I heard the voice behind me and at the same time noticed a giant, meat-eater fly by. I ducked, and yelled, "Thanks! That was close!"

After watching the "Eater" buzz by without coming after me, I looked behind me to see that the source of the voice was a round red-rubber ball.

"Thanks Red." I was walking toward him with my hand out to shake with him. Of course, I suddenly realized the had no hands.

We all laughed. Fifo was laughing loudest. In our little group there were mostly just critters. The Red ball was quite contented to just pass through and see what's going on in our part of the world. We were all a bit astonished that he'd stopped long enough in his bouncing around to take the time to shout out a warning to us. We expected he'd be bouncing along, but he just sat there happy and smiling and apparently ready to engage us in conversation. He was quite a pleasant Ball.

Ball told us about a lot of things. He spent a long time with us and helped us understand the mysteriousness of our beginnings. Apparently, a long time ago, when Dad was a kid, he had spent time in my Father's room. A lot of the time a ball just sat around and rested, he explained. We listened and learned a lot from Ball. Ball was what we call a Memory: in a computer, like where I live, sometimes we call 'em RAMs. If you know about computers you'll understand what that means. Memories were things my Dad and other humans keep around in their minds. They can be called into action in a moment's notice. They have incredible, unimaginable power. Dad can call up a memory so fast he can't believe it. Memories are very cool.

First they send along their front lines, ideas of shape and line and things. Sometimes it's all a human needs to make a recollection. The front lines move fast, some of them even stay around for a while after they are called on. It reminds me of a string of ants constantly moving about, refreshing themselves in their central core memory. This Red Ball was possessed with incredible power. He brought along associations with a whole lot of other powerful memories. When the Ball came into Dad's attention, it brought along the front lines of memories like his old bedroom and the floor where Ball stood ready to play. Sometimes Dad would divert his attention to thinking about being a kid. That was our signal. Dad might call us to his attention at any minute. If our new friend, the red ball zipped into Dad's mind, we might hardly be helped from being swept in there too.

It was really fun in the front of Dad's mind. He knew the most interesting people. Sometimes he would show us off for them. At first he would just talk about us to a few close friends. He was testing the idea to see if it had promise. Sometimes Dad would be happy and we liked that a lot. It wouldn't matter if the person he showed it to liked it or not. Other people he would show us to and then be sad. He would put us away. We knew we could help him, but we couldn't get to him.

Ball told us we were ideas in Dad's mind. He told us we were "Imaginations." Ball told us that he is just a Memory, but we are Imaginations and they have the power to "Become." Even though we had always seen Balls as superior because they performed such a great function, Ball said he was part of something even greater. He was part of an Imagination so large that the Memory of Balls like him were in the minds of almost every kid in the world.

"Wow..." We all spoke at once.

Q.B. asked the question we were all wondering about. "You mean we are part of an even greater Imagination?" he asked, leaning forward (you know how he likes to do that).

"Yes, you are all part of something even bigger than yourselves, like Memory. But even better," replied Ball. "You are something brand new. You are a creation of Dad's own individual creativity. When you guys get out there, " he waved. "You are going to ... Become. " he whispered the word, but louder as he waved his hand.

"But how will we do it?" I asked. My antennae were perked. I didn't want to miss the answer.

Ball hesitated for a minute, as if thinking, "Because I'll HELP!" He started bouncing with excitement. At first there was a little vibration, very fast and it kept building and building! Soon the vibrations got stronger and slower and Ball started bouncing higher and higher.

He bounced higher still, until he was boinging and boinging and pretty soon he started going up a few feet, then down again, higher and higher and higher till soon he went out of sight.

We were all standing where we were. We had been standing and watching Ball bouncing back and forth to exactly the same spot again and again.

My neck was beginning to hurt a little, but ball was still far away and we were standing and watching.

"The fish. The fish has to go."

"Huh," I thought. When I looked away from where Ball disappeared there were a group of Reasons standing there examining Fifo.

"Uh Oh! Trouble!" I yelled. Dad is thinking or talking and using his mind. But he's thinking of reasons not to create Fifo! By now the Reasons were already attracting even more Reasons. They were starting to swarm on Fifo. He seemed smaller now, part of him seemed to be going away with every Reason.

"He can't show enough emotion."

"Oh Honey, the kids will love him." It was Mom's voice. Mom was coming to the rescue. The Reasons were losing their grip on Fifo. Compy reached his long wiry arm through the Reasons. They were now distracted by Dad's Mind again. He was stubborn, but he always at least listened to what Mom said.

Compy's big squooshy hand grabbed Fifo to try to pull him to safety. But Fifo was getting smaller and the Reasons still had a strong grip on him. Compy struggled to hold on.

"But how can the kids tell what the fish is trying to tell them?" Oh no! Dad's Reasons were chattering away.

"His face is too small. He has no hands to wave around. He has no feet to move. He can't properly display what he wants on the Web, the downloads will take too long." The Reasons were bringing in reinforcements. Compy held on, but now the rest of us were being held back by an army of Technical Details. They were stubborn and strong and could hold an idea back for a long time. Here we were. Caught in their deadly grip. They could wait us out. They would hold us back forever while more and more reasons accumulated around Fifo. If we were trapped and couldn't move the Eaters might come and swallow us up. We would disappear. Gone from Dad's Imagination forever...

This was terrible. Fifo was one of us. He was a "Critter" like the rest of us. He deserved better. And now all the commotion was holding all of us back.

The Reasons were now stronger than ever. Compy still held his hand on Fifo. He knew he couldn't pull Fifo out, so he petted Fifo who was getting very small and fragile, so he would remember his friends were nearby.

Mom couldn't do a thing against Reasons when they were backed by Technical Details. Thank heavens her mind was made up. We might have all disappeared there, put aside as just another idea that couldn't Become. Eventually we would just become food for the Eaters.

It was a perilous moment. I looked around at Compy. He was trying to be confident, he even managed a little smile by crinkling his space key the way he does. Bobo just sat quietly, I could see he was tired. He might have been struggling with all the Reasons but he might have just needed a nap. Critters like naps. Sometimes they forget they might be in danger and just take a nap. Q.B. was leaning back with his hands out. His feet would do a little shuffle, but he was stopped in his tracks by the biggest group of technical details. Of course Hammy wasn't even here there yet. He was an idea that would come from the kids who tested Dad's software.

Dad was all alone now. He was thinking about other things. We were in big trouble because Dad had listened to all the Reasons, who now stood frozen in place, like bars tightly squeezed around Fifo's already diminished body. Luckily Mom was stubborn about creating Fifo. Dad might not have held us there, he might have replaced us with other things and we would have become so weak the Eaters could have gotten us. We stayed imprisoned that way for hours and hours. Soon days went by. I made up my mind that sooner or later, Dad would have to get around to working with me. I'd have a chance to move to his direct attention. When I did, I would do everything I could to set the others free. There was a little movement when the Technical Details started loosening their grip on me. I knew I would be first to break out of their hold on the rest of the critters. I was already a gif file on Dad's computer.

I decided that when Dad took out my gif file, I would tell him somehow that he really ought to build Fifo. I told myself I would remind him that there are lots of kids that understand that some critters can't express themselves as well as others. It's OK though, because kids can tell what's going on if they care enough to pay attention to Fifo. If Dad builds Fifo in his computer, lot's of kids will take the time to visit Fifo, give him a new name and feed him, give him naps and let him play.

I remember the whole thing now. It was at dinner. Mom and Dad had just finished eating and Dad was in a pretty good mood. He had gotten a lot of work done today getting through some tough "Technical Details." As quick as he said those words, the Technical Details that had been holding me completely let go.

I was free! Now to help the others!

Just then Mom said, "I got the orange clay today. I'm starting to build the fish."

Dad laughed at Mom's stubborness. I suddenly knew the other critters were going to be alright. Dad would stop the judgments, Mom would build Fifo out of clay. Dad would work out the technical details with me and Fifo would escape the clutches of all the Reasons. The Reasons would go to work on other things in Dad's mind, while Dad and I figured out how to get the critters out to all the kids. The rest of the critters would be turned loose, and just in the nick of time too. Dad had so many Reasons, it wouldn't have been long before the Eaters came and Fifo and maybe some of the other Critters would never have seen the light of day, the Reasons would have gotten a lot stronger from it all too.

"Blippo, Blippo where are you?" Oh boy! Dad was looking for me again. I remembered my complete file name and helped it pop into Dad's mind. When he found me and brought me up in his web browser, I felt him smile. Then, all of a sudden, out of nowhere. BOOM!

It was Red! He zoomed past with a big smile on his face and bounced a couple of times while Dad thought about the fun it was to find me, his little Cybercritter in his computer files. He didn't really remember Ball, but Ball whizzed through his mind just enough so Dad grabbed a few of his memories of being a kid again. Just as quickly Ball was gone again. But just as he was leaving, Dad started to laugh a little at some of my antics, you see my JavaScript was making me stand on my head I looked pretty silly. Dad started laughing like a kid again. It was great, instantly all my cyber pals came right up there with me and we all laughed and waved at Ball as he spun out of site yelling.

"I told you I'd HELP YOUUUUU!" Ball laughed. And we laughed too. Here we were, together again, right there, waiting for Dad to create the computer code that would bring us to life in a web browser. We had escaped the Eaters and the Technical Details and Reasons, rather, the Perfectly Good Reasons, that had imprisoned us before seemed a million miles away.

We began to laugh and play again.

Of course, it wasn't over yet. There were still some serious adventures to be experienced...