by E. D. Brady
Ben nodded. “We quickly drank down handfuls of the water, and the reaction was instantaneous. A surge of energy coursed through me as though it was revitalizing every cell in my body.”
“It was like I could almost feel my cells bristling with life,” Issy added in. “A strange jolt of adrenaline may be a better way to explain it.”
“As soon as I was sure that my body had completely healed, I knew beyond any doubt what we had discovered,” Jay said. “As the days wore on, I felt healthier than I ever had in my life.”
“But we had one big problem,” Joey butted in. “We had no way to get off the island.”
“And no one had claimed this fountain before?” Layla asked. “Wouldn’t the natives have known what it was?”
“That’s just it, there were no natives,” Jay explained. “The Caribbean has hundreds upon hundreds of these little parcels of land. In fact, we could see quite a few other uninhabited islands from the top of a hill.”
“We spent two months in complete seclusion,” Ben added. “Only by dumb luck, again, did we finally manage to get off the island. We could swim to some of the other islands that were close by. One day on a completely different island, we noticed a Spanish ship sailing not too far off the shore, one of the slave ships returning to San Juan and Española. We were able to get their attention and were taken back to San Juan.”
“But Joey, who was always quick with technical issues, mapped the coordinates as we traveled home,” Jay said. “We remained in our home for two months, making arrangements to return to the small island and drain the pond. We bought a much larger boat, and on Christmas morning, we set out again, this time in much calmer waters. With Joey’s expert map, we were able to reach the tiny island within eight days. With nothing more than shovels, we filled seven large barrels with the liquid. Our initial idea was to sell the water for a fortune, but as time went on, we came to realize that what we had would not last very long that way, and besides, we would be forced to hand it over to the crown. We quickly decided to keep our discovery a secret. We arrived back in San Juan on January 14th, 1514.”
“That is…unbelievable,” Layla mumbled. “I…I have no words.” She closed her eyes tight and shook her head.
Jay ran a finger down her cheek again, smiling appreciatively that she wasn’t running out the door screaming. “This is the truth, Layla,” he said.
“I…I know,” she said in a hushed voice. “I believe you. As much as I want to hear one of you laugh and claim that the story was all an elaborate joke, I know what I saw in that field only three hours ago, and there really is no better explanation. Defying all sanity, I actually believe what you’re telling me.”
“Thank you for that,” Jay said sincerely.
“So that’s how you knew you wouldn’t die if you were shot,” Layla surmised.
Jay shook his head. “We didn’t know for sure,” he said. “We took a very big chance out there, but that confrontation was not going to end without violence anyway.”
“You didn’t know?” Layla gasped. “What were you thinking? You could have—”
Jay held up his hands to quiet her. “We had to do something,” he said. “I couldn’t run the risk of you being hurt in any way.”
“How did you not know?” she questioned. “Do you ever get sick?”
“Not really,” he answered. “Joey ate a piece of rancid pork about twenty-five years ago to see what would happen, and—”
“You did?” Layla blurted out and turned to face Joey.
“We don’t get sick like normal people do,” Joey replied. “We may feel the beginning of a cold or something, but it never really fully materializes. I wanted to see what would happen?”
“What happened?” she asked.
“I threw it right back up,” he said, smiling. “It was kind of gross, but after that…nothing; not even the slightest bit nauseous. But we don’t take unnecessary risks normally. Like most people, we try to remain far away from anything that would hurt us, just in case. At the end of the day, we really have no clue what would kill us, but we suspect most normal things would: fire, poison, possibly even drowning. I’m pretty sure that our immune systems dispel whatever is not organic, things like bullets, but when it comes to organic material, all bets are off.”
“Wow,” she breathed.
“There’s more to the story,” Jay stated.
“I’m sure there is,” she said, stunned.
“Why don’t we take a little break, give Layla sometime to absorb what we’ve told her already?” Issy suggested. “I’ll go make some sandwiches, then we’ll be happy to fill you in on the rest,” she added, jumping up and skipping into the kitchen.
Chapter 22
When they finished eating the sandwiches that Issy made, Layla placed her plate on the coffee table and looked around the small group. “Okay, I want to hear the rest,” she said eagerly.
“Where did we leave off?” Joey questioned.
“January 14th, 1514,” Layla reminded them.
“Wow, you really were paying attention,” Ben chuckled.
“Uh, huh,” she answered.
Jay sat on the couch next to Layla and turned sideways so that they were facing each other. “So, anyway, we ended up staying in Puerto Rico for another five years,” he stated. “But as time went on, we suspected that the natives were growing suspicious of us. Our fellow settlers didn’t seem to notice that we never changed from one year to the next, but the natives were much more observant of the ways of nature and generally more intuitive. Around the time that we started thinking about moving on, we got wind of a new land just past Cuba, a land that Ponce de Leon had named for the feast of flowers, an enormous region that seemed to go on forever.”
“Pascua de Florida,” Layla said, recalling the lesson from history class.
Jay nodded. “We set sail on April 12th, 1519. We sailed for our little island, reaching it within nine days. After refilling ten barrels with the healing liquid, we set out again and reached Chequescha—what is now known as Biscayne Bay, Miami—within three days.”
“You told me you were from Miami,” Layla recalled.
Jay nodded and shrugged.
“Go on,” she demanded, giving him a snarky look.
“Once again, we lived a life of solitude,” Jay continued. “We built a small home some thirty miles inland and ate mainly berries and fish. When we crossed paths with the Tequesta, which was often enough, they regarded us with suspicion. Some had seen men that looked like Ben and me and had heard rumors of men and women being kidnapped and forced onto large ships against their will. It seemed that the Indian slave trade had been in full bloom before we landed in those parts. Luckily for us, they were more open to interaction with Issy and Joey, which turned out well because Issy had picked up enough of their language to communicate that we meant them no harm. So by and large, they left us in peace. We spent over fifty long years living in that area, and there were many times when I wondered if a longer than normal life was worth it. It became monotonous, boring to a certain degree. We even considered traveling back to Spain at one point, but the political situation had changed there also, and by all rights, I should have been dead. I would not have been able to return and claim my inheritance. Instead, at the end of 1567, we made our way north to St. Augustine, having heard that there was a large settlement there. That turned out to be a stupid move of sorts. Long gone were the people that left us in peace in Puerto Rico. These new settlers immediately grew suspicious of Joey and Issy, wondering why slaves were living freely with Ben and me. We had to keep our distance, traveling only near the settlements when we needed supplies, and even then, Joey and Issy had to remain at home. Then the French attacked in 1568; terrible battles raged all over the area. At that point, we were so used to living on the fringes of normal society, we had no patriotism left for our fellow countrymen; we had no desire to join in their territorial skirmishes. After only two years in the region, we upped and headed north into what is
now known as Georgia. And the story remains basically the same for the next two hundred years.”
“I’m trying to wrap my head around all that. That’s awful,” she said sympathetically.
“We got used to it,” Ben replied. “It was easier for Issy and me. We had each other. We were very much in love at the time and couldn’t care how we lived as long as we were together.”
Jay nodded. “For Joey and me, the fountain of youth started to seem like a curse, a long life of nothing ever happening.”
“But that changed?” Layla said hopefully. “After two hundred years, things got better for you?”
“Somewhat better and somewhat worse,” Jay said quietly. “We were unfortunate enough to cross into North Carolina just as the War of Independence began. By that point, we had already changed our names, given that the area was Anglicized by the time we arrived, and the British were not on friendly terms with the Spanish. From that time on, I was known as Arthur Vallen. Sebastian Ortiz became Ben Orton, Yusuf and Isabella were called Joseph and Isabel.”
“Were you involved in the war?” Layla asked.
“No,” Jay admitted. “After almost three hundred years on this earth, we saw things very differently than most humans do. We saw the frailty of human life, the shortness of it. When you see how quickly things can change: ideas, beliefs, popular concepts, nothing takes on the same seriousness as it does for those who haven’t witnessed such changes. What one is willing to die for today, may seem beyond ridiculous a hundred years from now, though in my opinion, that was a war worth fighting. Looking back, if I had known how that war would change the world, I would have gladly taken up arms.”
“Really?” Layla asked.
Jay nodded. “When I read the constitution for the first time, it was like nothing I’d ever seen or heard before, as though the human race had taken a giant evolutionary step forward.”
“For you, maybe,” Joey said sarcastically, rolling his eyes.
“Yeah, well, unfortunately it took the general population quite a number of years to catch up with the concepts,” Jay said apologetically. “The point is, in theory it was beautiful.”
“How did you avoid fighting in the war?” Layla questioned.
“The same way we had done everything for years,” Jay said. “We stayed out of the way as much as possible. When the war finally ended, we bought a large parcel of land just south of Raleigh, only a little while before Raleigh was named the capital of North Carolina. This helped to secure our place as four of the wealthiest people in the new country.”
“Yes, and two of the wealthiest people in the country had to pretend to be slaves for the general public,” Joey butted in agitatedly.
“It was necessary at the time, unfortunately,” Jay replied. “Not that we ever had many visitors to our home. And on the small occasions that we did, we made sure to get rid of them as quickly as possible.”
“That’s horrible,” Layla said, disgust thick in her voice.
“Yes, it was,” Issy agreed. “But for us it was just a ruse. For too many others it was a reality. We did what we could, tried to get as many people to freedom as we could manage, and hopefully made a difference in a lot of lives.”
Layla gave Issy a bitter-sweet smile.
“It was a hard time for too many people,” Jay piped in.
“How did you work all that land?” Layla asked suspiciously, narrowing her eyes.
“We didn’t, and we wouldn’t have under any conditions that were unfair to any human,” Jay replied bluntly. “We had so much money that no one ever questioned where we got it from. You’d be surprised how much privacy money can buy.”
“You told me you owned a tobacco farm,” she reminded him. “Or rather, that your ancestor did.”
“A hundred years later,” he replied. “In fact, we didn’t stay in North Carolina full time. After a couple of hundred years, we became pretty proficient in traveling around somewhat unnoticed. At one point, we made it all the way to the Californian coast.”
“Where we acquired another large fortune in gold,” Ben said, winking over at Layla.
“No easy task, I might add,” Issy piped in. “It was a dangerous journey—the wild animals being the least of the dangers; the humans…much more treacherous.”
“At any rate, we managed to avoid another bloody war by pure coincidence,” Jay added. “We arrived back in North Carolina at the end of September, 1866. It was just shortly after that, that we decided to stay put for the foreseeable future.”
“Wow, that’s amazing,” Layla mumbled. “All those years, all that history.”
“We’ve seen a lot of changes, that’s for sure,” Ben said.
“What happened to the little island?” Layla asked. “The one where you found the fountain of youth.”
“Oh, I bought that some years back,” Joey piped in, beaming. “I had the most amazing beachfront house built on it, twelve thousand square feet to be exact. I’d be glad to take you there any time you want.”
“Thank you,” Layla said, smiling back. “I just might take you up on that offer.” She turned back to Jay. “What happened next? Where did Vallen Pharmaceutical Enterprises come from?”
“In the late eighteen hundreds, Issy decided that she wanted to be a doctor,” he replied. “But she had two strikes against her; one was her gender and the other her race. Sebastian, being the love-sick fool that he is, decided to take one for the team and enrolled in medical school. It was just shortly after we had our home wired for electric lights. I will never forget how enthusiastic they both were when he’d come home from school and lay his books and notes all over the kitchen table. He and Issy would pour over those books for hours. Joey and I would vaguely listen in at first, hearing him drone on in the background, explaining his latest lesson to her in detail. As time went on, we found ourselves looking over his shoulder, listening intently to the latest session. Before long, all three of us would sit at the table while Ben stood before us, explaining and re-explaining the details of his latest class, patiently answering our questions. The following year, I enrolled in medical school also. When Ben was finally a qualified surgeon, he would take Issy along when we went to perform surgeries, and when he had someone unconscious, and no one else was around, he would allow Issy to perform the surgery with his guidance.”
“She was a natural,” Ben said proudly. “She had a natural talent for healing, so much more than I did. I can’t tell you the number of people who thanked me for fixing them when all along it was Issy that had done all the work.”
“It’s terrible that you never got to get a degree officially, though,” Layla piped in.
“Oh, I did,” Issy contradicted. “I graduated Cornell Medical School in 1977, completely aced it. Even my professors admitted that I knew more about medicine than they did. Of course, they didn’t know that I’d been secretly practicing on and off for almost a hundred years.”
Layla laughed at Issy’s smug smirk.
“Anyway,” Jay broke in, bringing them back to his story. “As time went on, we naturally became interested in the other sciences when we’d learned all there was to know at the time about biology. We started studying chemistry, and then on to biological chemistry. It seemed that the next step was to open a pharmaceutical company,” he added. “In 1936, we moved up north to New York. The company was small at first, just a little building in Harlem, but as time went on, and we were surprisingly good at what we did, we knew we needed to expand. We moved the company to Connecticut in 1958.”
“And you’ve been there ever since,” Layla concluded.
“Yes,” he replied. He fidgeted uncomfortably for a moment, dreading the bomb he was about to lay on her. “By 1972, we realized that our supply of liquid would not last forever. It was then that we started experiments on how to replicate the water.”
“That’s what you’ve been working on,” she said, the penny dropping.
Jay nodded. “That’s what we do in the basement of the compl
ex,” he admitted.
“How much do you have left?” she questioned.
Jay looked around at the others and sighed. “About enough for another twenty years, maybe.”
Layla gasped. “What happens after that?” she asked.
“If we don’t find a way to replicate it? We grow old, finally, I guess.”
“How fast?” she questioned.
“Ah, see, now there’s the rub. We have no clue,” he said matter-of-factly. “We don’t know if we’ll just continue to age from there on out at a normal pace, or if we’ll age over five hundred years instantaneously.”
“Oh, wow,” Layla muttered. “That’s not good.”
“There’s more, Layla,” Jay said with a regretful look. He took a deep breath before continuing. “Besides that, we really do make medicines and have had quite a few breakthroughs over the years. In the latter part of the seventies, we were contacted by a government official, someone affiliated with the Center for Disease Control. He explained to us that there was a new disease on the rise, an immune deficiency disorder, and asked for our help in finding a cure. We agreed. But the more we studied this strain the more baffled we became and kept hitting a brick wall. We got wind of two young, brilliant pharmaceutical scientists and decided to court them. We offered them all sorts of incentives to join our company, thinking that a couple of fresh pairs of eyes, some new ideas, may be beneficial. They joined our company in 1978.” He paused and looked into her eyes nervously. “One was named James Morganson…and the other…William Sparks.”
“WHAT?!” Layla bellowed. “What do you mean? How can that be?”
“It’s true,” Ben butted in. “They were the best at what they did at the time.”
Layla shook her head quickly. “What kind of incentives did you offer them to join?” she demanded.
“Not that kind,” Jay said quietly. “We paid them a fortune and allowed them to have almost free run of the place.”