A Mother's Love

May sat at the kitchen table drinking a warm cup of tea and through her mind she was recalling the conversation she and Parker had over breakfast. The conversation was about the diary of Doctor Scull. They both felt that there was something hidden in his notes but they couldn’t put their finger on it. Most of it was beyond their understanding scientifically but they, even as novices to the terminology, seem to see a hidden agenda in it. The red diary was lying on the table in front of her with the gold embossed initial of C.S. on the front. She kept running her finger over the front cover of the diary while thinking of her conversation with Parker when she felt a small raised area under the gold initials. At first she thought that it must be some sort of reinforcing made to the book cover to accept the embossing without damaging it. She opened the diary and inspected the back side of the cover. Looking at the outside edge of the cover she noticed that the stitching on the leather had been broken and glued back in place. She took a butter knife that way lying on the table and peeled back the area where the stitching had been broken. She tried to slide the object to the opening but it wouldn’t budge. She took the knife again and removed the rest of the stitching of the along the edge of the diary until it came loose from the backing. Just as she pulled the leather covering away from the backing a small thin memory card, like the ones they use in digital cameras, fell out on to the table.

May picked up the memory card and examined it. There was a label on one side stating it was a sixteen gigabyte card and on it was written the numbers 60256. The card must hold some important information if Scull had taken so much care to hide it, thought May. She knew she would have to wait till Parker came home to find out what information the card held because her knowledge of computing was limited. She knew how to turn it on, get the web browser up and running, check or send email and play games; beyond that not much else. Her curiosity was sparked and she needed to find out what was on it. She reached for his cell phone and dialed the number for the bakery. It rang twice and Angie answered it saying “Festa’s Bakery. Angie speaking.” May responded with a not so cheerful “Good Morning.” but Angie heard a tone in her voice that led him to think she had something on her mind that was bothering her. Angie replied, “Okay May what’s up? I can tell by the way you said good morning that something is bothering you.” May proceeded to tell Angie what she had found in the cover of the diary and wanted to know if Parker could come home and possibly find out its content. Angie told her that they had finished their morning baking and could sneak out for an hour or so after cleaning up. He told her that he and Parker would be there within the hour.

It took Angie and Parker about forty minutes to clean up at the bakery and make it over to the house.

When they arrived May was waiting for them sitting in front of the computer with the memory card in her hand.

She got up and relinquished the chair in front of the computer to Parker and handed him the card. He inserted the card into a slot on the front of the computer. A “Found New Hardware” message appeared on the screen and Parker moved the on screen arrow over it and click the mouse button to open it. A login screen appeared that said “Enter Password.” “Damn it. Its password protected. It “Parker said frustratingly. ’There were numbers written on the label of the card. They were 60256.” May told Parker. Parker typed in the numbers and press the enter key. The screen showed a message that read “Incorrect Password. Access Denied”.

Angie was watching the screen as Parker was typing them in and noticed that it only accepted three characters in the input field. He told Parker what he noticed and told him to try just the first three numbers.

Parker did as he asked and when he hit the enter key he got the same results.

For about fifteen minutes they tried different three character combinations of numbers that they could get out of the numbers on the card. Each attempt got them the same results as before. They were about to give up when Angie said, “What if we add all the numbers together and enter the total as the password.” “The total would only come to nineteen and that’s only a two character entry. We need a three character entry.” replied Parker. May was just sitting there listening to Parker and Angie and something occurred to her. They hadn’t used all the numbers. The zero was useless in and addition problem and it wasn’t used. “Try putting the zero on the end of the nineteen. You didn’t use it when you calculated the sum of all the number. So maybe it’s the third digit to the password.” May said to Parker. He entered what she suggested but got the same results as before. Angie spoke up and said “Try putting the zero in the front of the other numbers.” Parker did as Angie suggested and hit the enter key. “Access Granted” appear on the screen. “That’s what I call team work.” May said excitedly.

The computer automatically opened a spread sheet file. None of them understood what they were looking at. The spread sheet was full of nothing but number in all the columns but the first. The first column entries all started with a P followed by a number. “Okay now what?” asked Parker to May and Angie. “Your guess is as good as mine.” Angie said jokingly. “It must have something to do with the red diary. Why else would Scull put it in there?” May stated.

She went out to the kitchen and retrieved the dairy from the table and started flipping through the pages. About half way through the diary she noticed “P62” written very small on the lower left hand corner of the page. As she entered the room where the computer was located she asked “Is there a P62 in that spread sheet?” Angie and Parker both examined the screen and Parker replied “Yes. Why do you ask? Did you find something in the diary?” “On the bottom of this page P62 is written.” answered May as she handed the book to Parker. Parker started to flip the pages going back to the front of the diary and counted the pages until he reached the first written page. “That’s it. The first column is denoting a page number.” exclaimed Parker. “But what does the rest of the numbers mean?” asked Angie. “That we’ll have to figure out later, but I’m sure we will find it in this diary. Right now we have to get back to the bakery and close up for the day.” replied Parker.

He handed the book back to may and gave her a kiss. He then told her that when Angie and he were through at the bakery they would be back. Then they could put their minds together and figure out the meaning of the numbers. Parker and Angie headed for the front door as May sat at the computer staring at the screen wondering what the numbers meant.