"Please come inside." The man gestured, and Michael followed his lead. "I never thought the day would come." He led Michael into the dining room. "I never really wanted the day to come, but now that it's here..." He tried to find the right words, "But now that it's here, I'm content." He finished.
Michael sat on a stool. His mind was racing. Mimsy had sent him here, was it possible that this man actually was his father? He watched as the man quickly tried to clean his counter, he hustled to the sink and shoved his dishes into the washer. "I'm sorry for the mess," the man muttered, "I rarely have visitors. My name's Castillo…Stanley."
Would you like something to drink? Castillo pulled a glass from the cupboard.
"Water would be fine," Michael managed. He watched as Castillo pulled a jug from his refrigerator. When he closed the door, something caught Michael's eye.
Michael stood up to take a closer look. "This is my wedding invitation?" he muttered, pulling it from beneath the magnet.
"You don't say," Castillo let out a laugh. He grabbed the invitation from Michael's fingers.
"Michael Robinson," he read. "Sounds like a good name, unique, but respectable. And you're set to marry Victor's daughter? When I received this, I had no idea it was my son." He squinted his eyes at Michael, which enhanced the wrinkles.
"Not anymore. How do you know Victor?"
"I'm sorry to hear that." Castillo said, "We went to school together, he was an odd fellow, give me a moment." Castillo left the room, and Michael heard a door open somewhere towards the rear of the house. A minute later, he returned, clutching a grimy photograph. Michael grabbed the paper. When he saw the photo, he nearly fell off his stool.
"That's... That's my parents!" Michael blurted, "And Quint, and Victor?" Michael stood to his feet. The photo showed a much younger version of the five standing in a line. Quint was on the left, Mr. and Mrs. Robinson were next, Castillo was fourth and Victor stood about a foot apart from them on the far right. They were all smiling broadly in terrible-fitting suits. Castillo's right arm was perched on Mr. Robinson's shoulder.
"What is this?" Michael asked, "Are you a part of The Company?"
Castillo's eyebrows burrowed towards his nose, "How do you know about The Company?" He controlled his anger, "Did they harm you? What did they make you do?"
Michael sat quietly. He couldn't stop staring at the photograph, at who he had believed up until minutes ago, to have been his parents smiling broadly.
"We went to school together; Me, Robert, Amelia, and Quint."
Michael knew his parents as Jonathon and Rebecca.
"Our last year, we had a project together. We made a device that was similar to a pager, except it connected to a landline. If two devices were connected to a landline at the same time they could communicate through written messages. Does that make sense?"
Michael nodded.
"Our project was highly praised by the university, and upon graduating, we decided to try to take it to the market. We went from trade show to trade show, but nobody saw the need. How would you contact someone if their device wasn't connected? Why not just use a pager?"
He poured himself a glass of water, took a swig, and continued. "We were going to give up, but a man approached us at a fair and showed interest. He offered to purchase the exclusive rights to the device as well as hire us on to work on developing a better version. We worked for the man for several months before we realized something wasn't right. Every Thursday, they had a group of individuals connect to a landline at a specific time, and they'd be sent assignments. I”m not sure what they were, but I know they weren’t legal.” He paused again.
"And that's how The Company started?" Michael filled the silence.
"Not as it is today. The man in charge of writing the assignments got charged with some other crime. He showed the device to the authorities as a bargaining chip. The following Thursday, he sent out a list of locations to various people. When the people showed up, police were waiting for them. Unfortunately, I was plugged in that day. I received a message that I was supposed to meet with our boss. They took me in. They wanted me to turn in everyone. They said if I turned over the operation, they'd keep me out of the report."
Michael leaned forward in his stool, "Why didn't you take it?"
Castillo looked down at the counter and slowly raised his eyes to Michael. "Because I had you." Tears started to form again, but he coughed and wiped them away. "Your mother wasn't much. She was older and moved away, leaving you with me. I was taking care of you while most of this was happening. I was afraid of what would happen to you if I tried to leave. The police offered me a deal, but I didn't want you to live in a world where people had grudges against me."
"So, you left me?" Michael asked. He felt terrible for Castillo, but he barely knew him.
"I acted as if I would help, so they'd let me out. I told the others about the deal and said I wasn't going to give them up as long as they promised you'd be taken care of. Robert and Amelia agreed to take you in, move away and give you a normal life. We all agreed the new device would be destroyed, and they'd start their new lives."
"But they stayed together and started The Company," Michael stated.
"According to the letters, your parents moved away to Ohio," Castillo said as he began to pace the kitchen. "From what I've gathered, Quint restarted The Company."
"Is there any chance Victor was involved?" Michael inquired.
"No. He was two years below us, and followed Robert around. Robert found him entertaining, I was indifferent, but Quint hated him. He had nothing to do with us after we graduated."
It was making sense to Michael, but something still just didn't seem right. He believed Castillo, he had nothing to gain from lying, but he felt there was something that was missing.
"I wasn't in Ohio," Michael finally said. "That was my brother."
"Your brother?" Castillo asked.
"Ender, my older brother—"
"They kept his name," Castillo broke a small smile, then looked back to Michael, trying to hide his disappointment. "You're not my son." He said to himself. He got up and paced the room. "Tell me about Ender? Is he ok?"
Michael admitted he didn't know about his brother's location and that he hadn't seen him in years. Castillo then asked what he knew about The Company.
They moved to the living room, and Michael shared everything that had happened over the past month. Castillo listened intently, throwing in a question or clarification as Michael recalled the events the best he could. By the time he was finished, Castillo was furious.
"Those monsters." He slammed his fist into the couch, "Quint sent me letters. He even called me once I got out. We never talked about The Company because I didn't want to know. But he told me my son was doing well. Quint killed your parents.” He paused, “Do you think he killed my son?" He stood and looked down at Michael.
“I..I don’t know.” Michael responded. The thought had never crossed his mind. They’d become distant leading up to Ender’s move.
"I'm so sorry." Castillo broke the silence. “You didn’t deserve this.”
"Neither did you." Michael bowed his head. He looked around the room and back at Castillo, "How did you know Mimsy? You said you can't believe she sent me. I’m assuming you meant Mimsy.”
"Oh Dorothy? Yes. I got a letter a few weeks ago," Castillo answered. "She was one of the few people that had visited me when I was in. She was with us before the arrests. I didn’t know her well, until she visited me. At first it was to ask about Eddie, but we slowly became friends. She'd written me letters, but never mentioned her involvement with your family. I think she was ashamed. She said someone special was coming to visit, and I assumed it was her. Then you showed up." He walked to the kitchen and shuffled through a pile of envelopes.
He came back with the letter and handed it to Michael. Michael examined the message. It was Mimsy's handwriting. it was odd seeing her sign it 'Dorothy.'
"What's this?" Michael asked, pointing to a series of 9 digits written below her name.
"I have no idea. I thought it was a phone number she didn't complete."
"Is it ok if I keep this?" Michael asked.
"Yes, go ahead."
Michael folded the letter and put it in his pocket.
"You may stay here as long as you like. I don't have a spare bed, but you can stay on the couch." Castillo said. "I'm going to be leaving tomorrow."
"Where are you going?" Michael asked.
"I'm going to visit Quint, and find out what happened to my son."
"You know where The Company is?" Michael squinted.
"No, but I do know where Quint lives." He went back to the kitchen and pulled a old stained envelope. “I kept all my letters.”