Izzy's Revenge

As we traveled, Izzy told me that he had been heard something about Wall Street, but he wanted more information. I explained that it was a place where you could buy shares of interest in companies. The companies' value would go up or down, depending on how well they did or how people felt the economy was doing. When I told him, it was much like gambling but safer, he became very interested. After that, he began to read copious amounts about Wall Street and all of the ways to make money.

After about three weeks, he made me stop in St. Louis and open an account with an Edward Jones representative. When I asked him why Edward Jones, he replied that he liked the name. After that, he began buying and selling stocks. He began shorting stocks and buying commodities. Our eight million dollars was increased to something close to eighty million dollars.

We were both tired of being on the road, so we rented a place in my old hometown to recharge our batteries before we headed out again. Three days after settling in, we were on our way to dinner when two men in badly fitting suits stopped us. I had never seen either of them, but Izzy recognized them. They were from his home planet. They wanted to speak to him alone.

One thing about Izzy, he is a very upbeat kind of guy. He almost always had a smile on his face. Izzy confided in me one day that he was mad as hell when he had been exiled to this planet. Now, he hoped that his cousin would simply forget about him. To quote Izzy, he was "having the fucking time of his life."

When Izzy came back from talking to the two men, his shoulders were stooped, and he had tears in his eyes. I had never seen him cry.

"What's the matter? Did someone die?" I asked.

"No, but my cousin has been deposed," he said sadly. "My banishment has been lifted"

"Are you going to go home?" I asked, distressed that I might be losing my wingman.

"I don't have any choice," he explained. "When they deposed my cousin, I became the new ruler of my planet."

"Oh," I said softly, "then I guess you have to go. I'm going to miss you."

"I have twenty-four hours to get ready, and then they'll be here to escort me home," Simon said with a sigh. After a moment, Izzy's smile returned. "Since I only have a day left, let's make it fucking awesome."

However, Izzy's plan for awesome wasn't anything I would have expected. Instead of painting the town red, which I wasn't really interested in doing, Izzy decided to spend the time wandering around the town and reminisce.

We spent the day talking about our travels and adventures. It was as though Izzy wanted to relive them one last time. Actually, it turned out to be a very awesome day. When the two men returned, Izzy asked if he could say goodbye in private. They agreed and waited outside while Izzy and I sat in the kitchen of our rented townhouse, sharing our last cup of coffee together.

"Before I go," Izzy said tentatively, "I have an admission to make and an apology."

That Izzy was making an admission was nothing new. He made many each day. Most of them concerned new things Izzy had discovered about Earth or its people. That Izzy wanted to apologize was something completely new. I don't recall him ever doing that. He was a "damn the consequences, full speed ahead kind of guy."

"An apology? That's something new," I said with a chuckle, trying to lighten the moment.

Izzy took a deep breath and began. "When I first came to this planet and heard you talk about love, I thought it was the biggest waste of time. And when I saw how your ex-wife treated you, I was further convinced that love was a sham. However, in the almost four years that I've been here, I've come to realize that I was totally wrong. Your people are born, live pitifully short lives, and then die. And regardless of what you do during your lifetime, in the end, the only thing that matters is the people you loved and those that loved you. I envy you."

There was an awkward pause as tears filled Izzy's eyes. I decided that if ever someone needed a hug, it was Izzy, so I reached over and pulled him tight. He returned the hug but then whispered in my ear, "Remember, my name isn't Alex."

I cracked up and let him go.

"What's the apology?" I finally asked.

"Yeah, about that," he was apparently uncomfortable with actually admitting he had done something wrong. "You didn't ask for it, but I figured, what the fuck, you needed it. When I altered your feelings for your ex-wife, I put in a command that made it impossible for you to fall in love with any woman. I realize now that I was wrong. I'd like to correct that before I leave."

I was surprised to learn what Izzy had done, but I realized that I hadn't had any feelings toward anyone as I thought back over our time together. I totally enjoyed having sex with women, but I didn't have any feelings other than wanting them to satisfy me. Then it struck me. Recently, I had been feeling more and more dissatisfied. No doubt, my inability to love was part of it.

Izzy reached up and touched my forehead. Then he smiled and stepped back.

"It's time to go, Sovereign," one of the two men said as he stepped back into the house.

"Will, I ever see you again?" I asked as I realized that I did love this strange friend of mine.

He looked over his shoulder at the two men waiting for him. Then he said in a loud voice, "No, that would be impossible." Then he winked and smiled at me.

Epilog

Revenge is a funny thing. You rarely get the desired results you think you want. Such was the case with Cindy and Alex.

If I had known Cindy's reputation, I would never have married her. Even thought she was a cheating slut, we did have some good times, and the sex was always excellent.

Because of Izzy's implanted command, Cindy was forced to live life loving me. At least that's what I think. I never thought about asking Izzy if his commands ever stop working. Anyway, because of who Cindy is, and because she can't have me, she turned to prostitution. Now, I'm sure most of you think that I exacted this great revenge that I've reduced her to being a whore. In reality, Cindy always was a whore. The only difference is that instead of glomming money off a clueless husband, she is glomming money off her Johns. Not only that, but she is a high-priced call girl, so she is making a ton of money.

Alex parted ways with the firm he was with. It wasn't a friendly parting. Apparently, the firm had a morals clause, so Alex took it in the ass both physically and financially. But when Alex left the firm, he took Roger with him. Together, they opened their own law office serving the gay community. I understand that they are doing quite well. However, it hasn't been all clear sailing for Alex. I learned that, at one point, Roger left him, and Alex tried to commit suicide. Fortunately, he and Roger patched things up and eventually got married. The last I heard, they were trying to adopt. Go figure.

When Izzy first offered to help me get revenge on Cindy and Alex, I was excited and thrilled with the idea. But as you can see, it didn't turn out exactly as I had figured. All of these things, plus Izzy being gone, caused me to fall into a depression. I tried to continue the travels that had been so much fun in the past. But without Izzy, they quickly became boring. The money that Izzy had made for us was now worth over a hundred million dollars, so I didn't have to work. But it came to me that I needed to work. I realized that I was so unhappy because I didn't have any purpose in life. So, I returned to what I knew best -- construction.

However, before I started up another construction company, I put the vast bulk of what Izzy had made for us into various charities. I, of course, kept three million dollars for myself. I may be clueless, but I don't have shit for brains. Anyway, once that was done, I set up my new construction company just outside of Dallas. That was three years ago, and today, I have contracts for projects worth forty million dollars. Three of those contracts are to build portions of the southern wall of the United States. A country that doesn't defend its borders isn't a country; it's just a territory.

One of the first people I hired was a pretty girl named Cathy Williams. She has bright red hair and sparkling green eyes. She's a tad overweight, but she has a smile that could light up a dark room. We were married a year ago, and I couldn't be happier.

I haven't told Cathy about Izzy because I knew that she would never believe me. Sometimes at night, I lie in bed and wonder what it would be like if Izzy came back. One thing for certain, I not sharing my wife with him. He's going to have to find his own fucking women.