Unshackling Rachel

I’m hot, my feet hurt and I can feel sweat trickling down my back and between my breasts. I take a large gulp of water from my bottle, grimace at the taste and reach into my bag for more. I sigh in relief as the coolness spreads through me, then I put the bottle in the pouch on the outside of my rucksack and continue walking past stalls selling everything from hand-woven baskets to woven mats, hats and dresses. The air is full of chatter, shouts and calls in many different languages.

I am on holiday, the first time I have left Europe since marriage. My husband isn’t interested in travelling; he has never been anywhere except for a few cities in his own country. He says it’s enough for him; he prefers home comforts to foreign ones. The only place he has visited is New York, where we spent our honeymoon. Even then he complained about how expensive everything was and swore that he would never set foot in America again.

It was OK for a while; we had three children together so there was plenty to do at home, but after they grew up and moved away to start their adult lives at university, it became harder to find things to fill our days with. We didn’t argue much, but there were moments when we were both so bored that we could barely stand each other’s company. It got so bad that we began avoiding each other whenever possible.

And then I read an article about litRPGs. There were stories about people using these games to escape into new worlds where they could be whoever they wanted to be and do whatever they could imagine doing without worrying about the consequences or being judged by anyone else who might be watching them. They said it was like living out your fantasies without the risks or costs of actually doing it for real in the real world.

I thought it sounded perfect for me; everything I would love to do but felt too shy or awkward or socially inhibited to try out in real life was suddenly available to me just by logging into one of these games! I could travel around the world and experience things that had always fascinated me but that I had never had the chance to do before. Doing so would make me stronger and braver so when I did finally end up leaving home to go travelling on my own it would be easier than if I hadn’t done it online first!

I asked Martin if he would mind if I started playing online a little bit more; not much more because I still needed to spend some time with him of course, but just enough so that I didn’t get too bored around the house all day every day anymore. He was surprised at first, but then agreed when he realised how eager I was about starting this new hobby of mine; maybe it would help us reconnect with one another again? He suggested that we both play together if one of us could find a game where we wouldn’t need to spend money on equipment or costumes or anything like that, which turned out not to be very easy as most RPGS work like that – you pay for something and you get all sorts of bonuses or special abilities as a result (which makes sense) – but eventually we found a suitable one called ‘World Adventurers’ where you start off with nothing more than clothes on your back and are able to earn money and buy things from ordinary jobs rather than needing lots of cash up front before you can start doing anything fun!

We played almost every evening now; sometimes separately, sometimes together as husband and wife, sometimes separately as brother and sister (don’t ask). We explored countries we had never been to before (in real life), met people who were unlike anyone we knew at home, went abseiling down cliffsides in New Zealand, bungee jumping off bridges in Australia and rafting down white-water rivers in South America without any risk - even when our boat capsized! - just fun!

And now here I am! This is definitely one of those moments when playing World Adventurers has paid off because otherwise how could anyone ever afford travel like this? It costs next to nothing compared with what real-world travel must cost today!