Money Problems by Nicholas Woods

Money Problems by Nicholas Woods
A Level Head Story

Some mornings start off slow and light and easy. Perhaps when he was a kid, or during his time in college, every morning was simple. Delicate. For a working adult, a slow morning was a rare thing. Warm coffee and a clear mind, sitting as the sun grew bolder. Some mornings start off slow and light and easy.

And some mornings, a man gets his heart ripped out.

Cliff Fonseca stood in the corner of his bedroom staring at several bills, each tagged with ominous red letters of warning. Menacing words like overdue, interest, and account termination threatened him from the pages he held as the morning’s light brightened around him.

He glanced at the bed, and the one side that he slept in, still messy and unmade. The other side of the bed was untouched, as if someone had risen early and neatly saw to the sheets before beginning their day. Of course, that was how the bed was when Cliff entered it the night before. Cliff knew, with a heavy heart, that she must have slept in the guest room. She’d been doing that a lot lately.

Cliff took one last look at the bills that sought to drown him, then quietly prayed to whomever was out there, in space and time, hoping they were listening. “Dear god, please. I need a miracle.” A knock at the door startled him, and Cliff wiped his eyes and the wetness he didn’t even realize had run down his cheek, stuffing the bills back into his work bag.

“I’m coming!” he called out and hurried out of the bedroom.

In the kitchen he spied his daughter Camilla already sitting at the table, her phone in her hand swiping through one of the many thousand videos he imagined she’d consume by the time her OJ was finished. Cliff smiled at the sight of her, his sweet girl who was nearing her twelfth birthday in a few weeks. Then, Cliff realized he would need to buy her a gift. He would need money, and before he knew is his heart began to sink and race at the same time.

Cliff turned deeper into the kitchen. “Smells good. What can I help with?”

“Already done,” a flat voice responded, and a plate of eggs and plain toast was set quickly in front of Camilla.

Cliff turned to take his wife in. Angie had grown more distant over the weeks, but Cliff knew it was only because they were struggling with money. Money problems came and went, and Cliff would get his family past this hump. It was tough, with no job, but getting let go was common these days with so many workers and not enough… work. But Cliff was smart. She knew it. She would realize soon he would get them to the other side.

Her eyes finally met his. “We need to talk later,” Angie said in a low tone Cliff was sure she used so the words did not find their daughter’s ears.

Cliff spoke softly as well. “I’m working on it, baby, you need to trust me. I promise you,” Cliff said finding her eyes. Cliff’s heart ached at the sight of such a hopelessness in her, but he took a breath and said it again, even more confidently this time. “I promise you.”

“Later. I need to log-in, it’s almost 8:30,” she said sweeping her eyes from his, moving around the bar-countertop to kiss Camilla on the head. “Have a good day with your Dad, honey.”

Angie’s gaze found Cliff for the briefest moment, before she withdrew and moved to a desk that sat in the corner of the room. She moved into the chair, her hands finding a circular metal disc that sat charging in a dock. She placed the disc to the side of her temple, her eyes quickly shooting to the ceiling showing only the whites.

Cliff’s phone beeped, and he peered at it warily. More messages popped up. Cliff moved to the window at the end of the room, swiping away each notification that told him what he already knew. He took a deep breath, his eyes looking out the window upon the heavy clouds that seemed to never go away these days, and the crowded streets that seemed to never stop filling with legs. Traffic stretched down the road and continued in every direction upon every single street that wasn’t made of dirt. The noise from outside rang around in his already over-stretched mind, so Cliff slammed the window shut causing Camilla to startle out of her trance.

“Sorry. You’re with me today. We need to get you a uniform for school.”

“I need clothes for online school?”

“Yes, and for some reason they aren’t cheap. So, we better get going,” Cliff said moving to the kitchen, cleaning up a bit so that Angie wouldn’t sign off of work and see the morning’s mess still there. That wouldn’t help things one bit, and Cliff had many things he needed to do today.

He had a family to save.

After a painful amount of time for Camilla to get ready, Cliff ushered her to the couch even as she struggled to get her arm through the loop of a soccer jersey whose logo Cliff didn’t recognize. He grabbed two metal discs from the charging docks on the desk that Angie still sat at, motionless, her eyes still open white to the ceiling. Cliff hurried back over to his daughter and sat next to her on the couch. Cliff tapped the metal a few times, both discs now showing the same green light.

“What are you doing?” Camilla asked.

“Linking your SIG-Disc to mine. So that wherever I go, you go,” Cliff said handing her the circular slab.

“I’ve got to be Tethered to you all day! It’s the last week of summer,” Camilla complained.

Cliff nodded sympathetically. “I know honey. Don’t worry. If we get all our errands done we’ll do something fun after.”

Camilla gave her father a look like she wasn’t so sure that was going to happen, then placed the disc to her temple where it stuck. The moment it did, Camilla’s eyes went wide, showing only the whites. Cliff put his own SIG-Disc to his head, and just like that he was gone.

Cliff opened his eyes to see he and Camilla now stood on a bright and clean sidewalk just outside a large bank. Camilla looked excitedly all around her. She walked up to a nearby tree and started to touch it.

“You do this every time, come on,” Cliff said sighing.

“Well, maybe if you and Mom let me go online more, then I would think this was all boring and normal like you. Awe man, my jersey is gone.”

Cliff moved over to Camilla and put his arm around her shoulder. “These are just default clothes. Only suckers pay for cosmetic clothes they don’t have to in here.”

“Can’t believe that costs money,” Camilla said still looking around.

“In here,” Cliff said with deep frustration in his voice. “Everything cost money.”

Cliff and Camilla moved past the doors and into the bank. Cliff heard Camilla gasp, a sound Cliff often made at the bank as well, but it was usually when he was being told his account balance.

“This is much prettier than the bank down the street from our apartment,” Camilla said awe-struck.

Cliff couldn’t disagree. The ceilings here were high, marbled designs stretching from intricately carved beams, all under a rooftop of rich glass the color of emerald. Cliff hurried past a few soliciting bank workers. Whether they were human, tapping into work from their homes or designated workspaces, or if they were artificial, he did not know. One worker stepped right in front of Cliff holding a small sign.

“Sir, we have a new deal on the Red Ruby debit card. If you sign up now it comes pre-loaded with $300 cash.”

“No thanks,” Cliff said then strode right up to a teller. After a bit of back and forth, the teller examining some of the bills Cliff had digital copies of, the news he received was not ideal.

“You can pay off a few of these, but this one right here,” the teller said pointing to a digital copy of Cliff’s apartment mortgage. “You’re accruing severe penalties for being late and you don’t have the balance to pay it off.”

Cliff sent the bills back to his digital wallet, making them disappear from the desk. “Leave that, I’ll talk with them. The rest take from my checking. Thank you.”

Cliff pulled Camilla away from the teller and back out the door of the bank.

Once outside Cliff pulled up digital screen out of thin air.

“Are you having problems with the bank?” Camilla asked. Cliff didn’t meet her eyes as he searched the hologram in front of him. He hated to lie to his little girl.

“Just some technical difficulties,” Cliff said, satisfied with the vagueness of his answer. But Camilla did not give up there. She moved around her father to the other side of the hologram.

“Is this why you and Mom are fighting?” Camilla asked softly.

Cliff found the address he needed it, copied it, and swiped the hologram away to look his daughter in the eyes.

“Why do you think we are fighting?”

“I can hear you sometimes, arguing. At home, it’s… awkward,” Camilla took a moment to find the last word there, and Cliff could tell she wasn’t satisfied with her choice. But it was awkward at home. There was tension, and his little girl didn’t know why, but she could feel it. It seeped into the walls, structures once built from love, now strained by something she couldn’t identify. She just knew something wasn’t right.

Cliff took a breath of the clean crisp artificial air around him. He looked at his daughter, touching the side of her head. He meant to tell her the truth, or something in the realm of honesty, but as he looked at her eyes that were identical to her mother’s, the words that spilled out were not what he planned.

“Things with your mother and I are fine. I’m working it out. That’s why we need to go to the mortgage lender. Get these… errors settled. Are you ready?”

Camilla nodded softly. Cliff pulled up a screen in-front of him one more time, pressed at it, and swoosh. They were off.

The mortgage lender was a bald portly man who sat at a small desk in an office that looked like any old boring office in the real world. He did have a massive fish tank in the corner of the room with creatures out of fantasy books swimming inside that Camilla found endlessly fascinating. A kraken was currently tangled with a large opal sea serpent, seemingly fighting to the death.

Cliff was glad for her preoccupation as he went from an angry discussion with the lender, to quietly demanding, to shamefully pleading. All was denied. The mortgage-lender would not give him more time to pay what he owed. That meant Cliff had only one week to make up the payment, or the interest would send his account into negative territory, and it would all be over from there.

He stormed away from the cold-heartened lender and grabbed Camilla by the hand leading her away from the fish tank. The Kraken looked to be losing the battle, fully tangled in the winding grip of the serpent. At that moment, Cliff felt deep empathy for the Kraken. He took Camilla’s hand, and Jumped away.

They appeared back on the clean sunny street the bank was on. Cliff started walking, Camilla curious behind him.

“How’d it go?”

Cliff took a breath. “Went fine.”

Camilla didn’t respond right away, and Cliff was sure he hadn’t done the best job convincing her. “Now where are we going?” Camilla asked.

Cliff turned down an adjacent street. “Textile market. That’s where your school shop will be. Cliff could have Jumped right in front of the store, but he was in such a hurry to leave the lender’s office that he took them back to the center of town.

“So, all of this, these few streets, this the only place we can go?” Camilla asked matching her pace with his.

“Yes. This is the space the government has sanctioned safe to be in. There isn’t a terrible amount of variety around here. They keep things pretty simple. And expensive.”

Cliff said the last glancing at his phone and the account balance that never seemed to go up or even stay still for long. How was he going to get the money? How?

“But in here, you could do anything! I mean, even that bald bastard’s fish tank was the coolest thing ever,” Camilla said with one eye finding her father for reprimand.

Cliff just smirked. The guy was a bastard. He couldn’t fault her for telling the truth. “Well, write your local congressman. For now, this is what we get.”

They turned a corner onto the textile market and found the shop creatively labeled School Clothing. Outside the shop stood a police officer and a man in a white work uniform. They both stared at something. A large yellow L and H seemed to have been digitally spray painted onto the glass of a nearby shop window. The worker in all white ran his tablet over the ink, attempting to decode it off the frame.

“L H,” Cliff wondered aloud. “Wonder what that is?”

Camilla’s eyes went wide, her voice quiet and conspiratorial. “I know.”

The two moved inside and stepped up to the counter where a seamstress moved around Camilla taking small measurements. Camilla looked at Cliff while the woman scuttled and fussed over her.

“It’s a sign for Level Head,” Camilla said.

Cliff looked back out the window, the worker having removed almost half of the H, then turned back to his daughter. “What’s Level Head?”

“It’s a game. A competition that takes place, in here,” she said looking all around. “It’s banned in a lot of countries, so I’ve never seen it.”

“If it’s banned don’t go looking for it,” Cliff advised seriously.

“I don’t get why it’s banned. It sounds cool, from what I’ve heard. People are put in a variety of circumstances, and they have to survive, and the last one that does gets a ton of money. Like real money.”

Cliff’s ears perked up at that. Not that he would ever enter an illegal competition, but the idea was intriguing.

“I just don’t get why it’s illegal,” Camilla said frowning.

The seamstress finished with her, but paused looking at Camilla. “It’s because of this, dear,” and the woman flashed a needle in her hand and stuck it into Camilla’s arm. Camilla jumped away, but there was only a slight reverberation on her skin, as if some force protected her from being poked. The seamstress stifled a giggle. “In here, in the government regulated part of the V.I., you can’t feel pain. No one can hurt you. But out there, beyond the regulated areas, the rules can change. And that little game, well. People feel the pain. And pain… fear… can do things to the mind. That’s why it’s called Level Head, after all.”

The old woman turned to Cliff. “She’s all done. Her clothing will be sent in a link where you can also pay for it when it’s ready.”

Cliff thanked the woman and left with Camilla. “Come on, I want to check the job boards.”

They strolled over to a different part of the small virtual town and found a massive board near a tiny park where some others stood. Cliff stood in a corner of the board, swiping through different jobs. He peered back at Camilla, who stood watching some telecast on an adjacent news stand. Cliff’s eyes found the board once more and he resigned himself to his search.

“Dishwasher at Monte Hotel,” Cliff said aloud, then saw below the number of applicants. 613. Cliff felt the urge to break out into a sweat, if he even could. How the hell was anyone supposed to get a job with saturation like this?

Cliff swiped to another section labeled Engineering. He pulled up a digital copy of his resume and pressed it up against every job below the Engineering section.

“Worse than the lottery,” Cliff muttered to himself before moving over to Camilla.

“Want to kick a ball around?” he asked her, but her focus was glued to the telecast. An anchor in his fifties said in a foreboding voice “it’s a deadly new virtual crime to add to the list, and police everywhere are working together to figure out how to stop Link-Trapping at the source.”

“Come on,” Cliff said moving her toward to the park.

“Link-trapping,” Camilla whispered in an awed and somewhat scared voice.

Cliff looked at her. “That’s why we stay in the sanctioned areas of the V.I.,” Cliff advised. “When you explore out in the unsecured networks, you leave yourself open to criminals who can take advantage of you, if you’re not protected.”

“But it’s so strict in here,” Camilla complained.

Cliff pulled up a hologram menu in front of him. “2$ for a ball rental. Bastards.”

Cliff pressed order, and a soccer ball appeared, dropping to the ground. Cliff kicked it to Camilla, who handled the ball deftly before shooting it back. Cliff tried to focus on the quality time with his daughter, but his anxieties and memories of the last conversation with his wife bubbled to the surface with each patter and kick. The problem of course wasn’t just money. It was that she no longer felt confident in Cliff as a provider. She was scared. In a world full of so many people with so much technology at their disposal, who could blame her? Certainly not Cliff. But it was his job, or so he told himself, to make her feel that this impenetrable world would at least stumble, if not momentarily halt, in the path of their partnership. He could still give that to her. He just needed a way.

The sounds of a nearby bell drew Cliff’s attention. Just beyond the park was a large fenced in area with its own field and several other buildings.

“Is that where I’m going this year?” Camilla asked.

“Yup, that’s the online public school. Looks nice!” Cliff called out kicking the ball hard Camilla’s direction.

She stopped the ball then looked at her father. “Will Dama and Karina be going there too?”

Cliff’s heart sank a bit. Surely, she knew, right?

“No, honey. They’ll still be at St. Laurent’s.”

Her face sank, but not so much as if the news were truly fresh. She knew what was happening, she just wanted Cliff to confirm it. To confess, perhaps. But how much more did she actually know?

Camilla didn’t kick the ball back. “Then why do I have to go?”

“Because Private school is ex,” Cliff started to say expensive but felt his pride shrivel inside him and shifted to, “extra boring compared to public school. Trust me, I went to public school. Much more fun. Lots of kids, tons of people to meet.”

A tear formed in the corner of Camilla’s eye, which was interesting to Cliff for a moment, as he had never seen someone physically cry in the V.I., but he quickly shook his head and moved to his daughter.

Camilla leaned her head onto his chest. “Everything’s changing.”

“Just school, honey. You will still see Dama and Karina.”

“Not just school,” Camilla whispered. Cliff moved her away from his body to look into her eyes.

“Hey. Everything is going to be okay. You understand me?”

Camilla was quiet, and Cliff could tell she was tired of lies. She wasn’t the only one. Cliff put his arm around Camilla and led her away, canceling his rental for the soccer ball, making it vanish out of thin air. As they walked, they could see a digital advertisement shine on a screen mounted to a building.

Real Madrid Vs Manchester. V.I. seats as low as $30.

Cliff nodded to the ad. “That’s cool. They’re playing right here, on this server.”

“I’ve never been to a game,” Camilla said absently.

Something in Cliff bubbled to the surface of his heart, and in an instant he knew what they were doing next. “Me either,” he said stopping to look at his daughter.

Cliff smiled at her, her hopeless eyes still not registering what he had in mind. He couldn’t give her much. He couldn’t give her a private school education, or a house in a safe neighborhood, or a real TV with videogames you played in the real world with your real eyes and hands. But he could give her one afternoon.

“Well. I think it’s time you see a game for yourself.”

Camilla lit up. “Really?”

Cliff typed into a holo-screen he pulled up in front of him. “Just need to charge two tickets to the one credit card that isn’t maxed out. Okay. We’re in. Oh, damn. It starts right now!”

Cliff looked down at his daughter. “Are you ready?”

The smile on her face melted every last anxiety he had been feeling that day. “Yes, Dad.”

Cliff took her hand, and they Jumped away.

The crowd roared as the team took the field, Cliff and Camilla popping into their seats at the top of the stands. Cliff was impressed however, as the seats had a great view of the goal.

Camilla basically jumped up and down in her seat. She looked around. “This is crazy. I’ve never been in the V.I. but actually in the real world too.”

“Yeah, this is new to me as well. It’s an overlay. Everyone down there is real, I think the game is in Philly at one of their new stadiums. Expensive tickets. But up here, people can Jump in to watch from anywhere. Pretty cool.”

“Yeah, but no peanuts,” Camilla said jokingly.

“Maybe not peanuts, who knows. But there are concessions. Want a soda?”

“I can drink a soda in here?” Camilla couldn’t seem to believe it.

“Well, it doesn’t do anything for your real body. Then again, real soda doesn’t do anything for your body either, so maybe it’s better that you just have your taste centers activated. We won’t know the difference really. I’ll get you one. Stay here.”

“Okay,” Camilla said. There was that smile again, and Cliff basically bounced himself over to the area where concessions were on the top virtual floor.

Cliff looked around, people milling about just as they normally would at a ballpark or stadium. He tried not to think about what it really looked like on this floor, to someone in the real world. He kept imagining a ghost town, and all of the virtual people were just phantoms from another dimension. It was eerily close to the truth, so he shook that notion free. But before he reached the concessions, something else caught Cliff’s attention.

The betting boards. Cliff looked over at the different soccer games.

“Wow, odds against Liverpool and Arsenal are insane,” Cliff muttered to himself, but an attendant seemed to hear him and stepped closer.

“Yeah, they’ve been playing like shit,” the attendant said holding a digital clipboard.

“Still, those odds are crazy,” Cliff said doing mental calculations.

“Even crazier if you parlayed them together. That means all teams have to win,” the attendant informed.

“I know what parlayed means, unfortunately. So, what are those odds?” Cliff asked.

“600 to 1”, the attendant said. “For three teams to win.”

Cliff almost stumbled where he stood. “So, a hundred dollars would win you sixty thousand dollars.”

“If all teams won,” the attendant confirmed with a foolish grin. “It would make the cheddar machine on the farm go burrrrrr.” 

Cliff raised an eye to the man, then stepped away. It was foolish. Reckless. What did he know about soccer. He hated Liverpool. And Arsenal, he always rooted for them, but they were struggling these past few years. He had no clue about Real Madrid, who was playing in the stadium at that moment. But the main problem was he couldn’t charge a bet to credit card, if it would even go through. He had worried about the sixty dollar’s worth of tickets. He would need cash.

And then he remembered.

Cliff pulled up a holo-screen and typed in an address, suddenly disappearing. In an instant, he was back at the bank, which was just about to close. He moved up to the salesman that had spoken to him before.

“Hello sir,” the bank salesman said genially. But before the man could continue, Cliff cut in.

“I would like to sign up for the Ruby debit card. It comes pre-loaded, right?”

The bank-salesman smiled. 

And just like that, Cliff Jumped right back to the stadium and moved up to the gambling boards. He went up to the attendant, flashing his ruby colored debit card.

“Alright. $300. Arsenal, Liverpool, and Real Madrid to win.”

“That’s a big payout! I’m cheering for you.”

And that was it. It was in. Cliff charged a single soda to his credit card and returned to Camilla.

“Sorry, there was a line.”

Camilla took the soda, not commenting, but did give Cliff an eye similar to the one he had given the attendant. Cliff couldn’t help it. His energy was soaring now, his hands shaky, his palms sweaty.

“Madrid Real is down by one,” Camilla informed him.

“What!” Cliff roared in anger. “Come on Madrid, get it together!”

Camilla smiled at her father’s sudden immense enthusiasm for the sport and roared her own cheer for Madrid. Cliff and Camilla watched with wide eyes. The Madrid Real striker moved up the field, dodged one player, then another. He passed the ball to the side, where one player teed it up for another, a Madrid Real player jumping in for a header. The ball zipped into the goal, the goalie just missing it. One for Madrid.

The crowd erupted, but none more so than Cliff and Camilla. Cliff looks down at his virtual gambling ticket. The Liverpool game ended, with Liverpool winning 1-0. The top section of the ticket shone green next to that game with the Arsenal game tied.

Cliff waited, nervously. He knew this was his one chance. His moment for luck to smile upon him and save him from all his problems. Everyone gets one chance. This was his. The second section of the ticket lit up green as Arsenal won in the final moments. The first two games had won. If Madrid Real did it, then Cliff would win.

Cliff’s eyes went wide. “Come on Madrid!” Camilla shouted too, only ten minutes left.

A buzzing had Cliff remove his virtual phone from his inventory. It was a message from Angie. I need to speak with you right now.

Cliff didn’t like the sound of that. He looked at Camilla. “Your Mom’s done with work. I’m going to tell her what we’re doing and be right back.”

“Hurry!” Camilla said with eyes glued to the game.

“I will,” Cliff said smiling, before he lifted his fingers to his temple.

Suddenly, Cliff was back on his couch in his apartment, removing his SIG-Disc from his head. He quickly glanced at Camilla’s inert body next to him, white eyes of nothingness staring at the ceiling.

“Sixty dollars on soccer tickets,” Angie said moving up to Cliff. There was more than just anger in her eyes. There was outrage, sure. But there was also an unbound amount of hurt, as if she had just caught him cheating.

“Honey, don’t worry” Cliff started to say but he was cut off.

“Stop. Just stop, Cliff. Do you know how that makes me look to her? I couldn’t even take her on a weekend trip all summer. The rest of her friends went on vacations, and I couldn’t even take her to the movies. And you… take her to a soccer game.”

“Look, I’m sorry. I just wanted to cheer her up,” Cliff said lamely, starting to feel very foolish.  

“You cheer her up, while I work. You’re the good guy while I’m the mean bitch who always says no.” She had tears in her eyes, and Cliff knew the well they came from was deeper than just the current situation. It was a pit whose hollowness came from weak communication, nights of going to sleep angry, and worries about just money and not about what really mattered. A well-tended heart. And Cliff knew he hadn’t been tending to hers much at all these past months. He was more concerned with himself, his pride, and all that he wasn’t providing. But too late did he realize that what he could provide, didn’t cost a thing at all.

“I can’t do this anymore,” Angie said softly.

Cliff felt his breathing grow heavy. “Don’t say that. I’m trying, Angie. I really am.” He heard his voice break and hated the weak sound of it.

The words came out slow and raspy. “The love that was here, Cliff. It just… isn’t anymore. I haven’t felt it in so long.”

Cliff stared at her with pleading eyes that begged her to understand.

“Angie, please. Don’t say that.”

Angie wiped her eyes, her voice going slightly cold. “I’m going to my Dad’s tomorrow and bringing Camilla. We should tell her tonight, and… oh baby, I’m sorry. This is just what we have to do. I’m sorry,” she said again, and Cliff realized he was crying. Silent tears that swept over burning cheeks. For a long moment, they just sat in the silence. That at least was familiar.

Cliff Jumped back to the stadium, Camilla shaking his shirt.

“Where have you been! There’s one minute left,” Camilla said in an excited voice. But then her eyes found her father’s, and her energy sank despite the roar of the crowd around them.

“There’s something your mom and I need to tell you,” Cliff said gently.

For a long moment, Camilla just stared up at him. But she was an intelligent girl. She always was, even as a baby she could look into an adult’s eyes and just seem to know what they were thinking and feeling. She didn’t respond. She just looked at him a long time with those deep brown knowing eyes. Then, she sank into her Dad’s chest and hugged him. He needed this hug, more than she knew.

“It’s going to be okay,” Cliff said then parted from her, holding out his hand. She put hers in his. Cliff pulled up his holo-screen, which had his gambling ticket on it. Cliff typed into the screen and they Jumped away.

But the holo-screen stayed where it was a moment longer. Just as the crowd erupted, a final goal scored. The third bracket of the gambling ticket shining green. Even Cliff’s checking account, always visible on his holo-screen, started to change. The 0 in the balance started adding 0s. 100$, 1000$, higher and higher and higher. The top of the ticket started to write something. A single word. Winner.

* * * * THE END * * * *
Copyright Nicholas Woods 2024