“Are these dangerous locations?” Mr. Schroeder asked. “Can you be assaulted or robbed when you’re hooked up to a computer?”

“No one but the manager and the customer are allowed into a travel room. Your son would be physically safe. But there is a problem with regular travel centers. You can’t stay online for longer than twelve hours because of problems with dehydration. Nowadays there’s a special kind of travel center called a burrow, which allows you to remain in the Over World for one or two years.”

“How is that possible?” Mrs. Schroeder asked. “Wouldn’t you starve to death?”

“Burrows resemble a private clinic for people who have locked-in syndrome or who are in a vegetative state. You lie in a hospital bed connected to your brain cable. Your body is fitted with rectal and bladder catheters, and it’s fed liquid nourishment through an IV tube. There used to be a problem with blood clots and muscle deterioration, but these days electrical stimulation pads are attached to your skin. The pads send signals to your muscles to make them contract so you won’t waste away.”

“This sounds horrible,” Mrs. Schroeder said. “Do you really think Bennett would have agreed to being fed through a tube?”