Billy (Interlude Number One)

“Here is a story within the stories.”  -Joseph-

Billy sat viewing a video on his computer laptop that he had taken three weeks ago of a neighbor’s backyard gathering.  A beautiful woman spewed fire into the sky from her mouth as he hid in a tree secluded from site with his camera about five houses away from where the Ancient’s lived.  He shivered as he watched the scene over again and again.  This isn’t the only strange event he has witnessed from this neighborhood home – he saw a man floating in the air in the middle of the night in the same backyard.  He had heard that the group of people who frequented this house was different, but he never dreamed they were like this – more than human.

He began to watch the house about six weeks ago and found that ten people (or five couples) were constantly coming and going at all hours of the day and night.  They were quiet and no one seemed to complain about any strange things happening at this location, but Billy’s gut told him that he should wait and watch.  He played the video of the beautiful woman (whom he discovered was Eve Ancient) sending a huge cloud of fire into the sky with one breath.  What is this?  He kept asking himself if this was a trick of some sort, that maybe he would see an apparatus or chemicals being handed to her to allow such a huge fire ball to come out of her mouth.  But there was nothing – just a coin someone threw to her before she heaved the fire.

In his research he found that the house belonged to Joseph and Eve Ancient.  They both owned several web sites and one of the websites sold coins, curios and artifacts.  He went to the site and found “Joseph Ancient’s House of Ancient Coins and Curios” (http://www.ancientscoin.com). He had to admire the strangeness of some of the curios as well as the detail and authenticity of the ancient coins.  So the wife was tossed a coin and then came the fire?  He pondered the series of moves that led to the fire breathing of Mrs. Ancient.

“What about the others?” he asked himself.  How are these people related?  We have the two red heads that stand out in the crowd along with the beautiful wife and tall girl that has a shorter husband.  There’s that scruffy “John the Baptist” looking guy and his wife that always seemed to be standing instead of sitting. And then there is the ordinary girl and boy next door couple that seemed to be the “quiet ones” in the group.  These are ten people with different styles and personalities that look like they would have nothing in common.  Who are they?  Where did they come from? Why care?  Billy was curious and needed to know more.  Since his divorce he has been bored and lonely, but at thirty-two years old he was making great money as an electrician and “wiring guy” – there are plenty of companies needing to run category 5 an 6 wiring for their network systems and he always had contract work from other companies that had more work than they could handle  He made enough money to take two weeks off a month to spy on his neighbors and still have plenty of time to party and meet new ladies until the next booked job.

In all, the entire group down the street consisted of young twenty-something’s -- except for Joseph Ancient, who was noticeably older, bald and had a different demeanor about him --- almost like he was always on his guard with his eyes shifting like he was looking for something or waiting for something to happen.  Billy felt uncomfortable just thinking about having to talk to him face to face.  “How could such a homely, scary looking guy as this get such a hot gorgeous wife as her,” he thought, “must be lots of money in those pockets.”

“I guess I will have to take a closer look at these people and hope they don’t see me,” Billy said aloud to himself.

He began to type on his laptop keyboard looking for clues.  His screen brought him to the Missouri Public Records website.  He thought this would be a good place to start his new

hobby . . . .

(End of Interlude Number One)

Visit the real Joseph Ancient Coin Site:  http://www.ancientscoin.com