“What if it is real?” Wendell mumbled as he pulled into a parking spot at the library. “Nah mannn... This has to be a prank... But what if?” Wendell put the van into park and sat there for a moment staring at the entrance to the library as his mind raced and his stomach churned. Wendell hadn’t felt a rush like this in years, or at least not since he quit his job, sold his house, and moved into his van.
Unlike Rusty, Wendell’s homelessness was purely by choice. Having been a software engineer in the 90s Wendell rode the Dot-com bubble to a very fat bank account and cashed out shortly before the bubble burst in 2000. At the age of 35, with a few million dollars spread across 8 different banks, Wendell decided it was time to retire. He spent the end of 2000 and practically all of 2001 doing absolutely nothing in retirement. By the start of 2002 Wendell was beginning to grow bored of being retired and on a whim he decided he to “fall off the grid”. Wendell bought his trusty G20 van, paid a shop to renovate the interior, and by April of 2002 Wendell has liquidated his physical assets and was living off the grid in his van.
Wendell liked to think of himself as a modern day nomad, but most people just thought of him as the eccentric fat guy who lives in a van. With more than enough money in the bank to never work a day again in his life, Wendell reveled in his new van life. There was just something so freeing about it.
Wendell stepped out of the driver’s side door of his van. Free of Wendell’s weight the van momentarily rocked from side to side. Giving his baggy pants a tug Wendell waddled around the van to the side door, opened it up, and grabbed out the satchel. “I better get moving.” Wendell mumbled as he hurried across the library parking lot. He knew it would take Rusty about an hour to get to the library from the K-Mart parking lot that they had been at, but what Wendell didn’t know how much time he would need to vet the laptop and its software.
Walking into the library Wendell glanced over at the librarian manning the front desk. He had been kicked out of this branch before when he was caught grooming himself in the restroom, but luckily this librarian wasn’t the one who had kicked him out. Heading into the library Wendell zig zagged between shelves of books until he found a small table near one of the front windows. “This will work.” Wendell whispered sitting the satchel down on the small desk. Pulling out the power cable, Wendell got down on one knee and plugged it into the nearby outlet. Using the chair to help himself up off his knee Wendell got back to his feet, sat down in the chair, and opened up the laptop.
A couple minutes later Wendell was sitting at the desk staring at the desktop shortcut for T.S.094. “Mannn... I hope this works.” He thought double clicking on the desktop shortcut.
