Kid Eternity

The door swung open and I staggered into Hemlock’s apartment. Hemlock is one of my few friends. She’s one of the best computer experts around, and a radical feminist. Rule 1 with Hemlock – never bring up breeding with her. I learned that one the hard way.

She stood as I entered. “Well, it’s been three months,” she said. “Any luck?”

I shook my head as I closed the door. “Nothing.” My spiritual guide (I guess that’s what you’d call him), Mr. Keeper had vanished a couple of years before and I’ve been looking for him ever since.

She folded her arms. “You know, you’ve been looking for a long time now and you haven’t found him. Have you ever thought that maybe you won’t?”

“Never.” I pulled off my jacket and tossed it onto her couch. She picked it up with an irritated look on her face and hung it on her coat rack. I slid my glasses up onto my forehead and asked, “Do you mind if I use your shower?”

Hemlock closed her eyes. I know I infuriated her, but I’ve also pulled her out of a jam or two. Actually, when I used the word “friend” before, that may have been a bit of an exaggeration.

“You know where it is,” she finally conceded as she sat back down at her computer. “But if you’re bleeding, you scrub it when you’re done! I almost never got the stains out last time!”

I smiled at her. “Thanks, Hemlock. I knew I could count on you.” She snorted in response.

A few minutes later, I was in the shower. I’ll spare you the details of my scrubbing and cleaning and instead I’ll answer some of your questions.

My name is Kid Eternity. My real name? Well, I don’t know what it used to be. You see, I was an orphan before I died the first time.
I never knew my parents. I was born in 1929 right around the time of the stock market crash – a bad time for babies to show up. I was bounced from foster home to orphanage for years. Finally I wound up with a twisted old pervert who always wanted me to call him Grandpa – even when he… There I go again with too many details. Sorry about that.

Grandpa was a sailor. He had me aboard a ship in 1942 when we were attacked by a Nazi U-boat. The submarine rammed our ship and caused it to start sinking. I remember standing there as these experienced sailors started panicking and letting down lifeboats. One of them threw a life jacket onto me as I heard a loud noise. The Nazis had fired one of their guns and destroyed our lifeboats. I was trying to figure out what was happening when I turned to see Grandpa standing beside me. Just then the Nazis opened fire again and I got to see Grandpa’s head disappear into a crimson mist. I’d never seen anything so wonderful.

Even though I was thirteen, I was small for my age, so the captain scooped me up. I took advantage of the opportunity to spit on Grandpa’s body before he threw me overboard. I remember splashing into the water and swimming away from the ship as the jacket kept me afloat. As the ship went down behind us, the U-boat stopped in front of us. I remember the Nazi captain coming out on the deck with a couple of guards. He barked one word and they started firing on those of us in the water.

I remember the hot lead chewing into my chest, my arms, and my leg. My arms stopped working and slid out of the life jacket that I’d never managed to fasten. The water was cold as I slipped underneath.

I wanted to keep my eyes open to see what I could see, but I must have closed them because when I opened them again I was standing in a line. I don’t know how long I waited but I finally got to the front of the line and Mr. Keeper was standing there. He was flustered and couldn’t explain what had happened – you see, I wasn’t supposed to die yet. I wound up being granted immortality and powers and sent back to Earth along with Mr. Keeper.

My powers? I can enter people’s minds and let them look at things like I do (when you’re dead, you tend to view things differently than the living). My main power is that when I say the word Eternity I can bring anyone who’s dead back to life for an hour. (Of course, if you ask me, my main power is screwing things up, but that’s another matter.)

I shut off the water, grabbed a towel, and stepped out onto the fuzzy mat Hemlock had on the floor. As I dried off, my gaze fell on the back of the door. Hemlock had hung a new mirror there. I stopped. Finally I dropped the towel and stared at myself. A 13 year-old looked into the mirror, and a 19 year-old looked back. I thought of everything I’d wanted to do with my life and missed. I’d never gotten to grow up. I just suddenly was grown up.

Something else caught my eye. It drew me closer to the door. As I walked forward, I knew that water was running off my bare feet onto Hemlock’s floor, and I knew that would set her off, but I didn’t care. I went forward until my forehead bumped the glass and I looked into my reflection’s eyes. My reflection’s cold, lifeless eyes.

My reflection’s eyes began watering and I could feel warm wetness rolling down my face. Suddenly everything overwhelmed me and I slid to the floor. A puddle formed beneath me and spread across the floor and I drew myself into the fetal position. I lay there, cold, naked, and crying for I don’t know how long.

“I don’t know why I even let you in here,” Hemlock groused. She’d found me in the floor, dried me off, thrown a robe on me, and sent me out to the living room while she mopped. I was seated on the couch and she was pacing in front of me. “Bad enough you disappear for months at a time, then you come back and I find your naked ass in the middle of my bathroom floor making one of the biggest messes I’ve ever seen in my life! My mother was right! I should have gotten a dog!”

The word mother set me off again. I leaned forward as I started crying again. “At least you remember your mother,” I sobbed. “I don’t even know what mine looked like.”

Hemlock stopped and looked at me. She finally sat down and pulled me close to her. I cried into her shirt as she tried to comfort me. “Kid,” she finally said, “I’m sorry.” I stopped crying and looked up as a drop of water splashed into the back of my hair. She was crying. “Kid, I don’t know if I could make it through as much as you have.” She kept talking. “I can’t even imagine the time jump you went through, let alone getting killed and everything else. I mean, having this mission; this screwed-up mission that you’ve got to fulfill… I don’t understand it. It’s too big for me. I don’t think I could do it. I’d probably tell whoever did this to me to shove it and clear me a spot next to Marilyn Monroe or Gandhi.”

I slowly sat up. A look of understanding had spread across my face. “That’s it,” I said.

“What’s it?” Hemlock asked as I stood.

“That’s it!” I said as I started smiling. I knelt down in front of her and took her hands in mine. “That’s why I’ve always been so miserable! I’ve had this mission thing in front of me! I’ve never even gotten to figure out who I am!” I couldn’t believe it had taken me this long to figure it out.

“What are you saying?” Hemlock asked.

I looked into her eyes. “I quit. I’ve had it. Let somebody else be humanity’s guide or whatever I’m supposed to be. I’m out. I’m going to live for a while and see who I want to be.”

Hemlock was quiet for several minutes. “I don’t know what to say,” she finally admitted. “I’ve never seen you like this before. You’re so… happy.”

”Yeah,” I agreed. “I’m 19 years old. I should be worried about going to college and going to parties and doing something stupid and running from the cops. Not trying to figure out how to stop some succubus in a little girl’s body or take 5 evil people to the devil.”

Hemlock looked at me strangely. “Are you leaving now?” she asked.

“Why?” I asked back.

She leaned forward and kissed me in response. We fell onto the couch as she began slipping the robe off my shoulders. Fortunately, even though I’d missed an essential six years in my development, my body knew how to handle this situation quite well. And what my body didn’t know, hers did.

I awoke the next morning. Sometime in the night we’d moved to the bedroom, which was much more comfortable than Hemlock’s couch. I looked around but the room was empty. I pulled on a pair of shorts and went out into the living room. Hemlock was gone. I looked on her coffee table and found a suitcase. Opening it revealed a lot of clothes in my sizes. Beside it on the table were a note and a cell phone.

The note read, “Kid. If you’re going to do this, then be careful. If you need anything, call. Hemlock”

I walked back into the bedroom and discovered an outfit hanging on the back of a chair. I pulled the clothes on and left the bedroom. On a hunch, I headed back to the bathroom and closed the door.

Once again I studied myself in the mirror. Only now, instead of seeing a terrified boy in a man’s body, I saw a comfortable 19 year old who was ready to take on the world. The dead eyes had come back to life. I smiled and walked out of the room.

Back in the living room, I picked up the cell phone and slid it into my pocket. I grabbed the suitcase as well and walked out of the room. I took the stairs to the ground level and walked outside the apartment building.

The sun was bright and warm on my face.

To Be Continued...

Next Issue: Kid Eternity finds out that normal life isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

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