Chapter 34 My Friend Mili

by Selin Türkkan

It was a snowy day in Hamilton, calmer and quieter than usual, except for the Jones’s house. Mrs. Jones said to her daughter Alice, “I want you to step out of that room and into real life now!” Alice said, “Did you think of it now? Where were you when I was excluded? I won’t be able to listen to these words anymore,” and she threw herself out without even taking her jacket but of course, her best friend, the hamster named as “hatter” and his phone were with her. After walking for a while, she entered the coffee shop near the neighborhood. While she was waiting in line, she noticed the people walking in, these were the bad girls who made her to drop out of school and ended her social life. “Isn’t that the her?” “Yes, she has gained a lot of weight since we saw her.” They laughed among themselves saying, “Ha ha, why did she come to the cafe, I think she will sit alone and look at the phone”. Alice quickly turned around and tried to camouflage herself with her hair, then immediately rushed out of the cafe. She went back home because she had nowhere else to go and was cold. When she returned, her mother met her at the door and said, “I’m sorry.” Alice just wanted to go to bed and look at her phone because she saw girls she didn’t like. On the way upstairs, her mother said, “Please make some effort for me.” Alice, not taking what her mother said seriously, went up to her room with heavy steps and went through social media until she felt well again. The next day was Alice’s therapy day. Alice always felt like a waste of time for therapy. Instead, she could have watched something in her room and been happy. After talking again and again for an hour about why she couldn’t talk to anyone, she immediately got out and got into her mother’s car.

Alice, whose eyes were shining when she got into the car, said, “Or is that it? Are these virtual reality glasses, Mom?” said. Her mother wanted to give Alice a gift after the fight they had yesterday and melt the ice between them. Alice was eager to try on the glasses right away. With these glasses, you could enter any universe you wanted and talk to the artificial intelligences there. As soon as Alice got home, she ran to her room. After refreshing hatter’s water, she quickly opened the package, and after doing the installation, she lay down on her bed and put on the glasses. Shocked by the world she saw, Alice quickly removed the glasses. Alice, whose pupils were growing, was shocked by the excitement when she became involved in the virtual world of comics, which she had enjoyed reading so much up to this time. She quickly and excitedly put the glasses back on. She was so eager to experience everything that she couldn’t experience in the real world in this virtual world that she immediately jumped into conversation with the first person she saw, “He he hello” laughed in front of her and looked at her, “Hello, are you? You’re new around here, I guess?” Alice didn’t understand why the girl thought that, but she immediately replied, “Yes, I just got here.” “I understand, although usually no one prefers to talk to me. I was a little surprised when you talked to me.” the girl said. Alice was thinking like “Is there discrimination even in this world?” and she began to think and immediately became worried.

But she thought that if the girl opposite her was an outcast like her, they could’ve understand each other better and be friends. “No one talks to me where I come from, that’s why I came here.” she said and smiled. The two started walking together. Alice is looking around on the one hand and on the other, “What can I say? What I speak?” she was thinking. Then she gathered her courage for a moment and said, “Do you want to have a drink? I mean, hot chocolate or something, I really like hot chocolate” said. Alice, who clearly stated that she wanted to prolong the conversation and become friends, was delighted when the girl nodded her head approvingly. Her new friend, took Alice to a cafe she knew and they sat there. They both ordered hot chocolate, Alice had always wanted to try one of the delicious-looking dishes from the drawings she had seen in comics. While waiting for the drinks, this time she acted before her friend Alice and said, “We need to find out our names first, I’m Mili what’s your name?” said. Alice was a little embarrassed because at first, instead of saying her name, she said a lot of empty words. She blushed a little, and then she was able to say “ I’m alice” right away, and the orders that came at that time scattered the air. The smell of hot chocolate spread all around. Alice stared as if she had never seen anything that looked so beautiful in her entire life, and then immediately couldn’t help herself and quickly started drinking all the hot chocolate. Just at this time, when her mother woke Alice up. Alice, who was angry, said, “What happened, Mom?” and her mother said““It’s time to eat, are you going to forget to even eat or what? This is unacceptable.” she said and left the room. Alice, who was waiting to come to her senses for a while, was still thinking about Mili. Alice, who went down to dinner and finished her meal quickly, lifted her plate and immediately headed to her room. Her mother called out after her, saying, “Just so you know, I’m going to put a limit on this,” but Alice had already gone up to her room and put on her glasses. Mili was still where she was. They chatted for a while longer, but then Alice fell asleep, not noticing the time passing in the normal world. After her mother came to Alice’s room and took the glasses out of her eyes, she covered up and said, “I hope these glasses that the therapist recommended to me will help you, my beautiful daughter,” and left the room. The next day, as soon as she woke up, Alice, whose hand immediately went to the glasses, put on the glasses and went down to breakfast after a short conversation with Mili. After breakfast, Alice, who was wearing glasses again, began to have a deeper conversation with Mili this time. “Do you know, Alice, there are actually a lot of people like us. I don’t know where you came from, What kind of people you met but we are two finally managed to talk to each other and took a small step” Mili said. Alice looked at her and said, “Yes, but we didn’t have to go through this, Mili, did we deserve all this just because we’re different from them? Wouldn’t it be like this if I was as beautiful and successful as them?” after saying that, Alice’s eyes got teary, but she restrained herself. In response to Alice’s words, Mili says, “You are not a bad, ugly, wrong or unsuccesful person, I’m sure that you were alone because you haven’t met anyone good around you, Alice, don’t say that you think like that, don’t say that you feel like that,” and holds Alice’s hand. Alice, who realistically feels the sincerity of Mili, who is actually an artificial intelligence, becomes emotional. “I think I’m a strange one, Mili. I feed hamster, I stutter when I start talking to someone and I talk a lot of nonsense, I wear forgotten, old-fashioned things that no one wears. That’s why my first exclusion was because I had an old-fashioned blouse. When I wore it to school that day, I felt very beautiful and confident, but when I got on the school bus, all the children started to bullying and it went on for a whole day.”Hey, alice, is that your grandma on top?” “Have you been looking for your clothes too much, freak?” “Oh! My eyes are bleeding, God”. That day was endless for me, and that day I realized that I was really strange.” She fell silent and swallowed. Mili continued “Being strange is nothing to be ashamed of, most very successful painters, writers, actors, singers, artists, people are strange and excluded people, and normal people can’t understand it Alice, you’re special“ The last sentence that Mili said echoed in Alice’s ear,”You’re special.”. A small smile appeared on Alice’s face, and this is how their conversation ended. Alice took off her glasses and slept peacefully. Now she could see the days more positively because she had a friend who talked to her, albeit an artificial intelligence. She woke up feeling good in the morning and had breakfast. She sat next to her mother at the table for a while and tried to talk. Her mother was surprised by this and was very happy inside, but she didn’t want to show it and scare Alice. “Do you want me to make cookies today?” she asked, Alice shook her head in the affirmative and said, “I’m going to my room,” and got up. She immediately put on her glasses and said “Hello” to Mili, who greeted her with a big smile. Alice immediately, “Should we go somewhere different today, Mili?” she asked. Mili “How about going to the park?” she said, and they set off at once. When they arrived, Mili, who got into the grass and took off her shoes, looked at Alice and said, “Come on, you have it.” Mili threw her shoes aside, grabbed Alice by the hand, and they spun around on the grass until they lost their balance and fell to the ground. Alice’s facial muscles were starting to ache from smiling. Mili said, “How can a person not get along with you, I don’t understand? In fact, what a beautiful life energy you have, I feel sorry for every person who doesn’t talk to you, Alice,” she raises her head and says, “Not so much, Mili. I’m not always like this, I can only feel comfortable when I’m with you,” she says and lies down on the grass. It is very nice for her to feel freedom to the fullest, even if it is virtual, and she thinks that “if I had a friend in reality, I could live like this, but real people are not so friendly.” She can understand how time passes in here now, so she takes off her glasses and goes down to dinner. At dinner, she starts talking to her mother, “Mom, what kind of circle of friends did you have in high school?“ her mother looks at her with her eyes growing,”I only had two friends, Alice, I was really lucky to have them, but there were some idiots in the class, and they were jealous of our friendship and tried to separate us many times.” says. Alice said, “Two friends are better than none.”, but her mother starts telling her a memory to distract her. “Once they spread a rumor to the whole class that me and Mr. Stuard were having an affair.” Alice said, “That’s terrible” “Yes, but I didn’t give them what they wanted, I couldn’t. I had to study. Their goal was to make me fall, but I didn’t fall, I stood up straight and continued to go to school. For a while, the rumors stopped at the end.” she said and smiled. She went to Alice and stroked her hair and said, “You are a very strong girl, your life is just beginning, don’t give up” she added. It was the first time Alice had ever been so comfortable getting up from that dinner table, the first time she looked back and smiled as she went upstairs. Since she had lessons to study, she did them and went to sleep, wishing that it would be morning right away. In the morning, Mili, as soon as Alice arrives. “Alice, we’re going to the movies today” she said. Without objection, “This is one of the activities I most wanted to do with a friend, should it be a horror movie?” said alice. Mili said, “Sure, let’s get the tickets and our popcorn,” and they started with the cinema and spent a long and fun day together. Alice’s one day spent in this universe was almost two days long in the normal world. Normally, she couldn’t have lasted this long, but she couldn’t understand how today had passed so quickly, and there was an opportunity, her mother was on a business trip. They didn’t want the day to end, but Alice was very tired. When she took off her glasses and came back, she looked at her room because she had been separated from reality for so long. While looking suddenly attracted the attention of the Hatter’s nest. She realized that she had been neglecting her a lot for a long time and immediately walked over to her cage. When she opened the cage, the hatter was sleeping sweetly, but this was not such a normal sleep. Alice took the Hatter in her hand and stopped. Tears welled up in her eyes, she sat down on the floor and started crying. After she informed her mother by texting. Alice, who could not sleep until the morning and hugged her mother when she came home. Her mother tried to comfort Alice a little, and they buried the hatter in the backyard. Alice has been feeling very bad all day. She had really neglected the hatter, and as she had not taken as much care of him as he ought to have done, the hatter had died.

Alice, who could only find the strength to wear glasses in the afternoon, said energetically, “I’ve come,” so as not to show her mode as soon as she put on the glasses. But when she couldn’t see Mili in front of her, she panicked. If she left her at Mili, she would be completely friendless. When Alice, who had been searching for Mili in the virtual world for a while, finally found her, she wanted to run to her, but she couldn’t. From a distance, she called out, “I can’t come to you Mili, what’s going on?” said. “Alice, we had a lot of great times with you, I know you’ll be sad, but that’s all you have with me for now. I think you’re ready for real life now. I am sure that you will gather your courage, make real friends and lead a very beautiful life, my friend. You are a special person, love yourself and be aware of it. Maybe you can come and see me again after a while. Remember, I will wait for the day when I will see you.” she smiles and the image in the glasses turns off. After this difficult day, Alice thinks that something needs to change and decides to go back to school.

Returning to her home in the town of Hamilton after five years, Alice is now a college student who can build healthy relationships. When she comes home, she gets homesick with his mother and goes to her room. She stares for a long time at the glasses that come out of her closet as she places her clothes. Thanks to her, Alice, who is able to come back to life, always remembers what her old friend said. At that moment, especially when the last sentence, “Remember, I will wait for the day when we will meet with you” comes to mind, she takes the glasses in her hand with a big smile and puts them on. Mili, who has become a young girl like herself, appears in front of her and says, “Welcome, my friend.”.