The More Things Change.......

Doyle called the day after the third Event, and wanted to meet. We agreed (actually he said and I agreed) to the lower level at Woodbridge Center, outside of Sears at 8:30 AM the next day, which would be Sunday the 20th. The stores in the mall don't open until 11 on Sundays so we'd have a certain degree of privacy.


When he showed up, he said to follow him and we started walking. I guess we were supposed to look like a couple of regular mall walkers, although the suit he was wearing was a little out of character for the purpose.

"Well, you managed to get 3 Events in the first month. Now you only need 9 more before the test period is up. Looks like you might make it."
"Gee, Thanks!" I couldn't tell if sarcasm works on him, but I try to keep my hand in."Did you ask to see me to tell me that, or is there something else?"
"Have you given any thought to how the next 5 months will work?"
"I though you said that there should be no thought, no planning, that it should all be random."
"Yeah, I know, I did, and it should. What I meant was what are you gonna do when the weather turns bad? The next 5 months will take you into February, you know."
"I hadn't thought about it. If it snows or we get some really harsh weather, not only will I not be able to walk around as well, but no one else will either."
"Right. But we've thought about it, and we have a solution."

And that's how I wound up with a car courtesy of the government. Before you start griping about your tax dollars, let me explain:
Doyle couldn't just give me a car, because it wouldn't fit with my current lifestyle. People might talk. Instead he came up with a more novel approach to the situation.
He arranged to have a friend of a friend remember that I was currently without a car. With the seasons changing and given that the transplant had only been 10 months ago, they decided that the car she was going to donate to charity should go to me. So for the princely sum of $1.00 I became the proud owner of a 1990 silver, 4-door, Chrysler New Yorker with 114,000 miles on it. (I actually left $2.00 for it, but the title said $1.00 and I wasn't going to argue about it.)

I questioned Doyle about this. After all, I thought, my walking around all the time was what made me the ideal candidate for this project. He told me this would allow me to move a little further outside my comfort zone, and maybe try going out in the evenings as well. Also, again, he mentioned how the weather might create some problems. I really didn't care what his reasons were. I was now mobile. Or almost. I still needed insurance, and there was a trip to Motor Vehicles that couldn't be avoided.

Monday, I searched on-line for insurance carriers, and settled on one of the national chains because they were reasonable (read cheap), they would debit my checking account automatically, and they have a cute mascot. Onward to the MVD.

I mentioned before that I have a daughter, right? Well, her boyfriend "volunteered" to drive me to the MVD and then to get the car. He was to pick me up around 12:30 and I said I'd spring for lunch when we were done. Neither of us thought we'd be done that early, but the offer of a free meal was out there. You may find this hard to believe, because we did, but I registered the car, got the new title and plates, drove to where the car was, changed the plates, and were sitting in a Denny's ready to order by 1:30!!! You go MVD!!

Now I'm mobile with 3 down and 9 to go and 5 months to do it in. Will the weather really cause me a problem? I can't worry about it now. I've got 3 more weeks in this month. I'm going to try to stay on 2 Events a month, at least. I really hope to be done sooner, but only time will tell.

Brought to You by the Number Three.....

Yesterday started off cloudy, but it started to burn off around noon. Looked to be a nice day for a walk, so I grabbed my CD Player and some CDs - Harry Chapin, Jimmy Buffett (I like to hear the words) - and headed up to Shoprite to pick up some food for the weekend.

On my way back along Freeman Street, I noticed a Post Office truck parked about a block and a half ahead of me. I did a quick scan of my surroundings - no people about, no cars coming or going. I took the Flasher from my back pocket and held it down by my side. I came up closer to the truck....closer....closer. Then I realized I could hear voices - or more accurately, one voice, the driver's. She (and, yes, the Postman was a girl) was talking on a cell phone while paging through a catalog or magazine. I now had proof that Postmen do read our mail. Damn! I couldn't take a chance on the Postman, because I didn't want to raise any suspicion in whomever she was speaking to. If the line suddenly went dead (no pun intended) then the other party may raise an alarm when they can't reconnect. I'm not supposed to attract any attention.

With the Flasher still in my hand, I passed by the truck. She didn't even look in my direction. Damn civil servants. I kept walking, and was going to put the Flasher back in my pocket when I became conscious of the sound of a lawn mower just ahead. A couple of feet brought my into sight of a middle-aged man energetically pushing a mower back and forth over his back yard. Another quick scan. Still no one. Point, push, Flash, and as he fell to the side and the mower continued to move away from him, I passed on by toward the corner. I looked at my watch as I put the Flasher away. I'd be home in time to see "Cold Case" on TNT.

IT AIN'T EASY......

Staying up in Avenel for the weekend, and I noticed that there hasn't been an entry to this blog in almost a week. There's an answer for that - this Event creating is not as easy as you might think.

Went out early, as I do most mornings, but it's overcast with rain threatening. Not a day to expect a lot of people to be walking around. I drop off my cable payment, and go to McDonald's for breakfast. sitting there, I watch a mother (grandmother?) come in with a Down's syndrome "child". He looks to be close to 20, but is occupied with a ball and paddle type of thing. I think that this is what she has to do - take care of this "child" - whether she complains about it or not. Events are what I have to do, now, whether I like it or not. We all have to do things we don't like.

I've spent the last week trying to create another Event, but they can't be planned for. There were a couple of possibles, but I recognized one old guy as someone who has breakfast in a Dunkin Donuts I frequent and in another, she had a dog with her. No one said anything about animals.

I'm afraid of being caught. I know that I had two within the first week, but I realize that there were things that could've gone wrong and I just didn't consider them. Now, when I'm out there, I start to notice all the cars passing by and the nearness of houses and/or apartment windows or store fronts.

Then again, Doyle did say they'd pull me out if I did get caught so maybe I should just not worry too much and go about my daily routines and wait for the opportunity to present itself.

If I want to continue this second life, what else can I do?

SECONDS

SECONDS, PART 1
Let me take a SECOND or two to explain something. These posts, so far, have been entered close to when the topic they deal with happened. That's not the case for now. You see, I got into an argument with the phone company over some problem with the line - they said I'd have to pay for them to come out since I didn't take some kind of insurance or something - and I told them to cancel my service. Felt good until I realized that I had dial-up. The cable company said they can't hook me up because my operating system is too old. So until I can upgrade, or get a new computer (looking into laptops/notebooks right now) I must rely on the kindness of strangers or the library, whichever I can get access through. What this means is that future posts will take place when I can access, not when they happen, but I'll try to remember to date them so that the time line remains constant.

SECONDS, PART 2

September 2, 2009 . . . Doyle called yesterday. He wanted to know if I had any SECOND thoughts.
"How're you doing? You OK?"
"Yeah. Why wouldn't I be?"
"You know, because of yesterday . . what you did . . the Event."
"I knew that's what you meant, but I wanted to see how'd you phrase it. Actually, I'm not bad. I thought a lot about it, after I got home, but I'm OK with it. I guess I'm still in the mind-set I got while in the hospital."
"What's that mean? I'm not following?"
"When you're in there, waiting for a transplant, maybe just a heart transplant maybe others, I don't know but you get to thinking about things differently. They wake you up at all hours, checking your vitals and drawing blood, but you know they want to make sure you're still alive - even though they've got a monitor hooked up to you. You can't move too far because of the monitor on your chest and the tubes and such in your arms so when they leave, you lie there in the dark and you start to think and the only thing you think about is if you're gonna live or not. You got a choice, you can let these thoughts make you nuts, or you can compartmentalize. You put them away, lock them up, and think of something else. I got good at that, and I seem to be able to still do it. I did what I had to do to keep up my end, and I locked it away. When I thought about it later, it didn't bother me so much. "
"OK. If that's how you want to treat this, that's fine. As long as you can continue, the People Upstairs will continue to monitor. I got a couple of reminders, but if you have any questions, we can address those first."
"How were you able to "confirm" the Event so quickly?"
"You know we can track you through the implant. Well, the Flasher gives off a signal when it's trigerred that gets picked up by the same equipment that tracks you. When they're registered together, we mobilize whoever we have locally, and check things out. It's as simple as that. Anything else?"
"No."
"OK. Reminder Number 1, the Flasher only works once a day, so keep that in mind. Two, don't target anyone you know. The further removed you are, the less likely that you'll be suspected. Three, try not to target minorities. We've already got people doing that. All you have to do is make them random, and spread them out. Got it?"
"Yeah. I got it. Any other words of wisdom?"
"No. We'll be in touch."
He hung up.

SECONDS, PART 3

September 3, 2009

Another early morning. I decided to head on over towards Menlo Park. To do this, I'd either have to walk to, or catch the bus at Main Street and Amboy Avenue to, Woodbridge Center. From there, it's a short bus ride to Menlo. I'd probably have breakfast at IHOP, and browse through Barnes and Noble. Not a bad way to spend a day.

From my apartment, I go to Green Street, then cut through the train station parking lot, go around the tennis/basketball courts out onto School Street, and through the Reo parking lot to Main and Amboy. Once I got to School Street, I noticed that there was a cab parked just off the corner where I was going to turn. As I passed, I noticed that the driver was in there, apparently reading something.

I looked around . . no one was out and there were no cars coming or going. I drew out the Flasher.

At the corner, I turned slowly, checking my surroundings again. Still no one but me, and the cabbie. I pointed, pushed the button, and turned as the flash of light erupted. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw his head hit the steering wheel. I walked around the corner and up to Main. The bus showed up 10 minutes later, 5 minutes after the confirmation. My SECOND.

It was an hour or so later that I realized that the Flasher blast must've gone through the windshield without shattering it, and that I was damn lucky that the driver's head didn't hit the horn or it would've attracted a lot of attention that I didn't really need.

I didn't get anything at Barnes and Noble but I did enjoy my breakfast.

You Gotta Start Somewhere......

I'm in the habit of carrying the Flasher with me. It's not so big that I can't stick it in my back pocket, and it's hard enough that I can sit on it, if I have to. Today's plan was to walk up to Perkins for breakfast, do some food shopping at Shoprite, and stop at the library to see if there's anything new.

I turned off Rahway onto Freeman Street, and headed for the train tracks - Freeman Street dropping underneath them to allow passage. As I approached, I saw a jogger coming towards me. A male, dark skinned, maybe Indian or Pakistani - they're a lot of them around here. I pulled the Flasher as I got nearer, but even though it was early I was conscious that there were cars passing by. The flash might attract them.

I passed him.

As I came up to the spot where the sidewalk dropped below the tracks, I saw another jogger rapidly approaching. Female, looked to be older then me. I looked around. The previous jogger was gone, possibly having turned the corner. As I passed her, I realized there were no cars within sight.

I pointed, pressed, and there was a bright flash. No sound. As I replaced the Flasher, I saw the woman drop to the side of the walkway, into a grassy area. I kept walking, and followed Freeman Street around towards Amboy Avenue and Perkins.

My cell phone chimed. I had a text message from "James". It read "Confirmed. 11 more to go."

I put the phone away and continued on my way. What else could I do.

There's nothing more to say.