A Star is Born TG AR Chapter 2

The process of setting up a new will took less time than Lund imagined.  He went to a Cayman Bank in downtown Los Angeles, they cleared the transfer into his new account from the NC Talent's own Cayman account, and then Lund went over to his attorney's office in La Habra.  Modifying his will to leave allowances for newfound birthdaughter's inheritance was easy.  Lund's divorce settlement decreed that his ex-wife get his existing life insurance at the time of the divorce, which was $25,000.  Nothing else in his post-divorce apartment was worth much, and his Sonata was a lease that would get taken back by Hyundai when he was declared "missing" and no one made the payments.  He was sure that his ex would have him declared dead as soon as she could for the insurance money, and his father was so passive that he might let her do it.

Lund was allowed to bring with him one keepsake item- his maternal great-grandfather's bible.  The revered Reverend Peter Metzger had been a fire and brimstone type preacher, and his notes were scribbled furiously throughout the worn, leather-bound copy of the book.  Lund wasn't religious, but he had promised his mother that he'd take care of the book.  Inside the scrawls and scrolls of Reverend Metzger's hand writing were subtle clues that Lund had penned in himself in order to remember the passcode to the Cayman's account.   He had done his research over the last week on spellcasters: If Roger's spellcaster was a spellcaster of the light, then he or she was not allowed to cast any spells on Lund against Lund's will.  If Roger's spellcaster was not "of the light", Lund could end up with his memory erased or a truth spell cast upon him against his will.  Lund figured only a novice spellcaster of the light would help Roger's cause.

They gave him a week to get everything in order before he officially disappeared from existence.  He made sure that most of the loose ends in his life were tied up.  He couldn't tell anyone he was leaving, but he made sure most projects at work were in good shape and well-organized so someone else could take over in a heartbeat, he made sure that the apartment was neat enough so the landlord could find everything anyone would need when Lund was declared missing, and he double-confirmed the Cayman's account.  Last thing to do was get ready to leave the last night with only the clothes on his back, his Bible and the apartment looking like Lund was just sitting at home watching TV when he just vanished.

That night exactly at 10pm, Lund stepped out of his front door with the light out, and he let it lock behind him. He left  with the TV on and a half-consumed glass of Sprite on the end table inside the apartment.  Bible in hand, he walked to an older, silver Ford Taurus that was sitting in a dark spot in the parking lot.  He got in, nodded to Chuck Quick who was behind the wheel wearing as baseball cap.  They drove away with the lights off and didn't turn them on until they were out of the complex and on the main road.

"Whose car?" Lund asked.

"No one's," Chuck said, "It was traded in at a dealer in Pasadena and given to an auction house in Anaheim to sell.  It was reported lost in a fire, and then it was sold to a colleague of mine who keeps it in storage.  The license plate is a duplicate of a Tennessee license plate also registered to a silver Ford that has the address of an abandoned farm.  We'll be dropping it off at a storage yard in Thousand Oaks and then we'll get back in my car to drive home to Oak Park."

"Good to know people, huh?"

Chuck shot him a small smile, "As a lawyer who does patents as well as general practice, I meet all sorts of people.  The guy who owns the car does a lot of investigative work: top dollar, under-cover stuff that you really need anonymity for.  I don't usually call in such favors, but when your uncle finds out you're missing he's going to do a search.  He's good.  I need to not have my name involved.  He won't find you as Keira, because we gave you that different birthname-"

"Meghan Garrison, right."

"-so that it looks like your name and social were changed during your time in witness protection.  He won't get into witness protection files, and he won't find Meghan Garrison anywhere.  As long as you remember your birthname should you decide to use your little 'insurance policy', you'll be fine."

Lund noticed a look he didn't like on his future father's face he didn't like.  "Are you mad about the agreement, Chuck?"

Chuck sighed a bit, "No, no, well... It's actually that I'm a bit mad that I didn't think of it myself.  It's a good idea, really.  We should have offered it to your future brother.  But she's been living upstairs in my offices waiting for her spellcast for over a week now.  She packed her bags and left her boyfriend as soon as we made the offer.  She didn't want to go through the process of becoming Jake until you were there.  Still, I wish we could have set that up for her.  But she was already reported missing the day you met with us."

"I'm sorry, Chuck."

"Now, the other part of it is, I hope you realize that Joan and I are not anyone you need to fear.  There's no real reason to set up that that $20,000 arrangement as far as we're concerned.  We're not hurt by it, we just hope you come to trust us.  We both-"

"I'm sure I'll come to trust you-"

"Don't you interrupt me, young lady." Chuck shot back with a serious face that turned into a grin.  Lund found himself laughing along with his new father.
  
"Seriously, though, Joan and I always wanted children but were both tested as infertile.  While we are doing this to help reach the goal of helping ourselves and others acheive an immortal state of becoming pure thought energy, we want to enjoy raising you and Jake for the next seven or eight years.  Though, really, while you will look like a ten-year-old, and you will have the bio-chemical make-up of a ten year old girl, which will effect your moods and feelings, you will still be Lund in your thoughts and memories.   So, we'll actually be raising two physically immature, mentally mature adults."

"Well, if you need me to call you Daddy and ask you to read me a story, I might just do it.  I've spent the last week readjusting my thoughts to being a kid again.  At first it really creeped me out, but I think I can adjust.  I also did some research this week on Roger, so I knew who I was dealing with.  You were his lawyer when he was... bodied?"

Chuck laughed, "Yeah, I was the executor for his estate.  He left everything to his sister, and she just wanted to sell off everything since she was in retirment and needed the cash.  She called a liquidator and he came and just took all the equipment for scrap.  Some of that stuff was made out of precious metals, and she made a pretty penny on it."

"Did they not keep notes?  I'm assuming the other two are Marion Phelps and Frank Ivers?  They were former professors at M.I.T. with Roger who were also declared missing last year?"

"Yes, and you'll meet them today.  They've been working with a corporeal colleauge of theirs from MIT who was somewhat informed on what they were working on.  He's helping them retrace forty years worth of work and put it back together."

"As beings of pure thought, they can't remember everything they did?"

Chuck laughed, but not as much as before.  "Now they can.  They can remember every conversation, every thought they have now.  But if it was a fuzzy memory before their 'transformation', then it's a fuzzy memory now."

"Like copying a scratched CD into an mp3?  The scratch remains even when it's been transferred to a digital format?"

"Pretty much.  To make it all worse, Frank Ivers ex-wife took possession of all his notes.  She brought it all to some idea-patenting firm and they told her it was all garbage.  She burned it all."

"And they can't go back in time to view what they did because..."

"Because the past is the past, according to them.  Once something happens, it's past.  There's nothing to see, nothing to go back to, it's gone.  That's why no one has traveled back in time and successfully returned to tell us about it.  Think of 'Now' as point moving along a line like a a spark lit on a fuse.  Once the spark of 'now' passes over a spot, it's burned and done."

"Are you sure?  That's not the most conventional theory."

"Well, I can't think of any other reason why they wouldn't just go back and just watch themselves, and there is no reason to doubt them.  Really, there's no reason to go through all this trouble if they could just pull it all out of history."

Lund pondered that as they drove on the 101 towards Thousand Oaks. "I don't know, it all seems kind of logical- why would the past exist once we're 'done with it'?  But part of me feels like I'm missing something, I'm not being told something, or they don't know something."

Chuck shook his head lightly, "I know what you mean, and both Joan and I went over it and over it.  For as 'not quite right' as it sounds, I can't prove them wrong.  And they've all been forthright and honest with us every step of the way.  It's not too late to back out if you're uncomfortable."

Lund shook his head, "No, I think it's possible that they can see and conceive things we can't right now, and I would definitely love to take this opportunity.  I just feel a bit better knowing you share a little bit of that skepticism as well... Dad."

Chuck smiled back, "Well, Keira, and we're going to start calling you that from this point on so you better get used to it, you should probaby call me Papa Chuck or something like that.  Your fictional adoptive parents are the ones who were supposed to have raised you, so we assume you'd call them Mommy and Daddy.  We'd prefer to be Papa Chuck and Mama Joan."

"I can live with that.  What's the plan for tonight?"

"Well, once we drop off this car and get home, you'll meet Marion and Frank, as well as your future brother, and then we'll all get some sleep and the spellcaster will be here in the morning."

"Do I get to know Jake's real first name?"

"No, we'd rather you not share your real identities with each other.  If, for some odd reason, this all goes sour, the fewer people who know your original identities the better.  When you walk into my offices tonight, you will be called Keira and she will be called Jake.  In six days or so, you will actually be Keira and she Jake.  And then we'll smuggle you two out of my offices one night, tell the neighbors we're going to go pick up our new adoptive children, spend a few days in Orange County at Disneyland and shopping for clothes, and then we'll bring you home."

"Really? You're taking us to Disneyland?"

"Well, where else do you take two children you just adopted after the death of their parents?"

Lund grinned, "Good idea, Papa Chuck."

"Thanks, Keira.  But you'll have to convince your brother or Mama Joan to ride Space Mountain with you.  Papa Chuck's stomach is better suited to the Jungle Cruise."