Chapter 19
He didn’t move. He remained where he was in front of the computer desk, slightly far away from her bed. “Is your hard drive in good condition right now?”
“I don’t know if it’s in good condition, but it hasn’t crashed,” she replied sitting at the edge of the bed.
“Do you have any important documents in there? Do you have media to back them up in case something happens, like CD’s, DVD’s or flash drives?”
“You won’t believe this but I don’t even have money for that.”
“You have to back up your documents. You don’t know when your computer might crash again.” He walked to the door and opened it. “You know what? I’m going to get you a couple of rewritable DVD’s to save your documents in. I’ll be right back.” Seth walked out of Lydia’s dorm and closed the door behind him.
Lydia walked to her computer desk, sat on her chair, turned on the computer, and when the computer booted and started up, she got connected to the Internet and logged into a website where she could watch videos online. She had homework, but she would start working on it one hour from now. When she opened up to Seth and told him that she didn’t have any time for herself, she realized that she needed to make the time for herself. Seth was a green angel. Maybe he could help her finish all her homework. She knew that it didn’t take him very long to do his homework. She watched everything from comedy videos, to video blogs, to music videos online. Her hour had already passed. She looked at her clock and noticed that Seth hadn’t come back yet. Why was he taking so long? He told her during lunch that he lived only twenty minutes from campus, and she was sure that he would get her some of the rewritable DVD’s that he had.
While Lydia was waiting for Seth, Seth was at the office-supply store that Scott worked at looking at laptop computers. His father had so much money that every week, he would give him $3,000 to spend on anything that he wanted. That was until Seth would start working as a high-school math teacher. Seth finally found the computer he thought that Lydia would love. It was a beautiful black laptop with a 320-GB hard drive, the newest and most popular operating systems, and three different word processors including the super popular, sophisticated and powerful Cyber Genius Word Processor. The computer had programs for everything that Lydia might want to do: download music legally, download videos, edit photos, produce videos, and it had a calculator, among many other programs. It was a seventeen-inch laptop. It also had a DVD burner and great speakers. Seth thought that Lydia would need a mouse for her laptop because she’d never used a laptop before and of course she wasn’t used to touch pads. He bought Lydia a pretty little black mouse. He smiled when he took a close look at it. It was so cute to him, and Lydia would love it, too. Additionally, Seth bought Lydia a package of 100 recordable DVD’s for recording movies and TV shows and a pack of 100 rewritable DVD’s for documents and data. Seth spent a total of $4,500 on Lydia, $3,000 that Daniel gave him for this week and $1,500 that he’d saved the week before just in case he needed them. Seth usually didn’t spend a lot of money, but now he’d do anything for the love of his life and give her everything that she wanted and needed. This was the woman that he was going to marry, and he wanted to steal her heart, conquer her, to make her fall in love with him so deeply that she would be with him forever. He would do anything in the world to make that happen.
Seth walked out of the office-supply store, went to his car, placed everything on the backseat, closed the passenger-side back door, opened the passenger’s door, got into the car, sat on the passenger’s seat, closed the door, buckled his seatbelt, started the car, shifted to reverse, and pulled out of the parking lot. A few minutes later, he took the road. A little while later, Seth arrived at the university campus again. He parked his car in the student parking lot, where he usually parked it during the day. In less than twenty minutes, Seth went up back into Lydia’s dorm room. He was carrying the laptop with both hands and he had the bag of DVD’s and the mouse hanging from his shoulder. He set everything on Lydia’s bed.
“Hi,” he said, smiling.
“What’s all that?” she asked, still sitting on her computer chair, with the computer on showing the desktop.
“All of this is for you,” he said, getting the cool laptop out of the box.
She was so stunned she got up from her chair. “You got me a laptop?”
“Yes,” said Seth, still smiling, and opened the box of the laptop. “You like it?”
“Seth, this isn’t right. We just met today and you’re already spending thousands of dollars on me.”
He opened the laptop lid and then got the charger out of the box. “Don’t worry, baby. I’ve got loads and loads of money to spend on me and anybody I want. He turned on the laptop. “You shouldn’t turn this down, you know? This thing is wonderful. It’s got the best operating system, the coolest programs to do anything you can imagine, and a battery that can go eight hours straight without charging.” Seth got on his knees and set up Lydia’s user account in a matter of minutes. Lydia’s brand-new computer was ready to use for the very first time. He got up. “There you go. It’s ready.”
Saddened, Lydia said, “Seth,” and walked closer to him and held his hands, “you didn’t have to do this. What are my parents going to think?”
“If that’s the problem, then it’s solved,” said Seth, smiling sweetly. “I’m going to have my dad talk to your parents, tell them that we’re starting a relationship, that I’m just giving you what you need, and everything’s going to be ok. I can also pay your parent’s bills, your books, your tuition, everything. Actually, you know what?” he said and pulled his cell phone out of his jacket. He flipped it open and dialed Daniel’s home number because Daniel was home right now. It was almost six thirty. “I’m calling my dad right now to have him visit your parents and talk to them.” Seth placed the phone on his ear and heard the tone of Daniel’s phone ringing.
“Seth, please…”
Daniel was in his room, changing his work clothes into a light, comfortable long-sleeved shirt and some comfortable pants. When he finished changing, he walked to the phone on his nightstand and answered it. “Hey, Seth, how are you doing?”
“Dad, I need your help. You see I found the woman of my dreams and she has a really-crappy desktop whose hard drives always crash… anyway, I bought a laptop, a mouse, and recordable and rewritable DVD’s, and I feel very badly because she won’t accept my gifts.”
“You just met this woman today?” Right at that moment, Madison was walking into the room with a glass of milk in her hand. Madison sat on the bed to listen to the conversation.
“Yes, I met her today, and she’s an angel. I just want to give her everything she needs. I need you to talk to her parents for me.”
Lydia asked, “Seth, aren’t you going just a little too fast?”
“Done,” said Daniel and pulled a writing pad and a pen out of the top drawer of his nightstand and got ready to write, “just give me her parents’ names and home address, and I’ll talk to them.”
Seth took the phone off his ear for a moment and asked Lydia, “Do I have your authorization to give your parents’ names and home address to my dad?”
Lydia walked closer to Seth and gently took his cell phone from his hand. “Dr. Sherman, I’m Lydia Bernstein, and I really don’t want to take advantage of your son. The things that he just brought me are the most expensive gifts that I’ve ever gotten.”
“Lydia, it’s very nice to meet you. Look, my son really wants to be with you. He just gave you a couple of gifts. That’s all. It’s not like he’s going to start spending thousands of dollars on you from this day forward. He just met you but he’s fallen for you very hard.”
“I appreciate you doing this, Dr. Sherman. I have to let you go, though. I have to let my parents know who you are, that you’re on your way there, and the reason why you’re visiting them.”
“Ok,” said Daniel. “In the meantime, I’ll get ready to go to your parents’ house.” Daniel hung up.
Lydia hung up and then called her parents. As soon as her mother, Talia, answered the phone, she explained everything to her, that she’d met a guy today, that the guy was in love with her, and that he’d bought her a laptop and several DVD’s, and a computer mouse, and that he was planning to pay all of her parents’ bills and her tuition.
Talia, far from being offended, she was excited, even though she was an honest woman. Lydia’s father, Abraham was sitting beside her, and Talia had the phone on speaker so that Abraham could hear what Lydia was saying very clearly. “Honey, you know how honest we are, but at the same time… you know, you’ve got a wonderful opportunity and you can’t let it pass you by.”
Lydia was surprised. “Mom…”
“If this guy is so deeply in love with you that he’s willing to give us everything we need, why turn him down? He’s a multimillionaire. Oh, and speaking of money, don’t tell him to pay our bills or your tuition because we’ve got more than enough money to cover those expenses. I just remember that you got your royalty check, and it’s over $150,000.”
Abe smiled.
“A royalty check for $150,000?” Lydia had her cell phone on speaker, too, so that Seth would be able to listen in. “Mom, don’t tell me that you…”
“That’s right, sweetie,” said Talia, smiling. “We’ve published your songs, three of the songs that you’ve written. It seems that the artists that you wrote them for accepted the songs because we got the check today, along with a beautiful letter from the publishing company. I have it somewhere in my room.” Abraham got up and went to his bedroom to get the envelope with the letter and the royalty check in it.
“Didn’t they charge you for publishing my songs?”
“No, they didn’t charge me a penny.”
“Oh, my God, Mom, how long ago did you send in the songs?”
“About three weeks ago.”
Seth was ecstatic. Lydia was keeping her laptop and her DVD’s, but at the same time, she and her parents would be able to support them and maintain their dignity. Lydia had incredible talent when it came to writing songs. She’d been writing songs since she started middle school several years back, and because of lack of time, she’d never published them. Her parents did that for her. Abraham and Talia were happy because Daniel and Seth wouldn’t have to support them entirely. A huge royalty check came and they would only use a fraction of that money to pay their bills and Lydia’s tuition for this month. Abraham and Talia went to the bank really quickly and deposited their $150,000 on their bank account, which they had joint with Lydia. When Daniel was only thirty minutes from arriving at their house, Talia and Abraham made it back home, and since there were no overdraft charges in their bank account, they were able to pay all their bills on the phone. They were really happy.
However, Lydia withheld some critical information from their parents. She didn’t tell them that the guy that she’d met was Dr. Daniel Sherman’s son, and obviously, he was a green angel, an alien. She didn’t know how they would react, and they were in for the surprise of their lives. It was the first time that Lydia lied to her parents and she felt horribly. Daniel and Seth finally arrived at Lydia’s house together. Lydia was there with her parents because she wanted to witness the conversation between her parents, Daniel and Seth. She was afraid that when Daniel and Seth left, her parents would be angry with her and scold her horribly.
The bell rang. Incredibly, Abraham was wearing a nice outfit to receive his daughter’s new friend and potential boyfriend. He didn’t expect Seth. When Abe opened the door, he was awestruck. “Oh, my God, it’s Daniel Sherman!” Abraham quickly opened up a smile.
Lydia was astonished. She didn’t expect that reaction. She knew that Abe admired and loved Dr. Sherman very much, but she didn’t expect him to be happy that she and Dr. Sherman’s son were in love and could start dating any day now. Abraham knew that when angels were in love with someone, they would marry him or her days later. The man that Abraham admired the most would soon be his daughter’s father in law.
Abraham made way for Daniel and Seth to come in. The whole time, he had a smile on his face as he closed the door behind them. As they walked to the living room together, Abraham said, excited. “Oh, dear,” to Lydia, “why didn’t you tell me that the man who was courting you was Dr. Sherman’s son?”
“I didn’t think you’d want me to be with… someone of their species, Dad,” responded Lydia, looking down.
“That’s bologna! Of course I approve of your relationship with Seth! Dr. Sherman saved your mother’s life a few years ago, and I will never be able to repay him for that!”
Talia said, “I will never forget it. I had breast cancer, and Dr. Sherman cured me. He spared me from having to get chemotherapy, from the pills… from all the pain, and I am grateful to him for every breath I take.”
“I not only admire you, Dr. Sherman, because of what you did for my wife, but also because I know you’ve done this for countless other people.”
“I do this every day,” said Daniel. “It’s like drinking a glass of water to me. Thank you for your kind words, but I have to warn you, all of you about some things that my son’s been through before you decide that you agree with this or not.”
“My daughter’s twenty-one years old,” said Talia. “She’s capable of making major life decisions.”
“My son has ten kids with ten different women,” said Daniel without a prelude. “That’s a problem.”
“Those children are in TOTS, right?”
“Yes, but with the treatment that they’re receiving, they will age like humans age, so they’re still children, and they will be until they turn eighteen.”
“I don’t see the problem,” said Talia. “Those children will not be released until they become adults.” She got up from the sofa. “Do you want something to drink, Dr. and Mr. Sherman?”
“No, it’s ok,” said Seth.
“I am thirsty. I would like any non-alcoholic drink, please,” said Daniel.
Talia walked out of the living room.
“If these children cannot live with their father by law, I don’t see a problem with him and my daughter having a relationship. My daughter doesn’t live with us. She’s a great girl. She can do anything she wants, and we won’t be disappointed. We would be if she became an alcoholic or a drug addict. I think that Seth is the perfect man for our daughter,” explained Abraham.
“Besides,” said Seth, “I underwent a special treatment so that my next children would be completely human so that they could live with me and their mother.”
Talia walked back into the living room with a glass of iced lemonade in her hand, wrapped in a paper towel. As she set the glass on the coffee table for Seth to drink, she said, “You and their mother, as in only one mother.”
“I had ten children with ten different mothers because as soon as their mothers gave birth to them, they died, one after the other,” said Seth and took a few sips of his lemonade. “However, doctors at TOTS performed a procedure that would allow me to have human children so that their mother wouldn’t die, and also, enable me to have relations with a woman without impregnating her unless she wanted to get pregnant.”
“So, you’ve chosen our daughter to be the mother of your future children,” said Abe.
“Yes.”
“This is great!” said Talia. “Honey,” she said to Lydia as she sat down beside Daniel, “did you finish your homework?”
“Oh, no, I haven’t done any of my homework!” said Lydia, crying. “Oh, my God, what am I going to do? I don’t want to fail!”
“Don’t worry,” said Seth. “I’m going to help you with all your homework and I promise that it will be done by the time you wake up tomorrow morning.” He got up and walked to the door.
Lydia walked to the door, also. “Don’t worry, Mom and Dad. It won’t be the first time that I have to stay up all night doing homework.”
Talia and Abe walked to the door with Seth and Lydia and gave Lydia a hug and a kiss and then gave Seth a big hug. Seth and Lydia walked out the door and Lydia closed the door behind them. As they both went to Seth’s car, Daniel said, looking out the window, “Your daughter is exceptionally gorgeous.”
“Thank you,” said Abe. “Your son is far beyond handsome.”
Daniel laughed. “Thank you.” He got up to leave, too.
“Where are you going?” said Abe.
“I’m going home,” said Daniel, smiling, with his hands inside the pockets of his pants.
“Don’t you want to eat dinner with us?” said Talia. “It’s the first time that you’ve visited us or been in touch with us in any means since you cured my cancer. I want us to spend some time together.”
Daniel laughed. “That’s very kind of you, Mrs. Bernstein.”
“Please call me Talia. Eat dinner with us. Don’t turn us down. Now that our only daughter and your only son are going to get married, we’re going to be family, so we have to become friends.”
“You’re right,” said Daniel and he, Talia and Abe walked out of the living room. Then, Abe and Daniel walked to the dining room. Surprisingly, dinner had already been served. Everyone sat down to eat. The main dish was spaghetti with meatballs and tomato sauce, the side dish was a tomato-and-lettuce salad, and the drink was fresh iced lemonade.
As Daniel, Talia, and Abe ate, they talked. “So, how have you been since we met?” he asked Talia.
“I’m living like I never had cancer.” Talia took a bite of her spaghetti.
“I see you look beautiful and healthy,” said Daniel.
“I am healthy.”
Meanwhile, Seth and Lydia were in Lydia’s dorm. Incredibly, now Seth was doing Lydia’s homework. Seth would do his own homework as soon as class was over. Seth would do Lydia’s homework only for tonight, because Lydia needed a break. Lydia was so tired that she was just lying down on her bed. It didn’t seem right to Lydia to have a good time while Seth was doing her homework. Lydia had piles of homework every night and she would only sleep for two hours. Although Lydia was only twenty-one, she was very unhealthy. She was always tired and she had average grades, B’s and C’s. Seth noticed how exhausted she was. Maybe, DNA enhancement will help her perform better. The good thing about DNA enhancement was that the person who goes through it remains human, but every quality, every virtue is greatly increased. Seth was carrying a small syringe with specimen in it. He closed Lydia’s book and binder, walked closer to Lydia, disabled her sense of touch using his mind, and injected the specimen in the sole of Lydia’s food. Immediately, Lydia fell asleep. She would remain human, but like Seth thought, her intelligence would be superior and her grades would be better in only one week. Seth was willing to do anything for the woman who he loved.
That morning, Lydia woke up. Incredibly, she didn’t feel different. She got up, went to the bathroom, and followed her morning routine: taking a quick shower, getting dressed, brushing her teeth, and doing her hair. She was thirty minutes from starting class, and she decided to look over her assignments to make sure she had finished them. She was surprised to find out that Seth had done all her homework, in her handwriting. Lydia was amazed at what Seth was capable of doing for her, even though they’d just met. All of her assignments were neatly organized in their corresponding three-ring binders. Luckily for Lydia, she only had three classes during the day. Because of the royalties that Lydia was receiving for her songs every six months, Lydia would never have to work again. She was excited. Finally, she took her backpack, put it on her back with all her books and her binders, and walked out of the room.
Alexander was in school, teaching his lesson, as always. He and his students were reading a short story out of their English textbook out loud, and after that, the students would answer the questions at the end of the story. Suddenly, Alexander dropped his textbook and put his hand over his head. He was having a horrible headache, and he couldn’t bear it. It was the worst headache he’d ever had. Immediately, his students closed their textbooks and their notebooks and surrounded him. One girl ran to the phone in Alexander’s office and called 911. She told the operator what was happening to her teacher. An ambulance took Alexander to the hospital a few minutes later. When doctors discharged Alexander from the hospital, they didn’t know that his brain hadn’t recovered. Although his bruises had healed and he was happy, talking to Diana and his family members, there was something seriously wrong with him. All the blows that those thugs had given him directly to the head, they’d caused great damage. Alexander underwent an extensive neurological operation, but it didn’t render any fruit. Exactly twenty-four hours later, Alexander woke up from his anesthesia and he couldn’t move his extremities. He couldn’t talk. His body was in total shock. All that Alexander could do was see and hear everything that was going on around him. His entire body was in excruciating pain and he couldn’t ask for help. He could only cry. Before the operation, Alexander had his first headache indicating to him and everyone else that there was something wrong with his brain, but the operation, instead of helping him, it made everything 100 times worse. Doctors didn’t intend to harm him, though. It was all those thugs’ fault. Alexander could only cry, silently. Oh, my God, what did they do to me? Oh, my God, I’m hurting all over! God! He cried bitterly in his mind. Oh, my God, where is everybody? Daniel! Daniel, I need you! Where the hell are you when I need you the most? Daniel! Daniel!!
Daniel was sitting in his office with one of his patients at the moment. The patient had multiple personality disorder and Daniel was talking to one of her alter egos. Incredibly, Daniel heard Alexander’s cries for help from afar. He heard him in his mind, and he visualized what Alexander was going through. Alexander couldn’t stop calling him in his mind. “When you come back, we’re going to talk about integration,” said Daniel, thus one of the woman’s other personalities emerged. The woman was in a horrible situation, too, but Daniel needed to contact one of the doctors he worked with to help Alexander. The appointment was almost over anyway. The woman didn’t want to be in Daniel’s office because her alter ego hated Daniel’s guts.
“Why did I get referred to you anyway?” said the woman’s alter ego, a woman who always wore glasses and had her hair braided. “You’re a loser.”
Daniel completely disregarded the woman's lack of respect and, smiling, he said, “Gertrude, I promise that this integration is not going to be like one that another doctor might perform, and I mean that... It’s going to be definitive and you will be you forever.”
“Go to hell, Dr. Sherman,” said the woman as she walked out the door.
Since Daniel’s next appointment was in fifteen minutes, Daniel used this time wisely. He picked up the phone and called Dr. Dwyer, one of the doctors in his team, the neurologist. Dr. Dwyer was in his office, checking the file of a patient that he’d operated on a few days ago, monitoring his progress. Dr. Dwyer picked up the phone. “This is Dr. Riley Dwyer.”
“Riley, this is Daniel.”
Dr. Dwyer smiled. “Daniel, how are you doing?”
“Not so good. Alexander needs your help. His brain is completely damaged.”
“Completely damaged? I thought he only had migraines!”
“He did, but some doctors operated on his brain and messed up all the wiring and now Alexander’s brain doesn’t work. All he can do is think and feel. He’s totally paralyzed, and in horrible pain.”
“Oh, my God…”
“Yes, I need you to go to the Regional Hospital right now, where he is, and operate on him.”
“Ok, I will do that shortly,” said Riley and hung up.
Two hours later, Riley was talking to the doctors that had operated on Alexander. He hadn’t visited Alexander yet, but Alexander’s nurse gave Alexander a message from Daniel, saying that he’d come through for him and that another neurologist would take care of his problem soon. Alexander was calm and relieved. He had hope. Someone would save him and he wouldn’t be trapped inside his own body. The people that had kidnapped him and ruined his life, they would pay. For the first time in Alexander’s life, he felt deep rancor for someone who had hurt him. Alexander would do the unthinkable. His mind was warped and twisted. He would never be the same again… not until he would take reprisal against his enemies. Minutes after talking to the doctors and seeing a video of the operation, Riley realized what was wrong and he knew just the way to fix it. Riley said goodbye to Dr. Ayer and Dr. Bines and walked out of the room.
Riley went to Alexander’s room. As Riley closed the door behind him, he said, “Hello, Mr. Cambridge.”
Suddenly, Alexander was able to move and talk, but he talked with great difficulty. Riley was using telekinesis to control his brain and give it some functionality. That way, Alexander would feel a little better. “Are you…” Alexander said, very slowly, “the doctor who’s going to help me?”
“Yes,” said Riley, smiling. “You’ll undergo another operation in just minutes.”
“Did the other doctors authorize it?”
“Your family authorized it, and that’s all that’s needed.”
Minutes later, Alexander was back in the operating room. He had just been given his anesthesia, and Riley had him count from ten to one, backwards. “Ten… nine… eight… seven…” Alexander fell asleep.
During the operation, Riley carefully fixed everything that was wrong with Alexander’s brain. It took him several hours to reverse the damage, but he did it. What he didn’t know was that Alexander’s brain would be in good shape for the rest of his life. If it got destroyed in any way, it would regenerate, just like all the body parts of every human being who’s DNA had been enhanced. Alexander’s DNA had been enhanced, too. His brain was in perfect condition now. Riley had given him the freedom that he desperately needed. Unbeknown to everyone, Alexander would blueprint and exact his revenge against these heartless idiots very soon.