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X – eXcess 

Xavier Voleurhomme was a very rich man. No one knew exactly how he gained all of his riches, and many suspected it was not by legal means. They weren’t even sure if Voleurhomme was his real name. 

People did know that he had a lot of money and that he had no problem spending it. 

Xavier was born in a small town in Iowa—at least, that is what he claims. Though an American citizen, he spent much of his life living in a villa in southern France, as records that I could find show. Little information is available about his parentage. Some suggest that he was abandoned as a baby to an orphanage and adopted by a well-to-do family, which would explain some of the money he had, but proof is non-existent. 

When one has money in excess of one’s need for survival, we hope it will be used for the good of others. Investing in foundations to help the poor or for medical research would be a good use of money, as would funding colleges and science organizations to foster educational opportunities for all and ways to improve our world. Similarly, donating to worthy causes would be a good use of money. 

But Xavier was a product of the 21st-century Me-Only generation. The only thing in which he was willing to invest money was himself. 

Some of that money was spent on his luxuries. His villa was immense, as was his private airport, expensive cars, yacht, vineyard, and personal staff. He had luxury homes in multiple countries and extensive art collections. It was said that he even had a private island with its own golf course.

Xavier never had a job, as far as I could tell. When he wasn’t at his home in France, he was in another country. Being an American citizen made the United States a favored destination. Records show a lot of time spent in Washington, D.C. and the capitals of many states.

For some reason, Xavier had a talent for making himself invisible. Having your own island and jet allows you to do that. Whenever he returned from these mysterious excursions, a large sum of money was added to his bank accounts. 

Somehow, none of his bank accounts and tax records in any of the countries from which he may have earned this money were ever made public. 

Clever news reporters, like myself, and lawyers might have managed to uncover some information, but they would inexplicably remain quiet about their findings, and some disappeared. 

It seems that when large quantities of money could be found missing in his accounts, though he had no explanation, several political and judicial entities in different countries gained income almost matching the amount of the missing money. Xavier never paid any taxes, nor was he asked to. I wonder how he managed that.

Would the truth about Xavier ever be known? You might want to check out the legislation where you live—what has passed and what never reached the table. You might find a connection between Xavier’s visits and money dispersals. You could ask him directly, but have fun trying to find him. 

I started writing this to expose Xavier Voleurhomme for who he is: a robber man. However, I’m ending it trying to find a place where I can’t be found. I do have more information that I could share, but I value my life more. 

Be wary!

Signed, Harvey Heilbrun (not my real name)

U – What is wit youse guys?

Ursula woke up and stared at Ulysses, lying there making that fake snoring sound, pretending to be asleep. Poking him, she said, “You are not fooling anyone. Get out of bed and make my coffee; it’s your turn.”

Ulysses opened one eye and mumbled, “You can make your own coffee. I made it yesterday.”

Ursula’s poke was a little bit stronger this time. “You made it yesterday morning,” she replied, “I made it last night, so it’s your turn.”

“You think you’re so smart,” Ulysses thought, but out loud, he said, “You’re right, as usual, I will make your coffee.”

Ursula got dressed and came downstairs for breakfast. On the dining room table was a cup of coffee. Well, there was a cup and granules of coffee in it, but it was missing one ingredient: hot water. 

Ever the joker, Ulysses could see the perplexed look on her face. “I’m sorry, I made your cup of coffee. Did you want it with water also?”

I would say that the day went downhill from there, but since this was how their days usually went, I would have to say things continued on level ground. But for some unknown reason, they stayed together. 

“You! You!” she grimaced, “Why do I even stay with you?” She said as she added the hot water from the tea kettle (at least Ulysses had set it up) to her cup. 

Ulysses politely made a ham and egg on muffin breakfast special, put it on a plate, and placed it in front of Ursula. “Because I cater to you’re every whim,” he said, “And you love me.”

Ursula had no response, so she just had her coffee and ate her breakfast. 

“What do you want to do today?” Ursula asked. 

“What do you want to do?” was Ulysses’ response. 

“I always decide, it’s your turn,” she said.

“Ah, then I decide we should do nothing all day,” he announced. 

“You always do nothing. Let’s go shopping.”

“And you always go shopping,” Ulysses was quick to say. “I vote for nothing.”

“If I do nothing all day, I’ll go stir-crazy. We at least have to do something,” she said.

He suggested,  “How about we watch the ballgame? I see that the Mets are playing at 2:00.”

“Another ballgame? How many do they play in a week? It seems like every day.”

“Yeah,” Ulysses answered sarcastically, ‘that’s how the baseball season works.”

“Well, You can watch your baseball. I’m going out.”

Ursula left the breakfast dishes for Ulysses to deal with and sent some texts to her friends. She was about to head out when she turned to Ulysses and said, “Don’t forget we’re having dinner tonight with your co-worker, Uriah.”

“Right,” he responded, “and that woman from your book group, Uma. 

She added, “I’m hoping they’ll hook up. They are perfect for each other.” 

“You should know,” look at how well we turned out,” he said as she left for the day.

As the door closed, neither could hear each other say, “I hope you’ve planned a good meal. We should make a good impression on them.”

What happened that evening? Regardless of Ulysses and Ursula’s attempt at a truthful portrayal of a well-matched couple in front of Uriah and Uma, I am certain that unforeseen consequences will follow. Any guesses?

R – Rescue and Return

This continues the story Back to Selat, followed by D – Darkness, F – Fox, L – Lies, and O – Origins. If you haven’t already, you may want to read them first. This is the conclusion.

———-

Once I finally connected with Red’s Grandmother and discovered the truth about how the Wolf found Necroma’s book of spells and used it with the help of Fox to plunge the Kingdom of Selat into darkness, I continued my task to find Little Red and the whereabouts of Necroma’s book and hope that I was in time to reverse the spell. Not an easy task.

But then again, nothing had been easy so far. 

It was time to meet another friend of Red’s, Goldilocks. I thought about going to the three bear’s house but remembered that Goldilocks was persona non grata there. Then I decided to go to a little-known tavern where some girls from folktales (Red, Goldie, Clever Manka, Gretel, Briar Rose, to name a few) liked to hang out. It was called Aesop’s Tables. 

When I arrived, it was mid-afternoon, not that you would notice, as it was dark everywhere. There weren’t many customers. The tavern was dimly lit by candlelight. Luckily, I spotted Goldilocks at a corner table chatting with Gerda (for those who don’t recognize the name, she is the girl from Hans Christian Andersen’s story ‘The Snow Queen’). They were surprised to see me and invited me to sit with them. After explaining everything that had happened since my arrival in Selat, I asked them if they had any idea where I might find Red. 

Having had some bear experience, Goldie suggested we look for Red near where wolves hide things. Gerda was even more helpful. She knew exactly where that would be. Her friendship with a little robber girl gave her lots of knowledge about hidden things that had been stolen. 

It was a bit of a journey, but we made it to Wolf’s cache before the day was out. Knowing that both Wolf and Fox were elsewhere thanks to a cleverly hidden (in plain sight) message I had left for them to find, which told them where another of Necroma’s books could be found (Even I have to lie sometimes to get to what I want), the three of us entered a cave. My flashlight’s batteries, though low, still provided enough light for us to look around. 

Fox may have been clever, but Wolf certainly was not, and it wasn’t very hard to find Necroma’s book. The odd thing about the cave was that we could hear a voice calling out for help; we recognized the voice; it was Red’s, but she was nowhere to be seen. 

As my flashlight was about to go out, I used the book to see if I could reverse Wolf’s spell. I found the spell in time just before darkness overtook our position. I read these words carefully aloud.

Strength of voice through darkness calls

Create a path that breaks through walls

Within the dark, with all your might

Return to us what’s naturally right

Let night be night, and day be day

With this command, do as I say.

I had one more thing to say, but those words were to be thought about, not said aloud, which I did.

Immediately, the light grew stronger, both outside the cave and inside. My flashlight even found new strength and shined. We found Red tied up in a corner, and we freed her. Whatever the spell that had made her invisible to us seemed to have been broken, too.

Leaving the cave, all appeared to be back to how it should be. We could see the sun rise over the trees. Sounds of birds and other animals flooded the forest. And as we traveled back to the caretaker, the feeling of warmth and kindness exuded from all we passed.

The caretaker, the mystic, Jack, and Red’s grandmother were all waiting for us on our return. 

I asked about the wolf and fox and what would happen to them. I was told it was an internal matter and that both would be dealt with. I asked no more. Necroma’s book was given to the caretaker. I have no knowledge of what was done with it either. 

With much thanks and a fond farewell from the inhabitants of Selat, I was led back to the portal to my world. 

It’s been a few weeks since this occurred, and since I have not heard from Selat about their lives, I assume all is well.

I did notice, however, that it has become very difficult to find books or story collections with tales about foxes or wolves in our world. Is that a consequence of their actions on Selat? Truth be told, it just might be. 

And that’s my story. You believe me, don’t you? Would I lie to you?

P – Predestined or not?

Karma—What you sow is what you reap. It dictates that you are in control of your actions. Do good, and you get good in return. Be bad or evil, and bad things will happen to you. Just look around you. Do those good people you look up to receive any goodness in return? How about those you know are deceivers and do bad things for their selfish needs? Do they all get their comeuppance?  Some do, and some don’t. So, what does that tell you about karma?

Or do you believe in fate? Everything is predestined. Your life has been planned out from the day you are born until the day you die. You may think you control your life, but your good or bad decisions have already been programmed into your DNA.

The third philosophical concept is that we are born with free will. Every decision we make throughout our lives is of our choosing. Whether it turns out good or bad, whether there are repercussions or rewards, all reflect our choices and other people’s free will. 

If we could see into the future, might this be what transpires:

————-

Harold was well-versed in all of those karma, predestiny free will theories. He laughed at the amount of writing and discussions that existed, espousing one theory over another. He loved tinkering with each one. 

Harold worked for the Federal Android company, O.H.G.O.D. Inc. Very few people ever heard of it, and if they knew what the letters stood for, they would be even more skeptical. (FYI—it stands for Official Harbinger Giving Out Destiny.) 

The year was 2124. Harold’s job was very simple. He was in charge of the species’ history and maintaining the prescribed knowledge base. O.H.G.O.D.’s origins date back to the 21st century. 

Modern medical technology created artificial organs and transplants that helped prolong life as far back as the 20th century. The first artificial device was an artificial heart valve implant, which occurred in 1960. Artificial hip joints, knee replacements, skin regeneration, hearts, ears, bones, etc., followed. 

In the late 21st century, well after the artificial brain and nervous systems had been developed, a group of entrepreneurs got together to discuss the fate of our world. With more than half of the population on Earth consisting mainly of artificial parts, they decided that it was time to create an organization that maintained the history of our species dedicated to ensuring the survival of human and non-artificial life. O.H.G.O.D. was formed. 

O.H.G.O.D was originally run by only humonormals (people with no artificial parts) and tasked with making sure history was remembered and learned from. As time went on and fewer and fewer “humonormals” existed, O.H.G.O.D began infusing more “artispecials” (those with artificial parts, especially artificial brains) into their company. 

By 2110, if any humonormals existed, they could not be found. By then, O.H.G.O.D. was completely run by what people in the 20th century might have called androids.

Harold’s job allowed him to input information into any Android brain in the WORSHIP (Worldwide Origins Registery Securing Information Platform) database. None of the “people” he was inputting that information into were aware of it. 

And that is where tinkering with karma vs. free will vs. pre-destiny all came into play. 

The truth was whatever Harold felt like putting into the head of that particular individual. He basically determined what everyone’s life would be like and what philosophy they bought into. All of the people of the world believed that their version of reality was the truth. And Harold wasn’t the only one with that control. Even he had to sleep sometimes, though he could control how much sleep was necessary with his artificial Circadian rhythm. Everyone in his position loved to tinker, especially when it came to making decisions about life. 

To those like Harold, this was a simulation game. 

And consequences…that was not Harold’s problem, as his supervisor never knew what Harold and the others were doing. It helped that their supervisors were in the WORSHIP database, which they had access to. 

————-

Back to reality, here in 2024, What are your thoughts? Is the scenario I laid out about our values and the decisions we make a feasible future? 

Personally, I don’t really care what you think, for in my humble opinion, it has all been predestined from the start.