Doing it was the only thing that Toliver and Taffy felt was their own. Everything else in their lives was packaged, controlled, structured, and oppressive. Parents and school, parents and school – it was all just too much. And rules, why were there so many rules? Every time they tried anything there was a complaining adult with a wagging finger – didn’t they know the harm that could be caused to a person’s creativity, to their self esteem?

They were happy in each other”s arms. They were young, they were in love.

Toliver and Taffy were doing it when the end came. They were both SenseSurfing their favorite channels, both had the background music as loud as it would go, just below the point at which the brain would turn to jelly. What”s another “thump” in the middle of so many backbeats?

“Mmmmm,” Taffy purrs in response to her SenseSation.

“MMMMMmmm, MMMMmmmm,” groans Toliver.

“What? Not nowwwww,” they both complain when everything goes quiet. Usually if there was a signal interruption a backup would transfer in immediately. Interruptions were rare.

“Now what?” Toliver wonders out loud. Now what indeed. Toliver and Taffy have never done it “a capella” before, never made love without being plugged in to something.

The “thump” they missed hearing was the one that had taken the house away. It took the town away. Toliver”s folks had to pay a lot to get the solid rock blasted away when their new house was built. Toliver”s mom had wanted a basement, and the basement was set into the hillside”s base rock, and on the other side of the hill from where the blast came from. It was all that was left.

“Something”s wrong,” Taffy said, “Go see if something”s going on.”

Most homes had their own fuel cells that switched on unnoticed when the power fluctuated or quit. There was nothing obvious to Toliver when he started for the door. The lights stayed on, he didn”t notice the air conditioner had stopped.

“Alright, what”s going on? Allen, is that you? Mom?”, Toliver couldn”t get the door open, and then he felt the vibration in the floor. Taffy felt it, too.

“What”s that?”, she asked.

“I don’t know, something’s wrong.” He put his ear to the door. “Something’s going on, come here, listen.”

Taffy came over and listened too. She and Toliver looked directly into each others eyes while they listened and neither saw a look of understanding in the other.

“The door won”t open,” he said.

Taffy went over and tried the knob, pushed against the door, pulled the knob. Nothing.

“What”ll we do now, Tolly?” she asked.

Over the next hour or so, Toliver and Taffy tried to open the door. The doorknob worked OK, the door just wouldn”t move.

“Look!”, Toliver pointed at a crack in the ceiling. “Look – here”s another one! Over here, on the wall. Look, here”s why the door won”t open.”

He ran his finger along the door frame. The steel door was wedged tightly in the warped doorjamb.

“Something”s happened to the house, Taffy, something real bad. We”ve got to get the door open.”

“Tolly, it”s getting hot. I don”t think the A/Cs working either.”

Toliver looks around and finds a screwdriver in the basement shop and unscrews the hinges. The door still doesn”t move. He tries to pry the door around the edges but it doesn”t move.

The door is wedged tightly. The gap between door and frame almost disappears on one corner, but is noticeably wider on another.

“Look,” he says, and shows Taffy he can get the corner of the door to move just a little bit. Toliver continues to work the tip of the screwdriver into the gap and flexes the corner of the door open just enough to see something out there.

Toliver goes back and forth to the toolbox and tries bigger and stronger things, the handle of the crescent wrench, then the pipe wrench, and finally he has the corner peeled back enough to tell Taffy, “The house has fallen down on top of us.”

WHAT IS SENSESURROUND?