Chapter 1

Chapter I

The treadmill took up too much room in the little apartment.  It stood facing the TV and the computer.  If anything else were to be viewed from a chair, it had to be moved, but Ruby was on the treadmill and the TV was not turned on, no need of TV, when she was on the computerized-path program, installed in the treadmill.

In a few steps she was visualizing the path on the monitor.  She heard footfalls behind her catching up.  It seemed the monitor became life size as Pete joined her and they stepped onto the trail.

“Hey, Rumble, you’re early today.”

“Pete, I thought you were late.  Am I getting faster?”

“You’re bound to, you’ve lost so much weight.  Have to get new sweats.  Can’t see your buns dueling.  Rumble doesn’t fit you as well.” He had dubbed her Ruby Rumble Buns because of the way her buns battled in her sweats, the view as he came up behind her.

She laughed, “Since you’re the only one that calls me that, it doesn’t matter.  You must be down to your goal loss, are you going to quit the mill?” She joked, thinking him a virtual partner.

“No, it’s a way of life now. Are you quitting?” He said, thinking, I guess I can’t now.

“I have five more pounds to go, but I can’t stop or I’ll gain it all back.  I’m thinking of moving up a trail to firm up.”

“Okay, I’ll meet you on trail seven in the morning?  That will be slower.  Maybe we can hold hands.  It’s been six months and forty pounds; I think we can at least touch.  Getting to know you, I wish you were real.”

“Yeah!” she agreed, adding, “You lost forty pounds?  I only lost thirty-two.”  He had joined her for the last six months making the trip more entertaining. 

“You’re a woman, supposed to be harder to lose.  Wow, is that the end already?  Guess I’ll see you tomorrow on seven.  Bring your hiking boots.  That’s a steep climb.”

Ruby dismounted the treadmill smiling.  That is such a great program, she thought.  I wonder how they make the conversation response so smooth.

The next day Ruby set her treadmill for trail seven and mounted it.  Pete was waiting at the foot of the trail. 

“You’re early!” Ruby said.

“I wanted to be sure you remembered.  No point walking this trail alone.”

“Right, I feel the climb already.”

“I didn’t want to miss any hand-holding time.”  He reached out his hand.

She took it and couldn’t believe how real it felt. 

“This is a great program,” Pete said.  “I’d almost believe you’re real, Rumble.”

She laughed, knowing he was the virtual. 

They walked on hand in hand.  An interruption in the scene stopped them.  Something seemed out of place.  They left the trail to explore.

“My God.  I took this trail and this wasn’t here,” he said.

That surprised her more than the corpse they were staring at.

He had the same realization and turned back to her.  “You weren’t here either.  It was around noon when they first added it.”

She shook her head.  “You must’ve been with someone else.  I don’t get on except with you, six-thirty in the morning and five-fifteen in the afternoon.”

“You’re the only one I walk with.  What are we going to do about this?”

“Don’t touch anything.  Is there a telephone on the trail?  None of this can be real, anyway,” she said.

“Looks real and why would I dream up a dead body.  You know her?”

“Don’t you?” Pete shook his head.

“Where were the pictures for the viewer made?  Are they running in time, or were they taken and put in?” she asked.

“I think this is Heg Park, but I don’t know how the pics are taken.”

“Let’s go on and see what happens.  If this isn’t explained by the end of the trail, we better call the police.  See if they found a body here.”

“I can do that,” he agreed.

His answer satisfied Ruby that whatever it was had been programmed in.  Her acceptance of his offer to call the police led him to believe it was not programmed into the treadmill.  He did, however, wonder why she had not been on this trail when he tried it a few weeks earlier.

Maybe activating the program brought her into it, he thought, but why a corpse and who?

They continued up the trail then down loosening their muscles before dismounting.  There was no further adventure. 

Before parting they agreed to take the same trail for their five-fifteen run and see if the body had been removed.

Ruby and a co-worker, Jeannie, went out to lunch.  A new lunchroom had opened near their office so they went to try it.

“You’ve lost so much weight I can’t believe you eat,” Jeannie said, when they were settled at a table.

“It’s the treadmill.  It’s got the neatest program.  This really cute guy comes and walks with me.” Ruby said, “The conversation is so responsive I feel like he’s really there.”

Jeannie laughed.  “I need to get one of those.  Cute guy, that is.”

“At our age they’re not easy to come by.”

“That’s the truth, once you’re pushing forty,” Jeannie agreed.

“Is thirty-five pushing forty.  Silly, I’ve got a crush on a virtual man.”

“Better than no man.”

“Right, I…” Ruby stopped mid-thought and stared, mouth open.

Jeannie followed her line of sight to see an attractive man staring back with much the same expression.  He had just come into the restaurant.  After a long stare he stepped over to there table and said in total disbelief, “Rumble?”

“Pete?” Ruby asked in a whisper.

“My God, you’re real!”

Jeannie looked back and forth between the to dumbstruck people.  She finally said, “Pete, is it?  Why don’t you sit down?  We haven’t ordered yet.”

“Jeannie, this is Pete.  He seems to have just stepped off my treadmill,” Ruby said.

“This is your … well, I see why you two are speechless.” Jeannie laughed nervously.

Pete looked at Ruby shaking his head, all he could say was, “Your real!”

Ruby was shaking her head with the same disbelief.  She suddenly remembered their morning run.  “If you’re real – The body?  Was it real?  Did you call the police?” Ruby asked.

“Someone who was really in the park had called it in,” he replied.

“When you said you’d report it, I thought it was part of the program.”

“I knew you couldn’t because you were part of the program.  I mean, I even named you,” he said, then added, “I’m really embarrassed about that.  If I’d known you were real I wouldn’t have mentioned your buns battling it out in your sweats, at least on first meeting you.”

Jeannie laughed.  “If that was six months ago, I’m surprised her buns fit in her sweats.”

“They didn’t that’s why he noticed.” Ruby laughed.  “And it’s all right I like Rumble.”

“But how can it be?” Pete asked, knowing there was no answer.

The waitress came to take their orders.

A man in a dark suit across the room took out his cell.  He spoke into the little phone: “Yeah, Wilson?  Ralph here.  We have a complication.  They met.”

“Should’ve been anticipated, small town.  I’ll tell Wells.  I want to know why she didn’t report the body.  Did she know he was a real person?”

“We might have to tell them they’re part of an experiment to get that information,” Ralph said.

“Are they alone?”

“No!”

“I’ll get Wells to make the decision and get back to you.  We won’t want to share with more than the principles to be sure.”

Call completed, Ralph kept watch.  He had been assigned to the woman.  He checked the room for the other dark suited man on a cell.  There were four; it was that kind of neighborhood, businessman’s lunch.  Though the group he was observing were casually dressed.  Pete in slacks and lose shirt, the girls in pants suits.

Ralph decided Porter wasn’t there or he blended in well.  Porter was a good investigator.  Ralph sometimes thought he could become invisible.