197 lines
11 KiB
Plaintext
197 lines
11 KiB
Plaintext
Love in the Matrix...
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John worked for a temp firm that specialized in providing cyberspace
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problem solving services, unlike your typical temp firm employees would
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simply report to the nearest office or jack in from there home, to work
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any place in the world. Teams where frequently composed of people from
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different states or even different countries, many times not even
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speaking the same langauge (the cyber deck provides translation
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utilities). [continued in rest of .plan file]
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It was a typical day at work, this time trying to rebuild an area that a
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secretary had accidentally destroyed when she cleaned her bosses desk
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without permission. On the desk was an unlabelled block containing an
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entire model of the new 10,000 shop underground mall for manhattan,
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foolishly no backup had been made. The system that had contained the
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block had only been used slightly in the mean time meaning that most of
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the block had not been recycled. The makers of the matrix had not
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planned on people wanting to undestroy things and thus it was a
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dangerous procedure which required overriding all consistancy checks on
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that area of reality, leaving a piece dangling could eventually result
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in the loss of terabytes of data if not detected in time.
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On this particular day Linda from Los Angelas had been assigned to
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assist by double checking all changes. John was somewhat worried, this
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was his first time with a female coworker, and his previous experience
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with women was a mixture of being laughed at at parties, and undoing the
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damage they had done when they went into cleaning frensies. To his great
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surprise Linda did neither of these all though he had been half
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expecting to turn around and see her sweeping the virtual floor, or
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talking about what a nerd he was. He knew it was futile to try but even
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after 29 years he still made a half hearted attempt at getting to know
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her better, of course he knew she would either be married, laugh at him,
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or turn out to be a lesbian. John and Linda talked for some time, Linda
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while she didn't laugh at him or otherwise try to put him off she seemed
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to keep something about her real self hidden, she said her age was
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virtually 18 but refused to give her real age, although her virtual
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image looked 18 and was extremely attractive.
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John made sure that he got Linda for his next assignment, this time it
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was a packing problem that had not been solved sufficiently by the
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available software. It was hoped the intuition would do the trick, since
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humans still have several thousand times the processing power available
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to them. John was stumped but Linda finally came through with a solution
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but it would require a slight change in the product being packed, John
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hadn't even thought of doing it that way. Linda said "When you can't win
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playing by the rules, make new ones.", and she turned out to be right,
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the change saved the customer several million in shipping costs for the
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cost of shaving several centimeters off a mold.
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Finally John had found a woman he could consider living with, smart,
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unmarried, and didn't laugh at him. He had long talks with Linda about
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all sorts of things, and started to fall in love with her eventhough he
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didn't know how old she really was or even what she looked like. He
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dreamed of spending the night with her, of even marrying her. Eventually
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after he had known her for a while he decided to tell her that he loved
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her, she hadn't laughed at him yet, but he was still pretrified. He told
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her the next day when the current job was done, Linda's expression was
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not what he expected, he had expected either disdain or amusement
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instead Linda looked sad. Linda explained that she also was starting to
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fall in love with him but there was a problem, "In real life things are
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not what they are here, could you still love me if I was 90 years old,
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bedridden, or just plain ugly". That night John thought of all these
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cases and could still imagine love even if Linda was 90 or if he could
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only hold her hand a t her b side.
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He told Linda that he could still love her, infact he was now completely
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in love and couldn't even sleep, he begged Linda for a meeting in real
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life. Linda told him that she would, but that he might be unable to love
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her no matter how hard he tried. John said he still wanted to meet her,
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Linda agreed to visit when she could get a reasonable plane fare.
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The next monday Linda was no where to be seen in the matrix, John hoped
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she was on her way, he shivered all day with anticipation. Suddenly a
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message appeared telling him to jack out because he had a visitor, he
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jacked out as quickly as he could and jumped half way out of his seat,
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only to see that it was not the person he was waiting for, a man in his
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early thirties stood in the door.
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John got up to shake hands and asked what he was here to see him about,
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the man seemed very nervous and introduced himself as Linda. Johns jaw
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dropped and he just stood there for several minutes, this was not what
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he was expecting! John had had men make passes at him before, but had
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dismissed it as not being an option, now the tables where turned he was
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in love with a man and had virtually asked to have his children! Not
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knowing what to do, and afraid that he would soon shit his pants, John
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reached for a beer and sat down, his head still spinning.
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Rob (Linda) said he had expected things would not go much better but
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hoped they could still remain friends. John agreed, after all Rob hadn't
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tried to decieve him it was John's own doing. Rob suggested that they
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get supper, John suggested a nearby restaurant with very hot food and a
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bar. Rob ordered his food extra hot, and John ordered his drinks extra
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strong. John kept wondering what it would be like to make it with a man,
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but kept pushing the idea from his mind, it just wasn't something you
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where supposed to do. Over dinner they talked some more, and John kept
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having the feelings he had with Linda in the matrix, he was very
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frightened, this just couldn't or shouldn't be happening.
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John was feeling very confused and offered Rob a ride back to the
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airport although his plane wasn't due for several hours. Rob said he
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hoped it hadn't caused to much trouble but it was better to not have let
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it go any further without telling the truth. Upon reaching the car John
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realized he had drunk much to much and really shouldn't drive, they
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decided to take a cab back to the office so John could sober up,
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meanwhile Rob could catch up on a few things he needed to do in the
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matrix. They managed to get a cab just as it was starting to rain, by
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the time they got to the office there was a full blown storm.
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Fortunitly everyone had left by now, John didn't have to make a fool out
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of himself stumbling around. Rob jacked in and got to work putting the
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finishing touchs on the current project, John collapsed on a sofa in the
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lounge outside and put on MTV. John was startled by the sound of a huge
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clap of thunder followed by a crash in the next room. Rob was lying on
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the floor stunned from the sudden involuntary jack out that had happened
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as the net went down. Rob, "I guess thats it for tonight", after he got
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over the shock Rob joined John watching MTV.
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John and Rob began to talk some more, about life the universe and
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everything. John was starting to recover from the shock of Linda's true
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identity, and began to feel more at ease with her/him much like they had
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in the matrix. John was rather groggy and fell asleep for several
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minutes, he dreamed of being with Linda in real life as she had been in
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the matrix, it was a semi lucid dream, he knew something was different
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but he couldn't remember what it was, in the dream he fell into Linda's
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arms and could feel her skin under his hands.
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John was suddenly awakened by thunder, why do you always wake up in the
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best part of dreams? The imaginary feeling was still partially there,
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and he saw the "real" Linda sitting next to him. Without thinking John
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put his arm around her/him and cuddled, Rob returned the hug, for a
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second John paniced realizing what he had just done. John was so
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overwhelmed by the sensation his instinctive reaction over rode all his
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preconceptions, he kissed Rob, kissed him again but this time a long
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deep kiss.
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John melted, his world suddenly turned upside down, all he had ever been
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taught told him it was wrong, everything he experienced told him it was
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right. He lept into Linda's arms kissing her all over, gravity seemed to
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leave, and he was floating freely as if in the matrix, Rob's hands
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seemed as if it they where charged with thousands of volts, he could
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feel the tingling and almost see the sparks fly where ever Rob touched
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him. Rob lightly touched one of Johns nipples, John shivered and
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squirmed it was as if he had put both hands in an outlet but rather than
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pain had received unbelievable pleasure.
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All John knew is he wasn't in Kansas any more, infact he didn't think he
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was even in the universe he had known only an hour before. He and Rob
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had slowly shed all there cloths and had sex in every way they could
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imagine until they where to exhausted to move. John suddenly realized
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that the net outage would not last much longer, and that Rob had missed
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his plane, he offered to let Rob stay the night at his house. They
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shared Johns bed for the night but where to exhausted to do more than
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cuddle and sleep.
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Rob called the airport only to find out that the storm had washed out
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the runway and that he would be unable to leave for several days. John
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happily agreed to put him up, fortunitly they could both go into work
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since it really didn't matter where Rob jacked in from. John and Rob
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jacked in from the same office, and worked on the current project
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dreaming of the coming night. For most of the following week they spent
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the nights in each others arms.
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Eventually the night before Rob would have to leave, John asked when he
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could visit again. Rob regrettfully said he had spent virtually all the
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money he had to get out here, and would not be able to visit again for
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many months. They both went to work feeling like they had just attended
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each others funerals. Neither could concentrate on the matter at hand
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and they eventually had to leave, when they got home John discovered
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that they had only been at work an hour although it seemed like half a
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day.
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Rob didn't seem quite as unhappy any more and went about packing his
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suitcase, John on the otherhand was close to tears, he had found true
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love and now he would disappear. Upon arriving at the airport John had
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the feeling something was wrong, there was no one there waiting for a
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flight that usually carries 400. John asked a security guard when flight
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421 was arriving and was informed that it had left 3 hours ago.
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Rob asked at the desk and was informed he could not get his money back,
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it was his responsibility to be there on time. John suddenly realized
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Rob had tricked him, but rather than feeling hurt or angry he gave Rob a
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long passionate kiss infront of a very shocked old lady. John, "oh thats
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to bad, I guess you will have to stay here for a while". Rob explained
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that all he was leaving behind was an apartment with 3 months overdue
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rent and alot of bills, he had been unemployed for a year and had never
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been able to catch up.
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John and Rob went home to start there new life together.
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The End
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