Chapter 31
When Ty was walking the hallways back to the entertainment room to meet with his friends once again, his cell phone rang. Victoria was eating lunch in her dorm with Lucy, one of her best friends, and she wanted to take a few minutes of her time to call Ty and ask him how he was doing. Ty saw the number of Victoria’s dorm with her name on the screen, and he was surprised. “Hello, Victoria. How are you?”
“I’m good. I’m at my lunch break right now and I’m eating my lunch in my dorm with Lucy.”
“Say hello to her for me.”
Victoria took the phone off her ear just for a second and said, “Ty says hello.”
“Tell him I said hello,” said Lucy. I still can’t believe he’s alive. He didn’t survive the beating. It’s extremely hard for me to believe that there are…living things that can bring other living things back to life, especially us humans!
“I heard her,” said Ty.
“I just called to know how you’re doing.”
“I feel better by the minute.”
“That’s good. Doesn’t it feel kind of weird, though?”
“No, I don’t feel weird. I feel happy. I feel grateful. I mean I was given a second chance! They don’t do that with everyone that dies, you know?”
“No, they don’t,” Victoria said. She was relieved. He was right. He was getting better and better by the hour. She hadn’t seen him happy in a very long time. “After lunch, I’m going to go to Professor Hawthorne’s class. There’s just one little thing. I’m going to have to take notes by hand this time because my computer’s not working.”
Ty was very close to the entertainment room now, close enough for Aaron, Ethan and Alex to hear what he was saying, although they’d been visualizing the whole conversation, but now it would be obvious to Ty that they were listening. “Your computer stopped working?” he said, surprised. He was not happy to hear this at all. “What happened to it? Do you know?”
Aaron whispered something in Ethan’s ear and Ty noticed this.
“My hard drive’s damaged. The last time I turned it on, it gave me that message, you know, telling me to back up my files because the hard drive would stop working at any moment, and of course I’m telling you the message in my own words—and when I connected it to my DVD burner drive and popped in a CD to try to save my files, I couldn’t.”
“Oh, no…!”
“It died on me before I had the chance. I don’t know what to do. I’m doomed. I’m constantly taking notes on my computer in all my classes and I usually print them out and back them up on CD in case the hard copy gets ruined. This time I didn’t get the chance to do either.”
“Can’t you ask one of your classmates on each class to let you borrow their notes so you can make copies of them and then give the notes back to them? When did this happen?”
“I don’t know exactly when it happened. Last night it was working fine. Then when I turned it on this morning after talking to you in the lab, it gave me that message.”
“There has to be something you can do to get your notes back. Did you ever back your files up online?”
“No.”
“Oh, man…! Listen, don’t worry about anything. I have to go to sleep in less than an hour. Dr. Sherman wants to know how well or how badly I’m sleeping and what dreams I’m having.”
“He wants to know what your worries and fears are, and most of the time, worries and fears are revealed in dreams. We just don’t realize it.”
“That’s right. When I leave the mansion tonight, I am going to help you with this, ok? There’s got to be a way that we can recover your files, even if we can’t retrieve them from the damaged hard drive.”
“Thank you for being willing to help, but I don’t think there’s anything we can do.”
“Don’t be pessimistic, all right? We’re going to take care of this. Let me help you.”
“Thank you, Ty.”
“We’re friends, remember? Friends are always there for one another. I’ll meet you at your dorm later tonight, Victoria. Have a good day,” he said and hung up. Then he sat down with the guys once again to wait until it was time for him to take his nap.
“Well, I have news for you,” Ethan said, smiling. “You can’t leave the mansion until tomorrow morning because some other tests have to be done to make sure everything’s going well, so you won’t have to leave the mansion tonight because we have someone who can help Victoria with her predicament. This…person, not only can he help Victoria recover everything she lost, but he can also get her a new computer, and we will give him the money for it.”
“Guys, you don’t have to do that,” Ty replied.
“Oh, we want to. You can’t do it because you can’t leave, and we can’t leave, either because we have to keep an eye on you for the next several hours, so we’ll have someone do it for you. How does that sound?”
“If you insist, that sounds good.”
“Of course we insist. Victoria has to get her files back and she needs her new computer by tomorrow morning. From what I just heard she’s accustomed to type her notes.”
“Yes. For some people it’s easier to type than it is to write by hand.”
“Yes! Well, I’m going to call that person right now,” Ethan said, dialing the person’s number on his cell phone, “and you don’t have to fret about this anymore. You can relax.” The phone rang a few times and the person answered the call. “Hello, Lindsay? I need a huge favor.”
The lovely but lethal angel, Lindsay was glad to hear from her good friend Ethan again, although they would talk on the phone every day and visit one another every weekend. “Yes, Ethan, what do you need?”
“Do you know a young college student named Victoria Wilkinson by any chance? She goes to the University of San Francisco.”
“I haven’t had the joy of meeting her in person, but I know who she is. I’ve heard a lot of things about her, good things, I might add. What do you need me to do for her?”
“I need you to do two things. First, you would have to help her recover all of her files, and I know it won’t be easy because her hard drive on her mini laptop is completely damaged. Then, I want you to get her a new laptop. If you swing by here before one o’clock I can give you the money.”
“Do you have something to do at one o’clock?” She saw the answer to her question with her own eyes. “Oh, right…”
“Yes.”
“Well, in that case, since I won’t have time to go pick up the money because I am so far away from the Sherman mansion, like twenty-five miles, and it’s already noon, what I’m going to do is buy it with my money. Then, when you get released from the Sherman mansion, you can pay me back…if you want to, you know, repayment is not required.”
“I know but I don’t want to abuse your good faith.”
“Don’t fuss about that. We’re friends. I would literally fly over there and get there in a matter of minutes but I don’t want to cause heart attacks, fear and panic.”
“I know. That would be horrible.”
“Yes, it would. Well, I’ll see you when you get released.”
“Thank you so much, Lindsay.”
“Don’t mention it. By the way, recovering her files is not hard for me at all. It would be hard for any other computer technician, but not for me. I’ll see you later, Ty.”
“Goodbye, Lindsay.” He ended the call.
Lindsay arrived on campus a few minutes later. She occupied a visitor’s parking and then got out of the car, purse on shoulder. Shortly after, she had a card pinned to her shirt that read VISITOR. She didn’t know anybody on this campus because she was twenty-nine years old and she had finished her studies at TOTM. She became a computer technician because she loved computers. They were her obsession. She had three of them: a desktop, a laptop, and a mini laptop. She had the mini laptop with her at the moment. Since no one had broken into Victoria’s dorm before, Victoria had left the door open, and she was in class right now. Lindsay went in without thinking twice, like it was her dorm room. Victoria’s mini laptop sat on her desk. Since it wasn’t working it was no use for Victoria to take it to class with her. Lindsay noticed that Victoria’s mini laptop was the same as hers, except Victoria’s was sapphire-blue and Lindsay’s was ruby-red. She couldn’t believe her eyes, so she took a few minutes to pull her mini laptop out of her purse, sit it beside Victoria’s and compared the two. What a coincidence! We have the same computer! Lindsay took the appropriate steps to make the laptop turn on even though the hard drive was completely fried. Only expert computer technicians knew how to do something like this. All of Victoria’s files were still there, but they were obviously damaged. That wasn’t a problem for Lindsay. It took her less than fifteen minutes to fix them and then set up an account on an online file-storage service, an account under Victoria’s name, registered with her email address. She assigned the account a password that was almost impossible for other people to guess, but that only Victoria knew.
Without realizing it, Victoria wrote the password down on her new class notes. What is this? She would find out soon enough. For now, she continued to focus on taking her notes. Lindsay finished backing up Victoria’s files on the online-backup site, on her account, and then she took her mini laptop in her hand and placed it in her purse. Lindsay had a crazy idea and decided to take Victoria’s damaged mini laptop with her also. She was planning to install a new hard drive on it and then put it away in case that her current mini laptop went bad. Victoria’s mini laptop was relatively new. She got the $300 that Victoria spent on this laptop out of her purse and left them on her desk.
It was one fifteen and Ty was finally taking his nap while Ethan, Aaron and Alex were taking notes, explaining what he was dreaming so that Daniel could analyze them as a psychiatrist. In the meantime, Lindsay was getting Victoria a brand-new mini laptop, a ten-inch with a nice hard drive, the best operating system, the applications that she needed the most, a comfortable keyboard, and a screen with brilliant display. The computer was sapphire-blue and it was the same brand as the one that Victoria had before. It was a little more advanced than Victoria’s first mini, though. The hard drive was a little larger and it had a little more RAM, and the processor was a lot more advanced and a lot better. The computer cost Lindsay $450, but she didn’t mind at all. It was one of the most expensive mini laptops at the moment, but Lindsay didn’t care. She thought that Victoria deserved only the best, a mini laptop that Victoria could count on at least for a few years. Lindsay accommodated the computer on the backseat of her car, closed the back door, opened the driver door, got in, closed the door and fastened her seatbelt. Just when she was about to start the car, she noticed that a man was watching her. She turned her face to look at him. When he knew that she’d noticed him, he walked toward her. She had seen him from a distance but she couldn’t believe her eyes. Now, it was confirmed. He was the man she thought she’d seen, as hard it was for her to swallow. It was Wesley Darnell. She thought when did he leave TOTS? She put the car window down so he could talk to her. He lowered his head into the window to look her in the eyes. “Hello, Wesley. How are you doing?”
“I’m doing better.”
“Did you get released from TOTS yet?”
“No, I didn’t get released. I have to be there for about a month, depending on how much I’ve improved by then. I just got out for a little while to buy some things that I needed. They let us do that.”
“What time do you have to be back?”
Wesley looked at his wristwatch. “I have to be back in an hour. They gave me two hours.”
“So you came here to buy a computer or computer supplies?”
“They give us our own computers in TOTS and they also give us computer supplies, printer paper, back up media, MP3 players, everything. I don’t need anything from this store. I just came here because I knew you’d be here. I came here to see you.”
“Oh, you came here to see me. That’s nice.”
“It might be hard to believe, but lately I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you.”
“Oh…” she was astonished.
“When we met six years ago I knew I had found the love of my life. I don’t think I could be with anybody else. I hope that you give me a chance despite all the pain I put so many innocent women through.”
She just nodded, indicating to him that she was listening.
“I know you hate men who hurt women. You’re not a feminist, but when you hear that a man has hurt a woman in any way, it pisses you off royally.”
“That is right.”
“So, what do you say? You want to go out sometime?”
“Sure. Everyone deserves a second chance, and no, I don’t hate you. Despite all of the horrible, unspeakable things that you’ve done, I always had a soft spot for you. I had hoped that you had some kind of mental illness and that you really didn’t know what you were doing.”
“You’re right. There were a lot of things that were seriously wrong with me, including many mental illnesses. It seems to me like my father conceived me with the wrong woman. He must’ve been pretty desperate not to notice her genetic defects.”
“Or maybe he just didn’t care,” she replied.
“Yes, but look at all the harm he’s caused for not choosing a healthy woman. Back then, we weren’t able to conceive a healthy child with a human being that had less than perfect health.”
“Don’t be so hard on your father. Remember that he passed away and he can’t defend himself or justify his actions. It was just a mistake he made, big mistake, granted, but a mistake nonetheless. We don’t always make the best decisions.”
“I hate to repeat this, but you’re right.”
Lindsay laughed. “All right, so call me when they let you out once again, preferably at night.”
“I like the sound of that. I will see you later. I will call you the next time they let me go out, and I’ll be sure to ask them to let me go out at nighttime. I’m sure they won’t say no.”
A few minutes later, Wesley left the parking lot of the store and Lindsay was on the road, on her way to the university to give Victoria her mini laptop, or leave it for her in the dorm room if she didn’t find Victoria there at the time. However, Victoria was in her dorm. She had just gone back to her dorm room during her advanced-level mathematics class to get a few more pencils because she had just run out of pencils. She was taking math courses right now and had been ever since she started college because she wanted to be a computer programmer for a prestigious company right after graduation. She noticed that her computer wasn’t there and became scared. The first thing that came into her mind was that she should lock her dorm room from now on. Victoria gasped when she saw the $300 in twenty-dollar bills right where her computer was sitting before. Someone came here and basically bought my damaged laptop from me without me knowing about it! She realized that only an alien would do something like that. If they wanted something that belonged to someone else, they would take it—not before paying for it. This was the strangest thing she’d ever seen.
Fortunately for Victoria, she would have the opportunity to confront this person, or this living thing. She didn’t know exactly what to call it at the moment. A human being would certainly not take her damaged laptop from her much less leave the money there for her. At this very moment, Lindsay was just a few steps from her dorm room. Victoria just couldn’t get out of her dorm and go back to class because she was so stunned and she had to figure this out. Lindsay knew that Victoria was in there, so rather than barging in, she knocked on the door. Victoria thought it was her best friend, Lucy, and that she had come here to ask her why she was taking so long in going back to class, and to tell her that she didn’t want her to get in trouble. “Come in, Lucy,” Victoria said, putting her money down on the bed and putting her hands on her waist.
Lindsay opened the door and went in with the computer in a store bag. “Hello, Victoria.” She set the computer on the bed.
“Who are you? Were you the one who took my computer and left me the money?”
“I am Lindsay Levy, and yes, I was the one that took your computer and left you the money you paid for it.”
Victoria just smiled. She didn’t want to be unkind. “Ok, ok—what did you bring me here,” she said, touching the bag, and then noticed that there was a box inside of it, “and why did you do this? I mean why would you want a broken computer and more importantly, why would you pay for it like it’s new?”
“Look,” said Lindsay, walking closer to Victoria, “I know I took your computer without your permission, but—
Victoria interrupted Lindsay. “Of course I wouldn’t have given you permission to take my broken computer. If it can’t work for me and if it can’t be for me, I don’t want anyone else to have it. I never give away much less sell something that doesn’t work. Of course I wouldn’t let you have it if it worked, either, because right now I don’t have any money to buy another one.”
“Let me explain. First of all, Ty asked me to help you out with your little situation.”
Victoria was going to say something but Lindsay didn’t let her.
“I know what you’re going to say, Ty never told me to take your computer. That wasn’t part of the plan. I came up with that myself. Ty asked me to try to recover your lost files for you and buy you a new computer. He wanted me to swing by the Sherman mansion to get the money to buy it for you, and here it is.” She was touching the computer. Victoria got it out of the bag and gasped as she held it in her hands. “However, he asked me to go there before one o’clock because he had something important to do at that time. I just didn’t ask him what it was. I agreed to pay for the computer and then when Dr. Sherman and his men let him go, he would pay me back. The reason why I took your computer was to have an extra computer put away in case mine failed, and of course, I paid you for it. I know it’s not new and it’s broken, but I decided to pay you the money you originally paid for it.”
“Wait a minute. You say you never got the money from Ty to buy the computer.”
“No. I couldn’t.”
“Ok, you couldn’t.” Victoria picked up the money that Lindsay had left for her and handed it to her. “So take this as payment. That way Ty doesn’t have to pay you the money.” She removed the receipt from inside the bag. “Wait a minute. This computer cost $450 without the taxes and $490, taxes included?” She was astonished. “I thought it was the same computer I had! Mine was $340 tax included!”
“This one is a little more advanced.”
“That means I would still owe you $190.”
“No. You don’t owe me anything. Ty said he would pay for it. He really wants to do something good for you, help you out. Let him pay for it. It’s ok. He’s got the money. Keep what I gave you. That was payment for taking your computer.”
“Lindsay, you don’t have to do this. You don’t even know me. I know you and Ty are best friends, but for some reason, he never introduced us.”
“Things happen for a reason. We weren’t meant to meet when you were together. We were meant to meet today, now. I want to do this for you. I love Ty. He’s one of my best friends, the one I’m the closest to, and you were very important to him. You still are. Ty’s loved ones are my loved ones. Don’t worry that the computer’s broken. I am a computer technician and I make excellent money. I will buy a new hard drive for it and keep it.”
“Lindsay—
“Oh, and about your files…they’re in an online file backup site.” Lindsay told Victoria the name of the site. “Your user name is your email address and your password is written down in your notes.”
“So that’s what I was writing down and I didn’t know what it was!”
“That’s right. You can turn on your computer, go to that site, log in to your account and retrieve your files and save them to your hard drive. This program automatically backs up all the changes you make to your files. You’ve got two free gigabytes of storage and if you want unlimited space it’s only $4.95 a month.”
“Thank you for everything, Lindsay. I was wondering how you retrieved my files from my damaged hard drive.”
“I repaired those files.”
“You can repair damaged files.” Victoria couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
“It didn’t take me long to fix them either, only fifteen minutes.”
“I have to pay you for your work.”
“No, you don’t. Remember, you are one of Ty’s best friends now, a very important person in his life, and I would do anything to help you.”
“You don’t want me to pay you even for repairing and backing up my files?”
“No, it’s ok.”
“Do you know how much another technician would’ve charged me for this? The repair wouldn’t even have been successful, but the technician would’ve still charged me an enormous amount of money for the time that he spent trying to do this.”
“But I’m not another technician. I am Lindsay Levy, and under special circumstances, I don’t charge for my services. Do you want me to help you set up your user account?”
“No, you don’t have to do that. You’ve done enough. You have to go and I won’t use my new computer until this afternoon, at the time I finish all my classes for today. Thank you for everything. I don’t know how to repay you.”
“It’s easy. All you have to do is give me your unconditional and eternal friendship.” Lindsay turned around, walked to the door, turned the knob, opened the door, got out of the room, turned around to look at Victoria and said, “If you need anything, call me. My card is in the bag.” Then, she closed the door behind her.
Lindsay walked the hallway to the stairs and just then, Lucy was walking the hallway to Victoria’s room. Lucy looked at Lindsay and right then she knew that Lindsay was coming from Victoria’s room. It was strange to her because she was aware that Lindsay was one of Ty’s best friends, but Ty had never introduced her to Victoria. Victoria didn’t know many of Ty’s friends when they were together. Somehow she knew that Ty never cheated on Victoria with Lindsay. Lindsay was a green angel, and those living things would never have sex with their friends. Their friends were friends, and never anything more, except when angels considered their friends brothers or sisters, never lovers.
Lucy knocked on Victoria’s door. She didn’t want to barge in because she had no idea what Victoria was doing.
Victoria was unpacking her new computer carefully. “Come in.”
Lucy opened the door and