{"id":2326,"date":"2021-12-11T14:14:41","date_gmt":"2021-12-11T21:14:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/?p=2326"},"modified":"2021-12-11T14:14:41","modified_gmt":"2021-12-11T21:14:41","slug":"the-other-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.evardsson.com\/blog\/2021\/12\/11\/the-other-me\/","title":{"rendered":"The Other Me"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

prompt:\u00a0\u00a0End\u00a0your story with someone finding themselves.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

available at Reedsy<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes it\u2019s easier to pretend that everything\u2019s fine. This wasn\u2019t one of those times. Still, I put on a smile and went through the motions until the end of the workday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I left at the end of the day I went straight home to try and straighten the whole mess out. I pulled out my phone and looked at the twelve messages I\u2019d received over the course of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each message was, supposedly, sent from my own number. That\u2019s easy enough to spoof, I guess, if one knows how. What concerned me were the intimate details contained in each message. Things that I\u2019d not told anyone or written down anywhere\u2026ever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I read over the last message again, trying to make sense of it. It left more questions than answers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your bank password will be given to you tomorrow morning. Trust me, this is for your own good. You\u2019ll find things a little tight until payday, but when the auto trade happens on Nov 22, three years from now, you\u2019ll never have to work again. You\u2019ll even have enough to buy J a house, even though she doesn\u2019t even know you feel the way you do about her. When you do, don\u2019t let her know it was you. Let it be anonymous for her and her kids.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I went to my laptop and logged on to my bank account\u2026or tried to anyway. Not only had my password been changed, but I got an alert on my phone that someone unauthorized had attempted to access my account.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After spending twenty minutes on hold, I was connected with a service rep. They told me I had changed my password three times in the past few hours, and the account was now locked for further changes for a twenty-four cool-down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The call ended with them trying to hint that maybe I was having a dissociative episode and might benefit from medical help. I\u2019m sure they thought they were being gentle and subtle about it, but it hit like a hammer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was I going crazy? How would I have disturbed my own meeting this morning with a text to myself? Was someone trying to convince me I was going insane? Who would do that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was left with questions I couldn\u2019t answer. Rather than continue the fruitless conversation with myself, I settled in for a Friday evening of binging streaming video. At least those<\/em> passwords hadn\u2019t been changed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I finally got to sleep despite the nagging worry that my life had been hacked in some unrealistically deep way. My sleep was not restful. When I was woken by a text message notification, I didn\u2019t feel like I\u2019d slept at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The text message contained my new bank password, and login credentials to a stock trading site connected to a national broker with an office in town. It concluded with, \u201cThe good pruning shears are in the kitchen junk drawer\u2014don\u2019t know why. I\u2019ll answer your questions Monday. I know it won\u2019t do any good but be careful tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not that I had any reason to, but I checked the kitchen junk drawer. I didn\u2019t see any pruning shears in there. Of course, it was a mess. I dug into the drawer, and under the top layer of odds and ends\u2026there they were. Missing for the entire summer, yet this person knew where they were.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I logged in to my back account and noticed it was short a thousand dollars. I checked the transaction history and found an in-person withdrawal that happened while I was in the meeting that had been interrupted by the text message. I looked at the record of the withdrawal and found that it was verified with ID, debit card, and thumbprint. On top of that, I knew all the tellers at the bank by name, and they knew me, as I was there on a weekly basis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was looking more impossible the further I went. I\u2019d only added thumbprint verification for cash withdrawals a week prior, as soon as the bank offered it. Whoever this was, had a passable ID, my debit card with the chip, and my thumbprint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I checked in my wallet, and found that my debit card was, indeed, still in my possession. Still in a haze of feeling violated, I checked the stock trading site. I had three transactions. The first was a deposit of one thousand dollars that included a free five-year membership. Next was an automatic purchase order for GryTek at nine dollars, which had triggered yesterday at noon, resulting in the purchase of one hundred shares after the trading site took their fees. The third was an automatic sell order of the GryTek at nine thousand dollars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here again, the transaction records showed that the transactions had been made in person with ID, and that certainly looked like my signature. I checked through the terms and conditions. The agreement was binding and there was no provision for refund. That money was gone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Should I get the police involved? Someone with my debit card in hand, and my thumbprint, withdrew my money from the bank, and then bought a hundred shares in a nobody company. It would sound like buyer\u2019s remorse\u2026like I wanted to back out of a hasty decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I spent the day going in circles, trying to decide how to handle the situation. No idea I came up with was satisfactory. At some point I turned on the TV and let some documentary series play, until I fell asleep there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The morning came and I woke feeling not refreshed, but like I had at least gotten some sleep. I showered and dressed, planning to spend the day trying to research identity theft, to see if it had ever been done so completely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The phone rang around noon and I answered, hoping for the thief, but got a coworker instead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCould you swing by the office? You missed a signature on one page of your benefits packet. I need to get them out to FedEx this afternoon, but without your signature you\u2019ll miss out on your revenue sharing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I drove to the office and handled the paperwork. I sat into the car and had no sooner started it than changed my mind about heading straight home. I got back out of the car and crossed the street to the park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I walked to the bench by the water where I sometimes ate my lunch and sat facing the river. I wanted to clear my mind, let rationality take over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The river made a pleasant burbling in front of me; the sunlight sparkled off the water in bright shards. I took a deep breath, letting the fresh air of the park calm me. I\u2019m not sure how long I sat there, but I rose and headed back out of the park as the sun hung low in the sky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I hadn\u2019t even made it out of the park when my mind began to race again, going in circles as I stepped into the crosswalk. A screech of tires and loud honk made me jump. The last thing I felt before everything went black was my knee shattering against the bumper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I woke in the hospital, my entire body felt like a giant bruise. I could only see out of one eye. I reached up with a hand in a cast, only my pointer finger free, and felt at the bandage covering my eye.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The TV at the other end of the room was tuned to a news channel. They were talking about a hundred-fold increase in the stock price of a little-known scientific instrument company that had just signed deals with every major smart phone maker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I found the remote by my other hand. That hand wasn\u2019t in a cast, although that elbow was immobilized. I turned up the volume.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe announcement of the deals signed by GryTek early this morning signaled a meteoric stock rise. The CEO has said that they plan a series of stock splits, to normalize their stock prices over the next few years. The first came as a surprise this morning when they made a one to five split.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I muted the TV. It seemed I now owned five<\/em> hundred shares of GryTek. I muted the TV, turned my head to the left\u2026and there I stood, smiling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHey, there I am. I couldn\u2019t remember what room I was in,\u201d the other me said. \u201cI know this is weird but hear me out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We looked like identical twins, although I noticed a small wrinkle near the corner of other me\u2019s eyes I knew<\/em> I didn\u2019t have. \u201cWhat\u2026what is this?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGryTek just had the first of several stock splits. Over the next three years, that one hundred\u2026well, five hundred now\u2026shares will turn into twenty thousand. They reach their peak at nine thousand and four dollars a share before they collapse completely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor the next three years, their name will be in the news constantly. They make a sensor that ends up in every smart phone and smart watch, until they get pounded by a patent suit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHow\u2026who\u2026?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m you, four years from now. I had this same conversation with myself, on your side, four years ago. Last year\u2026three years from now for you\u2026I retired. A few safe real-estate investments and I\u2019m set for life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re from the future, how does this all work? Causality, I mean?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHell if I know. I didn\u2019t invent this, just stumbled on it by accident\u2026you\u2019ll see. Was there a version of me that didn\u2019t have a future me come back and make that investment? Maybe. That might have been the me that started all this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut you have my debit card\u2026?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOf course. It doesn\u2019t expire for another four years for you, next month for me.\u201d Other me stood. \u201cIt\u2019s time for me to go.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I noticed a slight limp as other me walked a few steps away then faded away into thin air.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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