It was early evening in downtown Willow Creek and Liberty Lee had just had some farewell drinks with her boyfriend, Gary, before she headed off to Cape Canaveral the next day. It soon time for the launch of Gemini IX; the next stage in the race to the Moon, and she was part of the pad crew preparing the capsule for launch. As she left the Blue Velvet Nightclub she spotted a familiar figure in a very unfamiliar outfit. It was her neighbour, Julia Epstein, all dressed up to the nines in white and gold, with her hair worn up. Liberty had only ever seen her with her hair in pigtails so she didn't clock it was her at first. Liberty approached Julia and said hello.
"Wow, Julia, you look amazing: What's the occasion?" asked Liberty.
"The Society of Sim City Surgeons annual dinner" replied Julia.
"That's a lot of S's" said Liberty. "Well, you're certainly dressed to impress. Are you going with anyone?"
"A friend...well, colleague. A kind of colleague/friend" said Julia.
"A guy?"
Julia rolled her eyes. "Why must you assume I'm going with a guy? I told you, this is a colleague and kind of a friend. OK, so yes, he's a man, but it's strictly professional."
"Well, for a professional evening out you look phenomenal. Let me know how it all goes when I next see you, which will be in a week."
"Oh, are you off to Cape Canaveral now?"
"Tomorrow. Have fun!" and Liberty waved goodbye to Julia. Julia took another look at her watch; why did she arrive at the meeting point 20 minutes earlier than arranged? She was starting to feel the chill on her shoulders when, up in the distance, her 'not-a-date' appeared and waved to her.
"So has Julia got a boyfriend?" asked Liberty the next morning as she, Summer and Travis enjoyed breakfast.
"There are rumours, but that's all" replied Summer.
"Interesting...but look at you two: Matching bath robes, you two are practically a married couple already" quipped Liberty.
Summer giggled, Travis was a little spooked at the idea.
A yellow taxi cab had pulled up outside of their house and the driver got out and was walking up the path to them.
"Well, that's my ride. Have a great time while I'm away" said Liberty.
"Will do" replied Summer "we thought about inviting Gary over for lunch or dinner soon so he doesn't feel lonely without out"
"Sweet. Launch day is Friday and that's most of my job done so I'll head back in time for the wedding...well, don't have too much fun without me" said Liberty, waving goodbye and grabbing her suitcase.
As the door shut, Summer let out a sigh "I'm going to miss Libs" she said.
"She's only going for a week" replied Travis
"I know....I just feel better when it's all three of us around. Say, what are you up to this afternoon?"
"Not much, why? Have you got something in mind?" said Travis in hope and expectation that he and Summer could "play" when the cat called Liberty was away.
"Well, I'm busy working..." she replied. Travis' mood sank a little at that news. "But I was thinking you haven't seen Jeremy for a while...maybe you could have one of your guys night outs or something?"
"Yeah, I've hardly spent any time hanging with Jez since he started his new job" said Travis.
"So you have plenty to catch up on!" said Summer, enthusiastically.
"Speaking of catching up, with Liberty away for a few days we can catch up on spending time together" said Travis, suggestively.
"Trav, I've just finished breakfast! Think of my digestion!"
"Well, we'll take things slowly until your breakfast is fully digested"
"This isn't the most romantic conversation ever had"
"Time for conversation is over...." said Travis, taking Summer by the hand and leading her to the bedroom.
After a little quality time spent in the bedroom, Summer and Travis washed and dressed and pottered around the house: Travis catching up on some work projects and Summer practicing her drink mixing skills. After an hour of working at his desk, Travis came into the kitchen to get a coffee and catch up with Summer.
"I've phoned Jeremy and we're going to meet down in the Spice Quarter this afternoon" said Travis.
"Excellent. I hope he's doing OK...I've heard he's been a bit weird lately." said Summer.
"A bit weird?" asked Travis.
"Yeah, I was speaking with Suzy the other day and she says he's been really short tempered with her."
Travis looked concerned. That was most out of character of his friend and he tried to figure out what could be wrong.
"Maybe it's the new job, or Barbara's shop or even the plans to demolish this whole street playing on his mind. I'll help take his mind off all those hassles" he said.
"Or find out what's bugging him" said Summer.
After lunch Summer went to work and Travis headed downtown to the Spice Quarter to meet with Jeremy. He became nostalgic as this was a regular haunt of the two guys back when they were single. That seemed like a 100 years ago to him now...
Travis was shaken from his daydream by the approach of Jeremy.
"Travis, good to see you! Thanks for inviting me down here" he said.
"Well I thought you and me hadn't hung out without the ladies in tow for quite some time now. And what better place to hang out than down here at the Waterside Warble"
"Or spice shack" said Jeremy, nodding to the food vendors.
"Yeah, whatever you prefer, man" said Travis.
"Let's grab a bite to eat and check out the musician over there" said Jeremy, indicating the opposite side of the square.
As they headed across, past the community basketball hoop, Travis stopped by a open air market stall that was selling modernistic and stylish lamps.
"Hey, do you think this groovy lamp would make a good wedding present for Suzy and Neil?" he asked Jeremy.
"How the heck do I know?" snapped Jeremy, irritably. "Is all anyone can talk about these days is their darn wedding?"
"Hey, man, it's next week! We're all pretty stoked for the two of them..." said Travis, surprised at Jeremy's reaction.
"Well, you might be" Jeremy muttered.
They headed over to the food area and listened to the street musician, who did a pretty decent version of Beatles hits. Jeremy grabbed some food and sat down with Travis to catch up with each others lives.
"How are things in the world of electronics and computers?" asked Jeremy.
"Challenging" replied Travis. "Things are changing so much in my industry...we can now get transistor radios down to the size of a wristwatch."
"Oh, very Dick Tracy"
"Yeah, totally. And with the computers we've moved from valves to punch cards and then to magnetic tape but the future might be these chips they've recently designed."
"Chips?"
"Yeah, they're kind of like tiny circuits...a bit hard to explain but what you can put on a punch card you can put on a chip the size of my fingernail"
"Sounds very space age. Does Liberty know about them?" said Jeremy, half joking.
"Oh yes. They use them in the Gemini capsules. You can't have reels of magnetic tape in space. Anyway, I have to ask you how the new job is over at the Landgraab Corporation. How much evil goings on have you uncovered?" replied Travis, also half joking.
Jeremy looked taken aback. "Evil?" he said.
"Yeah, like what's Geoffrey Landgraab up to with our street?" said Travis.
"Geoffrey Landgraab is the kindest, bravest, warmest most wonderful human being I've ever known in my life" replied Jeremy in a monotone voice, his eyes looking blank and expressionless.
"What?" said an incredulous Travis.
"Lovely ramen soup, Trav, you should try some" said Jeremy, warming up again.
A woman then approached them at their table. "Excuse me, gentlemen, is this seat taken?"
Jeremy took a brief look at her and said "no, it's free...m...m...mother"
The woman looked at him oddly. "Excuse me?" she asked.
"Sorry! Sorry, I meant Nancy...no! You're not...sorry, again, it's just that you look a bit like Nancy Landgraab." Jeremy said, stumbling over his words.
"Oh, do you really think so?" said the woman, now suddenly pleased and patting her hair.
"Ma'am, I'd go one step further and say you're better looking than Nancy Landgraab" said Travis.
"Oh you two are such dears!" said the woman
"By the way, my name is Fran...and you two sweet gentlemen are here on your lonesome? No wives or girlfriends?"
Travis shrugged his shoulders and looked to start telling a sob story. Jeremy knew this little routine of "I just can't seem to find the right woman" Travis did to get a date and this time he was going to pipe up.
"He has a girlfriend and so do I" said Jeremy, cutting Travis off.
"Oh what a shame! Why are all the good men snapped up these days?" said Fran. "They must be very wonderful girls to have bagged you"
"Well..." said Travis, looking over his shoulder. "Here comes one now..."
It was Barbara who showed up at that moment. Fran made her excuses and left the table.
"Who was that?" asked Barbara.
"Oh, just someone asking for the time" said Travis.
"Are you guys having fun?" asked Barbara
"Oh yeah, we've just been hanging out, eating cool stuff, listening to the vibes" said Travis. "I even checked out some ideas for a wedding present"
"Ugh" said Jeremy.
"So all in all we're fine" said Travis, ignoring Jeremy.
"So what have you got in mind for the present?" asked Barbara.
"I was thinking about one of those mod lamps over there" replied Travis.
"If you're going to talk wedding stuff, I'm going to get a drink!" said a disgruntled Jeremy.
He got up and left. Travis and Barbara watched him walk off in the direction of the bar. When he was out of ear shot, Travis turned to Barbara.
"Is it me or is Jeremy acting a bit...weird, lately?" he said.
"Does he come across like that to you as well?" she said, in a conspiratorial whisper. "I thought it was just me who's noticed! What has he said to you?"
"Not much, except for whenever the wedding is mentioned he gets really grumpy and he did this really strange thing just before you got here: He calls Nancy Landgraab 'mother'".
"Oh my gosh! I've heard him do that as well!" said Barbara, in shock and putting her hands up in front of her mouth. "Tell me, what does he say when Geoffrey's name is mentoned."
"Oh, let me think....." said Travis. "Something like Geoffrey Landgraab is the kindest, warmest, bravest..."
"...most wonderful human being he's ever known?" said Barbara, finishing the quote.
"Yes! That's exactly what he said!" said Travis.
"Every time Geoffrey's name is mentioned, he says that...word for word" said Barbara.
"Something's sure as hell is suspicious here, Barbara. I hope you're OK and safe"
"Oh Travis, I'm so worried about him...something's happened to him. I warned him not to work for the Landgraabs, I warned him! I'm OK...he never vents his anger at me but I'm scared for him. What have the Landgraabs done?" and at this point Barbara was close to tears. Travis looked around to see where Jeremy had got to but he hadn't returned yet and so Travis fumbled around for a handkerchief to give to Barbara.
When Jeremy had returned to them, Barbara had wiped away her tears and things settled back down to normal...on the surface. As long as the topic of conversation didn't involve Suzy Kent, John Action or the Landgraabs it was just like old times, but Travis and Barbara knew deep down that there was something deeply wrong with Jeremy.
After saying their goodbyes, Travis headed back home but decided to share his concerns with another person; someone deeply involved in all this strangeness. It wasn't Suzy Travis now turned to: She was too busy with wedding preparations. This time he went to see Action.
Travis could hear Action sliding the latches, unchaining the door and turning the keys in various locks before he was greeted.
"Yo, Trav, what's the skinny?" said Action.
"Can I come in and talk about a delicate matter?" replied Travis.
"That depends on what kind of delicate you're talking about"
"It's about Jeremy"
"You'd better come in then" said Action, looking gravely serious.
Action got him and Travis a beer each and they sat down to talk. Travis was feeling nervous about coming to Action to talk about Jeremy.
"It seems that everyone's noticed that he's acting bizarre these days" said Travis.
"Has he lost his temper whenever mine or Suzy's name is mentioned? Has he got nothing to say but gushing praise about his new job? Does he call Nancy Landgraab 'mother'?" asked Action.
"Yes! He does all those things!" replied Travis.
"You ain't the first guy to notice the changes in him. Suzy, Neil, Summer and Barbara have all said he's acting weirdly around them and he lost his cool with me in the gym the other day; all over nothing."
"What do you think is going on? Is it to do with his work?" asked Travis.
Action put down his beer and took a deep, thoughtful breath. "Two things might be going on in his head. One, it's all stress related to his job. Maybe he's under a lot of pressure to meet deadlines or impress the bosses and he's taking it out on us."
"And the other possibility?" asked Travis.
"They've somehow messed with his brain, like they did with mine only this time they've somehow brainwashed him into hating me and Suz..."
"...and thinking Nancy Landgraab's his mother" speculated Travis.
"Ugh, that is some weird, mixed up shit, I can tell you" Action said, recoiling in disgust.
"But how did they manage to do this? I mean, brainwash someone like that? I heard the Chinese did that kind of thing in Korea but Jeremy's only been working for them for a couple of weeks now...surely they can't brainwash someone in such short a time?"
"There's a lot of things that don't seem normal to us but which the Landgraabs somehow manage to do. Leave this with me, Trav, I'll get to the bottom of this!"
