Jago (Part Three)

Jago did not adapt quickly to the idea of immortality.  You see, my dear reader, in the beginning, it didn’t seem like we were immortal – we lived life day-by-day, and looking at life as long-term didn’t occur to us - so we didn’t really know how special we were until much later.  When we explained about the medicine and how we couldn’t die, Jago would just grunt and smile, then laugh and say we were crazy. Eve thought him to be insulting because he made stupid remarks about what we were trying to explain to him and he seemed to regard our mercy and the medicine as nonsense.  After a few days of this, Eve became so frustrated with him that she pulled a dagger from beneath her ‘peplos’ (tunic) and jabbed it into his heart.  As he lay slowly passing out from loss of blood or what he perceived to be death and dying, he exclaimed, “Why?!”

Eve stood over him and laughed, “You dumb child!  You’re not dying - you’ll pass out for a second and then get up good as new.”  She no longer could take his irreverence to our situation and had to teach him to accept what he was . . . now . . . not later.  I then realized that we’re going to be connected to this person forever and Eve was already showing little tolerance after 3 days with him healed and at his peak.  (There are many stories regarding their arguments).

When he understood that the sting of the blade had subsided and he was no longer bleeding, he jumped up, tore open his vestments and looked down at his hairy chest for a wound.  Eve found this to be humorous and went up to Jago and handed him the blade and said, “Do you want to take a turn?”  She opened her tunic exposing her breasts. “Right about here you’ll pierce my heart … just thrust the . . . .”

I interrupted, feeling the anger flush my face. “Eve, stop this nonsense and cover yourself.  He is in shock and needs our help to accept the reality of his new circumstances.  You’re not helping.”

“It’s true then?  I cannot die?  You are both not just two crazy people who were kind enough to take care of me and feed me and make me well?  Are you demons? Have I become a demon, too?”

I sat him down by the camp fire as the sunset warmed our backs.  I explained how I created the ‘medicine’ and how it saved Eve and me.  We are people like everyone else with the exception that we have a gift of long life and we are safe from death.  He buried his face in his knees as he lifted his legs up for warmth.  After I finished with my story, he sat with his eyes blank gazing into the fire.

“Joseph, I’m sorry.” Eve apologized. “I just couldn’t take his indifference any longer.  I acted childish and I should have more self-control for an old lady my age.”

I looked at her with a harsh scowl and then laughed, “But it was funny.  You should have seen the expression on his face when you stabbed him and when you opened your tunic.”

She looked away holding back an impish grin. “He has such potential to change things.  Now he has the gift of life and I hope he uses it for the good of all.”

Jago stood to his feet and walked over to us.  “If I am like you and cannot die by sword or of old age, then who will want me?  Joseph, you have Eve and I hear the both of you moaning with ecstasy every night in your tent.  Will I have someone to walk with in this life?  Will you give me Eve when I want her?  Will you share?”  He directed his anger toward us. “Why did you make me like this if I cannot have what you both have?”

“Jago, you cannot have a normal woman or Eve.  The potion has seen to that.  My body is set to Eve’s body.  If you kiss or if any of your fluids touch her or if her fluids touch you, it scalds and burns like boiling oil.  One man for one woman . . . be patient.  We have all the time in the world to find someone for you.  I promise it will be good.”

“Good for who?  Will it ease your guilt when I am sad?  Look at me…woman loved me as I was.  Not I can be with only one (if I am lucky) for the rest or eternity?”

Eve walked over to him and gave him a hug.  “Jago, I am sorry I was so mean, but you wouldn’t listen or believe. What can I do to make it better between us?”

He looked at me then turned to her, “Well, you can open your tunic again.”

(TO BE CONTINUED . . . .)

Jago (Part Two)

I cared as much about Jago as Eve did.  He made us laugh and had such a peculiar way of looking at life in these times, that you had to wonder how the world would get on without him.  The clay jar in my hand was still almost full back then.  It contained the most wonderful, serendipitous concoction, created by a one in a billion chance from a rock that fell from the night sky.  The medicine didn’t evaporate burn or separate and its consistency was similar to mercury.  I took this potion to make me well after being ill for many years and I wasn’t always called Joseph.  After ingesting the potion (or medicine as we fondly called it) I became Joseph – reinventing myself.  My name was D’Ardo before the change and it’s the only name that I haven’t spoken out loud in many years.  It was the name my parents gave to me and the name I left buried underwater with my people.  Eve’s name in the beginning was Helen and she too was from Greece --- like Alexander.  She has remained beautiful and perfectly preserved because of the ‘medicine’.

Jago hovered near death with fever raging and his breathing was more labored as dehydration began to wither his body and his will to live.  Yet he had enough strength to smile when he saw Eve and enough humor to raise his thick black eyebrows to silently suggest ‘hubba-hubba’ when my wife approached him.  We loved him as a parent would love their child and felt compelled to take away his pain and hopelessness.

“Jago,” I drew closer to him and saw that his breathing was very shallow and watched him struggle to inhale, “I have something that would either make you better or kill you in a most painful way.”

He stared up at me blankly through half opened eyes while on the makeshift cot  inside of our tent and let out a low grunt to acknowledge what I said.

“Do you want to take that chance?”  I asked.

He blinked his eyes in acceptance and gave a faint nod to tell me ‘yes’.

I looked up at Eve with hesitation as she gave a slight but undecided gesture of encouragement for me to be brave and save Jago’s life. I recalled what had happened to another young man we tried to save and the trauma of watching helpless as he was consumed in pain while drowning in his own fluids, finally suffocating to death.  I keenly remember the look of terror on his face, making the recollection of his death even more horrifying.

I made my decision.

“Jago”, I said as I lifted his head and shoulders upright, “just take one small sip of this.  I pray this will not harm you, my friend.”

I gently laid Jago’s head back on the cot and he gave a small whimper, followed by a loud gasp that jerked his chest upward. Eve had a look of panic on her face and ran to comfort the man, as he began to writhe and then stiffen where he lay. 

“Jago, I’m sorry!” she cried. “Please forgive me, forgive us.”

“No, it’s alright.” I said with excitement. “This is what happened to you when I gave you the medicine.  Keep watching.”

The young man slowly began to calm and relax back onto the cot after the seizure.  Eve went to wipe his forehead but backed off when something strange began to happen. 

“Joseph, what’s going on” she asked, with her eyes opened wide.

“He’s going to live Eve, that’s what is going on!”  I said with excitement.

A thin film of liquid formed over his skin and steam began to rise from every part of his body.  The smoky substance hovered on Jago and didn’t rise, but settled around him from head to toe.  It also gave off a sweet smell like honey and roses.

“This is what happened to you, my love. You were covered in smoke for about an hour, almost like you were being cooked in a stone oven.  When the substance subsided you awoke very hungry and energized.”

“I don’t remember anything.  I just remember eating and going back to sleep for a long time . . . but I felt very good with no normal aches or pains.” 

After a while, Jago eventually sat up slowly and asked for a drink and said he was starving.  Eve fed him two whole chickens and he drank a skin of wine.  And like Eve when she had taken the potion, he lay down and slept for three more days.

(TO BE CONTINUED . . . .)

Jago (Part One)

After the disappointment of not having the support I thought I would receive from the great and wonderful power the ancient coins gave to us, I began to reflect on how we all came together and how diverse we continue to be, going different directions and still needing each other. Let me tell you how I met all of the people in our group and how they came to be immortal.

It was around 330 BC and the lands were running wild with battles and wars created by Alexander the Great.   Thracian Troops would accompany Alexander when he crossed the Hellespont to make war with Persia.  Jago’s tribe was one that was enlisted by Alexander to fight.  To make a long story shorter, there was a battle and Jago’s battalion lost on that day.  He was the last survivor on the battlefield.  Eve and I happened upon him when we were crossing the hillside on the outskirts of the battle after observing the fighting from afar.  We heard moans coming from a position to our left as we carefully made our way in the thick of the night to avoid harassment from Alexander’s troops.  We mainly did this for Eve’s protection since most of the soldiers hadn’t seen a woman in months.

When we finally found Jago, he was semi-conscious clinging to life.  He was partially covered by a fallen comrade, hidden just enough not to be lanced by the opposing soldiers.  No one took prisoners in those dark days.

Eve is a strong woman, so she was able to support Jago’s weight as we carried him to a safe place to camp for the night. I carried our supplies and tents on a sturdy cot that I had placed two rear wheels on for pulling our small load.  We both cleaned his wounds and administered advanced medical attention to speed along his recovery. (Where I came from these things were common knowledge – of germs, bacteria and infection).

We traveled two more days with Jago piled on the cot amid our belongings, until we found a safe place to setup our tents so we could sit for a while.  Once situated Jago began to speak as much as his state of recovery would allow.  Even though he was weakened, Jago had a sense of humor, enough to make both us laugh and wonder who this man is and how he came to be on the battlefield. 

Eventually he was strong enough to sit and eat with us and he told us a bit about himself.  He told us he had sixteen brothers that would abuse him on daily basis because he was the youngest of the brood.  His mother was the fifth wife of his father and she bore the man three daughters until Jago was finally born – the youngest of his entire family.  Jago thought that joining Alexander’s army would give him the respect of his brothers and father once and for all.  Many of his brothers joined the Ctistae to become philosophers and priests, but he wanted to show his father that he was strong and able to take control in order to hopefully gain control of his tribe.  But, this was Jago’s first battle and his last.  He laughed when he talked about how he raised his sword for the first time but the other guy was faster and attacked first, leaving Jago on the battlefield to die.  He joked and said he guessed he should have ducked instead of attacking.

Eve and I grew to love him over the weeks he was with us.  He seemed to be growing stronger until one day he had trouble getting up to join us by the morning fire.  Eve felt his head and found he was burning with fever.  His condition centuries later would be related to malaria, unfortunately untreatable in the time period we were in, especially in Jago’s frail state of recovery.   Our new and loved friend Jago was slipping away into death’s hands and we were helpless to heal him by conventional means.

“Joseph,” Eve came to speak to me at the campfire by our tent, “Jago is dying.  You saved me from dying - can’t you save him by giving him the medicine?  He deserves to live, Joseph.  He deserves to see more tomorrows.”

“Eve, it worked for you and for me, and we tried it on one other person that died horribly from ingesting it.  What if it doesn’t work for him?  What if he takes the medicine and bloats, then suffocates horribly like the last person we gave it to?”

“I only know that he will die regardless of giving or not giving it to him.”  A tear rolled down her cheek.  “Please, Joseph.  Please try.” She pleaded on his behalf.  “Please, for me.” 

I pulled the thick clay jar from a hidden pocket  beneath my robes and looked into her eyes. “It frightens me that he may die painfully because of this”.  I held up the jar and looked at it.

(TO BE CONTINUED . . . .)

The Reunion (Conclusion)

The group calmed down after Tommy’s demonstration and sat at the long dining table in our dining room.  After finishing off four large pizzas, five pounds of hot buffalo wings and a quarter barrel of beer, the group was more sedate and relaxed as they continued their conversations... everyone but Jago.

“So Tommy, what else can you do with Joseph’s coins?  Do you have x-ray vision?  I bet you do and you secretly look under the ladies clothing with x-ray eyes and remember what you see for later.”  Jago broke into loud laughter, but (as usual) everyone else just stared at him, ready for the next predictable and pointless comment to leave his lips.  Jago had a problem with keeping things to himself.  You would think after centuries of being thrashed by soldiers, crowds, and religious groups - that he would learn to just shut up. “Come on Tommy”, he said as he moved from his end of the table toward the younger man, arms raised mocking him, “fly for us, breathe fire for us or maybe walk on water.”

“Enough!”  I exclaimed as I stood up and pounded my fist on the table.  “Do you always have to be so crude  . . . so crass?  I am tired of this Jago!  I am tired of babysitting all of you!” I tried to control my outrage, but couldn’t. “We have a chance to do something good that is well above and beyond anything anyone has ever done for humanity and half of you are either afraid of a change as momentous as this or worried about exposure to the world.  Don’t you have any foresight?  Have you become so complacent over the centuries that you have forgotten the wonderful things we have done in the past?  Jago, why are you still so arrogant after all this time?  Your Greek and Sicilian blood line makes you so verbally aggressive and loud … only Mona can stand you --- most of the time.” 

Jago stood in silence, sinking his head down like a puppy that knows it was bad to pee on the carpet but couldn’t stop from doing it.  “I’m sorry Joseph.” He said as he returned to his chair.

I shook my head from side to side and continued.  “Do you think this is bad?  Did any of you object when I gave you the brew that saved your life and changed you into a time walker, an immortal? “There was complete silence in the room.  They didn’t like it when I got upset…I suppose that came out of respect because I am the senior among them, the alpha.

“Jago, you were the next one to receive the gift after Eve.  We found you dying, the last survivor on a battlefield in Thrace and brought you to our tents.  We nursed you and brought you back to health and befriended you.  We decided to give you the medicine when an infection from your wounds set in and we thought you were going to die -- this saved you. We did this because we loved you --no other earth shaking reason -- just because you were unique to us and still are. After you we found Adam who had lost his footing on a mountainside and fell.  He too was dying, but we saw warmth in his eyes and through his pain he smiled to thank us for being with him in his last moments.  We were touched by that and saved him too.  Then we saved Mona from death because Jago loved her, then Chester, then Neecie, followed by Dani and finally Tommy and Lori.  All off you dying and we saw something wonderful in each of you to save.  Longevity and regeneration are side effects from the brew that changed our body chemistry.  The purpose of giving it to you was to save you because you made the world a better place.”

“We all appreciate that, Joseph”, Adam broke in, “more than you will ever know, but this thing with the coins is too much.  It’s not for all of us.”

Neecie added, “We just want to live -- not be tied down forever to humanity and be looked upon as its only hope to fix their lives”.

Lori was listening intently to the issues being presents and spoke. “Some of us want this and others do not.  I say, those that want to test and eventually use the abilities the coins give us to help people will do so, and those that don’t want the coins don’t have to take them.  Let’s not have this split us apart.  We have been together as a family for so long, that we have learned to love each other in spite of ourselves.  Take them or leave them, but don’t leave our family.”

Eve spoke, “I love you all and would be heartbroken if anyone rejected another.  As Lori said – take them or leave them.”

Jago interrupted with his loud voice, “Hey!  I lift my glass (or beer bottle) to all of you.  I am sorry to have been so crass.  Let us take from Joseph Ancient’s House of Ancient Coins and Curios what we will have and to those who need no adventure, leave the coins where they lay.”  He stretched his bottle upward in a toast. “To us … the children of Joseph and Eve, may we be together forever --- no matter what.”

They all cheered in agreement then I spoke.  “This has been a memorable reunion.  As always we will spend five years together then move on to other places and adventures for another forty or fifty years until the next reunion.  So whoever wants some coins, come and get what we have tried and take them with you.  If you have any questions, Tommy can help you. Be careful not to let anyone outside of group see you use them.”

I was surprised when Jago took coins and that Mona joined him in agreement to try them.  Chester took 3 coins but Dani took none. Adam and Neecie didn’t take any, but wished the others well in their endeavors in learning how to work them as well as when to work them.  I told them all to check my website at www.ancientscoin.com for coins that give us abilities. They will be highlighted as specials and they could get them from me this way if they want them.  We still don’t know what these coins will do to us --- if there will be side effects, but nothing has happened to Tommy or me ---- yet.

The Reunion (Part Five)

My two favorite red heads have been staying with us for three days now, making our family of ten complete.  It’s been a bitter sweet reunion because of the new discovery Tommy made several years ago regarding the ore the ancient coins are made of and our body chemistry.  I am not sure how far I need to go to prove that this is good for us. All I ever intended was to help our fellow humans along their path.   I don’t want us to be super heroes - just benevolent shadows assisting and saving where ever possible. If it wasn’t for House of Ancient Coins and Curios, we never would have found the coins and we would have just kept existing and eventually seeking death but never finding it.

So my dear reader you ask, “Just exactly how old are you, Joseph?”  As fantastic as it sounds, I am very, very old.  If I answer, what would you think of me --- and all of the others?  I have told normal human friends my age and they laugh and ask “How is that possible?”   I will tell you that the youngest of us was born before America was named.  But I am the oldest and have been with Eve for a long time and I hope to be with her for all eternity.  You see, we cannot make love to normal humans.  Our body chemistry doesn’t allow it.  Once one of us mates with another, our chemistries are bound together for eternity and we cannot be with anyone else without our body fluids harming them severely.  We can touch skin, shake hands, but never exchange our fluids with others.  We are poison to humankind in that respect.  But the best part of one mate for all eternity is the fact that when we touch and come together, the euphoria we experience each and every time is unlike anything you could imagine.  We are addicted to each other and no one could ever break this.  Regrettably we cannot bear children because of the change we went through due to taking the “medicine”, but the ten of us have each other to walk through time as eternal companions.  Enough of rambling through this blog!  I will continue the story.

“The others are apprehensive about the coins, aren’t they?” Tommy questioned.  “Neecie and Adam are downright frightened and want to completely bury the fact that we can do these amazing things.  Why Joseph?  We have been trudging along through decades wondering why we are here and are different, and now that we have an answer (of sorts) why do we need to run from it?”

I shook my head and smiled, “I suppose we should embrace change since so much of the world tends to repeat itself right before our eyes.  Granted, it will break the boredom of our longevity, but also lend to the possibility of exposing us to the world.” I got up from my chair and moved to the light switch to illuminate the impending darkness.  The dim light of sunset was filling the room and Eve passed by carrying a bowl approving my actions.  She and Lori were preparing a surprise feast for our group in the kitchen and Tommy wanted this chance to speak with me in private.

“We’ve spent a lot of energy hiding and avoiding helping those around us.  Why should we be here at all if we can’t at least give hope to those around us?“

I returned to my seat. “The others will be here shortly, what can you present to them to change their minds?”

“Maybe one of these.” Tommy sat up and pulled an ancient Roman bronze coin from his pocket. “A token from www.ancientscoin.com.”

The others arrived two by two within thirty minutes time.  The usual chatter echoed throughout the house with moments of Jago’s loud laughter overpowering nearby conversations. I cherish these moments, when we all come together to share the time we have been given.  

So much time . . . . Will it end?

After our feast of chicken and rice (Eve named this the “peasant’s feast” after the meals we had so long ago) we slowly settled into the living room.  Some sat on the floor while others got comfortable on the furniture.  Just as all was quieting down, Tommy floated into the room as though he were swimming through water in a pool.  The others stood and looked up at him through their startled expressions.

Jago broke the silence, “Does he have to do that?”

(TO BE CONTINUED . . . .)