Signing Off To Pursue Ambitions

It wasn't long David would have to wait until he finds Linda coming down as he waited for the TV to come on. Linda seemed to be a little messy and dressed in what looked like a silk gown as she said "Morning Dave."

She walked past him after coming around from the stairs and into the kitchen while he waited for the TV to switch on which took a while as he went into the kitchen to put his bowl away into the sink as Linda tapped her nails against the worktop watching the toaster "Telling you David, these things are bloody slow and useless. I'd rather use the grill."

"Why not use the grill then?"

"It's a gift from mum and dad is why. All of these expensive bits are. People think we're rich but we live in a semi-detached house we bought and built to escape the life of being rich and spoiled." Linda explained with a sigh.

"Why escape the life of being rich?" David asked curiously since that was the dream of most people he knew in the modern world.

"The working class seemed to live simpler and happier lives when we were kids and teens. Ours was just drab and boring, parents worked the business, we could get whatever we wanted and not only that, we saw our friends working the draft and we were told that we had to stay which led us to give our parents the fingers and go to the recruiting station," She said with a small laugh.

"Did they forgive you for going?"

"Oh yeah, they did, always bloody do," Linda says with a laugh before watching the toaster finally pop the toast out and then grabbing some butter from under a porcelain butter dish as she butters her toast "Anyway, David, do you have any clothes at all jumping through that weird warp you talk about?"

"Not that I know of, I just have what I have on,"

"Alright, well, we'll go shopping once I sign off with Jerry."

"I thought you'd never believe me about me being stuck in a coma in a world of the future."

"I've heard it happens from a few mages and magicians... Why? I don't know. Guess things just happen really,"

"Wait... this has happened before?"

"Yeah, a hundred cases a year happen, apparently. The best way to help the person if they seem safe enough is to let them fit in while they sort their heads out." Linda says.

"I'm in a coma but everything here feels so very real. Am I in a coma in a lucid dream state or am I here, in the flesh as a person?" David questioned Linda.

"You're no ghost or ghoul, you're definitely a lad in the flesh, living life in this crazy time," she said while eating her toast.

"Glad that I'm alive here, to say the least..."

Linda nods quietly while switching on the radio for some gentle big band played in the background "The energy crystals are hard to get for our radio, have to get them imported from Elderen which is over the sea from us. Cost a bit, but they last about five years."

David nods and then says "Is that because you don't have many plugs in the house?"

"Yeah, fewer plugs, the less the bill," Linda says, putting her plate in the sink as she then goes into the living room and Dave followed behind her as they watch the TV which had live boxing on before that was changed to a live report from the TV office in the Capital of the Isle Kingdoms and it was the Prime Minister who was an older human woman and then Linda says "Esdellia Myrad, everybody has been keeping faith in her."

Esdellia then readies her papers before then saying "As of tomorrow, since the declaration of Elderian intervention in the war and the evacuation of Gartendi, we must temporarily halt the TV services as of fear of enemy aircraft might pick up the signal and cause bombings, today's programming will go uninterrupted but your TV sets tomorrow will have nothing on. From now on, the radio will be your only source of entertainment and news."

The speech went on before it went back to the live screen of the boxing and then they spent the morning conversing as Jerry got ready and they headed out the door and got into the Blue Stallion as they drove down to the conscription office and David was told to wait in the car.

The worn dark elf soldiers walked into the office with their papers and waited in a queue behind a dozen individuals who must've come off that boat from the evacuation of Gartendi. The queue jogged forward every so often before the elves were in the line and Linda went first and put her papers in front of the human general as he scanned the details.

"You can either take the retirement money and be discharged or take it in a sum if you consider rejoining any branch of the army down the line," The general stated.

"I'll take the sum, sir, I'll rejoin if the situation gets desperate," Linda says with a nod.

The general nods in return and then signs the papers before saluting and then the brother came forth and said the same as his sister as they both left the office and then out into the street of passing cars and beeping horns before they both got in the car, switching on the radio and the group were off to the high street. The Blue Stallion doing a bit of speed but slowing down on corners.

David settled in the back while saying "You're speeding quite a bit there, Linda, may want to slow down a bit so the cops don't tail us."

"It'll be fine, Dave, don't worry about it... I'm not going too fast, I won't be breaching any laws," Linda said, waving off the warning.

"What are you planning to do now since you are out of service?" David asked.

"Open a cafe, hopefully, use these large amounts of money and buy a building for it. We still might join if the outcome of the war is looking a tad bleak."

David nods and then fixes his brown hair with a comb that was tucked away in the back of one of the car seat pouches, making it a side part to fit in a bit more suitable for the era.