Chapter 17 – Self-denial

The next morning Vince and Christina decided to go and to change their names. Pete refused to do that, but then his name wasn’t of so much danger anyway, because he hid it the day before.
- “If we’re changing our names, we might also want to stay somewhere else in a meantime while police is looking for us.” Vince suggested.
- “Yeah, but this is impossible, because Pete and I don’t have any relatives and we’re too poor to buy another house.” Christina admitted.
- “Maybe we can spend some time in the lab, make it a comfortable place, and let the heat of the incidence pass before coming back.” Vince suggested, “I’ll need to spend most of the time there anyway if I’m to fix the machine and to reverse it.”
- “Yeah I guess it’s the only way really. I wonder what Pete will say. He won’t be pleased to hear that.”
- “I’m sure he will understand. With what happened yesterday it would be too dangerous for us to just stay at your house.”
- “I agree.”
The two of them headed for the bureau where they could change their names. They had to act clever with the people there and to deceive those to change their names without any paperwork. Lying should do the trick. It was time to use the disease against the diseased once again.
At one moment they saw a couple of policemen walking along the street in their direction. They quickly turned and headed off in a different direction so not to attract any attention in case the cops recognized them.
- “I hate this.” Christina told Vince.
- “I know. Not long left. We’ll get through this, I promise, and it is not a lie.” Vince responded.
- “I trust you.” Christina smiled.
She knew that Vince was a trustworthy person. He’d helped them out so much already during the short time he’s been here so far. Knowing that he was there made Christina calm down a bit.
After a few more minutes they reached the agency that deals with name changing. It really has turned into chaos. When they reached the front doors, there were lots of people there. There was no-one at the desk. The place was a real mess. People were just doing whatever they pleased.
- “So much for changing our names.” Christina commented.
- “You know what?” Vince suddenly spoke.
- “What?”
- “I…don’t want to do this. It’s self-denial. This is us lying to ourselves.”
- “What do you mean?”
- “We’re denying our true nature, our real names. This is one of the worst forms of lying and I don’t think I can bring myself down to do that.”
- “But it will help us to mask from the cops.”
- “I doubt it. Take a look at the place. No-one knows anyone anymore. Everyone is a bunch of fakes.” Vince explained.
- “I suppose you do have a point. So you don’t want to do this?”
- “We might as well call each other by different names and it will be as useful as going through the ‘formal’ procedure of doing it.”
- “Well OK then. It makes sense.”
- “If we just hide away in the labs for the meantime, it should be good enough. No-one knows we’ll be there.”
- “Well OK, in that case let’s head back and tell Pete about this.”
The two truthful people headed back home, making sure not to be seen by cops or any suspicious figures. On the way back Christina was getting worried again. The things were really tumbling over and getting muddled up like a huge dirty pile of waste. She hated every minute of it and hoped that soon this will be over.