'The Playmate'

Chapter 3
The New Job

The monotonic drone of the pilot’s voice roused Will from his fitful sleep. Grudgingly, he raised his seat back to the upright position and bucked his seat belt as the plane began its gradual descent. Outside the window, small glimmering cobwebs of light shone in the pitch darkness miles below.

After returning to normal, he had tried contacting Jimmy to check that all was well, but hadn’t received a response. His friend was probably so freaked out by the whole experience that he had disengaged, he thought with a sigh.

A few days later, things had taken a bright turn for Will. He received an unexpected call from a recruiter, and after a couple of perfunctory phone interviews, found himself hired as a “Community Manager” for a game studio. The salary was generous, and all he had to do was moderate online forums and hang around inside various virtual worlds to help players who had forgotten their passwords, misplaced their virtual weapons, or otherwise resolve their petty disputes.

Only downside was that while he could stay in the Midwest and work from home, he was still required to occasionally visit company headquarters. That was located in a mid-sized West Coast city infamous for its hipster vibe, which Will found offensive to his sensibilities. So it had been with a sigh of resignation when he opened the email invitation to an “All-Hands Summer Town Hall Meeting”.

Stepping off the skybridge into the airport, he strode with disdain over the geometric teal carpet that allegedly had its own Facebook page. Fortunately, his hotel, which touted itself as some sort of kitsch boutique, was blissfully normal beyond an abundance of purple roses in stone vases and the risqué Athena poster hanging behind the lobby reception.

The next morning, riding a streetcar into the office, he half expected to encounter phalanxes of huffing cyclists, dog parks the size of Olympic stadiums, and shantytowns of disheveled food trucks. But there was none of that – instead handsome brick buildings lined the leafy downtown streets humming with rush hour traffic.

The meeting had already started when he arrived at the industrial loft-style building, with reclaimed wood walls and artfully mismatched furniture. Someone was on stage droning long winded corporate platitudes and circumlocutions, so he quietly wound his way thru the crowd to graze at the breakfast buffet. As he bent over to examine a donut improbably topped with maple frosting and slices of bacon, there came a shrill shriek from the loudspeakers and the crash of a microphone hitting the ground. “Oh bullocks!” the speaker cursed.

Will nearly dropped his coffee. Whirling around, he stared at the heavyset Asian man on stage fumbling with his microphone. He glanced at the program agenda: “Opening Keynote – James Kim, President, North American Operations”.

After the speech was over, Will tailed the executive up a winding flight of stairs to the upper floor, where four enormous skylights flooded a catacomb of cubicles interspersed with gleaming glass walls. As everyone else was at the meeting, the space was eerily empty. Will watched as the man disappeared down a long corridor into a corner office.

Taking a deep breath, Will approached the office, knocked and entered. The executive looked up at him from his desk with mild surprise.

“Hello! I’m Will. Will Tailorwell.”

“Hello, Will. Very nice to meet you.” The man rose and shook Will’s hand warmly. There wasn’t the slightest hint of recognition.

An awkward pause followed as Will struggled with what to say next. “I’m… I’m from the Midwest.” he blurted.

“The… Midwest? Oh yes, of course!” The man broke out into a broad smile. “You came highly recommended. So glad to have you on board!”

There was another awkward pause as Will’s mind went into overdrive. Then his eyes fell on a shelf stacked with trophies from what looked to be video game tournaments. Etched on many of them was the name “dimitrian”.

“I just wanted to meet you in person.” Will finally said with a knowing smile.

“Well, it was great meeting you too. Don’t hesitate to reach out if there’s anything I can do for you.” The executive sat down and turned his attention back to the computer screen.

He’s got quite the poker face, Will thought to himself as he left the office and ambled down the corridor past the empty cubicles. As he rounded a corner, he collided with a diminutive figure running from the opposite direction.

“Billy!” a familiar voice rang out. “I’ve been looking all over for you. What on earth were you doing in my Dad’s office?”

Will stared down at Jimmy, slack-jawed. “You… you… you’re really a kid? Why did you…?” he spluttered.

Jimmy looked up at him with puppy dog eyes. “I’m an only child, and I have no friends at school. The other kids think I’m weird for taking classes two grades ahead, and refuse to believe I’m a top-ranked athlete. So they all gang up on me and call me ‘Piggy’ and…”

“Athlete?” Will looked skeptically at the pudgy, pasty-white boy.

“I play video games competitively! It’s called ‘eSports’, and it’s internationally recognized! I train for hours every day to hone my skills, and I’ve won lots of tournaments. But even though I’ve got many online friends, they are all much older than me.” He paused for a moment, and then continued in a small voice. “All I want is someone my age who I can play with in the real world. Is that too much to ask?”

Distracted and feeling a pang of sympathy for the kid, Will didn’t even see the punch coming. Doubling over with pain, he felt Jimmy slap something onto his arm. There was a familiar whooshing sensation, and soon he found himself staring up at Jimmy, his pants and boxers pooled like a collapsed tent around his ankles.

“The waterpark at the edge of town just installed a new SkyTidal slide with a 6G freefall and 30 foot vertical loop! You’re coming with me right?”

“You… you turn me back right now!” Will demanded, somewhat unconvincingly in a faltering falsetto.

“Why? You look pretty pleased to me, with that big goofy grin on your face…”

“I’ll tell your Dad!” Will tried to turn and run, but tripped over his underwear and fell flat on his face.

“Are you trying to get yourself fired?” Jimmy responded with an alligator grin. “And oh, by the way, I thought you looked really hot posing in those fancy speedos on your sister’s website…”

Will froze, his face blushing a deep red. “Oh I’m so going to get you for that…” He lunged at Jimmy, who danced aside with surprising agility.

“You gotta catch me first!” Jimmy grinned as he raced down the hallway with Will trailing behind him, slipping and sliding over his floppy loose socks, his black T-shirt flapping wildly like an oversized pillowcase over his twiggy body.

Amidst overturned swivel chairs, upset wastepaper baskets and scattered flurries of paper, the office reverberated with the boisterous sounds of boys at play; shouting, cavorting, yelling, romping, laughing.