Manufactured Luck

Fire. Heat. Not just any heat, Immense heat. Like being stuck into an oven on broil, on, no IN a volcano.... On the surface of the sun.

"There is no way anything can get THIS hot...... Is there?!?" thought Gregory to himself.

In a fleeting moment all the heat rushed away and was replaced with the feeling of a cool liquid rushing through his veins. First his finger and toe tips, slowly reaching, crawling its way up his appendages. Once it reached his knees and elbows, it shot like a freight train into his center of mass.

"Is this what drugs feel like? Enough with the questions, I need to take control of this now." Gregory was willing himself with all his might to open his eyes and see what was around him.

With his body waking up from the emergency reboot, his motor functions were still warming up and waiting for his neurons to start firing correctly. This isn't the first time he has had to go through this.

He thinks back to his first time having a reboot. A few times, his systems have lagged and caused a momentary misfire. Before he could finish his thought, his eyes peeled open and the information he was receiving said LIGHT.

Blinding white lights, like looking at an eclipse before the moon has covered the giant ball of fire. Then it all started making sense, when his eyes were adjusting to his surroundings.

"Get that flashlight out of my face, I'm fine. I was adjusting, back off Sonya!"

"Heh, Sorry Greg, I'm making sure you aren't dead, I can just leave you here if you'd prefer that" Sonya jest.

"You know how I get when it takes this long."

It's true, she did. She has seen Greg lapse a reboot one time before, only that time he needed a manual reboot before his AI fried his Primary motor cortex. Violently shaking like someone enduring an epileptic episode.

It's still not fully understood how the AI clashes with the programming of the brain, but that's part of what you sign up for when you choose to be a government guinea pig.

But it was better than having to rely on a doctor to tell you what was wrong. As long as your circuits remained non severed, the forearm display would tell you anything you would like to know.

O2 levels, blood Ph levels, white blood cell count, gastric contents, water levels, the last time you slept and the state of brain waves. Any medical information you need at the turn of the wrist.

It was the only reason Sonya stayed calm after Greg had just been hit by the van speeding by.

"I saw it had a silver exterior and black wheels." Sonya explained "But I don't think it had a license marker. And we aren't near any buildings to ask for a recording."

"Aahhhhh leave it be Sonny, I'm fine. It was just the mirror. I'm fine, I swear." Said Greg dismissingly.

"There is NO WAY I'm going to let that go, the van just HIT you!"

"I've been through worse, just let it go, lets keep jogging."

Shaking her head in a non compliant fashion, she stared at Greg like the crazy bat he is, and shook her head again as she started to jog away.

"They did more damage to their car then they did to me! Its not a big deal, let's just finish and go home." Greg proclaimed as he was looking at the broken mirror and bits of plastic on the side of the road.

Sonya said nothing to Greg the rest of the outing, other than when she needed some water.

After they got home, Greg roasted up some porkchops with rosemary and olive oil and paired it with some red potatoes, skin left on like his father had always taught him, boiled to soft perfection and smothered with butter, with a side of chives and sour cream.

The rolls came from the store but they were pretty good, sporting a sprinkle of asiago and white cheddar. But it made an excellent way to soak up the juices of the meal, and let's not forget to pair with the Sauvignon Blanc he was saving for an occasion like tonight.

Despite the efforts put forth by Greg, she still brought up what happened earlier. "Greg why did you let them just drive away." she exclaimed with anguish in her voice.

"I'm not going to talk to you about this any longer dear, we are moving past it. I am fine, that is the end of discussion." Greg hammered his point home a little too harshly "I love you, but we can't waste our time thinking about that right now Sonny, not with what we have in store."

Sonya sipped her wine to wash down a bite of the succulent potatoes. "Okay Dear, but we WILL be talking about this after everything is said and done."

"Yes dear. of course. now can we enjoy this meal together. You know how I feel about eating these potatoes since my father passed."

"A moment of silence, yes dear." Sonya then patted her lips with a napkin, careful not to wipe away the lipstick she had put on to match her scarlet dress.

After all, it was his own fathers passing that drove Gregory into receiving the experimental health gear.

"Now dear" Gregory forced into the silence, " Tell me the plan again."

Sonya finished her mouthful of flavorful meat and tasted the refreshing proteins as she looked up and smiled gingerly. It was a very tense and awkward night between the two of them.

The next morning, it was a bright and sunny Sunday, mid day with a light moisture imbued into the crisp fall air. Like the bite of an apple sitting out on a cold winter day, a slight sweetness filled the air.

Gregory pulled his coat a little closer, not expecting this degree of cold for another week or two. He peered into the clear skies, save a cloud reminiscent of a familiar shape. An ugly little ankle biter, thought Greg.

Greg normally didn't carry a disproportionately negative view against any animal species, but when he was a child of about 5, he was attacked by a blind Pomeranian and has since then regarded each and every one as a little devil in a fur coat.

He lowered his view on to the store fronts in front of him. there was the butcher, a small jewelry shop owned by a nice older couple, the helped outfit Greg and his wife with some quality stones and precious metals a few years ago.'

He knew the bank was around the corner, but was always amused with the colorful artwork of the signs in the area. A local artist has offered his services to help get his name out there and a couple stores in town had his paint and craft up a few signs for their businesses.

Seldom venturing into town as well, he has never been exposed to the signs that much since moving out of the city center. If you could even call it that. A couple store fronts on a 3 lane, 5 mile stretch of asphalt was the "city center"

Nothing compared to the giant city of New York he grew up in. but that hustle and bustle was just a little too much for Greg after his mid 20's.

He had always been an old soul at heart. Enjoying the finer things, silence, the comfort and presence of loved ones and family. He liked taking his time and getting to know things personally, a trait lost in places with people packed shoulder to shoulder, places where ideas were stacked upon more ideas pushing their patterns into your mind.

Messy places, thought Greg. As he re centered his view, the familiar scent of the bank filled his nostrils.

It wasn't really the smell of the bank, but the perfume of Daisy Coddington. She always wore the same perfume, It was amazing they company could keep up with her usage. That it smelled like a gallon a morning, and why the bank was stained with that scent long after she had left.

But everyone in the town knew "the bank smell" because Daisy was the owners daughter, and she was always there helping in one way or another.

Even if she hadn't doused herself in perfume every morning, she didn't fare to much of a chance with the boys. Her overly friendly character and wild imagination made it hard for boys to like her more than a friend.

And she had gone to college and got her bachelors in business administration and had always helped her dad since he became manager 10 years prior. She was in perfect position to be a manager herself and didn't want boys in the way of her fragranced future anyways.

Her and Gregory smiled at each other as he walked in.

"Welcome to The Coddington Bank and Trust!"

He nodded and proceeded to the counter.

"Hey there Daisy, how are you on this fine morning?"

"I'm doing well Greg, how are you? And Sonny, how is she doing?"

"She has been alright, bright and shiny as always." He smiled warmly

Daisy returned the gesture. "I need to come see the new room addition, she keep telling me about the bed frame you two crafted."

"Yeah, we took nearly 6 months to agree on a design for the canopy. She really loves it though, and I have to admit, it does look pretty cool."

"That is so amazing, so what can I help you with today Greggy."

Daisy and Sonya have been friends since high school, a friendship born in fire. At first they butt heads and argued about everything. Everything until about 5th grade when Eric broke both their hearts and they teamed up to take revenge.

They went a little far in revenge. Not because they gave him a swirly in the school's toilet. It wasn't even putting the makeup on him before he went back to class. It was forcing him to profess his "love" for the class bully.

an interaction that still, to this day, has not been able to live down, even after the truth came out.

But the building blocks for the future fall in mysterious ways and that is what was needed to bring the two together, to forge such a powerful friendship.

"I just came to drop this check off and see how you were doing, let you know we are having a roast tonight and you are more than welcome to stop by when you are done here."

"Thank you Greg" reaching for the slip of signed paper from Greg. "I'll definitely come by, I never can resist one of your robust rump roast riots!"

"Great! Ill tell Sonya to be expecting you! I'll see you later Daisy!"

Greg smiled and turned around, checked his watch, and briskly walked out onto the sidewalk. He looked around, checked on his cloud adversary once again, and went on his way back home.

It was a quiet evening. A sudden knock on the door startled Sonya as she was dusting a little black book on her bookshelf. She spun around to see Daisy through the decorative glass on the front door. They smiled at each other warmly as Sonya made her way to the door.

"Hey beautiful woman, how are you?" Daisy said to Sonya

"I've been expletive! how about yourself my dear?"

"Such fancy words! Ooooooh! Well aren't we in for a special evening!" Handing Sonya a bottle of Blackberry mead and giving her hips a slight sway in a playful manner.

"Awwwe you shouldn't have, you know I love mead darling."

"A special drink for a special night! I cant wait to see what you have prepared, you always seem to out do yourself with every visit!"

"You know how we feel about food in this household. The recent addition of the induction stove has made cooking so much quicker and flavorful. I swear the magnets add a special zing to sauces!" Sonya exclaimed

"Oh delicious, I cant wait to see the main course."

They smiled at each other and made their way to the kitchen casually and playfully bantering as they made their way past the family room.

Gregory was in the family room, looking at the recently dusted pictures and objects on the bookshelf.

There was the gyroscope his grandfather gave him shortly before his passing, a small metal globe with a bronze color, a ship in a bottle (quite painstakingly put together by Gregory himself to test out the fine tuning for his muscularly acuity programming),

A shelf of books lay under that. He glanced upwards to see the lockbox crafted by his grandfather when he was a young wood worker. A hidden spring lever in the back released the latch attached to the outer locking mechanism.

Gregory chose to have a fingerprint lock on it at the moment. He run his hands over the top, thinking back to what is inside. His father got him a CZ75 a couple years back and he loved it so much he kept it by itself in the lockbox.

"I must return this to the bedroom when Daisy leaves." he thought to himself. It was his pride and joy in the world of guns. He loved them all, but this was his primary way to handle tough situations. He took pride in training.

Able to keep a 2 inch spread at 23 yards and could reload quicker than it took to drop 2 targets at the same distance. He turned to join the women in the kitchen and heard some hearty laughter emanating from the hallway before the kitchen.

Daisy and Sonya were sharing some bread cubes by the fondue pot and laughing together.

"And just what do we think is going on here ladies?"

they giggled and looked at Greg and then shared a look and then kept laughing. "Well don't eat all the bread before I get my hands on some cheese!"

Greg and Sonya locked eyes for a moment and shared a thought. Unbeknownst to Daisy, Greg and Sonya have been planning an infiltration into the bank.

They must not let on. Easier said than done when Daisy and Sonya have been friends for so long, sharing secrets, late night phone calls, Daisy was the first to know about the marriage.

With everything that was being planned, they didn't want to risk Daisy with involvement. Of course she would know about it when all was said and done. Until everything blew over, they refused to let on to anything.

After eating and sharing a game of poker between friends, Daisy pulled through when everyone had gone all in with a pair of queens and three tens making a full house that destroyed Greg's three kings. Darn! Greg thought, knowing he had been beaten.

A few more games.... and bottle of wine later, the three had decided it was time to call it a night.

The next morning was not as foggy headed as Greg had anticipated. After all he was very observant in how much alcohol he was consuming the night previous, but he normally has more trouble with the brain interface after a night of consuming any amount of alcohol.

He went on to make coffee and a biscuit to help himself recover. He poured a cup and warmed a biscuit for Sonya and he brought them to her as he was still mulling over the game plan for the evening. He wanted to be sure everything was well thought out beforehand.

He hated surprises. Any kind of surprise really, but especially a surprise on a night like tonight. Tonight is a very important night. He awoke Sonya with a gentle kiss on the forehead. "I made you some breakfast. Coffee, cream and 3 sugars! just the way you love it!"

"That's nice and very thoughtful of you dear! You are the real treat this morning, love. So what are you feeling about tonight?" Greg replied, "I am very confident everything will go as planned. We really need this money for some rewiring after the car accident. Although

I do prefer not having horrendous brain fog after a night of drinking!" "Is that why you are awake so much earlier than me darling?" Sonya inquired with a loving smile. "Yes my love, I don't know what happened, but I am not looking forward to seeing the negative outcomes

of a strong, unscheduled percussive maintenance appointment! They surely were not calibrated for my hardware specifications!" Sonya and Greg shared a laugh and then both felt the more pressure of a more important matter at hand.

A long day of prep and rehearsal was ahead if they were to achieve this heist successfully. And they both knew that. "So why are we taking so much again? We only need a couple more thousand for the procedure, nowhere near a million?!"

"We must not only take care of the moment, but the future as well. After we will be highly sought after criminals. We are not able to resume our normal lives again darling. We need a security net to hold us as we rebuild somewhere, away from the powers that seek to destroy us"

Sonya thought about his response as she sipped her coffee. "true darling, but how do we know the government will not be able to find you? Do you even know if they have a GPS tracker on your circuit board?" Greg answered "I do not really know the extent of what they are

capable of. They may even be tracking my thought and have constructed a plan to stop and apprehend us before we even start! Highly unlikely but....." Sonya cut him off with a worried gasp "Don't worry my love, I was only exaggerating! I am not aware of everything,

but most of it is declassified to me. There are a few lines that are blacked out, but not enough to warrant enough suspicion about mind reading and recording. Maybe GPS, but the man doing the rewire also is very skilled at identifying chip sets, we WILL have an answer after

we..... I mean I have the surgery!" "And he will be able to take care of a GPS tracker if there is one?" Sonya worriedly asked. "Yes! Yes! Yes, my love! Unless there was a new tracker to come out in the past week and a half, he is able to take care of it. Please do not worry,

I can feel my anxiety circuits warming up." Sonya conceded and took another sip of her coffee. The brief silence relaxed their shoulders and gave a chance for the conversation to settle in further. "I am very appreciative of the breakfast darling, not all of us can take a hit from

a 2 ton vehicle, get up and walk away, AND it cures their hangovers." "Yeah, I guess you ARE right love, there are some silver linings" Greg got up and walked to the kitchen to get himself a glass of cold, whole milk and continue thinking about his daring plan.

He noticed a small mess in front of the wall in the living room near the coffee table and wall. "Honey! Did you forget to clean up a mess in the living room last night?" yelled Greg. He waited for a response but none came back so he yelled again, "Honey? A mess in the living room?"

Again, there was no response. He decided to brush it off and clean up the mess and investigate further after cleaning. Quite a few items had fallen from the table, Greg wasn't sure what had knocked them off the sturdy mahogany and marble coffee table, but it looked like a small tornado had passed through. A coffee table he was quite sure was overbuilt and extremely heavy. But his dear Sonya fell in love the moment she laid eyes upon it, so of course they MUST get it!

After he picked up a few papers, a cup, and picture frame and rearranged them on the table, he noticed a small black object peeking from underneath the skirt of the couch. "I wonder what that is?" he thought to himself as he leaned down to pick it up. Right as he grabbed it, he had a chill run through his spine like well all do when we have that gut feeling something bad is happening or about to happen. "Why hasn't Sonya answered me yet?" he mumbled excitedly.

He grabbed the book and proceeded to the bedroom where Sonya was last seen. It seemed like forever as he was walking up the stairs. He heard clinking and crashing of plates as he reached the top of the stairs, prompting him to break out into a full sprint to see what was happening.

As he rounded the corner into the bedroom, he could not believe what he was seeing. Sonya was passed out on the floor in front of the window, and she had grabbed the bedsheet on the way down, causing the cutlery and dishes to clatter to the floor. "What could have done this?"

That is all he was able to process before he scanned the area for blood or glass or anything else that would clue him in as to what happened. The only thing that seemed out of the ordinary was Sonya, who he now assumed had fainted and nothing bad had happened to her. He grabbed a towel and put cold water

on it and gently pressed it on to her forehead. She awoke with a smile and dreamily whispered, "My knight in shining armor" She smiled and asked to be helped up slowly, careful so she didn't faint again from standing up too fast. Greg took a moment to spin her around as if they were dancing before

placing her on the bed to recoup. "You really must get your rest if we are to have any sort of luck tonight." "I know, I know darling, hand me the orange juice please. And please do not worry, I will be alright. This hasn't happened since I was a child, but I was always alright." She took a giant chug of

orange juice and the color started coming back to her face. "What is that in your hand?" Greg had forgotten completely about the book and wondered if he was holding it the whole time, must have been if it is in his hands now! "Oh, I found it under the couch. It had fallen and knocked off the picture frame

from the living room coffee table." "What a funny thing to happen, everything looked fine when I was dusting yesterday!" "What I find funny, I have never seen this little black book before, it has a very rough texture I would remember. Call me crazy but it almost feels like mole skin!" "Well if you

don't know what it is, maybe we should give it a look to see what it is all about, seeing as how it came in and wrecked our place!" Sonya teased "You're very right Sonny, we should!" He handed the bound pages to Sonya gesturing that she be the one to open it. She happily accepted and smiled at Greg as she

opened the book. Greg had a surprised look on his face and broke eye contact to look down at something grabbing at his attention. A small slip of paper, slightly larger than a book mark had fallen out on to her lap. "That's a funny looking bookmark love, it looks like the back of a check!" Sonya exclaimed while letting out a snort

"That's because it is a check darling! And it has my name on it!" Greg said as he grabbed the check from her not so firm grasp. "And it is for $20,000! More than enough to pay for the surgery AND to have a nice vacation afterwards!" "Oh darling, this is EXACTLY what we need right now! Who is it from though

I wonder!?" "I didn't even think to check my love!" He shifted his eyes over to see who it was from, only to realize it was from the man who had hit him the other day. He had no recollection until he read the name, and it all came flooding back with a severe headache! Greg winced in pain as his circuits were

momentarily overloaded. "What is it Gregory?!?!" "It is from the man who hit me with the van the other day, I had too much going on up there when I put it all together." "Well how does he even know where we live, or who you are?!?!" Gregory replied "I used to work with him back in the black market delivering goods.

We were quite good at delivering things with a near perfect success rate. The one time we failed, our supplier had 'forgotten' to strap down the load and didn't latch the trunk, or it was broken. But it all seemed too fishy. The buyer tried to pin it all on us, saying we had stolen his goods. It was all resolved when

our man in question drove back and delivered the supplier. Because of what he did, we were no longer looked at for being part of what went wrong. We were forgiven and told to get lost. We never saw or heard from that particular supplier after that."

Snapping out of his memories and back to reality, Greg had such a grand vision for the future that now awaits Sonya and himself.