Reality Check and Other Stories

By Marise Morland

An android files a lawsuit against its owner.... A virtual marriage goes badly wrong... A child's toys plot their owner's destiny.

Bite-size science fiction for busy people!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Fiction4All
• Release date: Feb 6, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463046531

Book preview

REALITY CHECK

and other stories

Marise Morland

Published by Fiction4All at Smashwords

Copyright 2019 Marise Morland

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Part 1 - E-divorce 2057

What can I say about Astralita? We met in an immersive chat room; fell in love, got married – a sumptuous virtual wedding with hundreds of guests, and a honeymoon at mytropicalisland.com. It cost a fortune, but I worked extra e-security shifts at milesofwarehouse.com to finance it. Afterwards we designed our virtual house. It was spacious and webspace was at a premium, but it was what Astralita wanted and I was content. She didn’t think we should become too wrapped up in each other, so sometimes, when she visited strictlydancetillyoudrop.com, I took myself off to blokesinsheds.com.

Soon, we applied to neonates.com for our own virtual child. A true cyberbeing with no one controlling its avatar. A program that would evolve and grow according to our input. I’d already signed the purchase agreement. On receipt of Astralita’s endorsement, the infant would be ours. But suddenly, she had second thoughts. She wasn’t ready; it was too soon, it was too much responsibility. And later, instead of welcoming me home, she was often absent when I logged out of milesofwarehouse.com.

So, I did what any suspicious e-husband would do. I had her followed by a virtual private eye from gumshoegeeks.com.

All too soon, I had my answers. Astralita had been frequenting a site called sexismyadventure.com, in the company of a certain Bad Boy Byron. My pal from blokesinsheds.com!

There’s more, said the gumshoe. They weren’t trying to avoid me, so I challenged them. Astralita’s divorcing you.

I needed to digest this so I said I’d get back to him. I was in bits. I wanted an explanation. Astralita had unfriended me so I decided to confront her on the Outside. Yes, outside in the real world.

It was a winter’s night, and nothing was as I remembered it. Pitiless blue street lighting, rows of identical apartment blocks with shuttered windows. No