Quorra: A Year in Seconds

By THECURSOR

I own Nothing

It's warm, so warm.

When my Mentor first spoke about the sun, I imagined a little square shape in the sky. He told me that I was wrong and that it was round but very few things on the Grid conform to a sphere so I continued to imagine a square. I was wrong, so wonderfully wrong. It is a sphere, a bright burning sphere that looks so beautiful.

I take a deep breath, another new sensation. I've never breathed before but it feels good.

It rains and Sam tells me not to stand outside in the rain or I'll get sick. I ignore him and enjoy the rain.

I do get sick, I hate it! I'm going to die, I'm dying, please kill me!

Sam shows me a church. He tells me it's like the old I/O towers. Even Users have Users? How profound!

Sam buys me my very first machine: something called an MP3 player. I realize it's filled with Programs, millions of them. I'm afraid to pick it up because I don't want to shake them too hard, I worry that the system might get corrupted. When I play it for the first time and sounds fill the air and I know the Programs are happy. I shall be a just and virtuous User, my Programs will love me and I shall love them.

Sam teaches me to write a program on the computer. It draws a small red line on the screen. I'm amazed. I have created life. I name her "Line", she is beautiful.

I see animals for the first time; Sam takes me to the zoo. Like the tigers and I try to feed them but a very angry man with a badge tells me not too. Sam laughs.

I meet Tron's creator. I ask him if he's proud of his program. He says that Tron was the best security protocol he's ever written and that he has copied Tron to many different systems. I imagine other systems defended by a pure Tron with no Rinzler. I hope they're at peace.

Sam takes me to see snow in Michigan. I make it into a ball, I throw it at Sam. He throws it back. It's cold but I love it.

I kiss Sam. He kisses me back.

We make love, he tells me he loves me, I tell him I love him.

There's a new girl at Sam's office. She's very pretty and I don't like her.

Sam works late one night and ignores my phone call. We yell when he gets home.

I hate him. I hate him and I love him.

Sam apologizes, I apologize. I still love him.

One day I ask Sam how many seconds I've been here in the real world. Sam explains that we don't count time by seconds in the real world, we count by years. I don't understand at first until Sam shows me that 60 seconds make a minute, 60 minutes make an hour, and that hours become days, months, and years. It dawns on me that when my Mentor told me that Sam was 27, he meant YEARS. Sam is thousand of seconds old! I ask him how many seconds I am…he says that since I was born inside of a computer, my life didn't officially start until I got in the real world. I'm only one year old.

Sam throws me a birthday party. He gives me cake with a single candle on top.

It's warm, so warm.

The End