Like so many people in this year of 2023, we had all hoped the worst was behind us. The vaccine programs were only partially effective and the virus kept mutating putting more and more people at risk. The changes in society were almost unbelievable. I know no one would have predicted a several year lock-down, but it is proving effective. You could literally go days without seeing anyone, except your immediate family.
Shopping was all done online and delivered with drones. Groceries were packed up and delivered to your car by automotive carts. Going out to eat is a distant memory, let alone going to movie theaters or live sporting events. It’s been an incredible three years since the pandemic started and we are just coping more than anything.
President Biden seems still hopeful, but even his ‘good news’ has been tempered by reality. The best thing you can say about him is that he’s paying attention and doing what he can to help, which is more than his predecessor ever did. Okay, no more politics, or we might never get to the reason for this story.
Like many people, the single folks seem to have it the worst in this isolation. While I know I have read of many instances of violence in families due to the pandemic’s restrictions, people who live alone have no one around them for weeks, even months at a time. All reports from the medical services dealing with the stresses of isolation leveled off in the second year for every group except for single people living alone. That’s when Virtual Reality (VR) really started taking off.
Sure, VR’s been around for a while, but it was always a niche market. It had been growing slowly but like so many things, in the first year of the pandemic, its growth stagnated. In the second year, it started regaining some momentum, and the technological advances made it both less expensive and more realistic. It went from visors and hand controls to full helmets that not only gave you a visual and auditory experience but olfactory as well. Yes, Bugs Bunny’s ‘Smell-o-Vision’ had become a reality.
VR was more than just gaming, it rapidly became a way of communication, education, and commerce. Rather than sit in from of a video-teleconferencing classroom, you put on your VR helmet and it was like you were actually in the classroom again. Kids responded enthusiastically. Businesses followed suit and eventually it was being used more than more for personal interactions. Many industries started using it as a method to avoid physical contact, including the medical groups. Doctor and hospital visits gave way to virtual visits and many treatments being done through VR, including mental health. It was being used to treat many maladies that didn’t require actual medications. What I didn’t know was how far those treatments could take you.
For most people, gloves superseded hand controls and new ankle attachments (anklers) made walking seem real. A frictionless platform completed the current experience. There were rumors of complete body coverings in the works. Even people’s workouts turned into VR experiences. Instead of just sitting on a stationary bike or running on a treadmill, the new gear not only looked like you were someplace else but felt like it!
That’s what I was doing when my VR helmet malfunctioned. It had just come back from a little repair work. I was anxious to get back on the road, so to speak. Keeping in shape was like my only physical outlet and one I hated without VR. After the drone dropped it off, I downloaded the new program and I was preparing to ride the 1996 Tour-De-France route. I was so excited!
I heard the drone drop the package and found the shop had not just repaired a problem with the right speaker, but they painted it a sharp green with pink highlights. It looked really cool, even if no one would ever see me in it. When I pulled it from its case, I didn’t see a card flutter back into the box, I was too excited to have it back. That was my first mistake, even if I didn’t know it at the time. I slipped on my gloves, anklers, and helmet and found myself in a small French town sipping a glass of wine in a tiny bistro, I was floored at the realism of it all. I could feel the wind and the heat from the sunlight, I swear-to-god I could taste the wine.
I am pretty sure I sat down instead of getting on my bike and I let the sensations take me away. I expected to be surrounded by other sweaty guys churning on a steep incline in the French Alps, instead, I was relaxing somewhere in France and the mountains were in the distance. It made a beautiful view from my vantage point. I was marveling at the detail and figured this was the intro or preparatory set-up before the race.
I wasn’t that surprised when a tall, fit young man sat across from me carrying a glass. He looked like another cyclist to me. But I was more than a little shocked when he took my hand and kissed it. The kiss was surprising enough, but the real shocker was that the hand wasn’t mine. It was a slender and very feminine arm and hand. I stared at it, looking slightly down at my hand in his and I realized I had breasts.
The reason that was so shocking is that my name is Sam and I am a thirty-five-year-old man. Not just a man, but a straight man who never had a thought along these lines in his life! I froze and debated about stopping the program. Obviously, there was some mix-up in the program, but the guy lifted me out of my chair and pulled me against him, one hand went to my butt and the other to my chest.
I felt him squeeze my breast. He guided me into the bistro and up a narrow set of stairs. He was speaking French to me, and that made it difficult to try and head this off because I don’t speak French. My stuttering English fell on deaf ears as we entered a small room and he kissed me. I kid you not, I felt him against me, full-body contact as he kissed me.
I hadn’t been kissed by anyone in over a year. My last girlfriend and I broke up, like many single people, because we couldn’t spend much time together. She was a nurse and her hours were horrendous. She was also more constrained by the quarantine rules that we would go weeks without any physical contact, and even further without even kissing let alone anything else.
His kiss was not just unexpected, it also wasn’t a little peck on the cheek. His lips were firm and his sharp tongue pushed into my mouth. My lips felt plumper than I recall and his arms went around me as the kiss deepened. I couldn’t disengage, there was a specific hand gesture designed to end the running VR program, but I couldn’t seem to bring myself to perform them. No, that's a cop-out, for some reason I didn't want to perform the disengage! I felt something new as well, he was pressed against me and I felt his getting hard. It was the strangest feeling because my VR body responded.
I have no idea how I knew what was going on, but I could feel it! This VR body was acting on its own and carrying me along for the ride! It was weird and somehow exhilarating. He spun me around and pressed up against my back, I could tell how excited he was getting. He rubbing against my butt and I heard my own voice make a noise, one I had never heard before. Then I pushed back against him and his hands cupped my breasts. My hands covered his and I squeezed as well. He started unbuttoning my blouse.
