July, 2042

Xia knew she shouldn't play in a car since focusing on her smartphone screen always made her motion sick, but there was nothing more boring than driving on a highway for more than three hours to the coast of Parry Sound, where, having accepted her aunt Hannah's invitation, she intended to spend two days sunbathing or canoeing with her and her cousin Natalie. Maybe she should have brought some headphones and listened to music, but she didn't want to come off as rude and make them think she was ignoring them.

“Urk” She pursed her lips and stifled a sour belch before it could become anything more significant, her in-game avatar paused from its work of serving the cafe's patrons, the clientele's emoticons quickly beginning to transition from enthusiastic smiles to sullen expressions… sorry, but she was trying not to vomit on the carpet of her aunt's car.

"See? I told you not to play!"

Xia looked up from the screen and found herself contemplating the light blue eyes of Natalie, who had partially turned her torso and head so as to look at her even though she was sitting in the front seat of the car.

“I'm bored,” She tried to justify herself by moving closer to the door to lower the window until the air – heated by the asphalt below – hit her straight on the face and in the hair.

“Do you want us to stop at the next gas station?” Hannah asked her without taking her eyes off the road. She was truly a responsible driver.

She shook her head slowly, certain that her nod would be seen through the rearview mirror, “no no, the sooner we get there the sooner I'll feel better.”

“Or you could not play,” Natalie muttered, “don't you know that the best part of reaching the destination is the journey??”

She rolled her eyes and head with a hint of exasperation: Natalie's house was not even a ten minute walk from Xia’s and the fact that they were barely a year apart meant that they had almost literally grown up together, with the same circle of friends and attending the same schools. Many also mistook them for sisters, even though physically they didn't look much alike since Natalie had light brown hair and clearly European features while she had straight, very black hair and dark, slightly almond-shaped eyes heritage of her half-chinese mother.

“I would agree with you if we were taking a road trip down a country road, but what is there to see here? We are trapped in a linear and flat river of asphalt where the only thing there is to see are the license plates of the cars we surpass or that surpass us,” Xia snorted, the nausea hadn't gone away yet but she already felt like she was ready to resume playing.

“But if we had chosen to go on country roads to make this trip we would have spent almost double the time!” Hannah replied, she could see her aunt's smile through the mirror, “not to mention the cost in gas and brakes. It costs money to keep accelerating and braking compared to traveling at high speed and braking a little!”

Hannah was right about that, but there would have been variety, many small towns to cross with all their things to see... Xia digressed in her thoughts, but in her opinion the existence of such fast, direct and uninteresting roads to the eye made a great disservice to her cousin's philosophy on the importance of the journey compared to reaching the destination. “But there would have been something nice to look at, maybe the squares of towns I'd never seen…” she commented in a low voice, almost to herself while her eyes got lost in observing a station wagon that was passing them on the right.

It was another small family made up of four people, the children in the back seats were playing with their smartphones - which Xia found absolutely understandable - while the parents seemed intent on having a lively discussion among themselves. She should have looked away and pretended nothing had happened since staring at someone is rude, but they were on a highway, on public land, so no, She didn't stop looking at them: Xia continued to look at them and observe them as they gesticulated more and more nervously. until the car completely passed them and the only visible part was the trunk full of holiday suitcases and the license plate reading 'Quebec - Je me souviens'.

"Maybe next time?" Her cousin proposed, "to tell the truth, I too would like to see more towns and pass through their squares, see people, look at shop windows as we pass by in the car..." she said in a subtly dreamy tone, she always had been the poetic soul between the two of them.

“Yes, maybe next time, when we have more than two days of vacation to spend,” replied Hannah, who at least from the tone of her voice and the expression on her face that Xia was able to glimpse thanks to the rear-view mirror, didn't seem so displeased to the idea after all.

Having agreed on this, Xia decided to leave them to chat among themselves, she went back to her video game. The level she managed to reach was particularly difficult given that customers arrived asking for complex recipes that required more than two ingredients to be prepared and therefore required perfect timing to be able to satisfy everyone and obtain at least one star, the minimum to pass to the following level. Soon, Xia stopped following the topics that Hannah and Natalie were discussing, she was once again immersed in her personal world, nausea or no nausea she could last at least another half hour before having to stop again, hoping to do before her stomach reached its limit and decided to send a breakfast she hadn't even eaten up against gravity.

Suddenly, a screech of wheels on the road and the sound of the clacsons brought her out of her personal world.

"Oh God! Hold fast!" Hannah exclaimed.

“Mom, be careful!” Natalie shouted.

Xia looked up from her smartphone just in time to see what was happening: the station wagon from earlier had made a risky overtaking in front of a truck, which in an attempt to avoid the accident had swerved and began to dangerously lose control. The blood froze in her veins, her aunt tried to avoid colliding with the truck... all three of them screamed, the world seemed to slow down and lose color and depth, then, from the immobility of that eternal moment, everything started to change again, turnining violently like they was inside a washing machine and Xia was tossed around inside the passenger compartment as if she was a doll in the hands of a particularly energetic little girl.

She screamed at the top of her lungs as she felt every hard part on which she could crash hit her and sink into her flesh while with her arms and nails she tried to cling to anything to end that moment of horror and return to stilllness. It was the end, no more 'next time', no more 'journeys'…

- - -

August, 2044

Xia was sitting still with her head bowed looking at a point on the ground, a straight white and red line on a gray carpet that was between the two-seater sofa on which she was sitting and the small armchair on which Addison - her psychologist - was sitting, busy listening to what was the reason that brought Xia to her, or at least, the most important part. Addison had brown hair and a face that almost made her look like an elf, she had green eyes, very expressive, in which Xia could see a controlled sadness... the empathy of a person who was used to sharing other people's anxieties without allowing them to to become a load on their shoulders.

“And that's what brought you here to Nova Scotia?” She asked, trying to catch Xia's eyes with hers, friendly. It was clear that she was trying to encourage her to continue and not withdraw into herself and her trauma again.

Xia nodded slowly, “I ruined my mom's and dad's relationship,” she muttered softly.

“The accident,” Addison said.

“Huh?”

“The accident, the accident caused your parents' separation,” the psychologist specified, “so after the accident the atmosphere in your house degenerated, but this doesn't explain why you and your mother moved here. ”

“It was my dad who brought the money into the house, so when they broke up we had no choice but to return here to my grandmother,” Xia said nothing about the incident, since she was convinced that if she died too in the accident it would probably have brought her parents closer together rather than further apart, not to mention the fact that…

Xia clenched her teeth to stifle a retch when the memories of the rescuers who pulled her out of the wreckage of the car just as it caught fire returned to claim their space in her memory. She put a hand to the mouth and turned the head away looking for something that could have stopped her imagination; the office in Addison reminded her a lot of a hospital due to its meticulous order and cleanliness, but it had large windows which, given the period, were open to allow the ending Canadian summer heat to enter, leaving light, air and the sound and the chirps of birds and urban traffic inside.

“I'm so sorry,” said the psychologist, “I can imagine how hard it is for you, all these events that are happening relatively quickly cannot leave positive marks on anyone. And your friends in Ontario? Are you still in contact with them?”

Xia shook her head a few times, after losing Natalie – her best friend - all she wanted was to be left alone. Why was she in that office if it wasn't what she wanted? Because her mother and grandmother had taken her there by force.

“So, you're completely moving on,” Addison smiled at her and Xia didn't respond in any way, she had the impression that Addison knew that that wasn't what she was doing and that she was talking to her like that in an attempt to show her another point of view, that of take Xia's new life in Nova Scotia as the end of one chapter of her existence and the beginning of a new one, as if she wanted it, or needed it. “In less than two weeks you will start going to school again, I imagine that it will be a good opportunity to make new friends.”

Xia nodded slowly.

“Is your mother waiting for you outside my studio?”

“...It's not like I can walk here alone,” Xia replied, pointing first to her legs and then to the crutches that she kept close to her, the accident had partially paralyzed her and although she was still able to move the legs, she couldn't do it well enough that she didn't have to use crutches... the life of running, jumping, somersaults, mountain hikes and days skiing was over for her. Xia felt her lips form a bitter smile, at least she had the justification for skipping physical education class…

“I saw you walking in here on your own two feet, I'm sure you'll be able to take the buses soon,” Addison clasped her hands together and smiled warmly at her, “anyway, I asked it because I have something here you might like.”

Addison got up from her chair and went towards a white cabinet with a surface so shiny it almost looked like it was lacquered. She opened the doors, took out a box large enough to easily fit a basketball inside, and returned to Xia. The sound of her short heels clicked on the floor, and Xia couldn't help but seethe with envy at the thought that she would never wear a pair of shoes like those of some top model.

“Here you go,” she set the box down next to Xia and then took a half step back, pointing at it with the palms of her hands, “open it! If you want it, I'll leave it to you as a welcome gift from Halifax!”

Xia frowned and gave her a perplexed look, she turned her head and partially twisted the torso to take the box - which weighed little more than a motorcycle helmet - and opened it: inside there was an object that for all intents and purposes looked like a motorcycle helmet, but was actually something much more complex and technologically advanced even in its sorry state of at least fifteen years old third generation technology.

Xia looked at Addison confused, it wasn't so much the value of the gift that puzzled her since on eHarbor you could find a model like that and in better condition for $180, but rather what the gift was, “why are you giving me a NexNetVR? ”