The Aurora outside the canopy flashed. Alex felt the real world—his wife calling him for dinner, the radiator hissing in his apartment—pulling at his consciousness.
In the world of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004: A Century of Flight, the default aircraft were blocky, their textures smeared like wet watercolors. But Alex had discovered Carenado. FS2004 - Carenado Aircrafts
10:00... 9:59...
He remembered the day he downloaded the file from Simviation. The file size was a hefty 45MB—a three-hour ordeal on his parents' dial-up in 2004. When he finally extracted the files into the Aircraft folder and booted up FS2004, his heart stopped. The Carenado Cessna 182Q wasn't an aircraft; it was a photograph. He could see the stitching on the leather seats. He could read the tiny placard near the flap lever that said "LIFT HERE." The chrome exhaust stack reflected the virtual tarmac like a mirror. The Aurora outside the canopy flashed
"I'm not real," Alex whispered.
The screen didn't go black.
"Keep flying, kid," Alex said.