Book of Dreams

Phone Addict

1

"You just can't stop staring at the phone, can you?"

I pretended I didn't hear that. I understood Josh had a hard time falling asleep last night, and when he did, he woke up several times because I was snoring.

Thus, in the morning, he turned into the grumpiest monster on earth that easily became irritated with anything, even if it was just a sunlight on his face.

There's a new app called Phoenix; well, not really new; but it has been out since a while and people all over the world are going nuts for it.  Basically it's a virtual world where we were free to perform our dream jobs. Anything, even if we have no skills or experiences, we're allowed to give it a shot. On top of all that, it also pays us weekly like a side income. So, what is there to complain?

People like Josh will normally call us freaks for real jobs, for him, are those that make you leave early morning and come back home before seven. Or even better, sitting at a desk in the office. Getting money wired to us online for doing virtual work will break the system. It defies the law of human nature, he'd say.

But to me, no other jobs can pay me two hundred and fifty bucks a week for coming online once in a while at night, typically after setting up table for dinner with family.

I'm an pianist in Phoenix, and my online alter ego is known as Onora. And no, I didn't go to any music school before, or actually played a real piano. I have strict parents who would kill me if I tried to do something else (music is a waste of time, for them) other than going to school and studying only the subjects needed.

No extras, no game time.

For once, people recognize my talent even though it's just in a virtual world. My talent; to use the phone keyboard without pressing the wrong buttons.

Oh, I haven't mentioned this to you yet. Whatever I play, it's actually being played in real life somewhere else, on an e-piano that will perform my songs on its own. I just have to play the songs through Phoenix, and they get transferred to the e-piano, playing my songs without any real pianist actually sitting there to play it.

And the rhythms that come from it are amazing! It's like listening to high quality audio through an expensive pair of headphones. You can hear the echoes, the bass, the treble, depending on how you set your e-piano. I can't afford it yet, but maybe someday.

"You don't even know whom are you wasting your time.."

"Oh Jesus, Josh!" I just wanted him to shut up and let me focus. "What are you doing at home anyway? Don't you have work?"

He had work, in the morning. He came home after lunch because he had no more work to do. It scares him sometimes to learn that most of the handyman jobs he can do are getting taken over by foreign workers that demand lower pays.

Maybe because I had been stuck at home for so long, just keeping the house tidy and cooking for him, I'm happy to at least contribute to the family by playing piano through the app. He never really did tell me that I was doing a great job at maintaining the house. Even my mom thought I'd fail as a homemaker.

"Don't you think you could try to apply for something else?" He suggested. "You have other skills, you went to college, unlike me. They could even pay more."

He's not completely wrong. I could try to become a school teacher, teaching art to kids. But I don't even have kids of my own, and I'm not sure if I like being around kids.

I hissed at him and walked away from the living room, bringing my phone with me. I just needed like five minutes of silence because pressing the wrong keys will output weird sounds on the other side.