“In which Donnie gets LOST, receives an unimaginable call and digs further into his father’s past”
“You must understand, Donnie, that I don’t want to tell you this. Your father was a very mysterious man. I don’t think anyone ever understood what he was doing. He was named many things in his life; genius, mad-man, lunatic, villain, scientist and… Well, saint.” Rachel took a deep breath before she continued speaking. “I said the last one by the way. But that’s not important. What is, is that when you were born, he was working. A lot. And it wasn’t easy work, I’ll tell you that. This was complicated, hard and he used every waking moment of his last years on the face of this earth. This work was very important for him, yet he never discussed it with me.” Donnie was really excited now. He drank some more of his tea, waiting impatiently for the continuation of her tale. “One time, when you were twelve years old, he got up in the middle of the night, and started working out in the garage on this weird machine that he had created. You see, he had begun this project with all these extremely complicated formulas and theories, but in the last years he had started building something. But in the weeks before this night, he had struggled with something. He said it was a giant fucking problem. But no, that wasn’t the word he used…” Rachel buries her head in her hands, shaking it gently. “What was that word?” Donnie drinks some more tea, while waiting on the special word to pop into her mother’s head.
Richard had called The League, and they all agreed to get LOST in the next couple of days. It would be rad; six seasons of LOST in the shortest amount of time possible. He couldn’t wait, and neither could Lora.
Rachel was still thinking. Apparently, this word was important for the story. Donnie was making a second cup of tea, for both his mother and himself. Both of them were quiet, each focusing on they’re own piece of work. Suddenly, Rachel figured it out. There wasn’t a loud shout-out of the world. She only sat up in her chair, blinked a few times and said it out loud. “Paradox. He said he’d had to solve a paradox for any of this to work. And that night, he solved it. He just woke up, mumbling to himself and got out of bed. He dressed up and headed into the garage. Now, you must understand that I didn’t freak out every time this happened. Your father was a scientist, an unemployed one, and I understood that this project was tremendously important for him. But after three long hours of hammering, mumbling, drawing and working, everything went quiet. I got nervous and scared, and so I walked into the garage. Your father wasn’t there. Neither was his machine. The garage was empty; everything that suggested someone had worked in there was gone. The blackboard that he had written on, the plans and pages that he had written on was gone. All the tools had been put into its right place. It was like Walter had never existed. I thought I was going mad. Until…” Donnie has finished making the tea, and Rachel smiles as he hands over her cup. “Until I saw what was on the floor.” Donnie was stunned. “What was it?” Rachel smiled, gently. “It was a big envelope. A4 format. On top of it was a sticker that went like this; Till Donnie, at his fifteenth birthday. Not before, not later.” Rachel breathed out. Donnie breathed in. They both drank some tea. “Wow. What a story.” Donnie understood why his mother didn’t want to talk about this. What she must have been struggling with. It shocked him. “So… I’ll finally get a birthday present from my dad.” Rachel smiled. “I know. But let’s not think about that now. You still a few weeks to go. Who was it that called by the way?” “Oh, that was Richard. The League is going to get lost tomorrow at Six o’clock.” Donnie was a little tired now. The clock chimed eleven. It was dark outside. “At six?” Rachel seemed a little bummed out by this fact. “Get lost?!?” “Yes mom. Six in the morning. We’re going to watch all six seasons of LOST in the shortest amount of time possible.” Rachel was now even more bummed out. “Oh.” Donnie drank some more tea. “That makes sense.”
A while later, while Donnie was in his room, he heard a strange sound coming from downstairs. “Donnie!” His mother called. “Your phone is ringing!” He ran down the stairs and got the phone from his mother’s hand. He looked at the lit-up screen. It was Christine. He answered it, while his feelings for her once again bloomed inside of him. “Hi Christine.” He suddenly understood that something was wrong. Firstly, it was one o’clock in the night. Secondly, Christine never called him. Donnie had taken care of that himself during the first week of Summer Break. Something was utterly and awfully wrong. The fact that Christine was crying confirmed it. “Donnie”, she managed to say out loud. “I’m so sorry.” She continued crying. “I’m sorry. For everything.” Donnie didn’t know what to say. So he said the only responsible thing. “Now, back up a little Christine. I’m your friend. You can tell me what happened.” But she didn’t. She just continued to cry. Then she hung up. Donnie tried to call back all night, every half an hour, but she didn’t answer. He went to Richard’s LOST-meeting, which he thoroughly enjoyed. Still, his conversation with Christine never left his thoughts. He wondered where she was now, what she was doing. But he kept forgetting to call again. Because deep inside of him, he knew that she wouldn’t answer. Deep inside, he knew what had happened. He just didn’t had proof. Yet.
A Knight 'ale 