Chapter 22
They got to Jacob’s office. Just when they were about to open the door and go in, Julian said, turning the knob, “It’s nice to know that America’s no longer spending humans’ tax money on us. That would really piss humans off, wouldn’t it? I remember when I was part human it used to piss me off a great deal.” Finally, Julian opened the door and he and Dr. Simmons went in together. Dr. Simmons had to introduce Julian to Jacob. Soft music was playing on a romantic-music radio station on Jacob’s little radio, and Jacob was revising the files of all his alien clients. Aliens didn’t need much to become singers because they all had great singing voices. All they needed to know is how to sing like we did because our ears couldn’t handle their extraordinary vocal power. Aliens who wanted to become professional singers, they needed to know how to sing without making human singers feel inferior, and the few alien singers in America were doing just that. “Hello,” said Julian.
Jacob noticed that someone was in his studio, dropped everything he was doing, and walked out of his office. When Julian saw him, he just smiled nicely at him. Dr. Simmons also smiled. “Hello, Dr. Simmons.” He simply said, “Hi,” to Julian, smiling.
“Hi,” said Julian.
“Jacob, this is Julian Thornton, our new alien.”
Jacob shook Julian’s hand.
“Julian, this is Jacob Stills, your new vocal coach.”
Julian shook Jacob’s hand. “It’s nice to meet you.”
“Likewise,” said Jacob, smiling, with his hand on his hip. “So, the day’s beautiful! Should we start now?”
For the next two hours, Julian took his first vocal lesson. He learned all the notes and how he should work with them to sing brilliantly. Unbelievably to Jacob, this was the only lesson he needed. The men improvised melodies on the piano. Jacob wanted to make sure that Julian got it, that he knew all the notes. Now, Jacob had to prepare for his future career. He went back into his room. Something had changed. There was an organized pile of sheets for him to compose his songs on. He sat down and contemplated the sheets. Julian recalled all the moments in his life, like a slideshow of videos on a computer: all the people he’d killed, all the women he’d been with, and all of the people whose lives he destroyed. Suddenly he realized that as much as he wanted to, he couldn’t be a professional singer. He could never make an autobiographical album. What would he write and sing about, how he’d killed his helpless victims? Julian gave away a big sigh and sat back on his chair. Unexpectedly, in a flash, all those memories were gone. It was like formatting a computer hard drive. It would restore the computer to the state it was when the owner bought it. The same thing had happened to Julian’s memory. All of the horrible memories had disappeared. All that was left were the times when he was younger and when he’d never kill anyone. He felt like a cybernetic organism at the moment. Julian felt relieved. The fear was over. He decided to write love songs. He decided his debut album didn’t have to be an autobiography.
The first song was about how much he wanted to be loved. He wanted everyone he knew to love him, not just some woman. He would never know his parents, thus his father came from outer space and his mother disappeared willingly after freezing her unfertilized eggs. Then, the technicians at the lab fertilized the egg and created Julian: what we would call a monster. Now, Julian was on his way to a new life. He sang his new song again and again. It was a great song. He should write more songs like this, about what he wants. It was great to write songs in which he bemoaned about not having what he wanted. That would catch people’s attention.
Meanwhile, our good friend, Chris Olivier was making headlines for having sold-out concerts in his worldwide tour. Now, he was writing new songs and working on a new album. He was nominated for the Green Whale Awards, the most important awards in the music industry. He’d bought his biological father Nash a new house and a new car that Nash was enjoying to the maximum. Chris and his family were living the good life now, but Chris also gave many wonderful things to his biological father, Nash. Nash’s wife and Chris’ half sisters were very happy because Chris had thought of them and given them everything that they needed. Nash was currently unemployed, but he would soon start his own company: a company devoted to men’s health, all of this thanks to Chris’ money. Nash knew now that contrary to what he believed before, Chris did care about him. Nonetheless, Chris loved his father. He loved both Javier and Nash, but in different ways. Chris loved Nash because if it weren’t for Nash, he would probably have never come into this world. Chris loved Javier because Javier protected him, cared for him, and he was the one who would take him to the hospital when he was sick and buy him good-tasting medicine for his coughs. Javier was the one who gave him a roof over his head, food, clothing… fulfilling all his needs as a child and as a teenager and giving him a few wants, things he knew he didn’t need, like video games, music cassettes and CD’s, big-screen TV’s… you name it.
There was one thing that Chris and Julian had in common although they couldn’t be more different: they were fantastic singers. Chris was human of course, and what people admired so much about him was the way he sang, like a superhuman living thing. It would be a tremendous contrast because the human singer would sing like he was superhuman and the superhuman singer would sing like a human. Some people loved that, however, contrasts. Chris and his wife, Maureen Olivier, they had three babies: four-year-old Madeline, three-year-old Chris, Jr. and one-year-old Veronica. The babies had all the clothes, food and toys they wanted of course, and despite being so young, they were very proud of their father because Maureen would tell them wonderful things about him every single day, but she would talk to them about him when he wasn’t around. Julian on the other hand, he didn’t have a wife, he didn’t have children, and he didn’t have money. He would surely have money, millions and millions of dollars and he would be one of the most adored singers in the world, but only time would tell if he would have a wife and have children.
After living in England for quite some time, and being that Alice was no longer a threat to them, Jose and Shirley bought a house in the United States and a beautiful building for Jose’s record company. From England, Jose bought furniture for the house online and then hired a few people to arrange the furniture and hang a couple of beautiful paintings around the house. Actually, they bought everything over the Internet, even the lot. Jose had loads and loads of money, but he only spent $4,500,000 on everything. The house was absolutely dreamy. When Jose and Shirley arrived home, the house was ready for them. There were only a few more things to buy though: two computers, one for Jose and one for Shirley, and a wireless router to connect the computers to a network. What Jose and Shirley didn’t know when they got home in a cab was that someone had bought them a luxurious car, a Bentley, put a bow on it and parked it in their driveway. It was a miracle that it didn’t occur to a car thief to steal it. The car had only been there for two hours. It was a lavish gift, courtesy of Lyle and Christina. Precisely at that moment, Lyle and Christina arrived at Jose and Shirley’s mansion with dinner for them. Christina was carrying the main course and the dessert while Lyle was carrying the salad. At the moment they couldn’t hug, so they just went inside with the food as they laughed out of utter happiness. They finally put all the food down on the counter of the kitchen and then went into the living room. One thing about Shirley had changed, though. Her belly and her breasts were gigantic. Shirley was pregnant with quadruplets, but no one knew, not even Jose. Jose thought that Shirley had gained a little weight, and somehow, he had no idea. She had kept it from him for three months because she wanted to give him a big surprise. Incredibly, Shelly had an incredible power. If she didn’t want someone to know something, anything at all, the person wouldn’t know. The reason why she kept from Jose something as wonderful as this, that was a mystery.
Finally, Shirley, Jose, Lyle and Christina had a loving group hug. They couldn’t stop laughing and squealing. Christina was very happy to finally meet her sister in law. She thought this moment would never come because she and her husband would live in England for the rest of their lives. “So,” said Christina, ecstatic and smiling sweetly, “did you like living in Europe?”
Shirley and Christina sat in the living room together while Lyle and Jose just threw themselves on the couch. When the guys did that, they all started laughing hysterically. Finally, Jose answered Christina’s question. “Living in Europe was great. We lived in Spain and in England. Nonetheless we realized that we couldn’t live far away from you, you know, from our parents, our siblings…”
“Speaking of Mom and Dad,” said Lyle, “Shirley I have news that you won’t believe. Mom is pregnant with her third baby.”
Shirley gasped and covered her mouth with her left hand. She was completely silent for the next minute, while Lyle and Christina sat there, smiling, and Jose sat beside her, flabbergasted. “Are you serious? Mom’s going to have a baby? Oh, my God, that is fantastic!”
Lyle, Christina and Jose hugged Shirley, first Lyle, then Jose, then Christina.
“There’s just one thing,” said Shirley, unexpectedly a little saddened, “I won’t be Mom and Dad’s baby anymore.”
“Aww,” said everyone in unison and then laughed. Jose wrapped his arm around the back of Shirley’s neck and caressed her face with his strong hand.
“…And that’s not just because of my baby brother or sister. You see,” she said and then paused for a few minutes, “I’m going to have a few babies of my own.” She started rubbing her belly. “I’m going to be the proud mom of quadruplets!” Shirley was so happy that she laughed as soon as she said that.
Everyone gasped and looked at one another.
When he least expected it, Julian met a beautiful twenty-one-year-old-girl at the recording studio. She was an aspiring singer, and he knew that making his record would take him a long time because he wanted to deliver quality to the public. He wanted to start conquering fans before releasing his album so that they couldn’t wait for it and he’d already be famous. The woman was absolutely stunning. She had a regular body, not too skinny, not too fat, but she had an amazing smile that blew Julian away from the first time he saw her. She had a beautiful singing voice, too, just like an angel. She was human, however. She weighed 130 pounds and she was five feet and ten inches tall. She had brown hair and green eyes. She had light skin, thin lips, beautiful cheeks, round eyes, and sparkling-white teeth. Julian hadn’t started recording any songs yet. Right now, he was just exploring the recording studio.
“Hi,” said the girl as she shook his hand. Right away, she felt chills going up and down her spine and blushed. This guy was scorching hot! “My name is Hayley Schneider.”
“Hello. My name is Julian Thornton. How are you doing?”
“I’m fine, thank you,” she said, smiling, flirting with him.
“You can say that again,” replied Julian, without thinking.
“Excuse me?”
For the first time ever, Julian didn’t know what to say. He was weak in the knees, and so was she. She had never seen a man this gorgeous, only aliens… wait… aliens? Julian had fallen in love. “I’m sorry.”
Hayley laughed. “It’s ok. Don’t worry about it. I’m about to audition for Heath Manning.”
“You’re an aspiring singer, too?”
“Yes!” she said. “It’ll be just a short audition.” Hayley had her demo CD in her pocket. “Heath Manning is constantly looking for new talent. He’s awesome.”
“I couldn’t agree more.”
“I’ll be right back, and then you and I can go to a fast-food restaurant for a big burger and greasy fries.” Hayley laughed hysterically. “I eat that every now and again.” She couldn’t stop smiling. This guy was so amazing.
“If I didn’t like you so much, I would tell you that you’re lying. Your body’s perfect.”
Hayley laughed. “Oh, man, why do you do this to me?” She couldn’t stop laughing. “I’ve got to go to my audition now! Well, just to finish this conversation and get going, all I could say about that is that I have a fast metabolism, but my abdomen’s not flat and my body’s not perfect. Let me go to my audition, ok? We’ll talk when we get out of here and go to Burger World. See you.” She turned around and walked away. She was seemingly calm, but on the inside, she was screaming and squealing like she did with her favorite singers when she was a little girl.
Julian couldn’t stop looking at her long, straight, silky hair. Wow, this woman’s fine! This is definitely the woman I want! Yes, today I’m going to score! Lucky me! In a matter of minutes he walked out of the building and waited for her outside.
Fridda was at her lunch break on the restaurant that was right next to CDR. The waiter was bringing her dessert to her. She continued eating her main course and suddenly noticed the tip of a piece of paper hanging out from her sundae cup. She became intrigued, pulled it out, and read it.
DEAREST FRIDDA BOATMAN,
I KNEW YOU DIDN’T WANT ME BUT I NEVER EXPECTED YOU TO HIRE BODYGUARDS TO PROTECT YOURSELF FROM ME, AND ON TOP OF THAT, HAVE A FREAK THREATEN TO KILL ME IF I DIDN’T STAY AWAY FROM YOU. YOU’LL BE THRILLED TO KNOW THAT BY THE TIME YOU READ THIS LETTER, I’LL BE DEAD. I WOULD RATHER DIE THAN LIVE WITHOUT YOU.
The letter ended and Fridda started crying. She kept the letter just to have note of the man’s name. When she got home, incredibly-depressed, the first thing she did was to get on the Internet on her laptop and search for information about this strange man: Dirk Fisher. She was astounded at what she saw. There were several news articles and videos about his death. It turned out that this man had been admitted to a mental institution many times, and that he was bipolar and schizophrenic. In several interviews, his family members revealed that the man had several relationships, but he never got married. Women would get sick of his random outbursts and leave him. Fridda felt really sad. She’d taken her medicine today, but somehow, it didn’t work. She knew he wasn’t responsible for this man’s death because this man had issues, but it really broke her heart to know that he took his life because of her.
Just at that moment, Daniel called her to see how she was doing. He wanted to know if the medicine had worked on her. Justin was the one that answered the phone because Fridda was lying down in bed, resting at the time. She had too much on her mind right now. “Hello.”
“Hello, is this the Boatman residence?”
“Yes, it is.”
“Is this Mr. Boatman?”
“Yes.”
“Mr. Boatman, this is Dr. Daniel Sherman. I just called to know how Mrs. Boatman is doing.”
“Mrs. Boatman is not doing very well. Her stalker killed him and left a note for her in her dessert earlier today, at the restaurant.”
“It is confirmed that he killed himself?” asked Daniel, looking up articles about this man in his laptop, right in front of him, on the coffee table, in his living room. Seth was in his room, on the computer, looking up articles about this crazy buffoon, also.
“Yes, it’s confirmed.”
Daniel planted the seed of doubt, knowing that this would make Justin angry, but he had to do it. “What if it’s all a hoax?”
Stunned, Justin asked, “What do you mean, doctor?”
“What if this is all part of a plan to destroy your wife’s life for revenge?”
“I hadn’t thought of that.”
“Maybe, just maybe, the man is faking his death, and he did everything he could to make his suicide seem real. Maybe he fled out of the country and had plastic surgery to pretend to be someone else, but in the process, he left your wife’s heart broken in a million pieces.”
“Doctor, I know you would really do anything to avoid heartache to your patients and make them happy, but…”
“Mr. Boatman, I’m telling you about the possibility that the man faked his death.” Incredibly, Daniel didn’t know it, but that was exactly what the psycho had done! He had faked his death to destroy Fridda’s life. “I don’t have any proof of what I’m saying, but I want to spare Mrs. Boatman the pain of something that didn’t really happen. I’m trying to keep this man from reaching his objective.”
“I know it.”
“Tell Mrs. Boatman that I will be waiting for her in my office first thing tomorrow morning.”
“Yes, doctor, I will do that for my woman’s own good.”
“Ok, I will talk to you later, Mr. Boatman.” Daniel hung up.
The charlatan made a big mistake. Now, he was in Argentina, and he somehow found Daniel’s home phone number and home address. He contacted Daniel immediately. Daniel was in the kitchen cooking something for him, Seth, and his servants. “Hello,” said Seth.
Using a voice distorter, the man said, “Is this Daniel Sherman?”
At that moment, Seth decided to pretend to be his father! “Yes, I am Dr. Daniel Sherman.” Looking at the caller ID in his cell phone, which had no information of this call, Seth said, “You’re a coward, you know that? Hiding his or her name and his or her phone number, and distorting his or her voice, that’s typical of a coward.”
“Don’t mess with me or you’ll be dead.”
“Oh, you’re threatening me now! That’s freaking great!” said Seth, calmly even though he was angry. “Well, I’m going to tell you this. I know exactly who you are and where you are. I can give that information to the police and have them arrest you before you can even plan to escape.”
“If you ruin my plan, you’ll certainly die.”
“What would you do if I told you that my phone line is tapped?” Unfortunately for the idiot, this was true.
Dirk didn’t know what to say now.
“That’s right, my phone line is tapped, and although you’ve distorted your voice and hidden your phone number, you can and will be easily traced. My son and I had the police tap our phone lines temporarily, just to protect ourselves. I know that there are many people out there that abhor me and I’m not taking any chances.”
Dirk just hung up.
Dirk devised Daniel’s destruction in only a few days. He hired a mysterious, powerful alien that had just been released from the TOTS branch in Argentina and told them the most horrible lies about Daniel Sherman. Everyone in the world knew Daniel Sherman right now, and Dirk wasn’t questioning Daniel’s actions, but he was questioning Daniel’s motive. Dirk told the mysterious alien that Daniel was bringing people back to life and doing these seemingly wonderful things just to take over the world. Dirk told her that Daniel wanted to be so adored and so admired that one day, he would tell someone, anyone in the world, to do something abhorrent, and the person would do it for him, no questions asked. Dirk told this female that Daniel wanted to conquer the entire world, one person at a time, and if she didn’t do something to stop him, he would achieve that in only a few months. Daniel would control every form of government in the world. In the end, she loathed Daniel so much that she wanted to kill him, but first, she wanted to break his heart, and she wouldn’t let his sweet wife, Madison get in the way of that.
Five days after that aggravating phone call that made Seth want to go to Argentina and kill this disgraced man, the apparently-lovely Selena came to the United States. The first thing that she did when she arrived was to have a cab take her to the Sherman mansion. The woman had a body to die for and to kill for: a literally-perfect body, like all alien females and males, and she was wearing a backless, short black dress that made her big, gorgeous breasts more than noticeable. She had black hair, green eyes, light skin, desirable lips, and a beautiful complexion. She arrived at the mansion, and since she was an alien, Daniel’s guards let her in because they thought that she was an alien looking for the alpha male’s help. That was a big mistake. As soon as she went through the gate, Selena walked slowly to the main entrance of the house and then rang the bell. It was seven o’clock at night and Daniel had just gotten home. Unfortunately, Madison was still on the road because her tire had exploded, and a kind man was helping her, putting a spare tire on her car. Ten minutes later, Daniel opened the door, and when he saw this beauty, his breath was taken away.
“Are you Dr. Daniel Sherman?” Selena said, smiling seductively.
“Yes, it is,” he said, looking her in the eyes, awestruck. “How can I help you?”
“I have a problem. I have a human friend who urgently needs your help.” Selena’s smile disappeared all of a sudden.
Daniel noticed very quickly that Selena was one of his own, a beautiful alien. However, Daniel had one big complication with her. She was the first living thing that Daniel could not see through. He didn’t know if Selena was good or evil and he couldn’t tell what her intentions were. She was as powerful as he was, and she was using a secret ability to hide from him who she really was and what she really wanted. She was not making up a story, however. She indeed had a friend who needed urgent help because she was dying. In the five days that she’d been getting to know Dirk, she’d also been getting to know a very special woman who had five kids to take care of, but her husband had been poisoning her for years and she had only months to live according to her doctors. In reality, Selena had a good heart. She intended to destroy Daniel because Dirk had fooled her into thinking that Daniel Sherman was a very evil being. “Your name is Selena Cambridge, right?”
“Yes, I am Selena Cambridge.” Selena noted that she could lie to Daniel about everything except her identity. “My friend really needs your help. She has been poisoned throughout the years and no other doctor can help her. Her husband has been poisoning her with arsenic.”
“Oh…”
“I am not a doctor. That’s why I’ve come to you for help.”
Madison could not be fooled this easily. She stood on the doorway beside Daniel and the moment she took a look at Selena, she knew what was really going on, but she also knew that if she tried to warn Daniel, he wouldn’t believe her. He would just claim that she was jealous. However, Madison decided to be nice to Selena. She didn’t want to have problems with Daniel for being mean to her. “This friend of yours,” spoke Madison all of a sudden, “does she live far away from here?”
“She doesn’t live far away at all,” said Selena, smiling.
“It doesn’t matter, Selena,” said Daniel, worried. “I’m going to help her. Her children can’t be left without a mother. Do you want me to accompany you to your friend’s house?”
“Yes, I’d like that, Dr. Sherman.”
“It’ll only take a few hours, but we might have to bring your friend to my lab.”
“That’s fine, whatever it takes to save her.”
A few minutes later, Selena and Daniel were out of the house. Madison was desperate. She was human, but she somehow knew that Selena wanted to hurt the love of her life. She had to stop her somehow. She had to become someone stronger. The first thing that came to her mind was to contact another angel. Only angels knew what to do in a situation like this. She called Monti.
Monti was in his living room eating a chocolate-chip muffin with a cup of chocolate, and the cup of chocolate was sitting on his coffee table. Suddenly, his cell phone rang. Fortunately, Monti and other clients from this cellular-phone company enjoyed excellent signal wherever they went. Monti placed what was left of his muffin on the coffee table and then got his cell phone out of his pocket, flipped it open and took the call. “Hello, this is Monti Bernaola.”
“Monti, this is Madison Sherman.”
“How are you doing, Mrs. Sherman?”
“I need some advice, but I feel that I can’t talk about this over the phone.”
“This sounds serious.”
“It is serious. May I come over to your house?”
“I will come over to your hous