A little over a month had passed since Hutch had returned to his life on Earth, yet he was still haunted by the memories of Illimev that plagued his dreams. The waking hours were little better. Finding it near impossible to fill every moment with distraction, his grief and heartbreak ate at him, and Salvador remained an ever distant, unreachable figure.
Hutch's mornings had regained a familiar pace; early morning run, full breakfast, and then off to find work. He washed trailers, mowed lawns, trimmed trees, cleaned gutters, or would do any other thing anyone would pay him for, be it in cash or in trade. Yet no matter how hard he worked, he never felt as if he had enough to do. Sitting still had become his nightmare, and that had given him endless amounts of motivation. Having gotten to know more of his neighbors, he had begun to earn their trust, cultivating a sense of community within the park.
Over the course of a few weeks, Hutch had managed to accumulate a decent selection of used tools from the older folks in the community and enough cash to buy the lumber needed to fix the front porch on his home.
After spending the previous day removing the old structure, Hutch was in the middle of rebuilding the frame, when he heard someone speaking behind him.
"What are you doing?" the voice of a young man asked.
It should have been a simple enough question to answer, but the accusatory tone in which it had been spoken, made it seem far more complicated.
"Fixing…"
"Obviously. That's not what I'm asking about."
Hutch put down his measuring tape and pencil. "I know, Ren," he said as he turned to face the young man who was still sitting on his bike.
He was thinner than Hutch remembered him being, but his eyes were just as sad and his hair just as shaggy.
"Then what are you doing? I mean, I don't get it. You disappeared for a couple of weeks, end up at the hospital and now you're trying to be everyone's best friend, and you still can't be bothered to come by and apologize?"
Hutch kept his head lowered, eyes shifting to the ground. He hadn't forgotten what he'd done to Ren, how he had treated him and left him to the mercy of the school bullies when he decided he wanted to follow a different path; one that lead down a far less promising road albeit far easier to travel. Ren had always been the smarter of the two of them, destined for college, scholarships, and better things. He was willing to work to get out of the situation he'd been born into, and it wasn't difficult to see that he was capable of doing it. Hutch, however, couldn't keep up. No matter how hard he studied, he struggled. So, he stopped studying. It was easier to give up. He couldn't see a life beyond the trailer park, because he'd never had a reason to try.
"I learned a while ago that apologies don't fix anything. Some choices can't be unmade. Can't be justified or forgiven. There is no excuse for how I treated you. We had been friends for years and when it mattered most, I wasn't the friend I should have been."
"Still not hearing you say you're sorry."
"And you won't. I'm not going to put you in a position where you feel you have to forgive me. I'm not the same person I was. And while I would truly welcome the opportunity to be friends with you again, it is up to you to decide if you want to take that chance."
Ren stared at Hutch, his expression offering no indication of what he was feeling or thinking. He was silent for a while, his eyes unwavering, and then he said, "No apology then?"
"What good are the words, I'm sorry, if I can't prove to you that I mean them?" Hutch smiled with a sense of contentment as he watched Ren roll his eyes and get off his bike. "I don't know if this sort of thing interests you, but I'd welcome the company."
"What happened to you, Hutch?"
"You won't believe me," he replied, turning as he picked up the measuring tape and pencil.
"If you say you were abducted by aliens, I'm leaving."
Hutch smirked and shook his head. "I wouldn't put it exactly that way, but it's not too far off from the truth."
Despite what he had said, Ren put down his bike and stuck around, keeping Hutch company as he worked, helping where he could. Hutch was happy to have the extra set of hands, and by the time they had finished for the day, Hutch had relayed an overview of his life and experiences of Illimev.
"You were right, I don't believe you," Ren stated while helping Hutch put his tools away in the shed. "I'm not saying you haven't changed; I just don't believe that you didn't dream up the entire thing while on a crap tone of drugs from those losers you started hanging around with."
"It wasn't drugs. Why does everyone always think it was drugs?" Hutch replied with a huff as he locked up the shed. "While it would be easier to pretend like that was the case, I swear it wasn't. Now come inside, there's something I wish to show you."
Making his way inside, Ren following behind, leading him into his room and motioning for him to take a seat.
"You cleaned up…?"
"Was that a question or statement?"
"Both, maybe… I think," Ren muttered taking a seat on the foot of the bed.
"Either way, the answer is yes," Hutch replied as he retrieved a shoebox from his closet filled with the fragments of the amulet. Carrying the box over to his bed, he sat down next to Ren and opened it up, giving him a moment to examine the contents. "It wasn't a dream, Ren."
"No way…" Ren gasped, staring down into the box. "No way! Do you have any idea what this means?"
Hutch pulled the box to his chest as Ren jumped up from the bed.
"That I wasn't dreaming."
"That you have proof of alien life!" Ren shouted as he spun around and pointed at the box. "That thing is from another planet!"
"Possibly."
"Possibly?" Ren repeated, narrowing his eyes.
"Yes, possibly. I don't actually know anything about this amulet, and since it returned with me to this world, while nothing else did, it's possible that it came from here as well. What I do know, is that it belonged to Salvador and until I found these pieces in the yard, I hadn't ever touched it. While I want answers, and I do, it means that I have to find and speak to Salvador, and for the life of me, I can't think of a single reason why he would let that happen. We weren't exactly on good terms."
"You did try to kill him," Ren said between clenched teeth.
"Capture him. My goal was to capture him. Not that the distinction could excuse me leading my army against him," Hutch replied, turning his gaze from Ren. "He was a murderer. He had to be stopped." He sighed, setting the box aside. "Things are different here. I can't even verify if Cascel Tower is his corporation or a giant coincidence. The only information I've been able to find was on the Cascel Tower corporate website. It provided a list of other companies and foundations that are under the Cascel Tower umbrella, and while they had their CEO's and contact information available, there was nothing on Cascel itself, aside from a tollfree number. When I called it, it was an automated answering service that would only connect me to the other companies. I left a message with Che'Piettai, the charitable foundation that made the donation to the hospital, but they never returned my call. Salvador is here, I know it. And yet, I can't find any proof of it."
"Perhaps, but something isn't adding up for me. You were the hero to his villain. You stopped his master plan and put an end to his reign of terror. Why would he pay your medical bills?"
"I don't know."
"On a broader scale, Cascel is well known, well-respected, and connected to a lot of the social programs in the city."
"How do you know that?" Hutch questioned, finding it curious that Ren would be familiar with a corporation that he has no memory of existing.
"How do you not? Whenever anything good happens in this town their name's connected to it. The NEWS mentions them at least once a month. Never heard of that Shay charity before, but I know for a fact that Cascel is the parent company of Diachinak Outreach, they run the Help Center, Food Stores, Children's Dream Foundation, Triumphant Housing Relief, and half dozen more just here in the city. It kind of makes it hard to believe he's the same guy you're talking about."
"Diachinak?" Hutch's eyes grew wide. "Trust me when I tell you, he's very good at hiding his true intentions," he replied, closing his eyes to hide his worry. "There was a time when I thought of him as a friend, Ren. Then I learned a harsh lesson and I understood what betrayal felt like."