text: = resume story    G = Go to page
  
  May 12 - Eye worked today. Guess I had it in the charger wrong or something.
  
  May 13 - Donna's dad got "activated", which means he has to ship out. He does something technical for the navy, so it's not like he's going to the front or anything, but she's still scared. He wants her to go live with her grandmom. We talked to mom, and she said it would be okay if she stayed with us at least until the end of school. Her grandmom's an 80 year old woman with about a hundred cats.
  
  May 14 - Episode 2 of "The government does stuff you thought only pissant little third world dictatorships did." Donna's mom is pregnant. They offered to reduce her sentence if she let them inseminate her.
  
  There's some kind of good-bye party for the guys who got drafted down at the VFW Friday night. CJ wants me to go. Mom wasn't too thrilled about it, but Donna's going, so she can't very well stop me.
  
  May 15 - Well, the good news is that Rusty got rejected because he's got a spot on his lung. The bad news is that Tom did get drafted. Donna's spending the night with him, which I'm sure thrills her dad no end because he ships out tomorrow afternoon.
  
  > go to the north
  Today was my birthday. Happy birthday. Mom and Dad gave me a couple of movies and a self-help book. Subtle. Jim got me some computer dohickey I didn't want or need, and programmed my eye to flash "Happy Birthday" a bunch of times, which I guess would be cute if it hadn't pissed me off. Donna told my parents she hadn't had time to get me anything but a card, but later she gave me a pair of contact lenses. It must have taken some work to get them, since she's too young to buy them on her own and you usually have to get fitted for them, I think.
  
  ---Diary (Decoded)---
  Page: 10 May 17
  
  P = previous page    N = next page
  Q = resume story    G = Go to page
  
  May 17, 4:36 AM - Fucking party. Turns out the whole thing was set up by one of those wacko grotps. Figured it was important for "our noble soldiers" to "leave ther genetic contribution to America's future." Read: date rape party. Donna & I managed to narrowly escape with the same amount of virtue we came with. Hud to kick somf 60 yr old redneck who thphht wf should "sohw our appreciation so th boys fnr defdndign our country" in the ballr. i feel drty just bieng there.
  
  whgn we got there, cj was leaving his gendtic contribution in some slut. Likes ftcking her so much he should trz fucjign himself.
  
  Me & Donma bot some bopze @ a place she knows doesnt card to drink & tamk abovt what a looser bk is. Shfs passt out drunk on my bed. Hauhng wfsd thots. Like right before she femn alseep I really wantd to jirr ifs.
  
  Eye jurt went ded. Too tirfd tp kedp coding. Brobably cnding like shjt anyway.
  
  May 17 (later) - Fell asleep without taking my eye out so it's dead today. And no one ever told me how much it hurts if you sleep with contacts in. Told mom I was too sick to see the shrink today, which isn't far from the truth. I managed to get Donna down to her bed before mom went to wake her up for breakfast. As if we could eat. We crashed in my room most of the day so no one would see how sick we were.
  
  > Go north
  I let her get a good look at the hole in my face where my eye goes. She wasn't grossed out or anything. She asked me if I wanted to touch her scar. It was a little weird because you can feel little bumps where they stitched her cheek closed.
  
  ---Diary (Decoded)---
  Page: 11 May 19-28
  
  P = previous page    N = next page
  Q = resume story    G = Go to page
  
  May 19 - The fighting has escalated. Last night, one of our islands in the pacific got wiped off the map. That many people could just wink out of existence like that, and the world just goes on.
  
  May 20 - Rethinking yesterday's entry. We've been bombing the country with the largest population in the world for weeks now. Maybe we got what we deserved.
  
  May 23 - There is no Laos.
  
  May 24 - The doctor's changed his tune. Says I should find a nice boy and try to build up family ties. In other words, he's one of them. Wants me to get myself knocked up. He even said, and I quote, "In this day and age, there really isn't an shame in being a single mother, even at a young age." Mom says I don't have to go anymore.
  
  May 25 - Set up family ties with a nice boy? Fuck him. Besides, about the only boys that haven't been drafted are cripples and felons. And Rusty, of course, but I get the feeling he's looking to set up family ties with a nice boy himself.
  
  May 26 - Mom is moving most of the valuables into long-term storage. As in "make Jim go out in the woods and dig a deep hole to hide them in." Won't help. We're all going to die.
  
  May 27 - Air raid drill at school. Yes. Duck and cover. Fuck your mother.
  
  > go to the north
  May 28 - Dad took me aside this evening under the pretense of helping him check the furnace. He isn't sure if there's room enough in the shelter for Donna. I told him I had to think about my response to that.
  
  ---Diary (Decoded)---
  Page: 12 May 29-June 1
  
  P = previous page    N = next page
  Q = resume story    G = Go to page
  
  May 29 - I told dad that my response was that if he thought he was going to sneak the family down to the basement and lock Donna upstairs to get blown up, he could fuck himself. Basically, I said that I wasn't going to lock myself in the 30-year deep freeze without her. He said he'd work out something, that maybe we could stretch the supplies out enough for a fifth. That was after he slapped me for swearing at him, of course.
  
  He did something else weird, too. He showed me how to open the lock box that the cyanide pills are in. Said that if the time came, he thought I might be the only one strong enough to do what had to be done.
  
  I think he knows that the lead-lined casket in the basement isn't really going to save us.
  
  The last thing he said before shoving me back upstairs was that he didn't want to insult me, but he had to make me promise that I'd *only* use the pills if I had to. Maybe it's weird that he trusts me enough to tell me, but it would have been better if he could do it without being afraid that I'd off myself when he wasn't looking.
  
  May 30 - Something's bugging Donna. She won't talk to me about it. I'm worried.
  
  May 31 - Donna didn't come home last night. She showed up late this afternoon with a lame story about spending the night at her place because she had gotten involved in packing some things.
  
  > Go north
  June 1 - Sometimes I think it would be a lot better if I just died now. I don't really want to die any more, I just don't care. But I'd like to be in control. The whole fucking world could end any day now. At least if I did it myself, I'd know when it was coming. I'd have some say in the matter.
  
  ---Diary (Decoded)---
  Page: 13 June 2-11
  
  P = previous page    N = next page
  Q = resume story    G = Go to page
  
  June 2 - Donna is still acting funny. I wonder if she's worried about her dad.
  
  June 3 - As close as I can tell, I'm a free woman again. Mom and Dad aren't watching me constantly, and I can pretty much come and go as I please, with the caveat that I can't stay out too long, what with the imminent possibility of he bomb killing us all.
  
  But I'm worried about Donna. She wanders off for hours at a time, doesn't say anything.
  
  June 4 - Jimmy's got himself a girlfriend. How cute. She's a rolly-polly little thing with coke-bottle glasses who thinks the sun rises and sets on him because of his brilliant invention. Maybe his stockpile won't go to waste after all.
  
  Yeah. And maybe my eye will grow back.
  
  June 5 - They've cancelled graduation due to war. Fuck.
  
  June 6 - I forgot what I wanted to write. When I went downstairs to get my diary, I stopped by the door to Donna's room. Was gonna see if she was still up. I heard her crying. Should I have gone in?
  
  June 7 - We're sending troops into Vietnam. Where have I heard that before?
  
  June 9 - Donna asked me to try on some of her clothes. I don't like wearing a skirt, but she said I have really nice legs & I should show them off. Nice legs? Anyway, I hope this means she's feeling better, but there was something distant about her. About the only thing she was willing to talk about was the time I slit my wrists. Morbid.
  
  June 10 - Rained all day today. After watching a whole lot of TV, we basically just sat around. I worked on new pages for my code book while Donna just sat there and watched me.
  
  June 11 - More rain. I think Donna's close to breaking. I was laying in bed with my eyes closed, making the firm decision not to get out of bed until dinner, and she came in around one in the afternoon and asked if she could lay down with me. She got in bed and just lay there for a while, then she started crying. I put my arm around her and tried to get her to talk about it, but she didn't say anything. Just lay there sobbing for about three hours. Then, she just got up, thanked me, and left. Later, she was like nothing had happened.
  
  > go north
  She wants me to go to Rusty's tomorrow for a social evening (and cheap booze. But Rusty makes a good fuzzy navel.) I said I would.
  
  ---Diary (Decoded)---
  Page: 14 June 13
  
  P = previous page    N = next page
  Q = resume story    G = Go to page
  
  What order should I write this in? This is big.
  
  Donna's pregnant.
  
  Donna kissed me.
  
  Now that the big points are out of the way, I'll get on to the details. Rusty isn't big on wild parties; it was just me and Donna and him and a couple of his friends siting around and drinking. After a couple of games of Beiruit, Donna needed help standing so she could throw the ball. She said she wanted to lie down for a while, so Rusty let me carry her to his sister's room -- she moved out a year ago. I was going to leave her for a while and go back to the party, but she asked me to stay. So I sit on the bed, and she's kind of hanging on me, and about twenty minutes go by, and then she tells me. Actually, she tells my arm, which is where her head was. She was way late so she got a pregnancy test from the drug store and however many lines showed up. So now I know why she's been so weird. I tell her that she shouldn't worry, and she has to take the test again to be sure, and maybe she should see her doctor. But of course her doctor's in Oklahoma, and she doesn't want anyone to know. She asks if I know anyone who can take care of it, because she won't keep it, and she hears that they're paying off abortion doctors to not take any patients, and they keep geting bombed by the war-baby people anyway, but of course I don't. So she cries for a while and hugs me and stuff, and she tells me how scared she is. I tell her that I'll do whatever she needs. I don't have a whole lot of money, because CJ was making me pay for pot most of the time, but I could sneak a bunch of shit from my parents, now that mom's got everything hidden, so if she needs cash to pay for it, I could do that. Or anything else she needs from me. She just wants me to keep holding her while she cries, so I do. And after a while she wants to lie down, so we do, and we just sort of cuddle for a while. She calms down some, so she starts talking about her mom, except she keeps calling her a coked-up whore. She talks some about her dad too, and how she thinks he's going to die.
  
  Eventually I ask her if she's told Tom. She hasn't, of course, since he's off in boot camp, and she's not going to tell him because she doesn't want him having that on his head when he goes off to die for his country. While we're lying there, I get to thinking. I've always thought I was so alone, but then I think about Donna, and her coked-up whore mom in jail, her dad and her boyfriend going off to play soldiers. She says I'm just about the only friend she has in the world which is just about what I'm thinking at this point. And she sort of puts her hand behind my head and starts kind of playing with my hair. I start to get the feeling that she wants me to kiss her, but I'm not sure whether it's the booze or the loneliness, or the being afraid, or what, so I'm not sure it's a good idea even if I want to, which I'm not sure of either, but she takes matters into her own hands and kisses me.
  
  I kissed Donna one time when we were thirteen, on a dare, but it was just, you know, the kind of kiss you do on a dare. This was serious. It was a good kiss, as close as I can tell. I'm not gay or anything, I don't think, but it was still a good kiss. She didn't say anything afterward, just went back to crying until she fell asleep. I think this is as far as it's going, which is good.
  
  > go north
  I wish I had been able to stick around until she woke up. I slept with her. Next to her, rather. But I slipped out early in the morning to clock in so my parents didn't bust a gasket over it. Left her a note. She hasn't come home yet, but she might still be asleep.
  
  ---Diary (Decoded)---
  Page: 14 June 13
  
  P = previous page    N = next page
  Q = resume story    G = Go to page
  
  What order should I write this in? This is big.
  
  Donna's pregnant.
  
  Donna kissed me.
  
  Now that the big points are out of the way, I'll get on to the details. Rusty isn't big on wild parties; it was just me and Donna and him and a couple of his friends siting around and drinking. After a couple of games of Beiruit, Donna needed help standing so she could throw the ball. She said she wanted to lie down for a while, so Rusty let me carry her to his sister's room -- she moved out a year ago. I was going to leave her for a while and go back to the party, but she asked me to stay. So I sit on the bed, and she's kind of hanging on me, and about twenty minutes go by, and then she tells me. Actually, she tells my arm, which is where her head was. She was way late so she got a pregnancy test from the drug store and however many lines showed up. So now I know why she's been so weird. I tell her that she shouldn't worry, and she has to take the test again to be sure, and maybe she should see her doctor. But of course her doctor's in Oklahoma, and she doesn't want anyone to know. She asks if I know anyone who can take care of it, because she won't keep it, and she hears that they're paying off abortion doctors to not take any patients, and they keep geting bombed by the war-baby people anyway, but of course I don't. So she cries for a while and hugs me and stuff, and she tells me how scared she is. I tell her that I'll do whatever she needs. I don't have a whole lot of money, because CJ was making me pay for pot most of the time, but I could sneak a bunch of shit from my parents, now that mom's got everything hidden, so if she needs cash to pay for it, I could do that. Or anything else she needs from me. She just wants me to keep holding her while she cries, so I do. And after a while she wants to lie down, so we do, and we just sort of cuddle for a while. She calms down some, so she starts talking about her mom, except she keeps calling her a coked-up whore. She talks some about her dad too, and how she thinks he's going to die.
  
  Eventually I ask her if she's told Tom. She hasn't, of course, since he's off in boot camp, and she's not going to tell him because she doesn't want him having that on his head when he goes off to die for his country. While we're lying there, I get to thinking. I've always thought I was so alone, but then I think about Donna, and her coked-up whore mom in jail, her dad and her boyfriend going off to play soldiers. She says I'm just about the only friend she has in the world which is just about what I'm thinking at this point. And she sort of puts her hand behind my head and starts kind of playing with my hair. I start to get the feeling that she wants me to kiss her, but I'm not sure whether it's the booze or the loneliness, or the being afraid, or what, so I'm not sure it's a good idea even if I want to, which I'm not sure of either, but she takes matters into her own hands and kisses me.
  
  I kissed Donna one time when we were thirteen, on a dare, but it was just, you know, the kind of kiss you do on a dare. This was serious. It was a good kiss, as close as I can tell. I'm not gay or anything, I don't think, but it was still a good kiss. She didn't say anything afterward, just went back to crying until she fell asleep. I think this is as far as it's going, which is good.
  
  > Documents
  Press the number of your selection, 1-9, 0 to redisplay or Q to quit.
  
  3     Suicide Note
  4     Current Events Homework
  5     Letter (1)
  6     Letter (2)
  7     Code Book (old)
  8     Code Book (new)
  9     Diary (Decoded)
  
  > analyze the autokey
  Analyzing...
  Examining text...
  Performing heuristics...
  Counting character frequencies...
  Performing statistical analysis...
  Performing more heuristics...
  Results: Coded text using unknown cipher (This text cannot be decoded at this time)
  Note: Unbreakable ciphers (eg. Ciphers using One Time Pad or RUR nanocode encoding) cannot be decoded until matching key has been analyzed. Unknown ciphers may be decoded after more encrypted text has been analyzed.
  The house shakes hard as a something, probably an aircraft or small bomb, crashes to earth in the distance.
  
  > put the eye in the charger
  You let the optical unit charge for a few minutes. When you remove it, it's warm to the touch. Hm. The device seems to think that the eye is fully charged. That doesn't make sense; this charger is supposed to, if your memory serves, take several hours. There's no way that the technology of this period could build a charger capable of such speed. Somewhere, probably a few kilometers away, there is an explosion. The house rocks, and you have a hard time keeping your footing.
  
  You hear a great crash below.
  
  > Interface eye
  Attempting to interface...
  Interface established.
  Examining device...
  Selecting protocol...
  Compatible protocol found.
  Device: LZ-50 Optical Prosthetic. Manufacturer: Optitron BioTechnics
  
  Downloading images...
  
  The viewpoint of the camera suggests that the wearer is seated in front of a portable computer. Her hand reaches out and picks up a small device beside the computer. She turns it over, presumably examining it from all angles. The hand turns the device until its barrel-end points directly into the camera. A finger twitches, pressing a button. A flash of light issues from the end of the device, and the image flickers, distorts, and breaks up.
  
  When the image returns, the device has been dropped to the table. The wearer stands, and the camera reels in unsteady ascent. Again a hand reaches out, this time to switch the computer off. It takes a small red pill from the table, and then moves to the wearer's mouth.
  
  The camera turns quickly, and moves toward one of the bunked beds. It focuses on the motionless body of a beautiful blonde girl. The image switches to infrared, showing the characteristic cooling of a recently deceased body, then the camera changes back to the visual spectrum. The camera bobs up and down, as if slowly nodding. It moves toward the face of the dead girl, and stays very close to one cheek for a long time. The camera withdraws, and the wearer extends a hand, tracing the shoulder and arm of the corpse, finally coming to rest atop the folded hands. The wearer's hand squeezes the dead hands once, then the camera turns toward the opposite cot.
  
  The camera moves toward the cot, then turns and lowers, finally pitching back as the wearer lies down. A hand moves toward the camera, and as it passes in front of it, the recording ends.
  [The document "LZ-50 Memory Buffer" has been added to your DataStore.]
  
  > examine the eye
  Remarkable. This is an LZ-50 prosthetic optical unit, the first commercial replacement eye. This explains the sunken eyelid on the poor dead girl -- she must have had a prosthetic eye. But this... You could stand here all day and admire the workmanship. You would never have suspected that the technology of this period could develop something that could actually replace a human eye. And here you are... it's in your hand. You turn it over and over. It looks amazingly realistic.
  
  > Decode crumpled letter
  Examining text...
  Performing heuristics...
  Counting character frequencies...
  Performing statistical analysis...
  Performing more heuristics...
  Best guess: One Time Pad. 26 character alphabet.
  Decoding...
  1
  
  Hi. Um. Hope I remember how to yse the code book right. How are you? I guesr you're wondering where this note came. Well, I'm living with my dad now. Mom started dating this drug dealer and she got arrested because he was making crystal meth in our basement. So I'm back here at least till the end of the year. So what's new in your life? I'm sorry I haven't kept in touch. Pleare write me back so we can talk some time.
  
  [The DataStore entry for this document has been updated to reflect deciphered text.]
  
  > Decode folded
  Examining text...
  Performing heuristics...
  Counting character frequencies...
  Performing statistical analysis...
  Performing more heuristics...
  Best guess: One Time Pad. 26 character alphabet.
  Decoding...
  3
  
  I'm glad you wrote me back. All these years, I've been scared pretty much shitless that you hated me, because it was my mom was driving that night when you lost your eye. I've really missed you all these years, and I would have talked to you in the hall, but every time I see you I lose my nerve. First I think that you'll hate me because of the accident, then I think maybe I should try to talk to you anyway, but then I think that you'll hate me for not talking to you for so long. I guess I'll understand if you want me to just steer clear and stuff, but please try to forgive me. God, I'm such a coward. I've really missed you. I don't know if you can ever forgive me, but I really want to let you know how sorry I am.
  
  [The DataStore entry for this document has been updated to reflect deciphered text.]
  
  > Research sync
  No relevant entry found.
  Something blocks the light for a second, and you turn to look. Nothing. Hm. This place is starting to get to you.
  
  > Go east
  Hallway, east end
  You are at the east end of the main hallway on this floor. The hallway ends at a door on the east wall, and another door is north. A doorway to the south has no door, though it looks as if it were designed for one.
  
  A framed photograph of a young man is affixed to the wall.
  This image shows a young man in his mid-teens. He sports a pathetic attempt at a moustache. Though he shows all the awkwardness of adolescence, he apparently does know, at least, how to pose for a photograph. He has a very slight smile, and a look of interested curiosity on his face. He does show the awkward pockmarks of severe acne, made worse by the extreme fullness of his face. He is wearing a black shirt with a suede vest, which bears a small lapel pin, of the sort distributed by academic honor societies.
  [The document "Photograph of a Young Man" has been added to your DataStore.]
  That door is locked.
  
  You manage to unlock the door with the autokey.
  
  Of all the rooms you've seen so far, this bedroom shows the least signs of having been tidied before the house was abandoned. Naturally, of course, this heightens your curiosity; untidy rooms generally tell you more than clean ones. From the space-shuttle wallpaper, you suspect that this room belonged to a young child, though it might simply imply that the room is long-overdue for renovation. There is a bookcase along one wall, containing model space ships, toy robots, and a very few books. A desk beside the door is loaded down with computer equipment. The most interesting feature of the room is the floor; while most of the other rooms have had wall-to-wall carpeting, this room has what appears to be industrial grade linoleum tile. The hallway lies west.
  
  > look at the linoleum
  You don't recall any precedent in home furnishing that would call for industrial grade linoleum in a bedroom, but it is here nonetheless. Since you can't imagine that the floor is an artifact from an earlier function of the room, it is somewhat perplexing that such a floor would be present.
  
  > Interface computer
  Attempting to interface...
  Interface established.
  Examining device...
  Selecting protocol...
  Compatible protocol found.
  Device: Personal Computer. Manufacturer identification not found.
  
  Searching for relevant data...
  
  Press the number of your selection, 1-3, 0 to redisplay or Q to quit. Three relevant documents found:
  1     Code Fragment
  2     Data Snapshot
  3     Electronic Mailbox
  
  > 2
  Analyzing...
  Format not recognized.
  Attempting to download...
  Download failed: Insufficient space.
  
  Press the number of your selection, 1-3, 0 to redisplay or Q to quit. Three relevant documents found:
  1     Code Fragment
  2     Data Snapshot
  3     Electronic Mailbox
  
  > 3
  ---Email Database (Boy's Bedroom)---
  Page: 1 Mailbox for swallace
  
  P = previous page    N = next page
  Q = resume story    G = Go to page
  
  From: Subject:
  Dr. Helmut Sha Re: distributed neural simulation...2
  YOR_FRIEND906  HOTTEST OFFER EVER..................3
  hotoffer@spam. Lower your debt!....................4
  Dr. Helmut Sha PIT AI lab..........................5
  Michael Pendra 31337...............................6
  Amy            (no subject)........................7
  Michelle313    I'm boooooooored!...................8
  Steve Elocon   Re: PIT AI lab......................9
  Amy            Re: Tonight.........................10
  Michael Pendra Julia...............................11
  Amy            Hi..................................12
  Michael Pendra 31337...............................13
  Amy            Hi, again...........................14
  Michael Pendra Re: Julia...........................15
  Amy            Re: Hi, again.......................16
  Steve Elocon   Re: PIT AI lab......................17
  hotxxx@bulkmai YOUNG HARDCORE SLUTS................18
  Mary Pantalon  PIT early admission.................19
  Amy            Um... Stuff.........................20
  Amy            My last mail........................21
  Dante          Situation...........................22
  Michael Pendra Re: Situation.......................23
  Michael Pendra Re: PIT.............................24
  Amy            Sorry...............................25
  
  > analyze the code fragment
  Analyzing...
  Examining text...
  Performing heuristics...
  Counting character frequencies...
  Performing statistical analysis...
  Performing more heuristics...
  Results: Coded text using unknown cipher (This text cannot be decoded at this time)
  Note: Unbreakable ciphers (eg. Ciphers using One Time Pad or RUR nanocode encoding) cannot be decoded until matching key has been analyzed. Unknown ciphers may be decoded after more encrypted text has been analyzed.
  
  > examine wallpaper
  The papering on the walls shows vaguely technical schematics for the first reusable space vehicle. You can't imagine what it must have been like; a society so impressed by a model of space vehicle that it would make its way into something so mundane as wall coverings. It must have really been something for the people of this time. You have to remind yourself that for these people, space travel was still risky business. The very idea that they could reliably send something up, outside their little planet, and then bring it back again... It must have been absolutely wondrous to see something like this go up.
  
  > examine the toys
  model spaceship: Small, detailed models of space vehicles which appear to be more fanciful than realistic.
  
  > jump
  You jump on the spot.
  
  > look under the desk
  (the desk)
  You find nothing of interest.
  
  > open the desk
  (the desk)
  That's not something you can open.
  
  > examine the desk
  (the desk)
  You see nothing special about the desk.
  
  > take all the desk
  desk: That's hardly portable.
  
  > Go west
  Hallway, east end
  You are at the east end of the main hallway on this floor. The hallway ends at a door on the east wall, and another door is north. A doorway to the south has no door, though it looks as if it were designed for one.
  
  A framed photograph of a young man is affixed to the wall.
  
  The stairs from the ground floor land in the middle of a long hallway which extends east and west from your current position. There is a door in the north wall, slightly narrower than usual. From here, you can see three doors at each of the two ends of the hallway.
  
  Hallway, west end
  The upstairs hallway begins here, or ends here, depending on your point of view. You can see where the stairway meets the hall to the east, and doors are located along the north, south, and west walls.
  
  A framed photograph of a young woman graces one wall.
  The image shows a young woman dressed in simplified academic regalia. She wears a formless gown in an unflattering blue pastel with a mortarboard cap. The girl in the picture looks about the right age for this photograph to be commemorating a high school graduation, though there are signs that she might be older; her expression is one of world-weariness, and her disapproving frown merges into lines on the face which suggest that this is an accustomed expression. You imagine that she would be quite attractive, if not for the scowl which seems to be permanently burnt into her face.
  
  An unnatural reflection causes you to notice her right eye, which, under close scrutiny, is apparently artificial. Though the prosthesis is good enough to pass for the real thing under casual scrutiny, it does lack the bloodshot look of the left eye, and you can make out the segmentation of a mechanical iris. If the color had been a better match for her left eye, you might well not have noticed.
  [The document "Graduation Photograph" has been added to your DataStore.]
  That door is locked.
  
  You manage to unlock the door with the autokey.
  
  Generally speaking, you learn more from a dirty house than a clean one; intensive cleaning tends to remove much of the anthropological evidence about the day-to-day affairs of the occupants. You can tell that whoever lived here had some warning before they evacuated, time enough to at least do some preliminary straightening up. The bed, which is opposite the door, under the smaller of the room's two windows, is neatly made, the wastepaper basket between the door and the dresser is empty, and the two night tables on either side of the bed are both clean and freshly polished. A full-length mirror hangs on a door to the north. The hallway is east.
  
  > open the dresser
  (the dresser drawers)
  You open the dresser drawers, revealing an antique key.
  
  > go to the north
  That door is locked.
  
  You manage to unlock the door with the autokey.
  
  You are in a bathroom, unusually large and attractively decorated. Aside from the free-standing whirlpool bathtub, there is a separate shower stall. A counter, the central feature of which is a three-paneled mirror which wraps around the sink, spans one wall. Architecturally, the room itself is fairly simple; a rectangle with plain white walls and a simple black-and-white tessellation on the floor tile. The decor gives the room more life; delicate just-green lace window drapery contrasts elegantly with the deep green of the heavy rug in the center of the room. The counter is equipped with a wicker dish full of soaps which you assume are more decorative than functional. A wooden table under the window holds a vase of dried flowers. The exit is south.
  
  > drop the autokey
  Dropped.
  
  > go north
  That door is locked.
  
  You manage to unlock the door with the simple key.
  
  You are in a bathroom, unusually large and attractively decorated. Aside from the free-standing whirlpool bathtub, there is a separate shower stall. A counter, the central feature of which is a three-paneled mirror which wraps around the sink, spans one wall. Architecturally, the room itself is fairly simple; a rectangle with plain white walls and a simple black-and-white tessellation on the floor tile. The decor gives the room more life; delicate just-green lace window drapery contrasts elegantly with the deep green of the heavy rug in the center of the room. The counter is equipped with a wicker dish full of soaps which you assume are more decorative than functional. A wooden table under the window holds a vase of dried flowers. The exit is south.
  
  > examine the tub
  The bathtub is empty.
  
  > examine the vase
  In the vase are some dried flowers.
  
  > examine the soaps
  Unbelievable. The level of craftsmanship these people could put into something like this. It is almost as if the fact that the icon would be destroyed on its first use didn't make one scrap of difference. To turn something so mundane into a piece of art... Incredible.
  
  > Go east
  Generally speaking, you learn more from a dirty house than a clean one; intensive cleaning tends to remove much of the anthropological evidence about the day-to-day affairs of the occupants. You can tell that whoever lived here had some warning before they evacuated, time enough to at least do some preliminary straightening up. The bed, which is opposite the door, under the smaller of the room's two windows, is neatly made, the wastepaper basket between the door and the dresser is empty, and the two night tables on either side of the bed are both clean and freshly polished. A full-length mirror hangs on a door to the north. The hallway is east.
  
  You can see an autokey here.
  
  Hallway, west end
  The upstairs hallway begins here, or ends here, depending on your point of view. You can see where the stairway meets the hall to the east, and doors are located along the north, south, and west walls.
  
  A framed photograph of a young woman graces one wall.
  
  The stairs from the ground floor land in the middle of a long hallway which extends east and west from your current position. There is a door in the north wall, slightly narrower than usual. From here, you can see three doors at each of the two ends of the hallway.
  
  > Go