Ivan had dismembered the folder, making a perfectly disorganized mess of papers. He was trying to read all the information they had accumulated in no particular order. He was hoping the lack of time-line would reveal a new dimension of thought. After hours of reading already memorized history Ivan did see something new, born from chaos. He was blankly staring at a photocopied picture of a school yearbook and in this black and white snapshot, a hand written telephone number. Ivan quickly grabbed the page as if it had caught fire and needed extinguishing. His mind tangled with expectation and apprehension. The telephone number was probably more than twenty years old but it was his only new lead to follow. Without even thinking Ivan dialed the number without even thinking of what he would say if someone actually answered. Holding the phone to his ear he listened for almost thirty seconds, he would continued listening for thirty more if it meant someone would eventually answer their sides inbound ringing. “Hello?” The voice camouflaged with sleep. The person on the other end cleared their throat and asked “Hello? Is anyone there?” Ivan astonished the telephone number was in working order and even better that they were awake and hopefully willing to talk. Ivan quickly replied to their inquiry, “Yes. I’m here… My name is Ivan, if only I could have one moment to ask you a few questions?” The line went deafly silent. Ivan thought the call had been disconnected. Instinctively Ivan spoke into the phone’s receiver “Hello?” Silence continued for a few seconds. “Hold yer’ horses, okay.” The voice didn’t sound as blanketed in sleep as before. “What are yer’ questions and why are they so urgent to call so early?” Ivan didn’t even check the time before dialing the phone number. Hastily looking towards his 1850s L. Japy Frères clock displaying six twenty-seven. While Ivan’s eyes and mind diverted realizing he had forgotten to sleep. “You’d better not be some telemarketer.” Ivan cleared his throat. “No, I assure you I’m not trying to be any annoyance to you sir and I apologize for the early call and any inconvenience.” Ivan feeling calm and collected he continued his questioning. “My name is Ivan and I’m doing some research on my family tree and your number showed up as a classmate of my deceased older brother.” He had told a small lie about how he obtained the phone number, but he certainly didn’t want to scare anyone with words like ‘investigation’. “I’m so sorry for your loss. I’ll do my best to help, what was your brother’s name?” Ivan leaned back in his chair and propped his feet on his kitchen table, he was feeling confident. “Actually, I haven’t told you his name yet. I was actually shocked to learn this phone number was still in service.” Ivan interrupted by his brothers assumed classmate. “Well, sir, …eh I-I-Ivan. The phone number you dialed is actually my mothers and I’ve fallen on hard times like so many others in this bad economy. You have great timing to reach me here.” Ivan spent the next twenty minutes explaining that it would be great if they could meet in person and go over a few things from the past. The only convincing required was to buy breakfast. Ivan didn’t have any expectations of Sebastian being awake at such an early hour, he left a voice mail on Sebastian’s cellphone as he was driving to meet his new ‘out of work, down on his luck’ informant.

No song birds singing, no sun shining. Sebastian had slept through all the daylight hours. His two computer LCD monitors were projecting plenty of synthetic light. Laying on his bed was an uncapped empty prescription bottle and an insistently blinking cellphone attempting to notify him of his slothfulness. Sebastian attempting to wake himself started narrating. “I didn’t need the sun today anyway.. but I do need some caffeine.” Finishing his thoughts with a yawn. He grabbed his phone, looking at the display screen it listed one missed call and one voice mail. Sebastian wiping sleep from his eyes puts the phone to his still groggy head. The automated monotone robotic voice explaining his options to listen to the recorded message almost put Sebastian back to sleep. Suddenly a very excited voice started projecting into his ear ten decimals too high. “Sebastian, wake up! Wake up, wake up, wake up!” Rolling his eyes Sebastian knew it was Ivan and he obviously was either pissed about missing our opportunity to seize the day or annoyed about something I wasn’t able to do while sleeping. “Sebastian, I’m not an idiot. I know you’re asleep and it’s pointless for me to tell you to wake up in a message you wont get until you actually do wake up, but I have big, no-no, huge news!” Hearing this Sebastian felt more awake than any energy drink could provide. Ivan continued “I actually found somebody who knew our brother. A friend of his to be exact. He agreed to meet with us and explain his final impressions on the last few days of them being together. He was with our brother the day before he died.” The message ended, and the robotic voice started inquiring about options for saving the recorded content. Sebastian disconnected the call and started gathering the necessary items for travel including a handful of Vicodin. Less than ten minutes passed before Sebastian strapped into his Acura NSX Type-R pressing the gas pedal.

Ivan couldn’t wait all day for Sebastian to answer his message, he had to proceed…