“Get Connected!” the box said in bold red letters. Ted looked at the box imagining what he would behold when he plugged in the virtual suit and went on line. Just then Ted’s roommate barged in, “Road Trip!” Under his arm was his girlfriend who had become a regular fixture in their dorm room. “What my oversized friend meant was we have six tickets to the State game!” the small blond shouted as she waved a fan of tickets. “That’s was I said,” responded the roommate “Road Trip!!!”

“But you don’t have any wheels,” Ted responded, “That jalopy of yours won’t make it off campus much less to State University.” “All taken care of” the burley roommate retorted in a mock comforting tone, “Chuck has one of those oversized convertibles from the '70's and I have enough tickets to accommodate us, him and his girl.” “So let’s get you a date,” the girlfriend added. She was constantly trying to hook Ted up with somebody, anybody.

Ted thought for a second. A weekend of being connected to a virtual experience of anything or a weekend of eating sleeping and partying in a convertible with five other people? It was a hard choice but Ted made up his mind, “Sorry guys. Thanks for the invite, but I’m gonna sit this one out. I’ll look for you on TV when I watch the game.” “Your loss rommie.” The two left the room yelling, “Anyone up for a road trip to the State game?”

It took Ted a few hours to hook the suit up to the computer including a long questionnaire about himself. Then he logged on to the Connections, Inc. server. Once he had the suit and goggles on he arrived at the first menu. A receptionist looked up from her desk, “Fantasy or reality?” Ted responded “Fantasy!” “Good choice,” responded the virtual hostess. “Please choose from one of the following settings.” In front of Ted was a wall of choices: future, past, storybook.... Ted choose a cave man fantasy. Suddenly he was clothed in fur and had a wooden club in his hand. Then the reception area evaporated and he was in a cave with a group of cave people. That is when he saw her. She had no name in this fantasy. She had raven black hair and green eyes. He stared at her and then moved over beside her to share some of his food with her. The inhabitants of the cave had a very simple language of grunts and motions. As the fantasy unfolded Ted interacted with the raven haired girl, rescued her from danger, and had a romantic encounter with her.

When it was over Ted found himself in the reception area again. “Would you like another fantasy?” the receptionist asked. “Yes, I want to be a space explorer from the future.” Then Ted turned to see a wall of faces. “Please choose your characters,” the receptionist motioned to the faces. Some of them were from the first fantasy but others were new. Right away Ted saw the raven haired girl. After he finished choosing the reception area melted away and he was on the bridge of a starship reminiscent of some space movies he had seen. Ted was the first officer and the raven haired girl was one of the helmsmen.

Fantasy after fantasy went like this. In every one there was the same girl and Ted got to know her over and over again.

Ted didn’t remember taking off the suit, but he had obviously worn it for the better part of a day and collapsed into bed Sunday night. He awoke on Monday morning and it lay there on the floor. Ted got ready for his 9 AM class and went as always to a seat on the back row. As the other students filtered into the room one caught his eye. It was a girl with black hair and green eyes. She looked just like the one in the virtual fantasies. She was turning a map of campus over and over and comparing it to another piece of paper. She was obviously a new transfer who had added the class. Ted took the chance. He walked up to her as he had a hundred times in the fantasies and asked her if she were lost. He almost called her by one of the names used for the black haired girl in the virtual fantasies. It turned out that her name was Sara and she had recently transferred in and was looking for her class. Fate would have it that it was the very class that Ted was in. After class they went to lunch and talked and talked. They discovered they had a lot in common and talking together became their regular habit. It didn‘t take long for the two to get engaged and married right after graduation.

Ted once told Sara how he had been attracted to her because she looked like a girl from a virtual fantasy. They often laughed about it. Ted got a good job in a computer firm and they moved into a house in the suburbs. A few years later Sara quit her job and had two children: a boy and a girl. Both had her black hair and green eyes.

Years later Ted marveled at how much like her mother little Jessica had become as he saw her in that wedding dress and was getting ready to walk her down the isle of the church to give ...

.... “Let me get this straight. He has been wearing that suit for how long?” The technician looked up at the doctor, “We think over 48 hours.” The big roommate interrupted while looking over the technician’s shoulder, “He was playing with it before we left for the weekend and when we got back a few hours ago he was still there all wired up to the computer.” “Turning off the connection is simple,” added the technician, “but we have no idea what his mental state will be. He may have lost touch with reality.” The doctor looked at the campus police officers that were standing in the doorway, “And I suppose they are here in case he gets violent?“ “And in case we need other unforeseen help,” the technician added.

...”Daddy” Jessica looked up from the hospital bed at Ted with a tear in her eye, “Its a girl!” Ted couldn’t help but cry himself. He took hold of the small bundle already a head full of black hair and green eyes like her mother and grandmother. Sara smiled at Ted from the other side of the bed. Then with a flash the room went dark.

“Sara, Sara!” Ted yelled as he collapsed. The doctor and one of the campus police officers caught him before he hit the floor then gently laid him down. The technician moved away from the computer keyboard where he had terminated the connection and took off the hood of the virtual suit. Ted blinked and looked around the room. He had been here before, but when? Yes, it looked like his old college dorm room. He looked at the people gathered around him. A doctor and a technician. Maybe he had fainted and this was an older part of the hospital. “Where is Sara. Where is Jessica?” Then he saw his roommate just as he had looked 30 years ago on the day that he hooked up that virtual suit.

“Ted,” said the technician, “do you know where you are?” Ted looked around and then he noticed he was wearing the virtual suit. “No! No! Sara! No! No! Sara! No...” The other police officer spoke into her intercom, “Were gonna need transport to the hospital. Alert the psyche evaluation team.”

Do you get it?

Yeah, I’m talking to you.

You, the mouse potato looking at the screen.

Yes, I mean you!

Don’t you get it?