Chester (Part Two)

The elderly woman that pleaded for us to help the young man disappeared as soon as we took charge of the situation.  Eve found a clean cloth, dipped it in some nearby water and wiped the blood out of Chester’s face.  I pulled him around and laid his head gently on my knee.  He began to weep in frustration, not caring that two strangers attended to his dilemma with grace and compassion.

“Thank you my friends, thank you!” He wept. “My servants have long since been gone and I cannot fend for myself due to my illness.” (He referred to his obesity as an illness).

“There now”, Eve said in her most comforting voice, “we won’t abandon you. My name is Eve and this is Joseph.  When you feel ready, we will help you to get inside your house and find you a comfortable place to rest.”

He introduced himself and carried on about how his family was once rich and how he didn’t understand where all of his wealth had gone. He explained about helping as many people as he could, whenever they would ask, but he was sure the wealth his family had amassed was much larger than it seemed.  He could no longer pay his servants and the old woman that brought us to him, checked in on him because she felt obligated to his parents after working for them for so many years.  He had just enough funds to sustain him and to his pay taxes and tribute when needed.  He was all alone. . . .

After he calmed and we finished cleaning him, I began to seek more answers. “Who gathers food for you and tends to the house?” I asked.

“Marianna, the old woman . . . she takes care of me --- but not as much as she used to.  I can no longer pay her, so she either comes here or sends her son takes her place.  He is very cruel to me.  He calls me names and spits on me, but I have to take it or suffer.”  He stared into my eyes for a moment and burst into tears. “I don’t want to die.  Not like this.  I am only twenty years old…what am I to do?  What can I do?”

Eve and I looked at each other.  We didn’t have answer for him.  We wondered if he was born this way or if his entire family was like him.  It seemed there were more and more large people in Rome these days.  Most died at an early age and some fell down, broke a hip or a leg and infection set it, causing their death.  We didn’t know how we could help Chester become healthy again or if he was ever actually healthy.

After we assured Chester that we would check on him in the morning he closed his eyes and went to sleep.   We made our way back home and discussed his situation.

“Eve, I feel very bad for this young man.  He is twenty years old, but might as well be a hundred.”

“I am sad for him too, Joseph --- but what can we do?  We can’t keep watching over him day after day, night after night.  He will be living in the streets soon and he is so large that he makes almost three of me in girth --- he won’t survive alone. If he tries to walk he will fall due to his size.  If he tries to move fast it will burst his heart.”

“Well, either way,” I said, “there is no future for him.  He will die young and no one will remember how generous he was and how he saved other families from slavery.”

(He told us stories about some of the people he had helped).

“I have been curious about something, though --- what if we gave the medicine to someone like him?  Would it cure him? Fix him like it did Mona?”

“Joseph, what if the medicine kills him?  If he drowns in his own fluids like the others?  There are already five of us, should we make another?  Do we have that right to decide on our own, now that there are more of us?”

“It’s for me to decide, Eve.”  I said sternly. “I made the potion and I will distribute it as I see fit.”

“What ---by killing an innocent young man?” Eve replied with equal force in her voice.

I looked into her eyes.  “I love you. And I hear what you are saying, but Chester deserves life and he will also help us understand the medicine and how it works.”

“If it doesn’t kill him.” Eve snapped.

"If it doesn’t kill him.”  I snapped back.

(To be continued . . . .)

Visit Joseph Ancient’s real web store at  HTTP://WWW.ANCIENTSCOIN.COM