Extracted - Chapter 27 – Where’s Ponce de León When You Need Him – Part 2 of 2

 

Extracted

By Karen Singer

 

Chapter 27 – Where’s Ponce de León When You Need Him – Part 2 of 2

 

A dark blue checkered skirt.  A white blouse.  A fake necktie.  Dark blue knee socks.  Comfortable shoes.  And a dark blue blazer with the school logo patch on the pocket.  That’s what Nancy wore as she got out of the car and walked with her mother into the school.  The security guards at the gate checked her and her mother against a list and allowed them through, escorting them directly to the school’s office.

“Nancy!” a woman inside exclaimed the moment she saw them.  She came around from behind the counter and immediately gave Nancy a big hug.  “Oh,” she said.  “I was so sorry to hear you were kidnapped!  So sorry!  I’m glad you’re back now, even though I understand you’re still having a few…issues.”

“Issues?” Nancy said.  “I can’t remember anything.”

“So I understand the woman said.  She stood up and faced Wanda.  “Hi Mrs. Stiller.  How are you?”

“Better than I was,” Wanda admitted.  “Is Mr. Parker in?”

“Yes, he’s expecting you.  Follow me.”

The woman led the way to an office where she opened the door and poked her head in.  “Mrs. Stiller and Nancy are here,” she told whoever was inside.  She held the door open and Wanda led Nancy in.  Nancy saw a bald man sitting behind a desk.

“Ah.  Mrs. Stiller.  Welcome!”  He looked down at Nancy.  “Nancy,” he said kindly.  “Good to see you again too.”  He turned back to talk to Wanda.  “Before I give Nancy here a tour of the place, I’ve asked our school psychologist to sit in on a meeting and let us talk with Nancy here so we can try to get some indication of just where she is.  Would you mind?”

“No,” Wanda told him.  “I was expecting something like this.  May I be there?”

“Of course,” the school principal agreed.  He led the way out of his office to what appeared to be some kind of meeting room.  Nancy was guessing it was for the teachers.  Moments after they got there, another man and a woman joined them.

“Nancy!  The woman said as soon as she walked in.  Good to see you again.”

“Uh…yeah,” Nancy replied.  Did this woman think she recognized her?  That was impossible.

“Do you know me?” the woman asked.

“Sorry,” Nancy replied.  “Not a clue.”

The woman nodded sadly.  “I’m Mrs. Forest.  I was your teacher last year.”

“Sorry,” Nancy told her.  “I don’t remember that.”

“Let’s all have a seat,” Mr. Parker suggested.  When they were seated, he introduced the man who had come in.  “This is Mr. Greenwich, our school psychologist.”

“Mrs. Stiller,” Greenwich said, greeting Wanda.  He looked to Nancy.  “And Nancy.”

Nancy made no reply.

“Mrs. Forest,” Parker said.  “Would you like to ask Nancy here a few questions so we can get some indication as to how much of her memory she’s lost?”

“Yes,” Mrs. Forest replied.  She turned to Nancy.  “Last year, we studied the Chronicles of Narnia,” she said.  “Do you remember that?”

“Narnia?” Nancy said.  “I don’t remember ever studying it, but I think it was about some kids that went into a magic land or something.  And there was a witch and…a lion I think.  Sorry, but it’s a bit vague.”

“That’s fine,” Mrs. Forest said.  “At least you remember that much.  How about your math skills,” she said.

Nancy was subjected to question after question, most of which she was able to answer fairly easily.  Some she couldn’t answer at all.  Eventually though, it was over.

“What do you think/” Parker asked, already guessing the answer.

“What she remembers is…a bit off from what I expected,” Mrs. Forest told him, “but I guess that’s just due to her memory loss in general.  Still, there’s no doubt that enough of it is there that I can’t see any reason why she shouldn’t be allowed into the seventh grade where she belongs.”

Parker turned to Mr. Greenwich who hadn’t said a word though any of it.  “Mr. Greenwich?” Parker asked.

“She seems to be adapting well enough,” Greenwich decided.  “There’s no doubt she’s got a few social things she’s not comfortable with, but she appears to be dealing with them.  I say give it a try, but we might want to watch her closely for a bit just in case.  We’re talking a lot of mental stress here on top of what had to be the worst psychological trauma possible to cause that kind of damage.  Still, as I said, she seems to be coping.  I’m amazed that after what she’s gone though that she would even want to try.”

Parker nodded.  “Very well.”  He turned to Wanda.  “Since she obviously doesn’t recognize us, or I guess the school, maybe we should begin with a tour.”

“I think she was very interested in that,” Wanda agreed.

Mr. Parker himself showed Wanda and Nancy around the school.  From the gym to the science labs, from the art studios to the music room.  From the first-grade classroom up to the seventh-grade room.  He would have continued on, taking them all the way to the high school rooms as well where Emily would have been in class, but as they passed the seventh-grade classroom, the door was open.  Nancy stopped in the hallway just for a quick peek.

“Look!” a girl shouted from inside.  “It’s Nancy!”

In seconds pandemonium broke loose as every girl in the room ran out and surrounded Nancy, all of them led by Chrissy and Diane.

“You’re here!” Chrissy shouted excitedly.  “You decided to come!”

“I just…”

“Come in!” Diane said as she grabbed Nancy and started dragging her.

Nancy looked to her mother and the principal.

Wanda nodded.  “Go.  I’ll pick you up after school.”

Nancy allowed herself to be dragged into the classroom where Miss Sanderson introduced herself as her teacher.  Nancy was given a desk but she didn’t get any books.  It seemed all the kids had tablet computers instead.  Mrs. Sanderson told her she’d get her one before she went home.

And so seventeen year old Stephen Marsh began school again in the seventh grade.  As a girl.

Life was so strange!

 

--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

 

Ben and Judith both regretted everything they had done.  Everything!  But neither of them caved to the intense questioning they were subjected to.  Questioning that was leveled at them for hours and hours at a time, for days and days on end, until they were both sleep deprived and ready to pass out.  It was pure torture.  But neither of them gave in.  The only information they gave out was that they developed a water system, nothing more.  They did admit that they were part of a group that enjoyed discussing ghosts, but they couldn’t elaborate any more than that about some process to extract someone’s soul with a machine designed to clean up polluted water.

A team of ten physicists and engineers went through every inch of the water system prototype.  They put the entire thing together.  They tested it in every way they could, but they couldn’t see any sign of it being able to capture someone’s soul.  They even had volunteer prisoners brought in who they put into the machine while they turned it on.  But the machine did nothing to them since there was no water flowing through it.  But with a thirty-inch central pipe, that much water flowing through it would drown anyone in seconds.

Two months of research later, they concluded that the water system was indeed a very good, if not a very interesting one since it could collect so many different needed particles, but there was no sign that it could possibly do anything else.  It especially couldn’t pull someone’s soul from their body and capture it.

Holfstrom and his team of engineers were glad to be done with the project.  The information had come from a drunk.  The government should have known better.  Nobody said anything about that, but they all were thinking it.

Judith and Ben were taken from the black site in the middle of the night and unceremoniously dumped on Judith’s front lawn.  Two days later, the water treatment prototype was dropped off on her front lawn in the middle of the night too.

Judith and Ben never bothered to tell anyone that the defective part that made the soul extraction possible was simply buried in the flowerbed behind Judith’s house.

 

--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

 

Eleven Years Later

 

Nancy smiled and waved at the seemingly thousands of people who packed the large room.  She stood next to her sister, who stood next to her husband, who stood next to Nancy’s mother, who stood next to her father.  Her father held his hand in the air in victory, a gesture that brought cheers from the people packing the room and hopefully from the millions of people who were watching it all on TV.  The numbers had proven it.  Enough votes had been counted now to prove that her father was going to be the next President of the United States.  The entire family was now lined up on stage with him, all smiling and waving to the entire world.

It was a long time before things died down enough that Nancy could leave the stage.  When she did, she found Stephen, looking nothing but fantastic in a dark blue suit that showed off his muscular body.  Stephen, who was Nancy, and she who was Stephen very, very deep inside, had grown up now.  They were both adults.  They were both different people than they once were.  But deep, deep down, they still knew who they had once been.  Not that it mattered anymore.  They had grown up.  They were different people.

Stephen’s wife joined him and congratulated her as well.  She hugged the woman who had married the handsome body that had once belonged to her…and then she had to move on to speak with someone else.  It was all part of the game.  All part of the process.  All part of a machine in which she was not just a part of, but a central figure.  Nancy was one of the driving forces behind her father’s political machine now.  And she knew for a fact that as young as she was, she was already a figure to be reckoned with.

The machine would continue to operate for as long as her father was president, then, gradually, most of it would die away.  Not completely though.  Parts of it would remain forever.  Nancy though, was already eyeing that distant future.  As soon as her father’s presidency was over, she had every intention of running for her father’s old seat in the House.  And who knew, maybe eventually run for president as well.  She already had the contacts.  She already was a known figure.  She was young and had already built a name for herself.  She already knew she had everything it took.

“Nance!”

She turned and found her friends Chrissy and Diane coming towards her.  Both of them looked great in their designer dresses.  Her own life now seemed to revolve around designer dresses and designer everything.  It was part of what was expected of her now.  Part of the game that had to be played, and over time she had come to love the ins and outs of it.  She hugged her two best friends and accepted their congratulations as well.

“Hi babe!”

She turned and saw Clint, her latest lover.  Since high school had ended, she had gone through a long string of them.  Clint was simply the latest.  She liked him a lot, but she knew she didn’t love him.  Besides, she was too busy with politics to really get involved.  She just needed…affection once in a while.  She hugged him and gave him a quick kiss that was probably photographed and would grace websites around the world.  Clint would have his fifteen minutes of fame.  She didn’t care.  She had been photographed with a number of different men.  Most of whom now lived in relative obscurity again.

Her father was the president…or soon would be.  Her mother was going to be first lady.  Her sister was married and two months pregnant.  And she was a major force in her father’s political machine.

Her mind though couldn’t help but think about Stephen.  Over the years, the two of them had become close, but never lovers.  Never!  They both refused to go that far and make love to themselves.  They were too important to each other.  Steve was married now anyway and had become a lawyer.  Instead of working in the District Attorney’s office like he once thought he would, he now worked as a corporate lawyer instead.  Nancy approved of that move.  So far, Steve seemed to like it, and she was guessing he was good at it.

Life had moved on, and so had she.

And she was determined to be one of the movers and shakers who moved life for everyone on the planet.

 

--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

 

Michael Stiller walked into the oval office for the first time as President of the United States.  There were a lot of things on his new desk that he had to take care of immediately, so it wasn’t until the next day, day two of his administration, that he was able to send for Mr. Curmett, one of the countries National Security Advisors from several presidents before him.

With Curmett finally in front of him, Mike Stiller said, “I want to see it.”

“Sir?” Curmett asked.

“I want to see all of it.  Everything you have on the memory transfer thing that happened with my daughter.  And I mean everything!  Including whatever black op I’m sure you cooked up to take out me and my family.”

“But sir…”

“Get it Curmett.  Bring it to me as soon as possible.  Every last scrap of paper.”

It wasn’t until the next day that Curmett was able to deliver the required materials.  President Stiller dug out the black ops plan first that would murder his entire family and the entire Marsh family.  He noticed that it would even include FBI Agent Rosenberg and that Philadelphia detective Nolan.  After reading it thoroughly, with Curmett watching, he ripped the papers in half.  “This is now cancelled!  You’re lucky I don’t cancel you.  Get out!  I’ll find someone else to take over whatever you’ve been doing about this, which I have no doubt is a lot of nothing.”

 

--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

 

Judith’s head was spinning so badly it was crazy.  She couldn’t stand it.  She opened her eyes and the room spinning around as well made everything worse.  As much as she hated the spinning, she also didn’t mind it.  Through everything spinning, she could see that she was in her own room.  Her own room in her own house.  She had made it.  She had survived.

As far as anyone knew, she was now Angela Lomax, twenty-two year old private nurse and the nurse Judith had hired to live with her and take care of her for the last year and a half.  In that time, Judith had gotten to know practically everything there as to know about Angela.  Things she was going to need to know…for a while.  Just until her real body died, which was the reason she had done what she did.

Poor Angela never knew her food had been drugged to knock her out.  She never knew what fate Judith had planned for her since they first met.  And now, Judith was Angela.  Judith was now only twenty-two years old instead of eighty.  Judith was now as healthy as a woman could get instead of wracked with cancer.  Judith was…reborn.

As soon as her real body got around to dying, she, now Angela, would inherit absolutely everything that had belonged to Judith as a reward for taking such good care of her for the last eighteen months.  And at her side would be Benjamin, soon to be reborn as well, this time as twenty-five year old Ronnie, the handyman and gardener Ben had hired to take care of his home.

Ben had helped her with the memory transfer machine, and she would soon help him.  And together, they would live for many, many more years together.  Possibly, forever.

As soon as Ben became Ron, they would remove the defective part from the machine in the basement and once again bury it where only the two of them knew about it.

When Ponce de León had searched Florida for the fountain of youth, he had searched in the wrong place.  He had looked for it in Florida.  The fountain of youth wasn’t in Florida, it was right here in Philadelphia.  And only she and Ben knew about it.

 

The End

 

 

Extracted - Chapter 27 – Where’s Ponce de León When You Need Him – Part 1 of 2

 

Extracted

By Karen Singer

 

Chapter 27 – Where’s Ponce de León When You Need Him – Part 1 of 2

 

Two special ops units landed in Philadelphia, so did Curmett, Blake, and Holfstrom.  One ops unit headed for the home of Benjamin Folley, the other for the home of Judith Rameriz.  The ops unit at Folley’s home found no one there, but they broke in anyway and thoroughly searched and secured the place.  Things were a bit different at Judith Rameriz’s home since, as usual, both Ben and Judith were together again.

When they arrived, the special ops team spread out and silently surrounded the house.  Then, when all was ready, they broke in the front door and literally poured into the large house with guns at the ready and shouting as loud as they could.  It was a noisy and frightening operation, just like they wanted it to be.  In minutes, both Judith and Ben were down on the floor with their hands handcuffed behind their backs, while a team of men kept their guns pointed at them.  Judith and Ben barely knew what hit them, but it had hit like a ton of bricks.

Both Ben and Judith were picked up and marched into the kitchen where they were put into chairs at the table.  Five men in military uniforms kept watch over them while the rest of the team was still searching the house.  And then three more men entered the kitchen.  None of the three men gave their names.

“What’s going on?” Judith demanded.

Curmett ignored her question.  “We received information that you two abducted Stephen Marsh,” Curmett said to them.

The moment he said that, both Ben and Judith knew that Faucet had indeed told someone about everything they had admitted to him.  Something they now regretted doing.  But they had discussed this eventuality already, and they were both prepared for it.  “Who?” Judith replied.

“Stephen Marsh,” Curmett said calmly.  “The son of Philadelphia’s District Attorney.”

Judith grunted a laugh.  “I wish!” she said.  “Marsh put my son in prison, when he knew perfectly well that he had no real evidence against him at all.  But what does that have to do with his son?  I didn’t even know he had a son.”

“Oh, you knew alright,” Curmett replied.  “In fact, you not only abducted Stephen Marsh, you abducted Nancy Stiller as well, the daughter of Congressman Stiller from New York.”

“New York!  Are you balmy?  Why would I do any of that?  It’s ridiculous.”

“You tell me,” Curmett demanded.

“Tell you what?  Nothing you’re saying, or I guess accusing me of, makes sense!  I haven’t done anything!”

“And I think you’re lying!” Curmett countered.  “I know you’re lying!”

“And I know I’m not!” Judith argued.  “What’s this about anyway?  I…we…haven’t kidnapped anyone.  I wouldn’t even know where to start to do something like that.  Why on earth would we?”

“Revenge!” Curmett said.  “You wanted revenge!”

“Against who?” Judith demanded.  “For what?”

“Against Henry Marsh for locking your son up in prison.”

“Oh!” Judith replied.  “Yeah, I’d love to get a bit of revenge against him for that.  My Josh was innocent!  But what does all these abduction things you’re talking about have to do with that?  Josh is in prison, and what the hell does a New York congressman have to do with any of it?”

“That’s what we want to know,” Curmett told her.

“Then why are you asking me?  I don’t know.  I have no idea about anything you’re talking about.  Oh wait!  I remember that the police came here once and asked me some questions about Josh and his Planetary Eco Alliance people, but I’ve got no connection with them.  Why would I?  That’s Josh’s business.  Talk to him.  You can find him still in prison!”

Curmett was getting confused.  So far, it was sounding like these people knew nothing at all about the abductions.  He decided to move into the more sensitive information.  “Tell me about your system that can extract someone’s soul right out of their body.”  The strange looks he was getting now from both Ben and Judith were not what he wanted to see.

“Do what?” Ben asked.

“Pull someone’s soul out of their body, and store it in…something.”

“Huh?” Judith grunted.  “I was confused before.  Now I’m even more so.  You’re making no sense at all.  In fact, none of this makes sense.”

“I was told you developed a water treatment system.”

“Yes!” Judith replied.  “So far, that’s the only thing you’ve said that I can understand.  We did develop a system for that.  And we believe it’s the best system for producing absolutely pure clean water on the planet.  That’s no secret at all!”

“We’ve made a lot of money off it too,” Ben added.  “That’s no secret either.”

“I don’t care how much money you made.  I want to know how you took two people, pulled their memories and identities, stored them somewhere, and then put them back into someone else!”

Both Ben and Judith looked at him like he was crazy.  “He’s nuts,” Judith said to Ben.  “Absolutely nuts.”

“I think so too,” Ben agreed.

“Where is the water system that I’m told can extract someone’s soul?” Curmett demanded angrily.  I was told you keep it in your basement.”

“Um…” Judith hummed.  “I have the original prototype of our system that we used for developing it in the basement, but that’s all.  And trust me, it doesn’t extract anyone’s soul.  How could it?  Besides, it’s not even put together.”

“I don’t care if it’s put together or not.  We can put it together.  Where is it?”

“Why are you bothering to ask?” Ben said.  “You yourself said it’s in the basement.  That’s where we stuck our prototype for safe keeping.”

“Take them to the basement!” Curmett demanded.  “Let’s see this machine.”

With so many people trooping down to the basement of the house, it took a while.  Especially since Ben and Judith had their hands cuffed behind their backs.  But eventually they were all in the basement standing in front of the huge mass of machinery that was spread out along one of the walls.

“This is it?” Curmett asked.

“That’s the prototype,” Ben told him.  “Of course, our production model is much smaller, but we needed a central pipe that large so we could work in it to get the placement of everything just right.  That turned out to be critical to the process.  Our largest production model has only a six inch central pipe.  It’s much smaller.”

“I’m told that someone named Hector got injured from this machine and was in a coma,” Curmett said.

“Oh!  Indeed he was,” Judith told him.  “Poor Hector was inside the machine when he hit his head on one of the magnetic field generators.  Knocked the poor thing right out, and it most have done something else to him too because he was in a coma for months before he woke up.  Sadly, he decided to leave us after that to take a teaching position, but since he was part of the original production team, he still gets his share of the profits from our sales.”

“We were told that the reason he was in a coma was because your machine here abstracted his very soul!  Now stop playing dumb and tell me, how does it do that?” Curmett demanded menacingly.  “How does it abstract a soul?”

“It doesn’t do that!” Judith yelled back.  “It can’t do that!  It targets a list of molecules that pollute water.  Nothing else.  We’ve got patents on it.  How could you possibly even target someone’s soul?  Look, different molecules behave differently when they’re subjected to intense sonic waves.  Combine targeted magnetic fields with those waves and you can pull those molecules right out of the water.  And it happens fast.  Very fast.  That’s all his machine can do.  It targets molecular particles, nothing more.”

“How could you possibly target someone’s soul?” Ben asked.  “As far as I know, a soul isn’t matter and it isn’t energy.  What you’re proposing that this machine can do, doesn’t even make sense!”

Holfstrom considered that.  “I hate to say it, but he’s right,” he told Curmett.  “Of course, I haven’t studied this machine yet.  I know the physics of the process they’re describing.  It’s advanced, but it would still only target matter, not even energy.  We know nothing at all about what a soul would be.  In fact, what’s been described to me so far from someone you said was drunk, doesn’t even make sense to me.  To transfer someone’s entire identity would take intense computing power and something that would connect directly to the brain.  There’s nothing like that here that I can see.”

“There!” Judith said.  “See!  Even he agrees with us.”

“I don’t care,” Curmett told them.  He turned to the soldiers in the basement.  “I want them both taken to the site, and I want every bit of this machine packed up and sent too, along with anything at all that has to do with it or water treatment.  We’ll let the experts question these two, and I’ll get another team of experts to go through every bit of this machine.  We’ll get our answers.  One way or another!”

 

--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

 

Three weeks later, Nancy was in the basement with Chrissy and Diane.  They were all holding cue sticks and trying to put the pool balls into the pockets.  Mostly unsuccessfully. 

“Can you believe it?” Chrissy said.  “School starts tomorrow, already!”

“Not for me,” Nancy pointed out.

“Well, it does for us,” Diane told her.

“Why aren’t you going?” Chrissy asked.  “Just because you lost your memory?”

“Oh!” Diane exclaimed.  “Did you lose everything you ever learned in school too and have to start all over again?”

“That would be bad!” Chrissy realized.  “Real bad.”

Diane could only agree.

“No,” Nancy told them.  “I’m pretty sure I can remember some…or hopefully most of what I learned in school.  I just don’t remember the school, the teachers, the kids, or anything else about too many things.  And I especially don’t remember anything about me.”

“That’s easy,” Diane said.  “You’re Nancy, remember?  Or did you forget again.”

Nancy laughed.  “No, everybody keeps drilling that fact into my head so often I doubt I’ll ever forget it again.”

“That’s good then!” Chrissy told her.

“And if we have to, we’ll keep drilling it back into your head,” Diane agreed.

“Go right ahead,” Nancy told them.

“I guess we’re going to have Miss Sanderson for a teacher this year,” Chrissy said.

“Unless they got someone else,” Diane suggested.

“I doubt it,” Chrissy replied.  “The seventh graders all said that Miss Sanderson was pretty nice though, so hopefully that should be good.”

“What if you have different teachers?” Nancy asked.  “You could be in different classes.”

“Nancy, you really don’t remember things, do you,” Diane told her.  “There’s only ten of us in our grade.  So only one class.  The whole school is like that.”

“And you’ve got to be pretty rich just to afford to go there,” Chrissy added.

“You do?” Nancy asked.

“It’s a private school.  Remember?” Chrissy said.

“Sorry.  No.  I don’t remember anything about it at all.”

“That’s alright,” Diane said.  “You’re not missing anything.  Just a bunch of stuck-up kids.”

“Like us!” Chrissy shouted teasingly.

“That’s us,” Diane laughed.

They played pool.  They danced around on the dance floor.  Basically, they all had a good time being together before Chrissy and Diane would have to start school again the next day.  Nancy wondered if she was going to miss them, then she remembered that they weren’t moving away to school, they would just be gone during the day.  They could still see each other after school and on weekends.  Hopefully.

But thoughts about Chrissy and Diane haunted Nancy for a few hours more, until in the middle of dinner with the entire family, Nancy finally blurted out, “Mom, Dad, I want to try something that’s probably so stupid you wouldn’t believe it.”

“Stupid?” Wanda asked.  “Why would you want to do something that’s stupid.  That doesn’t make sense.”

“No,” Nancy agreed.  “And neither does this, but I want to do it anyway.  Or at least, try it.”

“What’s that?” Henry asked.

“I want to go to school.”

“School!” Wanda exclaimed.

“You’re joking, right?” Emily asked.

“I guess I should be,” Nancy replied, “but I think I’m serious.”  She looked to both her new mother and father.  “Do you think I could even just take a look around there and see what I might be getting myself into?  I’m not afraid of whatever they’re studying.  More than likely I’ll probably know it all anyway.  Or most of it.  I guess there could be some things they might be doing that I wouldn’t know about, but it’s the beginning of the school year, it can’t be that much.”

“No, there wouldn’t be much,” Wanda admitted, considering her youngest daughter’s proposal.

“Nance!” Emily said.  “They’d eat you alive.  You’re not allowed to let anyone know who you really are inside.  Do you think you can survive living all day with a bunch of seventh graders, most of whom are girls?  Even I know that would be pure hell!  Seventh grade wasn’t that long ago for me.”

“You’ve got a point,” Wanda agreed.

“I know,” Nancy said.  “But Chrissy and Diane said there’s only ten people in their class.”

“All the classes are pretty small,” Emily told her.  “Purposely!  It’s an exclusive private school.”

“So if the classes are all small, I have less to worry about, right?” Nancy countered.

“Don’t bet on it Nance,” Emily replied.  “You’d still be dealing with seventh graders.  And seventh grade girls.  And I used to be one.  I know what it’s like.”

Nancy decided to ignore her sister.  She looked to her mother and father instead.  “I still think I’d like to try,” she told them.  “Or at least let me see the place so I know what everyone’s talking about.”

Wanda looked to her husband.

Henry shook his head.  “Don’t look to me.  She…Stephen, was heading into his senior year at high school.  It’s not the same thing as our Nancy having to go into her senior year, straight out of sixth grade.”

“At least we don’t have that problem,” Wanda agreed.  “So what do you think?”

“I don’t care.  If Nance doesn’t like it, then we pull her out and put her back into the on-line course.  She’d be done with college before she’s old enough to be out of high school.”

Wanda looked to Nancy.  “Are you ready to go back that far in your education?”

“I guess so,” Nancy told her.  “What choice do I have.  My…other mother told me that since I’m stuck like this, I’ve got no choice but to accept it and try to adapt and make the best of it.  Isn’t going to school doing something like that?”

“Yes,” Wanda agreed.  “It would be.  I’ll call the school tomorrow and see if we can at least set up an appointment to talk to them.  With you having no memory of anything at all to do with school or the kids or even yourself, they may not want you there.  They might have objections to dealing with someone who has your kind of problems.”

Nancy knew that her new mother was referring to the amnesia cover story that she had to live with.  “Can you ask them?” she asked.

“Yes,” Wanda agreed.  “In the morning.  In the meantime,” she looked to Emily.  “Can you take a look at her school uniforms?  See if there’s anything in her closet that will still fit her.  We weren’t expecting this.  We didn’t do any back to school shopping for her.”

“Sure Mom.  This should be interesting…to see if she can handle a bunch of seventh graders!  Good luck!” she teased Nancy.

It was the afternoon of the following day before Wanda went up to Nancy’s room.

“Mom!” Nancy exclaimed the moment Wanda walked in.  “Did you talk to them?”

“They said to bring you in and let them decide for themselves if they can handle having someone like you there.  They are concerned about not only your total lack of memory, but that you might have forgotten too much if not all you’re schooling.”

“My schooling is fine!” Nancy told her.

“We know that, but they can’t know it.  In fact, if they decide to let you stay, it might be smart for you to conveniently forget about a lot of stuff that you already know.”

“I know that,” Nancy told her.  “I don’t even plan on getting perfect scores on my tests.

“No!  You better get perfect scores…if you can.  That’s important to your father and me.”

“Okay.  Fine!” Nancy replied.  “So I’m going?”

“Just so you can see the school and so they can evaluate you.  Nothing more,” Wanda told her.

“Good enough,” Nancy agreed.  “At least it’s a start, and if nothing more, I can tell Chrissy and Diane that I tried.”

Wanda wondered how Chrissy and Diane could play such a big part in this.  But at least her daughter had friends.  After how alone and depressed she had been since she had been abducted, this was at least a welcome improvement.  “Do you want to wear your uniform in case they let you stay today?”

“Sure Mom,” Nancy agreed.  “Sounds good.”

Wanda was floored.  The school uniform included a skirt.  Her old Nancy was all girl.  All dresses and skirts.  This new Nancy wasn’t.  She was the exact opposite in so many ways.  Of course, what could be more opposite than a seventeen year old football playing boy?

“Want me to do your hair?”

“Yeah,” Nancy agreed.  “That would be a big help.”

Yes, this was not like her new Nancy at all.  Just what had Chrissy and Diane said to her?  She made a mental note to thank them the next time she saw them.

 

--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

 

Extracted - Chapter 26 – Aliens Explains Everything – Part 2 of 2

 

Extracted

By Karen Singer

 

Chapter 26 – Aliens Explains Everything – Part 2 of 2

 

“How was the drive?” Tom Nolan asked as Ellen got out of her car at the police station.

“Fortunately, not bad,” Ellen told him.  She reached up and planted a kiss on his lips.  “Missed you,” she told him.

Tom kissed her back.  “Missed you too.”

“Okay, business first.  Where to?”

“I guess, Doctor Faucet’s house,” Tom replied.  “Let’s take my car.”

“Good!  After that drive, I could use a break.”

Faucet’s house wasn’t difficult to find, especially since Nolan had spent a good part of his life driving all over Philadelphia.  The two of them went to the front door and Tom knocked.  The door was opened a few moments later.

Chris Faucet immediately recognized both the woman and the man on his doorstep.  It was the same FBI woman and the same cop who had been with her at his office.  “FBI and police?” he asked.

“Special Agent Rosenberg,” Ellen told him.  “And this is Detective Nolan.  We met at your office a while back.”

“I remember,” Faucet told them.  “I didn’t remember your names.  I take it you want to hear about what I discovered?” he asked, slurring his words more than a bit.

“Yes,” Nolan replied.  “May we come in?”

“Of course,” Faucet replied as he moved from the door and led the way into his living room.  “Drink?” he asked as he held up his whiskey glass, despite it being late morning on a Sunday.

“No thanks,” Rosenberg told him.

“We’re working,” Nolan added.

Faucet nodded.  “I’ve been doing a lot of drinking lately.  Far more than I should.”  He took a seat and motioned toward the other seats in the room, but neither Ellen nor Tom sat.  They elected to stand to question him instead.

“I was told that you had further information concerning Stephen Marsh’s abduction,” Nolan told him.  “Can you elaborate?”

Faucet saluted him with his whiskey glass.  “Not too many details about how the abduction was carried out, but I can certainly tell you about what caused the difficulties that those two kids, Stephen and Nancy, are faced with now.”

Ellen shook her head.  “Doctor,” she said.  “We already know they’re very confused.  All mixed up.”

Faucet looked at her like she was crazy.  “Not just mixed up, but they’ve actually become each other.”

“We know…” Ellen started to say.

“And I know why and how it was done!” Faucet interrupted her.

Both Rosenberg and Nolan could only stare at him for a moment.

“Interested?” Faucet asked, then took another sip of his drink.

“Very,” Rosenberg admitted, wondering if she needed to take a seat so she wouldn’t fall over.

Faucet took a large sip of his drink, then said, “Okay.  Before I begin, I need to warn you that I’m going to be mentioning a few subjects that you’re not going to want to consider as being part of it, but trust me, by the time I’m done, you’ll understand it all.  I hope anyway.”

“Go on,” Nolan told him, wishing that he wasn’t so drunk.  “We’re listening.”

“Good!”  Once again Faucet took a large sip of his drink.

“I have a hobby,” he told them.  “One that some people find unusual, but believe me, there’s more interest in it around the entire world than you might think.  And that hobby is hunting ghosts.”  He held up his glass.  “Don’t laugh and don’t scoff!  This is important!”

He paused for yet another sip of whiskey, then said, “I recently got an invitation to join a group of…I guess scientists who I thought were also interested in ghosts.  The thing that impressed me about them was that they’re all PhD level men and woman, and trust me, very smart people.  The only thing is that in our discis…discussions concerning the theoretical aspects of ghosts, they kept using the word souls instead of ghosts or spirits.  But as far as I was concerned, that was nothing more than a matter of sem…antics.  I mean, what are ghosts but the remains of some poor soul who has refused to leave this earth, for some reason or other.  I thought, ghosts, souls…it’s all the same thing.”  He waved his glass around.  “How wrong I was!”

Both Nolan and Rosenberg were beginning to believe this was nothing more than some insane ramblings of a drunk.

“Before me, there was only five people in the group,” Faucet told them.  “But three of them don’t matter.  I’m not even going to bother telling you their names.”

“Who were they?” Rosenberg insisted.

“Nobody worth knowing, except for their brains,” Faucet replied.  “The two people you need to be interested in are Ben…Ben…Benjamin Folley and Judith Rameriz.”

The name Judith Rameriz rang a bell for Nolan.  Rosenberg too.

“Why does that name Rameriz sound familiar,” Rosenberg asked.

Nolan ignored her question.  “Wait a minute,” he told Faucet.  “We interviewed a Judith Ramirez in connection with this already, because the ransom demand was all about her son, Joshua Rameriz.”

“Yes!” Rosenberg exclaimed, remembering that her team was still looking into the Planetary Eco Alliance group that he had been a part of.”

“Joshua Rameriz was one of the founders of the Planetary Eco Alliance group that’s been stirring up trouble all over the world,” Nolan told Faucet.  “When we questioned his mother though, we didn’t find anything interesting about her.”

“But you see, Det…Detec…Mr. Policeman,” Faucet slurred.  “That’s what it’s all about!  Her son!  Marsh stuck him in prison and Judith is convinced he’s innocent, so she and Ben decided to take a bit of revenge out on…somebody Marsh.  The D.A..  The boy’s father.”

“Revenge on Henry Marsh.  Stephen Marsh’s father.  The Philly D.A.”

“Right!  You got it,” Faucet told him before taking another large drink.  He worked his way to his feet.  “I need a…” he burped…refresher,” he finished.

Rosenberg grabbed him, grabbed his glass from his hand, and sat him down.  “I think you‘ve had enough!  More than enough.  “Tell us about Nancy.  Why was she taken?”

“Don’t…uh…remember,” Faucet replied, wanting his glass back.  “But I think it was kind of the same.  Revenge of some sort.  But mostly it was all about Marsh.  So anyway, they took him.  Don’t ask me how, they didn’t say.  Didn’t say about the girl either, so I don’t know.  How about another drink?  You two look like you could use one.”

“No!” Nolan said firmly.  “How could they possibly switch those two around?  It makes no sense.  It’s impossible!”

“Gh…” Faucet burped again.  “Ghosts!” Faucet said.

Rosenberg shook her head.  “Are you trying to tell us that some ghost or something possessed each of those kids?  That’s ridiculous!”

“Not quite,” Faucet told her.  “The process!  The system they built.  The water treatment system.  It was an accident.  And Hector got hurt.”

“Who’s Hector?” Nolan asked.

“What process?” Rosenberg asked.

“I seem to remember,” Nolan said, “when we looked into Judith Rameriz that she was the head of a team that had created some revolutionary water treatment system.  I don’t know beans about it though.  We were interested in the abduction.”

“Their water treatment system.  It works,” Faucet told them.  “A bit too well!”

“Too well?” Rosenberg asked.  “What are you talking about?”

“Years ago,” Faucet said.  “When they were first developing it, something happened to Hector.”

“Who’s Hector?” Nolan demanded.

“One of them.  Or he was.  Not around anymore.”

“You mean he died,” Nolan stated.

“No.  He’s fine.  A professor now I hear at…Temple I think.”

Rosenberg was ready to beat this drunk black and blue.  “What about the process?” she asked, trying desperately to get any kind of useful information.

“It doesn’t just produce clean water, it pulls everything in the world out of it.  Including gold.  But something happened to the prototype and there was an accident that happened to Hector, and he was in a coma for months!”

“A coma,” Rosenberg said.

“For months, until they tried an experiment on him, reversed the process with the machine and it cured him.  Completely.  He woke up.”

The machine cured him,” Nolan said.

Faucet nodded.  “They had no idea what had happened, until one of them suggested the solution as a joke.  Except it wasn’t a joke.  They actually did it.  Something went wrong with the machine and it pulled Hector’s soul right out of his body and captured it in one of the machine’s holding thingys.  And it stayed there for months until they put it back…proving not just the existence of human souls, but it proved they had a process that could extract them, and store them.  It’s the biggest breakup…I mean breakthrough in human technology!”

Rosenberg wasn’t so sure about that, but if the process did do that, then it was certainly momentous.  That is, if it really happened.  This drunk in front of her wasn’t exactly making a whole lot of sense.

Nolan was trying to put it all together.  “So you’re saying that something went wrong with the water treatment system they were developing, and Hector somehow went into a coma because of it when the machine pulled his soul from his body.  Then months later, they reversed the process with the machine and put his soul back into his body, and it cured him.”

“Yes.  Right!” Faucet said, pointing his drunken finger at him.  “You got it!  Good.  Judith Rameriz, and Ben Folley.  They did it together.  Wanted revenge against the D.A.  Cooked the whole thing up.”

“And where is this machine now?” Rosenberg asked.  “Rameriz…zez…house.  In her basement.  You need a drink!” Faucet stated.  “Let me get you one.”

They let him get up and head for his bottles of alcohol.  “What do you want to do?” Nolan asked.  “It sounds pretty fishy to me, but at the same time, Judith Rameriz was one of the people we looked into because of that ransom demand.”

Rosenberg considered it.  “Like it or not, I don’t think we’ve got a choice.  I’m going to pass this up my chain.  Before we go any further, let’s see what they think about this information.  On the one hand, I’d say we go break down the door of this Judith Rameriz and demand an answer, but on the other hand, not only is he sloshing drunk, but everything he said sounds completely bonkers.”

“True,” Nolan agreed.  “I say, pass it on and then let’s get some lunch.”

“Great idea,” Rosenberg agreed.  “She turned to Faucet who was sitting back in his chair, a fresh glass of whiskey in his hand.  “You!” she said.  “Don’t leave town!”

Faucet held up his glass.  “I’m not going anywhere,” he said.

“And dry out!” Nolan ordered.  “When we come back, we better find you completely sober!”

Faucet held up his glass to them, chuckled, then took a large sip.  “Ah…” he sighed before taking yet another drink.

“At the rate he’s going, he’ll probably pass out soon,” Rosenberg realized.  “Come on.  Let’s get out of here.  I’ve got a phone call to make.”

Rosenberg talked on her cellphone with her boss while Tom drove them to a restaurant.  Ellen was done talking by the time they got there.  She had relayed everything she could remember, especially including how drunk Faucet was.  Then the two of them went into the restaurant, intent on forgetting about Faucet and abductions and water treatment systems for a while.  Thirty minutes later though, her cellphone rang.  “Hello?”

Agent Rosenberg?” the man on the other end said.

“That’s me,” Rosenberg confirmed.

“This is Curmett, the National Security Advisor.”

Rosemberg certainly remembered him.  Not only had they met up in the Catskills, but he had been in her office just a few days ago giving her what seemed like an ultimatum over not letting anyone know what actually happened to those two kids.  “What can I do for you sir?” she asked.

“Are you still in Philadelphia?” Curmett asked.

“Still here,” she confirmed.

“Good!  Stay there.  Find a hotel for a few days, but whatever you do, don’t go near that Doctor Rameriz or her friend Benjamin Folley.  We’re sending a special ops team in to deal with them.  If they have the technology to do what they did, then there’s no telling what other things they may have set up to protect their machine.”

Rosenberg had gotten the impression from Faucet that the thing was just sitting in Rameriz’s basement, but she didn’t bother telling Curmett that.  The man probably just wanted to make a big show of doing something, even if in the end it turned out to be nothing at all.

“No problem staying for a few days,” she told him as she looked up at Tom.  “But what do you want me to do?”

“Nothing.  Nothing at all.  We just need you to stay in the area in case we need you for something.  That all.  And if you can, try to make sure that cop doesn’t go near them either.”

Rosenberg, still looking at Tom replied, “I don’t think I’ll have any problem at all doing that.  Trust me, I’ll keep my eye on him.”

“Excellent!” Curmett told him.  Then her phone line went dead.  She stared for a moment at it before putting it back in her purse.

“What do we do?” Nolan asked.

“He wants me to stick around for a few days and make sure neither of us goes near the case.  He’s sending some kind of special ops group to handle it instead.”

“More power to him,” Nolan said.

“Yeah.  In the meantime, I’m going to need a place to stay for a few days.”

“There’s room in my bed,” Tom told her.

“And where’s your bed?” she asked playfully.

“In my bedroom.”

“And where’s your bedroom?”

“In my apartment.

“And where’s your apartment?”

“I thought you’d never ask.”

Extracted - Chapter 26 – Aliens Explains Everything – Part 1 of 2

 

Extracted

By Karen Singer

 

Chapter 26 – Aliens Explains Everything – Part 1 of 2

 

Wanda was used to throwing elaborate dinners.  This one didn’t need to be elaborate, but somehow she still couldn’t imagine it being anything but formal.  She wanted it to be formal.  Memorable.  Because this was the first time that both families were alone together.  And it was in her house.

She had her cook fix one of her favorite meals, knowing from experience that almost everyone loved it.  She also made sure that both Nancy and Emily were dressed extra nicely.  Because of the Nancy-Stephen deal, Wanda considered this was really two separate families that were now combined into one family.  It was something stronger and more binding than the way any wedding could combine families.  She wanted everyone to think of it the way she did.  They were now all one family.

As they sat eating together, the conversation was light and polite.  Comfortable.  Almost like they were one family.  Something that Wanda was appreciating.

“I just can’t get over…Nancy there,” Agatha said, briefly pointing her fork at the young girl at the table.  “Taking ballet lessons.  And I am so happy that some of her friends have been around to try and help her out too.  I really wish we could have gotten some of Stephen’s old friends to help take his mind off of things, but they’ve all been away at football camp.  And his girlfriend, well, let’s just say that was a disaster that I’m glad happened.  Once she discovered that Stephen really didn’t know her at all anymore, she practically ran from the house.”

“Melody?” Nancy asked, horrified to hear that.

“Yes dear,” Agatha told her.  But when she saw the shocked look in Nancy’s face she said, “Don’t look so disappointed.  What would you do with her now anyway?”

Nancy just shook her head.  “She was fun,” she replied.

“Maybe too much fun!”

Nancy said nothing.

Wanda, not wanting her magic mood diminished in any way, felt a change of subject was needed to get things back to the congenial keel where they had been.  “Stephen, she said.  “I just can’t get over you helping out in your father’s office.  That sounds like important work you’re doing.”

“Filing isn’t,” Stephen countered.  “Dad asked me to come in to do some filing, but I wind up doing very little.”

“What you’re doing instead is far more important,” Henry told him.  “And you know that everyone there, especially me, appreciates your help.”

“Thanks Dad,” Stephen said, blushing slightly.  “The truth is, I really like it.  It’s interesting.  I’m thinking that maybe someday I might become a lawyer.”

“Son, nothing would make me happier!” Henry told him.

“Me either,” Mike agreed.  “It’s a great idea Steve.  A great goal.  And if you need anything, I’ll help you all I can.”

“Thanks…Dad,” Stephen replied.  He shook his head.  “This is so weird.  I’ve got two dads at this table and two moms.  I don’t want to offend any of you by calling the other one dad or mom.  It’s all…weird.”

“We know Steve,” Agatha assured him.  “We all do.”

“I’m just trying to figure out my new life,” Steve told them.  “Being a lawyer is the first semi-interesting thing I’ve thought of, but that’s a future thing.  Right now, I’m just trying to figure myself out and not screw up too much.  I don’t want any of you to get angry at me.  I’ve got enough problems.”

“Steve, we’re not angry at you,” Henry said.  He looked around the table.  “Anyone feel differently?”

“Nope!” Mike agreed.  “I’m proud of him.”

“I don’t think you all get it,” Nancy said, speaking up.  “I have two sets of parents now that I want to be proud of me.  Two!  It’s like…twice the pressure.”

“Yeah,” Stephen agreed.  “That’s how I feel too.  I want all of you to be proud.”

“It’s just that…” Nancy continued.  “It’s hard!  I’m stuck in this new life that I don’t understand, and Steve is stuck in his life that he doesn’t understand, and it’s driving both of us crazy.  And most of the time I just think that the two of us are both the unluckiest, most cursed people in the world!”

Wanda looked at both her new daughter, Nancy, and her old daughter, Stephen, who was somewhere inside that older boy’s body.  “Maybe you should both try looking at things a bit differently,” she suggested.

“What do you mean?” Stephen asked.

“Instead of unlucky, you both might be the luckiest people on earth.”

“Us?” Nancy exclaimed.  “You’re kidding, right?”

“No.  Not at all.  You each have two mothers and two fathers who love you.”

“And a sister who loves you too,” Emily added.  “Both of you!”

 

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Detective Thomas Nolan got the news that someone had phoned in, claiming to have information on the Marsh abduction.  He doubted that very much.  It either had to be someone who knew nothing at all and just wanted some attention, or someone who knew something that they already knew, or the most likely thing, someone who had some kind of theory like…aliens!  The only problem was that Stephen Marsh being abducted by aliens might really explain everything!  He didn’t dare mention that to either Ellen Rosenberg or to that Mr. Curmett from the government.  Especially after Curmett had come at him a few days ago threatening to bring the world down on him if he let out any of what they thought really happened to those kids.

Which meant, should he check the tip out, or not?

Thoughts of Ellen Rosenberg crossed his mind.  Nobody knew it, but the two of them had met secretly at a hotel in New Jersey for dinner and romancing.  Twice!  They were some of the most satisfying evenings Nolan could remember.  But now the question was, should he call her and let her know about this dubious tip?  In the end, it was her case though.  He guessed it was only right that she should know about it.  Plus, he wouldn’t mind talking to her again anyway.  Something told him that she felt the same.

Two button pushes to his cellphone later, and he heard her number ringing.

“Tom!” Ellen answered.  “Hi.”

“Hey Ellen,” Tom replied.  “How’s it going?”

“Same ol’.  You know.”

“Yeah.  Listen, Ellen.  Somebody called into the police here in Philadelphia saying they had information about the Stephen Marsh abduction, but somehow, I doubt that very much.”

“Why?”

“Because even with all our looking, we still haven’t found anything at all.”

“Who phoned it in?”

“I don’t know.  I didn’t get any details other than to call a desk sergeant I never heard of.”

“I just want to know if you’re interested enough to come down and check it out with me, or do you want me to go it alone?”

“Tom, tomorrow is Sunday and I’m off.  You know we were talking about getting together anyway, so why don’t I drive down and we can see if there’s anything to worry about, and then you can show me around Philadelphia.”

“Ellen, that sounds like the best idea I’ve heard in years.  Love to.  See you tomorrow, and in the meantime, let me call this sergeant back and get the information.”

“See you tomorrow Tom.  Bye,” Ellen told him.

Nolan dialed the number for the desk sergeant who had phoned him.  As the sergeant began relaying the information, Nolan suddenly became a lot more interested.  “Stop!” he told the sergeant.  “Did you say Faucet?  Doctor Faucet?”

“He said Christopher Faucet,” the sergeant replied.  “Do you know him?”

“Not exactly, but I’ve met him,” Nolan admitted.  “But something tells me we’re about to get much better acquainted.  Do you have his home address?”

“Home and office.”

“I know where his office is.  Text me his home address.  What did he say about the abduction?”

“He said he knows what happened to a kid named Stephen Marsh and some girl named Nancy.  And if you want to talk to him about it then you should get in touch.  That’s it.”

“Thanks!” Nolan told him.  He ended the call.  He knew that Faucet had briefly been the psychiatrist for Stephen Marsh, but he wasn’t supposed to be working with him anymore.  Did Curmett do anything to get him back to working with Stephen again?  Or was this something else?

He grabbed his phone again and called Ellen back.  “Ellen,” he said as soon as she had answered.  “You’ll never believe who this tip is coming from.”

“Who?”

“Doctor Faucet.  Stephen Marsh’s one time psychiatrist.”

“Faucet!” Ellen exclaimed.  “I wasn’t exactly impressed with the man the one time I met him.”

“Neither was I.”

“What did he have to say?”

“Just that if we’re interested, then we should contact him.  I’ve got his home address.”

“Tom,” Ellen said.  “I’ll see you in the morning, and I hope I get a chance for us to see at least some of Philadelphia together, other than Faucet’s house.”

“Tomorrow!” Tom agreed.

 

--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

 

The following morning, the entire Stiller family was outside waving goodbye to the Marsh family.  Before leaving, Agatha had promised that next month they’d do it again, this time at her house.  Wanda was already looking forward to that.  Somehow, she felt like she had just made a new friend in Agatha.  But as she had continually thought yesterday, the two families had no choice now but to consider themselves as one.

As the Marsh family drove out of sight, they all turned and trooped back into the house.  Emily came up next to her and Wanda put her arm around the shoulder of her oldest daughter.  “Mom?” Emily said softly as they went inside.

“Yes?”

“What are you going to do about Nancy?”

“What do you mean?”

“You know what I mean.  Nancy isn’t our Nancy.  She’s someone else.  She’s Stephen.”

“I’m more than aware dear,” Wanda told her with some frustration over the issue.

“But…she’s not really my sister.  She’s not really your daughter either.”

Wanda could have easily pointed out that the body that Naney was using was her daughter, but she also knew that it wasn’t what her older daughter was talking about.  “Emily,” she said, “think of it this way.  When you adopt a child, you commit to loving that child with all your heart and all your strength.  This is kind of like adopting, only more so since I actually gave birth to that child.  So that’s just what I’m going to do.  I’m going to love her as strongly as can.  And I already know that Agatha in Philadelphia is going to do the same with Stephen, our Nancy.  Nancy and Stephen both are going to get all the love and support we can give.  And Emily, I really hope you can do the same.”

 

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