by J W Rocque
really convince them, he thought.
“Listen, Eric. Do you want me to help you with that
resume? I"ve gotten pretty good at it, especially working in the
journalism industry, trying to convince editors that my experience
is relevant.”
“Nah, thanks but forget it. It"s nice to just be in the
background for awhile. Less pressure. When I"m ready for
something greater, I"ll let them see my talent. I"m better at
displaying it than flaunting it on paper. That"s fine with me.” “Suit yourself, but I"m available to help. After all, it"s to
my advantage if you make enough to pay your share of the rent.
Hey, do you mind answering the door while I get the refreshments
ready? The guests should be arriving soon.”
“Sure.” The word barely left Eric"s mouth when there was
a knock on the door. Eric opened it. Five sets of eyes fixated on
Eric… two men and three women. Eric smiled, knowing that they
must bewondering who he is. “Welcome. I"m Eric… Bryan"s
new roommate.”
Eric had plenty of experience at reading faces. Of the three
women, he fixated on the one whose eyes were the most gentle. It
wasn"t a conscious thing. It just became instinct. “Come in, come
in, get comfortable,” said Bryan as he walked out of the kitchen
with some snacks. “I see you met Eric. Have you introduced
yourselves?”
Rob spoke up. “So we don"t all shout at once, I"ll do the
honors. I"m Rob. This is Ann, Steve, Sharonand… hiding in the back somewhere is Jean.” Jean nodded while smiling shyly as all the others extended their hands to Eric. Eric shook their hands while maintaining a glance toward Jean. She was the one with the gentle eyes. There was something about shyness in a woman that attracted Eric. It was obvious that Jean was not tied to any of the men in the room. Eric extended his hand to her. Jean smiled and
daintily touched his fingertips.
“Well, since this apartment is equally mine as well as
Bryan"s, I should see if he needs any help,” said Eric as he
followed Bryan back to the kitchen.
“You can take it easy, Eric. Get to know the group.
They"re all very outgoing, except Jean. She"s very nice but a little
quiet and shy sometimes. She takes a while to come out of her
shell when she meets someone new.”
Eric made sure he kept his voice low. “Was she ever
abused?”
Bryan was startled by Eric"s sudden question. “I never
thought about it. You mean physically abused? She never gets
close to guys. Maybe she was. Why? Can you tell those things?” “Sometimes. In my travels I"ve found that nervous shyness
in someone her age… I assume she"s in her mid-thirties…
generally indicates some type of traumatic experience occurred at
some pointin her past.”
“Well, we can"t very wellask her.”
“Does she have any guy friends?”
“We"re all her friends, but I assume you mean romantic
interests? No, she doesn"t.”
“Does she ever date?”
“She has been out on dates... usually one every other month
or so. I don"t think she ever dated the same guy more than once.” “She just needs someone to pay attention to her without her
feeling that it"s superficial.”
“Careful. You don"t want to scare her away with your
suspicions. Even if you"re right, she probably won"t admit it.” “Don"t worry. I would never say anything to her about it. I
sense a nice spirit about her. Plus I think an older woman would be a good change for me. The young ones can be so impulsive and
immature.”
“Jean willbe a challenge though, especially if you"re
right.”
Eric paused. “She would be a bigger challenge if I was out
for what most men are after… but I"m not. I may be able to get
her out of her shell just by being friendly.” After countless years
of traversing the globe, Eric tired of always moving on after
spending time with interesting people. Each time he pulled up his
stakes and left people he loved, he felt as though he lost something
precious. Every now and then, he would remember people in his
past and come to grips with the fact that most of them had surely
passed on. Still… the small bottle in his duffle bag remained
sealed.
December 13, 1983 “So what have you been hiding from us, Evan? And what sorcery have you inflicted on Michelle? I"m not leaving without answers.” Mary calmed her voice, but she was still visibly irate.
Evan"s deteriorating body was getting sore as he tried to shift his position in the bed. “Michelle knows everything.”
“I want to hear it from you first. You can start by telling me who you really are. There is no record of Evan Troy"s existence.”
“I"ve been many names to many people. In the last few hundred years, I"ve lacked imagination and have practically exhausted all the E.T. names my mind could manufacture. Evan Troy was to be my final permanent moniker. All because Michelle Fleming is the loveliest creature I ever laid my eyes on and her soul is too beautiful to ever force her to change that wonderful name. And if I did not intend to change her name, how could I ever change the name of her own true love? May I also add that preserving Michelle"s name is also a tribute to you and your husband, who nurtured and reared the finest girl to ever grace this Earth?”
“Your rambling makes me sick. Why don"t you try answering my questions?”
“Yes, you deserve the answers, but I warn that you may not believe the answers and they may only make you more angry.”
“Just spit it out.”
“Mary…” Evan now dispelled calling her „Mrs. Fleming" in order to establish a more friendly tone. “You always treated me kindly. Please don"t speak harshly.”
“That was eleven years ago, before you whisked my daughter away from her parents without leaving us so much as a clue to your whereabouts.”
“I"ve taken good care of her, Mary. We… no, I decided that you and John would not be able to handle the fact that your daughter would never grow older, even as you and John would grow old. If I could have shared the elixir of life with you and John, I surely would have. But there was only enough elixir for one other person.”
Mary"s lips curled in a snarl and she gritted her teeth. “What?”
“I drank half of an alchemist"s elixir… how long ago it doesn"t matter. The rest I kept with me for many years, looking for the right person to share it with. After one year of knowing your daughter, the decision was obvious. It may have been wiser to wait until she was older before giving her the elixir, but to me she was perfect at thirteen.”
Mary forced herself to keepa low volume. “You… you are insane!”
“I am in love… then and now.”
“And Michelle willingly drank this… thisevil potion?”
“It wasn"t evil, and no… she did not drink it willingly. I don"t know if you recall the time you gave her permission to meet me after school at the sundry shop for an ice cream soda. It was then that I added the elixir to her drink. I thought it best to explain it to her later. She wouldn"t have been able to grasp it at the time.”
“You ought to be arrested! You poisoned my daughter!”
“Poison? I drank it myself long ago. I wasn"t poisoned. Cursed maybe… but not poisoned.”
“So you cursed my daughter?”
“I was cursed by the elixir for many years until I met Michelle. I was forced to meet new friends and watch them die. Then I started making it a point to flee before I had to watch my friends die
. There was no way I could either flee from Michelle or watch her die.” Evan snickered. “The ironic thing is that now she is forced to watch medie.”
“Am I supposed to feel sorry for you?”
“That"s up to you. I am not asking you to do so.”
April, 1972 Michelle rose from her bed and gazed motionless into the mirror over her dresser. Evan"s last sentence was still ringing in her ears. It was all so impossible but she knew Evan wasn"t lying. Her thoughts were interrupted as she saw Evan"s reflection behind her and his gentle hands on her shoulders. His massaging fingers soothed her. Her neck tilted to one side as she closed her eyes and her light brown hair draped softly on his right hand.
“It"s a lot to take in. I rea lize that. But we have a long life ahead of us… together.We needn"t ever worry about growing old. What we started together five years ago will last forever. Just you and I.” Evan paused… hoping that Michelle would embrace their fate happily, but wary that she may not.
“Did… did you think that maybe you wouldn"t love me anymore if I got old? Is that why you did it?”
“No. I just couldn"t bear the thought of not growing old withyou.”
Michelle pondered Evan"s response. “Why not wait until I was the same age as you werewhen you drank the elixir?”
“I had thoughtabout that. But I also couldn"t stop thinking about preserving you at the exact moment when I fell in love with you… just as I was preserved in the state that you fell in love with.”
Michelle nodded thoughtfully. There was no turning back so why think about it? Her only remaining decision was to be angry with Evan or continue loving him. After a few seconds she said softly, “I know where I want to go for my birthday.”
Evan sighed a sigh of relief. “You name it. I owe you the night of your dreams. Where do you want to go?”
“Right here… in my room. Just make love to me.” She turned and put her head under Evan"s chin. Evan almost lost himself in the smell of her hair. A seeming adolescent, she now had the emotions and needs of a woman. This rare combination enthralled him. He gently led her to her bed.
IV
December 13, 1983 Linda approached the nurses" station where Brenda Croshere was busy filling out paperwork.“Brenda, I just got off the phone with the administrator of Fletcher University Hospital. They will be sending a driver from an ambulatory service tomorrow to move Evan Troy to their facility. Hopefully their state-of-the-art equipment can help him better than ourscan.”
“Oh, that"s good. Does Dr. DiLaurioknow?”
“No. That"s one reason why I am telling you. Please let him and Dr. Chan know about what is transpiring. They will both be here this afternoon and will want to check on Mr. Troy and update their report for the university staff.”
Mary had paused to listen while the administrator and head nurse were talking. She had just left Evan"s room to digest all that he had told her. Michelle was just coming out of the elevator after spending some time in the hospital chapel. “Michelle, did you know that they are moving Evan to another hospital?”
Michelle didn"t know whether this news offered new hope or was more an indication that no one knew what to do for Evan. “Really?”
“Yes. I overheard that woman talking to the nurse,” said Mary as she motioned toward Linda.
“Are… are you okay with Evan now? How did your talk
go? Once you started yelling at him, I went to the chapel to pray.” “How long did youknow?”
Michelle guarded her answer until she was certain of what
her mother was referring to. “About what, Mom?”
“He gave me this story about an elixir that keeps both of
you from aging?”
“He told me on my eighteenth birthday.”
“That explains why you disappeared right after your high
school graduation. Michelle, come back home with me. Your
father and I miss you terribly. You don"t belong in Canada. Come
back to Riversidewhere you belong.”
“Mom, you are forgetting that I"m not a kid anymore.” Maryclosed her eyes in anguish. “I wonder why I would
forget that! Maybe because you looklike one?”
“I don"t need ridicule, Mom. When Evan told me what he
had done, I had a lot of mixed feelings. I was about to graduate
high school looking like a thirteen year old girl. But then I realized
that if I wanted to be with Evan for hiswhole life, I had to… be
likehim.”
“You weren"t even given a choice, darling. He tricked you.
It wasn"t your decision. You"re justifying something that you do
not need to justify.”
“A thirteen year old girl would never have been able to
understand, Mom. Evan did what he needed to do to keep us
together. Don"t you understand love, Mom? Evan has been nicer
to me than… well, nicer than even Dad has been to you.” “Don"t you dare talk about your father.”
“Mom, I love you and Dad. But I know that he would get
angry with you a lot, especially when he drank. But Evan… he has
been a perfect gentleman to me for seventeen years. How many
women can say that? Can you honestly say that Dad has done that,
Mom?”
“Don"t drag him into this. Evan deceived you, baby. He
drugged you… that"s what he did. That’s a perfect gentleman?” “Mom, he took a chance knowing that when he told me, he
might have lost me.”
“No… he knew that you could not get any other man
looking like that.”
“Do you think that Evan would have been the only man to
be attracted to me? Mom, Evan is timeless! He went through two
thousand years looking for his one true love. He met countless
women from many cultures along the way. If he considered me to be the best out of everyone he has known, then how could you
think that no one else could possibly ever be interested inme?” Mary collected her next thoughts. “And you didn"t mind
notbeing consulted on taking this drug.”
“Stop calling it a drug.”
“That"s what it was! And yes, if he just had to have you, I
suppose at thirteen you would not have understood that you needed
to stop aging at some point, but the perfect gentleman would have
waited until you could have made an intelligent decision… like
maybe afteryour graduation?”
Michelle felt that she was reliving the day she had asked
herself the same questions. “I had the same thoughts after he told
me everything. He said that he wanted to keep me just the way I
was at the moment he fell in love with me. I thought it was such a
beautiful sentiment that I told him that I wanted him to make love
to me completely for the first time. That"s another thing, Mom.
He loved me at thirteen, yet he still waited until I told him I was
ready… and that took five years.”
“He"s treated you well?”
“Always. The only thing he ever kept from me was when
he gave me that elixir.”
“Well, both your father and I would have wanted to
strangle him if we found out the truth, but I wish you had told us.
Maybe you wouldn"t have ended up feeling that you needed to
move away and hide from us.”
Michelle started to cry. “Mom… it"s just what Evan
always had to doall his life. He couldn"t let everyone see him stay
young. He couldn"t arouse any suspicions, especially with the
authorities who require everyone to have proper identification.” Mary froze for a moment. “Oh dear… someday you will
have to live without proper identification.”
Michelle cried harder
. “And I might have to do it alone.” Mary turned sympathetic toward Evan. “It"s that bad?” “The reason he is deteriorating fast after the accident is
because he really is old. They are afraid he is dying.”
“Well, when I call your dad… I"ll try to soften things so he
will understand. I"ll do my best, honey. I love you.”
August, 1953 The evening at the apartment did not wind down until close to ten o"clock. Bryan, Rob, Steve and Ann were finishing their umpteenth hand of bridge. Jean was busy cleaning up the remnants of the kitchen mess. Eric tried relaxing with a book, but the loud chatter and laughter at the card table made it tough for him to concentrate. He had played card games in the past, but many years earlier became bored with it. Eric enjoyed the banter with Bryan and the guests, but the game ended up swallowing up the good conversation. He rose from the chair and made his way to the kitchen.
“How much do you charge to clean an apartment?” Jean , startled, turned and smiled. “Why do you ask? How much are you offering?”
“Oh, that"s right. This apartment is half mine, isn"t it? I will have to pay half your fee, won"t I?”
“Well, if you"re not planning on retiring for the night, I don"t need to go right home.”
Eric wasn"t tired, and he did want to spend some time with Jean. He enjoyed talking with her more than the others. She was more soft-spoken, and she felt comfortable talking to Eric. Eric"s youthful charm made Jean feel safe, and despite feeling like she was an older sister to him, she found herself attracted to his seemingly wise intelligence.
Eric certainly did not mind getting away from the apartment. “Would you like to go to a restaurant for some dessert and coffee?”
“That sounds good.”
“I don"t know if everyone else will be here when we return. Will you have a ride home? I… don"t drive, so I can"t take you home.”
“That"s okay. We walked to get here.”
“Then I"ll walk you home.” Eric and Jean said their goodbyes to the group and stepped out.
April, 1972 Though he lived for what seemed an eternity, Evan found it difficult to believe that he had waited this long to find his perfect soul mate. Making love was never this good. Evan had abstained for many years. Even something that pleasurable becomes somewhat uninteresting after a couple of thousand years of living. But his strong love for Michelle made the experience feel like the best time, if not the first time. He took great care to ensure that Michelle would have a great first experience. In his heart and mind, he still thought of himself as barely twenty, and the pretty girl he embraced his beloved sweetheart of thirteen. He did not regret the decision he had made five years earlier. He also had no regret that he not only waited five years for this moment, but he also waited for her to ask him. Otherwise, he would have always wondered if she had reallybeen ready. There was no doubt… she was ready.