Got a couple of emails telling me to split it up into smaller pieces. So here it goes
__You have four ways to read this story:
1- You can read . The Stranger Within, and The Return of the Stranger. Then read this story
2- You can read this story by itself. As a stand-alone piece. Then read the other two.
3- You can read the first chapter then go back and read The Return of the Stranger, then Read The Stranger Within. And then read the rest of this story.
4- If you have read The Stranger Within and The Return of the Stranger. You can skip to chapter 2 and read from there on. Not a great idea but you can.
Please R/R. Good or Bad. Just be constructive. Let me know what you think of my style. And if I should write some more. All feedback is appreciated. Thank you for the reviews.
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THE STRANGER AND THE URN OF VILLEOUS
CHAPTER 1
AL had founded her. She was in his arms, kissing him. And this other fellow, Harry was also there. And they knew him, and knew him well. But he didn't know them. She had become an obsession, a longing, a thirst that had to be quenched, the one with the scar was someone he had met six months before and later had seen in a photograph, with the other three red headed brothers.
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This is how his story began.
Six months before, he had woken up in an unfamiliar house with five strangers hovering over him, three red headed brothers, Ron, George, Fred, a fellow named Harry and a very attractive woman; Hermione, she is the one that some how he thought he knew. They had told him, that he was walking pass her house and he had fainted . They had brought him in, just to make sure he was all right.
He told them he was fine, that all he needed was to call a cab and go home.
She had called him a cab, and insisted on waiting with him outside, until the taxi got there. Before getting in the cab, he had looked at the number on the house, it was 328 and at the next corner he looked at the street name and saw that it was Lenus Lane. He made a mental note of the address, maybe I can come by, with some flowers, or maybe a box of Dutch Powder Cocoa. That is a crazy thing to bring to someone, what ever made him think of that he told himself. Over the years, he had brought gifts to women that some times where a bit out of the ordinary, from three types of champagne, a cell phone, tickets for a weekend trip to The Cayman Islands, to a tank with water and lobsters, Sheila was a hard core animal rights activist; what better date, than to go an release the lobsters instead of eating them. But cocoa why...?
The taxi dropped him at his place. It was large loft with a lot of furniture, most of them antique. He went in and looked around, everything looked the way he remembered, some of the decorations looked out of place, he did not remember all of them, but told himself, " Well, I do not spend that much time here in London anyway, how can I remember everything I have bought ". The loft was broken up into areas, as you walked in the front door, there was a bar on the left and a Queen Ann writing desk on the right and next to the desk a four-drawer filing cabinet. The filing cabinet was brown, not a perfect match, but a fair compromise. Style and practicality.
Following the bar was a living room set, made of several rather large but very comfortable pieces, they didn't match but it was a good and practical arrangement and next to it, was a huge dining room table it sat twelve, he looked at the chairs they all matched, but they where so large and heavy he knew he had them, but why did I buy so a large set. A divan separated the dining room from an alcove that had been turned into a bedroom. He had a chess of drawers and decided to empty out his pockets, why did he have so much change; what are all these coins he had forty maybe fifty coins that he had never seen before. He picked one up, it was pretty worned out but it said Gallons, he picked up another one, looked at it and read Galleon-1, he also had a few smaller ones, they said Sickles.
" What Am I doing with all this coins, could they be tokens, but for what ". Something else that was not making any sense. Why had he come to England this time, he really did not know. Many other times, he had come to buy antiques, several business deals and visit with friends he had three good friends that lived in London and he also knew Dr. Baker, he had been a family friend for many years. He was English, and after working in The United States for a number of years, had decided to come back. He was the plastic surgeon he had mention to the guy, with the scar on his forehead.
Why had he fainted, why did so many things look out of place. He went to the bar made himself a drink, a single malt , he went to the kitchen got some ice and sat on one of the sofas to think for a moment. Way in the back, he saw two satchels, got up looked inside and much to his surprise they where full of the same tokens he had in his pocket, " Must be thousands of them, but why do I have them, and what are they.....? "
He decided to call Mark Baker, " He is a doctor, maybe he can tell what is wrong with me". For the first time in his life, Al was actually concerned, he was not sure of himself and that was something he was not used to. Dr. Baker called him back after about an hour, they talked about his family and Dr.Baker's and after, Al told him how he was feeling, and what he had gone through that day, the Doctor said he was going to make an appointment for him with a neurosurgeon, not to worry just to stay home for the next few days, he would pull some strings, and get him admitted to a hospital for tests as soon as possible. Two days later Al was being, x-rayed, scanned, photograph, every fluid he had, was checked, and every cavity he had, was looked at. At the end, all they could tell him , was that he was in perfect health and that he was probably suffering from stress. Stress, the excuse for not finding anything wrong with someone.
Over the last three days, even though he felt fine physically. He had all these emotions he could not explain, and he had flashes in which he saw the girl he had seen, the day he fainted. Why did she look so familiar, maybe she just had one of those faces. There where two things he had always excelled at, one was remembering faces, the other one was remembering names. He could tell you the names of most of the kids he had gone to school with, from first grade on, and he could remember their faces, people he had met at business dinners and people he had made one time deals with. Even in London a lot people he had met through his three good friends, David, Elliot, and Martin. He had not talked to any of them the last few days. He decided to call them. David and Elliot where single but Marty had gotten married, about four months before. He had come to London that time, stayed for a week, maybe I met her during the wedding or the rehearsal dinner, he could not remember all those people, plus a lot of them had been friends of the bride.
He did not know Elsa that well. " I'll bet that is where I saw her, she probably was not by herself, and that is why they had not been introduced." From what he had seen of Elsa she was good at two things, dinner parties and introducing single women to Marty's friends.
The following day all four of them got together, Elsa invited two women that some how, a neighbor had introduced her to, Al never understood how Elsa knew this two women, and he really did not care. He talked to his friends and Elsa about Hermione Granger, but none of them had ever heard of her, Elsa even called some friends that had taken dates, to see if she was one of them. Elsa did not mind, it gave her chance to show Al the wedding pictures and the wedding video and she was static that he was the one that asked her to see it. Both David and Elliot told him afterwards they would never forgive him for having to sit through the pictures and video again. But no picture of Hermione or sight of her in the video.
He also took some of the tokens he had, to see if any of them knew anything about them, but no one did. In the beginning he thought they could be old coins, but some of them where new.
After dinner he got a chance to talk to David alone, he had been his roommate at the prep school all three of them had attended. Al remembered when he turned sixteen he told his father he wanted to attend a prep school in England, his father thought it was excellent idea and his grandfather even gave a considerable amount of money, for him to take with him. That's when he stared playing the stock market and he had done quite well to the point that among his friends he was known as Tips.
"Dave, let me ask you something and please do not think I'm totally nuts. But all the paintings I have and the sculptures and all that old furniture, over at my place. Did I buy it all, or was some of it given to me. Because to be honest with you, I do not remember a lot of it, specially the art pieces, and they all look real and very old."
" Al what are you talking about, if there is one thing, you are better at, than picking stocks, is buying antiques and buying art, How many times didn't you drag all three of us, to state sales to buy old furniture, and you always made a mint, I do not remember you ever losing money on any of those deals, and you would show up with an old painting some of them classics, how many times didn't you tell me, how you found it, at a flea market or an antique store"
" You see some of the furniture, I remember buying, but some of the.....Look is not a big deal, I doesn't matter."
" How about that imaginary girlfriend of yours?."
" You see that's the worst part, I know I know her from some where, I just don't know where"
" Look, tomorrow go by her house talk to her. And get this obsession over with. "
" You are right, I'll do it tomorrow. "
The next day Al called a Taxi, told him to take him to 328 Lenus Lane.
After a few minutes the cab driver told him " Sir, here we are Lenus Lane, are you sure about the number, are you sure it was 328"
" Of course I'm sure. You cannot find it."
Al got out. He was sure this was the street, he remembered the trees, he remembered the odd colored house that was across the street, he had looked at it for ten minutes, while they waited for the cab. But yet he could not find 328. He found 322, and 332, but no 328. All the houses where next to each other 322 was next to 332, they where large homes, with a lot of windows but no other entrance. There was no 328. He called on the other two places but no one had ever heard of 328 and no one knew Hermione, even though both places said that in the house next door, a young woman lived fitting that description. But she lived at neither one of them. He finally gave up and left.
If only he could have seen through the window, he would have discovered a young woman looking at him. With a cup of hot chocolate and tears running down her cheeks.
He got home, sat down on his sofa, and wondered if he was going nuts. He put his key chain on the table, and stared at it for a few minutes and told himself, why do we always keep so many keys, even those two skeleton keys why would I have them, and all those others, no idea either. He had about twenty keys on his key chain, yet only could account for about half of the keys. Well at least, this is more normal. Most people do not throw old keys away
On Monday he called a private detective that he knew, and told him, he wanted to find Hermione Granger. I'm going back to The United States, call me as soon as you find anything. He mailed him a check for basic expenses and the next day he got on a plane back to Florida. " Things will make sense once I'm home."
Things went fine for the next few weeks. He got into his normal rhythm, even if a few things where still not making sense. He found a few articles and a few paintings that he did not remembered buying, but for the most part life was normal. His broker called one day, to ask, why he had not been buying or selling stocks. Al told him, he just didn't know what to buy, and what he had seemed OK. He asked himself how he had been able to pick stocks before, he remembered doing it but had no idea how. Or what had made him so good at it.
He was sitting in his living room one day and saw on a bookcase, an album of photos he had not looked at for a while. Picked it up, and starting going through it, when he came across one photograph he was not expecting. He was looking at a picture of the five people he had seen that day, the three red headed brothers in the back and in front of them Hermione with Harry on one side and him on the other.
How is this possible, how can I have a picture of all of them, and I'm with them. So I do know this people, but who are they and why I can't remember them. Part of him felt better, that he was not hallucinating the fact that he had known her, but part of him got really scared. How could he forget them, and why did they act like they had never seen him before. He went through the rest of the photos, to see if he had any more of them and he only found one other, it was him with a woman with red hair, and he was wearing the same clothes as in the other picture. She was pretty, and it made him think of the three brothers with red hair and he wondered if she could be related to them. But once again he had no idea who she was, or where the photo had been taken.
He got on the phone and called the detective, he had hired in London to see if he had made any progress. He told him, not much, he had found some people who had a daughter that fitted Hermione's description, but she was nowhere to be found. He had tried to stake out the house of the parents a few times but without any luck. Al told him to stay with it, to send him the address of her parents and a current bill.
He was still thinking, about The Girl. As he began to refer to her. He would have a dream, or a flashback, or she would just pop in his head for no reason. It was a mystery and he was determined to get to the bottom of it.
Four days later, he got a letter that made things worse. It was an official looking envelope, he opened it and even though his Spanish was quite poor he could tell that it was a tax notice, for a house in Mallorca, Spain. Why was getting a tax notice for a house he didn't own. But it was all their, his name, the address of the house and as mailing address His, in Highland Beach. How can this be, I do not own a house in Spain, or do I.
He had to go, and see this house, maybe it would give him some idea, maybe finally everything would fall into place, some how he doubted it . Al went ahead and made reservations. One way ticket, he figured why not go to London and check some things out, on his own, afterwards.
He had not talked to his mother for a couple of weeks, and when ever he left town he always told her, where he was going.
This conversation was about to make things worst for him. After talking for a few minutes about the nonsense people always talk with friends and family about, Al told her he was going to Spain, to Marbella and much to his surprise his mother told him.
" Well is about time you got some use, out of that house "
" Mom. how do you about the house, have you ever seen it?."
She had not, but he had told her about it. It had been about two years, she thought, but she could not be sure. His mother knew about the house yet he did not. He made some excuses, that at the time, he thought it was going to be a good investment and it was a good area. He had no idea what he was telling her. But he did not want her to worry her.
And then she said " Honey you don't have make excuses, is your money. I know you thought your friend would like the house and the two of you could go and vacation there. "
" What friend are talking about?."
" Oh please, Hermione, who else. What's wrong with you?."
" Is, just that I was not sure, if you remembered her?."
" Why, you have always had this thing for her, I will never know. As a matter of fact you have not talked much about her lately. I think the last time was around the time you got that house. Do you remember the day you call me, and told me you had found this cute house, and you thought she would want to go and vacation there again, since she had been going with her parents to Mallorca for years."
" Yes of course " What else could he say.
He told her he would be gone for a few days, and that that would call as soon as he got back.
His mother knew about the house and she knew about The Girl. Yet he didn't have a clue.
Two days later he had landed at the Mallorca airport. Got a Taxi and gave the man the address 1548 Avenida de la Costa. This time he was able to find the place. He had no idea how he was going to get in the house but figured he would start with trying some of those extra keys he had. And sure enough, one of them, was to the front door. It did not surprise him, he almost anticipated it
He walked in, it was apparent no one had lived in this place, at least not lately. The electricity was off. there where some Rattan pieces, in what could be the living room, and a dinette set with four chairs, the place had two bedrooms, there was a bed in one of them, the other one was empty. The house had a great view, small but right on the water, he opened the back door, it had a verandah , with a set of stairs going down to the sand. " no wonder the taxes are 548,000 pesetas ($2,800). He sat in one of the chairs and on top of the table he found a handful of papers a couple of newspapers, a map, what looked to be an electric and also a water bill. they where almost two years old. And then he found one paper that got his attention. It was a receipt La Moda Nueva- Joyeria ( The New Style- Jewelry Store) for 3,924,000 pesetas. He spoke Italian but with his Spanish he could not make out what the item was.
Went out, after about ten minutes found a taxi that took him to La Moda Nueva, It was a very exclusive Jewelry Store the kind that caters to tourists, or rich locals. He went inside and found the owner, he was a short bald headed man with a grey pencil thin mustache, he was very pleasant and acted like Al was a long lost customer, he also spoke good English, which made the conversation a lot easier. Al showed him the receipt, the man looked at it, and said of course he remembered selling it. It turned out to be a bracelet. He went on; saying that it was a one of a kind, made by his son. He called his son in. He looked the same as his father, almost no hair, with a brown pencil thin mustache. The son spoke even better English. than his father, and the three of them talked for a while, the son told him he remembered the piece quite well, because of the inscription he put on the inside of the clasp. It surprised him, because Al had wanted the inscription in Spanish, but he remembered Al telling him at the time it was for an English girl. The man smiled and said "I think you told me, you wanted her to remember Mallorca "
Al said good bye, and that he would come back, as soon as she had decided if she wanted it replace. He told them that someone, he had given the bracelet to had lost it, and he was thinking about replacing it for her.
He went back to the house, looked around one more time to see if something triggered a memory. But nothing, all he thought about was the verandah and The Girl . They where talking, but it wasn't this place. He had another piece to the puzzle, but no answers. He locked the house up, went to the airport and got on the next plane out to Madrid, from there London.
He was not quite sure what he was going to do in London. On the way to his loft he told the taxi driver to go to 328 Lenus Lane. He didn't know where else to start. After about half an hour the driver told him " We are here, sir. "
And they where. There was the house, with the number on it, 328, with the small set of steps going up to the entrance. How can this be. He was not expecting to see the house, he was hoping maybe to see her, walking down the street, or maybe going into a different house. But he was not expecting to find number 328. The odd colored house was across the street. Every thing looked the way it did that first day, the day they told him he had fainted. He looked through the window and saw that the house was empty.
He was not ready for this. How do you explain....?. You cannot.
He got to his place. Called Bill the private investigator, of course no news!. But he was working on it, and that as soon as he found anything, he would let him know.
He did not want to see any of his friends so he stayed in London just one day, and flew back to Florida.
He could not understand any of it. He knew The Girl, he knew the rest of her friends, and he had another house, yet nothing registered.
The next couple of weeks, brought more dreams, and she was always in them. They where talking, they where dancing, they where drinking. Others were in his dreams, but she was the only one, he recognized.
Things settled down after that, he stopped having the dreams, would think about The Girl, but at least not all the time. He even went out with Beth a couple of times. He had known her for a number of years, they would date, when ever they where not seeing anybody.
Then another letter came, this time from Le Banc Swiss Internationale. Telling how much they appreciated his business and since his family had been a founding member of the bank. they wanted to make sure, their service was second to none. But they felt they had fallen behind the times just a bit lately, and they wanted to remodel all the single vaults, they where hoping he could come by, to move all the contents to one of their new vaults, to please let them know, as soon as possible.
What could this possibly be now, he was not sure if he should ask his parents if they knew something about the bank, but decided against it. He called the bank told them he was on his way, and the next day left for Lucerne.
Al had no idea what to expect. He was over, being surprise he told himself no matter what I find, It will not bother me. It is just part of the puzzle.
He was ready for anything he thought, but he was not ready for what he found at the bank. They took him to an underground cellar in which several small rooms lined the walls, a couple of them where being worked on. Several guards milled around. The man that had accompanied him asked if he had his keys, he fumble with his key chain, not quite sure if he had he right key, and the man told him "Oh good, let me give you a hand, Mr. Mora." and he took the two skeleton keys and open the door of the vault, and stepped aside, and told him that any of the guards, would be more than happy to help move his things to the new vaults, or he wanted to do it by himself, he would tell every one to leave, and he would show him the new vaults, which he said, where just down the other corridor.
Al told him that it was fine, if he needed help he would call a guard. And then he asked the man, if they had met before. The man gave a look that was of complete disbelief. " You started coming here when you where a youngster, maybe sixteen years old, that is when you took possession of the vault from the previous owner."
" No what I meant was, when was the last time that I came here, to be honest, I travel so much I just could not remember. It would help me a lot"
" I will look, Mr. Mora. "
" Please call me Al"
Al walked into the room and could not conceive what he was seeing, several paintings over on one side, boxes full of gold coins, and jewelry. Plus over on one side, bags of those tokens. He looked at the paintings, Goya, Velazquez, Dali, Picasso. How come, he had all these things, once again he was baffled, all the gold bars, and coins, and dollars, and pounds not too much currency, but enough to make must people happy for life, and it was all his. He didn't need any of it, but it was nice to know he had it. He also had several books, old and dusty, he looked at them it was old English, and some was Italian, but very Old Italian, probably Latin. He grabbed a handful of the tokens, called on of the guards, and asked him to give him a hand. After about an hour, they had moved it all, into the new vaults. The new vaults where still going to have two keys but they also had a combination. The man handed Al the two keys wrote the combination on a piece of paper. And then asked him, another of those questions he was not ready for.
" The interest on you account more than covers the rental on the vault. Do you still want to keep the system, for transfer of ownership of the vault."
" What do you mean. "
" Well Al, you do not mind, if I call you Al. You have the most unusual will, or structure for transfer of ownership. When ever we get the keys returned to us , the new person has to give us a password, for the keys to be turned over to them, and if some shows up, that we have never seen but has the keys, they also have to give us the password. I know it has been like that, for over two hundred years, your relatives where founding members of the bank, and still hold a percent of ownership. I think it gets deposited to your account. Isn't that right?. We just wanted to know if we should keep everything the same. Now, someone needs a combination and the two keys. Do we turn over the keys and combination to whoever may show up next, I'm sure that will not be for many more years." then he shook his head,and then he said. " We just want to make sure, if you want to keep, all the procedures the same. Do you want to keep the same password "
When you think things cannot get any stranger. Bingo it gets even weirder. Al thought
" What password do you have now"
"I do not know, it is written by the owner and sealed in an envelope, until is needed, then two officers of the bank witness the opening, and they check the name ."
" Well, let me see the card to see if I want to keep it or not "
The man came back with another officer, they handed Al the card. He opened it, and saw that it read "Rubeus Hagrid"
Al decided to change the password. He also showed the two men the tokens he had found, they both said they had never seen any of them . Al left the bank with two new keys, and a lot more questions.
London. He knew the answers he was looking for, where not in the United States.
So it was back, to London, This time he could not stop, until he found all the answers he was looking for.
The first thing he did was to call Bill the private investigator, and told him that he wanted him working on this case twenty four hours a day, money is no option. Next, he went to the library then to one of the numismatic societies, but no one had ever seen any of the tokens, he searched through hundreds of books, he had learn more about coins, than humans should be allowed to know. Yet nothing, not one picture, not one mention of any of the coins or tokens.
After about a week, he got home and saw that the mailman had delivered his bank statement, he had two others he had not looked at. He decided to open them, and much to his surprise someone had made a cash deposit of 3,200 pounds, he checked the other two statements, an in every one there was a cash deposit , one for 4,100, and another for 2,100 why is anyone making cash deposits to my account. After everything else, this is the last of his worries.
It was Monday afternoon when Bill called. " Al I think we found her, I had friend check her drivers license again, and she had it renewed, and I have a new address, 1835 Deccan Ave."
Al called a cab, and went to 1835 Deccan Ave. Just like last time 1811 and 1843 but no 1835. He could not believe it was happening again. He looked up, and saw an owl. An owl during the day, of course why not.
He went back home, got himself a drink, sat on his sofa, and made a promise, last time her drivers license had the Lenus address, and he knew he had been there, even if he was not able to see the house that first time, but he saw it the second time. He was going back until he saw the house or her, she had to be around there, he was certain about that.
That night, he had one of those dreams, that you do not want to wake up from. Hermione and him, and they where was just having a great time..
For the next two days he went back, he had bought flowers, a Bottle of single malt, and a box of Dutch Powder Cocoa. No luck she was no where to be found, he walked around, the whole block but did not see anything. He had bought the scotch because he figured he was going to need something, once he found her. The cocoa was for her. Some how, he was certain he was going to find her.
He had rented a car, he figured instead of taking taxis all the time, this way, " I can stay as long as I want." He parked at the far end of the street, got out with the new flowers he had just bought, the box of cocoa and the scotch, and started looking at all the homes. This was a great neighborhood, big spacious homes, with lots of trees and winding driveways. He got to 1811 he knew the next one was,....There it was, he could see a house in the back, with a long driveway, he had not seen this house before, maybe he had, he was not sure.
He walked up the driveway, he saw the owl again, and it moved its wing and lowered its head, almost like saying hello. Al just kept on walking, got to the door and rang the bell.
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Part 2- will follow soon. Or you can read the whole story is already posted. You can also read The return of the Stranger after chapter one.
Thank you. R/R. And for College girl. You where right too many commas. I have taken care of that.