Walking up to the old building felt like returning home. It was a modest 4 story tall building with a storefront on the bottom floor and apartments above. The owners lived on the entire second floor as if their modest floor-through were their very own penthouse. The remaining upper levels were split into 8 total smaller suites. The words 'Finders' displayed prominently above the entrance to the corner shop. This was his place of employment and second home, hopefully it still was. Entering into the lobby leads you into a large open room, large structural beams littered throughout the space to break up the vastness and support the weight of the building above. The ceiling we vaulted 15 feet into the air and decorated with green corrugated aluminum. Dangling lights floated about as if they were fireflies on a cool summer evening.

The floor was a beautifully polished wood broken up by tiny slats of wood crossing this way and that into a pleasant pattern.It wasn’t a pristine floor by any means. You could see patch work here and there and scuff marks throughout but it really shined in the evening light as the setting sun crested the cityscape to its daily slumber. It was obvious the place was old and had been around for a while but felt modern. Fake plants, benches and chairs decorated the edges of the entryway. On the far side of the room desks could be seen. Six of them in total in sets of 2 sitting back to back against each other. Typically they would remain empty on the weekends; this Saturday morning was no different. In the center of the open room a large oval counter sat proudly overseeing the lesser furniture in its domain. The counter was solid wood but simple with a brass bar circling it near completely, the only exception being the open space where on employee could cross through. The first thing that really caught your eye as you entered Finders was the large ancient cash register that seemed to have leapt off the screen of a Humphrey Bogart film. Intricate patterns of woven metal ordained the register vines, flowers, various fruits, seeds, leaves and such decorated the machine. Speaking only to the greatness of the designers talent and flair for the auspicious nature of cash registers. It no longer serves as a reservoir for storing the endowment of the vendor’s gains, instead it stands as a directorial piece demanding respect of anyone who entered. It was also very pretty. It was also used to store notes and bits and bobs from around the shop.

On the far side of the circular desk area one of the structural beams stretched to the vaulted ceiling which was what Manny was leaning against, enthralled by some new bit of information on his tablet. Manny is the owner of Finders and his wife Allison owned the attached pawn shop 'Keepers.' Being in his late 50's never bothered Manny. He still felt and looked to be in his prime.He knew his limits but kept in impeccable shape. His hair was mostly gray and his face wrinkled to hell and severely damaged from his apparent love of the outdoors. He was not a tall man but he never let that define him and demanded respect and was just as willing to give it back. He was stern but his heart was big and open. He is always willing to lend you a shoulder to lean on. He would laugh and cry and stand to fight by your side in an instant. He is a man that everyone wants to know and be around. He was friends with everyone and everyone was or wanted to be friends with him. A fun loving man but a brilliant businessman who really took to heart what the market wanted and continued to grow his company to great heights. He started a simple Pawn shop called Keepers with his wife in their younger years and expanded into a repossession company he called Recover-It but wanted to do more to test himself and his business to push it further into something amazing. Many realized a gap in the market one day when at a local town hall meeting where people, his friends, kept complaining about the lack of the police’s intervention in what the city called “petty” or “small crimes.” Nothing was getting done about it; reports were made but never followed up. Manny seized his moment and revamped his company into ‘Finders’ Special Recovery. He continued his vehicle repo business but started to take on solving so-called petty crimes where things went missing. The slogan “You lost it? We’ll find it!” wrote itself.

Manny continued scrolling through his tablet "I'll be with you in a second, I'm just finishing up some inventory." he said. His voice was deep, commanding, and gruff but there was a hint of sincerity one could perceive if you listened carefully enough. He lifted his hand to gesture towards the bench against the windows of his shop. "Have a seat if ya like." He finished without looking up.

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"I'm alright with standing." Manny recognizing the voice immediately leapt off his back brace and stared at his employee and friend Samuel Moore. A smile stretched across both men's faces as Manny drew nearer "Holy mother Mary, son. I thought you were dead." Manny said solemnly. But a huge smile grew on his face as he embraced Sam wholeheartedly. "Sammy, my boy! I'm so glad your back! When those government types took you I assumed the worst." Sam put on a fake smile hiding the pain of the last seven weeks. "Yeah…" he trailed off, unsure what to say. "It was… well to be honest Manny?” sounding sincerely “It sucked, it really really sucked!" The word came out half jokingly but he was serious. 'Sucked?' He thought to himself. 'It was so much worse then sucked.' His thought continued. "That bad huh?" Manny read him perfectly as usual. Sam sighed heavily. "Yeah… how's business here though?" "Well…" Manny looked at him in thought as he spoke remembering the past couple months. "The recovery industry is coming along nicely. Been making a ton since we branched out to data recovery. Had to hire a junior recovery agent with your absence though. Sorry about that" Manny playfully retorted. Sam immediately responded "Salls right." Manny continued slurring together multiple words as he usually did. Sam was comforted by his simple word play, Manny was still Manny. "She's a lil rough round the edges. Very green. Can only giv'er the easy cases. Been haven ta tur down anythin complicated. Now'en your back we'll be catchin the dog fore she barks." Sam always loved Manny's witty idioms. " Ha, i was a little worried you wouldn’t want me back, it has been a while." "Comon now…" Manny replied sincerely. "You're family boy, and family sticks togetter." Sam hadn't been this happy in a long long time. 'Seven weeks.' He thought to himself. 'Such a long time.'

'Ding' 'Ding' the bells attached to the glass door rang as someone entered Finder's recovery services. "So this is where you used to work huh!?" A loud voice boomed through the reception area. "Ryan!" Sam exclaimed as he turned and walked towards his new friend. "No “used to”, I still work here, bud!" Ryan bowed deeply in apology "My apologies my friend, it would appear i was mistaken.” They both laughed, Sam did enjoy Ryan's mockingly sophisticated rhetoric. "Manny this is Ryan Winters he is the reason those… government types? I believe you referred to them as? Even released me at all" Sam said with a smile." Ryan plopped his hand on his friend’s shoulder. "Now, now, I'm sure they would have released you. I merely helped speed up the timeline." "Well whatever you did. Thank you, seriously. It seemed pretty bleak at times. Oh! Sorry, Ryan, this is Manny, he’s like a second father to me." Ryan and Manny shook hands. “Wait Ryan Winters from Channel 7 Weather? That Ryan Winters?” Ryan looked at Manny bashfully “I am co-anchor now, but yes, I am he.” “I’m sorry I have to ask.” Manny continued. “Your last name, did you change it? Or were you called to be a weatherman because of your last name.” Ryan let out a nervous laugh. “You would be correct on the first part, we are encouraged to have a name that reflects our profession.” Manny brought his hand to his scraggly beard and looked off to the side in thought. “Yes, I suppose it would be better for branding.”

The three men stood around engaging in small talk when Sam directed his friends to sit down in the back of the shop. Two couches sat across from each other with a coffee table between them. Sam and Ryan sat on one side and Manny sat across from them. Two mugs sat strewn about magazines on the coffee table with steam slowly rising from them. Manny leaned back sinking into the comfortable crevasse of the couch, sipping at his cup of too hot to drink coffee. “So...” Sam started but paused looking at his two friends. “I know Ryan, I owe you a lot and one of those being a full interview. It’s not fun reliving these moments in my mind so I’ve asked you to come here so I can tell the story in its entirety to the both of you.Manny and Ryan looked at Sam silently waiting for the tale to begin. “The day of what they're calling the Erasing, I was at the U-Con convention browsing through the aisles when everything went completely black…”