My Ride - It's All Beginning To Make Sense!
"It's so good to see you again!" exclaimed Nina. She was careful not to say his name. Blake had warned her that Larry thought his name was Mike, due to the accident.
Mike beamed. After a long embrace, he tried to pick up the child. But the dark haired boy used his mother as a shield, not letting him come near.
"Oh..." sighed Mike, suddenly remembering that even those closest to him had a different set of memories.
"Don't worry. Fred just hasn't seen you recently, he will come out of his shell soon." assured Blake.
"I understand..." Mike replied sadly.
"It's time to eat!" declared Nina brightly, trying to change the subject. And with the delicious aroma drifting through the house, it worked like a charm.
Soon the little family and their guest were seated around a large Oak table, enjoying a dinner of homemade pizza. Fred even forgot that he was supposed to be shy.
"Let's see what secrets that laptop and briefcase of yours has, shall we?" asked Blake, as he scraped the last bit of apple pie from his plate.
"Sounds good to me! That Appelt character has me mighty curious." replied Mike, as he scraped his own plate.
As the two men removed the documents from the briefcase, a small envelope was revealed. It was sealed. "I wonder what this is? There's no writing on it..." Mused Mike. It was strange to see a letter without any address. Surely even with these modern gadgets you had to include an address?
"It's yours. You can open it." Blake reminded him.
"Oh right." he said a bit sheepishly, as he carefully opened it. Inside was a small USB thumb drive. On the label it said "Appelt Industries, Research Department Zero Thirteen. Authorized Personnel Only."
"It's just a little plastic thing..." Mike muttered, disappointed. "Let's see those documents."
"They're names, connected with amounts of money. I think you were keeping a record of who was investing how much into something. And the numbers are all in the millions!" Blake announced, with a low whistle.
"Want to have a look through the laptop now?" asked Blake, more curious than ever.
"Sure." replied Mike with a grin. He was getting into the spirit of it, this was a lot more fun laying around in a hospital bed!
"You've got names and contact information for several prominent billionaires. And quite a few names I don't recognize. And it seems that you also have placed orders for some pretty expensive technology!"
"This still doesn't tell me what I have been up to, if it really was me that is..." he replied, becoming disappointed again. The briefcase and laptop had only generated more questions.
"Let's check the thumb drive?" he suggested, picking up the small piece of plastic.
"How?" he asked, since there didn't seem to be a way to open it.
"Just plug it in."
Seconds later, a prompt came up. "What's the password?" asked Blake.
"What is a password?" Mike asked.
"Never mind... It's probably written down, or on the laptop." he answered, digging through a side pocket of the briefcase.
"Is any of this making sense?" asked Mike.
"I'm not sure yet. Ah! Here's something." Blake said, pulling out an unsealed envelope, and removing several pieces of paper. He then began typing. After several failed attempts, blueprints flashed across the screen. Above them were some words.
"What have you gotten yourself into?!?!" asked Blake, incredulous.
"What do you mean? What does all that stuff say?" asked Mike, suddenly afraid, without knowing why.
"Inter-dimensional travel and wormholes?!?! I thought that stuff was just sci-fi! Now things are starting to make sense. Maybe we can get you back to Deersberg after all..."
To be continued! Past episode can be found here @wrestlingdesires/my-ride-the-collection
Cover image made in Canva using their gallery