Dennis stepped out of the hotel elevator and into the ghost-filled lobby. The stench of burning bacon from the breakfast buffet meant his favorite Japanese hotel had adopted the unfortunate custom of serving an American breakfast to their guests. Would anyone else eat there this morning or was everybody virtual?
A ghost in a cheap, black VR suit of American manufacture stepped backwards, standing half-in and half-out of Dennis. Dennis instinctively stepped back, pulling his arm out of the ghost's back and cleared his throat loudly.
The ghost turned around, mouthed something silently then pressed his headpiece. "Sorry. I was having a fairly intense conversation with Jerry and didn't see you. You're real, aren't you?"
Dennis nodded.
"Don't see much of that any more at these conferences but you didn't have to travel far since you're native Japanese."
Dennis bit back a sharp retort. "Actually, I'm American."
"Sorry. You look Japanese. Here for the conference?"
We Orientals all look alike, right? Even when we're half-Vietnamese?
"No. I'm meeting a few business clients who are attending the conference before I go on to Hong Kong to take care of another account."
"What's the weather like here?"
Dennis shrugged. "A little warmer than usual for Tokyo in July but the hotel has decided to compensate by operating their air conditioning at a temperature normally reserved for meat lockers."
"Glad this cheap suit doesn't have sensors, then. Sorry I bumped into you. It's not polite to stand inside people."
He turned away and Dennis stared at the restaurant again. Did he really want to eat an American breakfast in Japan? Maybe he should wander outside and see if there were any street vendors nearby.
"Dennis! Dennis Nguyen!"
Dennis turned, half-expecting to see another dark suited ghost. Instead, he stared into the deep blue eyes of a woman he hadn't seen in over ten years.
"Carol McIntire?"
Her smile faded for a brief instant. "Mekkelson now."
"Marriage?"
"Divorce."
"I'm sorry."
She shrugged. "These things happen. It's been a few years. I'm over it now. Care to join me for breakfast?"
"Is it edible?"
"Almost. They hired a chef from America. I think he specialized in flipping burgers at his old job."
Dennis laughed and followed Carol towards the buffet. "I'm glad to see you. I was beginning to think the entire hotel was filled with nothing but ghosts."
"When the clients are real, I'm real."
"My thoughts exactly," Dennis said as he lifted the lid on a particularly unappetizing selection and decided the rolls looked much more inviting than they did a few moments ago.
"I notice the ghosts charge a lot less than we charge and I doubt overhead is much lower when they're virtual," Carol said, motioning to the chef for an omelet. "Those suits aren't cheap."
"I know. My own suit took three months income but I refused to buy anything that didn't have five-sense capability and full-range recording."
"That much? But why? You just said--"
"My work life is real. My home life is virtual."
"If I was your wife, I don't think I'd be satisfied with--"
"No wife. Just a daughter."
"Divorced?"
He shook his head. "Never married. You remember Jenny."
Carol shivered and Dennis knew it wasn't a reaction to the air conditioning in the hotel. Her voice turned brittle "Yes. I remember her very well. What's she doing now? CEO of some Fortune 500 company?"
He followed Carol to a table in the nearly vacant restaurant and sat down.
"No. She's a full-time mom to my daughter, Amanda. Our daughter, I should say. Seven years old, beautiful, and smart. I don't know how I got so lucky."
Carol's fork paused mid-way to her mouth and egg slid off her fork.
"You and Jenny?"
He shrugged. "I know. We weren't exactly a good match. I guess I knew from the beginning that it wouldn't last but she could be so persuasive when she wanted something."
"Don't I know it! So did you get screwed?"
He stared at her a moment before realizing that she meant financially.
"I guess. I got hit for five years of back support for the years I didn't know I had a daughter but once I finally met Amanda, money seemed such a trivial thing to argue about. Besides, Amanda deserves every penny I can spare."
"Wait a minute. Whoa, partner. Did you say you didn't know you had a daughter back there?"
Dennis nodded. "We didn't exactly part under the best of terms."
"Let me guess. Jenny left you and then blamed you for abandoning her."
Dennis smiled and spread jelly on his roll. "You did know Jenny."
"Far too well. I still have the scar on my back where she clawed her way past me up the corporate ladder."
"You're speaking figuratively, I hope."
"Mostly. I do have a small scar from where she spilled hot coffee on me and then snatched the client from under my nose while I was changing clothes."
Carol shook her head. "You and Jenny? And a daughter? Now that's something I would never have expected in a thousand years."
"I admit we weren't suited but it was hardly that bizarre a pairing."
Carol shook her head again. "No. I mean the daughter. Jenny was always so careful and so determined not to let anything or anyone get in her way. I find it difficult to believe she had an accident and then didn't have an abortion."
"We were drunk."
"Still--"
"And her luggage was in Paris while we were in San Francisco. As for not aborting Amanda--well, I can only say I'm glad she didn't. Maybe it had something to do with changing her lifestyle."
"So Jenny decided she preferred being a full-time mom to corporate life? I wouldn't have expected that, either."
Dennis hesitated a moment. He stared intently at the bacon floating in grease on his plate.
"Give," Carol said.
"What?"
"The food's not that interesting. What happened between you two that she hated you so much she didn't even tell you about your daughter? And why would Ms. Corporate America suddenly decide to become a full-time mom?"
Dennis hesitated a moment. "I fired her."
"You mean the company fired her?"
Dennis shook his head. "No. It was about six months before I decided to strike out on my own. I wasn't even in Jenny's department but I was the one who caught her siphoning funds. She'd developed some problems she couldn't control. She's okay now but for a while she would do anything for a fix."
"Booze? Drugs?"
"Headbands."
"What?"
"Those feel-good bands."
"Wiring? But those things are cheap."
"Not the illegal ones."
"Oh." It was Carol's turn to stare at the remains of her omelet, feigning interest in the parsley.
"I use the suit to visit my daughter. It's the only way we can have any time together."
Carol stared up at him. "Excuse me, Dennis. I didn't think it was possible to tell me anything that shocks me more than what you've already said but are you saying that you never see her in real time?"
Dennis couldn't meet Carol's eyes. He picked up the roll and took a large bite, forcing himself to nod.
"Why?"
"What?"
"Why, Dennis? Why haven't you paid a personal visit?"
"Jenny didn't want me to see Amanda at all. That's why she kept my daughter's existence a secret for so long. If the Welfare Department hadn't contacted me, I still wouldn't know about her."
"Listen to me, Dennis. We lost touch long ago but I still consider you a friend. You have rights. If you need an attorney--"
Dennis shook his head. "No. I've got a very good attorney but once Jenny suggested virtual visits, it seemed like a good idea. After all, I travel so much and this allows me to see Amanda almost daily. I help her with her homework and sometimes we hook our links together and go sightseeing."
Carol took a deep breath and pointed towards the lobby where several ghosts in dark business suits waited for their clients.
"If it's not good enough for your clients, how can it be good enough for your child?"
A slow trickle of pain grew into a tidal wave that flooded his body and threatened to drown him.
Carol touched his arm gently again. "I'm sorry. I know that hurt but I can't let something like this go by without telling you how I feel."
Dennis swallowed hard, choking for a moment on a huge dosage of painful truth. Carol was right. He needed to visit Amanda in person. How many times had he promised himself to do that and found some excuse to avoid it at the last minute?
Dennis let his breath out in a rush. "You're right. I guess I've been afraid of confronting Jenny."
Carol smiled. "Any intelligent person would be afraid of confronting Jenny but she's your daughter's mother and the two of you need to put Amanda first. Now let's finish this meal and get out there before the clients decide there's no one here but ghosts."
Carol started to stand up but Dennis reached into his pocket and pulled out a flat picture he'd taken of Amanda last night.
"May I show you Amanda's picture?"
She smiled and sat down again, unfolding the photo. Her smile faded and her eyes filled with questions as she studied the photo of a little girl with pure black hair and features more oriental than his own half-Vietnamese appearance.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to stare. It's just that--Well, I guess I expected to see a little girl with Jenny's frizzy blonde hair and blue eyes and instead, she looks just like you."
Dennis tried to smile when she handed him back the picture and stood up to leave but her words echoed through his mind.
Amanda didn't look anything like him. If it weren't for the DNA test results, he'd wonder if she was really his own child.
)
