THE SON OF ELI

CHAPTER 15: A RARE KIND OF MAN

He sat at the kitchen table eating rice and stew with obvious relish on his face. Nancy sat opposite him with a bowl of cereal. Jo had given the bowl of cereal – laced with milk – to Eli because his belly, to them, needed to get used to food. Nancy had been eating the rice and had put a mouthful into his mouth.

He tasted it and made a sudden grimace and fanned his tongue, obviously irritated by the pepper. They gave him water, and afterwards, he simply pushed the cereal aside and opened his mouth for rice.

Laughing, Nancy had given the rice to him and taken the cereal.

The three adults watched from the doorway. Dr John passed a hand slowly across his face and shook his head hard once, as by doing so, he could reset his brains to make sense of what they had all been witnesses to.

"Look, I believe we should keep what we saw to ourselves for now, okay?" he said softly. "Until we know what to do, get to know him more, I believe it is in his best interests that we keep quiet. Also, we should keep him away from the others as best as we can."

"Doc," Emelia said instantly, her face troubled. "I've always been a Christian, and I know what God's creations are capable of doing and not doing. Eli is not one of God's creations! He could be android, for all we know!"

"Emily!" Dr John said desperately and put his hands on her shoulders. "He bleeds! You saw him bleeding, and he felt pain. Look at him, he's eating now! And behaving like a baby! He's human!"

"But he was not born by a woman, from a womb!" Emelia cried, her voice almost hysterical.

"Emi, keep your voice down, please," Jo said calmly when she saw Nancy and Eli looking towards them.

Emelia turned her back to them and spoke to Jo desperately.

"Jo, please, you must say something. That boy was born from some glass womb! What if he is some deadly species? What if he becomes violent and attacks all of us? You saw what he's capable of! What if he discovers we're vulnerable, and he could do things to hurt us?"

"Emily, he's just like a baby, forming his opinions and impressions!" Dr John said. "He will pick what we inculcate in him. It is up to us to show him the good side of humans!"

"Doc, you can't tell me that boy, whoever he is, has spent about seventeen or eighteen years of his life inside that thing, and survived! He could have been imprisoned in there, Doc, maybe as a safety precaution!"

"That is incorrect, Emily. I've studied that mechanical womb and that technology is beyond any I've ever seen or heard of! That kind of tech is from a brain beyond ours! Maybe he was supposed to have been taken out when he was nine months, and maybe the Meltdown occurred, and that glass was washed to sea, taken away, somehow! That is the only reasonable explanation! And maybe he spent so long in that solution that he has gained some abilities!"

"And going by that supposition, John, then he could have picked up some weaknesses and frailties too," Jo said carefully. "We need to be careful of him."

"Good, I agree, but for now, let's keep it to ourselves, okay?" Dr John said desperately. "I'll be doing some experiments with him, to find out his real nature. But I don't want people getting worried over his presence here, so let's just try and keep it to ourselves, okay? Emily?"

The nurse sighed.

"Alright, Doc. I'll try. But be quick, I need a reasonable explanation soon."

"Of course, my dear, of course," the doctor said and turned to Jo. "I heard Mike moved out of the house, Jo. That means there's an extra room, right?"

Jo's eyes narrowed.

"What are you getting at, John?"

"Let Eli stay with you, okay? He seems to have taken a fancy to Nancy, and frankly, I'll be a lot happier knowing you're keeping an eye on him."

Jo looked across the kitchen, and at Nancy and Eli. They were touching the tip of each other's nose and giggling.

"Yes, I've never seen Nancy happy like this. I'll take him in."

"Thank you, Jo," the doctor said with a relieved smile. "I'll go and see the Clothing Unit and see if I could get him some clothes. Also, lest I forget, kindly keep a journal for him, Jo. Anything you notice about him, anything new, just jot it down in the journal."

"I'll do that, Doc," Jo said with a wan smile. "Now, I think I have to attend to him. He's grimacing and touching his stomach. Pepper and too much heavy food. Oh, boy! I need to potty-train a matured man now?"

They all giggled then as the atmosphere lightened.

Jo walked towards Eli.

***

It was around eight in the evening when Dr John sat back warily in his chair. He had been leaning forward peering into the microscope in the small laboratory they had in the clinic.

He had taken a little of Eli's blood and tested it, and it had not returned positive for any of the blood types identified in humans. He had studied a drop under the microscope, and its buoyant activeness had taken his breath away.

He had been in a dilemma the whole day since taking a quarter pint of blood from Eli.

Mrs Tilly was almost dead now. Everybody else had left the clinic, and he looked at that pint of blood neatly packaged in the dispenser.

He knew Jo would have been apprehensive about his intentions, and Emelia would definitely have freaked out. But, deep down, he was trusting his hunch and knew he could not stop himself.

He sighed deeply and stood up abruptly.

He picked up the plastic bag containing just zero point two l****s of Eli's blood. He fought his conscience as he went to Mrs Tilly's ward and set up the transfusion. He let it run, and it was over within ten minutes.

He removed the apparatus and went to the bathroom to wash his hands. He was humming softly to himself and drying his hands with a small green towel when he came into the ward.

Mrs Tilly was sitting up in bed, her cheeks rosy and vibrant, and she smiled brightly at him.

"Oh, John! You're still here!"

The towel dropped from Dr John's hands. He just stood there, like a statue, and stared at the woman who had been so dangerously anaemic that her brain had virtually shut down.

"John, dear, are you alright?"

He still stayed rooted to the spot just staring.

And when Mrs Tilly got off the bed, Dr John exclaimed with shock, and he almost fled back into the bathroom.

***

Jo soon found out that Eli was a fast learner.

He did not have to be taught anything twice.

It was ironic that just that dawn she had caught Mike sleeping with Anita, and now Mike was out of the house, and she had brought another man inside.

Not exactly a man in the real sense of the handle, true, because Eli still had a long way to go, but he was still a man. An incredibly beautiful man! How could he have spent all his years in a glass tube and still be this good-looking? This muscled? This amazingly ripped?

It was as if he was the kind of boy who had grown up sculptured. It was amazing and still unbelievable, but that was how he was. She had shown him how to use the toilet facility when he had the belly movement. Water was scarce, so they used seawater in plastic cans to flush up, and quickly he got the hang of it.

It was difficult getting Nancy to sleep that night.

Jo, tired for the day, wanted to lie down but Nancy was hyperactive because of Eli. In the end, Jo took her to the bedroom and made her lie down. She wanted a story to be read to her, but Jo was too tired.

"Forgive me, darling, but today you have to read on your own," she said gently but firmly.

"What is reading?" Eli asked softly.

Nancy giggled and picked up a big fairy tale book.

"This is my favourite," she said. "The Princess of Donzi. We read it, see? You would have to join the reading class so that you can also read."

She showed the book to Eli and turned the pages. Eli's eyes opened, and he glanced through the book.

"I can read," he said, and Jo looked at him suddenly.

"Liar!" Nancy said with a giggle. "Alright, read this to me!"

She gave the book to Eli and lay in bed.

Eli sat at the foot of the bed and began to flick through the book so quickly that the pages seemed to fly.

"What are you doing?" Nancy asked with a puzzled look on her face.

"Reading," Eli said, sounding distracted, and within a minute he put the big story down. "So, that's a story."

Nancy was giggling.

"You were supposed to read it, not flip through it!"

"I read it," Eli said with an amused smile. "Once upon a time, in the cold freezing lands of Donzi, over the hills and below the snow mountains, stood a dark, alien castle…"

Nancy froze with her eyes staring wide at the handsome young man.

Jo was frowning as she took the book and opened it, and then she began to breathe hollowly as her eyes skimmed the pages whilst Eli was speaking.

He was reciting what was written in the book verbatim!

Jo turned the pages as he continued to read.

"Wow!" Nancy whispered with wonder. "That's awesome, Eli! How did you do that?"

"Do what?"

"Recite the book!"

"I read it," Eli said, and continued speaking.

Nancy fell asleep, but Jo did not stop Eli from speaking. She kept turning the pages as the young boy recited the story word-for-word in a cool, pleasant voice.

Finally, she closed the book and just sat staring at Eli with round, amazed eyes. She eventually stopped him and took his hand. She led him to the room which Anita had occupied. For a moment she was loathed to see him sleeping on that same bed, a bed she was sure Mike and that slut had made love in several times.

Eventually, she led him to her bedroom and made him fall on the bed. She needed to bath, but first, she took a seat behind the small writing desk, pulled out a diary, and chronicled what Eli had done with the book.

She realized that she was no longer scared of him. Instead, she was strangely affected, strangely so excited.

She thought he was asleep so she went to the bathroom, filled a bucket with water, slipped into the tub, and began to sponge herself. After a while, she stood up and began scooping water on her body as she washed off the lather.

"What are those two swinging things?" he said suddenly from the doorway.

Jo yelped and covered her breasts with her arms.

He was standing naked in the doorway, and he put his head to one side as he stared at the juncture of her thighs, then looked down at himself. He lifted his freshly-circumcised organ that had healed of all wounds, and he again put his head to one side to stare at her.

"Why is yours flat?" he asked curiously. "And why are my two chest growths so flat?"