The rest of their trip to the real world remained uneventful. Amanda and Jake did an interview for the New York Times, and eventually sat down with Anderson Cooper for an on-camera interview on Anderson Cooper 360.
On their last official day, Amanda and Jake had gone to the Logos Book Store and filled a couple of baskets. Amanda had cash in her purse, still spending out of the remnants of her cruise winnings, and she and Jake had set the brimming baskets with all sorts of genres of books to the counter to be scanned.
The clerk had looked at the baskets questioningly. "You opening a library?"
Amanda didn't miss a beat. She let her eyes go vacant and said, "I am Sola, this is Luna, my life-sex partner and leader of the Church of Love. We share our bodies 10 times per day and we must read in between to expand our minds as he pleasures my body. He pleasures the bodies of every woman in the commune, but he selected mine as his favorite."
The clerk's face reddened and so did Jake's. She rang the books up quickly, put them in heavy bags and Amanda and Jake left with their burden after Amanda paid. "Jesus, Amanda," Jake said as they got outside. "You about made her faint."
Amanda grinned evilly. "But I didn't quite get there. Next time she'll be on the floor." They went back to his parent's house and carried the books to Jake's bedroom. They hugged and kissed Jake's parents goodbye, and, keeping their hands firmly on the bags, returned to the realm with a thought.
The survivors were happy to see them, and even more happy when they saw the books, which they offloaded into the gaming hall. Soon everyone in the camp was often seen reading some book or another between trials. Amanda appreciated being able to keep her copy of "The Stand," all to herself. Amanda and Jake also enjoyed the warmth, and the fun of running around the trial areas dodging killers, rather than dodging the chilly winter weather of New York. Amanda savored being able to wander the realm outdoors in her comfy attire, barefoot, instead of only being able to do so in the confines of Jake's heated apartment.
Months passed. They returned to the real world again, and spent two weeks there, in their own apartment, while also visiting Jake's parents, from December 6, to Dec. 19. Amanda did a lot more shopping, adding a radio, a variety of CDs and more books which they carried to the realm. Also, they made frequent phone calls to Brian Shaw overseas, and to Rogo in California, catching up and reflecting. Amanda also sent regular emails to the obviously smitten Vandenberg, but made sure not to give him any ideas. She was happily married. Very happily. But he was a nice guy, and he took the hint.
After another two months in the realm, they were once again back on December 19, 2006, and stayed with Jake's parents again through the Christmas holiday and New Year's Eve. They all went above and beyond on gifts. It was Amanda's first true Christmas with family since her mother had died and she ended up having to hide her tears after everyone had opened their presents. It was magical. She'd forgotten what it was like to have a family, and now she had one again, thanks to her wonderful marriage to this sexy man who had seen that she was special, even though she had bags and bags of bullshit, and had married her anyway and now had given her a true family of her own.
On Dec. 29, Jackson Park called his Investment firm and spoke to his primary broker, a man by the name of Gordon. Thankfully, Gordon's last name was not Gekko, or the poor stockbroker likely would never have never heard the end of it. Gordon was a nice guy, and knew finances well, and Jackson knew that Gordon could be trusted to oversee what he was about to do carefully, and maximize the profits. At the end of the day, it would be a major boost to both himself, but more importantly, to his son and his daughter-in-law. After all, he realized, without her tip, none of it would have been possible, and he decided to make sure they were both richly rewarded.
He told Gordon he wanted to set up a portfolio for his daughter-in-law, Amanda, and add to the portfolio he had in place for his son. He was looking at a reasonable tech stock that appeared to be going places. Apple had their steadily-growing iPod and iTunes divisions growing, what were they trading at?
Gordon told him it was selling for $3.03 per share. He knew what Amanda had told him. Eventually, that iPhone that would be first released next year would drive the stock up to massive levels as the technology became further and further developed over the years. There were 24 billion shares of Apple stock outstanding. He bought seven million shares for each, at a total bargain of a little over 42 million dollars. When the stock was sold, according to what he'd drafted into the paperwork, he would receive 30 percent of the proceeds.
He sat them down the next day and revealed what he had done. Yes, Amanda had given him a tip he could profit from. However, he was not diabolically greedy about it. When the stock was sold, he would pocket 30 percent of the proceeds. Jake wasn't thrilled that his father had pulled a Biff Tannen, but Jack Park told Jake that he wanted them to always be financially secure if the company went belly-up for any reason. Plus, it allowed him a financial cushion in that case. Eventually, Jake relented at what his father had done.
Of course, none of them knew what was to happen only around five years later. They couldn't see the future, after all. In September, 2012, they had no idea that the individual shares of Apple would reach an all-time record of $702.10 per share, and that Gordon would look at the number in shock and sell all of it off. They had no idea that the sale would gross each of them $4,914,700,000. Jack Park had no idea that the 30 percent that would come to him would total close to $3 billion, and that even after Jack's "finder's fee" was deducted, Jake and Amanda would still have roughly $7 billion between them that they quickly secured in a bank. They simply looked at their portfolios and speculated on what was to come.
The financial future of Park Industries may have been uncertain, but the ones of Jake and Amanda Park were not. Amanda had felt the little over $100,000 had been a small fortune. When she'd seen the billions they deposited in their bank statement, she found it impossible not to turn sheet-white and feel faint. Amanda secretly praised Jackson Park in the highest resolve. He's risked his own money. Even though the investment was almost a sure thing, he'd put it up for her, and after having nothing for basically her entire life, she had more money than she would ever know what to do with. She would now no longer feel like, no matter how pure her intentions were when she'd married Jake, that she was a hanger-on with Jake's money as a cushion. In 2012, she became a multi-billionaire, and was immediately placed on the lists of the richest people in the world on the Forbes magazine lists at the end of 2012, and beyond, while lower in rankings than her husband and Jackson and Sylvia Park, Amanda was on the list, and remained there in the subsequent years, in roughly 230th place, and she never forgot that Jackson Parks efforts had put her on there. Her father in law had given her an immense gift and she never stopped appreciating him for doing it.
The Park family were on-camera guests during the 10 p.m. timeslot of New Year's Rockin' Eve, and got to meet both Dick Clark and Ryan Seacrest. They reflected on the close call and how it was amazing they were alive to ring in the New Year. Instead, they made their way back to the mansion, stayed up drinking until 11:30, then feigned tiredness and went to bed. Jack and Sylvia both smiled. SURE they were "tired."
Then Jack had looked at his wife, and his wife had looked back at him. Jack raised his eyebrows, and then Sylvia raised hers back. They went back and forth for a moment or two, and then Sylvia said, "I'm older, and a little flabbier, but I'm not dead."
And so, while Amanda and Jake had retired to get each other's bells rung for New Years, so too did Jack and Sylvia. The T.V. went off, and the elder Parks dashed off to their own master bedroom with Sylvia giggling in a way reminiscent of Amanda. Thankfully, Jake didn't witness it or he might have fainted in his horror.
Amanda had bought new expensive lingerie and got into bed and was savoring the feeling of Jake's cock thrusting inside of her when 2006 turned into 2007. Her orgasm swept through her at 12:03 a.m. on Jan. 1, 2007, and Jake filled her pussy completely with his cum at 12:05 a.m. The timeline wasn't the same in the other bedroom, but...You get the idea.
The on-camera interview for the New Year's Eve program had been witnessed by Kyle as he watched the celebration on his small T.V. with a chick he'd picked up in a bar. He got more and more annoyed and decided he was gonna sting the bitch out of some cash real soon. She still looked fucking expensively stunning even under her expensive winter coat.
Her tanned face was still as tanned as ever, and he had no idea how she maintained it without the tanning bed goggle marks. Her expensive make-up was flawless and she could have passed for a woman in her mid-20s. The deep red lipstick she wore has some sort of glitter in it. They looked very kissable.
He stewed for a few days. Then he decided. It was Thursday, January 4th. He was going up there this morning. By January 5th, he'd be a millionaire.
Amanda and Jake returned to the realm at about 10 a.m. January 1st. They had a gift for everyone and had packed the things that they'd gotten for presents as well. They had to work hard to cram the things into the small cabin, though what they couldn't use at all they left at Jake's place.
Three months later, they enjoyed their fifth trip from the realm. Things had been going so smoothly they anticipated it would be like any other. But this time, they were wrong. After calling for a taxi and snagging a flight to New York, they decided to spend the first week of the "vacation" with Jake's family, and the second week either at their apartment or maybe a short trip...By plane.
On the morning of January 4th, in Gatlinburg, Kyle called Wade. "I'm leaving today. I'll be in Beacon by tomorrow. I told my boss my mom died. I've got five days of bereavement at three-quarters pay." Nothing more was said. Kyle packed a bag and some blankets which he put in the Cutlass and hit the road.
This was his second attempt, though he didn't know it. The first time, during Amanda and Jake's last trip, they were gone when he'd arrived, but the reset back to January 1 meant that this time, they would be in town. He got to Beacon late in the evening on January 4th, parked in a quiet area of Fishkill Park to save on money, and wrapped himself up in the blankets and slept in his car.
Amanda and Jake were unaware, and slept peacefully in Jake's bed. Naturally, both were contentedly well-fucked.
Kyle was cold when he woke up at 8 that morning. He called Wade and got directions. At 8:30, after being warmed by the Cutlass' heater, he entered the open gate of the Craig House Hospital. Wade was right, even from here, it was creepy. A car was parked in front of a large mansion in disrepair, the Victorian that Wade had told him about. And in a heavy coat, underneath the Victorian's brick overhang, Wade was standing, smoking a cigarette.
The overhang, he knew, was for the private cars and ambulances that brought patients to the estate, but it looked so much like what you'd find on a mortuary that it freaked him out. It was almost easy to picture the huge house as some sort of former mortuary.
Wade met him and took him through the large entrance. The main hall was mostly empty. "Well, welcome to Craig House. They did a sell off of a lot of the furniture when it was sold in '03, but there's still a lot of it here. The grand room is the creepiest. There's a big long conference table with a bunch of chairs, and there are books open on it still. I don't know who opened them or how long they've been here, but it looks like someone was interrupted in the middle of something and never came back."
The ground floor rooms all had solid thick doors with padlocks. He handed Kyle a ring of keys. "Just in case you need them, these are all copies, except for the skeleton key for the main door. It only opens with a skeleton key."
He opened one of the ground flood rooms. It had obviously been a patient room, but the two windows had been sealed from the outside with thick steel plates which had been solidly bolted into the mansion's brick exterior.
"They only put these on the old patient rooms on the ground floor. The rest of the glass is two inches thick and laminated. Did you know they had laminated glass like you see in a car's windshield in the late 1930s? They did the whole ground floor other than these patient rooms in it. The thick glass is on the first two upper stories also. It only gets to normal window glass on the fourth and fifth stories. Now, with this lower -level window glass...I mean, if you beat and beat on it it will shatter, but it will take a long damn time to punch a hole through."
It seemed like overkill for a house to have such thick glass on the windows, and Kyle ended up asking,"Why all the precautions?"
"This place was the cream of the sanitariums in the early years. F. Scott Fitzgerald brought his wife here. Henry Fonda's wife, Jane and Peter's mother, she was brought here. Jackie Gleeson stayed here once. They had big name clients and they made the place, at least down here, a fortress, not only to keep the rich in, but keep the nosy press out."
Kyle looked in the room. The walls were peeling and the floor was dusty. There was a private bathroom with an old-style sink and toilet and a clawfoot tub. The sink had two taps, one for hot and one for cold. It was definitely an oldie. He turned the cold handle and clear water came out. He shut it off.
"They had a cleaning crew come through and do the ground floor for pictures, maybe a year ago? Six months ago? So it's been deep cleaned, just not for a little while. They replaced the three water heaters two years ago, but kept everything else the same."
Kyle looked at the cast iron radiators. "Steam heat? I haven't been anywhere that has steam heat in it for a long long time."
Wade nodded. "Two boilers, about 50 years old, but maintained, I have them checked out monthly, and they were given a solid once-over last week. They run themselves, you won't have to worry about it. The radiators do a pretty good job, considering how old they are. Everything in the fucking place is old except for the water heaters. I don't think much has been updated since the 1950s or earlier."
The large, dusty kitchen area housed a 1950s-era fridge, of course. But it was functional. Wade said, "If you brought anything with three-pronged plugs, you'll need an adapter. There isn't a grounded outlet in the whole damn place. I brought you a portable two-burner that plugs in, because there's no stove here. And if you get some dish soap, they're plenty of old pots and dishes and silverware that can be washed and used. Key Foods is the main grocery store in Beacon so you can stock up."
They wandered the rest of the empty mansion. The upper floors were in worse shape, peeling paint littered the rugs, and everything was covered by a couple of years of dust. There was graffiti on the white wall, someone had painted BOODYFACE in red letters and made the two Os look like angry eyes. There were empty high backed chairs in rooms or in odd places in the hallways. They went up and up and the final floor of the mansion was a huge empty chapel, with a massive organ and a fireplace. Kyle admitted he was astonished to find it up there.
They went back down to the main floor. Wade asked him, "So this chick you screwed. How much you gonna ask her for to keep your mouth shut and not rock the boat?"
Kyle grinned. "I'll make it easy. A cool million. Half to you, as we agreed. Her father in law is a billionaire, she'll get it. She was broken up about her family life in her teens, and there's no way she's going to want to upset the apple cart now that she's got it all. A million bucks, cash, and she never sees me again. Her hubby never finds out about her past as a trailer park punching bag."
Wade smiled, "I think it'll work. I'm countin' on you. Five hundred grand would be good for the retirement fund." He raised a key on Kyle's ring. "This is for the gate, make sure you fucking lock it every time you leave. And I damn well want this ring back after you get us the cash."
Wade suddenly had a thought. "Shit, I almost forgot." He took Kyle to a locked door and opened it. "Mattresses, pillows, and blankets. The mattresses were bought before the place closed in 1999, so they are unused, and they've been in plastic. They may smell a bit old, but they're clean. Same with the bedding and the pillows. They were going to renovate and then they ran out of money."
He opened another smaller door. "Towels and shit. Washed last year or so. But they should be okay. They washed them and hung them for the pictures, then folded them up and put them back."
Kyle nodded. Wade said his goodbyes. Kyle unlocked and opened the room opposite the first one Wade had opened for him and saw it was virtually the same. He hauled one of the mattresses over to the room he'd opened and set it on the floor, then added two pillows, sheets, and blankets and towels. Then, without thinking, he dragged another mattress and packed the same stuff into the other room.
Then he found his way to the grocery store. He picked mainly canned goods, beef stew, chili, canned spaghetti, hash, and soups, and bags of snack chips. Then he bought some toiletries, travel-sized, dish soap, paper towels, toilet paper, and sponges. He bought more than he needed, and added three cases of the cheapest beer they had and some soda, and some instant coffee grounds. He spent most of his cash on it. But made sure he had plenty left for gas. Then he kicked himself, why did he buy a toothbrush and toothpaste and soap and shampoo and all that other shit? He packed a toiletry bag. Jesus, he was slipping.
After he left the food behind, he made the hour drive to downtown New York, using printed directions to get to 63rd Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. He felt jealousy and wondered for the the thousandth time how in the fuck that shy little girl awkward girl had pulled it off. The houses all along this street were massive mansions and the one her father in law owned, based on the photo he's seen on his laptop, was definitely the grandest on the street. And she was in there. Living it up, as far as could be from where she'd grown up.
He looked and looked at the photo that was on his flip phone, before looking at each house for a match, and and finally he found the house on the street that it looked like. It was easily the size of the Victorian, and encased between other houses along the street. A limo...a fucking LIMO, was parked outside. Was that for her? Shit, not only the house but she got her ass ferried around New York City in a limousine? Damn, maybe he should have asked for more than a million to keep quiet. But then he shook his head. It was a nice, even number and should easily be doable for her.
He parked the car across from the waiting limo. He wrote on a piece of paper and folded it up. He left his car and knocked on the window of the limo. "Parks?" The driver looked confused, but nodded. Kyle said, "Amanda." And then he gave the driver the note and he left without saying another word. He drove to a Starbucks off of E. 66th Street and ordered an overpriced coffee and sat down to wait.
He wished he could be there to see Amanda's face when she read the enigmatic note that he'd left for her.