Dreamscape: Saving Alex Read Online Free

years, until we knew the game by memory.
And here it was again. I smiled, but that didn’t even scratch the surface of my
excitement.
    I looked over at Natalie, busy poking through the
popcorn bowl for the extra sweet pieces.
    “What?” she asked with her mouth full.
    “Nothing,” I laughed and looked back at the game.
The golden letters of the main menu dominated the small screen, colorful birds
fluttering in and out of the shadows. Time had changed things in ways I hadn’t
imagined. I sighed. The graphics that used to impress me were now little more
than a pixelated mosaic. Everything today came with a bittersweet sting.
    Once the music took over, it didn’t matter. I was
transported back to age ten. Boys, school, moving, none of that mattered. The
only thing that mattered was the silly green hero moving across the screen, and
the only thing I had to do was save the queen. If only life could still be that
easy.
    Natalie punched me in the shoulder. “I completely
forgot about the dance.”
    “What?” I asked, covering my shoulder, following
her pointed finger to the screen.
    “Wow,” I laughed, watching the little green hero
twirl and send an arrow into the center of the D . “How old is this
game?”
    “Old enough that I’m sure you’ve forgotten the
dance.”
    “Have not,” I protested.
    “Then do it!” She giggled, pushing me up.
    “Okay, maybe I have,” I said, falling in a fit of
giggles.
    “No, it can’t be that tough,” Natalie said,
standing and pulling me up. “If we’re doing this, we’re doing it right. All the
tricks, all the shortcuts, all the fun. Got it?”
    “Got it,” I said. We stood there, convulsing with
laughter as we tried to do the dance again. Two steps left, two steps right,
turn around and swipe the sword.
    “Oh, man, how did we forget about this game?” I
asked, falling back to the ground. It felt good to laugh.
    “I don’t know, but please tell me you didn’t
forget the codes too.”
    “Nah, like I’d forget those.” I raised an eyebrow
and scoffed. “How many times did we play this game?”
    “Only like a million!”
    “Exactly. There’s no way I would forget it, or all
the shortcuts. You know what? I have something you have to see. I found it
while we were packing.”
    “While we were packing?” Natalie asked,
grabbing another handful of popcorn, ready to throw it at me. I raised my hands
in surrender.
    “Okay, while you were packing. But you still have
to see it.”
    I rushed to the wall closest to my bed, still
untouched, and riffled through a stack of photos on the bulletin board. Bright
thumbtacks loosened from the cork as I moved the curled edges of the pictures
out of the way. Some memories were stacked three or four deep, with multiple
puncture holes through their tops. A bright blue pin held the one I wanted.
    “Okay, promise me you won’t laugh.” I unpinned the
photo and held it backwards against my chest, hiding the image.
    “I promise,” she said, although the corners of her
mouth already wavered in a smile.
    “Do you remember this?” I asked, spinning the
photo around so she could see it.
    “I can’t believe you still have that!” she
exclaimed, grabbing the picture from my hand. “Look at us. Look at your
braids!”
    “How could I get rid of it? And I wouldn’t talk,
Little Miss Pigtails.”
    “That’s Queen Pigtails to you.”
    “Ah man, those were the days,” I sighed. “It all
seemed so simple back then.”
    “It was,” she said, handing me back the photo.
    I looked at it once more before re-pinning it on
my wall, careful not to create a new pin mark. The two girls smiling back at us
were from a lifetime ago. The only similarities left were my long blonde hair
and Natalie’s love of pink eyeshadow. How had time passed so quickly? I turned
back to the flashing screen before the swells of bittersweetness drowned me and
focused on the controller.
    “Time to play,” I said, punching in the codes.
“Left, right, up,