THE SON OF ELI

CHAPTER 14: CUTTING ELI

There were frantic series of activities after that.

By the time Dr John came back with a small oxygen tank and mask, the strange young man was breathing on his own but seemed to be unconscious. The doctor ordered a gurney, and in the ensuing melee, Emelia took off her headscarf and draped it around the young man's loins.

Her actions elicited nervous laughs from the female onlookers around, many of whom had been staring at that particular appendage with varying expressions.

He was a huge man, tall and muscular, so he was very heavy. It took four men to lift him onto the gurney, and they pushed him inside the biggest ward.

"Is he okay, mommy?" Nancy asked with a tiny voice.

"I hope so, dear," Jo said, still enveloped in a cocoon of shock and wonder. "I hope so. Let the doctor be with him for a while, okay, then we'll know."

Dr John let the man remain on the metal gurney as they washed the sticky grime off him with soap and sponge. He dried him off with a towel before he asked the men to transfer him to the bed.

"Is he okay?" Jo asked when the doctor finally came out.

"He's sleeping now, I believe," the doctor replied absentmindedly and hurried outside again. He spent several minutes squatted beside the strange glass globule the man had been in.

Many of the fifty-three survivors in the complex came around to see this strange young man.

Jo, Emelia and Nancy eventually returned to the kitchen to eat. Nancy had lost her earlier excitement because she was concerned about the man, and Jo did not know how to help the girl out of her despondent mood.

When they finished eating, Mike came into the kitchen suddenly, and Jo asked Nancy and Emelia to excuse them. Still looking shattered and sad, Mike sat at the table and spoke softly.

"I moved out, Jo. I couldn't stand the pain of watching you moving out, so I did. Anita too."

Jo felt a lump of pain rising in her throat again as the sight of them making love came back to assail her. She sighed miserably and fidgeted with a spoon.

"I can't sleep on that bed, and you know that," she said.

Mike nodded.

"I know, so I let the boys take it out, and we fixed the old one we kept in the carpentry shop. It wouldn't be good to ask Nancy to move, you know. So, it is better you two stayed in there until you find it in your heart to forgive me."

She looked at him with sheer pain in her eyes.

"I can't forgive that, Mike, not that deception."

"Please, Jo!" he exclaimed with anxious exasperation. "Just let us give it some time, okay? We are married, for Christ's sake! That was nothing! You're the one I love!"

She saw he was beginning to get agitated, and she did not want that. Mike always turned violent and uncontrollable when he was agitated, or angry, and she did not want that now.

"Please, keep your voice down!" she said. "Just give me some time, and some space, Mike. Please."

He threw up his hands in despair, and that was when Nancy breezed into the kitchen again. She looked at them with confusion and worry.

"Are you fighting?" she asked in an unsteady voice.

"Oh, no, darling!" Jo said with a brave smile. "We're just discussing adult stuff."

"Is that why you have been unhappy, mommy?"

Jo hugged the girl briefly.

"I'm fine now, darling," she said.

"Let's go look at mermaid man," she cried excitedly. "He's awake again!"

Jo felt a shudder passing through her when she heard that, and her heart thudded with excitement.

"Yes, let's go check on him," she said quickly.

"Mind if I tag along?" Mike asked as he got to his feet. "Heard about him but not seen him yet."

"Yes, sure, come," she said and took Jo's hand.

***

There were still people in the corridor when Jo approached the ward, and they were speaking excitedly. Jo saw Anita pressed against the door and looking through the glass pane with shock on her face.

"Is he crawling?" Anita asked and giggled. "Goodness, he is crawling!"

This made more people dash to the door and the windows to gaze into the ward.

"What's all the excitement about?" Mike asked with mild irritation as he walked behind Jo, who was speaking gently but firmly to the people to give her way.

Anita stepped aside with a glum expression on her face, and Jo opened the door. She passed through with Mike behind her, and stopped abruptly, causing him to ram into her. She stumbled, but he reached out to steady her. Jo quickly pushed his hands off her waist and took another step into the room.

"John!" she said, almost in a whisper.

Dr John, who was standing near the window with a stunned expression on his face, shook his head. For a moment, he was unable to speak.

The man from the glass globule was now wearing a pair of jean shorts and a white T-shirt that was inches too small, and so framed his powerful body tightly. He was crawling on his hands and knees on the floor as he excitedly chased a soccer ball that Dr John had put on the ground.

Emelia was standing at the foot of the bed looking on with dazed eyes.

"Mermaid man!" Nancy cried excitedly and rushed towards him.

The young man sat on the floor and turned his head to look at Nancy with an excited look on his face.

Then he smiled.

It was the most beautiful smile Jo had ever seen, once again emphasizing the incredibly good looks of this strange boy. He was so handsome with such an incredibly beautiful skin that it was almost difficult to stop from staring at him.

He proffered the soccer ball to Nancy, who giggled and sat on the floor beside him. She put both hands on her cheeks and made a funny face at him. The young man giggled rather beautifully, like a baby, and stuck his tongue out at Nancy.

They broke into giggles.

"This is the guy from that glass thing?" Mike asked tightly, and his jaw set when he saw the look on Jo's face as she stared at the young man.

"You're so cute, mermaid man!" Nancy said.

"Well, you can call him Eli for now," Dr John said in a voice that was not quite steady.

"Is that his name?" Nancy asked.

"Well, at least that must be the name of his father because it is written on his container that he is the son of Eli."

"Hi, Eli!" Nancy cried and took his hand. "I'm Nancy."

The young man put his head to one side and stared at Nancy.

"Hi, Nancy," he said suddenly, and Emelia gasped, as did Jo.

His voice was deep, low, and very pleasant.

"Jesus, he's speaking already!" Dr John said and knelt suddenly beside the young man.

"You think he… he was imprisoned in the glass, maybe?" Mike asked.

"No, Mickey, no!" Dr John said, perplexed. "This guy is a wonder, just impossible! If the world had been as we know it, he would be the major headlines everywhere! I believe he was grown inside that thing, somehow, and if the date etched at its base is anything to go by, then this amazing man has been inside that thing for eighteen years!"

"No, that's crap!" Mike cried. "What the hell are you talking about, Doc?"

"Exactly, it is madness!" Dr John said excitedly. "He's amazing! Absolutely unbelievable, but until I know better, I'll be assuming that's what it is. Look at this!"

He rushed to the far end of the ward and picked up a jar and showed them a whitish substance in it.

"Is that what I think it is?" Jo asked unsteadily.

"Yes, my dear, an umbilical cord! His umbilical cord and it was still flowing inside that thing! It was just like a womb, keeping him safe through it all… but eighteen years? That's madness! But, amazingly, it is through!"

"But how was he breathing? What was he eating? It is indeed madness!" Mike said. "This guy must be a great crook!"

"No, he's not!" Dr John cried. "I wish I had some of that amniotic fluid left to investigate! Somehow, that spectrum kept and fed him! His body is so advanced that he might have been able to breathe, somehow!"

"Maybe he's a machine, somehow, something like that," Emelia said and crossed himself. "He doesn't look human, Doc. He's just too fine and beautiful to be human, almost without flaws! Maybe he doesn't even bleed!"

The man was crawling and giggling again, and Nancy stood up and looked at him.

"Eli, that's gross!" she said, laughing with delight. "You're too old to crawl like that! You must walk!"

Eli sat down and looked at her.

"Walk," he said. "Walk."

"Yes, let me help you," Nancy said and held out her hands.

The young man grabbed them, and she tried to hoist him to his feet. He did not stand up, and Nancy's hands slipped. She gave a startled yelp as she was flung backwards! Her hands flailed, and her head swung dangerously towards an edge of the bed.

"Nancy!" Jo cried in alarm and tried to move towards her.

And then, amazingly, unbelievable, Eli moved off the floor with a burst of uncanny speed and caught Nancy just as her head neared the edge of the bed.

"Dear Lord!" Mike whispered with shock as he watched the young man, who was standing up now and laughing down into Nancy's excited face.

"Did you see that?" Dr John asked, his face almost melting. "Did you see that?"

Jo, Emelia, and all the people outside gaped at the young man. He had moved so fast that it had seemed uncanny like he simply teleported from one position to the other!

"Thank you, Eli!" Nancy cried. "Can we go out to play? Wait, are you hungry? I have ice cream!"

"Cream," Eli said.

"I'll get you some!" Nancy said and raced towards the door. Eli began to walk after her, and he wobbled on his feet for a moment. He took another step, and then he smiled broadly again. He was already loving the art of walking.

"Only one way to find out if he bleeds," Dr John said absent-mindedly.

"John!" Jo cried in alarm, and he flicked one of his hands at her.

"Come on, Jo, I'm not going to cut up the kid!" he said with a giggle. "I mean, he needs to be circumcised, doesn't he?"

"But is that safe, Doc?" Jo asked with concern. "Might have a whole lot of negative repercussions!"

Dr John shrugged.

"I thought about that, but really, we need to know," he said and took Eli's hand. "Come, dear. Something we must do, okay?"

"Nancy," he said in his slow, deep voice. "Ice cream."

"I know, son, but don't worry, this needs to be done, and she will be back!"

Eli allowed the doctor to lead him back to the bed.

"John!" Jo said, alarmed. "That is going to be quite painful, even traumatic if your theories are right. Are you sure someone like him – basically still a baby – can take sudden pain like that? Are you going to sedate him first?"

Dr John turned to them.

"Alright, all of you out now," he said crisply. "Jo, Emily, stay with me, but shut the door and draw the window curtains first. Keep Nancy away for now."

Jo sighed deeply.

She was feeling very alarmed.

***

Eli was still playing with the soccer ball, oblivious to the three people standing at the foot of the bed.

He was lying on the bed docilely as Dr John peeled off his shorts.

They put on their gloves as Emelia prepared the scalpel and the surgical scissors.

They placed a metallic bowl beneath him as the Dr worked deftly. Jo shut her eyes briefly when the doctor pulled the foreskin and cut it with the scalpel just behind the head of the p***s.

"He bleeds," Dr John said, and Jo opened her eyes.

She expected the young man to be screaming and prancing with pain as the doctor expertly worked on the layer of skin along each side of the p***s head.

Eli's wonderful eyes only widened a bit, and he grimaced a little, but that was all.

Jo and Emelia exchanged looks, then Dr John put down the scalpel and reached for the gauze and dissolvable stitches.

Then, he froze.

"Dear Lords!" he whispered in a tragic voice.

Jo and Emelia looked down at the p***s.

It had stopped bleeding, and it didn't look raw.

Emelia gasped, and Jo stopped breathing.

Hands unsteady now, Dr John lifted the tip of the organ and brushed his fingers hard along it, shook it hard, and slapped it sharply.

Eli just lay on the bed playing with the soccer ball in his hands.

The wound had healed, completely.

Dr John suddenly picked up the scalpel and dug it into Eli's inner thigh and dragged downwards.

Jo and Emelia screamed with horror.

"Jesus, John!" Jo shouted. "What the f**k!"

Eli sat up sharply in bed, obviously feeling the pain. He looked at the scalpel in his thigh and pulled it out, then threw it on the floor. He was bleeding, and he looked at it with wide eyes for a moment, and then at Dr John, who was standing still like a statue.

Eli slowly fell on the bed.

Dr John picked a ball of cotton wool, dabbed it with medical spirit, and swabbed the inner thigh where he had stabbed. He cleaned the blood away from the thigh.

There was no wound, not even a scar.

The boy's thigh was smooth again.

Jo looked at the scalpel on the floor, and it was still covered with blood.

"Jesus!" she whispered dully. "Who is this boy?"

Dr John turned away from the bed. He removed his gloves, dropped them in a bin, and walked outside.

Emelia and Jo exchanged looks.

They were scared.