Up in the morning and out to school...

[a1enzo]

This is it.

They're at the docks. Enzo's carefully culled belongings are packed in the trunk of Bob's car. The ferry is scheduled to leave soon, but they're letting the other travelers board first.

Time to say goodbye.

Comments

[a1enzo]

Enzo drinks it all in. Things they don't have back home, things they do have but so much bigger or just more of them... and everywhere, towers of shining green and white. He remembers something Dorothy said to him about an 'Emerald City'...

[command_dot_com]

Dot pays close attention to the benchmarks as Bob points them out along the way. As amazing as this is... She's remembered the other thing that they might be doing today.

"Where is the home you grew up in?"

[mendanddefend_archive]

"An apartment complex about twenty sectors from here. You can't really see it from the data line..."

[command_dot_com]

"Do your parents still live there?"

...You have told them about her, haven't you?

[mendanddefend_archive]

"Yes, and I was planning to go visit them tomorrow before we head home."

[command_dot_com]

"Alright, I promise to be on my best behavior when we visit them."

[a1enzo]

"Can I come too?" Enzo demands, bouncing in his seat.

[mendanddefend_archive]

"You're gonna be in school, remember?" says Bob. "Speaking of which..."

And sure enough, they're breaking out of the clusters of subsystems into the heart of the Supercomputer proper. A floating vidwindow next to the road declares "GUARDIAN ACADEMY, NEXT 4 EXITS."

[a1enzo]

Enzo leans forward and clutches the dashboard. Even from here, he can see that the buildings in the subsystems ahead are taller and shinier than those of the main system, and spy the spire of the Principal Office beyond.

"Duuuuuude..."

[command_dot_com]

"Sit down in your seat buster." Dot chides lightly, at this rate he's going to end up hurting himself somehow.

Ignore her, she's just being a motherboard.

"I have to wonder how the COMMAND.com for this place manages to do it all..."

[mendanddefend_archive]

"Dot, I don't know how you manage to do it all," says Bob as he pulls off the main road toward one of the islands ringing the Principal Office. "Don't ask me how the COMMAND.COM manages here."

[a1enzo]

The car cruises between the golden towers and a disproportionate number of MP3 stores and Java houses. At the hub of the subsystem, a circular street surrounds a group of buildings on a spacious green.

Actually, it's more a group of groups. The buildings stand in a rough ring around the central green; in addition to a large, squat structure and a very large white tower, there are a group of several medium-sized boxy buildings and an enormous cluster of little domes.

There are also children, many children of 10 and 11, hanging out on the green, chatting, playing Ultimate P.O.N.G., and entering and exiting the white tower. More children than he's seen even at Milliways. Sprite children. For the moment, Enzo can't do anything but gawk.

[mendanddefend_archive]

Bob can't help but feel a wave of nostalgia pass over him as he watches the kids playing. Ah, the good ol' cycles...

[command_dot_com]

Dot remembers when Lost Angles used to look like this, and smiles. Carefully stepping out of the car and getting to the trunk to get Enzo's bags.

"I think you're really going to like it here, Enzo."

[a1enzo]

Enzo smiles in something between awe and bliss. "I think I am."