Reading of my short story for the Creative compostion titled:

 Imagination, Reality, and the Spaces Between

Today was the most it had rain in a while, Ryan thought to himself. He looked out of the windows of the school library. He saw a toad under a large mushroom. “How peculiar for a toad to not be digging itself into the mud”, he thought. He then came back out of his trance and dove back into his book filled with fascinating creatures, places, and people. He began to picture a group of friends fighting off a scouting party they had come across in the woods. Then the battle cry they screamed sent shivers down his spine. “RIIINNNNGGGGG!”, he sighed” that would be the bell. “Time for the next class”, he uttered as he unwillingly closed his book. 

“Hey Logan have you read this book its really good”, Ryan whispered to his best friend. “No man what’s it about?” Logan whispered back. “It has these three friends who are on this crazy adventure!” he quietly explained. Logan answered “what kind of adventure?” “Well there are dragons, evil kings, friendly wizards, and a whole bunch of other cool characters and they fight their way to defeat them” he answered. Logan looked at him quizzically for a moment and then looked away. “What don’t you like books?” Ryan teased him. “Yeah I just don’t have a good imagination”, Logan sighed. Ryan asked,”But you talk about this stuff all the time!” Then Logan said something that blew him away,”Yeah but if I don’t have the visual aid like a movie or a comic book to go with the idea then I can’t picture what it could look like.”

On his way home Ryan began to think about what Logan had said. He just couldn’t see a world where books couldn’t stir his imagination. It seemed a world like this would be like never experiencing the warmth of the sun or the smell of the rain. “How could he not see things the way he saw them”, He thought. As he was riding the bus home he began to daydream about the glorious battles that he had read about. He then heard a screech as a dragon flew over the bus  over the field that he was looking at.”Ryan, Ryan, Ryyyaannnn!”, the bus driver yelled , “Wake up buddy your home.” “Sorry, I was zoning out again”, Ryan replied. The bus driver chuckled, “Reading your books again?” “No I was just daydreaming”, he said grinning as he left the bus and began the long walk up his driveway. 

After finishing his dinner Ryan went and turned on a video game and began immersing himself into a game with his friends. He began to pick their brains about how they saw stories that they read. Gary and Dave both agreed that they liked reading books and fantasizing about what was happening as they read them. They both said, “Video games are the best though because they take all the work out of fantasizing and just let you visualize what you want to see.” Ryan never thought of it that way. He always saw video games as just a fun time with his friends.

That night as he lay in bed he began to think about the adventures that he had in all the games he had ever played. Each on being different with some have some similarities they all allowed him to just experience those worlds and characters. “How had they done it?”, He pondered ,”How had they thought of all of these marvelous ideas?” He began reading his book and slowly fall to sleep dreaming of hidden dwarven cities, and marvelous treasures that they contain. 

He woke up suddenly as the alarm was ringing, “BEEP, BEEP, BEEP”, He slammed his fist down on the alarm and got ready for school. As he was eating his bacon and eggs he asked his mom, “Mom have you read any good books lately?” His mother replied softly, “ Well yes actually I have, It was this book about a little town out west in the early days.” “ You know the ones with horse drawn carriages, and it tells a story of a farmers daughters, and the hardships of living out there.” “Yeah mom, I know you’re an old western junkie”, He jokingly said to her. “Well you had better hurry the bus is coming down the road”, She said to him, “Do you have enough lunch money?” “Yeah I still have enough for the rest of the week mom”, Ryan said hugging her as he left. 

Climbing on the bus the driver grinned and said, “Morning mister Eicher aren’t we wide eyed and bushy tailed this morning?” “Yeah had a good breakfast this morning”, He replied, “Bacon and eggs are the best!” “Ah, the breakfast of champions”, the driver replied, “Well take your seat Ryan we need to be going.” As the bus bumped and grumbled its way to school he began thinking about what Gary and Dave had said last night. Video games could be a way to share in great adventures with others. How had he not seen this, he was getting excited about talking to Logan today. 

During the midday break Ryan and Logan began talk about video games. “ Hey Logan do you play any video games?”, Ryan asked. “Yeah actually I do”, Logan replied, “My favorites are the ones that are roleplaying games.” Ryan said, “What is a roleplaying game?” “Like Skyrim or Final Fantasy”, Logan replied knowingly, “Those are usually the ones I like but they are single player unfortunately.” “You know, I have played those and never really got into them since I just wanted to play with other people ”, Ryan explained. “It would be great to play those with other people”, Logan grinned. 

“ I agree with you, how cool would it be to make those!”, Ryan exclaimed, “I mean what if I could come up with the games like this that people could play together as if it were a story for each individual person!” “Yeah and it just all perfectly tied together so that those playing it are getting to experience the story!” Logan said happily. Ryan began to think about it later that day. He thought of people playing video games together as if they were sitting down and reading different books that all tied together. He decided that he needed to create these games and looked at the interesting careers that he could have to accomplish this goal. He would one day become the creator of the stories that he loved, and bring those together that would experience those stories together.

Brandon Sebastian