August- Mike's father

Mike's father was neither a good man nor a bad man. He was a businessman which, perhaps, labeled him much more accurately than the ambiguous terms of "good" and "bad" ever could. He was single and, for better or for worse, the parent of a teenage son. Many things have been said about single parents with teenager(s)-there are even TV series about it. In most cases it could be agreed that the circumstances were more likely to tip the scale toward "evil" than "good"...and that's with proper sympathies, too.

Mike's father also traveled a lot and was engaged in a long term relationship, meaning that he had a girlfriend, meaning that, given his current circumstances (or rather, circumstance, in the form of one son), things could sometimes get pretty complicated.

Which was why he kept sending the emails.

Which was part of the reason why Mike had multiple email accounts. Besides the fact that having multiple accounts allowed him to sign up for multiple divisions of activities online without any conflict, of course. Not that he ever did anything illegal. Er.



Nicolas was wondering why he was getting strange looks from people. It couldn't be what he said, mostly because he hadn't said anything to anyone yet. Maybe it was his manners. Maybe it was something he did. Maybe he did something rude unconsciously.

He was completely oblivious to the fact that 1.) people who know themselves to be strangers to a place subconsciously moved differently from other people, so that in the eyes of the others more familiar with their locations, they have the psychological equivalent of "I AM NEW HERE!" painted on their foreheads. In bright, neon-colored letters. 2.) He was walking with a direction; it's a well-known fact that most college students walked either in a meandering fashion or they are not walking at all (i.e. staggering, sprinting, falling, not walking). To walk at a walking pace, with a direction, is generally regarded as strange. And 3.) He was dressed in a manner that drew attention, since most college freshmen do not wander around in dress shirt and slacks.

The fact the Nick was slightly worried about the strange looks is a good example of a case where ignorance is not quite a blessing.




Zach had been staring at the newspaper stand for a good thirty seconds and seemed likely to continue to do so for another thirty seconds. He couldn't make up his mind whether or not to get the paper. Reading the paper inevitably left him depressed, but not reading it meant having no clue about the current going-ons and, if a bomb was going to explode over head tomorrow, Zach would still prefer having some inkling of why it was there in the first place.

Ignorance is bliss. Knowledge is power. Ergo, power must not lead to bliss.

He would get the paper, Zach decided, and then he would get something cheerful to read to counter-point the black mood he'd be left in. That took Edgar Allan Poe off of the to-read list.



Nick's family dutifully sent him an email every other day, and Nick, who loved receiving emails in general, was very happy about those emails, as could be said in an understatement. His sister, on the account of having an older brother in the U.S. had decided to stop learning Spanish and start learning English. English words, since then, have began to make their way into her emails in odd, mangled forms. Nick would then patiently, if sternly, correct her word usage.

In truth, he was touched to the marrow by his seven-year old sister's efforts. Not that he would tell her so.