contests, a first-person game, where you see the action as if you were participating in it. The enemy comes at you and you must fight for your survival (or, as in some of the games, you sneak up behind your foe and slit his or her throat). Thanks to books like the one he was listening to and other research, he’d learned all he needed to about the contests themselves. The next step would be learning how to craft video games. He’d played them, many to the end, for nearly twenty years and had a good idea of how they worked but he would have to learn the mechanics of putting one together and find a computer person to help.

He spent hours fantasizing about the game and imagining what it would be like to play. He even had a title: The Blood of All. It was from a poem, perhaps by Catullus, a paean to a particular gladiator, Verus, in first-century Rome. He knew the last stanza by heart.

O Verus, you have fought forty contests and have
Been offered the wooden Rudis of freedom
Three times and yet declined the chance to retire.
Soon we will gather to see the sword
In your hand pierce the heart of your foes.
Praise to you, who has chosen not to walk through
The Gates of Life but to give us
What we desire most, what we live for:
The blood of all.

He’d worked on the game off and on for years. If it became a hit, of course, he’d have to be careful to remain anonymous. A game designer would get some publicity and he supposed it wasn’t good for someone who spent his days doing, well, what he did, to be too much in the public eye. But then he figured that the project wouldn’t draw attention to him — not like a famous author. He’d never have four hundred people at a book signing, like I’m-a-Coward Richard Stanton Keller had had tonight.

Tomorrow Is the New Today. He smiled, thinking: Well, it sure wasn’t for some of the people in attendance at the Bay View.

Another glance at the house. A light was on. But—

Just then his phone hummed with a text.

He squinted and picked up the unit.

What the hell’s this? he thought. No. Oh, no …

The plans for the evening had changed.

CHAPTER 35

‘How bad?’ Jon Boling asked.

‘I don’t want to talk about my day. Let’s talk about yours.’

Boling smiled. ‘I’m not sure how captivating an article on flaws in Boolean search logic will be. How about we play roast beef sandwich?’

She smiled, too, and kissed him. ‘I’m starved. Thanks.’

He whipped up plates and brought them onto the Deck, set out a glowing candle. Dance couldn’t help but think: lighting it for the dead at Bay View Center.

He opened a bottle of Jack London Cabernet. The wine wasn’t bad but she really liked the wolf on the label.

‘What’ve the munchkins been up to?’ she asked, as they sipped wine and ate the sandwiches and potato salad.

‘Mags was still moody.’

Dance shook her head. ‘I’ll sit down with her again. See if I can pry it out of her.’

‘But she seems to like her club. She was Skyping with them for an hour or so.’

‘Oh, what’s it called? The Secrets Club.’

‘That’s it. Bethany and Cara. Lucie too, I think. Pretty exclusive, it sounds like.’

‘You kept an eye on it?’

‘I did.’

Dance’s rule was that the children could Skype or go online only if an adult was nearby and checking in occasionally.

‘An official club?’ she asked.

‘I’m not sure Pacific Heights Grade School requires much in the way of charter for a club to be official.’

‘Good point … Secrets Club,’ she mused. ‘And what do they do? Gossip about their American Girl dolls?’

‘I asked her and she said it was a secret.’

They both laughed.

Boling waved off another pour of wine. Since the children were here, he was present only until bedtime, then would drive back home. Just like he never drank when he was chauffeuring them anywhere.

‘And Wes?’

‘Donnie came over for a while. I like him. Really smart. I was teaching them how to code. He picked it up fast.’

‘What do you think about that game they’re playing now — Defend and Respond Expedition? What is it again?’

‘Service.’

‘Right.’

‘I have no idea what it’s about but what I’m fascinated with is that they’re rejecting the computer model. Writing out their battle plans, or whatever they do, sort of like football plays. Or like the old Battleships game. Remember?’

‘Sure.’

‘It’s a return to traditional game practices. I think there’s even an aspect where they do a scavenger hunt or something outside, find clues in the park or down by the shore. They’re out in the real world, ride their bikes, get some exercise.’

‘Like I used to play when I was a girl.’