The Good Life
"I understand that you have a date with Dr. John again today Chloe and you both are becoming very close." Chloe blushed, and said, "Yes he seems to be very nice." Liz replied, "He is an excellent Doctor, and a wonderful person." Liz told Chloe to have a good time and not to hesitate to call if she needed anything. "I am sure however that Dr. John will take very good care of you." Dr. John greeted Chloe with a big smile, pulled her close to him, hugged her, told her that he was glad to see her again, and had looked forward to this morning. Chloe blushed and said, "I have been looking forward to seeing you again as well." Dr. John looked at Chloe and asked her if she was ready to see some more sites of the city. Close said, "Sure I'd like that" and Dr. John replied, "Well I need to stop by my apartment to pick up a few things if that's okay with you." Chloe smiled and said, "Sure I'm with you, no problem." It took a few minutes for them to arrive at a very large apartment complex and Dr. John showed Chloe around the ground-floor facilities of his apartment building that seemed to have a tremendous amount of game and sports activities all enclosed in the apartment building. Many people were busily coming and going. They got out on the 35th floor then walked down a hallway to the right, and took a left and arrived at a wall with the number 355352-345, and Chloe thought to herself I'll try and remember that number and about that time they were close enough to the door that the door in the wall opened up. Dr. John stepped aside and let Chloe go in front of him, she glanced around in his apartment, and it was very similar to hers. A little bigger, and it was very clean, she rather expected to see something as she expected a guy’s room to look like. She expected to see a few things out of place with a guy living by himself. However unless John had cleaned up just for her, he was a very neat person. He kept things in their place. Chloe reminded herself once again that Dr. John was probably aware of everything she was thinking. Dr. John gave her a tour of his apartment and then he showed her his bedroom. Chloe smiled to herself because she had not been entirely disappointed in his bedroom, as it was not tidy. Dr. John collected a small box and he said, "Well I'm ready to go are you?" Chloe smiled at him. Dr. John said, "Okay let's go, we need to go do some shopping now." Chloe was surprised and said, "Shopping!" Dr. John replied, "Well I understand that the mall is where you like to shop. I understand that funds have been deposited to your account and all you need to do is find the beautiful things you want. Let's go shopping!" Before long Dr. John and Chloe hand in hand were walking through one of the biggest malls that Chloe had ever seen, in fact it was beyond description. There were stores that carried every possible conceivable thing that you could imagine. There were still things that Chloe had no idea what they were for, and what they did. Chloe said to Dr. John, "I have no idea what half of the stuff is, or what it does." Dr. John's smiled and squeezed her hand and said, "Let me guess where I can take you first that will please you," he pretended like he was thinking real hard, and then a smile, and then clicked his finger in the air, "I know, we can go and buy you some clothes!" Chloe smiled and said, "That will suit me just fine, I love shopping for new clothes." In a few minutes they were in a store that made her think of one that she had visited in Florida with her Aunt Jessica, and thinking about Aunt Jessica started to make her sad, but it's very difficult to be sad with Dr. John around and he had funny little comments about different things and where to go next. As the expression goes, Dr. John and Chloe shopped until they dropped. Chloe told Dr. John that her feet were hurting and she was ready to rest, she was ready to get her feet out of her shoes and prop them up. Dr. John smiled and said, "My feet are hurting as well, we have really walked the mall, and I have about as many packages of yours that I can carry and they both laughed." Dr. John said, "How about if we quit shopping for the day and go back to my place and rest, take our shoes off and see what we can find to drink?" They left all the stores, all the shopping and on the way to Dr. John's apartment Chloe asked John how was it that she had been given so much, and was not gainfully employed, and was not contributing anything to society. Dr. John told her that in their world they considered her a very special person having traveled through time and space from her world. They recognized the fact that she would need time to adjust, and time to learn how to live, and how to work in their new world. There would be time to contribute to society, and there would be a time when she would be able to determine with lots of help what it was that she could do to earn her keep. Back at Dr. John's apartment Dr. John told Chloe to make herself at home, "Take your shoes off, and get comfortable. Give me a chance to see what I come up with for us to drink." Chloe was now on the couch, removed her shoes from her aching feet, and pulled the table up closer and propped her feet up on it and breathed a sigh of relief. Her feet throbbed and it had been a long time since she had walked so much, but it was a blast and she enjoyed it. In a few moments, Dr. John was sitting next to her handing her a glass and he said, "Try this." Chloe asked, "What is it?" John said, "Try it and see if you can tell me what it is." Chloe reluctantly took the glass and barely took a sip, and then Dr. John said, "Don't keep me in suspense any longer, do you like it?" Chloe frowned and said, "I have no idea what it is. All I can say is that it's cold and it's wet." Dr. John laughed and said, "Well Chloe, so much for that idea. I guess they don't know how to make a Bahama Mama." Chloe smiled and threw back her head and laughed and said, "What would you know about Bahama Mama's." Dr. John looked at her inquiringly and said, "Am I saying it right?" Bahama Mama?" What Dr. John had given her tasted nothing even remotely like a Bahama Mama that is one of the most famous drinks served at the tourist hangouts in the Bahamas, and particularly in Nassau. Dr. John got up and said, "One glass of ice cold water coming up," he handed it to her, and then he said, "I am sorry I was trying to make something special that you would be familiar with." Chloe said, "That was sweet, and that she appreciated it but she only had a Bahama Mama one time. Her Uncle David had told her not to finish it because there was a lot of alcohol, and it would not be good for her. It was Dr. John's turn to blush and said, "Chloe, I'm Sorry it wouldn't be good for me to have you tipsy from alcohol." John asked Chloe what she liked to do for fun in Nassau. Dr. John told Chloe the things that he liked to do, and one of the things was that he liked to go to the Hollo-Deck and become somebody from the past in a scene, perhaps a ship's captain in the ocean, discovering new places. This intrigued Chloe and she asked Dr. John a lot of questions and thought that it sounded very interesting, and the closest thing that she could think of and that related to this technology was what she left behind: playing video games. The Hollo-Deck was computer-generated 3-D holographic images and very sophisticated. Nobody could get hurt and the computer made sure of that, but it is lots of fun. Dr. John asked if she would like to try it sometime. She said, "Well I think so, but I'd like to learn a little bit more about it." John said, "Well sometime we will go and we will take a tour, and if you are comfortable, then we'll let you dream up something and will go on for the full Hollo-Deck experience. Not realizing the time as it slipped by and it was now seven, forty- five and both of their feet had eased off. Chloe looked at Dr. John and said, "I guess I need to be getting back to my apartment." Dr. John smiled and winked at Chloe and said, "I want you to spend the night." He did not smile he just looked at Chloe. She could not read his thoughts, but she decided that she would be very honest and she looked at John and said, "Are you inviting me to spend the night, John?" Dr. John smiled and said, "Yes Chloe; I would like you to spend the night." Dr. John had a puzzled look on his face and he said, "Do you have anything to wear?" Chloe had not brought anything with her and she said to him and smiled, "I did buy a few things in the store that will come in handy, but I really wish I had a toothbrush." Dr. John said that he could provide a new toothbrush and toothpaste and basic items. John said, "Chloe, there that's settled, were all good." Dr. John helped Chloe become more familiar with the ordeal of the visual system in his apartment and he said that he was quite certain that it would be pretty close to identical with what was in her apartment. Chloe teased John about the number of movies and shows that were documentaries in his system and they were in the hundreds. Dr. John said most of the time the computer chooses for us because it learns patterns of what we like, what we dislike, what we would watch the most. It merits it down to maybe a dozen different options. The more you use it initially; your audiovisual will become coordinated with what you like, and what you do not like. What you watch the most, and then you can take it a step further and have it let you know when there is certain information available that would be in your interest. Chloe put her hand over her mouth and said, "Oh my, Liz will be wondering where I am, "I guess I need to let her know where I will be." Dr. John smiled and said, "Yes you do need to let her know where you are, and give her my contact information. If she needs you, she can call you through my number or of course she can call you through your number, but yes call her." Chloe contacted Liz and told her that she was at Dr. John's and that, she was spending the night, and that she would see her in the morning and she did not elaborate anymore, and it seemed that Liz did not require any more information. Dr. John looked at her, held her hands, and said, "Why don't you go and get ready for bed and I will sit here and catch up on my messages." Chloe stood up and Dr. John stood up and put his arms around her and walked over past where Chloe would've assumed was the guest room and walked her into his room and said to her, "On the left wall in the corner are all the towels, on the right wall all of the toiletries. Chloe suggested that John should get ready first so they changed places and Dr. John went to get ready for bed and Chloe played with the video system trying to learn how to program. Chloe tried very hard not to be thinking about that she had probably messed up the programming. She said softly as if Dr. John could hear, "I'm sorry you have to program it again, this is all very new to me." It seemed like minutes, Dr. John was back, and Chloe noticed that his hair was still very wet and she had a desire to dry his hair for him, he was so handsome. He came over to her, pulled her with her hands to her feet, and said, "How about a nice backrub and a foot rub." Chloe blushed and said, "I'd like that." John just had adjusted the lights down, and there was music very softly playing in the background. Chloe's heart was beating faster, her throat was dry, and she was just a little bit scared. She had never done this before, and she was a little bit afraid. Was this appropriate for her at this time? Chloe knew that her Aunt Jessica would be able to give her advice if she could only talk to her. Sunday morning started with Chloe awakened to Dr. John serving her breakfast in bed, and consequently she did not have the heart to tell him that the breakfast tasted awful. It appeared to be an attempt at an egg omelet, and this was something that did nothing for Chloe's taste buds, but the orange juice was quite good. John said he had already eaten his breakfast while he was catching up on his messages, and watched the local news. He smiled and asked Chloe what she would like to do.