[ WP ] There is now a virtual reality video game which is as realistic as reality .

James was smiling. Sarah took a flannel and placed it into a warm bowl of water. Delicately she removed his t-shirt and shorts, carefully avoiding the various tubes that were hooked into his body. She held back tears as she surveyed his pale and wasted body, the aged skin stretched out so thinly over his rapidly beating chest, the awkward twisting in his arms and legs, and the sore marks surrounding the headset. Was this living corpse really the man she had married? Before he had entered `` the game'' James had always been proud of his athletic build. He had been a keen soccer player and went to the gym three times a week. He had never smoked or taken any drugs, and he barely touched alcohol. However, when'it' had come along he had finally found his vice. They had never been wealthy and she had never cared about that, but James had always been upset that he could n't supply her with all the things that he had dared to dream of for them. Out here, she had always been satisfied with their one bed room flat and their nights together in front of the television. But'in there' James had found the life he had always dreamed of. Where anything his heart desired was manifested before him. Where any experience he wished to see or hear or feel was but a moment away. Where he had n't lost his job due to his addicition. 
 
 Wringing out the flannel, she started to delicately wash James' body, the same way she had done every day for the last eighteen months. Placing her hand onto his forehead, Sarah noticed that his fever had returned. Just as the doctor had said. A phone rang, filling up the silent room with its lucid ringing. `` Hello'', said Sarah. `` Hello dear. How is he today? ``, asked an old female voice earnestly. Sarah looked at the figure lying on the bed, the man whom she loved more than anything in this or any world. He had started sweating again and she suspected that there was n't long now, not once the fever set in they said. `` I think you guys should head over'', said Sarah simply. `` Oh, my poor dear. Of course. We'll set ou-''. Sarah hung up. As she was doing so, she heard Lucy start to cry in the next room. And with that, Sarah finally broke down, falling to the floor with a despondent scream. The tears came freely now as she crouched into a ball, wrapping her arms as tighly around her legs as she could for comfort. The world seemed to shrink around her as she lay crying. The phone rang again, its tone blurring in with the sound of Lucy's wails and the beep of James' increased heart rate on the monitor. The world turned black. 
 
 When she woke up the crying had stopped. Sarah could hear an old woman singing a sad, soft melody in the next room. The beeping had been replaced with a single dull monotonic note. A small red light had started to flash on the headset. Slowly, she stood up and looked down at the man she loved. James was smiling. 

