Cole never planned on asking Frank for help at any point but he didn’t have a lot of options. And even though he was never fond of asking for help from anyone, this was an exception. What Daniel offered, no what Fate Maker offered, was the closest thing to his dream. Now that he was unable to achieve those dreams he thought that he might as well settle for the virtual version.

The upside to this was that it would contain a lot more than he would ever understand from just ruins and rubble. This was an opportunity he couldn’t miss. So that’s why he called Frank. If Frank’s helper drove a Porsche, then Cole could only imagine what Frank’s father was driving. With that, Cole thought it shouldn’t cost much for Frank to shell out a couple thousand dollars. Even though it was a ridiculous amount for Cole himself. But as desperate as Cole was, Frank’s tone was beginning to turn him off.

“What do you want?” Frank asked.

“Hey, Frank, I need a favor.” Cole tried to ignore the tone.

“You got two minutes. Talk fast.”

Cole grits his teeth. “I, uh,” he looked at Daniel, and Daniel nodded him on. “I wanna get this game. But it's pretty pricey and I thought—”

“What? I can’t hear you,” Frank said.

“I said there’s a game I want to get and I was wondering if…” Cole trailed off.

“C’mon man, speak up,” Frank said loudly.

Cole raised his voice too. “I said there’s a game—”

“Bro, if I can’t hear you I don’t know what you're saying.”

“Cut it out, Frank! I know you’re hearing me.”

“Hey, I gotta go just hit me up later.”

“What the?” Cole wanted to punch Frank through the phone.

“By the way, I’m not here this is just my voicemail. Leave a message when you hear the thing.”

“What the hell?”

Cole hung up when he heard the beep and stared at the phone.

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“What did he say?” Daniel asked.

“Nothing. It was his voicemail.” Cole dialed again but got the same result.

“Screw it, we’ll find another way,” Daniel said.

“No. I don’t have that kind of money, and neither do you. He's going to pay for this.”

“But he isn’t picking up.”

“I’ll try again later, and if that doesn’t work, I’ll make his helper find him.”

The phone then rang.

On the second chime, Cole answered. “What happened man, I was calling you.”

“Yeah, I was busy. What’s up?”

Cole froze. Even though he had asked the favor about two times before, now that the real Frank was on the phone, Cole hesitated. He was afraid that Frank would say no. He was afraid that the boy would think he was pretentious for asking him to do something like that. Frank had no reason to help him with this. This wasn’t a medical issue; Frank’s father had already taken care of that. Even though it would help him considerably, he didn’t want Frank to think he was taking advantage of the situation.

“Uh, hello? You still there?”

“Hey, look.” Cole heard the words but they didn’t come from his mouth. In fact, the phone had disappeared from his hand. “We’re asking if you could help us buy a game.”

“A game? Wait, who’s this?” Frank asked.

“It’s Daniel, Cole’s friend.” Daniel put the phone on speaker.

“Okay, Daniel, Speaker For Cole, what game are you talking about?”

“It’s called Fate Maker. Based on Cole’s condition he can’t do much, and I thought this would be a great thing for him.”

There was a brief silence. Cole wondered if he disconnected.

“I can’t,” Frank said.

“What do you mean?”

“After my accident with Cole, my father took away all my bank cards. I have one of his, but it has a daily limit. There’s some cash around the place, but it’s not enough to buy a complete system.”

Cole’s heart sunk from the high it perched on a few minutes ago.

“Oh damn,” Daniel said.

“But here’s what I can do,” Frank continued. “I have a system too. One of the newer versions.”

“You do?” Cole and Daniel said in unison.

“Yeah, I do, and before you even mention it, no I’m not gonna give it to you. I’m not some charity,” Frank said. “Plus, I need it for some jobs I have coming up. But here’s what we can do. Since it’s one of the newer versions, my system supports multilink with compatible headsets.”

“So you can connect one of those to yours.” Daniel looked at Cole.

“Right, but I don’t like people finishing my sentences. I can buy one of those headsets for you so you can use it.”

“But wouldn’t it be a hassle to pass around your system every time one of us needs to play.”

“Yeah I know, that’s why I’m coming to your place.”

“My place?”

“Yeah, it’s where you’re most comfortable and Suzie’s already there. And I wanna keep an eye on my car.”

“Good idea, but I’ll have to ask Mom about it.”

“No prob. Just let me know what she says.”

“Sure.”

The call disconnected and Cole was elated at the possibility of everything working out. For him, the rest of the day went by in a haze. The only thing he remembered doing was talking to his mother about Frank staying over. She was at first skeptical about the idea but then warmed up to it when she heard what he was planning to do.

She did, however, caution Cole about spending too much time in the game and established clear play times. At that moment he felt like a kid but he didn’t have a choice. It’s not like he could chase her if she ever took the headgear away from him. So instead of quarreling about his rights as an adult, he resigned to her rules.

Given his mood for the rest of that day, Cole didn’t mind being in the park. He disappeared somewhere in his head where his anxiety couldn’t reach him.