New Normalcy

I and my team of five were at least convinced that the HEIST was not the result of greed; rather, it was due to the banking system's stupidly overinclined and ever-increasing reliance on biometric identity verification. We thought it would work in our favor, but in a hyper-digital world, the tragedy isn't just that the body fails but that the body's degradation outpaces the rigidity of the encryption.

I never thought my dad would be one of those unlucky ones; the bank started to seize the accounts, including my dad’s. The so-called verification system is ineffective, as it began failing to distinguish between a hacker trying to break in and a man trying to remember his name, while early-stage cataracts scattered the infrared light of the iris scanners, rendering his unique cryptographic signature unreadable.

Luckily, the city of Thomaston lived together like a family for all those years, including the bank branch manager and the security staff, which made our plan a kind of initial success; we five were able to take a fixed amount of exactly 3 million to make up for our old heroes' lifelong savings. Not a penny more, not a penny less.

After more than five years in hiding, we were still struggling to determine what we had gained and at what cost. I can see the frustration of staying far and the desperation of meeting the family so clearly in my team’s eyes. Jax, my younger brother, was almost losing his patience and had already planned the visit for this Thanksgiving. They were just waiting on my approval.

Jax: "Leo, come on, man. I’m telling you, Susan’s fine. She’s not just fine; she’s desperate. She said the mortgage grace period ended and the bank is sniffing around. I double-checked by asking her questions only she would know. She was acting totally normal. She was even laughing at my stupid jokes.

"Be patient; I am sure we will make it this time, but I am just a bit skeptical," I said.

Jax: "I didn’t just take her word for it! I called Ma right after. Video call. I saw her kitchen and the bird feeder I built for her. She was worried, yeah, but she sounded like Ma. She told me to stay safe and come see her when I could. It’s clear, Leo. No cops, no heat. We can go home."

"I also talked to Dad," I replied.

Jax froze. "And?"

"He seemed normal as usual. Grumpy and stubborn, he's complained about his gout. I asked him if he was alone, and he gave me that look—that 'don't be an idiot' look. same complaints about Mom not letting him do stuff he wants to do."

Jax grinned. "See? That’s him! That's the most 'Dad' thing ever. So what are we waiting for? Grab your bag."

Me: “I feel I want to talk one more time to Dad."

"Oh man, let's see him in person instead," Jax burst.

I ignored Jax and rang my dad.

“Dad?”

Dad: "Hey, my Robin Hood, is everything ok? We just talked, and you are planning this Thanksgiving, right?”

Me: "Nothing. Just missing our time together and wanted to talk one more time before we start."

"Yeah, buddy, those days were different." Dad sighed.

“Dad, old is gold, and you were like an alchemist. say something about our time together."

“I still remember when you broke your leg while riding that stupid red bike, and I crazily ran on the street, grabbing you in my hand to reach the nearby clinic on foot.” He seemed a bit sparked.

We laughed, and I asked again, "Dad, listen, old is gold, BUT you are the alchemist. Can you say something about our time together?

Now the old man is enraged. “You are the same dumbest of you both; you always make me repeat the stuff. Are you checking to see if I remember? I still remember your first dog’s crazy digital name, I guess VOXEL, right? I still don't understand what the hell that means."

We all laughed like crazy, including Max. I said bye and hung up, and that increased Max's excitement even further.

“Convinced? Now grab your bag.” Max said hurriedly,

Me: "Mission aborted... We aren’t going anywhere, Jax."

Jax becomes agitated. "What are you talking about? Everything seems normal. Everybody is behaving normal."

Me: "It's Trojan. He is not Dad."

Me: "Years ago, Dad and I made a pact. We knew if I ever got into this life, someone might try to use him against me. We had a mutual agreement: if I ever asked that specific question—"Old is gold, and you are an alchemist"—he was never, ever supposed to talk about the past.

Jax: "Then what was he supposed to do?"

Leo: "He was supposed to give me a new creation, a new lie, a new story, a fake memory we’d never discussed. Nobody—not a hacker, not a Fed, not a database—could possibly know this. The real him would have made up a story about us going to Mars or winning the lottery. The fact that he gave me real memories means he was a puppet of deepfake technology pulling data from historical files.

Jax: (The color draining from his face) "So... if Dad is a fake..."

I continued, "Then Susan and Mother are probably sitting in an interrogation room right now, and those 'video calls' were just the police feeding us exactly what we wanted to see."

We don't have to wait for aliens or any other parallel universe to challenge us. This new digital parallel universe is already rising in front of us, trying to teach us what should be described as normal. As long as we have stronger family ties, hope is still there. Your first line of defense is how much you know your family outside this freaking digital reliance. It's US who will decide what is normal and what is not, and not the other way around, and I will keep fighting until the last drop of my blood. Are you with me?