BEYOND THE PALE: ( The Outlander ) (11 page)

When Anton walked out
of the class room, he was shocked to find three pretty white girls waiting for
him and even calling out his name. He felt the urge to look behind him to see
if there was perhaps someone else called Anton in the nearby vicinity. River
was also standing with the girls, and he looked like the model of confidence;
this only served to make Anton feel less assured. River stepped forward to meet
his friend and leaned in to whisper in his ear, “Relax… Just be your self.
These girls wanted to meet you.” Then as an after thought he added, “Try not to
talk about anything technical.”  River then put his arm around Anton’s shoulder
as an inclusive gesture, and introduced him to his new friends. River steered
the conversation in such a way as to draw his friend out of his restricted
comfort zone and make him appear more gregarious. River took satisfaction from
the realisation that he had successfully introduced Anton into the group. He
intrinsically knew that Anton was lacking the ability to socially connect with
anyone, through no reason other than his lack of practice.

As a group, they
decided to head back to the dining hall and get lunch together. It was
approaching 1pm, and the hall was filling up with many more students also
looking for something to eat. River’s keen eye picked up on three guys who
seemed to be taking a noticeable exception to their little group which was
abuzz with high spirits. He supposed that he himself might the likely target of
their hostility, so he purposely found a vacant table far apart from them in
the restaurant section.

“I will stay here and
reserve the table,” said River to cover for the fact that he wasn’t able to
actually purchase any food at the self service counter.

“I will stay with you,”
pledged Anne. “Kate, Sarah, can you get me a latte and some fries and salad
baguette,” and by asking them, she had volunteered Sarah and Kate to accompany
Anton which allowed her some more private time with River.

The three set off to
join the end of a long queue at the self service counter. As they walked past a
table with three young white guys on route, they encountered some name calling
which seemed obviously directed at Anton. He glanced at them and one of the men
gave him a rude hand gesture. Anton looked away and was quite disturbed.

“Sports jocks,” he
murmured.

“They are probably just
jealous of a guy in company of two girls,” Sarah offered as an explanation. “Don’t
let them bother you,” she added to reassure Anton, to whom she had taken a
liking to. Kate looked over at the three guys still supplying rude gestures;
then she looked at Anton not impressed with his inaction. The longer they
waited in line Kate was growing more uncomfortable and disturbed by what she
saw as Anton’s inability to stand up for himself, or her. Anton’s own behaviour
changed as he grew more angst with the situation. He stared over again to see
if the three were still on his case, and in doing so caught the attention of
one of them, who stood up and purposely marched over to confront Anton face to
face.

As Anton watched him
approach, everything else seemed to go out of focus. He was no longer aware of
the presence of Sarah or Kate, or even the queue. He was just a solitary figure
standing there awaiting his inevitable fate which was not going to be good.
Thus it was a real surprise to feel the re-assuring feeling of River’s hand on
his shoulder, and his words in his ear, “Stay cool. Just follow my lead.”

The would be aggressor
of Anton now held back whilst he waited on the company of his two friends, whom
had now got up from their table to come to his support. Two against one had now
become three against two, and they commanded centre stage billing in the dining
hall. The room was getting quieter as everybody anticipated a fight.

River whispered into
Anton’s ear, “You have to make the first move. Just hit any one. It doesn’t
matter; I won’t let you get hurt.” Anton wanted to argue the point but he felt
compelled just to follow River’s instruction; and as soon as one of the three
opponents was within striking distance, he let loose a haymaker. What he did
not expect was to see was all three of them consecutively collapse to the floor
in pain. He knew he had connected a punch with one of them, and then felt a
shove forward from River who appeared in his peripheral vision to have moved
with incredible speed and dexterity. He definitely saw his sweeping leg
movement that finally dropped the last protagonists to the floor.

However the view from
behind was not so clear. Kate and Sarah were standing maybe six feet back and
they definitely saw Anton strike first. They also saw him jump forward
aggressively into the affray. River’s movements and his part in this fight were
less clear, because his moves were more subtle and less pronounced than those
of Anton.

It had all happened so
fast that the three fallen ones were not actually sure who had hit them. Now
River stood over them pointing to Anton to warn them for future reference, “Next
time, don’t mess with a Security Officer’s son.”

 When it was clear that
none of the three jocks were getting up anytime soon, Sarah rushed forward to
embrace Anton.

“Anton, you are an
amazing fighter,” Kate almost cooed.

Kate, Sarah and Anton
had lost their place in the queue when the trouble flared up. Now that it was
over, those at the front who were aware of this offered them their place in
line. It was a matter of respect and Anton was experiencing a level of respect
now that he had never experienced in his life. He was not stupid; he had worked
out now what had actually transpired, but he also realised that his friend
wanted him to have all the glory. He had never ever imagined that he might have
a friend like River.

They all returned to
join Anne at their table acting like a group of Greek heroes returning home
after their odyssey. Instead of plunder, they carried trays richly laden with
snacks, savouries and all sorted beverages. They all really enjoyed what was
left of their lunch break before they had to move on to their final lectures
which were starting very soon. The girls departed first to their marketing
class, but not before Sarah had written her private contact numbers on a
napkin, which she handed to Anton along with a kiss. River chose not to tell
Anton that Sarah had also given him her numbers earlier in the day, and so had
Anne.

Anton would be late for
his lecture but he didn’t want to leave River alone. River insisted that he
would be fine and Anton accepted his assurances, but as a parting gift he made
a detour and took River to a communal leisure room. There he made a point of
setting up a really good virtual experience platform for River to sit in and
entertain himself for the duration of his lecture.

Ninety minutes later,
Anton found River still on the virtual platform. River had enjoyed the
experience immensely. This was an unexpected outcome for him, seeing as he
disliked most of the electronic devices which everyone in the metropolis seemed
so enamoured with. On their journey home, River described how he had gone on a virtual
horse ride and also done virtual rock climbing. Anton smiled a knowing smile.

Dinner that evening was
a family affair as usual for the Carlson household. Valerie made a point of
serving River first. Not only because he was a guest, but more so because she
liked River and realised that he was good for her family. Her husband was
spending more time with the family indirectly because of River, and her son was
acting like a new man. She noticed River’s effect on him, and how he was subtly
drawing Anton out of his shell. As for Audrina, she knew Audrina was a terrible
flirt and she had noticed her daughter’s effect on River. She didn’t mind as it
was only harmless fun. In fact, she noticed this evening that Audrina was
allowing River some space, whilst he was busy spending time with her brother.

After dinner Anton
invited River to join him in his room. River looked forward to seeing first
hand what inspirations Anton privately followed. Everyone in the family had
made a point of criticizing the amount of time Anton spent locked away in his
own company. Thus it disappointed River initially, when he drew River’s
attention to some electronic gizmo which he was powering up. -“Anton, if you
intend to play with electronics, then I think I shall have to go to my room.”

“This is not for me, it
is for you,” replied Anton defensively. “Do you remember that virtual
experience platform which you enjoyed. This is much better. I have uploaded
some awesome programmes in this console. I want you to try it. You will see.” Anton
grinned, “I am going to set you up on a virtual date.” He ushered River over to
sit on the attached recliner, and told him to place the helmet over his head.

Once the helmet was
placed on his head, River was completely enveloped in darkness and silence for
a few seconds. Then the programme came to life with a burst of light and
uncanny surround sound which made him hear a range of test sounds that appeared
to originate from all different directions. He was in a white world which to
River, reminded him of a ‘white-out’ snow storm that he had experienced once in
the mountains in which he could not tell the difference between the sky and the
land. Now on this virtual experience he could look down and see his body which
was encased all in white garments. A transparent menu of choices appeared in
the air in front of his face under a letterhead saying ‘VIRTUAL DATE’. To make
a selection, you only had to point your virtual finger at an option in order to
choose it. The selection choices were made consecutively making it easy to
follow. Firstly he chose to go on a date with a woman. Next it asked him to
select attributes of your date such as skin tone, hair, eyes etc. River wasn’t
sure what selections to make. He didn’t want to make up a virtual person; he
wanted someone real. He selected the option for SCAN REAL IMAGE. Next he was
asked for a file address. River didn’t know this, but he could choose an option
of CHOOSE FROM SOCIAL NETWORKING. Because this software was running in Anton’s
user profile, it opened up Anton’s private portrait gallery. River selected the
FAMILY folder, and scrolled through the various high resolution photographs
until he found a holiday picture of Audrina wearing a bikini by a pool. He
selected this. Next he had to choose a location and a theme. He chose a virtual
environment of a mountain meadow beside a small waterfall and its plunge pool.
He chose ROMANCE as a theme. With all the selections made, he chose to START
the virtual date experience.

Anton busied himself
working on his wrist controller that paired with River’s custodial control bracelet.
Officially, the controller was the property of the Interior Office and was not
meant to be tampered with. However, Anton was a ‘Marekh’ and as such he saw it
was his
goddam
responsibility to hack it, and to revise the controller’s
properties to allow River greater personal freedoms. Every once in a while he
would look over to check on his friend and see that everything was running
okay. He chose for the sake of River’s privacy, not to hack a live feed from
the console. Instead he could see that everything was going okay as he watched
River jabbing and pointing his finger in the air. Anton had soon got immersed
in ‘re-coding’ the controller, when he was disturbed by his door opening.

Audrina knew that Anton
hated being disturbed, and generally everyone gave his room a wide berth.
Audrina was really curious though, as to what he and River were getting up to.
She loved her brother but realised that he was a complete geek who sometimes
acted like he had Aspergers syndrome. She wanted to know what he and River had
in common. She opened his door and barged in. She saw Anton sitting at his desk
fiddling with some device and tapping out lines of code; so no change there
then. River on the other hand was fully immersed in some virtual experience.
She watched him reclined in the chair making small micro movements with his
body. They seemed almost sensual. He was in a world of his own, oblivious to
her being in the room with them.

“What game is he
playing?” she asked Anton gesturing at River.

“It’s just a virtual experience.
I think he is riding a horse,” Anton lied.

“So what are you
working on here with this thing?” asked Audrina picking up his wrist
controller.

“I am just making a few
adjustments to increase the freedom options available to the controller. I have
increased the scope of the options.”

“What so you can lock
him down,” she joked.

“No. I have allowed him
more freedom. He can enter through automatic doors now for a start, and get
into the house here by himself.” Audrina nodded with vacant disinterest whilst
she was actually looking at River. She might be mistaken, but he appeared to
have a ‘boner’ evident in his tight trousers. She was totally amused and now
made it her mission to find out exactly what experience he was on. She dashed
over to him and before Anton could stop her, she had wrenched the helmet of his
head and placed it over hers. It took a view seconds for her brain to adjust to
this new virtual environment. However there was no mistake about what she was
seeing. She found herself looking at a near perfect virtual copy of herself
standing right in front of a waterfall, except that she was topless and wearing
only bikini bottoms and was definitely acting in a quite wanton way. ‘What a
hussy she was!’ She laughed out loud, and removed the helmet. She stared
intently at River who looked so embarrassed right now.