Pulse of Heroes (30 page)

“That’s how I met Kahl. He was working the
trade routes from Sabatu in modern day Yemen all the way to lower
Egypt. We became business partners and eventually good friends. It
was only then that I learned that he too had the same abilities as
Devin and myself. And we made a pact to search for others like us,
and to search out the truth about who we really are.”

“Did he know who his father was? Are you guys
all brothers?” a very excited Michelle asked. Elliot let out a sigh
of frustration and stretched out his arms and legs. He stood up and
began to slowly pace back and forth while telling Michelle that
they weren’t brothers, but what they did find out was that each one
of them was not raised by his birthparents, and each one of them
had a mother who died either in childbirth or from later
complications. Michelle was about to ask if the same was true for
the rest of the guys at the school, and Elliot answered that with a
yes before she could even form the question.

“Yes, every single one of us has a similar
beginning, and each one of us has been searching for our genesis in
every history, story and myth the world over.” Michelle was
beginning to get a glimpse through the window of Elliot’s reality.
Elliot was still searching, and the fact that he had lived for
thousands of years and had magical powers didn’t change any of
that. She was also realizing that she could never be there with him
and share his feelings like his friends could. She could never
understand how he felt and who he truly was. She was a human being,
a lesser being without any mystery at all.

Michelle nervously asked him if any of them
had figured anything out about what they might be; if he wasn’t
completely human, then was there another name for their type?
Elliot laughed sarcastically and told her that they didn’t know
what to call themselves but that humans had found many great names
for them.

“Monsters, daemons, Satan… and then there is
the total opposite: Angels, Gods, Demigods. You name it we’ve been
called it.” Michelle felt Elliot’s anger seeping out of him. She
wanted to come up with a good answer for him, but she was just as
lost as he was. She assumed that if Elliot kept talking about it he
would somehow reveal the answer to his own mystery. Maybe the
answer was there all along and just needed someone with a fresh
mind to find it. So she asked him if he had ever returned to Eridu
to try and find out more about his past. Elliot told her that he
had never returned to his birth land once he had settled in the
land of Canaan, and later in Israel. He told her that during those
years many wars had swept over the entire region of Mesopotamia,
and that the original inhabitants of many lands were no longer
there. He told her that he himself had fought in some of those
wars, and he proudly announced that he even served under Sargon the
Great. He told her that Sargon was one of his kind, then added that
many of the famous leaders in history were also no different than
he and his friends.

“A lot of times you’ll read a story about
some leader coming from an obscure background with poor parents or
no parents at all, and how he miraculously rose to power. That’s an
easy way for you to spot people like me in the history books. It’s
because we have no real fathers, and we’re always forced to come up
with some story. I’m sure you studied about Cyrus The Great?”
Michelle shook her head, and Elliot looked back at her confused.
“What do you mean? Don’t you study Western History? He was one of
the most amazing political and social leaders in the world. How can
they not still teach his legacy?” he asked, obviously disturbed by
her response. Michelle lifted her shoulders as a way to signal to
him that she didn’t know what he was talking about,

“I’m sorry,” she said feeling bad. “I think
maybe in College we can choose to study that History.” Michelle
shifted the spotlight back to Elliot and asked him if he was forced
to fight in any of the wars he had told her about.

“I did many times, but it was more a question
of preservation. I often met others of my kind when we were the
only two left standing after a long, drawn-out battle. That was how
we gradually discovered that there were others out there who were
like Devin and myself. We ended up forming friendships many times,
but at other times we just walked away from one another, only to
meet a century later in another war. Michelle tried to imagine
Elliot in some ancient fighting gear, and the picture of him as a
great warrior floated in her mind until she realized that to be
considered a great warrior one must champion over many, and she
knew that that meant death to others.

“So I assume you have killed many people?”
Michelle asked in a somewhat demeaning tone. And yet she was afraid
of the answer. Elliot looked down at his feet for a second, but
then returned his gaze to look straight in Michelle’s eyes. He was
not about to take any condemnation from a girl who had lived in the
protective bubble of the United States of America her entire life.
If she only knew how people had been forced to fight to survive
during most of human history. There was no calling ‘911’ for help.
Society had demanded its men to be strong and tough in order to
protect their lands, their wives, and children, by the sword when
necessary. Elliot saw most modern men as soft and spoiled, worrying
about which car they drove or which sports team won on TV. They
loved watching movies about tough guys, but could they do the same?
They wouldn’t last five minutes against a real enemy, he thought.
He laughed at the muscle bound gym rats that built up their bodies
out of pure vanity, and he even derided the modern military, not
because the individual soldiers weren’t sincere, but because of all
the new political policies that put their lives at stake and
prevented them from pursing the enemy as needed. He was familiar
with all kinds of enemies from his past, and some of them were
still out there. They had a much stronger resolve than the
constrained soldier of today.

Elliot was obviously upset talking about such
things. His eyes glowed and changed colors. First the blue of his
eyes changed shades from dark to light and then they took on
different shades of green, while his pupils glowed in yellows and
gold. Michelle sat on the couch staring at him and her heart filled
with apprehension. She mused that there in front of her sat a
creature that only looked human, a forgery of the real thing, and
she was no longer sure if it was a good idea to get too close to
him. When Elliot noticed the way Michelle leaned back away from him
with alarm, he realized that he had frightened her and he wanted to
leave at once. But he knew that if he left abruptly it would make
him seem all the more cold and uncaring, which would frightened her
even more. He hated it when he scared people. He hated it because
it made him feel that much further from being one of them; it made
him feel like an outsider, a monster. But maybe it was a good thing
if Michelle grew frightened of him? She would leave him alone if
she feared him, and then he wouldn’t have to think about what he
felt for her because the situation would be out of his hands
completely.

Elliot looked at the door desperately, and
when Michelle picked up on his thoughts her expression quickly
changed from nervousness to worry. She hadn’t meant to judge him,
and she didn’t want him to leave. Elliot’s eyes searched the room,
landing on the clock that read 7:15 PM, and he got up from the
couch.

“Elliot, I’m sorry I didn’t mean to sound
like that,” Michelle said, trying not to sound too desperate. “I
know that people die in wars. It’s just that the idea of it is so
foreign to me. I’ve never been in a battle. I’m sorry.”

Elliot was touched by Michelle’s
vulnerability and the fact the she didn’t hide it from him. It was
one of the things that attracted him to her to begin with. Yes, she
tried to play games with her feelings, and yes she put on a front
and tried her best to pry herself out of uncomfortable situations,
but in the end, she was completely honest about what was in her
heart. She didn’t feel embarrassed by her feelings. They were pure,
even if they included fear or anger.

In a softer tone Elliot told her that he had
been a soldier in many wars and had fought for numerous countries.
But he was done with that. He had realized that greed and want of
power were society’s biggest ills, and even good leaders with good
intentions succumbed to their temptations. “There is nothing anyone
can do to stop it, not religion, not government, and not war. It
has to be stopped from within, but people are people and they
haven’t really changed much in all those years. With all the
technology and knowledge being lost and then found again, it has
all remained the same.” He smiled at her sadly. He had realized
that no leader was worth the sweat of his brow or a drop of his
blood. “I’m telling you about the world of yesterday, but you live
in the here and now, in today. What happened in my past is no
longer relevant to what I’m doing now.” He suddenly realized how
very tired Michelle looked and worried about her getting enough
rest. He knew that she was still recovering from her drowning, and
also suspected that her parents would be arriving home soon. He
wasn’t sure if talking about these subjects was a good idea. It
obviously upset her and she needed to be as calm and comfortable as
possible for the healing process to really work. Don’t shut me out,
Michelle wanted to plead to him, but she was afraid she might sound
desperate. But then the next words that came out of her mouth did
so without her even thinking about what they meant.

“I wish I could have been there with you, to
see all those things and…” Michelle immediately regretted her
words; she wished she could press a button and rewind time, but it
was too late. The words were out there and they revealed that she
would not have minded spending all those years next to him. She had
put herself out there, and now she could really get hurt or
rejected. But Elliot just smiled at her and put his hand on her
cheek like he did the first night he came to see her.

“Michelle, I wouldn’t want you to be there
with me. No one should have to bear the sadness of more than one
human lifetime. I don’t know how I do it sometimes. All that I’ve
seen and learned does not make up for the loss.”

“But what about the happiness and the good
things that come in life? “She still wished that Elliot could snap
his fingers and they could both be transformed to another time in
some distant land. She wished she were far away from Willow’s
Creek, a place where she was stuck being a teenager in high school.
Maybe she could live in a sunny port town with Elliot by her side
and watch merchants sell salted fish out of baskets. She had a
faraway smile on her face.

“There are always good things in life, and
those never change. But I have outlived each and every one of them.
I have seen rivers disappear and oceans reclaim whole cities. It’s
hard for me to look back and see the lively places I have traveled
to reduced to mere ruins. There are so many people who wish to stay
alive longer but they don’t really know what they are asking for.
They are blessed that they have an end, which is always the
beginning of something else. What has happened to me is kind of a
curse. I envy you and everybody else. I’m stuck walking but never
getting anywhere.” Michelle didn’t like hearing Elliot refer to his
own life as a curse. She was only beginning to get to know him, and
to her he was a miracle.

After their last meeting Elliot did not visit
Michelle for four excruciating days. She knew that he went out of
town and would be back soon but that didn’t seem to matter. She
missed him horribly, more than she would have ever imagined. She
felt so abandoned by him even though she knew that it wasn’t true.
But how could she know that he wasn’t visiting another girl. He was
way too good looking to be out there without other women noticing
him. Michelle’s insecurities dug deep into her mind and refused to
let her rest. By Thursday evening Michelle thought that she would
go crazy if she didn’t see him or at least get some sort of message
from him. And at bedtime between silent tears Michelle whispered
Elliot’s name hoping that by some means he would hear her. Just
maybe he would be able to sense her sadness and return.

Friday, when Michelle returned home from
school the mailman had delivered a small package in her name. Once
upstairs in her room, Michelle went straight to her desk and looked
at the nondescript brown wrapping. It was small, a little larger
than a crayon box, and had no return address. She shook the box and
heard nothing unusual rattle in there. What she found inside
surprised her and excited her beyond belief. It was a brand new
cell phone. It was almost identical to the one she used to have,
only newer and with more features. At first she wondered if her mom
bought it after seeing that her old one was broken and was only
playing a joke on her. But then she noticed a folded piece of
notepaper taped to the backside of the box. She removed it
carefully making sure that it didn’t rip and when she unfolded it
she couldn’t believe what she saw written on it:

Dearest Michelle, I’m sorry about what
happened to your phone and hope this one will do as a
replacement.

Yours Truly, Elliot

Michelle’s heart almost burst with relief.
The gift meant that Elliot was thinking about her, even if she
wasn’t around him. He cared about her and the cell phone was
evidence for that. Later that evening during dinner her mom asked
her what was in the package and Michelle told her that it was an
‘inside’ joke from her friends. That explanation seemed to satisfy
her, but Michelle knew that she would have to come up with a better
answer because to use the phone her mother would have to agree to
activate it.