Menaville

The windows are open and the sound of cicadas reminds me it's the height of summer. The sweat and my clothes remind me too, as I glance at the clock and realise it's time to get dressed - the call is close and I can't show up like this. I'll sweat, then I'll have a quick shower and get ready for dinner. The plan is set.

The call runs smoothly and my colleague's accent fascinates me. He's not a native English speaker, but perfectly clear, and that lovely way he says "meanwhile" - something like "mean-will" - makes me smile every time. At the end of the call I stare at the screen for a few seconds, at the Galene window. Almost automatically I take off my shirt and dive into a search. In seconds I find what I need and finally launch the Commodore 64 emulator. Full screen. A few moments of waiting. "Zak Zak Zak, What am I going to do with you?" The English version, the one from back then. The Commodore 64 one. I didn't understand it, at that time, but it was enough.

I move Zak around the house, making him do without thinking all the things I used to make him do nearly forty years ago, until that screen: "Meanwhile, in a secret room". I burst out laughing, so much that my wife runs into the study to share the laugh. She looks at the screen, doesn't get it. Looks at me, shrugs and walks away, eyebrows raised.

I never finished that game, but I travelled so much thanks to it. I searched desperately for that city called "Menaville". Because a ten-year-old kid who didn't know English misread it, and thought that secret room was in one of the many airports Zak could reach, a place called Menaville, and that you had to unlock something to get there. And I had fun, because at ten years old, that kind of open world made me feel free.

I never found Menaville. But freedom - I found that, yes.