TNP2-10 "Of Memories & Modems"

A Chapter by dw817

I nodded, tied back down my robe and we both hurried to my room. Without so much as a word goodbye Trudy left and I was in the silence of my room again and the pervasive feeling of being watched.

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THE NANCY PRINCIPLE-2
© July 2014 Written by David Wicker
Please do not reprint without permission

CHAPTER 10 - OF MEMORIES & MODEMS
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Rated: EVERYONE

And I guess, because we were so comfortable there on the couch - both Trudy and me fell asleep.

And my dreams were stranger than before. Susan was with me, but unlike my other dreams where she was always just a stuffed animal, this time, she was alive to me, like in real life. And she was trying to warn me of something. Something - to do with electricity. A build up of it - somewhere.

And then I dream-walked, that is, a strange state of consciousness I've entered in the past where I wake up and see myself, still sleeping where I am. And I can walk or float to locations. I looked over my shoulder and saw me still asleep with Trudy. She was so - beautiful.

And it wasn't a physical beauty I was seeing. It was remembering her playful demeanor, almost teasing nature about her, friendly and inviting nonetheless. A soft smile. Dare I say it - love ? Did I know what love was ? Would I ever ?

And then there was Tricia, whom I was supposed to marry, and my mind didn't paint so clear or beautiful an image. More like a painting that was deliberate, as if it had a purpose. As if the frame for her picture served some greater purpose than the painting itself.

I dismissed it and in my dream-walking state, I got up to explore. The first thing I did was go back to my room and float up to the ceiling to see just what the heck that sprinkler system up there really was. And as I glided towards the ceiling I felt shocks of electricity, painful, much like Susan warned me of earlier.

But I gritted my teeth and continued onwards. And as I did it was like plates of glass, several of them, stacked against each other and directly against me, blocking my way, getting thicker and thicker. And as I passed through each I found I couldn't catch my breath until I finally passed one pane that was several feet thick and I got stuck in it, like a fly trapped in amber.

I couldn't breathe !

Suddenly I felt like I was shaking all over and I realized why. It was Trudy shaking me to wake me up.

I opened my eyes hesitantly to look at her and she seemed panicked, "David ! We fell asleep. Come on ! Tricia's going to be back soon. This - wouldn't look good."

I opened my eyes completely to see my robe was no longer - covering me as well I would've liked. Trudy looked down at my exposed underwear for a moment and bit her lip with a smile. "Yes, well," and she muttered something unintelligibly.

Finally she added, "Come on ! You need to get back to your room. I'm certain Tricia is going to want to see what you've been doing while she was gone."

I nodded and struggling to my feet, tied back down my robe and we both hurried to my room. Without so much as a word goodbye she left and I was in the silence of my room again and the pervasive feeling - again - of being watched.

But I couldn't think about that now. Working quickly I unpacked my new computer and started getting it put together. I saw the movers had taken my other 3 & 1/2 inch disks and placed them in a convenient smaller box, but clearly in no order.

Hurriedly I pulled out the one containing my BBS and powered up the computer. Unlike my older one I knew this had a hard-drive and could boot on it's own. And because it was 1990, it booted FAST, right into DOS.

* * *

There was a graphic shell called GEM out at the time, but it was just a curiosity. I really never did expect it to catch on and was much more comfortable in my element, 80-column, 25-row full text mode !

I got Q-Basic 1.0 back up and was delighted to find this computer had 2-drives instead of just one. That would make my work that much easier. I checked drive C: and found it had 45 megabytes. Wow ! More than enough than for what I needed. Geez ! I could port over all my games here and allow people to download them !

I grabbed one of the phone lines and plugged it in the back running a quick diagnostic. It didn't work so I changed out the phone to the other line and found it did. I typed out:

ATZ

Followed by ENTER and got the familiar, "OK"

Looks good ! Hurriedly I typed out:

ATDT 8444444

Because area-codes didn't exist back then in my city, and I got the familiar's Bank Time & Temperature heard through my modem speaker. All good ! But - I didn't know what my phone # was for this new line !

So I typed out my old phone # to test to see if it would ring, but I got a busy signal. So CLEARLY Tricia must've done the right thing and transferred over my old phone number to here ! I nodded, well that was good so I wouldn't have to call voice all my BBS friends and give them a new number.

With that knowledge, I brought up my custom Doomsday BBS and put it in responsive mode and waited to see if someone would call. Sure enough someone did ! And right in time I looked busy because I heard my door open and Tricia stepped in looking more than suspicious about what I'd been doing.

"Busy are you, honey ?" she asked nicely, and I noticed she had a big bag under her arms, like from an expensive clothing store. I wondered if it was my money she was spending.

"Ahum." I nodded watching to see who was logging in.

"How nice." she said not in a perfectly nice tone. "Well, can you leave it for a moment ? We need to get some important paperwork done here."

"Like what ?"

"Like your money, for one." she said. "We're going to meet a private lawyer of mine today who will take care of everything. And - " she looked at my robe, "you can't wear that. Your business suits are hanging up and I want you to wear one of those."

I really didn't want to wear this pair of underwear I had on for - what now - 3 days in a row now ? So I said a little quietly and apologetically, "As far as underwear goes, I've only got what I'm wearing. I guess - I mean I think the movers may have thrown out my socks and underwear. So we can go shopping for more ?" I certainly didn't want to implicate Tricia not without proof despite what Trudy said earlier.

Tricia tilted her head quizzically, "Is that what you think ?" She smiled at me. For a moment I didn't know if she was questioning my belief that they did in fact lose them, my disbelief in that she knew I did it herself, or the fact I was asking to purchase more.

She reached into her own shopping bag and pulled out two bundles from the top, both wrapped in cellophane. "Well, you're in luck, I picked these up while I was out earlier. These are for YOU." and she carefully handed me the top wrapped bundle while holding onto the 2nd.

"Thanks." I said and nodded without even looking at them and went in the bathroom to change while she sat on the couch. Then I heard her speak authoritatively, "SHE: Where is Trudy right now ?"

I swallowed hard. I hoped she wasn't trying to find out I was with her today. I stripped out of the robe and my underwear and looked at the package she gave me. They were undies all right, my size, white, but they were panties ! Even complete with little pastel flowers on the label.

I rubbed my head uncomfortably. I must've grabbed the wrong package. I put my robe back on minus my underwear and stepped back outside as I saw on the beaded screen a top-view layout of the structure I was in, and sure enough on the side was room for 2-digits for floor levels ! I knew it, there were secret levels to this place !