Part 2

I had been right on my assumption. Two days later, as I had been tending to the roses on the left side of my then white mailbox, I heard him and I smiled.

"Warren, there you are!"

"Yes, here I am and there you are," I teased the kid.

"How are you sir?"

"I'm good, how 'bout you?"

"Fine.. Remember our talk of the war last time?"

"Yeah?"

"Can we talk more about it?"

"Sure, what did you want to know?"

"Well, how did they cure the virus?" He asked looking up at me.

I chuckled a moment before answering the delightful young boy. ... "You sure that you wanna know?"

He nodded yes, waiting on my every word.

"You're not going to believe it, I wouldn't if I hadn't lived it."

"Please sir tell me."

"We didn't come up with a cure."

"Then who did?"

"The Vitronnians did."

"Huh? Who are they?"

"They were the aliens that saved humanity."

The boy's eyes went wide for a few seconds when he spoke up.. "You're serious aren't you?"

"Yes, they were an alien race set out to help other planets whose populations were dying out. They had a cure but with it a stipulation."

"What was it?"

"They would only step in this once. Never again."

"Oh, then what happened?"

"They released this glittery neon blue fog over the earth, killing the virus."

Jack nodded as the information sunk into his twelve year old brain.

"As the earth healed, the aliens left.. Now we faced economic ruin, the world began to crumble. People still fought, riots and hate kept on; until there wasn't much left of the world to fight over." I paused to catch my breath a second... "By the time the war ended the world was destroyed by our own fear and paranoia."

"How did they fix it?"

"People had nothing left to lose, that's when they finally came together. They had to depend on each other to survive."

"Is that what you mean by the world starting over?"

"Yes, it is."

Over the years I thought he'd outgrow coming to see me, but he hadn't. Even in his college years, he'd visit on breaks. He still comes to see me, brings his four year old, little Patrick Warren...