Chapter 7

The Hummer sped down the dirt road, kicking up dust in its wake. I gripped the armrest, my voice tense. "Jesse, you need to slow down! It does not matter that Omega got us back to normal in record time, but the damage to my job is already done."

Jesse eased off the gas, the vehicle settling into a safer speed. "I'm sorry, Keith, it's my fault. If you had refused to come, you'd still have your job."

I shook my head. "But I wouldn't have you or the spirits in me and all that come with it. I think I got the better deal by saying yes to you."

Jesse glanced at me. "You really feel that way?"

"I said it, didn't I? Yes, I feel that way."

Jesse hesitated before offering, "You can come live with me if you want."

I chuckled. "Your apartment is barely big enough for you, let alone both of us."

Omega suddenly cut in, their voice echoing in both our minds. 'We can give you the funds to buy a house together.'

Our eyes met, and thought, What the hell? "I was surprised you were able to speak with us away from the cave. I mean, we knew that you would feel our emotions and such, but…"

Omega interrupted, 'We-the three of us can communicate from anywhere in your world. As I told you two before, Keith is a very special human. His connection with us and the bond you two share have altered many possibilities."

_ _

"How would these funds work?" asked Jesse, still considering the information. You're not going to counterfeit money or something, are you?"

Omega responded, a hint of amusement in their tone. 'Oh yes, that paper you call money. No, nothing like that. Our world is rich in materials that are scarce in yours. We could send something valuable to the cave—or even to your apartment."

I considered this, then added, "That could cause other problems. Gold, for instance, is valuable here, but if we suddenly had a large amount and sold it, it would raise suspicions. Same goes for diamonds, platinum, palladium, and many other items."

_ _

Omega paused thoughtfully. 'I see. We could craft the gold into a statue or jewelry, age it to make it look like an heirloom. You could sell it as something passed down through generations."

_ _

"It would have to pass the scrutiny of an expert," I considered. A pawnshop sale would yield the money, but far less than it's worth.

'Rest assured, your people will find no shortcomings in what we give you. We can keep creating more, even if the individual items don't bring much profit, as we have an abundance of materials on our world.'

"What would you need to create such items?" I asked.

'If you show us artifacts from a specific historical period, all in the same style, and tell us the age of that period, we can replicate them. To make items from another period, you would need to show us examples from that time as well. It's best to focus on one period at a time so the dating will pass scrutiny.'

_ _

Jesse spoke up, "My parents are dead and I don't have any siblings, so if I started to sell jewelry from, say, the 1930s or earlier, I could explain away any questions about how I got them."

_ _

I nodded. "My mother is still alive and I do have sisters, but my father did leave me with some valuable things. I had to sell them when I moved out here, but my family doesn't know that. If I had them replicated, I could sell them without raising too many questions. They aren't unique, just made of gold, so it shouldn't attract too much attention. I got almost eight thousand when I sold them and gold is worth more now. Plus, I have many pictures of them, mostly with my father showing them off."

Jesse looked at me, determination in his eyes. "I'm willing to do it, are you?"

I hesitated, but then nodded. "I am, but it won't bring in enough money to buy a house."

"We could invest in high-risk stocks. If we invest wisely, we could make enough." Jesse suggested.

"Or lose all of it," I cautioned.

Omega interjected, 'What are these stocks you speak of?'

_ _

I explained, "It's a value placed in a company, we buy a piece of the company now and if the company makes a profit or if more people buy into the same company, the value of the company goes up and the value of our stocks also goes up, if more people sell than buy, the value drops. We could sell the stock at any time, but selling when the value is low means losing money. We need to sell it high to make a profit."

Omega seemed intrigued. 'We are able to assist with that _. How do you know the value of these stocks_ and when to buy or sell?'

"We have these computers that you link to websites that show the values in real time," I explained. "Once you have an account with money in it, you can buy and sell with the computer. I have a computer at home, but that would mean staring at it most of the day. It's boring, and I would lose interest very quickly."

Omega offered a solution. 'If you stay home, we can watch the information without you having to watch the computer at all.'

"How is that possible? You're inside us, remember?" I asked, skeptical.

Omega clarified, 'Remember, there are five of us, as long as you are not too far away, one or two of us can manifest in our spirit form. As to how far we cannot tell, we need to test it.'

Jesse shook his head in amazement. "First you said that you are one now you say you_'re_ still five. Which one is it one or five. You keep messing with my mind. Is there anything you can't do?"

Omega explained, 'When we are one we're, Omega, being spirits we can separate into our parts making us five. The one Omaga would be no more in till we combined again.'

By the time we reached my apartment, it was late. "You want to say here tonight, I don't have a spare room but my bed is king-sized?"

"You know what I'm going to say, don't you?" Jesse teased.

"Yeah, but I still had to ask. Don't make too much noise."

"I will be quiet as a mouse. I just want to be with you, touching you-and especially you touching me-even better."

Jesse got what he needed from the Hummer, insisting he carry everything once again, and followed me up to my apartment. As soon as we stepped inside, Jesse took a look around and remarked, "Well, with an apartment this big, I can see why you say mine is way too small."

I picked up my phone, which I had left at home, and noticed a few notifications. Dread settled in as I checked them. The first message was from my boss, just two words: YOU'RE FIRED. The second a link from work, I tapped it and a video from HR played. A woman with a cold, detached expression informed me that my services were no longer needed. My personal things would be collected and sent to my address within the week. My pass card was deactivated, and I was instructed to dispose of it and not to return to the office. Lastly, she mentioned that my final pay, and any compensation owed, would be deposited into my account on the usual payday. Six years and one missed day, and that ass gets me fired.

I couldn't stop the tears from welling up, my body trembling. Jesse noticed at once. "It's your job, isn't it? Don't worry, it's going to be okay. I have your back-we'll figure this out, you, me, and Omega." He wrapped his arms around me, holding me close, trying to comfort me.

It took a while, but I finally calmed down somewhat. "I'm all right," I whispered. "You can let me go now."

Jesse brought me into the bedroom and sat me down, then started to take off my clothes. When he was finished, he pulled the covers down and I just lay there just waiting. Jesse got his clothes off and went into the bed from the other side. He moved over and engulfed me in a warm embrace.

*****

I woke late in the morning and saw a note on the bed. "I did not want to wake you. I will be back around 4:30, bringing some stuff from my apartment. Hope you'll let me stay for a while."

I thought, 'Well, of course I will.'

Then, out of nowhere, I heard Jesse's voice in my head: 'See you then.'

_ _

' Jesse? Is that you?'

_ _

'Yeah, didn't think we could connect from so far away. This could come in handy.'

Omega chimed in, 'How large a distance is between the two of you?'

_ _

"I don't know exactly where Jesse works, but my old office is about 32 miles away. Why do you ask?" I responded aloud.

'If you use me as an intermediary, it would not matter how far apart you are,' Omega explained_. 'But you were thinking to yourself, so I did not send the thought to Jesse. This is the natural connection between you and him. While we have not had many bonding's. None had a being like you. Pervious links only extended about_ four or five of your miles. Given this, along with our conversation last night about you staying home to watch the computer. You could be a few miles away and it would not affect the spirit remaining here.'

"Speaking of that, let me show you my setup." I got dressed in casual clothes and went to the living room. "While I don't have a two-bedroom apartment, I have a home office." I opened a set of double doors between the kitchen and the living room. Behind it was a desk, a tall filing cabinet, and a large chair. The workspace was cozy. Trying to make it a second bedroom was out of the question.

I pressed a few buttons, and shortly the computer hummed to life, the screen lighting up as the fans quietly spun. "This is the computer. Let me show you the pictures I have of the items you can recreate for me to sell. They come from around 1932 to 1945, so the era is the same. But one item which I'll point out is from 1980 it's my father's retirement gift from his work. It's the most expensive item."

'Show us only that one for now. After it's made, you can show me the others,' Omega replied.

_ _

I opened up the file Pictures, and entered a date. Pictures appeared. Scrolling down, I stopped at watches. "I took these for insurance purposes, just in case the watch was ever stolen. A watch is a machine, so I do not know if you replicate it?"

_ _

After a moment, Omega responded, 'It can be done.'

Before I could leave to get a cup of coffee, Omega stated, 'It's completed.' Turning around, the watch was sitting on the desk.

_ _

"That was fast. I thought it would take a lot longer." I picked the watch up and looked it over. It was an exact duplicate. It was not ticking, so I wound it up and the second had started ticking away. I then got a tool out of the desk and opened up the back. I could see the jewels and latches moving and spinning away. "It looks perfect, but I am not an expert, so I need to go to the pawn shop to see how much it's worth. If they say it' s a fake, they may still offer me two thousand as long as the gold and jewels are real. Gold is up there in price right now. But if they accept it as real, I could get quite a bit more, say four to five thousand."

Omega asked, 'Will you wait for Jesse to come back from work first or will you go now?'

_ _

"I should wait for Jesse. The pawnshop's in a rough area. With him around, nobody would mess with me."

_ _

'You do know that no one can harm you, correct?' Omega stated.

"I do, but me being this small, if attacked. It would be hard to explain how I beat up a guy as big as Jesse. Or if there were a group, a gang that would be impossible to explain without making the news?"

_ _

'Yes, we see your point.'

_ _

When Jesse came back, I was out the door and to his Hummer before he could even get out. "You need to take me to the pawn shop in the sleazy area. You know where I'm talking about, right?"

"Sure, but why do you want to go there?" Jesse asked. I showed him the watch. "Is that one of Omega's?"

_ _

"Sure is. This will make us some money either way since it is made of gold. Omega said it had all the right percentages of different metals and the jewels are what they appear to be. He even used the computer to research it. Who knew he could enter a computer and communicate out to the web?"

*****

Driving back to my home, Jesse remarked, "looks like we won't have a problem pawning off things. Did you look at the guy's face when he was examining it? I think if we had brought it to a high-end shop, they would have given us a lot more."

"Yeah, most likely. But later, they could point back to me if they somehow connected it with the original-the watch has a serial number on it. I did not notice it until the pawn shop examined it. The other things the spirits will be making won't have jeweler markings, so they will stand on their own. I can take them to one of the fine jewelry stores and get a better price." I explained.

"You should also look at jewelry from the 1900s, 1930s, and 1960s for me. I can say that the older ones were from my grandmother and the later ones from my mother." My mother's name was Emily, so have some inscription put in with that name. My grandmother was Elsa, do the same with some of the older ones."

"So, I'm the one that needs to do the research?" I asked.

"It will be your part-time job for a little while," Jesse replied with a grin.

When we got home, I told Omega not to put any identifying mark on any copy he made, as it could spell problems for me. I showed Omega the other images I had of the things I sold off that my father left me. These were also in a file I made for insurance purposes.

Omega asked_, 'please show me other items from the same period.'_

I researched some and then, after saving the ones that fit the period, showed them to Omega.

While Omega was reviewing the images, I decided to check the mail. As I headed downstairs to the central mail area, I ran into Mat, the renter who lived below me.

"Hi Mat. Do you have the day off? I don't normally see you other than on the weekends."

"Hi Keith. Yeah, my wife and I are going on vacation. We will be gone for a whole month. I was wondering if you could collect the mail for us?" Mat asked.

"Sure, no problem. I have all the time in the world right now. I got fired the other day-long story, but I missed a day of work after getting back from a camping trip a day late and they just axed me."

"Wow, that's brutal."

"Yeah, my boss has always been an ass. You didn't hear any noise coming from my apartment last night, did you?"

"No, why do you ask?"

"Well, I finally found a boyfriend and since I'm now unemployed, he's moving in to help with the rent. He's a big guy, so I thought maybe him walking around was making too much noise for you."

"He must be really big, if you're asking. Well, at least for the next month, you won't have to worry. I did not know you were into big guys?"

"Oh, he's not fat- more like a bodybuilder, or maybe a power lifer is the right term."

"I see. Yeah, big guys like that can attract guys like you. Not that I'm judging or anything."

"I'm good. Have fun on your vacation and I'll take care of the mail till you get back." Mat handed me his mail key.

When I returned to the apartment, Omega was still in the computer. "Are you still researching?" I asked.

'Oh no, since you did not come back right away, I decided to look into the stock market thing you and Jesse spoke of. I took the liberty of making the same things that your father gave you but made some changes. Please take a look,' Omega replied.

I glanced at my desk and sure enough, there were rings and a necklace with a crucifix- much more elaborate than the ones my father left me. Examining each piece, I noticed all of them had jeweler marks. "Are these real marks, or did you make them up from the ones in my father's pictures?"

'They are real. I made these pieces as the original companies would have.'

_ _

"That may be a problem. If these pieces were brought to these companies, they would have records of what pieces they made, and if they look, they won't find a record for these."

'Would you like me to remove the marks?'

_ _

"I'll just have to take these to a different pawn shop. We won't get the most money for them, but that's okay. Just don't put marks in anymore. Many a jeweler, especially small or unknown ones, might not have put marks on their items, and if they did, they may not have kept good records. We need to sell these at a jewelry shop to get the best price."

The research was what took the most time, even after I showed Omega all the images related to the same period, making sure he did not to put jeweler's marks on the pieces, and I found a list of the most common inscriptions that should go on some of the pieces. Omega insisted on scouring the internet to make sure the material and ratio of impurities would be correct. This took all day for the jewelry from the 1900s. The pieces appeared on his desk the same as the furs in the cave- materializing all at once.

'We made sure that the pieces had some grime that would build up in the crevices from a wearer using it over time'. Stated Omega.

"These pieces are beautiful, and you made them unique. None of them look like exact copies of the images I showed you, yet all look like they came from a set-like maybe Jesses's grandfather gave one or two for his wife's birthdays, Mother's Day or anniversary."

_ _

'We have created a trading account for you, connected to your bank account, and have started trading. Oron will continue monitoring the market and make trades as necessary. He's currently on the computer. When Jesse returns, I will take over so Oron can interact with you. Remember, while we are different spirits, you can still call him Omega or Oron.'

"You did what? How much of my money did you use to start trading?"

'I found a savings account along with a checking account. There were a couple of other accounts, but if I took from them, there would be a penalty, so I only used most of your savings' account.'

_ _

"There was like thirty thousand in there."

'It should suffice for now; we may need more to grow the fund at a faster rate,' Omega stated calmly.

_ _

"Or bankrupt me."

"If I call Oron by his name which one are you?"

'I am Urase.'