“One Level Down is a perfectly executed gem of a book. Deeply satisfying and completely mesmerizing, it’s full of depth, heart, and thought.” —Sarah Beth Durst, bestselling author of The Spellshop
Trapped in a child’s body, a resourceful woman risks death by deletion from a simulated world. With her debut novella for adults, Thompson has crafted a taut, ultimately hopeful story that deftly explores identity and autonomy.
Trapped in a child’s body, a resourceful woman risks death by deletion from a simulated world. With her debut novella for adults, Mary G. Thompson (Wuftoom) has crafted a taut, ultimately hopeful story that deftly explores identity and autonomy.
“Brilliant and beautiful! One Level Down is a perfectly executed gem of a book. Deeply satisfying and completely mesmerizing, it’s full of depth, heart, and thought. A remarkable achievement!”
—Sarah Beth Durst, New York Times bestselling author of The Spellshop
Ella is the oldest five-year-old in the universe. For fifty-eight years, the founder of a simulated colony-planet has forced her to pretend to be his daughter. Her “Daddy” has absolute power over all elements of reality, which keeps the colonists in line even when their needs are not met. But his failing experiments and despotic need for absolute control are increasingly dangerous.
Ella’s very life depends on her performance as a child. She has watched Daddy delete her stepmother and the loved ones of anyone who helps her.
But every sixty years, a Technician comes from the world above. Ella has been watching and working and biding her time. Because if she cannot make the technician help her, the only solution is a desperate measure that could lead to consequences for the entire universe.
Transfer Orbit 11 new sci-fi and fantasy books to check out this April
“Mary Thompson shows us what kind of perfect jail software and servers can make, and how even there an inmate can dream of, and attempt, escape.”
—Jack Campbell, author of The Lost Fleet and In Our Stars
“When flawed humans attempt to create a pocket paradise, they create gut-wrenching moral choices instead. Once you start reading, it is impossible to look away from Mary Thompson’s provocative story of simulations, power imbalance, and whether kindness can overcome cruelty in the end.”
—Carolyn Ives Gilman, author of Dark Orbit
“Brilliant and beautiful! One Level Down is a perfectly executed gem of a book. Deeply satisfying and completely mesmerizing, it’s full of depth, heart, and thought. A remarkable achievement!”
—Sarah Beth Durst, New York Times bestselling author of The Spellshop
“The world of Mary G. Thompson’s novella One Level Down is beautiful on the surface, and scary the rest of the way down. That’s especially true for Ella, the determined protagonist who’s a prisoner in her own body. You’ll find yourself rooting hard for her, and for the possibility of a freedom that will allow her to discover who she really is. One Level Down is a captivating read that you’ll be tempted to tear through in one long sitting. It’s also a thought-provoking book that will stay with you well beyond its final page.”
—David Ebenbach, author of How to Mars
“Death by deletion is the ultimate horror in this riveting novella about life in a simulation. One Level Down deftly captures both the anguish of fifty-eight-year-old Ella who is trapped in a five-year-old’s body and the megalomania of the Daddy who keeps her there. While Mary G. Thompson brings new insight to the nested realities of the simulation hypothesis, this is above all a story of courage as Ella risks everything to become herself.”
—James Patrick Kelly, author of Burn and winner of the Hugo, Nebula and Locus awards
“A simulation scenario that digs deeper than the Matrix movies ever did; a stark portrayal of the unmitigated evil that is the parental impulse; a rapture-of-the-nerds drive-by.”
—Peter Watts, author of The Freeze Frame Revolution
“There’s a rich pool of narrative influences to this sci-fi, fairytale dystopia: Frankenstein, Pinnochio, Peter Pan, Black Mirror, DEVs, to name a few. Thompson does a wonderful job of weaving setting, characterization and plot together.”
—The Master’s Review
“A riveting existential and emotional rollercoaster, descending into the monstrous depths of patriarchy and rising into the dauntingly infinite possibilities of liberation.”
—Elly Bangs, author of Unity
“Like the best episodes of Black Mirror, One Level Down will have you pondering the questions it raises long after you’ve turned the last page.”
—Diana Peterfreund, author of the Clue Mysteries and For Darkness Shows the Stars
“One of my favorites of the year so far, incredibly thought provoking while still being immersively entertaining.”
—It Starts At Midnight
“A fascinating mix of mystery, thriller, and alternate futures. I had trouble putting it down.”
—Stina Leicht, author of Persephone Station
Mary G. Thompson is the acclaimed author of Flicker and Mist, Wuftoom, and Amy Chelsea Stacie Dee, which was the winner of the Westchester Fiction Award and a finalist for the Missouri Gateway Award. Thompson’s short fiction has appeared in Dark Matter Magazine, Apex Magazine, and others. She attended the University of Oregon School of Law, practiced law for seven years, and now works as a law librarian. She also holds an MFA in Writing from The New School, and completed the UCLA professional program in screenwriting. Thompson currently lives in Washington, DC. Find her on the web at http://marygthompson.com.
Praise for Amy Chelsea Stacie Dee
“Fans of realistic fiction and similar titles, such as Emma Donoghue’s Room, Lucy Christopher’s Stolen, and April Henry’s Girl, Stolen, will devour this novel.”
—School Library Journal
“Thompson expertly builds the novel’s tension to an unbearable pitch as she guides readers to a bittersweet, satisfying conclusion.”
—Publishers Weekly
“[A] traumatic, psychologically taut novel . . . Thompson deals honestly with the guilt and grief of Amy and her family, and, though grim, this tearjerker has a thankfully hopeful resolution.”
—Booklist
“Teens who relish abduction stories will be most satisfied with this book.”
—VOYA
“Thompson adeptly walks readers through the lingering trauma and misplaced guilt that Amy feels . . . this takes readers on a credible hell-and-back ride that fleshes out the tangled emotions behind recent ripped-from-the-headlines scenarios.”
—BCCB
“[A] dark, almost surreal story about survival.”
—Bustle
“A riveting, affecting story of loss and hope.”
—Book Riot
Praise for Flicker and Mist
“Filled with vivid, fascinating magic and set in an intriguing world, Flicker and Mist is an exciting, thought-provoking, haunting novel that lingers long after you finish the last page.”
—Sarah Beth Durst, author of The Queen of Blood
“This tale of mixed heritage and divided loyalties with an engaging heroine will appeal to fans of character-driven fantasy.”
—Kirkus
“Gripping characters, a sharp, quick pace, and a satisfying conclusion.”
—Bulletin
“Thompson brings political corruption, racial profiling, and social justice to the forefront of this fast-paced fantasy, with just enough romance to provide a comfortable backdrop . . . Thompson’s imaginative descriptions of Flickering—the close bond between wetbeast and rider—and the sea-centered rituals of the island people combine to create a unique fantasy world with a rich history.”
—Booklist
“For those who can’t get enough dystopian fiction, this work offers another look at governing-gone-wrong, with central themes of equality and racism.
—School Library Journal
“Flicker and Mist is a fast paced read full of excitement, action, and love. Myra is a wonderful protagonist and readers will quickly identify with her and her friends.”
—Assembly on Literature for Adolescents of the NCTE
1.
Our teacher, Camilla Wolkowitz, has driven us in the truck to the edge of the forest. By the time we reach the place where the trees thin out into the meadow, the sun has gone down. Camilla has passed out small, solar-powered portable lights, and all seven of us kindergarteners are sitting on our benches in the open truck bed holding them. The kids are awed by being so far from the town at night. They speak to each other in whispers.
This is probably my thirtieth field trip to the landing site, but I feel it too. It’s as unusual for me to be out this far as it is for them.
“I want to see the ship!” Kady says to me in a whisper-shout.
“There’s no ship,” I say. “The ship went back to where it came from.”
“Why?”
“Because it was expensive and Daddy sold it to help pay for this.” I wave my arm at the forest, the sky, everything. But of course Kady doesn’t understand. Some of the adults who were born here don’t care to think about the nature of our universe. How can I expect a five-year-old to get what I mean by a hand gesture? Next I’ll try explaining that Daddy could have had another ship made out of thin air if he’d wanted to.
“I thought there was a spaceship,” she says, peering over her lantern.
“Everyone, let’s climb down. Careful now.” Camilla glares up at me from her position at the bottom of the ramp leading down from the truck bed. For the last few minutes, I’ve been studiously ignoring her huffs and puffs as she wrangled the ramp into place. I shrug and smile at her. What do you expect a little girl like me to do? I say with my eyes.
The kids file down the ramp, stepping on each other’s ankles. I wait and go last. Over time it’s become second nature. When the kids are doing something fun, I try not to get in the way. It can be exhilarating to watch them experience all this for the first time. They have so much potential now. They could grow up to be the kind of people who want to explore our universe, who want to test its limits, who want to see how far we can go before the edges of the simulation dissolve. Or they could grow up to be like our teacher, plodding along year after year inside the world Daddy and his generation created.
I walk down the ramp with purpose, holding my head high, making as much impact with my tiny feet as I can. The kids aren’t watching me, and Camilla doesn’t have the spine to report to Daddy. All she cares about is that no one reports to him on her.
“Can you be helpful for once, Ella?”
“Are you going to teach them about how most of those stars up there will turn out to be illusions if we ever try to observe them up close?”
She doesn’t humor me with an answer. Instead, she follows the kids into the meadow. They’re waving their lanterns in each other’s faces, attracting flies by the hundreds, sending bugs flying all around their heads.
“Eek, stop!” Jaden is chasing Kady around with two lanterns. She grabs one from another kid and waves it back in his face.
“Bugs to you!” she yells.
Jaden drops both lanterns and swats at the flies around his face.
Someone else has started crying.
I stand at the edge of the meadow, laughing. This has gone south faster than usual. Then again, I’ve never seen so many flies. It’s probably related to the precipitous decline in the bird population. Which is no laughing matter, but I don’t care right now. I’m having a night away from Daddy, and I’m going to enjoy it.
Camilla wades into the middle of the fray. “Okay, hand the lanterns over,” she says. She walks around collecting them, and as she sets them down in a pile, she turns them off one by one. That has a magic effect on the kids, who finally sit on the grass and stay reasonably still. Camilla holds the last lantern.
“This is the spot where Philip Harkin first landed on Bella Inizio,” she says. “The spaceship was only a little bit bigger than our schoolhouse, and he was all alone. And he was very brave, because very few people had traveled this far from Earth. And he was very strong, and that’s why the people chose him to go and find a planet for them to live on.”
Kady raises her hand high.
“Yes, Kady?”
“Is that Ella’s daddy?”
“Yes, that’s right,” Camilla says, her voice strained.
All the kids turn to look at me. I’m standing with my arms folded and my feet planted. I hope they can’t see my face in the darkness, because I can’t bring myself to put on the mask right now. I’m fifty-eight years old, and I don’t want to pretend to be five tonight. But I see the panic in Camilla’s eyes, and I let my body relax. I unplant my feet and shift from one foot to the other.
“Ella, why aren’t you with the group?” Camilla asks.
“I saw a rabbit!” I say, bounding over to the others and sitting at the end of the row.
“No you didn’t,” Jaden retorts.
“Yes I did!”
“Don’t go running off again. We’re all going to stay right here, okay?” Camilla pastes a smile on her face and goes on with her lesson.
“Sixty-six years ago, right at this time of night, right here, Philip Harkin landed his ship. And he stepped out into this meadow and saw what we’re seeing right now.” Camilla turns off her lantern and looks up.
My eyes are already acclimated to the darkness. I look up with the other kids. The moon is tiny, barely a pinprick, but the stars shine brightly across the sky. Despite myself, I get caught up. I see our sky through Daddy’s eyes. I imagine what it must have been like to be all alone on a strange planet, the first human ever to set foot here, the first human ever to see these constellations. I breathe in the cool night air and imagine what it must have felt like for him to breathe it in for the first time.
Practically, there’s no difference between what we’re experiencing now and what Daddy felt. The simulation is as real to us as the planet was to Daddy. If I were suddenly sitting in the grass on the original Bella Inizio, I’d never even know I’d been moved. I guess that’s why they wait a few years to explain all that to the kids. For now, they just tell the story of Daddy’s brave solo flight, the colonists’ great migration, the founding of Harkin Town.
I wonder what the original looks like now, sixty-six years later. Time passes the same out there as in here. Are the buildings still standing, or has time and weather reduced them to ruins?
I look up at the stars knowing that even if Daddy ever lets me go, I’ll never find what I’m looking for. I’ll never see the real Bella Inizio. I’ll never see Earth. I’ll always be here, in this universe, rubbing up against the edges.
As Camilla continues telling the story, I shift on the grass so I can look behind me and to my left, to where the road continues along the meadow, out toward what’s now a series of farms. I don’t have to look far to see the spot where the servers are located on the real planet, where we actually are. Here there’s nothing to mark the spot. But that’s where he’ll appear, or she, or they, or maybe it: the Technician who’s due to stop by and check up on us, per Daddy’s contract. Whoever will come will appear there, and he’ll be the first person from outside ever to set foot in Bella Inizio.
One Level Down
Mary G. Thompson
“One Level Down is a perfectly executed gem of a book. Deeply satisfying and completely mesmerizing, it’s full of depth, heart, and thought.”
—Sarah Beth Durst, bestselling author of The Spellshop
Trapped in a child’s body, a resourceful woman risks death by deletion from a simulated world. With her debut novella for adults, Thompson has crafted a taut, ultimately hopeful story that deftly explores identity and autonomy.
One Level Down
by Mary G. Thompson
ISBN: 978-1-61696-430-6 (print); 978-1-61696-431-3 (digital)
Published: 1 April 2025
Available Format(s): digital, trade paperback
Trapped in a child’s body, a resourceful woman risks death by deletion from a simulated world. With her debut novella for adults, Mary G. Thompson (Wuftoom) has crafted a taut, ultimately hopeful story that deftly explores identity and autonomy.
“Brilliant and beautiful! One Level Down is a perfectly executed gem of a book. Deeply satisfying and completely mesmerizing, it’s full of depth, heart, and thought. A remarkable achievement!”
—Sarah Beth Durst, New York Times bestselling author of The Spellshop
Ella is the oldest five-year-old in the universe. For fifty-eight years, the founder of a simulated colony-planet has forced her to pretend to be his daughter. Her “Daddy” has absolute power over all elements of reality, which keeps the colonists in line even when their needs are not met. But his failing experiments and despotic need for absolute control are increasingly dangerous.
Ella’s very life depends on her performance as a child. She has watched Daddy delete her stepmother and the loved ones of anyone who helps her.
But every sixty years, a Technician comes from the world above. Ella has been watching and working and biding her time. Because if she cannot make the technician help her, the only solution is a desperate measure that could lead to consequences for the entire universe.
Transfer Orbit 11 new sci-fi and fantasy books to check out this April
“Mary Thompson shows us what kind of perfect jail software and servers can make, and how even there an inmate can dream of, and attempt, escape.”
—Jack Campbell, author of The Lost Fleet and In Our Stars
“When flawed humans attempt to create a pocket paradise, they create gut-wrenching moral choices instead. Once you start reading, it is impossible to look away from Mary Thompson’s provocative story of simulations, power imbalance, and whether kindness can overcome cruelty in the end.”
—Carolyn Ives Gilman, author of Dark Orbit
“Brilliant and beautiful! One Level Down is a perfectly executed gem of a book. Deeply satisfying and completely mesmerizing, it’s full of depth, heart, and thought. A remarkable achievement!”
—Sarah Beth Durst, New York Times bestselling author of The Spellshop
“The world of Mary G. Thompson’s novella One Level Down is beautiful on the surface, and scary the rest of the way down. That’s especially true for Ella, the determined protagonist who’s a prisoner in her own body. You’ll find yourself rooting hard for her, and for the possibility of a freedom that will allow her to discover who she really is. One Level Down is a captivating read that you’ll be tempted to tear through in one long sitting. It’s also a thought-provoking book that will stay with you well beyond its final page.”
—David Ebenbach, author of How to Mars
“Death by deletion is the ultimate horror in this riveting novella about life in a simulation. One Level Down deftly captures both the anguish of fifty-eight-year-old Ella who is trapped in a five-year-old’s body and the megalomania of the Daddy who keeps her there. While Mary G. Thompson brings new insight to the nested realities of the simulation hypothesis, this is above all a story of courage as Ella risks everything to become herself.”
—James Patrick Kelly, author of Burn and winner of the Hugo, Nebula and Locus awards
“A simulation scenario that digs deeper than the Matrix movies ever did; a stark portrayal of the unmitigated evil that is the parental impulse; a rapture-of-the-nerds drive-by.”
—Peter Watts, author of The Freeze Frame Revolution
“There’s a rich pool of narrative influences to this sci-fi, fairytale dystopia: Frankenstein, Pinnochio, Peter Pan, Black Mirror, DEVs, to name a few. Thompson does a wonderful job of weaving setting, characterization and plot together.”
—The Master’s Review
“A riveting existential and emotional rollercoaster, descending into the monstrous depths of patriarchy and rising into the dauntingly infinite possibilities of liberation.”
—Elly Bangs, author of Unity
“Like the best episodes of Black Mirror, One Level Down will have you pondering the questions it raises long after you’ve turned the last page.”
—Diana Peterfreund, author of the Clue Mysteries and For Darkness Shows the Stars
“One of my favorites of the year so far, incredibly thought provoking while still being immersively entertaining.”
—It Starts At Midnight
“A fascinating mix of mystery, thriller, and alternate futures. I had trouble putting it down.”
—Stina Leicht, author of Persephone Station
Mary G. Thompson is the acclaimed author of Flicker and Mist, Wuftoom, and Amy Chelsea Stacie Dee, which was the winner of the Westchester Fiction Award and a finalist for the Missouri Gateway Award. Thompson’s short fiction has appeared in Dark Matter Magazine, Apex Magazine, and others. She attended the University of Oregon School of Law, practiced law for seven years, and now works as a law librarian. She also holds an MFA in Writing from The New School, and completed the UCLA professional program in screenwriting. Thompson currently lives in Washington, DC. Find her on the web at http://marygthompson.com.
Praise for Amy Chelsea Stacie Dee
“Fans of realistic fiction and similar titles, such as Emma Donoghue’s Room, Lucy Christopher’s Stolen, and April Henry’s Girl, Stolen, will devour this novel.”
—School Library Journal
“An intelligent, tense psychological drama.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“Thompson expertly builds the novel’s tension to an unbearable pitch as she guides readers to a bittersweet, satisfying conclusion.”
—Publishers Weekly
“[A] traumatic, psychologically taut novel . . . Thompson deals honestly with the guilt and grief of Amy and her family, and, though grim, this tearjerker has a thankfully hopeful resolution.”
—Booklist
“Teens who relish abduction stories will be most satisfied with this book.”
—VOYA
“Thompson adeptly walks readers through the lingering trauma and misplaced guilt that Amy feels . . . this takes readers on a credible hell-and-back ride that fleshes out the tangled emotions behind recent ripped-from-the-headlines scenarios.”
—BCCB
“[A] dark, almost surreal story about survival.”
—Bustle
“A riveting, affecting story of loss and hope.”
—Book Riot
Praise for Flicker and Mist
“Filled with vivid, fascinating magic and set in an intriguing world, Flicker and Mist is an exciting, thought-provoking, haunting novel that lingers long after you finish the last page.”
—Sarah Beth Durst, author of The Queen of Blood
“This tale of mixed heritage and divided loyalties with an engaging heroine will appeal to fans of character-driven fantasy.”
—Kirkus
“Gripping characters, a sharp, quick pace, and a satisfying conclusion.”
—Bulletin
“Thompson brings political corruption, racial profiling, and social justice to the forefront of this fast-paced fantasy, with just enough romance to provide a comfortable backdrop . . . Thompson’s imaginative descriptions of Flickering—the close bond between wetbeast and rider—and the sea-centered rituals of the island people combine to create a unique fantasy world with a rich history.”
—Booklist
“For those who can’t get enough dystopian fiction, this work offers another look at governing-gone-wrong, with central themes of equality and racism.
—School Library Journal
“Flicker and Mist is a fast paced read full of excitement, action, and love. Myra is a wonderful protagonist and readers will quickly identify with her and her friends.”
—Assembly on Literature for Adolescents of the NCTE
1.
Our teacher, Camilla Wolkowitz, has driven us in the truck to the edge of the forest. By the time we reach the place where the trees thin out into the meadow, the sun has gone down. Camilla has passed out small, solar-powered portable lights, and all seven of us kindergarteners are sitting on our benches in the open truck bed holding them. The kids are awed by being so far from the town at night. They speak to each other in whispers.
This is probably my thirtieth field trip to the landing site, but I feel it too. It’s as unusual for me to be out this far as it is for them.
“I want to see the ship!” Kady says to me in a whisper-shout.
“There’s no ship,” I say. “The ship went back to where it came from.”
“Why?”
“Because it was expensive and Daddy sold it to help pay for this.” I wave my arm at the forest, the sky, everything. But of course Kady doesn’t understand. Some of the adults who were born here don’t care to think about the nature of our universe. How can I expect a five-year-old to get what I mean by a hand gesture? Next I’ll try explaining that Daddy could have had another ship made out of thin air if he’d wanted to.
“I thought there was a spaceship,” she says, peering over her lantern.
“Everyone, let’s climb down. Careful now.” Camilla glares up at me from her position at the bottom of the ramp leading down from the truck bed. For the last few minutes, I’ve been studiously ignoring her huffs and puffs as she wrangled the ramp into place. I shrug and smile at her. What do you expect a little girl like me to do? I say with my eyes.
The kids file down the ramp, stepping on each other’s ankles. I wait and go last. Over time it’s become second nature. When the kids are doing something fun, I try not to get in the way. It can be exhilarating to watch them experience all this for the first time. They have so much potential now. They could grow up to be the kind of people who want to explore our universe, who want to test its limits, who want to see how far we can go before the edges of the simulation dissolve. Or they could grow up to be like our teacher, plodding along year after year inside the world Daddy and his generation created.
I walk down the ramp with purpose, holding my head high, making as much impact with my tiny feet as I can. The kids aren’t watching me, and Camilla doesn’t have the spine to report to Daddy. All she cares about is that no one reports to him on her.
“Can you be helpful for once, Ella?”
“Are you going to teach them about how most of those stars up there will turn out to be illusions if we ever try to observe them up close?”
She doesn’t humor me with an answer. Instead, she follows the kids into the meadow. They’re waving their lanterns in each other’s faces, attracting flies by the hundreds, sending bugs flying all around their heads.
“Eek, stop!” Jaden is chasing Kady around with two lanterns. She grabs one from another kid and waves it back in his face.
“Bugs to you!” she yells.
Jaden drops both lanterns and swats at the flies around his face.
Someone else has started crying.
I stand at the edge of the meadow, laughing. This has gone south faster than usual. Then again, I’ve never seen so many flies. It’s probably related to the precipitous decline in the bird population. Which is no laughing matter, but I don’t care right now. I’m having a night away from Daddy, and I’m going to enjoy it.
Camilla wades into the middle of the fray. “Okay, hand the lanterns over,” she says. She walks around collecting them, and as she sets them down in a pile, she turns them off one by one. That has a magic effect on the kids, who finally sit on the grass and stay reasonably still. Camilla holds the last lantern.
“This is the spot where Philip Harkin first landed on Bella Inizio,” she says. “The spaceship was only a little bit bigger than our schoolhouse, and he was all alone. And he was very brave, because very few people had traveled this far from Earth. And he was very strong, and that’s why the people chose him to go and find a planet for them to live on.”
Kady raises her hand high.
“Yes, Kady?”
“Is that Ella’s daddy?”
“Yes, that’s right,” Camilla says, her voice strained.
All the kids turn to look at me. I’m standing with my arms folded and my feet planted. I hope they can’t see my face in the darkness, because I can’t bring myself to put on the mask right now. I’m fifty-eight years old, and I don’t want to pretend to be five tonight. But I see the panic in Camilla’s eyes, and I let my body relax. I unplant my feet and shift from one foot to the other.
“Ella, why aren’t you with the group?” Camilla asks.
“I saw a rabbit!” I say, bounding over to the others and sitting at the end of the row.
“No you didn’t,” Jaden retorts.
“Yes I did!”
“Don’t go running off again. We’re all going to stay right here, okay?” Camilla pastes a smile on her face and goes on with her lesson.
“Sixty-six years ago, right at this time of night, right here, Philip Harkin landed his ship. And he stepped out into this meadow and saw what we’re seeing right now.” Camilla turns off her lantern and looks up.
My eyes are already acclimated to the darkness. I look up with the other kids. The moon is tiny, barely a pinprick, but the stars shine brightly across the sky. Despite myself, I get caught up. I see our sky through Daddy’s eyes. I imagine what it must have been like to be all alone on a strange planet, the first human ever to set foot here, the first human ever to see these constellations. I breathe in the cool night air and imagine what it must have felt like for him to breathe it in for the first time.
Practically, there’s no difference between what we’re experiencing now and what Daddy felt. The simulation is as real to us as the planet was to Daddy. If I were suddenly sitting in the grass on the original Bella Inizio, I’d never even know I’d been moved. I guess that’s why they wait a few years to explain all that to the kids. For now, they just tell the story of Daddy’s brave solo flight, the colonists’ great migration, the founding of Harkin Town.
I wonder what the original looks like now, sixty-six years later. Time passes the same out there as in here. Are the buildings still standing, or has time and weather reduced them to ruins?
I look up at the stars knowing that even if Daddy ever lets me go, I’ll never find what I’m looking for. I’ll never see the real Bella Inizio. I’ll never see Earth. I’ll always be here, in this universe, rubbing up against the edges.
As Camilla continues telling the story, I shift on the grass so I can look behind me and to my left, to where the road continues along the meadow, out toward what’s now a series of farms. I don’t have to look far to see the spot where the servers are located on the real planet, where we actually are. Here there’s nothing to mark the spot. But that’s where he’ll appear, or she, or they, or maybe it: the Technician who’s due to stop by and check up on us, per Daddy’s contract. Whoever will come will appear there, and he’ll be the first person from outside ever to set foot in Bella Inizio.