As I walk towards the person in charge, there is always a little bit of nervousness that resides in my stomach. I have done this so many times before, but with knowing who I am there is always a little hesitation. I make my way up to the supervisor and we have our usual conversation. Double-checking what I have had in the past and for how many years I had that specific pill. They created a special algorithm that determines which pill I will get and for how long. After conversing come more it looks like this year I will be getting in the line for Red(Life Pill: You can make any fictional character come to real life).

This will be my first year taking the Red pill and I am excited, but I don't know how I feel about making a fictional character come to life. I don't even know how this pill works. DO I get to pick the character or is the character chosen for me? I really hope I get to pick. If I do get to pick, I would love to choose my favorite character from my favorite book. I shouldn't get my hopes up though in case I don't get to pick because that would be a letdown.

I carefully make my way over to the Red line while trying to avoid as much eye contact as possible. I don't have many friends because no one can really know about me. I let people into a certain level, but never anything past that. It has always been casual hello's in the hall or conversing while working on a project, but never any real friendships. That why I care about books so much because that is where I have been able to find all of my friends inside those pages.

After what seems like an hour, I finally make my way to the front of the line and they confirm my name, hand me my pill, give me some basic instructions just because they have to and then they ask me who I want to bring to life. That means that is is my choice. I can bring my favorite character to life. Do I dare? Do I really dare to choose him? I can't… but I can this is my pill, for now, why shouldn't I make it last. We take these pills to remind us about the importance of literature, so why shouldn't I choose him?

While I am spaced out in my own head the distributor asks me again who I would like to bring to life. I pause for one more second before I gladly tell him that I would like to bring Reese from "The Phantom Boy" by M. W. Elstein to life. The distributor nods as he writes down my choice. He tells me that all I have to do is say his name along with the book title to bring him to life when I take the pill. From there I am ushered on to go about my day. It is expected that we are to take our pills as soon as possible, so I head home to finish my day off there.