Chapter 14

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You don’t sleep well, ly because you’re alone and you don’t want to be, ly because you get the nagging feeling something’s wrong with your chit and he’s gone forever. You’ve lost him.

First thing you do when you wake up is find the chit and hold it in your hands, turn it over and over, run your fingers along the smooth surface to assure yourself it’s here and isn’t broken or cracked or scratched. You frown at your reflection in the silver magnetic strip across the back and wonder, not for the first time since you created him, if you could ever possibly afford a home VR unit like the ones you’ve read about in Popular Science.

Not on your salary, that’s for sure, but if you had a unit of your own, you’d never turn it off. You’d be connected 24/7, and that’sa nice thought. Have him here with you, first thing in the morning and last thing at night. He’d kiss you goodbye when you left for work, have dinner ready when you got home. All you’d have to do is plug in.