Chapter 23

Earth time: Monday, 3:38 PM, November 29, 2010 Mountain Standard Time (51 minutes before sunset)

Aina time: 7:27 PM, day 47 of 1408 H.E. (16 minutes past sunset)

Isabelle won the flip and started as White. I gulped when she offered me the King's Gambit by pushing P-KB4 on her second move. The game was on its way to some major league fireworks.

A'moth popped into existence just as I was accepting the Gambit. "Ah, you'll have to wait on that! We have an arriving train to catch, the 3:40 at Cheyenne. Please bear with me, I'll explain shortly. Gary, I'm going to jump you into a restroom. Just pick up your bags and meet Isabelle and me outside." A'moth took two random pieces of my luggage and disappeared. Two seconds later she was back hugging me. A second later I was standing in a deserted restroom. My two bags were at my feet. I shrugged and picked them up and walked out.

There was a small crowd of people descending from a train platform, several of them heading to the restroom I had just exited. A'moth had timed this pretty close.

It was a typical Amtrak station. There was a voice over a speaker system announcing that Train-8205 had now arrived from Denver. Isabelle and A'moth walked out of a women's restroom a short distance away, and we all casually carried our bags to a nearby long-term parking lot and a waiting car.

A'moth drove. We were soon heading east on I80, the setting sun to our backs. Isabelle had her face pressed to the window, gazing at all the new scenery. The car was a recent model, a 2009 Ford. Nothing flashy though, a simple sedan...

A'moth finally spoke. "Gary, this car is registered in both our names. Our new names I should say. We're married, Isabelle... Oops! Sarah is our daughter... Open the glove compartment... and say goodbye to your old life."

I pulled out some envelopes. I felt like Mr. Phelps on Mission Impossible. There was a Wyoming driver's ID in there with my picture and new name and signature on it, social- security cards, notarized birth certificates and marriage license, a joint First National Bank savings book showing $23,000... I was two months younger, my daughter was eight months older. My ID was showing an address on Butler Avenue at Pine Bluffs. "My gosh A'moth! This all looks so real!"

"Don't call me that! My name is Lisa! And you ID is real, completely real. Your driver's ID is completely real. So is your new SSN. It's listed uniquely to you, imbedded and certified on the master government records. I have backdoors... teleporting backdoors... We'll be back at Pine Bluffs in less than an hour. Tom and Sarah, we have a lot of rehearsing to do! I'll explain everything later tonight. For now, remember to call me mom Sarah, and I'm Lisa to you, dearest Tom!"

A'moth / Lisa took a deep breath. "Live the identify! Don't fake it, live it, become it. You have to drum it into your brain over and over, so that it becomes automatic. You look at me Tom, you're looking at Lisa. You're thinking of me, you're thinking of Lisa. You ask your wife to do something for you, you're asking Lisa. You're upset with me, you're upset with your wife. You're thinking I'm pretty, you're thinking your wife is pretty. You're thinking I'm ugly, you're thinking your wife is ugly. all thisYou got all this?"

"Uh... Almost. Not quite all."

"You can't think of me as your wife?"

"No, not that. I'll never be able to think of you as ugly."

My daughter gave an affirming laugh. After a while my new bride laughed too. "Thank you Tom! Nice compliments from my spouse are always appreciated!"

I smiled and took another look at my new driver's license. "Hey! It's got my picture on it! And the signature is Thomas O'Brien, but it's my handwriting! How did you ever do this?!"

Lisa laughed. "Don't you recognize the name?"

"Thomas O'Brien? Hell! The Vice President of Investor Relations in New York?"

"Yes. A person names Gary Connors left him a memo with a hand-written post-it note on top, when he was called back to New York in November of 2008. Fortunately Gary didn't sign the middle initial. I gave you a different middle name."

"A'moth! No, sorry! Lisa! How long have you been planning this?!"

"I create a new identity every year or two. I keep about a dozen active, all over the world. Close them down so people won't notice I don't age. In the beginning of 2009, I picked Pine Bluffs, and decided to add slots for you and Isabelle too, just as a backup for emergencies. I'm so glad I did. You and Sarah, I should say..."

We drove east along the highway, memorizing our new identities. Lisa is a freelance journalist. She writes under pen names. I'm a freelance consultant. I'm also thinking about writing a book. We have a lot of inherited money. We both have Master Degrees from UCLA. That's where we met. That's where Sarah was born...

I kept nodding my head as Lisa explained our new identities. The ID is so deep, if I want more copies of Sarah's birth certificate, I just write to the California Department of Health and fork over a few bucks to the Bureau of Vital Statistics. The ID is that good. And we're home-schooling Sarah... We have been on the road for several years, but we're thinking of settling down for a while... All three of us worked on the details, over and over, as Lisa drove us home.

We got to a small branch office of First National at Pine Bluffs shortly before its 5 PM closing. The bank manager recognized Lisa. My wife deposited some fairly large checks from Atlantic Monthly and Harpers magazines. She also introduced the manager to me and our daughter. He seems like a nice guy. Our neighbors at our house seem very nice too. We also met several people at the food-mart... Everybody seems very friendly...