Episode 105, originally published 30-Jul-98

Scattered Memories

There is thunder and lightning outside. The power has gone out at Newman Enterprises. It is very dark. Fortunately, Grace has previously given Nick a ready supply of floating candles like the ones you put decoratively around your bedroom when you want to hint at someone that you'd like to make love to them. Nick has lit one such candle and the room flickers with would-be romance. But Nick is a businessman and good businessmen are not distracted by such matters. He is keenly focused on his task, which at this moment relates to a little switch on the side of his terminal. He flips it, then sits down and tries to type. No response. He reaches over and flips it again. Again he tries to type. No response. There is a flashlight and we can't immediately tell who it is. Eventually we realize that it's coming from a point not too high above the ground. But Nick misses this clue, so he has to wait until Cassie says, "Whatcha doin', Nicholas?" before he recognizes her. "I'm trying to back up our system before the power crashes and it loses all my data," he explains to the child. "But the power's already off," Cassie complains. "I know that, Sweetie, but I'm trying to see if I can get the system to run on `manual'."

Cassie shines her flashlight to see the switch, which has two settings reading `manual' and `automatic'. "That's not part of the computer," she says. "What are you talking about?" Nick asks. "It's just an ornament you're supposed to glue to your car's dashboard." "My car?" Nick asks with his nose all scrunched up into one of his many puzzled looks. Cassie nods up and down in an exaggerated motion. "Yeah, 'cuz see," she says holding the flashlight to the item and pointing to a beveled part of the plastic that says `photon torpedos'. "You usually don't need photon torpedos in your office; you need them in a vehicle." "There are `photon torpedos' in here? It's a good thing the power was off while I was playing with them," Nick says seriously. Cassie decides to hope he's kidding and indulges in a giggle. "That's funny, Nicholas. But I'm sure you knew it was just a toy." Nick suddenly realizes why she was giggling and tries to hide his moment of realization. "Sure I knew," he lies. "I was just making a joke."

Cassie look around under the desk and finds the power cable. "It's just unplugged," she announces. "That's right," Nicholas explains, trying to show her he's on top of the situation, "I unplugged it." She looks at him with her head cocked sideways wondering how his mind works. "Why did you do that, Nicholas?" she asks. "I read somewhere that if the power is being weird, you can get a power surge." "That's right," Cassie agrees. "And so I figured it'd be best if it wasn't connected to the power during this electrical storm we're having." "But if the power is off, the machine can't run. Besides, it was plugged into a surge protector," she says pointing to the power strip the cord had been plugged into. She plugs the machine in and it immediately pings and starts booting MS/DOS 1.0. "Wow, it's working," Nick says. Cassie rolls her eyes but says nothing.

Nick gets out some paper documents from a drawer. He opens one and starts reading. But as he reads, he types. "What are you doing?" Cassie asks. "I'm typing back in these reports. The power went off, so we lost them. I'd come in to back them up so that wouldn't happen, but I failed." "Data survives a powerdown, you know," Cassie says. "It does??" Nick says, amazed. "Sure. When you file things out on the disk using the Save command, it puts them in a kind of persistent storage that doesn't need continuous power. It's ok to power off your machine and you can still get them later." "Wow," says Nick. "I didn't realize that. And all computers have this?" "A disk?" Cassie asks. "No, no, before that. What did you call it? A 'save' command? You're saying it can 'save' me from having to type everything in every time?"

A short while later, after tiring of all this `nerd talk' about computers, Nick says to Cassie. "Now if only the lights would come on." Cassie goes over and switches on the lightswitch; the room comes back to normal lighting. "Way cool," Nick says. "Do that again." She flips it off and then on again. "That is neat," Nick says. "Our scientists must really have been working overtime to come up with that one--I wonder if we can market that as a product. I'm in charge of new product development, you know." "You are?" she says with amazement and starts to run for the door. "Where are you going so suddenly," he asks. She stops and says, "I, uh, just remembered--I have to visit my stock broker... there's a big sell order I forgot to place."

* * *

Michael is in his office reciting facts from his own memory into a tape recorder so that he can remember them later. Victor enters. Thinking quickly, Michael puts down the tape recorder but doesn't flip it off. "Victor, you shouldn't be here," Michael says. "Why, you little punk. Afraid of a little one on one?" "No," Michael says, "it's just unethical for us to be talking like this. I really think you should leave." "You think I should leave, eh? Well, good. Now you know how it feels to want to be rid of someone and to be unable to make it happen," Victor says. "Victor, are you threatening me?" Michael asks. "I never threaten anything," Victor says. "I promise you. If you keep breathing, you're going to get hurt, ahright?" "Victor, you really shouldn't be saying these things. The court is a proper place for you to say anything you have to say to me." "You listen here, you little punk. I don't care about being proper or about courts or even about the law. I get what I want and I get it any way I have to, you understand? So you had better be damned afraid, ahright?" Michael shrugs. "Was there something more, Victor?" "Just remember," Victor says. "Because if I have to remind you again, it's not going to be pleasant. I'll have the upper hand. You'll see." Victor exits. Michael goes over to his tape recorder and switches it off. As he does, he says confidently, "Yes, we will. We will indeed see."

In a judge's chambers, Victor and John Silva are milling around waiting for something. "I want to know why we're here," Victor grumbles. The judge motions for Victor to be patient. Suddenly Michael and Diane enter. "I want an injunction against this man," Michael says. "I don't want him anywhere close to me. He's been making threats." "You have proof of this," the judge asks. Diane looks worriedly to Michael, not knowing what this is about. Michael pulls out the cassette recorder and presses REWIND. It squeals for a moment and then he presses PLAY. We hear Michael say, "Victor, you shouldn't be here ... (short pause) ... No, it's just unethical for us to be talking like this. I really think you should leave. ... (longer pause) ... Victor, are you threatening me? ... (short pause) ... Victor, you really shouldn't be saying these things. The court is a proper place for you to say anything you have to say to me. ... (long pause) ... Was there something more?" John Silva looks to Victor, who says, "Your honor, don't you see what this man is doing? He was planning to frame me. He made a tape with himself speaking and then he was gonna tape in some words spoken by me out of context. Only he forgot to bring the right copy of the tape." The judge looks scornfully at Michael, who is looking angry and embarrassed. "Your honor," Michael explains, "can I help it if the man is always mumbling. Let's listen to it again with the volume turned up higher."

The judge shakes his head. "I don't think that will be necessary. I've seen tapes of Mr. Newman giving public speeches before. I know the problem you're talking about, and I can assure you that rewinding and turning up the volume will not help. So I sympathize with you, but a tape full of gaps due to someone's having mumbled too much is not evidence. So I'm afraid you're out of luck on this one, Mr. Baldwin." Everyone starts to leave and Victor says, "You see, you punk shyster. You're not going to win this one." Michael turns back to the judge and says, "Did you hear that? He called me a shyster." The judge looks up and says, "Hmm? Did he say something? I didn't hear it."

* * *

A large, brightly-colored envelope arrives at the Newman household by Genoa City's famed courier service. Nikki opens it and is horrified to find today's copy of the National Inquisitor. On the cover is a picture of Joshua Landers in a kind of oval frame. Next to it are two smaller ovals, one with Nikki's face and one with Sarah's. The caption reads, ``Dead Gynecologist - Bigamist?'' Nikki gasps and starts reading:

   GENOA CITY (AP) - Bigamy seems  really  be  said to  have been 
   to be spreading  like wildfire  rushing things, can she?      
   in Genoa City. Not long ago we                                
   reported that reclusive multi-  In what so far seems to be  an
   billionaire  Victor Newman had  unrelated development, we have
   decided to play fast and loose  reason to believe that more of
   with  the law  by marrying one  Genoa City's finest will  fall
   woman and then turning  around  victim to this alleged problem
   and marrying another.  And now  of alleged stealing of alleged
   we have the sad duty to report  husbands.  A housekeeper named
   that it's happened again.       Esther,  who asked that we not
				   reveal her last name,  reports 
   The Inquisitor recently  found  that a certain member of Genoa
   that "Nikki", one of  Victor's  City's elite (identified  only 
   alleged wives,  is no stranger  as "Mrs. C.") may soon also be
   to  games of musical  marriage  raising the spectre of a  dead
   licenses.  A  well-compensated  alleged  bigamist of a husband
   source informed us today  that  when she figures  out that the
   Nikki's ex-alleged-husband was  divorce she thought she'd  had
   already married at the time he  from a "Mr. C." (now "The Late
   went  through the motions of a  Mr. C") was performed  in  the
   marriage with Nikki.            Dominican Republic,  a popular
				   place  for  Genoa City's elite 
   The consequences of this newly  to obtain rushed, illegal ends
   manufactured factoid are still  to their alleged marriages.   
   something we're studying,  but                                
   one thing seems obvious: if it  In an attempt to make it  look
   wasn't a real marriage between  like we  provide people with a
   Nikki and Joshua,  then no way  fair chance to tell their side
   could Nikki  be a widow.  This  of the story, we phoned Newman
   might also help to explain why  Enterprises to see  if  Victor
   Nikki never mourned the  death  Newman would like to make some
   of  her  first alleged husband  kind  of  statement.   We were
   before diving headlong into  a  referred to Marketing, but the
   newly alleged  marriage to her  company spokesman,  a Mr. Neil 
   ex-not-merely-alleged-husband,  Winters, was on a plane to the
   Victor.  If  she  hadn't  just  Dominican  Republic and so was
   lost a husband, then she can't  not available for comment.

Just as Nikki finishes reading, Miguel enters the living room. Nikki looks up and says, "Oh, hello, Miguel. Could you please bring me a glass of water." Miguel shrugs and says, "Get it yourself, Mrs. Newman, or Mrs. Landers, or whoever you think you are today. I'm finally just too tired of you mistreating my Veronica. Today she called me from her new home in Acapulco to tell me that she'd come into a large sum of money in exchange for a tell-all writing deal she'd just made and that she was looking for someone to do occasional translations for her and mostly just to make love to her every day in the sand the way her ex-husband and former employer Joshua used to do before he tragically died in a shooting. And I told her I'd go away with her. So I'm finally quitting to go be with the one I love--a woman that would never hurt a fly, but who you, for some inexplicable reason, didn't want to ever have around. So you can get your own damned water, Señora. Meanwhile, I'll be in my wing of the house, packing."

That's all for this episode. Hope you learned something. Don't miss Episode 106!
If you missed any older episodes, see the index.

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