A New Game

Untucking the blanket, James checked to see how Wilbur was doing. At a week only Wilbur was just starting to look more like a mouse. Still pinkish, but with ears growing and a bit of downy fur starting to show up. He was definitely awake and sticking his nose up.

'That was really scary, little guy, I am so sorry!'

He tucked the pup up against his chest and stroked it carefully.

However Wilbur was unimpressed. For the first time the pup was doing something besides eating, sleeping, or snuggling.

Nose stuck up in the air, Wilbur's little whiskers were swishing around. Bobbing his head up and down he swung this way and that way awkwardly, the pup was investigating his world for the first time. It was like he was trying to search for something.

'Did you actually like that?'

Confused at his pet's reaction James just watched as Wilbur eventually stopped nosing the air and went back to sleep. It took a long time and by the time it was done James was having some new thoughts about a game to play with his pup.

He was glad that his pup was starting to act more lively. James was so worried that Wilbur's start had been so rocky. To his way of thinking Wilbur should have already been nosing around discovering his environment. Just happy that the pup was beginning to catch up James decided he had to encourage any activity no matter what.

'That old man said there were other elements. Is space one of them? Could I teach my pet how to sense space pockets and gain an affinity?'

Mind racing James slowing climbed the stairs of his apartment complex. He was on the ninth floor and there were thirty-three floors so it was quite some time before he opened the door to the roof.

Since it was the first time he was here he was surprised to find a few grow boxes up. There were only two, but it looked well maintained.

'Wow, someone went to a lot of work up here!'

James moved away from the grow boxes. The smaller the space the fewer the colliding space pockets. The larger the space the more often it was possible to see space pockets collide. This was why he was up here. He had only seen one pocket collision in a week in his apartment. But up here which was about fifty times as large he would potentially see many more. Maybe about seven a day.

If he only came up here for a few hours then he could see probably one a day for sure.

It was all chance, though, so there were no guarantees. Finding a good spot to lean up against a raised air conditioning unit James relaxed and let his mind think while watching for space pocket anomalies.

He had often been told that he should submit a resume to SPAM. Not because the speaker had any reason to think James was particularly gifted or that SPAM was the right place, no. It was because SPAM was so large. It was the largest employer in the world. Every country needed spatial prediction and mediation. Every jurisdiction with a country needed oversight and it went down the line to every single home. Every single enclosed space had to be routinely inspected. It wasn't because actual spatial collisions couldn't be predicted, it was because exactly what was inside them couldn't be predicted.

A huge labor force was needed to maintain and deal with spatial anomalies. It would be easy for James to get a job at SPAM. They were always accepting new employees.

He was even interested in identifying and predicting spatial pockets. The problem was that SPAM did not let you apply for a specific job. All applicants were pretty much accepted. Only a few bad actors were ferreted out and rejected. No matter what your physical status was, no matter what your mental status was you were hired. There was a job for everyone at SPAM. It could be walking your fellow employee's pets. It didn't matter, if you couldn't do one job SPAM would find you a job.

It was great. A private company stepping up to take care of the people. The press was entirely supportive. No one called them a monopoly. They ran their business with full disclosure so that everyone could see what they did and did not do. SPAM was the white night of the world.

New employees started out as space cadets. Everyone became a space cadet. Yes, that is actually what they are called and not some kind of joke. It didn't matter who you were or what you were interested in you had to spend a year messing around as a glorified intern. Then the second year you could be promoted to space ensign.

These guys were the ones who performed initial mediation after the fact of a detrimental space collision. It was even worse than being a space cadet, at least to James.

James did not want to go down this route. Even the third year was a crappy gig. In the third year an employee was finally given the choice to choose what branch of the company they would like to specialize in. However, there was only two choices either prediction or mediation. After a year of getting close to the action as an ensign it was back to being a glorified intern again. It was a good bet that neither choice would result in coming close to the real decisions or understanding of how to predict or mediate.

In the past James had decided not to apply to SPAM.

'But I have to consider applying now. There are very few opportunities available for someone without a powered pet. I can't even mention my ability.'

Telling himself things James sighed and looked up into the rapidly darkening night.

"It is just going to be you and me, buddy."

He pulled Wilbur out of his pocket and seriously presented his feelings.

Of course Wilbur was completely asleep.

It was at that point that Wilbur saw a flash. Two space pockets was interacting and the effects were visible within normal space!

Having seen the light from just out of the corner of his eye James looked back and searched for any other sign, at this stage it was important to watch carefully for any telltale light. After a few more moments he saw it again and hurried over hoping that he was not too late.

Carefully he reached up and presented Wilbur, who was still within the blanket, to what he was now able to distinguish as two smaller lights. This time it became awkward as obviously the process was happening slower or else James caught the phenomenon earlier. Standing on tiptoe for several minutes without any support was probably hilarious to anyone who might be watching.

James was used to people thinking he was ridiculous though, so he held the pose and right after the two lights collided he ran his off hand through the area until he found the space crack. Feeling around inside he determined that the crack was the usual three cubic centimeter type and then painstaking he slid Wilbur completely wrapped in his blanket into the crack. Finally he relaxed and fell back off his toes and waited.

And waited.

Maybe the slowness of the initial collision determined how long it would take for the space pocket to explode, but this time it was more than fifteen minutes. When it burst, there was hardly more than a melodramatic burp and Wilbur blanket and all came falling. This time there was no second light show when the combined pocket destabilized. No theatrics at all, no light display, and no sound. All there was to see was a slow expelling of the space pocket.

Catching the bundle was easy.

"Wow, I am going to have to find a mitt or a basket to catch you in. No need to be dangerous. No need at all!"

This time James could feel Wilbur wiggling within the blanket. He couldn't make his way out, but he was definitely stimulated by the experience. Worried that this time Wilbur might have taken it poorly James opened the bundle and held the pup close in order to calm him down.

Again Wilbur had no desire to be comforted. Instead it was back to sniffing around and wagging back and forth.

'That does it. Every evening after everything is done, let's come up here and see what we can see. Let's play this game. I don't care if you develop an affinity for space or not. If you enjoy it, let's play it.'