“I forgot to ask, sorry, could you pick it up tomorrow?”

“I guess. . .should I send it down, or do you expect to be back in the next decade?”

“Ho, Ho, Ho, you’re a funny guy. No, don’t bother sending it down. But I should be getting an important letter from my dad. If you get that, open it. It’s a new computer game. Go ahead and try it out, but it might be compressed.”

“But I haven’t got the decompression file from you yet!”

“Oh, sorry about that, it’s in my disk box.”  He said.

“Is Laura there?”  Tricia shouted from the kitchen. “There are a few things that I have to ask her before she gets back!”

“Tricia wants to talk to Laura, is she there?”  I asked Noah.

“No.”  He responded.

“Good,” in a whisper, “Your phone bill would be through the roof!!”

“It already is.”

“Sorry about that!”

“I’ve gotta get going. If you need to get a hold of me. . .”

“I’ll reach out and touch someone, right?!”

“No, use my beeper number.”

“What’s that number, 555-I-NEED-A-FRIEND?”

“Boy, you’re killing me!  Ha, ha, ha. But, if I’m not mistaken, that’s your office phone.”

“Yeah, right.”

“Talk to you later, Laura is telling me to hurry up, or we’ll miss the trolley, bye!”

“Bye. . .wait a minute, I thought Laura wasn’t there!”

“Oh yeah, well, I’ll talk to you later, bye.”  Noah hung up. Tricia came back out of the kitchen.

“How’s Noah?”  She asked.

“Fine, he says he’s going for a trolley ride.”

“Did he tell you why he’s not here?”

“You know, he didn’t!”

“Then what did he want?”

“For me to get his mail!”

“That’s it!!”

“Yep.”  The day continued, climaxing to a candle light dinner. I went to bed that night considering all the things that had happened today. One, gangster attack. Two, another gangster attack. Three, the beach person’s attack. Four, Noah’s peculiar way on the telephone. Plus the fact that each of the first three died without much, if any, force. I fell asleep.

The next morning I got up to Tricia opening my door. “WHAT!!”  I said, startled. “How did you get in here?”

“You left your door unlocked, ready for the game?”  She asked.

“I guess.”  I said, starting to get up. “Do you mind waiting in the living room?”

“Not at all.”  She said, as I shut the door with my foot. “Getting up, I dressed and we played volleyball. Afterwards we changed and went to Noah’s house. On the way Tricia asked, ”Have you experienced strange things lately?“

”Like what?  Those gun men yesterday?“