Neighborhood Creator

A few months ago, my dad found some old PC game from the 90s while we were at a flea market. Something called Neighborhood Creator. I didn't think you could run things that old on new computers, but he managed to get it set up without any trouble. It was a life simulation game, which I think is a boring game genre, so I never wanted to play it myself. Yet, Dad was hooked on the thing. In a matter of days, he'd created a whole town, and treated it like a real place. If the graphics weren't so dated, I swear it could've been our actual town. It was a little creepy. 

Weeks passed, and he spent all his free time watching over his virtual town like a god. He already had a job playing and reviewing video games, so it seemed like overkill. My mom and I would try and get him to leave the house, but he wouldn't listen. He became a shut-in. Eventually, my mom left him for another woman, and he barely seemed to notice, acting like it was his own decision. Then I was offered a place at a prestigious private school, and I knew I had to take it. I didn't want to leave my dad alone, his obsession with the game was unhealthy, but I also didn't want to be around him any longer.

The day before I was due to leave, I was still packing my life away when a weird feeling came over me. Sort of like I was standing on a tumble dryer, a vibration ran through my body. I'd felt it many times over the past few months, yet it never seemed to bother me before. This time, however, the vibration grew even more intense. I gripped myself in shock, as I felt myself lurch forwards and upwards. It was like my body was expanding in every direction at once, stretching like taffy. I managed to stumble my way out to the hallway and towards a mirror, my body feeling heavier with every step. The hallway appeared to shrink around me, yet I knew it was the opposite - I was getting bigger.

When I reached the mirror, I couldn't even recognize my reflection. I was face to face with someone many years older than myself. No longer a teen, I had the sharp, squared features of a grown man. My jawline was blocky, and a five o' clock shadow spread across my cheeks. More hairs littered my exposed arms, while a whole bushel of chest hair sprung out from the collar of my shirt. Despite my sudden growth, my clothes had changed with me. No longer a T-shirt and sweatpants, replaced with a buttoned shirt and chinos. I lifted my shirt up, gawking at the rug of brown hairs that covered my torso, and the doughy muscle that was obscured underneath.

I continued to get older, laugh lines and wrinkles cracking my youthful skin. Then, to top it off, my upper lip tingled as a thick mustache sprouted across its length, tickling my nose and making me sneeze. I wiped my mouth, the furry caterpillar-like growth brushing against my rough palm. It felt wrong, and yet almost normal. I continued to stare at the adult reflected back at me, trying to process what had happened. I looked quite handsome, the mustache really tied the whole look together. I could have introduced myself as my dad's brother, and nobody would have been the wiser.

I heard some padded steps bound down the hallway, followed by a sudden bark. I spun around in alarm, finding myself confronted by a little dog. He bounced on his paws with a sense of urgency. How a dog managed to get into the house, I didn't know. But I knew it had to have something to do with my current dilemma. So I followed it down the hallway, and into my dad's study. 

He wasn't around, but his game was still running. Curious, I sat down in his seat and looked at the screen. It was centered on a replica of our house. But instead of the usual avatars of me and my dad inside, there was a man with a mustache and a dog... I know it sounds ridiculous, but Neighborhood Creator was more than a game, it actually controlled real life. And my dad had used it to turn me into a man, and himself into a dog... A very cute dog, but a dog nonetheless. Why he made that decision, I didn't know. But I couldn't leave things the way they were, I was supposed to be moving to a new school tomorrow! I put aside my hatred of life simulation games, and got to work.

After an hour or so, what I learned wasn't good. Whatever my dad changed within the game, it would also affect the real world, and nobody but him would notice. I managed to uncover a list of changes he'd made buried in the game files, and it was mind-boggling to say the least. It had to be dozens of pages long. He changed the house, his job, the family, even the surrounding neighborhood and terrain. And as far as I could tell, his choice to become a dog was actually a mistake. It looked like he wanted to target our our neighbor. She'd insulted him earlier, and he's always calling her a bitch... Whether he got distracted, or the game glitched, it does feel like karmic justice. I mean, the things he altered in the past week alone... And since there was no longer someone to act as the main player, the game chose the nearest person to replace him. Hence how I came to fill his role, and how I came to be a mustachioed man about my dad's age.

 

 

I want to be angry with him. I mean, I am angry. I never wanted to be an adult in the first place. It's bad enough being a teenager faced with the horrors of puberty and high school. But adults have so many responsibilities, they never get the time to do anything fun. School is bad enough, let alone juggling a job, and running a household at the same time. And it's weird that everything's so much smaller. And that I have hair all over my body. I still can't believe I'm the type of man who has a mustache, and I can't stop touching it... I'm so angry with my dad. But then I look at this adorable puppy sleeping in my lap, and I just can't stay mad at him. He's just a little guy now. Like I used to be...

Of course, there's an easy way to fix this. Turn my dad back into a human, and me back into a kid. Then he'll continue with his little game, I never have to face adulthood until I'm ready, and everything's back to normal. Except it wouldn't be normal... The log of changes he'd made was shocking. He was the reason we lived downtown in a massive house with all of life's luxuries. But he's also the reason Mom suddenly came out, and left us for another woman. He messed with her mind in the game, and forced her out in a way that didn't make him look bad. And he changed my academic history to get me accepted into a private school. On the surface, it sounds admirable. But now I see he wanted to get rid of me too, so he could be alone with the game... Thankfully, the boundaries of the in-game map don't extend further than the town boundaries. I can't imagine what he would do if it covered the whole world...

The worst part is that despite the underhanded tactics, and manipulative motives, he actually made life better for us. I know it's only right to undo everything, but I like the ways things are. Even if I'm some hairy man nearing his forties, I'm also a rich bachelor who plays video games for a living. For fuck's sake, why would I want to go back to a small, leaky apartment in the suburbs? Mom's happy with her new lover, the town's looking pretty good with his adjustments, and heck, Dad seems quite content as a dog. I don't even know if he remembers his old life...

So I suppose this is it. I can't just give the game away, what if someone else finds it? And I can't destroy it, who knows what could happen. I did the only thing I could do. I switched the computer off, and removed the disc, putting it back in its case where it belongs. Maybe I'll return to it one day, I don't want to be an adult forever, and I'm pretty sure I should turn Dad back to normal once he's learned his lesson. But for now, I'd like to give this life a try. It's better than some strict private school, that's for sure!