The Two Gingers

The Ancients and friends were called away on business.  Joseph told me to recap a few of his old thoughts.  Enjoy the mid-season reruns.
- R J Perry

 

“I see Joseph is really pushing his website.”  Tommy said as he scrolled through the ‘House of Ancient Coins and Curios’ website, “He really throws caution out the window when it comes to his obsessions.”

Lori put her head on Tommy’s shoulder and peeked at the display screen. “He’s never let any of us down and he has always protected us. He knows what he is doing.  I really miss them all.  It’s been too years since we saw each other face to face and Skyping just isn’t the same as being there.”  She kissed his cheek and moved back to making breakfast.

“It looks like Jago, Mona, Dani and Chester moved to Missouri.  It must be that time again.” The red haired man looked up from the display. “It’s been about 40 years since we moved to Texas.  We have to keep the promise.”

“I’m ready for a change”. Lori said as she flipped some sausage, “It will be so good to be with the others.  Has anyone heard from Neecie and Adam?”

“They’re still in London, enjoying the Queens country.” Tommy joked.  “I think they will be moving to Missouri, too.”

Lori placed 2 plates on the kitchen table, tossing her long red locks to the side before sitting down.  Tommy joined her at breakfast and complimented her cooking with a kiss to the hand and a thank you for going through the trouble.  After finishing the eggs sausage and toast, Lori continued the conversation.

“So, when do we move?” she asked.

“Well, we can have a Realtor sell the house while we are gone.  We can leave next week.  I‘m sure Joseph and Eve have plenty of room for us while we look for a new place to live.”

“Sounds like a plan.  The two gingers are off to the Midwest.”

Tommy smiled, got up from the table and waved his hand over the dishes, sending them gently to the sink.

 

Visit Joseph's real website: http://www.ancientscoin.com

One Cool Spring Night

The Ancients and friends were called away on business.  Joseph told me to recap a few of his old thoughts.  Enjoy the mid-season reruns. 
- R J Perry

Once in “Blue Moon” my friends and I get together for dinner and drinks to remember the wonderful times we had in our youth.  It was on a cool spring evening that several of us and our spouses settled in at a local outdoor grill for food and laughter encouraged by our bottomless beer mugs.

“Jago” brought his wife Mona and Chester brought Dani. I of course brought Eve and we all dominated the area of the patio where we were sitting.  Jago (we still don’t remember why he is called “Jago”, but we knew it wasn’t his real name), was laughing loudly enough to annoy the table next to us into taking their drinks to the inside of the bar rather than remain by us.  He smiled widely as he threw back the rest of his glass of beer with a loud gulp.

“Ah, these are the times, eh friends?”

Chester (who also adopted that name instead of his birth name) agreed by raising his glass.  Mona shook her head as Dani and Eve looked at each other with an expression that said “Oh no, not again”.

Jago looked at me with an impish grin and asked, “So I see you have gone public to the world with that website - “House of Ancient Coins and Junk”.

I corrected him. “That’s house of Ancient Coins and Curios, and I haven’t really gone public, I am just arousing their curiosity”.

“Looks like that could be dangerous to the rest of us.” Chester said with concern.

The ladies decided to adjourn to the bar area as we began to discuss a very old subject.  They didn’t want to know too much about the others spouse.  Jago poured us each another round and sat down.

“Don’t worry”, I assured them, “they would never believe any of us, even if we were honest to their faces.  It’s too hard to accept the truth, so we give a little to mislead”.

“You sound more like you teasing them”, Chester said as he took a drink.

“Why do you share these things, and why do you continue to buy and sell?” Jago asked.

I replied, “The older I get the harder it is to remember everything.  I suppose it’s nature’s way of keeping our minds fresh and sharp.  No one has done what we have done.”

“Why coins?” asked Jago.

“They are easy to store and I can pull them out to reminisce whenever I like.  Aren’t either of you having the same problem?”

They both agreed with a nod.

I continued, “I have many of these trinkets to offer everyone.  When you hold one in your hand it makes me feel like I am there, in the desert or walking the streets of Rome. That’s why I am offering these coins and artifacts to everyone.  They can experience this too.  Why don’t you guys try it?”

“Do you have any with you? “ Jago asked.

“No.  Go to www.ancientscoin.com and buy some!”

“You would charge us?” laughed Chester.

“Do you want to remember?” I asked them. “Then like everyone else go to House of Ancient Coins and Curios and pick up something. Hold history in your hands boys!”

“Ah, you’re an idiot”, Jago said waving his hand, “but here’s to the good old days!” He stood and gestured his glass to toast.

The girls came back out at that moment and looked at each other with a look that said “It’s going to be a long night”.

Chester (Conclusion)

We couldn’t stop Chester’s revenge --- it was streaming to the old woman’s house in a wave of red heat.  First, an enraged and newly immortalized (did I mention he was indestructible?) Chester rocketed out of his house with a blade held high in the air.  He was immediately followed by our men, who in turn raised their blades in the gesture soldier’s would use when running forward into battle.  Eve and I followed with apprehension, foreseeing the outcome of Chester’s augmented rage.

“Joseph, “she said as she gulped huge breaths of air from the long run, “we can’t stop him or our men.”

“I know.  We will need to leave this place as quickly as possible once this is finished.”  Eve caught her breath, looked up at me and smiled.  She pulled a blade from beneath her robes that was hidden, strapped to her inner thigh. “I can’t let Chester murder an old woman.”

She ran toward the screams and clanging of metal. “So you’ll do it for him?!” I yelled questioning her with my arms up as she disappeared around a corner.  “I am going to have to have a serious and long talk with her tomorrow,” I said to myself, striding away from the battle shaking my head side to side in futility and disbelief.  I sat myself down under a tree looking down over the valley where the sun was coming up.  The fighting went on for about thirty minutes, and then the silence followed as the men killed the wounded and then set the house on fire to cleanse it.

Eve found me sitting under the tree and took her place next to me.  She was covered in blood, from her chin to her thighs and Chester followed her, smiling and nodding silently, victoriously.

I looked at them both and scolded, “Murder is never the answer!  Revenge cannot fix the past! And you --- Eve!  What kind of teacher are you?!  You have upset me more than you will ever know.”

“Joseph, she deserved . . . .”

I cut Eve off in mid-sentence, “She deserved to be punished, but not to death!”  I walked off into the morning sunlight leaving Chester and my wife to fend for themselves.  Our men ransacked the old women’s house after killing her husband and sons, and then set their slaves free.

I heard Eve calling after me as I continued to make my way to our home.  Upon arriving I changed clothes, packed a sack of my belongings and walked out the front of our house.  I found Eve standing with Chester waiting for me (Eve was afraid to confront me) --- she saw my bag and ran to me.

“What are you doing?” she asked in apprehension. “Where are you going?”

“I have had enough! You are turning into someone that doesn’t care anymore.  We are here to help people, not kill them.  I am going away on my own.  You can take care of Chester; teach him what he needs to know.  I am going to make peace with myself for creating monsters.”

Eve wept, “Joseph, I’m sorry!  Please don’t go.  We’ve been together for so long.  I promise I’ll be good and think before I act!  Please!” She pleaded.  “Please don’t go.  I love --- need you”

Chester put his arm around Eve to comfort her, but she shrugged him off.  I looked back at them and began to walk into the unknown.  Chester will be fine with Eve --- she will be like a mother to him.  It’s what they both needed for now.  As for me, I will spend the next one hundred years learning more about the potion I created.

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

Chester (Part Five)

After three days of waiting and watching Chester, the thick white mist engulfing his form began to dissipate. Eve and I were amazed at what we saw when the mist was gone – Chester was no longer obese and his skin and muscle tone were as good and as fit looking as anyone’s.  We cleaned him as he lay sleeping, oblivious to what has happened to him and what he has become. 

“He’s a handsome young man.” Eve said smiling as she pulled a clean linen robe over his head.  “He will be happy to be able to move around like everyone else – without someone helping him move his weight around.”

“He’s in for a shock once he sees the change his body has gone through”, I said, “He’s also going to have a tough time with being an indestructible immortal.”

“We’ll help him.  Haven’t we always helped everyone we’ve made?”

I nodded in agreement. “Sure.  We’ve helped them, but we can’t do anything about the crazy time he will go through.  We don’t know what to expect.”

We lied to our men and leaned on their religious beliefs to help us explain what happened to Chester and what caused his change.  We told them that the gods smiled on him, healed him and changed him.  We said Jupiter sent a messenger made of fire to visit Chester to reward him for his kindness to all the people he has helped and been generous to by healing him and taking away his excess weight.  Fortunate for us, these men were fanatics that were trying to destroy all the “others” that believed in the “One God” ---  they were elated to praise Jupiter and have actual evidence that he existed, allowing them to share this and spread the news that the “others” were blasphemers.  This gave them all the more reason to come down on the old women’s house and their small army of thieves.

The following morning, Chester awoke and asked for some food.  It took a few moments for him to notice that he had changed.  He stood up and gasped in shock. He didn’t hear a word when we said that we have many wonderful things to tell him.  He kept feeling himself, first his stomach, then legs and rear, then his face and arms.  For about fifteen minutes he touched and felt himself in disbelief until he finally went to look at his reflection in the polished iron mirror in his parent’s quarters.

“What has happened to me?” he finally asked. “That’s not me in that reflection.  It’s someone else that looks like me but is strong and  . . . .”

“Handsome.” Eve interrupted. She moved to Chester’s side and tried to comfort him.  “You have been given a great gift from Joseph and me.  You were dying.  Do you remember?”

Chester continued to stare at his reflection as Eve spoke on. “The old women’s husband and sons came in and beat you with their hands and feet and they killed Joseph buy running him through with a blade.”

Chester turned away from the reflection and examined Joseph with his gaze. “He is alive, not dead.  Look . . .” he gestured for Eve to look at me, and then returned his gaze to his reflection.

“He is alive because he took the same medicine that we gave to you.  It healed you and changed you.  There is no magic here, just alchemy.”

Chester looked up at the both of us.  He stood about six feet four inches and was as strong as he looked.  We figured that his strength came from carrying around all of the excess weight --- it made him strong enough to lug his bulk around.  He has chestnut brown hair that was quite light for a Roman and large hands --- the kind you would expect from a ship’s mate.

“The old woman let them beat me?  And her husband and sons kicked and punched me hoping I would die?” His voice became louder. “Those sons that mocked me and tormented me every time they saw me?  The sons that pushed me around and made me do things until I cried? I was a small boy all alone . . . .”  At this point he took a deep breath, looked up to the sky and began to weep and wail loudly.

Eve looked at me and quietly said, “Oh,oh.”

Chester ripped the linen garment from his chest and screamed a shrill cry of anger.  Years of suppressed emotion were surfacing causing his body to shake with rage at the thought of what everyone put him through --- how everyone tormented him and used him. With his face as red as the morning horizon he looked about and picked up a sword, swung it a couple times to get the feel and he ran toward the doorway.

Eve and I looked at each other and knew where he was going.  I shook my head and looked at Eve and said, “Oh, oh.”

(To Be Continued . . . .)

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

Chester (Part Four)

“Joseph!” Eve shook me awake, while hiding my mortal wound from the others, as I came back to life with a deep gasp of air. “When were they here?  I am going to rip that old woman apart!”  She growled.

Our men struggled to lift Chester to his bed, attempting to gently put him in place. Eve and I saw that he was alive but unconscious, wheezing with every breath.  She had a furious expression on her face with tears of sorrow in her eyes that made her look like an insane woman on the edge --- because of what they did to Chester, not to me.  He was innocent and regrettably he was as helpless as a child. She loved him and this made revenge her only purpose --- there was little I could do to slow her emotional eruptions down.  When in this state of mind she couldn’t eat, sleep or function normally until her goal for vengeance was accomplished.

“Chester doesn’t sound like he will make it through the night.” I said, while removing my bloodied under garments. “Go check on him and I’ll clean myself.”  I knew this would distract Eve from any retaliation while I thought of a sensible plan of action.  Chester should be our main concern at this moment, nothing else should distract us from the decisions we will have to make.

Eve had a wet cloth in her hand, gently wiping away the blood from Chester’s face as he lay struggling to stay alive on his bed.  Tears were streaming down her cheeks as she calmly set her gaze at the young man, tuning out the surrounding activity in the large room.  I sent our men to watch the front of the house and told them not to disturb us.  When the room had emptied, Eve and I conversed about our next course of action.

“I know what you are thinking”, I said, “there’s already five of us walking the earth and we just left Leneeca only two years ago.  Will we turn everyone we feel sorry for into an indestructible immortal?”  I moved to her side and looked down at Chester fighting to breath, gasping to stay alive. “We have to decide, right now.”

Eve looked at me and shook her head in indecision. “I don’t know.  I have been struggling with the idea of this gift we have.  Is it a gift or a curse, Joseph?  Is long life good?  Only you can answer that right now.  You were six thousand years old when I met you.  Should we be the ones to decide who dies and who lives forever?”

I looked down at Chester and pulled the clay jar from my hidden pocket.  The jar has been with me about seven thousand years . . . . I tried to put the potion in better containers, but it would turn gray and evaporate in seconds.  The peculiar thing about the concoction is that it never runs out or runs low.  I’ve dropped the container and watched it shatter, but the liquid inside fixed it and replenished itself.  I don’t know what fell from the heavens, but it a creature all on its own.  I pulled the stopper out from the jar’s opening, lifted Chester and poured it into his mouth.  He coughed and swallowed and let out a deep moan.  His gasping for air stopped and he sounded like he was falling into a healthy sleep.  Eve watched as I did this and a smile started slowly spreading across her lips.

“This will either kill him or save him.  He has a good heart and a giving and loving spirit.  He deserve to live another day.” I said laying him back down to rest as his skin began to sweat and steam.

Eve looked up with an approving expression and said, “And then there were six.”

(To Be Continued . . . .)

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