Chapter 6: Eli Flies

It had been a long, emotional day. Eli seemed to have no problem with the idea of selling the egg, but Dawson sensed that she was a bit too eager. He suspected that she was unconsciously trying to please him; after all, she was only 12 years old. Initially, he was positive that this was a good thing for them, but the nagging feeling that he was missing something made him decide to step back and be a bit more cautious. He decided she needed time to put the egg in its proper perspective now that she was aware of the vital part it played in both her and Lord Törnkvist’s destiny. Another factor was Eli’s odd way of offhandedly dismissing the value of any of her possessions, including money. The three of them had finally decided to wait awhile before making any decisions. After all, they had plenty of time. They had also decided to put it in a safety deposit box at the bank until the final decision was made. He had finally convinced them that, if it were ever stolen and the thief tried to sell it, its great value could attract enough attention to eventually lead the authorities back to Eli. Dawson had assured her that if Oskar became too boring, or if she just felt like she wanted it around for a few days, she could retrieve it at any time. He thought that this would be the best way for him to see how she really felt about it.

He was going over all his notes in detail, making sure he had adjusted all his conclusions based on his original understanding of the infection timeline. He had prepared some injections of Eli’s blood plasma in preparation for animal testing, mindful of the consequences of infection. He had also stripped out the Phyllostomatid Bat sex chromosome pairs from another cultured batch and replaced it with a standard human male pair, which Oskar had been happy, even eager, to provide for him. Standardized tests with human DNA worked better if the DNA appeared to be human.

Now that he knew Elias had been born a boy, he had looked for the normal XY male chromosome more carefully. Since Elias had stopped aging before puberty, he was uncertain what he would find, although it looked like the human male sex pair had been completely dominated or replaced by the others.

An interesting consequence of this to Dawson was that Eli’s mannerisms and body language were more feminine than masculine, while her thought processes were more generally like those of a 12-year-old boy. If he hadn’t known her special circumstances, he would have just considered her an average tomboy. Could this be some sort of primordial confusion, or blurring of the sexual identity lines, caused by the presence of both male and female sex chromosomes? She also had almost no sense of modesty. Lately, she had walked in on Oskar and him several times completely nude without any sign of embarrassment. Most 12-year olds -boys OR girls - wouldn’t do that under any circumstances. Oskar’s joke about him having to remind her to wear clothes when she went out might have been at least partially based on experience. Could this also be a result of this sexual confusion? Or is it merely because of her 200-year isolation from society and her final psychological acceptance of her sexual neutrality?

His next step was to examine her ability to grow wings, claws, and fangs or anything else. He wanted to watch the process carefully, and take samples (if she’d let him) He also needed to decide what Eli’s real grade level was. He smiled as he realized that she was probably better than most at Scandinavian history, having lived it herself for over 220 years. But she was also able to keep up with Oskar effortlessly in everything else. What would her upper limit be, as an eternal 12-year old? High-school level? College? There was no way of knowing – yet.

He also wasn’t sure what he really wanted to find a “cure”:for. Super strength? Flying? Ability to regenerate body parts? Absence of aging? Acute vision? Super-sensitive hearing? It would be too bad if she had to lose these, in order to lose the worst of them: Extreme, almost uncontrollable predatory instincts? Savage aggression? Blood-drinking? Carrier of Infectious disease? Fangs? Claws? Talons? He was almost certain that it would end up being all or nothing.

If he found this miracle cure then, Eli would become a normal, aging 12-year-old child. At least as normal as is possible for a child who had experienced an unspeakably horrible, unimaginably painful total castration and amputation, while still conscious. He shuddered as he vividly recalled the memory – and the pain. How on earth had Elias remained sane after everything that happened to him? Not only sane, but basically decent, and even altruistic. There seemed to be more to Elias’ character than met the eye. What kind of man would he have become if he had been allowed to lead a normal life? Did his experiences turn him into this remarkable, exceptional child, or would he have been the same as an 18th century adult? He shook his head. These didn’t seem to be questions he could answer as a scientist.

============

Eli rinsed the shampoo out of her hair, turned off the water and climbed out of the tub. She grabbed a towel, dried off, went into the bedroom and sat on the edge of the bed, drying her hair. Oskar looked up from his math book, “It’s about time!.” He peeled off his clothes, picked Eli’s clothes off the floor and gave her a dirty look, “You know where these go, right? In the clothes hamper?”

She stuck out her tongue, and threw the towel at him. “Since you’re heading that direction anyway, take this with you.” She smiled pleadingly, “Please?”

Oskar grumbled, pretended to be mad, and went into the bathroom.

As soon as she heard the shower running, Eli tiptoed out into the kitchen, threw some ice cubes into the water pitcher, filled it up, and snuck back to the bathroom.. She peeked around the corner. All clear! She snuck up to the shower curtain, jerked it aside suddenly, and poured the ice cold water over his head.

Oskar’s eyes got huge and he gasped for breath as the ice cubes bounced against the wall and clattered in the bottom of the tub. “ELI!!! I’m gonna get you for that!” He jumped out of the tub, just as she was disappearing around the corner, after trying unsuccessfully to slam the door shut behind her.

The bathroom door slammed against the wall as he lumbered after her, his wet feet slipping on the floor as he turned the corner and bounced off the opposite wall. He caught a glimpse of her back, before she disappeared around the corner at the end of the hall as he scrambled after her. Too late, he realized she was going to backtrack through the kitchen and head for the bathroom, where she would be able to lock him out.

He skidded to a stop, reversed direction and was just able to grab her arm as she rounded the corner towards the bathroom, but she slipped out of his soapy grasp easily, and, without losing any speed, lunged for the door. Oskar threw himself after her and caught the door just before she closed it, but his momentum carried him right into her as she was scrambling back into the tub. They both fell in a heap in the bottom of the tub, as Eli, laughing hysterically, tried to fend him off, but he was so slippery she couldn’t get a grip on him.

“You’re as slick as a greased pig!” she yelled, still laughing.

Oskar flipped her over face up, slid her toward the drain until her face was directly under the shower, and began tickling her mercilessly. She was laughing so hard by this time that even she couldn’t catch her breath. “You… should…. have seen….your face!” She puffed out her cheeks and opened her eyes super-wide, as she started laughing again.

Oskar grabbed her around the neck with both hands, and shook her. Eli crossed her eyes and let her tongue hang out, pretending to be choked. She flopped around for a second, threw her arms up, sighed melodramatically, and feigned death, her eyes closed, and her tongue still hanging out. Oskar gave her one last shake, but she didn’t move a muscle. “That’ll teach you!” he said sternly, and then gently took her head in his hands. He leaned over and kissed her on the forehead. “I love you!. So much!” he said quietly.

She smiled at him, grabbed him around the neck and kissed him back. “I love you too, Oskar.”

She stood up with him, carefully stepped out of the tub, grabbed a new towel and dried herself off again. She flashed him a grin, and stepped into the bedroom. Oskar finished washing off the soap, turned off the shower, and, as he began drying himself, could hear Eli still giggling in the bedroom.

Oskar carefully lifted the corner of the heavy cardboard and saw that the sun was just coming up. They had actually stayed up a bit longer than usual. He hung the towel up and went into the bedroom. Eli was already in bed with the covers pulled up to her chin.

He climbed in beside her, lay on his back and put his hands behind his head.

Eli turned toward him and watched him for a minute, “Are you ok? What are you thinking about?”

“I was just thinking about something the Professor said last night. He said that I, and especially you, would certainly out-live him.”

“I can’t think about that. It’s too sad to think about.”

“But you don’t understand! By the time the Professor dies, I’ll be old. You won’t want to be with me any more. And what if I don’t want to be with you? Right now, I don’t hang around with kids that are even two or three years younger than me; and I’m sure they find me just as boring. What if you don’t like me any more when I’m older?”

“Oskar, I will always love you. You are MY Oskar and that will never change. I have thought about what would happen if you were to grow up and find a girl your age and want to have a family. But I know I could understand and be happy for you. I have even thought about when you will …die and leave me alone again. It’s an almost unbearable thought! I know I’ll be alone forever after you die!”

“But, if you were to infect me, we could be together forever. Maybe…”

“NO! Oskar, I asked you once if you wanted to be like me, and you said no. Since then, I have decided that I will NEVER infect you, even if it means I’ll lose you. I will never deliberately make anyone have to go through what I have gone through. I’ve even thought about killing myself on the day that you die.”

Oskar was horrified, “How can you think like that?! You can’t die! You can’t!”

She smiled gently at him, “Oskar, we are here together now. Let’s just think about that. We’ll be together for a long time. Let’s not spoil it by worrying about things we can’t do anything about. I love you more than anything. That’s all I want to think about.” She took both his hands in hers and pressed them to her chest.

Oskar snuggled up against her. But he could now see clearly that as every day went by they were being separated more and more by time. He had always looked forward to growing up. Now he knew that, by growing up, he was leaving behind everything he cared about. He fell into an uneasy sleep and dreamt that he was on a train, looking out the window as it pulled away from the station platform. He was crying as he watched Eli’s beautiful face disappear in the distance.

=====================================

Dawson climbed the stairs, walked into the living room, took a quick detour into the kitchen and unloaded his ice chest into Eli’s small lab refrigerator. “Come and get it!”

Eli and Oskar came into the kitchen. “Why did you bring it here?” Eli asked, “You usually give it to me in your office after our tests, except on weekends. Besides, isn’t tomorrow my normal day?”

“Well, since we’re going on an excursion, and you are going to get a good workout, I thought you might need a booster – and I really want to make sure you’re very well fed this evening.” He remembered her warnings about how easy it was for her to lose control when she was hungry, and he didn’t want to take any chances.

“Ok. Would you hand me one please?” She had become so good at staying in control when she ate, that she often joined them at the table. Not as often as she would like, however, because she had noticed that it now bothered them more than it did her. Dawson handed her a bag, and she casually walked past them into the living room so they wouldn’t have to watch.

“Where are we going, exactly?” Oskar asked.

“It’s a small lake 20 or so kilometers north called Fårsjön lake. It’s just south of Forshaga. There’s no one around for miles, and there’s a large open field next to the lake, so we should have plenty of room.”

Eli walked past them, and helped herself to another bag. “You’re sure there’s no one nearby that could see us?”

“It's pretty inaccessible and the lake is relatively shallow, so ice fishing is no good…. Where on Earth did you get those pants?!”

Eli smiled at him, “These are my lucky pants. I was wearing them when I met Oskar, and I feel lucky tonight for some reason.”

“Oskar must have been very understanding, or perhaps color-blind. I know! He must have felt sorry for you,” he joked.

“Don’t laugh at me! I really like these pants!” She pretended to pout.

Oskar chimed in, “Just look at them! They’re beautiful” Eli spun around a couple of times.

Dawson looked at his watch, “Well kids, we’d better get going. We’ve got a lot to do before morning. He threw a few soft drinks in the ice chest and headed for the stairs. Oskar and Eli put on their jackets, and followed him out the door.

*****

His car pulled up to the railing at the end of the road. Eli and Oskar got out and stood together at the edge of the lake, while Dawson opened the trunk and took out his briefcase and a medical bag. He set up a small collapsible table on the small stretch of beach and started laying out his notebook and a few sample racks. The full moon and clear sky provided plenty of light. They could actually see their shadows against the snow in the moonlight.

He looked up as Eli took off her jacket and shoes, and walked barefoot back to the car. She took off her sweater and threw it with her clothes into the back seat and walked over to Dawson, waiting for him to get set up.

She looks so frail and small, he thought, Well, looks are certainly deceiving. “Are you ready?”

Eli nodded.

“Ok, now. Do your thing” He watched as she placed her fists at her sides, and in one smooth motion, raised them over her head. The wings seemed to appear as if by magic, more fluid, and more quickly than they had in his office that day. The whole process only lasted a few seconds, accompanied by a sound like someone softly uncrinkling a ball of plastic wrap. Much quieter and smoother than before. She had obviously done it slowly the first time, for the exaggerated effect it had close up, and in the light of the office. He barely got a glimpse of the spider-like threads before the inky fluid filled in the spaces and solidified into the familiar, almost sinister, bat-like wings. “May I?” he asked as he reached out to touch them.

Eli grinned and nodded, as she brought her arms down a bit from the vertical. Dawson ran his fingers along an edge. How thin they are! He thought. They feel velvety like the skin of a Manta Ray, but they’re not damp. They’re too black, almost surreal. “Can you feel this?” he asked, as he ran his fingers over them again.

“Yes. I can feel everything. When I’m flying, I can feel every little change in pressure, every small change in the wind, and even temperature differences. I can almost feel your fingerprint patterns where you are touching them. The feeling is … very hard to describe. All I can tell you is that sometimes when I am flying, I feel …happy.”

He stepped back and looked at the overall structure. The basic framework supporting the webbing seemed to be three gracefully curved bone-like projections, all as long, or longer than her arm, one coming off her elbow, and the other two forking away from just below her wrist. All three seemed to originate at peculiar ball-and socket joints, that seemed to allow free movement only along a line parallel to her arm. Of course! Otherwise, they would flop around uselessly. The effect was striking. When her arms were directly over her head, the tips of her wings were over ten feet above the ground. “May I take a small sample of the webbing?” He picked up a syringe.

Eli nodded. “Will it hurt?” She stepped closer to him.

He looked up surprised. Normally, Eli had an extremely high threshold of pain. Then he realized – she had already told him how sensitive her wings were and he had just blown it off. He was so interested in the wings’ construction and composition that he had forgotten that this was Eli at the other end of the syringe.

Enough! I’m not going to do this any more, at least tonight! He abruptly turned and began putting his things back in the bag.

Oskar, who had been watching from the shoreline, walked quickly over to the table and stood next to Eli.

She looked at Dawson anxiously, “Did I do something wrong?” She lowered her arms to her sides, and Dawson, in spite of himself, couldn’t help but notice how beautifully the wings folded and nestled perfectly together, all three spines against her arms, pointing upwards, framing her face like an ancient portrait in the dusty halls of an old museum.

“No,” he said, “I did something wrong! I’ve been treating you more like a lab rat than a person. I’m sorry! Please forgive me.”

“But you didn’t do anything wrong. I’ll do anything you want, if it helps you to find a cure for me.”

“All in good time. Tonight, I just want you to have fun, show off, and tell me more about how it makes you feel. Please, just fly for me.”

Eli smiled, and in one fluid motion, turned, spread her wings, crouched, and with silent grace, leaped into the air. The wind from her wings brushed his hair back and blew a sample rack off the table. Dawson didn’t notice. All he could see was Eli as she quickly gained altitude over the lake. She suddenly banked quickly to the right, then left, flapped her wings and went into a near-vertical climb. She spread her wings out, and let the inertia carry her another 100 feet higher into the air, then just as she stalled out at the top of her climb, folded her wings against her sides and fell straight down over 200 feet. At the last second, she spread her wings and, just before she reached the ice, pulled out of the dive, and glided parallel to the surface, three feet above the ice, heading straight towards them.

Oskar leaped up and shouted “Bravo!!” clapping his hands. He ran over to the car and began honking the horn, spelling out “Eli, Eli, Eli” in Morse code.

Dawson heard a loud snort behind him. He spun around, just in time to see a huge Moose 30 feet away with its ears back and head down, starting toward Oskar. “Oskar! Get behind the car!”

Oskar tried to scramble over the hood but slid off, directly into the path of the charging moose. He tried to scramble to his feet, but he knew it was too late. He could see the moose bearing down on him, antlers lowered.

He dropped to the ground and rolled up in a ball, his hands covering his head, just as he heard a loud bark and saw a dark shape pass over his head, smashing head-on into the moose with a sickening thump. He watched in horror as Eli’s wings were shredded on the antlers and her body tumbled over and over in the air before hitting the ground hard and rolling to a stop, leaving a bloody trail in the snow. The moose shook its head, snorted, turned and charged at Eli’s motionless form, but just before he reached her, she stumbled to her feet, eyes blazing, fangs out and her clawed hands in front of her, the wreckage of her wings hanging in tatters from her arms. He could see blood on her chest, just before the Moose hit her again. She dug her claws into his neck and bit down hard as he pinned her body to the ground and twisted his head back and forth. Her teeth ripped open his jugular and blood poured out as he shuddered, then collapsed on top of her.

Oskar and Dawson rushed over to her. She was lying on her back, the Moose’s huge antlers still pinning her to the ground. Her eyes were open and blood was everywhere. As Dawson leaned down, her dark eyes turned menacingly towards him; she hissed, bared her fangs, and swung at him with a clawed hand. Her other arm was lying motionless at her side, twisted at an odd angle. He ducked and stepped back quickly, as Oskar fell on her and wrapped his arms around her. “Eli! Please be still. You’re hurting yourself!”. She struggled for a few seconds, making guttural animal sounds, but gradually her struggles subsided, and she became still.

Dawson ran to the car, grabbed the ice chest and an axe out of the trunk, went a few meters out onto the lake and smashed a hole in the ice. He filled the chest with water and rushed back to them.

He motioned for Oskar to get out of the way as he dropped his bag next to her, dampened a towel and began clearing away the blood. He had to be able to see her wounds before he could help her. Eli’s eyes followed his every move. She tried several times to say something, but couldn’t. His hands started to tremble, but he forced himself to concentrate. He knew that she would be as good as dead if she were human. Could she really survive this? He wasn’t going to take any chances. He took off his jacked and put it under her head to make her more comfortable. She managed a faint smile, then grimaced and closed her eyes. He looked down and saw a huge tear in her chest just below her rib cage. He cleaned it as best he could, but blood welled up in it as quickly as he wiped it away. He finally gave up and pressed the towel on it, “Oskar, hold this here. Press down but not too hard. We have to stop the bleeding.” Oskar quickly sat down beside her and held the towel.

Eli opened her eyes again. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry”

“Shh! Don’t try to talk. What could you possibly have to be sorry about? You saved Oskar’s life – again.”

“I’m sorry I tried to hurt you before. When you tried to help me.”

“Is that the best you could do? I don’t think you’d win any vampire medals for that feeble attempt.”

She smiled, reached down, gently took Oskar’s hand off the towel and removed it. The wound was completely healed. Only a faint jagged red line remained. She reached across her body, picked up her other arm, straightened it, and laid it on her chest, the broken bones still visible through the wound. Dawson watched in amazement as the bones knit and it slowly healed itself before his eyes. He stood up, relieved. “I guess you don’t need me after all.”

Eli reached up and took his hand, and held it tight. “Please, stay”

He knelt back down beside her “Can I give you anything for the pain? Oskar! Help me move the Moose’s head. We need to see if she has any other injuries.”

The two of them were just barely able to lift the head enough to pull it to the side. Dawson carefully removed her blood-soaked pants, then looked up at her sadly, “Your beautiful wings!” He was afraid to touch any part of them, for fear the pain would be excruciating for her. He saw that there were tears in her eyes, and quickly grabbed her hand, “What’s wrong?!” He grabbed a towel, dipped it in the ice chest and began cleaning the blood off her legs, looking for more damage.

“It's just that … no one has ever…taken care of me before. No one has ever said kind things to me, until Oskar. And now, you.” She closed her eyes, as more tears welled up.

Dawson continued to clean her up, making two or three more trips to the lake for water. He wrapped her in his granddaughter’s blanket from the back seat, while Oskar rinsed out the towels and cleaned himself up as best he could. Dawson watched as what was left of her wings seemed to wither, dry up and turn to a fine powder. The remains of the gracefully curved bones slowly retracted back into her arms.

She suddenly got a concerned look on her face as she tried to raise herself on her elbows, “Oskar!! Are my pants OK?”

“They’re fine,” Oskar grinned as he raised them up, dripping wet, from the pile of rinsed towels.

Dawson began to load up the car. I almost lost them both tonight. Oskar would have died instantly, and Eli… I’m not sure she is as immortal as she thinks she is. She seemed too close to death to me. And I don’t know if I could survive losing two people I love, a second time. He held his trembling hands in front of him, then crossed them over his chest, trying to get control. He took a deep breath and walked back over to the children. “Ok, let’s get out of here before something else comes out of the forest.” He reached down to pick Eli up.

“That’s ok, I think I can walk now,” she said as she pulled her knees up.

“No! Please…let me at least do this for you,” he said gently, as he carefully adjusted the blanket around her, and lifted her in his arms. She smiled at him, and wrapped her arm around his neck, as he carried her to the car, and gently laid her in the back seat. “Now, I want you to stay put until we get you home.”

Oskar climbed into the front seat, and they started back for Karlstad. Nobody spoke.

The lights from the city were visible ahead, when they heard Eli stirring in the back seat. “Professor?”

“Yes, Eli?”

“I’m hungry.”

He laughed, “Well, that’s something I CAN do for you”