Ben was sitting in the corner of the little coffee shop, drinking his favorite, a café latte. He was reading the tech section of the day's news. His dad was the owner of a small cyber security firm, so he grew up immersed in the business. He hadn't seen his dad since he left for college four years ago. That was in no small part due to his stepmother. Her and Ben never saw eye to eye. She always insisted that something was wrong with him. Always made him go see that psychiatrist that gave him the creeps. He was thrilled when he left for college. He had gotten accepted to plenty of schools close to home, but he chose to go clear on the other side of the country, just to get away. It was pure coincidence that brought him back home. Ben was a great student. There was no shortage of job offers when he finished his degree, but one stood out. They offered nearly a quarter more salary than any of the others so of course he accepted, excited to start in a few days.
He nearly choked when he saw his dad's company's name on his tablet. He thumbed the link. As he waited for the page to load he felt a presence behind him, then a warm breeze on his ear.
"Paro" the "r" rolled in a way that he new wasn't English, but he understood.
"It's time" he whispered.
She was cute, in a bohemian-vagrant sort of way. Her blonde dreads sticking out in every direction. "What does it mean?" she asked.
Ben started, "What? who are you?" he asked, leaning away from her. He was beginning to feel sick. He forgot about the article on his tablet. "where's my dad?" he asked the girl.
"how the hell should I know?" she replied
"what did you just whisper in my ear?" Ben asked confused. His thoughts were all over the place.
"I don't know what it means," she said, "that lady over there..." she trailed off as her head swung to the left. "huh, there was an older lady over there. she gave me twenty bucks to whisper that in your ear. she said 'he'll know what it means'. I guess she was wrong huh?" she chuckled.
Ben looked to the table the girl pointed to. "what's my bag doing over there?" he hurried over to the empty table and grabbed a black book bag that was on the chair. "I need to go see my dad" he said as he headed out of the building, the blonde girl following closely.
"you don't look too hot. I think you should see a doctor." she said as he unlocked his car doors. She opened the passenger door and got in.
"what the hell are you doing?" Ben asked as he put his key in the ignition and started the engine. "get out, I need to go see my dad."
"This is the most interesting thing that has happened to me all week." she said. "you're stuck with me." she laughed. Rather than argue, Ben put the car in gear and drove.
The pair arrived at his dad's office building thirty minutes later. There were more people here than Ben had ever seen at the office. There was actually a line to get through security. When the guard saw Ben he smiled and waved him to come over. "Hey, you here to congratulate your dad on the big news?" Before Ben could reply, the guard said "go on, Ben, the CEO's son can skip the metal detector."
Ben hurried to the elevator, his new friend right behind. As they went up, all ben could think about was his dad, but he didn't know why. "What big news?" he thought. "Why am I so nervous?"
The elevator dinged and the doors opened. There was some kind of celebration going on. People were drinking champagne and there was tinsel and glitter all over the floor. Ben pushed his way through the crowd of people milling around the cubicles. He made it to his dad's office in the back and his dad immediately smiled his big broad smile when he saw his son.
"Ben! Come in!" he exclaimed with his arms out ready to hug his son. Ben and the girl entered the doorway to his dad's office. The two men who were talking to his dad excused themselves and left the office. "Close the door Ben, I want to be able to hear when we talk" Ben didn't respond, but the girl closed the door behind them. "who's your friend?" Ben's dad asked.
"I'm Debbie" she said as she examined the family pictures on the wall.
As Ben stood there in the middle of his dad's office, he shrugged the book bag off his shoulder and unzipped the main compartment. His dad stood there, on the other side of his desk, smiling, waiting for his only son to pull what was surely a gift or card from his bag. The smile on his face quickly faded as Ben pulled the .357 revolver from the bag and pointed it at his father.
"Paro!" Debbie shouted.
Ben blinked rapidly, "what the hell is going on?" he asked. "what the hell is this?" he shouted as he dropped the gun. "Dad?...What am I doing here?"
"Ben!" Debbie shouted, oblivious to what was happening behind her as she studied the portraits on the wall, "this is the lady that told me to whisper in your ear!" She pointed to a portrait of Ben's step mother.
Ben's dad slumped into his desk chair, trying to catch his breath. Ben fell to his knees, and Debbie turned around to face them, smiling proudly now that she had figured out who the mystery woman was.
"Dad" Ben whimpered "I don't know what's going on."
"It's okay" his dad assured him, "I do."
Ben's dad explained to him that he and his wife's relationship had come to an end recently. Mostly due to the fact that he found out that she was an illegal immigrant from communist Russia, living here under a false identity. Information that would ruin his company if it ever got out. Rather than wait for it to happen, Ben's dad decided to sell the company, which was now worth a fortune, and retire. He planned on filing for divorce shortly after. Apparently this didn't sit well with his estranged wife.
When the three of them arrived at Ben's father's home, any trace of his step-mother was gone. She had vanished, along with Ben's new job it seemed. After some research, they found that that psychiatrist Ben hated going to, never existed, at least not on paper.