Story 2/Chapter 3 – Back In "The Cave"

Whew, made it back to “The Cave!” That’s the little nickname my friend Lyn came up with for the apartment I live in; because it’s where I’m the most comfortable and feel safest. If you were to study me, like an animal, my behavior might remind you of a bear in hibernation. As long as the kitchen and refrigerator were well stocked, I could go days without venturing into the outside world. It’s a very calm place to be! My cat Destiny also lives here with me.

Anyway, while still lost in thought and confusion about this supposed double of mine and just the freakiness of the whole thing, a beeping noise brought me back to reality. It was an iPhone notification saying I had an un-read email message waiting.

The message was from my friend Markus: a reminder about his daughter’s high school graduation and the fact that he wanted me to shoot video at the ceremony, to then edit it down to something he can post on You Tube. For the love of Pete, can’t people do these things for themselves? I mean, it’s not that hard! Between you and me I’m thinking about making up some excuse that I can’t be there. You see, there’s a science fiction convention happening the same night and would much rather check that out!

I still can’t believe my friend from high school has a kid graduating from the same place we came out of! So, what the hell happened to me? Divorce, that’s what: and wasting the best years of my life on…nothing!! It’s moments like these that I always go back to what could’ve been, and Son Hui, my first love, and the woman I almost married. That’s when I did it again; put her name into Google to see what would come up. This was a regular exercise with me; that seemed to be happening more and more these days.

As yet one more fruitless search continued, another email notification popped on the screen. Oh man, he doesn’t give up does he; thinking it was Markus messaging me again. It wasn’t, but instead something from an address that wasn’t in my contacts or didn’t look familiar in the least.

Here's the screen capture.