Fate Has No Name

By Dan Barker

A government employee has his life changed when he becomes infatuated with a college girl. Using any illegal means necessary, he finds out whatever he can about her, all without making sure she never even knows he exists. However, the more he discovers, the more he realizes things are not what they seem and he becomes obsessed with protecting her from dangers of which she was not aware. It's not love, it's fate.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Mar 30, 2014
• ISBN: 9781483523637

Book preview

A few months ago, the best and worst thing happened to me. I don’t say the following to brag or to confess, but because someone has to know. I’m neither proud nor overly ashamed. I’m just changed now and I have to write this down so maybe, maybe I can get it out of my head a little bit and start to pretend to be normal again.

Let me start by introducing myself. If you live in my part of the state, you’ve seen me. For many people, it’s a happy, life changing moment when they meet me. You see, I’m the guy who takes your picture for your driver’s license. When you pass your road test, the examiner sends you in to come talk to me. I’m the happy part of the DMV. I take your little form that says you passed, look at the examiner’s initials in the pink copy that stays with us, and stamp the date on it and the white copy that you can take home.

On that form are basic things, like your name, mailing address, date of birth, all the things that identify you as you and will go on your driver’s license. After your picture is taken, and I check to make sure that you like it, (I can do that you know, I like to make sure I get people at their happiest) and that all the boxes are filled out correctly, I send you over to take a number and wait in line for one of our data entry people to process you. Depending on the amount of people that day, and whether or not our computers are agreeable (believe it or not, we run Windows NT, which is slow but usually stable) you can be in and out in about an hour with a freshly made government Photo ID that you can use to do just about anything in our country.

This isn’t the job I thought I would be doing in my mid-twenties, but it pays well and state benefits are nice. I enjoy it. I graduated college almost five years ago. A big state university, over thirty thousand students, a decent athletic department, and a campus that charmed me ever since I was a kid. My first tour guide pointed out all the buildings with their gothic architecture and proud academic traditions and concluded with a free game at the stadium where champions are made.

What nobody told me however, is that my degree would not be worth the paper on which it was printed. I didn’t major in anything impractical, no Philosophy of Star Trek or underwater basket weaving, I just had the misfortune to graduate into a terrible job market.

Out of desperation, I went to an employment agency. My first assignment with them was a call center handling customer orders and complaints for an As Seen On TV product. I stayed there about a month wanting to slit my wrists the entire time. My next job was with the DMV. I was skeptical at first, but soon loved it. After six months, the state hired me directly and I’ve been there ever since.

Another nice thing about it are the hours. I’m home before rush hour starts. This leaves me a lot of time to do what I want. I like to keep in shape and I go to the gym about twice a week. I like playing pick-up basketball games with my friends there. Sometimes, I’ll go to the kickboxing classes that are offered there for members.

Whenever I’m dating someone, I can have my nights off to spend with them. That’s usually not an issue. Girls just don’t stick around too long. I get the you’re sweet and I’m sure there’s a great girl out there for you, but it’s not me speech a lot. It used to bother me, but it doesn’t so much anymore. I never really knew my dad, my mom died the year I graduated college and my step-dad and I were never close.

Beyond them, I have a smattering of assorted aunts and uncles, cousins and what not. My brother joined the Air Force right out of high school and is stationed in Korea, so it’s not like I have much of a family to bring a girl home to anyway. Sure, sex is fun, but I’m not one of the guys who troll the bars or craigslist looking for a cheap, easy date. I always figured if I found a girl, then I found a girl, if not, so what. Besides a few burning teen years, I never had much of a sex drive.

So it’s just me. I’ve been pretty content with my life. I have more money in the bank than all of my friends, because I have nothing really to spend it on. A typical night for me is watching documentaries on Netflix or TV shows along the lines of World’s Blankiest Blank. I surf the net, but rarely comment on anything. I have Facebook, but it’s just twenty invites for games and old friends from high school showing off their baby pictures. So it’s just me. And I was happy with that. Still would be if not for the last few months.

A few months ago, a friend from the gym invited me to grab a beer and watch the football game at a local bar. I had nothing better to do, so we went. Everyone was watching the main game on the big screen, but from my seat and angle, it was easier to watch the overhead TV screens that were showing something else. Besides, I didn’t really want to watch the football game, the team I wanted to win was down by ten points before halftime. So there I was, sipping a seven dollar beer, and watching some sports network. Then, the talking heads went away and a collegiate women’s volleyball game on.

And I saw her.

As the teams came out, I saw her hair and it was so light blonde that it shimmered like ten thousand diamonds in the sand. It was long, just past her shoulders, and expertly braided. Her face was flawless with sharp features.

Clearly there was a strong Nordic heritage at work here. I can’t describe what it felt like to see her, but it must have been what the first humans to see a sunset felt, the first explorers to see Victoria Falls, a symphony of beauty where she was the entire orchestra. I was transfixed watching her play.

Not a single lustful thought, no fantasy, just marveling at her raw athletic beauty and cursing the camera man every time he moved away to someone else. I kept up conversation with my friends as best I could, so as not to be rude, but my mind was clearly on her. She scored what was called a kill and the muted TV showed her name.

After four years of working with names, I learned how to remember them after seeing them once so as not to have to embarrassingly ask again. Her name was burned in my memory as sure as my own. It seemed like even the letters on the screen glowed. Then with no reason, it cut away from the volleyball game and on to some sports roundtable show. I was able to focus more of my attention on the football game, now in its closing minutes. The team that the vast majority of the bar