Chapter 28

It took me awhile to regain my senses and my equilibrium. Coming back from certain death takes a little getting used to. Just seeing Connie alive again had helped to stem any remorse or regret over what I had attempted to do. I assumed right away, that the voice had found some way to escape from my attempt to kill him. I concluded that it had to have been him that had brought us to this place we were now in. I expected to be harshly dealt with for what I'd attempted. I was sorry that it hadn't worked, and yet, glad that I'd at least made the attempt. I would do my best to continue trying to find a way to destroy it, for as long as it let me live. I could only hope that my best would prove adequate in the end. I wasn't that optimistic about it though.

As I started feeling more awake, I realized that I should ask Connie if she knew anything about where we were, or how we came to be there. As far as I knew, she had never been in any way aware of anything having to do with the voice.

"How long have you been awake?"

"I'm not sure, maybe for an hour. I woke up alone, in a different room, and then my wall slid open, and I saw you here. As soon as I came here to see if you were all right, the wall closed back up. Where are we?"

"I'm not sure. There was a problem at the hotel. What do you remember?"

"The last thing I remember was you saying: 'Connie, I love you with all my heart, please let me go'. I remember that I let go of you, but that's all I can remember, until I woke up an hour ago. I don't remember any problem at the hotel, Jimmy, why don't I remember it?"

"I think that we're in trouble, maybe big trouble. I tried to do something, but I'm afraid it didn't work out very well."

Just then, I heard a voice speak in my head. It startled me badly. I had gotten used to hearing the voice, even to the point where it became a welcome presence in my head. This was a different voice that I was hearing now. I wasn't sure of why it was different, only that it was.

Good, you are both awake now. We tried to speak with the female, but she hasn't been prepared to communicate with us. Since you have been prepared, we will communicate through you. Do not be troubled with fear of retribution from the guardian that was assigned to your world, that entity no longer exists. We have reviewed all that transpired, from first contact, until you terminated all connection with the entity that you knew as the voice.

<Can you hear me?>

Of course, you project quite well. Is there something that you wish to communicate to us?

<I didn't want to do that to him, the entity, but he was doing some things, bad things, and using us, without our consent to aid him in those things.>

What bad things? Please be specific.

<He said that he was going to take control of our planet, and a thousand other worlds besides, and then he admitted that he had stolen some resources from other entities.>

Yes, we have recovered most of what had been stolen, and have replaced what we could not recover. In the entire history of the guardianship, such things have been known to happen occasionally. We always try to return everything to the way that it was before the trouble got started. Which now brings us to the two of you. We are divided as to what we should do with you.

<Can't you just return us to our hotel room, and let us resume our lives from that point?>

I'm afraid not. You see, our policy demands that we return you to where you were, when you were, and to what you were, before first contact with the guardian. There are some of us that believe that this would be unfair to you, as well as ungrateful on our part, considering the selfless sacrifice that you performed on our behalf to restore the guardianship, and to prevent further injury to other worlds. Were we to follow standard policy in this case, we'd be returning you to a certain near term death given your health issues at first contact. Because of our belief, you have been granted an exception. We decided to wait until you were recovered and awake, before returning the female to her time of first contact. We did this in order to allow you to bid her farewell, which we understand is your custom.

<The voice told me that Connie, the female, was in worse circumstances than I was, when he first contacted her.>

That might be true, but it still remains our policy, and she was not granted any exceptions.

<That must be wrong. It was her body that the voice was hiding in when I terminated him. You can't just send her back without any hope. That isn't fair either.>

She will not suffer. At her return point, she will be in an irreversible coma, and has less than one of your week's left to live. For all practical purposes, her life was already over when she was contacted.

<If that is your criteria, then my life was over as well. If your policy allows an exception for me, it should allow the same for her.>

I am now somewhat better able to understand why your guardian found you difficult to interact with. What is it that you would have me do for her?

<Why not just leave her with me, wherever or whenever you decide to drop me off? It can't be that much more of a burden for you to do it for two instead of for one.>

Excuse me while we discuss this amongst ourselves. I will be in communication with you again shortly. There was only about a one second pause. All right, sorry for that delay, but it was difficult for us to reach any agreement on your request. It has been agreed that we will make exceptions for both you and the female. There are, however, restrictions and conditions that you will both have to agree to before we proceed further.

<What restrictions and conditions?>

You will both be sterilized, and your memories will be erased. You will be returned to a time and location of our choosing. Do you agree to these conditions?

<No.>

No? Please elaborate. What is it in our decision that you can possibly find objectionable?

<All of it. I don't wish to be sterilized, or to have my memory erased either. I think we should also have some say in the time and the place where you're going to drop us.>

Excuse me again, please. This time, the voice didn't return for twenty five minutes. We have reached an agreement on the terms of your exception. Do you wish for me to tell you what we've agreed on?

<Certainly.>

We have decided to allow you to pick your own preferred time and place, to not be sterilized or to have your memories erased. Once you have made your choice of time and place, we will present you with a switch containing three buttons. One button will give you your choice, another button will give you our choice, and the last button will return both of you to the point of first contact, and to the conditions that you were both in at that time.You will then get to decide which of the buttons to press, and will have to accept whichever fate you've selected.

<But that means that two out of the three choices will be things that I already said that I don't want. Why don't you pick one, and I'll pick one, and then we'll flip a coin for it?>

Excuse me again. The voice was gone for slightly less than an hour this time. You are rapidly losing your support for being granted any exception, human. I warn you right now, that I will not go back again to advocate or argue for any future requests on your behalf. In all of the four million year history of the guardianship, you now hold the shameful distinction for being the first entity to cause guardian members to resort to base name calling and incendiary comments within these hallowed chambers of decision. Listen to me closely, for this is the final decision of the guardians. The two of you will be returned to the room where we first found you. You will not be sterilized, and your memories will be left intact. That is our final decision, there can be no appeal.

<That's exactly what I was asking you for in the first place. So, now that we've worked that all out, there's only this one other request that I forgot to mention to you. It will only take me a minute to tell you about it, because it's the one good thing about that other voice that I think you should continue doing. He used to have me distribute money for him to these worthy causes, and I think this did any number of people a world of good. I liked helping him do that, it made me feel like I was contributing. I could do it myself now though, if only I had some resources. I was wondering, if it wouldn't be too much trouble, if you could go back and mention that to them for me? See if they could maybe let me have access to some seed money. A million dollars should do very nicely.>

May the worms of Smyrthalin eat your intestines! didn't I already state to you that I wouldn't go back on your behalf? Two hours passed by slowly. I sat there next to Connie, idly rubbing a breast and wondering how appropriate it would be for me to try to knock off a little quickie while we waited. I would have just been to settle my frazzled nerves. I finally decided against it, and just hoped that it wouldn't be too late when we were finally returned to our hotel room. You have your million dollars, cursed dwarf of Jiklar, but only on condition that you speak not another word to me. Goodbye!

The next thing I knew, Connie and I were laying on that big hotel bed together. Connie appeared to be sleeping. I looked over on the night stand and saw many bundles of hundred dollar bills. I didn't count it, I trusted the guardians.

<Can anybody hear me?>

Speak.

<Hey, aren't you the same guy from the other place?>

Yes, and thanks to you, I was just given this task. After all my faithful service to the guardianship, I'm now reduced to being the guardian of this backward world, consigned here to take the place of the guardian that you terminated. I never thought that I'd envy that entity, but now, I do. It was my punishment, as I was assigned the full blame for causing our chamber of decisions to be turned into nothing more than a fishmonger's market. I will henceforth be your liaison to the guardianship.

<What should I call you?>

Don't call me.

<No, really.>

Really.

<It's going to be hard for me to be friends with you, if you're going to act like that.>

I will just have to suffer that additional burden then.

I woke Connie up and we made love quickly, and then jumped back into the shower for a rinse. After we were done in the shower, we got dressed and checked out of the hotel just before eleven o'clock. I carried my money in a valet bag that was left for people to place their dirty laundry in. I got Connie home before twelve, and then went home myself. It had been an interesting day, and a full one. I got into bed and fell right to sleep. The last thing that I thought of was the million dollars that I had left sitting in the trunk of my car, but I planned on putting it to good use very soon.

<Can you help me with something?>

What now?

<I need you to alter my mother so that she will open an account for me and make some investments in my name.>

What kind of investments?

<Land purchases, stocks, a few simple things like that.>

You said that you wanted that money for charity.

<That's right, I did. Haven't you ever heard that charity begins at home? The best way for me to have money to spread around to worthy causes is for me to put that money to work, and make even more money with it. I'm a little hampered right now because I'm too young, but I don't want to let that money sit idle until I'm twenty one. I should be able to at least triple it before then, and still give more than a million away to charities besides.>

I will do it human, because it makes good sense, and because, I've been told to cooperate better with you. There is something else that I've been told to make you aware of. Because you requested that you and your female not be sterilized, the chamber of decisions has allowed her pregnancy to proceed. You will be the father of triplets in another nine months.

<First, stop calling me human, my name is Jimmy. Second, you need to terminate that pregnancy immediately. That sperm contained the other voice's seed, not mine. I'm too young to be a father.>

The pregnancy will continue, it is your genetic material only that entered her egg. You too have made enemies inside the chambers of decision, and I am prohibited from appealing on your behalf for the next full year. I think that I'd prefer to call you nothing, if you don't like being referred to as human, but, I'll leave that choice up to you.

<So, it's going to be like that, then? Go ahead and call me whatever you want to, it doesn't really matter much to me. Since you're the only voice in my head, I don't think I'll get too confused by it. I think I'll just call you Hal from now on.>

Your mother is conditioned to follow your direction with investments. Is there anything further?

<Actually, yes, there is. The other entity had given me certain enhancements, I assume that they are all still in place? I've already checked my dick, and it's still enhanced, so I'm assuming the rest works too.>

You are as we found you in that room, with the only regrettable exceptions being that we repaired your damaged neck and throat, and then returned you to life.

<You know something Hal, it doesn't have to be this way. It really doesn't. I'd prefer that we got along together. There might be occasions when I can act to assist you in things, make your job easier or something. You have only to ask. I pride myself on being easy to get along with.>

It is a false pride, be assured of that.

<If we can't be friends then, do we have to be enemies?>

We aren't enemies. I am a guardian, and you, you are a piece of excrement secreted from the burning cloaca of a Nikhator lamphat.

<Well, I never did get a chance to thank you for advocating for Connie and I back there. I appreciated it though, so thank you.>

Is there anything else?

<Yes, the other guardian used to sing me lullabies at night, so that I could fall asleep.> I woke up the next morning refreshed and alert. I went downstairs to speak with my mother about me putting in some offers on some land that I wanted to purchase. In the time I'd been in California, I had scouted the area, trying to remember where things were in 2006 compared to what was here in 1958. I had located a bunch of small acreage that would be good commercial sites in the future. I wanted to buy them now while they were still very cheap. I was going to have my mother buy them in my name.

I didn't remember too much about the stock market from my earlier time, but there were a few company names that I remembered that had done well over the years. I was going to start accumulating a small portfolio now, and then later, I'd try to add to it as new companies went public, Companies that I knew had been successful the other time through.

Whatever I suggested to my mother, she just agreed with me about it. I gave her four thousand dollars to use when she went to open up a new account on Monday. I would add to it every week or so, until I had enough money built up to fund a nice sized stock brokerage account.

I drove over to Connie's, after first calling her and telling her that I needed to speak with her. I went to her door, and she opened it right away, inviting me inside. I got the chance to meet both of her parents then, although we didn't say much to each other because they were both in a big hurry to get themselves ready for church.

I found out that Connie and her family were having some strife about Connie having chosen to discontinue her church attendance. This problem had been going on for the past two years, and usually only came to any harsh words being said on Sunday mornings. I got Connie settled down, and then took her with me, so that her folks could finish getting ready for church.

"I don't know why they don't just give up about me going with them. Every week they ask me, and every week, I tell them that I'm never going to church again."

"They love you, and want what they think is best for you."

"I love them too, but I don't try to make stay home from church. They should give me the same respect for my beliefs."