Longest Novel Fall of the Republic Remaster

by morgan kingsley

In 2023, a middle aged author decides to stop running from his past and tell the truth of what happened when he was much younger, as a way to make peace with the past. As he delves into this, the more he learns of his experiences and other peoples experiences in the hellish town of Wayside, Minnesota. An au of the Digimon Universe that takes place in the United States.

3. Sheldon Oswald Lee

September 4, 2037

After T.K. posted the second episode of the story, he started to head towards Wayside. He was going to speak with Ridge again. In person for the first time. But before he left the house, he ended up grabbing something that he never felt the need to use. He grabbed a very heavy box filled with numerous VHS tapes that he hadn't watched since the mid 2000's. These tapes being filled with stories and confessions of one man.

The reason he brought them with him was because frankly, he needed to find a way to watch them again, so he could be able to actually tell the events of that mans story in a way that would actually do historical justice. But in order to do that, he needed to find a VCR, which he had a strange feeling he would only be able to find once he was back in Wayside again, and when he was talking to Ridge and his family. For some reason, he had s strong feeling that Todd Sr. would still have one that he could use or borrow while going through these tapes.

Although Todd Sr. would probably know what T.K. was doing with them the second he asked if he could use the VCR. Knowing how Sheldon had put the material for his son to view when he was much older. T.K. remembered the plan that he had. That he was going to keep the tapes until Cody was seventeen years old. Which was the same age Sheldon was when he learned the truth of the Labyrinth. He had hoped that by that point, if Cody was able to do it in a more clear matter that didn't involve him learning it while going around like a chicken with his head cut off, trying to solve things, and the truth was just learned naturally, then Cody would be able to do much better.

That did not turn out to be how things would go at all, however. Cody did not get to learn the truth in a way, and a time where he was able to just sort of understand things with more nuance, and less fear. Due to the stuff that Cody had to be forced into at around thirteen or so, he had to fucking be forced to learn the truth of those tapes when he was just fourteen years old.

In a way, T.K. felt like Cody was probably the biggest victim of the war as well. And in all honesty, he felt like if he could do one thing differently, it would have been that he would have let Cody have that childhood for a few years longer. Let Cody have the life that T.K. himself did not get to live, and he was feeling like that was something that he wished could have made Cody just slightly less angry at the world.

But in the end of the day, he knew that Cody was probably going to go down the same path anyways. He was a bitter man as a result of his father being a bitter man. And all these years later, seeing how Wayside and the world had been was making him realize that Sheldon had perfect reason to be as bitter as he had.

There was no reason at all for him to be happy at how things had been handled in this town, and especially with the fact that he was forced to pretend like people like Larry Needlemeyer were actually still good guys. At least with people like Harold Wilson, people accepted the fact that he was not the best person, despite them being close, so it wasn't the worst thing ever.

Truth be told, T.K. was feeling like Sheldon probably never could be a normal person after he saw so many things like his friends growing up becoming pieces of shit of their own. Sheldon probably assumed that these men, who actually understood what was going on in Wayside, would actually be better people than the men who came before them, and not grow up to being just like them.

In all honesty, with each person that Sheldon considered his friend that turned out this way, the more and more that he just lost out on what little hope that he had in the town. And when T.K. had over half a century of experiences of these people that he was close with turning down the same path, in a way, T.K. did respect this as well.

In a sort of fucked up way, T.K. was glad for the friends of his who had died in the years since their adventures. At least with the dead ones, he was able to never see them turn to shit, and he was able to accept the fact that they probably would have turned out well. And in a way, if they did turn out to the way that several people in Wayside did with helping hide this fucking lie, then in a way, T.K. was glad that they are dead on their own, because then T.K. didn't have to worry about killing them himself.

Once T.K. had gotten closer to Wayside, he was noticing the general cyberpunk style set up the city had taken over time. The city becoming a complete fucking futuristic dystopia, which was the opposite of what he thought it would be when he was a kid, and he didn't even expect it to be all that great in the first place. So seeing it become like this, all this time later, was something that was just tragic in his heart.

When he had a moment he could park to the side of the road, he did so, and took out his phone to take a couple of pictures of it. As if he was doing this as a way to make peace with what he saw. The whole thing broke his heart, and once again reminded him of how much he had failed his promises. He barely stepped foot in here in decades, so seeing it like this was too much to handle.

Once T.K. started to get further into the town, the more he was wondering if anything he had been doing was going to even be worth it. Truth be told, T.K. was feeling like he was a fucking failure at life. He decided to email Ridge real quick, since they did not have text numbers with each other yet, he had to deal with doing just actual emails for a while. "Hey, I am in Wayside currently. I plan to stay there for a week or two. Meet me at the really shitty run down Best Western, and we can finally meet each other in person there. Also, bring your fathers VCR if you can. If he doesn't have it anymore, you'll be certain to find one at the thrift stores. I will even pay you back for it." T.K. said, his eyes gazing at the coaxial cable that he brought just in case the TV was a modern day smart TV.

T.K. surely knew that the request must have been random as hell. But he didn't fucking care anymore. He wanted to make sure that Sheldon's voice would get heard, no matter what happened, considering the fact that Sheldon had gone through more than any of them could have fucking hoped for, and he had gone through more than anybody should have when they were seventeen years old.

He eventually pulled up at the Best Western, and he saw the place looked like it had aged a hundred years in twenty. It was strange to him because he used to remember that it used to be a hotel of a very high standard, so seeing it turn into a place like this, was something that he was finding kind of depressing. He took a cigarette out, and then he grabbed his duffel bag, backpack, and then the box with all the VHS tapes with a hoodie covering the labels on them all to make sure that people did not know what these were, and therefore would not be asking a billion questions on what he was doing with them.

As he walked inside, and paid a lot of money on his credit card to put down a down payment for an entire week. The desk lady told him that they hadn't been getting a ton of business lately, and that as a result of this, they were offering massively discounted prices such as half off for extended stays. So he got a 7 day room which would normally be 200 a night, for 1400, for only 50 bucks a night, at 350 total.

Eventually, he walked right to his room, where he checked his phone, and saw that Ridge had already responded to him. "I don't really know why you need one, but the gas station that my dads friend used to work at decided to let me have a one week rental of one of their VCR's for thirty five bucks. I hope that you know whatever the hell you are doing with this shit." Ridge sent in email, and then there was one further part at the bottom. "My dad keeps his locked in his room, so I couldn't get it. Anyways, see you in twenty minutes."

Ridge ended up being about ten minutes late, and in that thirty minutes T.K. set up his laptop, and a Blu Ray player for the very rare occasions he will allow himself a break, and then he went to the bed and closed his eyes and gave himself a fifteen minute power nap before there was a knock on the door.

When T.K. opened up the door, he had no doubts that this was Ridge Robinson. As was given due to that one god awful experiment, this guy looked exactly like Todd did when Todd was seventeen years old. Seeing him in the flesh and blood like that really made him have to stop what he was doing for a second, to consider everything that he had been going through so far.

"Is everything okay? You look like you are seeing a ghost or something." Ridge said, in a very similar voice to Todd when he was that age as well. T.K. was shaking his head, not even sure what else to say. "Anyways, here's what you asked for. Now can you please for the love of fucking god answer my question. Why do you even need something like this in the first place?" He asked, and then T.K. felt like there was no reason to be blocking the question.

"Well, for my story, well one of the stories I am writing, I want to accurately portray it, and one of the ways to do it is watching a shit ton of really old VHS tapes. So yeah, that is going to be how I go through with this. I plan to listen to them as I write them all out, to make sure that I accurately get them word for word.

"Look, with all due respect T.K., I appreciate and admire what you are trying to do. But do you think that there is a good chance you are trying to bite off too much here I think that is a possibility you need to at least consider. And the fact that I haven't heard you even think of the idea is something that greatly concerns me. You need to step back, and look at the stuff that you really need to work on, versus not need." Ridge said, as he was looking at all the tapes, and was finding himself annoyed at the whole thing.

"Like, literally, dozens of tapes all for material that will probably only matter maybe twenty percent of the time. Have you even checked if these tapes are in good enough condition to be played. My dad was telling me that there are VHS tapes that go all moldy and shit, and that this is a major reason why people started to move away from them." Ridge said, not even trying to sound like a smart ass, and was genuinely just trying to make conversation.

"That is actually a really good point. I should probably check those out. If these aren't able to be watched, I will give you a full refund as an apology for wasting your time." He said, and then with that, he started to check every single one of them in chronological order, that way even if not all of them worked, if he was able to salvage most of these, then that would be perfectly fine.

After he placed the first three on the bed when he made sure there was no mold on them and they were all rewinded correctly, Ridge picked up one out of interest. When he looked at the label on it, that was when he was taking a second to realize what he was looking at.

"My dad was telling me about these. That Sheldon made these for his kid. Why did he end up giving them to you anyways?" Ridge asked, his opinion and attitude on the matter changing within a second. All the smartassness dropped instantly, and he was both very interested, and very concerned on where this was going.

"That being said, I do see why you want to make this story after all. But still, are you sure that all hundred of these are even going to be needed?" Ridge asked, not at all relenting on these discussions, and T.K. sighed, annoyed at the millions of questions since he felt like he needed to have a moment to answer them all.

"Well, to answer your first question, these aren't exactly the original. After Cody listened to a couple of these, he decided that he would start making copies of these that his friends could listen to, or potentially even for the police. Sank a shit ton of money into that shit. But yeah, this was the first copy that he made for all of them, and gave them to me because he expected me to want to know what happened with his dad. I was close with Sheldon, and I was trying to take down Labyrinth. I listened to every single one of these once, after he gave me these copies, then I put them in my cupboard forever. I didn't want to get rid of them exactly, because I knew they were important. But I could never get myself to listen to them again. Until today." T.K. said, sounding like he was suddenly letting this set in stone again.

T.K. then continued to look at them all, spending about ten seconds on each to make sure they weren't damaged or moldy, and then after about twenty minutes of looking through all one hundred, he realized that only a small handful, like four to kid, had some mold on them. But the mold was small enough where he felt like he could brush this off, and not worry too much.

"How many of these did he fucking make? I mean, my god, he probably had to spend weeks making each copy of these things." He said, sounding both impressed, and concerned, that Cody had been so focused on saving the legacy of a man who was probably not worth the time.

"Look, dude, I don't remember. At least three that I remember. If he did more, then I don't remember." T.K. said, and then he was looking at Ridge, who was trying to decide what he was going to be saying next. As if he was sort of piecing everything together, but could not be able to say this. "I don't know why you even care that much. That was all like forty five fucking years ago, and I remember that he tried to give a copy of them to Rob for the company and what not. But then that ended up basically failing because I doubt that Rob either listened to a moment of them, or if he did, knew that they were very incriminating on his families name, and chose not to show these to anybody. I thought that Rob would have been a better president for the company, but as the years progress, I grew to regret that thought more and more."

"Oh yeah, speaking of Rob, how was his early time in Lazarus even like? Was he a good man that turned bad, or was he always bad, or is he a good guy still and I just don't see it yet." He said, and he was looking at T.K., and T.K. was wondering why he was even being asked this question in the first place. In all honesty, T.K. was feeling like nothing he would tell Ridge would be able to convince that kid of anything yet.

"I have no idea. I think that whatever he is though, it mainly started after he lost his eye. At first, in the weeks that I knew him when he had both his eyes, he was a tough cookie to read. Not even really bad or anything. Just impossible to understand, and I think that was a time when he was much more reserved with everything that he had been feeling and saying. But after he lost his eye, he started to open up much more, and now I feel like you need to blame that on everything." T.K. said, feeling like he just needed to be straight up honest with this guy.

"So you admit that you have known this guy for many years, but you don't really know the type of person that he is? I guess the only people who really know what he was like originally were the people who actually saw him really grow up over the years." Ridge said, and then T.K. turned on the television.

As he was watching, he was seeing President Ben Shapiro on the stage, giving a speech. T.K. was still finding it strange that he was having presidents in office who were younger than him, even though Shapiro had been in office for nearly an entire year at this point.

"So, there's that. If you don't mind me asking, what are your views?" T.K. asked, and then Ridge looked at Shapiro speaking for a moment, not even sure what else he was supposed to say.

"I mean, I guess it's nice to have a decently young president after we had four years of Walz. But man, when dad told me that Trump served until he was seventy eight, I still to this day don't know how anybody could elect a guy so old." Ridge said, and then T.K. nodded at that, since it was very fair. After all, Walz was sixty eight when he was elected, and Trump had been seventy, still the oldest president. So Shapiro being a relatively young fifty two must have been a fresh breath of air for young people like Ridge.

"I still find it strange how we have been a country for like two hundred sixty years and we still have never had a female president. If what dad said is true, Clinton in 2016, and Harris in 2024, were the only women to even be the nominees. Just crazy to me. Anyways, for both our sakes, we should probably drop that before we escalate too much further." He said, and then both T.K. and Ridge agreed. They had their five minutes, and that was all both of them needed with politics for now.

T.K. then turned off the television as a way to make sure that he doesn't keep watching stuff related to politics when he was wanting to focus on what was really important to him in the moment. "Alright, I think we both agree that we might as well just get right to work on the book. Especially since we both have a fucking long ass way to go. Do you want to talk about you for a bit, or do you want to watch one of these? You know, I think that it could be rather interesting for both of us to be watching this, and seeing what the hell Sheldon had truly left on here." T.K. said, hoping that Ridge would take up that offer. Plus, he was feeling that Ridge was a bit too young to get into this.

"You know, I think it is rather interesting that Sheldon learned the truth of Labyrinth, whatever that is, when he was seventeen. That is the same age I am right now. I guess that I could be willing to see what the hell he was going through at that age that made him have to learn the truth of that business." Ridge said, sounding like he was still not believing what he was hearing. Almost like he was just thinking of how he could shut this whole thing down.

"Well, that is fucking fair, I guess that I can see how something like this would be interesting to you. I just hope that you don't do anything too crazy with this. You know, since we still have a lot that we need to discuss. And I guess that if I am going to have to watch these, I might as well watch them with you." T.K. said, feeling like he was unable to believe that he was even saying this in the first place.

T.K. picked up the first VHS tape, the one just labelled as his name. Then he was smiling for a second, feeling like he would give Ridge a little bit of a heads up, or history lesson, in a matter of speaking, since he was feeling like Ridge might be rather interested in this.

"Sheldon made these when he was having a lot of therapists sessions with a woman named Karen Needlemeyer." T.K. said, and Ridge instantly looked like he was stopping dead as he heard this. Knowing full well who that woman was, he was wondering how in the world Sheldon was able to have those sessions, and have them without having either him or Karen get on each others throats. The whole thing was just absolutely outrageous in his mind.

"How did Sheldon even talk with her? You know, with Larry being her husband, and Lars being her son." Ridge said, and then T.K. felt like he needed to just cut the crap, and tell it to him straight up. Knowing that Ridge was going to possibly find this out anyways, so he might as well just let him know before anybody else could give off any other bullshit excuses.

"Because Sheldon was seeing this as a necessity in order to make sure that Cody would be ready for this. But I feel like you probably never learned what really happened to Karen." T.K. said, feeling like he might as well just tell it straight up. Ridge looked at him, looking like he was a bit quizzical about this, but choosing to respond anyways.

"Lars told me the basics. She died when he was really young, and he doesn't know how or why it happened." Ridge said, and he was sounding utterly scared of where T.K. was going with this. It seemed like he was already picturing the worst possible event that could happen, and he was wondering how this could work.

"Well, that is a part of it. And I might even believe the part that Lars doesn't know what happened. But I fucking do. When Sheldon would meet up with Karen, even if neither on of them knew it, there was a listening beacon in that fucking room, listening to their every single word. With each meeting, which would usually be either every week or every two weeks, they had a hundred sessions. On the one hundredth one, Sheldon finally revealed what was happening in Labyrinth. She said that she was going to help him with figuring this out. That she was going to help him bring this down. She told him that she wanted to meet up with him that following morning. He agreed to do so, but when he drove there, right as he was about to park the car, he saw her through her window getting ready for something, and then the entire office blew up. Killing Karen and both of her secretaries instantly. Lars got to grow up just thinking that their death was something like a car crash or something. And I never had the heart to tell Lars the truth of Karen's death." T.K. said, and then he looked right at Ridge, as if hoping that he would not be doing this as well. Especially since Lars would probably just get unhinged if he found out the truth now, after so many fucking years, and in his mind, there was just no point in even bringing it up now.

"Oh wow. Do you think that maybe there is a chance that Lars would never have turned out that way if you simply told him the fucking truth." Ridge said, feeling like he needed to make it clear that this was just as much T.K.'s fault as it was not. And he was hoping that T.K. would actually be willing to listen to something like this.

"I still think that not telling him when he was a kid is the right thing to do. He didn't need to know that when he was so fucking young. Granted, as he got older, he probably should have fucking known, and I will own up to that shit fully. But when he was a kid, then I feel like he should have just simply been away from that stuff. And I think that if you are trying to make it seem like I am this horrible person for simply not wanting to force him to learn something way too early, then I think that is on you." T.K. said, feeling like he just needed to defend himself a bit more than he had, just to give himself some credit.

"Well, he's not a fucking kid anymore. He hasn't been a fucking kid in a really fucking long ass time. You need to fucking tell him the truth as fast as possible. If you don't, then you might be responsible for every single thing that goes on with the town now." Ridge said, but he knew that both he and T.K. did not want to discuss this any longer.

Eventually, Ridge put the tape in, T.K. opened up his laptop, opened up a new document, was just ready to get to work. Ridge took out an energy drink, and after placing the tapes down on the ground, laid down on the other bed as well. T.K. was so tired before even starting the session, but he was thinking that it would just be two more hours or so, and then he would be done, and then he could be able to rest for the rest of the day.

---

It was a few days after Christmas time in 1992, when Cody Lee was being driven home by the man that he used to hate the most in the world. The man who he used to think was genuinely a monster among mankind. In the last six months or so, he had sort of come around to accepting the fact that this man wasn't the worst out there, and that he had just been incredibly misguided or had been taken advantage of by the people around him.

Once in front of his house, the man who drove Cody home spoke up. "Cody, I wanted to let you know something. Your father, Sheldon, was wanting to let you have something. He requested that I give these to you when you were his age when he found out the truth of Labyrinth. Even though you are still a couple of years away from that, I feel like you have over come enough in the last year and a half that you deserve to know the truth right now." He said, and then Cody looked right at him, seeming more confused than angry at this rate.

"But Ken, why did my dad have you hold these until I reached that age? Why wouldn't he give it to my mother, or somebody else?" Cody asked, feeling like he needed to just see what the hell had been going on. Ken took a deep breath, feeling like one of these days, he would love to tell Cody everything.

"Your father trusted me that I wouldn't take this situation lightly, and that as one of the main people who had been around when he was going through his learning of Labyrinth, and when he was still a good man, I knew what this was meant to do. Cody, this is something that you need to listen to if you are to understand what in the world your father was going through. I hope that you will see what this all leads up to, before you get so obsessed with revenge against Brad and everybody else." Ken said, hoping that Cody would get this now.

"Ken, I know that you really respected my father, and you thought he was a good man. So many people have told me that I just did not really understand what was happening here. I suppose that maybe this will be my way of finally getting closure. I just wished that I could apologize to him, and explain where I am coming from." Cody said, not sure what to say there.

"Thanks for giving this to me. I wish that I knew what else to say. You know, I have been kind of distant lately, and I do regret everything that I have done here. You know, I regret the fact that I had been a fucking dick to you. A fucking dick to Davis. And worst of all, a dick to Juliet. I mean, she's fucking five years old. It's not her fault that Yolei's parents decided to just have another kid right after Yolei had died." Cody said, feeling like he needed to just own up to the fact that he was feeling like he was a bit of a shit.

"Well, when you see Juliet again, you are going to need to apologize to her. Maybe explain to her what Yolei was like. Get her to see why Yolei was such an important figure in your life. Maybe when she knows what her older sister was like when she was alive, she would love her sister." As Ken said this, Cody slowly nodded, feeling like that was a good idea.

"I know that it has been over six years, and a part of me just needs to let this go. That I just need to accept that Yolei is gone. But a part of me has a really hard time doing so. I just feel like there is no way in hell that I can just act like this never bothered me." Cody said, feeling like he just needed to be real with Ken there.

"Nobody is acting you to just pretend like this isn't an issue. We are just asking that you give her a chance to prove herself to you. She's a fucking kid. And she is a Digidestined. Let's not forget that she was the reason why you survived one of your encounters with BlackWarGreymon." Kevin said, feeling like he just needed to remind Cody of this truth.

"Yeah, that is true. Damn it, this is why I feel like I don't deserve to have happiness and love." Cody said, referring to the date that he went on. Where he had felt like he had been too much of an asshole to that one girl he went on that date with, and he was feeling like he just needed to try and talk with her again. Maybe he would be able to get her to accept his apology. As unlikely as something like this would have fucking been, it was worth a fucking try.

"You need to not be so hard on yourself. You have a right to judge yourself on occasion, but don't do what Sheldon did to himself, or else you will follow down his same exact path, and trust me when I say you do not want to do that." He said, sounding like he was hoping Cody would listen to him.

"Look, I am going to listen to all of these, and I am going to see where my father was truly coming from. I hope that I was wrong about him. And when I listen to all of these, I will tell you what I think." Cody said, as he was getting out of the car, and then he left Kevin staring there for a moment. Ken being left to think about how at one point in time, he wanted to convince Jenny to fall in love with him. How much he had feelings for her, but over time, he had grown to accept the fact that Jenny did not feel the same way to him as he had felt to her.

Cody sat down, and opened up the box. It was a set of so many VHS tapes that Cody would be spending weeks getting through them all. He saw that they were all two hours in length or so, and he looked at the titles of them all. And the dates that were labelled on them.

Cody then quickly realized that these were his fathers confessionals that he had made six years ago when he was getting ready to pass things down to Cody. He started to tear up, realizing what this was actually meant to be this whole time. Knowing that Sheldon really did actually go out of his way to set this up for Cody, and that it wasn't just a lie.

As he counted really quickly, he was seeing that there was two stacks of twenty five at the top, and then another two stacks of twenty five at the bottom as well. Meaning that there had been a hundred of these tapes that he would need to be listening to, and to hear if he was to understand his father.

If this was any other person in the world, he would have laughed at this idea, and he would have basically thrown the idea away before it even had a chance to begin. But given the fact that it was his father, a man that he had heard the stories of so many times, had been utterly destroyed and broken by the corrupt justice system, he knew that he was to have no choice but to actually listen to these.

Cody looked at the VCR that had started to collect dust over the last year and a half. Ever since he started to get involved in the Digimon antics, he had lost some of his interest in things such as movies, and he was always a bit let down that he never really picked up that interest again. He only used the small television of his room to either listen to the News when he was seeing stuff related to Labyrinth or potential Digimon leaking into the world, and never for any leisure.

Cody picked up the one that was labelled number one, feeling like that was a good starting spot, and feeling like he had nothing to lose here. Although he was a bit tempted to jump around. "Patient Seventeen: Sheldon Oswald Lee. August 5, 1987." Cody sighed, and then popped in the tape, hoping that nobody would question what he was doing.

When he popped on the tape, he was seeing his father, Sheldon Oswald Lee, looking right at him, and he had a smile on his face. One that was a combination of forced for the camera, and one that was genuine. As if thinking about Cody brought him equal parts joy and equal parts sadness.

"Cody, I wanted to tell you all of these things for a long time now. I have felt like you deserved to know for such a long time now. But I have always felt like you were much too young to know the truth. But in due time, you will be as old, and hopefully, much more mature, than I was, when I learned everything that happened here. When I basically ruined my life beyond care." Sheldon said, sounding like he was picking each sentence carefully here.

"I have wanted to tell you for a long time now that I have been very proud of you. Very proud of the tasks you have over come. Proud of the fact that you are already doing well on your own, without having anybody else hold you down. I know that when Yolei went missing several years ago, you were having a hard time holding up. I could tell that you had a bit of a crush on her, or at the very least looked at her like she was a older sister. I felt awful for you, and I had wished that I could have been able to help you out. But I could tell that you also had some good friends who were able to help you out and make you feel like you could get through this." Sheldon said to the recorder, and then took a moment to consider where to go now.

"I know that you are upset at me, for my friendship with Brad, and for the fact that I have always held my own defense with the guy. He is one of the best people that I have known, and his brother Todd, who you know as the mayor of Wayside as of six and a half months ago, has been the best support systems that I had with my life. They have been the ones who have been helping me through a lot of these mental pains, and these emotional turmoils. I just wish that when I could be able to explain to you one day, why this is the case, that you can see. I just sort of hope that maybe these tapes will be able to help you out here." Sheldon explained, feeling like he just hoped that maybe his pleading would settle through to Cody.

"I know that you feel a bit left out, not being able to hear my stories all the time. Not being able to know where this is all going. But I suppose that this is something that I felt was worth the risk, and I feel like that is still the fucking truth… You know, I just feel like I had to take a risk, and decide what I needed to do for myself. What I needed to do for you. But there is something else that I wanted you to know…" Sheldon continued, and Cody sighed, hoping his dad would get to the point.

"Throughout these tapes, you will learn of a lot of my mistakes, and you will see a lot of things that I was ashamed of. But the one thing that I have never been ashamed of, and the one thing that I have always felt like was one of my proudest accomplishments, was seeing you be born, and start to become a person of your own. I know you are going to accomplish many things more than I will in my life." Sheldon said, and took a deep breath, feeling proud of himself there.

"Thank you Cody, for giving me something to be glad about. And I hope that one of these days, when you hear this full story, you will see that I really did love your mother, and you, both, and I never wanted anything to happen to either of you, and I hope that you will see that I will do anything that I can to turn this around. I promise you that if I live to see you make it to the age that I was when I learned the truth of Labyrinth, that you and I will have been able to put all our differences aside, and we can do this." Sheldon finished, and then with that, Cody paused the tape for a moment.

Cody was having a hard time really seeing this. Seeing his father be so forward with his feelings for once in his life, and not hiding anything at all. Seeing his father finally lay down the issues that he had, and he was wondering what he would say if he had been able to tell him everything. If he was able to just finally clear this whole thing with his father.

Armadillomon called out to Cody, and then Cody looked at his Digimon partner. "Cody, are you sure that you want to watch those? If you do, then whatever pain you might have been having before might be made even worse?" He asked, and then Cody was shaking his head, sounding like he was almost not even caring how things were.

"I have to do this. My father gave these to me, and I want revenge. On so many things. What Brad has done to this family, what happened with Yolei, the stuff with Labyrinth, and everything else. Lazarus in general. My dads therapist confessionals might be literally the only thing that can give me any idea what I need to do to in order to get ready." Cody said, and then he shook his head.

"Armadillomon, you have been a great pal the last year and a half. But I need to do this. If you feel like you shouldn't be involved here, then I would respect that. But my friends are out there too busy celebrating Todd's second term of mayor starting, and I am not even sure if that is for the best yet. I just have to do what I can. I need to try and honor my fathers wishes of hearing his story. And if Ken thinks that is best, then I need to give him a chance. I have grown to respect Ken's opinion more lately, and I feel like he is the one person who doesn't give any more shit to me." Cody said, taking a deep breath, feeling happy to finally openly admit that about Kevin.

"If you are going to listen to this, then I will listen with you. I just felt like I needed to try and see if this was really what was best for you. But if you are sure that it is, then I will be right with you every step of the way." Armadillomon said, and then Cody sighed, seeming to just be glad to see that his Digimon partner was hearing him out.

"Will you tell your friends what you will be listening to?" He asked, and then Cody was shaking his head. He felt like there was no way in hell that he could be able to bring his friends into something like this yet. They never understood what Sheldon was like, and they never understood why Sheldon was the one person he cared about the most.

"I might eventually tell them. But for now, I need to keep this to myself. I don't want them trying to convince me that what I am doing is wrong. I don't want them to feel like I am just living in a fantasy by listening to the stuff that my father gave me." Cody said, and with that, he saw Armadillomon seem like they had finally accepted that this was what it was. Cody knew that Armadillomon did not truly understand it, but he was willing to deal with that for the time being, as he finally got what he wanted.

After a couple of minutes of thinking things though, he played the tape again, and he was hoping that he would just get through the whole thing without too much issue, and he was hoping that Sheldon would lay down everything, and that nothing else mattered anymore. And Cody hoped that by the end, his love would not change.

June 10-11, 1956

When I was just ten years old, my father, older sister Riley, and I, moved from Arkansas all the way to Wayside, Minnesota. Dad went through with the move partly due to a work promotion that he had, and partly probably to never have to think about the town that our mother had died in. She passed away in March of that year, and those two and a half months between then and our move were fucking horrible for us, and I feel like they really destroyed everything for us all.

I was glad to be moving. Partly because of moms death, and me wanting to kind of disassociate from that, and partly because I was not very popular among school, and I would be lying through my teeth if I said that I wanted to have a new clean slate, where I did not have to deal with anything related to that town anymore.

I was treated like utter fucking crap at that school, and I felt like when I would have a new chance in Wayside, I could be able to put this behind me forever. Or at least I was genuinely feeling like I would be able to do that. That being said, Riley was not nearly on the same level of happy, or even complacent, camper, as I had been, at that moment.

Riley, partly due to the phases that you inevitably go through when you were thirteen, and partly because she genuinely was on the opposite side of the popularity spectrum as I was, did not want to say good bye to her friends and family at Arkansas. She wanted to be able to have fun there still, and she was feeling like did not care for her feelings at all with the move.

I tried to, with failure on virtually every single level, convince her that she was over thinking this whole thing, and I was trying to convince her that she needed to give dad a second chance to try and make this whole thing work. But she had already made it very clear to me that she did not think this was the case at all. So I felt like I just needed to let her have this.

And to be honest, I was feeling bad for Riley in a way. I mean, she was throwing away her entire life and reputation here, and it had looked and felt like people were not caring too much for her feelings here. In a way, I did feel like that wasn't fair. I just felt like she might have been over thinking it though.

One thing I do remember about the move was how exciting it was to see various landmarks and states passing by. Dad made sure to try and check out one major area in each state we drove through to get there, and stay a couple nights at a hotel in each one. He was somebody that was very obsessed with creating and growing memories here. He said that when you were his age, that you would respect that mindset much more.

Travis was very old when he had me and Riley. He was in his later fifties when both of us were born, fifty nine when I was born, and fifty six when Riley was born. He was friends with a man that was a few years younger than him, but had his own kids a few years later. Dexter Peabody was fifty two or fifty three when Riley was born, and when Brad and Todd Carbunkle, who were both sent to adoption after birth, were born, four years after me, Dexter was fifty nine of sixty years old himself. Granted at the time, I did not know that, but this does relate to certain issues that I had later on.

Mom was much younger than my dad was, but even then, relative to how old women were supposed to have kids at the time, she was still not very young herself. She was thirty five years old when I had been born, which means that she was forty five years old when she had died, which at the time still was not all that young.

Anyways, sorry for the rambling. Already getting side tracked. Anyways, after spending six to eight days on the road, seeing the sights, and checking out some places in both Missouri and Iowa as we passed to Minnesota, we eventually made our way to Wayside, where by then, I was seeing Riley looking like she was just glad to see that the trip was finally over, and didn't have to keep acting like this was something that she had wanted to keep doing.

Once we actually pulled up at the house where I would spend the next seven plus years living in, trust me when I was saying that it was feeling mildly surreal actually being there. I took a deep breath, feeling like I just needed to really enjoy actually being here. Dad looked at the two of us, and he was seeing from the look on both our faces, especially Riley, they were not having as much love to this as he had been hoping we would.

Which was strange, because I did remember having a ton of fun during the actual trip. I was seeing dad looking like he was trying to find something that could make both of us feel slightly happier. As if he felt like nothing really was going to win us over, but he might as well just try and find literally anything that could get us to talk.

We both got out of the car, and before either of us headed off, he called out to us, and seemed like he was really hoping that at least one of us was going to take the bait here. "Hey guys, there are a lot of things to move into this house. So, I got a proposal. If you guys help me move all these boxes to the house today, and help me until the evening, and help me just sort of settle everything in, then starting tomorrow, I will let you have one week off. One week where you guys do not have to do any chores and I will do all your chores so you can go around and make friends." As he said that, I was seeing him looking like he had hoped that this was actually going to make us listen to him.

"Dad, I don't fucking care. I can just make friends anyways." Riley said, and then she went inside, and immediately chose the bigger room that was on the right. I was sighing in annoyance that she chose that room without even giving me a chance. But I wasn't really too bothered by this at the end of the day. I was feeling like having that free week where I could be able to go around and make some friends with people in my class was going to be perfect for me.

So I decided to help dad out with the moving, since I was feeling like I would use that free week to my advantage, and if it was the best way that I could be able to get dad to sort of get off my back, at least for now, then I was feeling like there was no real other choice on the matter. After the first hour or so, I was seeing dad looking like he was just looking really glad to see that somebody else here was actually caring enough about how he was doing that I wasn't making any real excuses on the matter at all.

The actual getting the boxes into the house itself only took about two or three hours. The actual unboxing part was what was going to take forever. "Go ahead and pick one of the other two rooms. Which ever one you don't pick, I will just use as my study. I can get a lot out of it." He said, and then he stated something else before I had a chance to do so. "That being said, take your boxes in there. You are fully responsible for how all of those go."

I slowly nodded, since it was mildly annoying, but I wasn't too upset, and I decided that the best thing to do was just be a good fucking sport about it. He was trying to help me along the right way, and I was feeling like dad was a nice enough guy. So I picked one big box, and one smaller box, and walked them for a while, but the weight of the larger box was getting my arms a bit annoyed, so I took the first room on the left.

Not that it really mattered. Given what happened with Riley's case, I ended up moving to the larger room that she had eight months anyways. No reason to beat around the bush when we all know what fucking happened there anyways. Anyway, I spent the next half hour moving nearly a dozen boxes to my room, and placing them all down.

I looked at the couch bed that was sitting there. Feeling glad to see a surface that I could stretch my legs on, I decided to lay down on it, and closed my eyes. Before I even knew it, given the fatigue of the getting boxes inside and them moving them to my room, I ended up crashing for an hour. I only ended up waking up once I was seeing my dad looking at me, and he was having a half smile on his face when he was seeing how I just looked totally out like a light in less than a minute.

"Look, I understand that feeling too. Trust me, with every year older you get, the more you will wish you can have those moments. Anyways, thanks for moving all the stuff into the house with me. I knew that I didn't really need any help, but that would take like three days for me to do so. So yeah, no chores from tomorrow until the 17th. But be sure to actually unbox all of those and you are expected to start helping around the house again starting the 18th…" He said, and I was glad that he was even letting me have this in the first place.

Seeing that he was actually being a guy who kept his promises really made me feel better. "And Sheldon, I know that you probably aren't really the most fond of the move itself, but trust me when I say that this move is for the best. I can see from the way you were carrying yourself every time we talked in Arkansas that this was really bringing you down."

"Dad, I don't mind moving. It's Riley you need to talk to. She is the one that is making a fucking stink out of it. You forget that I was never popular in school. This is my chance to do it." I said, and I was feeling like this was a joke. I looked right at the boxes, and I decided to open up the top one. The one with the pillow, blanket, and some clothes.

"Sheldon, you do know that being popular is not the biggest thing to worry about?" He asked, and I shook my head. To be honest, I did not really want to hear it. He was going to tell that I was over thinking things. He was going to tell me that I needed to stop putting so much fucking focus on this. He was always one to just simply make things harder.

"Dad, it is when you are in school. Maybe when you're a million years old, you don't need to worry about it much anymore. But when you're ten it's a big fucking deal." I said, feeling the need to just kind of make my dad get off my back here. My dad clearly looked offended over the comment about the million years old thing.

"Look, I know that I had kids way too late in life. Trust me when I say that my biggest regret is not having you when I was forty and your mother was sixteen." He said, and I know that without context that sounds a bit wrong, but you got to remember back in the forties, women having children at sixteen wasn't uncommon at all, and that only has become more of an issue, thankfully, in the last years.

"Why even have kids when you had them so late?" I asked, feeling like he just needed to be honest with me. "You don't realize how much every single person in my class made fun of me because of you having me so late in life? I barely even got a chance to be my own person due to how much people have been making fun of me over this."

"Make sure you fucking actually put your shit away. Maybe next time when you accuse me of ruining everything, you should look at yourself, and see what you could be doing to make yourself more appealing to others. You have a lot of work you can do yourself." He said, and while that did sting for a second, deep down I knew he deserved it.

My dad just left the room, and to be honest, I was glad that before this comment was made, he had agreed already to let me have the week off from chores. Because if he hadn't put that agreement to me, not only would he try to turn back on it now, but he would also have to be interacting with me a lot throughout this week, and I knew for a fucking fact that by the time the rest of the week had passed, I would have had some time to put this behind him.

By the time the next day rolled around, I put away another box, filled with some books, to the bookshelf, which took maybe thirty minutes to do. I decided that I would just do one of these boxes a day every day until they were all done, and maybe that would make dad not be angry at me.

As I was leaving the house, he called out to me. I could tell that the anger had died down a smidge. Enough that he was willing to at least keep a polite sentence or two with me. "There is a house with two young boys about two blocks down. The older one is your age, you should check that out." He said, sounding professional enough to make me think he was at least partially over it.

I walked down the street, and eventually reached their house after about ten minutes. I could tell from how they were talking, and what they were doing, was that they were playing soccer. And it looked like the older brother was just trying to coach the younger brother on how to get better at it. I smiled as I saw this, seeing both of them looking like they were doing well.

When they both saw me standing there, watching them play, I was seeing them both stop what they were doing, and look straight at me, wondering what to say. "Hey, have we ever met before?" He asked, and I shook my head. I felt like I needed to go with this though, and I was thinking that as long as I had at least one good friendship going before school started this year, I would be doing rather well.

"No, I just moved here yesterday. I was checking out the town, and seeing what I could find. Would you be willing to let me play for a bit?" I asked, and I was seeing the older brother looking like he was rather unsure what to tell me. I sighed, feeling like I just needed to kind of move this subject along.

"Sorry, I should introduce myself. I am Sheldon Lee. My dad moved here due to a job promotion, and I am about five or ten minutes down the road. Who are you two?" I asked, feeling like maybe the extra context was what I needed to get him to talk. The younger brother looked at the older one, with a slight pleading look in his eyes, as if telling him to just do this.

"Sheldon, nice to meet you. My name is Sam, and this is my younger brother Kevin. What job is your father working at?" Sam asked, mainly just to make casual discussion. But I would later learn that he was already heavily suspecting what it was, and was only going with this as a formality.

"My dad got a contract from a person working in some company called Lazarus Corporation. He was also given an offer to work with some politican." I said, not really sure what else I wanted to tell him. I looked over at Kevin, and I was smiling at this.

If I am straight up about how I feel here, I do feel a bit morose when I know both what happened to Sam, and what happened with Kevin, and that in a matter of only nine to ten years, everything for them both would be completely gone down the drain. Honestly, if I had known what was to happen to both of them, I would have told them to not worry about meeting up with me, or anything like that.

I mean, that is probably half the reason why the things that happened to me, and the way that I turned out the way that I did happened in the first place. Knowing that something horrible happened to both of Sam and Kevin, and that I should have tried to stop it, but that I never came anywhere near close to actually fixing this situation at all.

"So you were saying that you were wanting to play? Have you ever played before?" Sam asked, as if he was feeling like given the way that this was how I was approaching the subject, he might as well just go along with the subject, and see what he could be able to do to help me out.

"I never really got the chance to play before. Everybody was always too scared to let me have a chance to give it a go. I feel like people just never really thought that I deserved a chance." I said, kind of feeling sad at what I was saying. He looked a bit unsure what to tell me, and then he slowly nodded at this. As if feeling like this was completely fair.

"Well, I also want to see what the town has to offer." I said, wondering if maybe Sam would be willing to show me around Wayside. If he did, then I would give him so much debt, and I would treat him like he was a true friend. And I was one of those people that would be loyal to true friends, no matter how rough things would get here.

"Well, I guess that if you really feel that way, I can show you around a bit. Not that there really is a ton for people are age, if I am honest with you. People don't really ever let guys our age go around freely." He said, and I was wondering where this was going. I was rather interested in this story, and I wondered if he was willing to elaborate on that a bit more than he had.

"Why is that?" I asked, ready to just see what he was hiding from me. He sighed, and looked right at Kevin, who was looking like he wanted to see Sam just stop hiding from things, and just talk a bit more than he had been. Then with that, he just looked like he gave up.

"Well, there are just a lot of things going on here that the owners of the town are too scared to tell people. As if they hope that soon enough, we would just drop the whole thing with them. To be honest, I have no idea why they are so scared." He said, and I was sighing, since I was feeling like they were barely giving me any real responses at all.

"Anyways, let's just play some ball, and we can focus on that." He said, and I slowly nodded. I felt like there was nothing else that I was getting here. So I might as well just go along with his plan, and not make too much of a issue here. And to be honest, I felt like he was going to never really give me much more to work with, and I wanted to make some real friends here.

We ended up just playing some soccer for about half an hour. I was barely understanding how soccer truly worked, and therefore I just wasn't very good at it, and I was seeing that Sam and Kevin, especially Sam, were getting more and more annoyed with trying to teach me. He was rubbing his eyes, and after each failed attempt, I was wondering why in the world he was taking this whole thing so seriously.

When about half an hour passed, and I was barely kicking the ball more than a foot or two at a time, and the ball was barely even reaching the others, and the one time that it did actually go far, it nearly ended up hitting Kevin in the chest, I was seeing Sam looking like he was needing to just call this good, and just drop this whole thing from getting worse.

"Okay, maybe soccer and you are not really meant to be." He said, and then with that, he was then wanting to find something to say. "Sheldon, are there any sports at all that you are good at? Maybe we can just fucking focus on those for the time being."

"Not really. I wish that I had been." I said, and then with that, Sam rubbed his eyes, feeling like he was not having any other ideas on what he could do. As if he was scared out of his mind on the next suggestions. "Is there anything else that we could be doing besides maybe sports?" As I asked that, Sam then looked at Kevin.

"Not with Kevin around, if I am honest. He is way too young to be dealing with most of these things. So yeah, I think that if we head around, we need to make sure that we don't bring him along." As Sam said this, I could see that Kevin looked genuinely upset at what Sam was saying here, and wished that Sam would just stop this high and mighty attitude.

"Come on, I don't think he is too young. I think he might be fine with hearing this all." I said, and I could tell that he had just sort of wanted to continue, but had nothing else to say. "He is a good kid, from what I have seen so far."

"Well, I might as well show you the actual building your father is working at. Maybe that would be something you would be interested in." He said, sounding like he was just accepting the fact that, in his head, he was going to be doing something incredibly stupid just for my own sake.

"If you are willing to show me, that would be awesome." I said, feeling like I needed to take this idea. Even if it didn't work, I needed to take it. I then looked at Kevin, and I was feeling like I needed to find something to say to make Kevin feel a bit better about what was happening here, and make him see that I was going to stick out to him.

"Why can't Kevin come along with this? He's a good guy, so I feel like he deserves to know." I said, and then with that Sam was shaking his head. As if he was wishing that I would drop this for the time being, and not make things twenty thousand times worse for everybody else.

"Kevin is too young for any of this. Trust me. He's only six years old. Please, let him stay out of this for now. I promise that I don't mind you coming along with various things, but I feel like this is still where I need to draw my line." He said, sounding like he was trying to make this point across, in a way that made some sense. But had no idea how he could really do it.

"Besides, even if we did try and bring Kevin to this, mom and dad wouldn't allow him as they don't want him near that building. He's not even supposed to be starting school for another few months. Just take my word when I say that the best thing to do is just go on our own, and we will figure out what is best for everybody here." I said, and I could see Kevin looking like he was not buying what I was saying at all. In fact, he looked like he was kind of pissed off that this was even going along the way that it had been.

"Okay, fine you made your point. I do not like it, but I am not going to fight you on this anymore." I said, feeling like I just needed to let this go. Sam was clear cut on what he was feeling with the subject, and I felt like I just needed to let this happen the way that he had wanted.

"Thank you Sheldon. I know that you might not like what I am doing here. But trust me when I tell you that this is the best option. Thank you for understanding that I have to do what is best for my family, no matter how hard these things might fucking be." He said, and I was then slowly just following him along, feeling like I needed to let this go around the way that he wanted. If I was honest, I felt like the whole thing was stupid, but I didn't even care at all.

As we were leaving, and Kevin was watching us, and looking saddened at what we were doing, I was left wondering if this was really even going to be worth it. I felt like this could be going down hill really quickly. I mean, I wondered how fast it would take for Kevin to just decide that he was going to do things his way, and he would be coming with us on these adventures one way or another.

"Do your parents not like it when you go and talk to people in Lazarus?" I asked, feeling like I just needed to see where this was going. In all honesty, I didn't really think that this was going to get anywhere, and I felt like if Sam was so worried about this whole thing, then he needed to take the time to explain why this was such an issue in the first place.

"I think they are simply just more focused on what they feel like if the best for our safety. I feel like they genuinely want to do what is best for Kevin and I. They just don't really have the brightest way of being able to approach this whole thing. Or maybe I just don't get the real bigger picture here." Sam said, and then I wondered what to say.

"What do you think of Lazarus Company?" I asked, since I was feeling like if my dad was going to be working in this company, I wanted this to be a good place for my father, that he could fucking be proud of. "I shouldn't be so worried about this right now."

"I think that it's cool. It does good work for the people here. And the president has a great vision of the town." He said, and I was finding myself wondering how much of this was just him fucking talking, or if this was him just being genuine here. I then took a deep breath, feeling like I just needed to ask him that, since I did not want him to be thinking that we were going to potentially be raising this issue much more than it had already.

"Sam, do you really feel that way?" I asked, wondering why I even asked that. I felt like Sam lived here far longer than I did, and I was feeling like just constantly fighting him for no fucking reason was not going to accomplish anything. I shook my head, feeling disgusted at myself. I was always making giant big scenes, when in all honesty, I had never needed to do that.

"I feel that way enough to where I feel like there is no real point in making a big fucking scene out of it for no fucking reason." He said, hoping that telling me this was enough to make the subject end for the time being. I sighed, wishing that I had mastered the ability to keep my mouth shut more.

Despite the fact that I felt like my dad was kind of an asshole about it, I knew that deep down inside, he did have a fucking point here. He was right about the fact that I needed to fucking work on some unappealing quality traits. One of which was the fact that I needed to learn how to keep my mouth shut more often than I had been.

"When did Lazarus even start in the first place?" I asked, feeling like that was a great starting point. As I asked that, I was seeing him looking mildly interested In what I asked. Not asking him straight up about anything else, but I felt like this was something that we could be able to truly roll with and not make too many issues here.

"From what mom and dad explained, it has been around for quite a while. But it mainly started as a result of there being some issues with the towns economy after some mining accident or something. I don't get it or anything. That is just the story that I have heard from my parents over and over again." Sam said, sounding like he was wishing that his parents gave him more details than before. But at the same time, he was sort of used to something like this.

"Honestly, I never felt the need to talk to them about it more. I never really understood why it mattered." He said, sounding like he was needing to be honest there. "Honestly Sheldon, don't worry too much about it. It's not like it even fucking matters all that much here."

"I feel like it does matter." I said, for some reason feeling like this can become a really big fucking thing. I had no idea what the issue really was here. But I was feeling like I had no choice on the matter here. I needed to know what dad was getting himself into, and I needed Sam to just be straight up with me here. If he wasn't, then I suppose that I can always take the information from dad anyways.

"You do know I can just ask my dad what happens anyways." I said, feeling like maybe this would be enough to get him to calm down on the matter, and not be hiding anything here. Sam looked up, and I was seeing him looking beyond annoyed as hell that this was happening.

"I suppose that is true. Something just tells me that this can be a really fucking bad idea, and we need to be as careful as possible here." Sam said, and I was wondering what he was going to say to me if I chose to not follow through with this. If he was going to suddenly make me the bad guy for no reason other than to suit his narrative.

"Just don't do anything Sheldon. Just let your dad do his job, and you will be much happier. Trust me when I say that." He said, sounding like he had hoped that this would settle through to me. I was slowly nodding, since I felt like deep down inside, I knew he was right. I was making things twenty thousand times harder than they ever needed to be, for literally no fucking reason.

Before long, we eventually reached the front of the largest building in Wayside. The building that would both represent hope, and represent hatred and despair in my life. In all honesty, it was crazy seeing how much this place was showing off both sides of the spectrum for me.

I was seeing two men standing out in front of the building, both of them looking like they were very deep in discussion, and I was kind of scared of seeing what both of them were going to do now. One of them looked decently young, at last compared to the older one. He looked like he was roughly twenty to twenty five years old. The other looked like he was in his forties. But it was clear that he was not the younger ones father, or not related to the younger one at all.

When they both saw Sam, I was seeing both of them the older one especially, looking kind of excited to see me. As if they were hoping to see this guy soon enough. "Hey, who is your friend with you today?" The older one asked, and then Sam looked like he was trying to hide the fact that this was not really the guy that he wanted to see. Or maybe it was, but just not at this time.

"Well, he just moved here today. So I think the jury is still out on if we are friends or not. But his dad got a job here, from what Sheldon was saying. So I was just wanting to show him what this place looked like if he wanted to see what his father was going to be working on." Sam said, and he sounded like he had hoped that this would work out for our favor.

"Okay, Sheldon… I think I might have heard that name. Your father and I talked on the phone a few times. He mentioned you once or twice, and your older sister. Said that he wanted to give you guys a new start after your mother died. How is that holding up, if you don't mind me asking." As the younger one asked this, he then shook his head.

"My name is Shaun Reichenbach. My father, Erik, is the president of the company, but he is busy doing stuff right now, so he is just telling me to go out and talk with some connections that our company has." He said, sounding a bit scared where this would go. I was noticing the slightly red hair that he had, which was strange given the once or twice ever that I would eventually meet Erik, who if I remembered correctly, had a blondish brown hair.

"This man over here is Larry Needlemeyer. He has been spending the last eighteen years running the Joyful Burger shop down a few miles away. Took over the business when he was twenty one on his fathers wishes." Shaun said, and then Larry looked right at me, and I was seeing him looking like he was genuinely trying his best to put on a pleasant presentation.

"If you want to come to our shop later tonight, I would be happy to let you try one of our items out. First one's free." Larry said, and I could tell that he was hoping that I would actually take the bait. I looked right at Sam, and I was seeing him looking like he was hoping that I would just go with this offer, partially to not rattle any feathers, but also because he seemed to accept the fact that this was just how things were going to go now.

"What will my dad do here?" I asked, feeling like I needed to just get this subject moving along as fast as possible now. I was not really in the mood to be stalling on this any longer, and I was feeling like the faster that I was given a answer, the better that everybody here would be. With that, Shaun smiled, and looked like he was just trying to hide the fact that he was not at all happy with where this was going.

"I am not sure. I mean, I only know the basis levels of what everybody here is doing, and to be quite honest, I'm not really all that interested in what each individual person is doing. Everything just constantly goes through the paper works here so fast." Shaun said, and then I was sighing, since I did not really enjoy that answer at all. It felt fucking pointless, and I was wondering why I even bothered asking this in the first place.

"Honestly, this is what you should have expected when you came here. I don't have every single thing of the top of my mind. I wish that I could help you more. You seem like a nice enough kid, but I feel like things don't work out that way anymore. Sorry to tell you this." He said, sounding like he was just kind of putting on the act that this was something he was feeling remorse for.

"Sorry to bother you guys. I was trying to tell him that this was how things were done here, and he wasn't really wanting to listen to me. I hope that you guys have a better rest of your evening." Sam said, sounding like he was trying to de-escalate this as much as possible. But I could tell that he was not really sure if this was even remotely working out.

"He has the right to ask a few questions. I just don't know the answers to them is all that I was trying to say. I don't really judge him for wanting to know some stuff though." He said, as he looked right at me, and I was feeling like I just needed to roll with what he had said. He seemed like he was caring enough for my perspective to not be judging me over this.

"Anyways, so we'll meet again tomorrow, and we will discuss more details about the job that you were planning? We shouldn't really be having this discussion out in public in the first lace anyways, and I think we both know that continuing this elsewhere is best for both of us." Larry said, and I was hearing him having a partially paranoid answer here, while also just seeming like he was wanting to move this along in any way that would be possible.

"Yeah, tomorrow, at ten in the morning. If you don't want to have a talk in public, we can go and meet up down at the beach or something. Or maybe a motel." Shaun said, and shook Larry's hand, and then with that, I was seeing him looking like he was just kind of glad to finally be wrapping up the discussion for the time being.

Sam and I did not realize it at the time, but this was me and Sam listening in on the first step to one of the biggest plots that ever happened in the history of Wayside. A plot that would go beyond anything that any of us could have expected, and even if I was way too young to understand or want any part of I, I ended up finding myself weaseled into the whole thing.

"Hey, you know, these guys seem really busy right now, and Larry offered us to meet up with him in a little bit, so maybe I would show you one of our neighbors in the mean time. He's closer to Kevin's age, but I think that you might like him enough." He said, sounding like he was just glad to be finally moving this along in a constructive way.

"Sure, good enough." I said, feeling like this was what we needed to roll with. I sighed, feeling like I had no real choice on the matter. I wanted to know more about the company, and what my dad was doing. But I was feeling like at least for now, that was way too big for somebody my age. I should have known that something like this was going to happen, and I should have realized that I made a big mistake even getting involved in all of this to begin with.

"Nice to meet you." I told Shaun, even though this wasn't really true at all. In all honesty, I was mainly more interested in meeting up with Larry again, partially for the free sample, but also he kind of just had a nice fatherly feel to him that made me feel a lot better about everything that was going on here.

Sam and I started to head off, not really thinking much about it. As we were walking along, I was seeing Sam just looking like he was really glad that this subject was finally over. Like he was scared out of his mind at being there in the first place, and this was the perfect excuse to just get himself out of this subject, and do so in a way that wouldn't make people suspicious of what he was doing. In a way, I was feeling like this was a very smart idea.

"He seems kind of strange." I said, not sure if I could place the right words to it. I just had a feeling that there was something about this asshole, and I felt like no matter what we did, it wasn't like anything would be changed here. Sam then shrugged.

"I guess it doesn't really matter too much what is going on here anymore. I'm not really too worried about it, if I am honest. And besides, Larry said he was willing to let us have some dinner at his place. I think that is a hard offer to turn down, if you ask me." Sam smiled, and I supposed that this was true enough, even if I wasn't super in love with the idea.

"How often do you go to Joyful Burger?" I asked, feeling like I might as well see where this was going. I was only half way interested in this subject, if I was honest. But to be honest, I was feeling like if this was what I needed to do to keep the whole friendship thing going on, I would just try and show some interest in this idea for both of our sakes.

"I go there every week or two. The best part is that the food is usually cheap there, especially for students." Sam said, and I was slowly nodding, not sure if there was any other reaction to have there.

After a certain while, we did make it to the house that Sam was wanting to show me. When we were there, Sam was looking at me, and for some reason, I could tell that the tone of the discussion got deathly serious for a moment. "Don't do anything to him that might get him upset here. The kid is not bad, and I feel like he deserves to have somebody who won't treat him badly." As Sam said that, I sighed, since I was not really in the mood to listen to this. I only was going to go along with it for now.

"Look, I just have a feeling that this kid is much more sensitive to things than either you or I will be. And I feel like that is something we need to be very careful over." As he said that to me, I just slowly nodded, not exactly sure what the hell I am even supposed to say to him in the first place.

"And to be honest, even if he isn't sensitive, his mother is fucking strange. There is something going on with that woman, and I literally can't place it to save my life. I would argue that she is the one person that you should just always walk carefully around." Sam said, sounding like he was genuinely hoping that I would heed his warning. I shrugged, since I was feeling like this whole thing was a bit silly. He was way over thinking this, and I had no idea why he would worry so much over it.

"What has his mother said that makes you feel so worried in the first place? I mean, you are kind of placing a lot on the table there, and you aren't giving me any context at all." I said, feeling like I just needed to see where the hell this guy was coming from in the first place. To be honest, I felt like if Sam was wanting to hang out with me, and be my friend, he needed to stop fucking beating around the bush, and just tell it to me straight.

"Just some rumors that I heard. I was hearing that at one point in time, she was like super uptight about having multiple kids. Like his mother isn't his biological mother, and she adopted him when he was only a few weeks old. I think that maybe was hoping that this wouldn't be a one time thing." Sam said, shrugging, as if he had no real desire to keep talking about the subject any longer than he had been at this rate.

"Well, I feel like that shouldn't matter all that much in the end. If she is a bit strange, then what in the world really matters that much about it?" I asked, not even sure if what I was saying was going to be making any fucking difference at all.

"Look, I think when you see that kid, you will think differently." Sam said, as he knocked on the door, and then the boy answered the door. Sam was right, he did look to be roughly Kevin's age, and he had looked like he was much more scared, and much less socially excited as Kevin was. Almost like he was scared of something, and I was wondering if I needed to say anything to him to make him feel better.

"Hey, who are you?" The red head kid asked, looking at me. He seemed to barely pay Sam any mind. As if he already knew who Sam was, and hardly fucking cared about any of that. I then took a deep breath, feeling like if this kid was going to be acting this way, I might as well just move the subject along.

"My name is Sheldon. I moved here yesterday with my dad and older sister. My dad said he wanted to give us both a new start and he had a job promotion, so this was the best move for him." I said, and I wasn't even sure if I was so into this idea the longer that I had been here. To be honest, the more time that had passed, the less and less sure that I even wanted to be involved in any of this in the first place.

"Why is your mom not there with you guys?" The guy asked, and then I was looking down, and I was trying to hide the fact that I was wanting to cry at him. I mean, he didn't know any better. But the fact that he suddenly brought that up was really already ruining the entire impression that I had of him. I mean, I knew that he didn't mean any offense when he was bringing this up to me, but I didn't have to fucking like it at all.

"At least introduce your name first dude." Sam said, sounding like he was already regretting even bringing this subject up in the first place. I was wondering if Sam secretly did not like this guy very much at all, and was only doing this out of a sense of obligation. The red head boy slowly nodded, as if he was feeling like this was a fair enough point.

"My name is Brad Carbunkle. Sorry for the rude introductions. I guess that I was just wanting to know about the mother thing…" Brad said, and then he looked right at me, and I was seeing him looking like he was wishing that I would give him that. I sighed, feeling like I had no choice on the matter. He was going to just make me tell him everything. So I had no reason to fight this.

"Anyways, I guess since you're going to know sooner or later anyways, I might as well just tell you. My mom died a few months ago, and that is half the reason for the move. Dad feels like it would be best for me to start a new life, where I'm not thinking about that any longer." I said, feeling like I just needed to be honest with him. As I said that, I could see Brad looking like he was kind of regretting asking this. Then he sighed, feeling like he just needed to ask me another question.

"Oh, I guess I wasn't expecting that. I thought that it would have just been a divorce or something. Sorry for that." Brad said, and then his mother was calling his name, and then the conversation that had started to kind of move in a positive direction had moved to a screeching halt.

"Brad, who is out there?" His mother asked, and Brad winced for a second. Then he turned around, and then decided that the best thing to do was just answer his mothers simple question.

"Sam and a new guy named Sheldon. They were coming over to say hello. They'll be heading out now." He said, and then he looked right at us, as if he was mentally pleading with us that no matter what happens now, we just get the hell out of here, and that this conversation would end.

Before he even had a chance to get a single word out though, that was when Brad's mother already had reached the door, and she looked right at us. She looked like she wasn't even sure what she wanted to say to us. If she was wanting to tell us to just simply leave, or if she was wanting to tell us to come inside, and make ourselves at home.

"Do you guys think you'll be staying for a while?" She asked, and Sam looked like he didn't even need a moment to answer this. As if he couldn't have been happier to just grant Brad his wish of having the two of us just leave and putting this whole thing behind us.

"No, we were going to be heading down to Joyful Burger, and we were going to be having dinner there. I was planning on maybe bringing Kevin along. Especially since I kind of feel bad for the way that I was talking to him earlier." Sam said, feeling like that was all that he need to say. That saying anything else was probably just giving Brad's mother more information than she had wanted, or more information than she had needed.

"Would you be willing to bring Brad with you then? If you decided to drop by the house, and come and talk to us all in the first place, then you might as well just take him with you guys." She said, sounding like she was really hoping that this would work.

"Look, Brad needs to get out there more, and he needs to make some more friends. Please understand that I don't want Brad to go to school for the first time in a few months, and not have any friends here." She said, and then I sighed, feeling like none of this made any fucking sense.

"I mean, he has Kevin already? That's a friend." I said, and I was still kind of unsure how they got along. But I was feeling like I just needed to make the point here. She looked right at me, and then she shrugged, feeling like that was somehow not going to be enough for us here.

"Well, I mean, I want him to go to school, and have a group of friends. A group of people that he will trust." She said, and then she looked at Brad, as if begging that he will listen to him. I was wondering why he cared so much about this. It was just a fucking dinner, and it was probably going to have very little to no impact on the grand scheme of things.

"Okay. I guess that I can go. I want to have some friends too." Brad said, sounding like at the end of the day, he knew that his mother had good intentions, and he felt like if he could get some friends early on before the school year started, then things would finally come around and be improved.

"Brad, I hope you understand that everything I do is for your benefit. Please don't hate me forever for this. You are going to be super popular one day. You just need to give it some time." His mother said, and then Brad shook his head. He then looked at his mother, and put on a half fake, half sincere smile, and then he closed the door before his mother was going to say anything else. He just looked like no matter what else was happening, he was glad to finally be putting that behind him. Almost like he didn't want to admit that this whole subject made him very uncomfortable.

Once Brad had closed the door, he looked right at us, and I was seeing him looking like he was trying to simply decide if he believed the things that his mother was saying, or if he was feeling like she was just saying these things to make him feel better. "Do you believe in her?" I asked, feeling like I might as well just sort of see what was on his mind. He sighed, feeling like he would just tell me everything that had been on his mind at that current moment.

"I think she is genuinely trying. I just don't know who, or what, to believe anymore. I feel so fucking lost here." As he said that to me, I was slowly nodding, and I felt like I needed to be careful on what I said. After all. He was probably a bit scared of what he was wanting to admit at this rate, and I was accomplishing nothing at all, literally, by pressing these things onto him at this rate. So I just needed to learn when I needed to back off here.

"I want to hang out with Kevin too. He's always been nice to me." As he said that to me, I wondered what Sam was going to actually think of this subject. After all, Sam and I have always been kind of hard on me here. "Nice to meet you to Sheldon. Sorry I was so rude to you earlier. You didn't deserve that at all." Kevin said, and smiled, and he was hoping that I would accept his apology as I said that.

"No, I need to get used to tell people what is going on here. You know, I might not enjoy it at all. But I need to stop fighting fate or else that will make things twenty thousand times worse. I just hope that everybody else will give me something to work with here." I said, and I was shaking my head. I hated the fact that I had to accept anything like this in the first place.

"Do you think your dad would be fine with talking about this all the time? Or do you think he would get angry at this?" He asked, and I shrugged. I had no idea what to tell him. There was nothing to fucking tell him anymore. But the same time, there was nothing to fucking hide from him either. So I figured that I might as well just spill the beans when it came to this whole thing, and not cause any shift or no fucking reason because the fact that I didn't enjoy what was happening.

"I think that dad will probably either not fucking know what I am talking about, or simply not give a shit. He is a busy ass man. Why in the world would he care at all about what I am fucking doing here?" I asked, and I was seeing Kevin looking like he was actually a bit scared of my response.

"Because he's your dad, and he is supposed to be at your side no matter what happens. Who cares if he is working a fucking job or not? He can fucking help you guys out either way." He said, sounding like this was something that he hoped I would actually listen to him on. I sighed, not even sure what the hell I was supposed to tell him.

"Brad, he is a busy man. Let's just go and fucking grab Kevin, and be done with this. I'm not in the mood to deal with this right now. You're mom is probably pissed off that we are having this long ass discussion in front of her house with no permission anyways. I can fucking understand why. It's so god damn random to." I said, and shrugged, feeling like I just needed to give Brad's mother this one. I understood where she would be coming from if she did not like me, and I felt like I needed to let her have that much with me.

Brad and Sam both looked at each other. Both looked a bit worried at my sudden change in tone, and the fact that my attitude that had been positive before had suddenly turned extremely fucking sour in just a moments time. I was seeing Brad looking like he was kind of feeling bad here. Almost like he was aware that this was at least in part his fault, and he wished that he could sort this up.

As we were walking to Kevin's house, Sam then started to speak. "His dad is working for Lazarus, and I tried to take him to the company building. We found Shaun there, who was kind of a bit hard and distant with us here. I think that maybe Sheldon didn't really like Shaun that much. Which I suppose that I can understand, given everything that is going on here."

"I mean, I get that he is busy, so I'm not too upset with him. I just wish that nothing had to go the way that they fucking did. I suppose that I am just being a bit of a fucking asshole though." I said, and I was feeling like at this rate, I might as well be a bit more open about what I was feeling here. "I feel like this guy doesn't understand that the whole thing is a fucking disaster no matter what we fucking do…"

"I think that maybe I can try and talk to dad about this whole thing after the whole issue is fucking done, and see what he fucking says here. He might be willing to tell me more, I guess." I said, not even sure if I was buying what I had fucking said. Sam looked like he was trying to decide if he regretted what had been saying or not.

"Anyways, I think that the longer that I talk about this, the less that anything gets accomplished here. So I might as well just drop it for now. Besides, I feel like with Shaun running a giant company, he is probably going to be very busy all the time. And I think that maybe my dad is a good guy for trying to just keeping him able to run his business at all. I guess that I would be interested in meeting Erik though. Since he seems like a nice enough guy." I said, not exactly sure what we were going to accomplish here.

"I never got to meet Erik. If you ever see him it will literally be because of your dad. I assume that you know this." Sam said, rolling his eyes, and sounding like he could not believe that he was even needing to tell me this in the first place. I shrugged, feeling like that was something that I needed to roll with. And I was feeling like dad was well aware of this before Sam even had to say this.

"I know how it fucking works Sam." I said, feeling like I just needed to be straight up with him. After all, I was feeling like if Sam was just going to be lecturing me on stupid shit that had nothing to do with anything at all, then there was nothing left to fucking accomplish here.

"Sheldon, I am just trying to give you a heads up before you do anything stupid here. I get that being stupid is kind of our thing in our age group, but please don't do anything stupid just because you want to do something big." He said, and I was looking right at him. I was wondering, genuinely, why the hell he cared. I mean, my shit barely had any effect on him. I might as well just do what I fucking could, an dnot make matters any worse.

Eventually, we were at Sam's house, where Kevin had been kicking a ball around, and looked like he was kind of morose at the fact that we hadn't given him so much as a proper good bye, and I was feeling like this was completely fucking fair given the fact that we were kind of rude to him. But I was feeling like this was something that he would need to start getting used to after a certain point in time.

"Did you guys have fun?" He asked, in a mildly snippy way, as he saw Brad for a second, and then seemed to be calming down for a moment. Like he was genuinely interested in what Brad was doing here. So he put on a fake smile, but still somehow more real than it had been before.

"What are you doing here? Why are you hanging out with people that will show no interest in what people our age would like to do?" As he asked that, I could tell from the look on his face that he hoped that Sam would listen to this, and be bothered deeply about it. For a second, I was seeing Sam looking like he was just kind of tired of the way that this discussion had been going on, and wished that this had ended sooner than it did.

"Oh my god Kevin, get over it. We're not doing anything to hurt anybody. You are way over blowing this whole thing…" As he said that to me, I was seeing him looking a bit tired as hell at what he was even having to deal with here.

"Nobody wants to be talking to Shaun Reichenbach besides this dude, and I think even this dude would have no issue with wanting to talk to him." I said, feeling like I just needed to be real with him. Sam looked like he was wondering how many more times he could even take comments like this without just getting annoyed as all get out at what was happening here.

"Anyways, we were wondering if you were wanting to go to dinner with us, and then we could be able to have a good time that way. I feel like that is the best way that I can be able to apologize to you over everything going on." Sam said, and I was seeing Kevin looking like he was chill with the idea of going out to dinner because it meant that he got free food that wasn't from the house.

"I'll go. Just to hang out with the new guy." He said, pointing at me. I sighed, feeling like if this was the best thing that he could get out of this. So I put on a fake smile, feeling like this was the only way that I could roll with this that in any way made it seem like I wasn't too bothered by what had been going on.

"Fair enough. I think this is something that we can all get behind." Sam said, looking at me, as if he was hoping that I would be down with what he heard. I shrugged, as I was feeling like there wasn't much reason to be fighting this. After all, I was feeling like if this was the way that I could get Kevin to like me, and have the family more willing to talk with me and give me a chance, then I supposed that I just needed to fucking go with this.

"What should we do after dinner?" Brad asked, sounding like he was just trying to go along with the whole thing. Kind of on the hope that this subject wouldn't be too rough for any of us. I shrugged, since I really did not have a clue and I would let Sam take over on this one.

"Well, every year when school ends, I burn the homework that I had done and gathered up all year at a house bonfire. I think that maybe the four of us could just watch that when we are done with food." Sam said, sounding like he had really hoped that this plan was going to work. I could tell that Sam did not seem super sure on what he was feeling here.

"I think that could be cool to go to." I said, looking right at Kevin, and I was wondering if he was really feeling the same way. Kevin took a deep breath, and slowly sighed. As if he was feeling like he just needed to go along with this idea, and not press it any harder than he had been before.

"Yeah sure. I remember watching the one that you did last year, and wanting to go." Brad said, smiling at the memory. I was happy to see Brad was finally wiling to listen. I was happy to see that Brad was finally willing to just go on and do something. But then with that, we started to head on down to Joyful Burger. As we were heading there, I was seeing Kevin start to slowly open up more, and he was starting to at least look like he was happier once again. And if he was happy, then I had a feeling that Sam was going to be happy too, and we were all going to have a easy time with this shit.

"Well, you could have always asked. And with you and Kevin going to school this year, if you, Sheldon, Kevin, want to use your own homework as well, then maybe you guys can contribute to the cause as well." He said, and I was seeing Sam looking like he had hoped that we were actually going to listen to him. I looked at Sam as he said this. I was wondering if he was genuinely believing that things would be as easy as he was saying it was.

"Honestly, I already feel more at home right now than I did the entire time I lived in Arkansas." I said, feeling the fact that this was finally coming together keep me happy. I was loving this place so far, and I was feeling like if today was a sign of what was to come, I would never want to leave this place for the rest of my life.

It hurts now knowing that I would only enjoy life in Wayside like this, the way that I deserved it, for roughly six months, before everything went down hill, and everything just got fucking broken beyond repair. And I promise that this was something that I could never really be able to recover from or anything like that.

Honestly, if I had known that if I was only going to be able to enjoy Wayside for roughly six months before everything went to fucking shit, then I would have gone to my father, I would be crying my fucking god damn eyes out, and I would be begging him with every ounce of my body that he does not follow through with this move. I would be making it clear to him that doing this would only be the worst choice that he could ever make in his entire life.

As we had been silent for a moment, Sam then spoke up, as if to keep the conversation going in a way that helped both of us out. "What was Arkansas like? You don't sound like you were too in love with it?" As Sam asked me this, I then sighed, since it was a great question. One that if I were to answer, we were both going to be here for a really fucking long time, and I was feeling like neither one of them were really ready for such a thing.

"Well, I never really hated the place per se… But I always felt like there was something there that I needed to move out from. And that was made even worse with moms death. After mom died, I felt no real incentive to keep living here. That was the thing that made me realize that staying here was not even fucking worth it anymore. So with that, I decided that I would just go with this. Besides, nothing here can be worse than my mom dying…" I said, with such confidence, such truthfulness, that I did not think for a fucking second it was false.

"Do you ever want to talk about your mom? Maybe there is something you can give us that would help us see how great she was." As Sam said that to me, I shook my head, since I was feeling like that wouldn't accomplish a damn thing.

"I'm not ready for that part yet. I wish that I was. It would make me feel a million times better if I was. I think Riley is even less ready for this than I am." I said, thinking about the way that my sister had been acting lately. "Dad and Riley are already having a lot of tension with how things are going."

"Did Riley like your mom?" Kevin asked, and I sighed in annoyance at that, as if feeling like the question was fucking stupid, and I was wondering what the hell he was even trying to accomplish by asking me this in the first place. But I decided to just keep calm, and not say anything.

"I mean, they got along well enough. They didn't like hate each other or argue or anything like that. But they always had a rough time getting along with each other." I said, and I was wondering what else I was supposed to say? If they got into fights all the time? That shit wasn't really true at all.

At least in the last several months before she passed away, it wasn't. At least at the end, she was getting sicker and sicker, month by month, where over time she was barely even keeping any energy to do anything. I think she wouldn't have been able to make a fight, even if she had wanted to. And if you ask me, that was probably where things were for the best for now.

"I remember the last thing that she said to me. She said that I should never look back. I don't even know how something like this would even be a good idea at all." I said, and then I shook my head. I know that she was gone now, and for a while I was sort of moving on. But the longer that time passed, the less and less convinced that I knew what was really on my mind. I could never be fucking convinced.

"Do you think that you will ever be able to not look back?" Sam asked, sounding confused and scared at this question. I sighed, feeling like he needed to stop asking me these questions. There was nothing that I could say to make the answer fine.

"Yeah, I think that I can." I said, feeling like that was the best answer. The answer that they wanted to hear. The look on Sam's face made it clear to me that he did not buy a single word of what I said. I was aware that he was wanting to try and make me feel better here.

And at the time, I did genuinely mean it. And while I sound like a broken record, for nine months that I was here, I did genuinely accomplish that. I lived my life, and I had been able to not regret anything. I was happy at the life that I had lived, and I was feeling like my mother would be proud of me for everything that I had done, and I felt like the one request that she had given me was the one request and promise that I was actually able to fucking keep.

"Okay, I feel like if you can do that, then I feel like that is good enough. Sorry for putting a million questions on you. I guess that I was just wondering what was going on. I know that I was being really pushy for no fucking reason." Sam said, sounding like there was a mild regret in his voice. But he was pretending like there wasn't one, to give himself more wiggle room.

"Look, I know that you might take a while to get used to the place, but just give it a chance." Sam said, and then I was shaking my head. I looked up, and I was seeing the large monorails that were looming over the town, and the golden trains that were coming past it. I was happy at what I was seeing. I had never seen a moving, working monorail in my entire life, so seeing this was something I was happy to look at.

"No, this is awesome. I never thought that I would get to see a moving train so high in the air before. Dad said this was something to look forward to. But I didn't think it would actually be so exciting." I said, feeling like I Just needed to let Sam have that. Sam slowly nodded, as if he was feeling like he could roll with that.

"Have you seen a normal train before then?" He asked, and then I shook my head. I had only seen a regular train passing by a couple of times, and that was it. Something super anti climatic in comparison to this.

"No, no monorails or golden trains. Just a old beaten down one passing by a couple of times. Where do these lead to?" I asked, hoping that I would be able to actually go on this once.

"Will I be able to go on one with my dad working for Erik?" I asked, feeling like I would put aside all my issues with dad moving here if it meant that I would actually ride on the golden monorail. Brad rolled his eyes, as if he was feeling like the whole thing was really dumb.

"Oh, I am sure that you can. There is literally no reason for you to not." He said, shrugging, and sounding like he had no idea why the hell this discussion was even being had in the first place. He sounded like he was just annoyed at me, and he was just annoyed that this conversation even more forward as much as it had.

"Sheldon, do you think that if you get to ride, that I can ride to?" Brad asked, and I shrugged, feeling like there was no reason for him to not. Although I would have to bring him, which could lead to some problems, I feared, if we were not careful enough.

"Yeah, I can take you. I don't see why the hell not." I said, feeling like I just needed to be honest with him. "Just make sure that you don't do anything there that might make dad not want me to give it another go. That would break my fucking heart."

Once we reached Joyful Burger, I could see that Sam was looking like he was glad that all the walking around, and getting from place to place was finally over. Despite everything that had been going on, and the fact that Brad really did make me uncomfortable with the whole mom dying thing, I was feeling like I was going to have the best week of my life.

"Hello, what would you guys want while you are here today?" Larry asked, and I could tell from the way that he was sounding that he was losing a bit of his desire to be serving us right now. As if the realization that we were here was somehow a really bad thing. I took a deep breath, pretending like this didn't bother me.

"I would like a regular cheeseburger." Sam said, and then I was looking at the menu. After looking at them for a second, I decided that I was going to try the most interesting item on the menu. I was going to have the burger that would be the Joyful Burger version of the Dairy Queen Flamethrower.

Brad got a bacon cheese burger, and Kevin ended up getting a cheeseburger like Sam did. As we all sat down, I was taking a moment to look around the area, and see what I was thinking of the surroundings. I smiled, since I did enjoy the general setting, and I was wondering if I would be able to work here.

"What made Larry take over?" I asked, referring to the shop. I was wondering if like his parents died or something. As I said that, Sam perked up, and he seemed to be a bit interested in continuing this discussion, since it was new and exciting.

"From what I understand, Larry's father thought that Larry did not show enough responsibility in the family, and felt that Larry needed to step up. So he gave Larry this restaurant in order to give him a job. And he had been doing it ever since then." Sam said, smiling as he said this, and I slowly nodded, feeling like that was fair.

"Is his father still here?" I meant, mainly about the shop, since I was feeling like at least at first, for a while, he would be there for Larry in order to give Larry some form of guidance here. Sam shook his head, and I took it.

"He has been working at the Needlemeyer casino for a while. He owns that place and has owned it for as long as I can remember." Sam said, and I slowly nodded there. I felt like there was all that I needed to know. I looked at Kevin, and I was seeing that he was still kind of looking a bit lost at what to say here. Which made sense considering the fact that the kid was six years old and probably had no idea what the hell any of this meant.

"Mom goes there every week for a report." Brad said, suddenly opening up. I looked at Brad, wondering why the hell he was just now telling us this. "Mom said that he is kind of scary when you make him angry. I never met him though."

"Can I go to the casino?" I asked, already aware of how dumb the question was. There was no way in hell that this would happen. In fact, I was feeling like a idiot once I said it because I felt like even with my dad being involved with Lazarus, or whatever, that there was no way that this could happen.

Larry brought down the food, and I looked right at Larry, wondering if he would tell us more. "Is your dad cool?" I asked, feeling like after all these years, if Larry still resented his dad, that would probably be speaking more to himself than it would be speaking to his father.

"He's cool enough, I guess. I mean, he works hard every day, and he helped me realize what having a good work ethic is like." Larry said, feeling like he needed to give his father that much. I slowly nodded, a bit bothered by the strange uncertainty of his wording. As if he was trying to tip toe how he was feeling about his father.

"I certainly don't hate him though. I just wish that he and I were able to talk more often about things that aren't just business. All he does is talk about jobs, and work, and I feel like he sort of views people as business partners and nothing else." As he said that, he hoped that this was going to be good enough for me to roll with. I slowly nodded, feeling like I just needed to drop the subject.

"Sorry for asking." I said, feeling like he was clearly not wanting to talk about it. I could tell from the look on Sam's face that he was hoping that I would keep the statements to myself. I shook my head, feeling like I had nothing else to accomplish. So I just simply shrugged.

"I hope you guys enjoy your meal. Business has been rough lately and everything. But I guess that has nothing to do with you." He said, and then with that, I felt like I would ask him what the issue was. I could tell from the way that Sam looked that he was confused.

"Why not open up a larger store? I mean, you have worked here long enough, that I feel like your dad would set that up if you just simply asked." Sam said, sounding like he had wanted to see where this was going. Larry shook his head.

"Just forget what I said earlier. You're good kids, just don't worry about it." He said, sounding like he was just more so convincing himself than he was convincing us. "Anyways, I got to go to the back room. I have things to set up, and I can't stay too long just screwing around."

As he headed off, I looked right at Sam, Kevin, and Brad. I was seeing all three of them looking like they were kind of bothered by everything that they heard. For some reason, I could tell that all three of them were thinking that the story made no sense.

"Larry gets like fifty people here a day. How is his business struggling?" Sam asked, mainly to himself than to us. Then he shook his head, feeling like there was nothing else he could say about this. "Anyways, I guess it's not really any of my business."

"So what were you saying about your mother working with Larry's dad?" I asked, looking right at Brad again. I saw Brad looking like he was kind of scared and shocked at what he heard. Almost like he was wondering what he was supposed to say.

"Honestly, I have a feeling that my mom doesn't want me to talk about that stuff. She said that she was also going to start meeting up with the Wilson casino every week as well." As he said that, I was then feeling like I needed to ask something else.

"How many families have a casino?" I for some reason was very interested in this. The look on Brad's face looked as if he actually wasn't too sure what to say. Sam was looking like he was mentally counting them all up due to not being sure.

"The Wilsons, the Needlemeyers, the Watterson's. Those are the three main ones. But I feel like there are some others I can't remember. There is a fourth one I think. Oh yeah, it's owned by the Reichenbachs, because that was one that they built after making Lazarus. Then the other three were made soon after, because the Needlemeyer's, the Wilson's and the Watterson's all were best friends of the Reichenbach family, and they sort of became the three major families financed by Erik. So four. The Reichenbach's, the Wilson's, the Needlemeyer's, and the Watterson's." He said, smiling with some degree of pride at the fact that he knew this. I smiled, and nodded, feeling like I wanted to see all four of them before too long.

Eventually, we made it back to Sam's house, where we were all looking ready for the big burning ceremony. I was ready to watch some homework go up in smoke. I didn't even fucking hate school or anything. But I would be lying if I said that there wasn't a degree of satisfaction with watching something like this happen when school had been such a rough time this year.

Sam was heading right to his room, to grab the stuff for us to burn. "Thanks for coming over guys. I know that the idea of doing this might not seem all that fun of exciting. But I was probably going to do it tomorrow anyways. You guys being here just makes me do this a day faster than before." He said, and then I was looking right at Brad and Kevin. I was wondering if they were in any way interested in what was going on either. To be honest, I was not even sure what I was supposed to say.

"Did you bring anything fun over with you from Arkansas?" He asked me, and I shook my head. Not really sure if it was worth divulging on my lack of interesting take aways or anything like that. After all, I felt like everything that I could have had here was not really worth it.

"No, not really. I just took some basic things. Kind of felt no real need to do that when I barely even had anything really worth keeping. Riley brought over a few things. Such as a bunch of photos of all her friends, and the guy that she was starting to see." I said, and then I saw Sam look like he regretted mentioning if I had anything or not.

But he decided to latch to the one kind of opening that I gave him. "So what was the guy that Riley saw like?" As Sam asked that, placing down all the papers on a small folding table, he was going inside the house to grab a little bit of gasoline.

I decided to follow him, and grab the wood as well while I was thinking of how to answer him. "He was a strange fellow. He wasn't exactly rude per se. But you could tell that he had no real interest in talking either. He seemed to be scared of people. Like at any moment, somebody was going to do something to him. I can't explain it. But I can swear that he always has something on his mind, and it scares me." I said, feeling like I just needed to be straight up with that.

"I tried to talk to him once about it. But he said I shouldn't concern myself with this. He said that I was too young to care about that, and that kids need to just have some fun." I said, feeling like the inherent bias towards that subject was going to be making things twenty thousand times worse than they had ever needed to be.

"I do find it annoying when people just say stuff like that, and not seem to think about how we might react to that. Like our opinions just don't fucking matter because we're a kid or whatever." I said, and I was getting more and more angry the more that I was thinking about it. "He was a couple years older than Riley, which was an issue with mom and dad over it. They were claiming that he might not really be the best influence as a result of that. But Riley never seemed to really care, and she was sounding extremely upset every time they tried to tell her this."

"How long were they dating before we moved?" Sam asked, as I placed the wood down on the bonfire pit, and then we placed down a one gallon canister of gasoline, which I always found the idea of one gallon of gasoline to just never really be worth it as you would never really be able to get mush distance doing just that.

"They were dating for a little under six months. About three months before mom died, and three months after. Dad kept saying he liked the guy as a person, just not as Riley's boyfriend, and he was always claiming that as a boyfriend, he was going to inevitably be a bad influence on Riley. Part of me just wonders if they were just not wanting to admit that they were always going to hate him, no matter what he did, and that they were just unable to move beyond any biases. At least something like that would be honest." As I said that, I sighed, since I had no idea what to feel.

"Honestly, I'm kind of glad that that ended before long. I didn't want to deal with people constantly talking to each other about how they were both bad for Riely and everything. I felt like there was going to be constant wars going on with how people had been acting." I said, feeling like the annoyance of how I felt was finally coming through, and I had no reason to try and hide it at all.

"What was his name?" Sam asked, and I smirked at this, since it was kind of funny to me, but it was also something that kind of made me feel like it was a little bit of a cringy attempt to make this kid already seem like he was some big shot before he ever needed to be.

"Funny story. You know the governor that we had a while ago? I doubt you do. I only know him because I lived in Arkansas for ten years. But the former governor who used to be a business man, Benjamin Travis Laney, had the same last name as these Riley's boyfriends family, so they literally named their kid Benjamin Travis Laney in reference to the guy. Since he had the same middle name as my dads first name, I think that was another reason why dad deep down inside had a mild soft spot for the dude, despite not liking him much. Plus, dad did say that the guy did remind him of himself when he was fifteen a little bit." I said, not sure what else to say.

The main reason why anybody outside of Arkansas would know, or give a shit, about Benjamin Travis Laney, in the first place, was due to his involvement in the 1948 Dixiecrat revolt. Back when this part of my story was taking place, that was still a relatively recent event. In case you don't know, I'll give a historical rundown real quick. In 1948, Southern Democrats, who always voted Democrat in presidential races, were bothered by Harry Truman's Civil Rights platform. As a result, they created a splinter party called the Dixiecrats to try and win the 165 electoral votes of the eleven Confederate states to deny Truman an electoral majority. Benjamin Travis Laney, who was seen as a relatively uncontroversial political figure at the time, was given the parties nomination in a unanimous vote. Strom Thurmond, governor of South Carolina, who you know as a senator there, became his vice presidential nominee. The party received the official Democratic nomination of six southern states: His home state of Arkansas, Thurmond's home state of South Carolina, Mississippi, Louisiana, Georgia, and Alabama. In the end, he won all six of those said states but none other, with 77 electoral votes in total. Truman still won re-election with 369 electoral votes, and Dewey with 236 electoral votes finished in an upset loss. In the popular vote, Truman won 48.2 percent, Dewey won 43.7 percent, Laney won 3.4 percent, and despite winning no electoral votes, the Progressive party candidate Henry Wallace actually won a larger popular vote share than Laney with 4.2 percent, but his support was relatively spread throughout the country, contributing to his no electoral votes.

I give that lecture and everything, because I could tell from the way that Sam, Kevin, and Brad looked, that literally none of them got the historical context, while both of Sam's parents, who were just casually in the area listening in on our conversation, looked over, and did get the context, and I could tell that both of them had looked to be kind of bothered by what they were hearing. I was aware that they were wondering why I was even bringing up that guys name in the first place.

"Anyways, dad and mom were feeling like another reason why he was not the best person for Riley was that both of them were feeling like there was a chance that by dating this man, that Riley was not being entirely honest with herself in some way. I don't know what they mean though." I said, feeling stupid, and defeated, by what I was saying.

Four chairs were brought out. One for each of us. Brad and Kevin sat down on theirs right away. Which was probably for the best, as I did not want them accidentally doing something stupid, and getting themselves hurt or something like that, so I was just glad to just sort of sit back, and enjoy the show while it lasted.

"Thanks for taking the time to meet me first. You know, I know that we live close by, but I wouldn't have felt right if you just met up with a bunch of other people who might not have liked you, and then wouldn't really seem interested in actually getting to know you or anything." He said, and I shrugged. I had no idea why he was telling me this. Honestly, I felt like thre was no reason for him to be making a scene out of the fact that I was just finally doing what I could to branch out, and have a good life here.

"I just hope that Riley will be over this by the time that school starts up again. It would be so annoying if we had to deal with this all into the school year. I can already imagine how tired of this shit dad would fucking get." I said, already picturing it in my head, and already picturing how much they would be screaming at each other over this. How much Riley would accuse him of ruining her life or something like that for this.

Eventually, wood was placed down in the burning pit, then it was drenched down in the gallon of gasoline. Then he took out a lighter, and took the top piece of homework, and once it got a little bit of a light, he threw it down in the pit. Which set the whole thing in a burning blaze.

"Do you normally enjoy fire?" Sam asked me, and I looked right at him. I was finding the question rather random, and kind of unsettling. For some reason, hearing him straight up ask me this was something that made me feel like something could go downhill at any moment.

"I suppose that I do. I never thought much of it though. I just enjoy watching it." I said, looking right at him, wondering what he was trying to accomplish here. I sighed, feeling like nothing else really mattered. "How old were you when you realized you enjoy fire?"

I said, staring at the flames, and I did not realize it at the time, but I would grow to eventually really enjoy fire myself. Seeing the burning flames, and just feeling the warm burn, was something that made me feel like there was a certain degree of peace here. I just felt like everything that was supposed to make sense in this world was making sense for once. I smiled, and looked right at Sam.

"When my dad offered to burn all my homework first grade. Just finally putting that all behind me so I could start the summer fresh was nice." When he said that, I felt that was fair enough. I decided that I just needed to let him have that moment, and not say anything else here.

"Do you think you will continue this tradition when you have kids?" I asked, not aware at the time, that he would never have a chance to have kids, which was something that if I had known, in hindsight, would have fucking broken my fucking heart.

"I suppose that if they seem interested, I will. But I will probably never have kids." Sam said, smiling widely at that. As if for something, that was something that he was actually going to be proud of. When I was that young, I was always confused by this idea of being proud to not have kids. I thought we were supposed to grow up, have kids, and pass on the family line, and let the kids go ahead and do their own thing and we just simply help them along the way. So this frankly literally made no sense to me at all.

"Why do you not want kids?" I asked, feeling like I just needed to be straight up with him. He looked at me, and smiled, and just laughed so hard at this that I was wondering if he was just pretending to laugh, or if I genuinely said the funniest thing he had ever heard in his entire life.

"I never said that I didn't want to have kids. I just said that I never thought that I was going to have them. Two totally different things." He said, sounding annoyed at this, and wished that I would just drop the subject for now.

I sighed, feeling like I just needed to not say much. If he wanted to press the matter more later, then I supposed that I would deal with that then. But for now, I felt like I was just needing to enjoy the moment. And I was feeling like in the moment, I did enjoy the moment.

Sam threw another weeks worth of assignments into the fire, and kept doing that every three to five minutes or so, to keep the fire burning for a while. He even organized them all from Week One all the way to the final week of the school year.

"Sheldon, I know you are going to visit Shaun again eventually. When you do that, do you think that you will just be willing to take me with you? I mean, I think the idea is dumb as shit, but I suppose that I would be lying through my teeth if I pretended like I wasn't interested in seeing where this could go.

"Well, I am mainly in this for Erik. And I would be very interested in knowing more about the families that run the casinos. I want to meet all four of them." I said, partially because I was ready to sound like a hot shot. Partly because it did genuinely seem exciting to me. He shook his head, sounding annoyed as hell at the fact that this was happening.

"Either way, when you fucking do that, can I please come with you? I want to see what we can find there. And if you do, I would really appreciate it." He said, sounding like he was just hoping that I would take that for a yes. I sighed, feeling like there was no reason to say no to this. He had already made his point clear, so I needed to take this.

"Sure. I can take you." I said, sounding like I just needed to run with this. I was seeing the fire looking like it was starting to go down a bit, and as a result, Sam threw another weeks of homework in the fire, as if on clockwork, and as if he was barely even paying attention to this anymore, like it was just a ritual for him to go through.

"Thank you. I just feel like this will be worth it." He said, sounding like he was kind of coming to his own opinion on the matter, and I was wondering how I was going to tell him in a polite ass way that I was hoping that he was right, or else it was going to be both our asses on the line this time. But I sighed, feeling like I just needed to stop playing the big guy, and that I just needed to let him have this moment without making it too much worse.

"But what if it does fail? How would you fucking feel then?" I asked, feeling like I just needed to see what was on his mind. He looked right at me, and I was seeing him looking like he was wondering why I was suddenly being so antagonistic towards him on this whole thing. But to me, it was making sense why I would be acting this way. I was feeling like he was looking at this with a terrible sense of irresponsibility, and I needed to get him back down a peg before things escalated worse.

"It won't fucking fail. Trust me when I fucking say that. You might not like it, but I know what I am doing here. I know that this is the best thing to do here." He said, sounding like he was wishing that he could have said more. I then sighed, feeling like there was nothing else to accomplish here. He was choosing his own path, and I needed to accept that for what it was.

"Brad, do you think you would want to meet Shaun Reichenbach?" I asked, feeling like I just needed to see what was on Brad's mind. He looked right at me, and I could tell that from the look on his face, that he felt like I needed to ask him a less scary question. I saw from the look on his face, the deer in the headlights look, that he was utterly terrified of what I said. I sighed, feeling like nothing else could be accomplished, so I just decided to remain silent.

"Look Sheldon, do you think you are going to try and talk to Larry soon? You seemed like you wanted to see his knowledge on the shit like the casinos and what not. If you are planning on doing this, then I would want to come with you." As Sam said that, I felt like I needed to mildly change the subject, to one that I felt like we could both work with.

"I want to see other places in Wayside too. Do you think that you could show me those to? I want to know." I said, and he smiled. Both his parents looked like they were trying to decide if they wanted to say something to interject, or if they were fine with just sort of just playing a fantasy game, in their mind, and that they thought we were not being too serious here.

"Sure, I got a few off the top of my head. I guess that I can show them to you, if you were interested." He said, and then I sighed, feeling like I just needed to take that response, and run with it. I looked at Kevin and Brad, wondering what they were feeling here.

"There is a tree house in the forest. Not much to it besides that. But I assume that you feel like that would be interesting to check out. So yeah, I suppose that I can show you." He said, and I nodded. I felt like this was the best that we could do.

"I want to check it out. It sounds fun enough." I said, feeling like maybe this insistence would be enough to get him to roll with this. I could see from the look on his face that he had been kind of annoyed at my response. At the fact that I was sort of not taking no for an answer. But at the same time, I felt like there might have been a sense of him that felt glad that we were no longer talking about Larry Needlemeyer, or the family casinos for the time being.

"Sure. I suppose that I have nothing to fucking lose. Besides, I haven't been there in a while. So I am partially interested in seeing how trashed that fucking place has gotten the last couple of months." As he said that to me, I really had no idea what the hell to tell him.

"Sheldon, have you ever been to a tree house before?" Brad asked, and I looked at him, suddenly getting down to earth again. I had kind of forgot that he was even there for a second. I felt like a total fucking asshole for doing that. But at the same time, I just felt like there was no reason to just ignore him for no fucking reason at all.

"Honestly, never. I never was given the offer to see one before. I was never popular at school, and my classmates made it clear that they never would hide the fact that they never really liked me at all." I said, feeling like I just needed to be honest, and not beat around the bush here.

"God, they were a bunch of fucking assholes, if I am honest with you." I said, feeling like I would just be straight up with him. Everybody that I ever went to school with at one point in time in Arkansas was a fucking asshole. They always felt like they could just treat me like utter fucking crap for no fucking reason, and expect me to not hate their guts in return.

"Well, I guess you have a new start here." Kevin said, smiling for a second, feeling like he needed to just take that moment to make me feel better. I sighed, feeling like I just needed to take that assurance, and I needed to run with it. I knew that he was right, and I knew that he was going to always try to find the positive side of things here. I could tell just from the few interactions with him, that he was not somebody who was bothered easily.

"Yeah, I guess that's true. And I do see what my dad was trying to do. He wanted to give me a new chance to have a new life here. He is a good man…" I said, and I looked right at Sam, and I was hoping that he would accept what I said. I thought harder, and deeper, about what I said earlier, and I felt like there was nothing to lose here.

"I need to thank my dad. Especially after a fight that I had with him yesterday." I said, now remembering that fight in the first place. In all honesty, I had completely forgotten it at this point, and I was feeling the guilt of how I had acted coming over me again. The disgust of how I acted coming over me, and me wondering what at all made me feel like I had any right to treat my dad like this.

In hindsight, I was shocked that he didn't snap at me earlier. If he did, then it would have made sense. I was then telling myself that I needed to stop beating myself up for this too much. I wasn't accomplishing anything by doing this. In all honesty, I felt like telling him that he was too old to have kids, for no reason, besides just to get under his skin, was something that I felt like I needed to be ashamed of, since it was very low behavior.

"Sheldon, when you see him again, tell him that I want to meet him. He sounds like a cool guy, and I think it would be fun to meet him." Sam said, and I was shocked that he was even telling me this in the first place. It was strange to hear that. I had no idea why, but I felt like this was not how things were even really meant to be at all.

"Sure. I guess that I can tell him." I said, feeling like I just needed to not fight this. I was also feeling like my dad would like to see the reason why I was out so late. Why I decided to just basically ignore everything for the entire day. Even with the no chores clause, I can see how something like this might have been a bit of a issue.

Then I looked at the fire. "You made the best day that I had in a long time." I said, and by this point, we were nearing the end of the pile, and therefore, I knew that the fire was going to be running out soon. And there was a sense of sadness there. There was a sense of wondering when I would see this again. I just hoped that it would be before too much time had passed. And I wondered what Riley was up to.

I smiled, knowing that this was going to be the first day of the rest of my life. Knowing that starting tomorrow, I would become a new man with a new life. And I also realized that whenever I needed comfort, and whenever I needed to escape the world, no matter how tough the whole thing was, I would just simply make myself a fire, and watch the flames burn for a while as I enjoyed the whole experience. For some reason, this was giving me a level of satisfaction.

June 15, 1956

A few days later, I met up with Sam again, and he was having a real shit eating grin on his face, as if he was proud of what he was going to tell me. "I have something else to show you today. I spent the last few days wondering what I wanted to show you next. But I found the perfect place. I hope that you do not mind going into the forest too much." He said, sounding like he had hoped that I was actually going to take this idea. I sighed, since I was wanting to know just as much as he was guessing, but for some reason, I did not want to admit it. As if for some reason, I was feeling terrible for this whole thing.

"Alright, I'll bite. I will see what you want to fucking show me." I said, feeling like I just needed to play along with this. I was not really sure if I was wanting to do this right now, but I supposed that I was willing to just fucking go along with this. I smiled for a second, feeling like whatever Sam has in store for me, I was going to be having the time of my life with it anyways.

As we were walking along, I was still looking at the beautiful monorails every single time I was walking by. I was so excited to see where this was going, and I was so excited to know that Sam was actually the one who was showing me around here. But I had hoped that this was not something that I would regret.

"You still can't take your eyes off of that? I guess that this is like your fucking love." He said, and I was shaking my head. He was just simply not fucking getting it. But I suppose that this did make some fucking sense. And I was feeling like I was just needing to stop being so hard on him here.

"How the fucking hell can I? The thing looks too amazing to overlook." I said, feeling like I just needed to be honest with him. He looked at me, slowly nodded, and looked like he was finding my comments to be rather strange. Sam then finally sighed, feeling ready to be honest.

"The fucking thing I wanted to show you was in the forest. Sadly, Wayside doesn't seem to appreciate that shit too much anymore, and I feel like it won't be long before that shit goes down the drain forever." He said, sounding utterly horrified at this statement. I did not blame him for that fact. In fact, I was feeling like I just needed to run with this, and not make it worse.

"I never been inside the forest here before. Are you sure that this place is safe?" I asked, dropping the act, and feeling like I just needed to be serious here. He was looking right at me, and I was seeing him looking like he was kind of shocked to be hearing me ask this in the first place. Then with that, he was slowly shrugging, feeling like I just needed to take this.

"Yeah, I mean, if it wasn't, there is no way in hell that anybody would allow us to go through here. And I guess I would be curious, given how interested you are in the monorails, if those are even able to be seen in the forest. You know, I suppose that I can't help but be slightly interested." He said, sounding like he just needed to be honest about what had been on his mind here.

"I highly doubt that we can fucking find them in the forest." I said, feeling like he needed to let that idea go before it ended up getting out of hand. I was feeling like there was no chance that something like that would ever fuckin happen. "Truth be told, I feel like dad would be wondering what the appeal to this would even be. He is somebody that seems to be focused on the idea that steelwork and construction is the true idea of progress here."

As I told Sam this, he was shrugging, feeling like there might have been a hint of truth to what I was saying, and that this was something that he was willing to deal with when the roads were crossed. But for now, he was not seeming to be too worried over such a thing. As if that until he actually met my father, and really got to know him for what he was, there was no need to be worried about the man that dad was. He was just somebody who he only knew off on the sidelines and everything. Which I supposed, in a way, was fair enough, given what was happening.

Eventually, we reached the forest, and I was taking a deep breath, not exactly sure if this was really something I was at all interested in. I was still glad to fucking have a hang out with a friend, and I was feeling like that was something that I needed to fucking take. As we walked inside, I was just taking a moment to be glad that I was doing something new. Something that wasn't just running around town. I just hoped that I wouldn't go too far out of bounds, in order to not get dad to get too angry at me.

We walked right past the first thing that was kind of interesting there before I even had a chance to see what it was. I saw that there was a giant ladder going up to somewhere. I was seeing Sam looking like he was just moving along with a purpose, and that he wasn't going to fucking stop until he got there. I was then slowly nodding, feeling like I just needed to let him have what he wanted.

"Where did you even find this in the first place?" I asked, feeling like I needed to just continue the conversation. Sam looked right at me, and I was seeing that despite how annoyed he was at this talking, he was kind of glad to show that I was at least pretending to be interested in this. He shrugged, as if kind of unsure what to even fucking tell me.

"Well, not where… But I found it last year after I heard a couple of my classmates talking about it, and I wanted to see what it looked like. You know, see if it was as cool as everybody was making it out to be. I wanted to see if I could have some street cred for doing so." Sam said, sounding like he had hoped that this would be enough to get me to calm down here.

"Cool. Are these people your friends?" I asked, feeling like I might as well just see what he knew. He shrugged, sounding like he had not wanted to really tell me. Which made me think that the answer was a very clear no. And I was finding myself feeling kind of bad for the fact that I asked this question in the first place.

"I just heard them talking about it. We eat at the same lunch table every day, but that's about it. We don't even fucking play during recess at all. I always assumed that they didn't really have any interest in hanging out any further." He said, sounding a bit saddened at this. I slowly nodded, feeling like I just needed to let him have this. I was then rubbing my eyes, feeling like I just needed to keep quiet to myself.

"Well, don't worry about what they think. You are only going to make things worse for yourself if you do." I said, feeling like I just needed to tell him this, in order to make him feel better. The look on his face was looking like he was finding the comment to be a bit strange. Then he shrugged, feeling like he needed to not say anything.

"I'm not worried about what they think. I don't know why you think I am. I just feel like if they have no interest in talking to me outside of lunch, then I have no reason to push them. You know, I would be pissed if somebody else was forcing me to talk to them when I had no interest." Sam said, sounding a bit pissed off at this. I shrugged, feeling like of he was acting this way, then I just needed to just keep things to myself.

"Okay, fair enough. Forget that I said anything. I suppose you don't want to talk about it. And I guess it makes sense. I don't want to talk about my life in Arkansas very much…" I said, feeling like I just needed to point that out since I was just trying to make a point that despite what he thought, I really did see where he had come from.

"Fair enough. Sorry for pushing on you with that. I should have fucking respected your space here." He said, sounding like he was a bit tired, and then he smiled. "Thank you for hanging out with me, I really appreciate it. It's so nice having a new friend."

Eventually, we reached where he was wanting to show me. It was a giant waterfall, with a jump down area where you could land in a lake, and I was seeing that the sun was very visible, considering where were at the peak daylight hours. I smiled as I looked at Sam, and then I nodded, as if feeling like I needed to concede that he really did have the right idea here. "Okay, I admit, this is super fucking awesome." I said, and then Sam looking like he was really happy at the fact that I took his advice.

"Now that you see it, you realize how cool it really is." Sam said, and I was slowly nodding. There was no way in the world I could pretend that it wasn't the coolest shit in the world, and I was just hoping that when I took the leap of faith, I wouldn't regret it.

"Have you ever jumped down from it?" I asked, feeling so excited to just go down it. Sam then shook his head, which was a bit sad. I was feeling like today needed to be the day that we corrected this, and then both of us could just simply have fun with our new found hang out location.

"I am going to do it right now. If you want to come, then that would be awesome." I said, and then as I was already heading up, there were two other voices calling out to us. I turned around, since I had no idea who they were. When I saw a red head guy, like Brad, about a year older than us, and a girl around our age, with brown hair, I was already pegging them to be a couple, and were ready to just have the time of their lives here as well. "Who are you guys?"

When they both reached us, the red head guy smiled, and seemed like he was glad that we had their attention, for the time being at least. "My name is Dakota, and this is Ashley." Dakota said, and then with that, he then decided to take the conversation a bit further, as if he was in charge.

"Who are you? Are you new to this town?" He asked, and I could tell that he wanted to try and be a smart ass here, but deep down inside, he genuinely did want to know, and he was figuring he might as well see where this was going. I smiled, feeling like as long as he was nice about it, I would go along with this as well.

"My name is Sheldon Lee. I have only been living here for a few days now. Have you guys been living here your whole life?" I asked, and the other thing I noticed was the thing that I didn't really want to fucking admit. The thing was though, I could tell that Dakota and Brad looked very alike. In a way, I was wondering if there was a chance that they might have been brothers or something like that. I was feeling like I might have been over thinking it though, and that they just simply looked alike.

But that meant that I hadn't even been there for a week before I started to pick up on the strangest thing of this town. The one thing of this town that I feel like I could never really understand, no matter how hard I fucking tried to. The fact that so many boys in Wayside looked very alike, to the point of it genuinely being kind of scary, if I was one hundred percent hone here.

"Yeah, I have been here all my life. Mom and dad told me that I never need to go out and do anything else. No need to move out. No need to do anything that might take away what I have. I feel inclined to believe them." He said, feeling like he needed to be honest. I looked down on the ground, aware that this was basically him admitting that he was just a stubborn asshole, who was not wanting to even look at the possibility that he could be wrong here.

"When did you start hanging out with Sam?" He asked, and I was confused because it felt like I had already told him when I had been hanging out with Sam, and that he was just ignoring what I had said earlier. But then I chose to be nice, since maybe he just didn't hear me before. And besides, I was just glad that he was showing interest.

"We hung out once before. Sam wanted to show me something. And this place looks really fucking cool. I really want to fucking jump down, and see what splash I make." I said, smiling so widely that I could not handle it. I wanted to make a scene. I wanted to do something cool for once. I was happy with myself for once, and I started to head up to the waterfall, since I was ready to fucking jump, and I was ready to make my splash.

"Have you guys done anything like this before?" I asked, and then Dakota had a real shit eating grin on his face. That was enough for me to now that the answer, at least on his part, was yes, and that he was wanting to do it again right now actually.

"Yes, I fucking have. I don't think Ashley has yet though. And since Sam showed you this place, I feel like this means at least Sam has as well." He said, sounding like he was hoping that maybe we could all have a fucking good time with each other.

"Yeah, I have done it once. I was wanting to do it again for a while. Taking Sheldon with me just seemed like a good fucking reason to." Sam said, feeling like he might as well just be honest. As he said this, I slowly sighed, since I felt like nothing else mattered at all. I was going to make this jump, and I was not going to care if anybody was ready or not. I finished my way up to the top, and then before I made the jump, Dakota called out to me.

"Do you want me to do it first, that way you have a good idea how to do it?" He asked, and I shook my head, since I really just could not wait any longer. Before he had any chance to argue with me, I decided to take a few steps back. Sam had a smile across his face as he was seeing me get ready to make the jump. Then I made a mad dash, and then I jumped and then I brought my arms wrapped around my legs, basically forming a ball.

I eventually hit the water, and despite how awesome it was, and the adrenaline rush that I felt, in hindsight, I was extremely beyond lucky that I had done this and made it through the way that I did. I was like six inches away from hitting a very sharp rock, and I was sure, even at the moment, that if I landed on that, I would be fucking dead, and there was no way around it.

But at the moment, that did not happen, and I did survive. So at the end of the day, at the back of my mind, none of this mattered. I got what I fucking wanted, and I was so happy to. I will say, right here and right now though, that knowing what I did know, I did try and do this one time. I did try and jump off the waterfall, hit the rock at full force, and die that way. End my life, but do it in a way that nobody was going to greatly suspect what I had done. But I decided against it because a combination of fight or flight taking over, as well as the fact that I had realized that I did want something out of this.

I then saw Sam jump down as well. When he was down in the water, he was looking like he was unable to believe that he finally fucking did it. He looked so fucking proud of himself, and I knew then and there, that I was proud of him as well. But I was feeling like I just needed to keep that to myself, given everything that had been going on.

"This is so fucking awesome!" Sam yelled, pointing his arm down, and doing a yell in excitement. Then with that, Dakota shook his head, feeling like we were wild for our way of acting. Then with that, he jumped in with us as well, and then Ashley a few seconds later. Once all four of us were down in the water, I threw some water at Sam, and splashed his eyes. When I saw the glasses in the water after the jump, I realized that this was the first time in my short time of knowing him that I ever saw him without glasses. In a way, he was kind of looked more attractive, when he was not wearing glasses.

"I want to do this tomorrow." I said, looking at Sam, and Sam slowly nodded in agreement. He was already looking like he was planning this whole thing out, and then I was looking at Dakota and Ashley, feeling like I might as well learn where they lived as well, so I could be able to learn why they had been up to.

"Where do you guys live anyways?" I asked, and then Dakota looked like as long as I was willing to talk to him like a normal human being, then we were going to be perfectly fine. And to be honest, I was feeling like once I met up with them outside of this waterfall, I could learn more of why Sam was having a hard time trusting people like Larry Needlemeyer, and being able to get a unbiased look on him.

"I live about a mile away from Sam. Ashley lives two houses away from me. Kind of why we hang out all the time, since we live right next to each other." Dakota said, and I slowly nodded, since I was feeling like that wasn't too far away, and I was already planning on asking him my next question.

"Do you want to meet up tomorrow?" I asked, and then Dakota shrugged, as if feeling like there was no reason to deny us having a chance to do this. But I could tell from the look on his face, that he was looking a bit uncomfortable with me immediately going for it. As if he was feeling like this was something I was agreeing to way too fucking early.

"Yeah, sure, I fucking suppose that I fucking can. I don't have anything going on tomorrow." He said, and I was seeing Dakota then looking at Ashley. And I knew that what he was wanting to say was related to the idea that he had already wanted to hang out with her, but then this was coming in the way, and ruining it all. He was thinking with his dick, and not with his mind. I sighed, since I knew the type of person that he was, even if he did not.

"I mean, we can all fucking hang out. No reason to not bring Ashley into this as well." I said, feeling like I just needed to tell him this, in order to make him not super fucking angry at what was happening. He can still have his moment with Ashley, and I could be able to branch out. Everybody wins in this subject.

"I want to come here again next week." I said, and then Sam looked right at me, and I was seeing from the look on his face that he was already having a new idea in his head. And I was feeling like whatever the hell this was, I just needed to let him have it.

"I already got another place in the forest that I think you would want to fucking out. I promise you that I am not going to letting you fucking down." Sam said, and then I smiled for a second, feeling like I might as well roll with this. As long as Sam gave me ideas, then I was going to fucking run with them.

---

When Cody was done watching that first tape, he looked down on the ground, trying to simply decide what the hell he was even supposed to be feeling here. He looked at Armadillomon, and he was seeing his Digimon looking like they were also lost on what to say here. "I have no idea if I am supposed to be confused, or not… I think that seeing dad talk about his father in a positive way, at all, is such a strange feeling. I just thought that after all the things he has said about his dad over the years, that he never had a good thought on his dad." As Cody said that, this was when Armadillomon was feeling like they needed to ask him something.

"Cody, is there anything you want to say about your dad? Maybe you can help me understand what I am missing out on." Armadillomon said, sounding like they needed to just see what Cody was truly feeling here. Cody shook his head, sounding like he was really annoyed at the fact that this was going on.

"Well, I wish in hindsight, like he does, that he had never met Sam and Brad. If he had never done that, I think he would have been a much happier, and much better man. Instead, he ended up only making things twenty times worse for everybody here. I don't think he ever met anything wrong though. That is the thing that scares the shit out of me." Cody sad, feeling like he just had no idea what to feel.

"There are still ninety nine of these to fucking go. I have no idea what the hell I am supposed to say here. I just feel like of fucking lost here. I feel like he is wanting me to know the truth of Labyrinth, but he is also building a lot of investment that I can have with this story. Getting me to lower my guard, and start to feel a lot of pity for the guy before he starts to reveal the truth of what is going on here." Cody said, starting to realize what his dad was trying to pull. And the fact that he was aware of the fact that this was working, was something that made him wonder how each of these would slowly reveal things.

"I remember that he would go to that therapist all the time, and he was telling me that these sessions were the only thing that made him feel like he was alive at all. Like anything else was just all misleading him or something. In all honesty, I have no idea what the hell I am supposed to feel there." As Cody said that, he shrugged, simply not sounding sure what the hell he would even tell there.

"You said you wish that he never met Brad? Do you have anything to explain there?" He asked, feeling like Cody just needed to give him something to work with. Cody sighed, feeling like he would just be straight up on what he was thinking here.

"Because when I see Brad again, and I have a chance to make things right, I will be killing him. I will not be holding back at all, and I will make sure that there is no fucking chance that he is still alive. That piece of shit has ruined everything. Despite this all, I do feel like I do want to know what the hell had made him do the things that he had done. Maybe then, I would be able to understand where he is coming from." As Cody said this, he was thinking about what he had just said. As if he was wondering if this was all going to work out.

"Do you want me to help you out with this?" Armadillomon asked, sounding horrified that he was even needing to ask this in the first place. Almost as if he was scared of the fact that Cody actually know what was happening here, and how bad things could go if given the fucking chance here.

"No, I don't. I would rather have you not get involved in something that is not really your business. Brad and I have business to settle on our own, and if I can make it work, and I can get what I need, then I feel like that is what really matters the most. Just honestly, I feel like people try to do too many things that are beyond them. I myself have done such a thing, and I feel like I need to avoid that in the future. I know that I have made some mistakes, and that is my biggest worry." Cody said, and then Armadillomon seemed to be slightly worried.

"What if this ends up getting you killed?" Armadillomon asked, and Cody shook his head, sounding like he had to just simply step in, a little bit, and see if there was any chance that Cody would be able to be convinced about this.

Cody was shaking his head, as if feeling like he needed to make it very clear that this was not going to be working out at all. And he was feeling like he needed to make Armadillomon see that this was something that he had already made his choice on.

"I don't fucking care if I die or not. Yolei died over six years ago, and it is his fault, at least to a large part. An I want to make sure that Yolei gets avenged. I don't give a fuck, at all, genuinely, in any way shape or form, if I die making sure that her death is avenged." Cody said, and then he sighed.

"I am older now than Yolei ever was. I have been for a year and a half, when I started my first day of school that year. When I started to help T.K. take down the Digimon Emperor. To be honest, I feel like in hindsight, that might have been a mistake ever going along with that. You know, I am just glad that something came out of fighting Ken for nearly a year." Cody said, feeling like he hated to admit that he was actually proud of Ken.

"Yeah, so this is what I need to do. I need to fucking fight, no matter what is to come, and I need to make sure that I either kill Brad, and get revenge for Yolei, or I die trying. Either way, the story ends soon, and this six year long nightmare will end." Cody said, feeling like he just needed to be real.

"I will watch the next tape tomorrow. Probably watch one of these every night before I go to bed or something, and see what I can learn." Cody said, feeling like he just needed to take this, and run with it. He then took out a cigarette, ready to smoke it, and just think things out for a bit.

"My dad is a good guy. Deep down, I know that he is. I am proud of him, in a way. I just have a hard time showing that, because of things that have happened. And I am proud of you, Armadillomon. You have been the best friend that I have had." Cody said, feeling like he needed to give Armadillomon this, to feel a bit better here.

The two of them stared at the TV, where they knew for a while, the two of them would slowly be learning the truth of what happened to Sheldon, and why he became the fucked up man that he was, where he had felt like his entire life was ruined, and both men were scared of what they would find out.