Billy laid shrouded in the mist, the exact same side-effect of the ‘medicine’ we had taken --- but Billy could not have touched a drop of the potion because it is always on my person --- I never leave it where it could be accidentally discovered --- it could devastate life as we know it on earth. (That’s a totally different story for the future). Eve and I didn’t call the others to let them know of this strange occurrence … we had no idea how to explain it to our friends because of the fact that we all decided that we would get together and talk about someone’s fate if it we resolved to save them with the potion. How did Billy come to be in this state? She and I sat in chairs next to a bed where he lay. One of our extra bedrooms would be his home for the next few days.
“Joseph. What do we do now? If he didn’t consume some of the potion, then how is he changing?” Eve was filled with questions regarding our situation. For the first time in a long while, she was shaken by the fact that someone was able to do this outside of our group --- without her making the decision to save them or change them.
“Billy was in my office where I kept at least 50 known meteor coins. I left at least 3 of these out on the table when I went out, thinking I’d be back in an hour and they would be safe. I am speculating that our boy Billy, was startled while looking at one of those coins and popped in his mouth to hide it. He may have accidentally swallowed it since it was an AE4 and small in size, causing the reaction to the meteor residue to set in as it took over his body chemistry. I can’t recall anywhere in history that a person put an ancient Roman coin in their mouth.” I was amused thinking of collectors all over the world popping a Constantine I City Commemorative coin in their mouth for a quick taste. “I am missing one coin from the table. I checked the floor and any place else it may have dropped. I’m certain Billy must be digesting it as we speak.”
“Should we call the others? He may be in this state for days and they are bound to sense something is going when they are here.” Eve was worried that they would think we acted without them.
“No, not yet. Put them off for a day until we see how this all progresses. If Billy ate a coin, then I want to get it back to see if the residue was totally ingested.”
Eve made a face showing her revulsion, “You mean you’re going to pull it out of his waste? Joseph --- we haven’t had to do anything that disgusting in over four-hundred years. I don’t want to even go near that!”
I laughed, “You really are turning into a girly-girl. I’ll take care of things --- as always.”
We managed to put the group off for several days saying that I didn’t want to be disturbed due to a major venture I was working on. They remembered how irritated I would get when I was interrupted during a project and would go out of their way to avoid crossing paths with me until it was over. In a way this is true…Billy has become a major project.
On the third day the mist cocoon began to dissipate so Eve made preparations to bath and feed him as soon as his skin was exposed to the air. We managed to clean him up, dress him and serve him some food, all the while he was staring blankly into space, not saying a word. Eve was wondering what his “crazy time” would be like and what we would do in this age of information with an immortal that goes temporarily insane from the change. The next day after he came back to consciousness, he lay down and slept for 48 more hours. On the morning of the third day we were awakened by the smell of eggs and sausage coming from the downstairs kitchen. Billy was happily cooking breakfast for the three of us as he hummed a popular tune from the radio, smiling as he prepared the food.
“Good morning!” he greeted with great enthusiasm. “I am so happy I didn’t have to wake you both up. I thought we would start our day off with a good nutritious breakfast and talk and go for a walk on this fine sunny morning.”
“Thank you for breakfast, Billy”, I said forcing a smile, “you didn’t have to go through all of this trouble.”
“No problem.” He replied smiling back.
“We do have to have a long talk over breakfast about some changes you are going to experience. We also want to know how this came to be.”
“Mr. Ancient, Mrs. Ancient -- I feel wonderful. I would be happy to talk, but right now I am famished. The food is done – let’s take a seat and eat --- we’ll talk then.”
We moved to the large kitchen table in the corner (I don’t like morning sunlight in my eyes) and made ourselves comfortable enough to eat and discuss the obvious subject – Billy’s change.
“So what happened before I walked in on you in Joseph’s office?” Eve asked.
“I seem to remember looking around and I found a box of chocolates on Mr. Ancient’s desk.” Billy began.
“You can call me Joseph, Billy”. I interrupted for a moment.
“Okay Joseph-Billy . . .” he laughed. Still smiling at his own joke as he continued, “I panicked thinking these were special, so the one I took out of the box I quickly ate and swallowed when Mrs. Ancient --- I mean Eve --- came home and startled me. I ran to the kitchen and must have slipped and hit my head. That’s all I remember --- eating the chocolate and falling down.”
“Billy, that wasn’t a chocolate you ate and swallowed”, I said, “it was an ancient Roman coin. It was one I had collected and was researching. This one contained the residue from a primordial meteor and it exhibited special biological values to humans. When you ingested it, it changed you. You are like us now. You are immortal and no matter how your body is ripped, or burned to ash, or shredded apart, you will reconstitute and come back just as you are --- forever.”
Eve added, “Do you understand? We can teach you and show you things you never dreamed of.”
Billy continued to eat and smile at us. He replied by saying, “Oh, okay.”
(To be continued . . . .)
