Chapter 44

So, I’d like to thank both of my editors. They have put up with all the stuff I send them. Their help is what brings my weirdness under control so it makes sense. I don’t remember what their usernames are here, and I’m not going to use their real names. You guys know who you are, thanks for all your help. If there are any mistakes when I upload new chapters, know they did all that they could and I jacked it up in the end. Also, I’d like to thank all of you that read the stuff that swirls around in my head. While I write for myself, I am glad that I can bring others joy by them reading what I write.

Waking up, I hoped that last night had been a dream, but I knew deep down it wasn’t. I had no desire to do anything, but I had to go to work. There was nobody up as I left, so I was able to avoid the issue at home.

Mr. Pope was watching as I punched in a minute before I was scheduled to start. Going into the warehouse, I started to finish unloading the trailer from yesterday. What should have taken an hour maybe two, took almost 4 hours. The truck driver arrived and had to wait about 45 minutes for me to finish. I really didn’t want to be there; shit was going through my mind at a 1000 miles-a-minute.

Why the hell did she do it? Did I really want to know why? I knew there was no coming back from what happened.

All kinds of stuff was going through my mind when a thought popped through my mind. Deep from the back of my mind came the thought that maybe sharing Ellie with other guys wouldn’t be that bad and might make things better. Where the fuck did that come from? That’s not my usual thought process.

Something fucky was going on. I had been lost in my head the whole day and that was the oddest thing that could have popped up. Maybe it was something residual from when my brain was “rewired”, a so called “ghost in the machine”.

I had been helping customers with their orders and restocking stuff, though with all the introspection and weird stuff going on through my head the day went fairly quickly.

When my day ended, I was glad and waited by the office to pick up my check. Mr. Pope saw me and waved me into the office. I waited until he was done with the paperwork on his desk.

“I’ll be with you in a second. Close the door and sit down.”

As I was sitting down, he shuffled through some paperwork. Closing the folder, he sat and stared at me for a moment.

“What the hell was going on with you today? You were like a damn zombie out there. Even the regulars were worried and asking if you were OK.”

“Nothing is wrong.”

“You’re not a really good liar. So again, what’s going on with you.”

“Personal issues, I’ll be okay.”

“What happened? I can see it’s bothering you and effecting you a lot as I could see you stiffen up when you just mentioned personal problems. So, just spit it out, it’ll help, trust me.”

What the hell? I explained everything that happened, leaving out certain necessary elements, while he paid attention the whole time. I finished and felt drained as my shoulders slumped. He took a moment.

“I know it’s raw and hurts like fucking hell. It’ll be fine, though probably better than fine. It’s better you find out now rather than later when you’ve invested a lot more of yourself emotionally.”

I knew he was right, but I didn’t really know how to process it. We both sat there for a few minutes before Mr. Pope started laughing. I guess I had a scowl on my face.

“Don’t sit there getting mad. I’m not laughing at you but was just thinking it’s funny that a year from now your mildly retarded ass will probably be swimming in chicks willing to drop their panties for you.”

“What the hell makes you think that?”

“Well, once all the chicks get a look at your ugly ass in Marine Corps dress blues, you’ll be able to hear the panties hit the floor, and their eggs dropping. You’ll cut a very dashing figure, a Marine poster boy.”

I chuckled at that. Mr. Pope was an idiot, but it did snap me out of my funk for a bit. He then took a serious tone with me.

“There was something that I wanted to talk to you about.”

There wasn’t anything that I could think of that I needed to be worried about. Work was good, and I thought I was doing a pretty good job.

“So, what did I do that I’m not aware of?”

“Nothing, you’ve actually been doing a great job. Hell, better than most of the nephews, I’ve hired past summers. I have already thanked the twins for sending you my way.”

Well, it was nice to get such a glowing job review. I was wondering where this was going.

“So, what I wanted to talk to you about, is that a bunch of the farmers, large and small, have mentioned something to me. They said that since you started working here, things have been going a lot smoother with their orders and they wanted to start tipping like the regular customers do. This has been going on for a week or so. They just started leaving money for you yesterday with their weekly bills. So along with your check, I owe you this.”

He handed me an envelope, and I kept from checking it before I left. We chatted for a few more minutes, then I left and went home.

Sitting at the desk in my bedroom, I finally opened up the envelope. My check was what I expected it to be, however the $75 was a shock. That money went into my stash, as I figured Mom would pull the you’re an adult so you get to pay for your school clothes yourself.

Out of nowhere, the thought came that I probably would have been happy to share it with Ellie. I couldn’t shake that thought or where it was coming from.

I started to have a headache that started from the base of my skull where the spine connected. Maybe I needed to get something to eat.

Going downstairs, I found some leftover chicken legs and thighs. While eating I came to the realization that I needed to go get checked for an STD; no clue what the manipulative bitch and the idiot may have given me. After eating I took some ibuprofen and went to lay down.

It seemed OK for a while but as started to nod off, the headache started to get worse.

I was suddenly wide awake. It felt like my head was in a vise and being cranked on. Curling into the fetal position, I glanced at the alarm clock. It was 3:30 in the fucking morning!

Staring at the clock I wished the fucking pain would stop. The pain suddenly started increasing. Focusing back on the clock, 5 minutes went by and the pain kept increasing. Looking at the clock again, 10 minutes had past, and my head felt like it was going to split open. The pain got so bad that I passed out.

Coming to, I sat up and looking around realized that I was on a couch in a cheap looking hotel room. It was like deja vu, it had to be the damn Agen again. So somehow, I died from whatever was causing the pain in my head.

The phone next to the couch rang, I picked up the handset and didn’t give them a chance.

“So, what the fuck are you assholes fucking around with now? I thought I was done with y’all?”

“Mr. Badzinski, if you’ll please calm down someone will be there momentarily to explain everything to you.”

“Y’all motherfuckers better hurry the fuck up.” I didn’t want to hear any more platitudes, so I slammed the handset down.

If I was back in my head then I knew what I wanted. Walking over to the fridge, fuck yeah! A six pack of Okocim (Polish beer) and Zubrowka (Polish bison grass vodka). I cracked a beer and put a couple shots of vodka in a rocks glass.

If I had to deal with this shit again, I was going to at least have a buzz.

Halfway through the vodka, I cracked another beer. Looking up there was one of the blue bastards standing by the couch. I knew they had something to do with my head hurting. This one kind of looked like Wimpy from the Popeye cartoons, though dull blue with white hair.

“Mr. Badzinski, I’m Inoid.”

“Well, let’s get this shit over with. I thought that I was done dealing with you guys, not that I don’t appreciate what you’ve done for me.”

He looked at me; there was apprehension on his face. Something was going on.

“Why am I here? Did I die again?”

“No, you didn’t die. I’m pretty sure you’re not going to like the reason why.”

“Only one way to find out, so let’s hear it.” He was right, I was more than unpleased.

It was around 500BC when they arrived on Earth. The Agen were able to track the people when they were sent back, and Inoid and his department on the ship were tasked with tracking the returnees.

It appears he took his job a little too seriously, and went way overboard. He had tasked one of their cloaked surveillance drones to follow me around 24/7, like he’d done with all returnees with no authorization. He came across as nothing but a down and dirty voyeur.

He then apologized for the pain he caused me.

“What the fuck are you talking about?”

“Well, uh, I kind of caused the head pain you were having.”

“You better explain yourself right fucking now.” This motherfucker had a lot of fucking nerve. I swear, if I could, I’d beat the fuck out of this arrogant fucker.

“You know we can read minds?”

“Yeah, so you know that I’m more than willing to follow through with the thoughts that are running through my mind. So, what the fuck did you do?”

“Well, when you found your love interest with someone else, I figured that you’d be happier with the ability to accept it. I also figured it would be scientifically interesting to see where the idea I placed in your mind went.”

“You fucking dumb piece of shit! What gives you the right to mess with my head without my permission? The original stuff was with my permission. I really wish that I could wrap my hands around your throat and squeeze.”

Inoid took a step back even though I made no move towards him. He then explained that though he pushed the idea into my mind, it didn’t work the way he thought it would.

It seems that the original changes had become so ingrained, that my brain saw this new idea as something foreign and was fighting it. My immune system had viewed it as attacking my brain and took action. The fight of the new idea trying to ingrain itself into my brain, and my brain trying to repel it was what caused the pain.

While apologizing, it slipped out that he and couple other guys in his department occasionally did this kind of thing on a mass scale to see if they could influence society. From the way he described it, I got the feeling that the other Agen had no clue and would be super pissed about it; him and his group were some weird fuckers.

“Well, you need to fix my head. I’m extremely pissed off. You pull this shit again and I’ll commit suicide. I don’t think that whoever is in charge would like that and would be very unhappy with you. Obviously, I’ll know that you’re doing it ‘cause I’ll have the same head pain.”