Chapter Twelve

After seeing the authentic documents in Bridget’s chest, life became rather bizarre for me in the village. Instead of working my ay through the day chatting to the villagers as I met them, I began to question their ages in my mind. The woman in the cafeteria looked to be about thirty-five but I knew that she was probably around ninety. Townsend seemed to be about forty-five but he was probably as old as my great-great grandfather had he still been alive. The Secretary who had given me a wide berth since our last meeting, looked to be quite young but she was likely to be over ninety years old. Nothing was ever going to be the same again now that I knew the truth. On reflection, had I not discovered the true facts, my life would have been far simpler and much more happier. I had truly been a fool to myself allowing my curiosity to get the better of me. And what could I do with all this information? Absolutely nothing because no one in the outside world would believe me! Nonetheless, having got so far with my investigations it was time for me to become audacious again and I made my way to the pharmacy again... only this time I did it in broad daylight. In full sight of everyone. On entering the premises, I noticed many of the chemists busily making pills in their old-fashioned equipment. I rang the bell at the dispensing panel and shortly someone came to deal with me. I asked to see the head pharmacist and waited until a woman, wearing a long white overall, who looked to be about forty, came to the dispensing panel.

’I’m after some information about P13,’ I asked her politely, with my tongue in my cheek for she would wonder how I knew about the chemical.

’P13?’ she responded, with a frown appearing on her face. ’Why do you ask?’

’Because compounded with sugar it gives vital energy as well as other factors,’ I commented easily.

’How do you know about P13,’ she asked stubbornly as she realised the import of my visit.

’I thought everyone knew about it,’ I told her casually. ’After all, they all take tablets, don’t they?’

She suddenly became suspicious of my motives and turned away for a moment to readjust her mind. No one had ever come to the pharmacy before and questioned her about any of the chemicals. The formula had been laid down by Obadiah Numbwinton and she had been making the pills for decades. She turned back to the dispensing panel shortly to give me the answer I expected.

’You’ll have to talk to Mr. Townsend about it if you want to know anything more,’ she stated, clearly rattled by my request.

’That’s just it,’ I told her bluntly. ’I’m going to talk to him myself but what can I say without knowing more about the P13 chemical.’

’I’m sorry,’ she countered, ’but I can’t tell you any more.’

’It’s the green mixture that’s mixed up with the sugar contained in the jars on the shelves,’ I went on relentlessly. ‘There’s masses of it in your cupboard back there.’

‘How do you know that?’ she demanded, becoming hot under the collar.

‘I know that you store it in the cupboard at the end of the pharmacy on the left-hand side.’

She stared at me as though I was from another planet and called another chemist who also wore a long white overall.

‘Barbara,’ she began solemnly, ‘have you ever seen this stranger before?’

The other chemist looked at my face closely and shrugged dher shoulders. ‘I think I might have seen him around the village.

‘Do you know how he learned of the location of the P13?’ Her words were an indictment that Barbara had done something untoward.

‘The pharmacy’s been locked every night,’ claimed Barbara swiftly. ‘He must be guessing! Anyhow, it’s none of his business!’

‘He seems so sure about it,’ bleated the head chemist angrily.

‘I tell you nobody could get into this pharmacy. I’ve no idea how he knows where the P13’s stored.’

The head chemist waved her hand and Barbara returned to her duties at the benches, It seemed that I had put the at amongst the pigeons but it didn’t help my cause. I still knew nothing about the strange chemical.

‘I’m going to report this matter to the Chairman,’ muttered the woman with anger in her voice.

‘I told you, I’m going to meet him shortly,’ I repeated curtly. ‘I’ll tell him myself.’

‘Then there’s nothing more we have to say to each other,’ she went on attempting to end the conversation.

‘Except to say when I meet him to tell him of your lack of co-operation,’ I said finally.

The idea didn’t go down well with her and she decided to reconcile our differences. ‘Hold on!’ she said as I was about to leave. ‘P13’s an element that isn’t recorded in the league of Transuranic elements, those listed have an atomic number greater than ninety-two, It has a dual effect in that, firstly, it distorts two genes in the body which normally degenerate as the years pass by causing people to age. The secondary effect is that it affects the body as to how a person looks when they first start taking the tablets. It freezes all development so that they remain looking the same for as long as they live.

‘And how long do they live for?’ I ask with my heart in my mouth, excited at the information.

‘No one knows,’ she replied candidly. ‘Except for Mr. McBain, who refused to take the tablets, no one has ever died over the past hundred years,’

I exhaled with a gasp. It was incredible that people could practically live on for an eternity and yet still continue to look as young as when they started to take the tablets. Numbwinton was a very special man to have discovered the formula.

‘How does the chemical react with the white powder... the sugar?’ I asked smoothly,

‘It seems to crystallise it,’ she responded readily. ‘The two elements combine together to be absorbed swiftly into the human body and the reaction is very favourable. There are no side-effects.’

I nodded showing my interest in her explanation. ‘Just one further question. What’s the main constituent of P13?’

‘It’s a mixture of ground arrowroot and the top of the blackcap toadstool,’ she submitted.

‘But that’s a deadly poison!’ I reacted fearfully.

‘That’s why no other scientist ever found the solution to ageing,’ she said smiling.

I left the building with a whole host of information running around my brain. I now knew the full extend of the secret of the village and I felt satisfied that I could assume a role in it myself. All I needed to do was to start taking the tablets regularly. I returned home to face Bridget in the kitchen. She was preparing the evening meal and I caught her off-guard.

‘What do you know about P13,’ I asked her point-blank.

‘What are you talking about?’ The surprise in her voice indication that she didn’t know what I was talking about.

‘You were telling me the truth about your age, weren’t you?’ I went on ruthlessly. ‘You’re eighty-seven and Robert’s forty-two.’

She looked as though she was going to burst into tears. ‘You’re certain of that, are you?’ she countered., as though I was on a guessing trip.

‘Yes I am!’ I went through your personal chest under the bed to find your marriage certificate and Robert’s birth certificate.’

She resisted strongly at my admission. ‘How dare you go through my personal belongings!’ she admonished with fury in her voice. ‘You have no right!’

I felt no guilt at her anger. ‘The tablets keep you young and healthy,’ I told her. ‘You don’t have to keep it a secret from me any more. I accept your age. I regard you as a young blossoming beautiful woman so you need have no fear that I’ll reject you even thogh you’re sicty-five years older than I am.’

She calmed down when she realised that she wouldn’t lose me. It was the one thing that horrified her after our declared love to each other... to be left alone with her son and to be denied the wonderful intimate sexual life she enjoyed so much. She came over to me and put her arms around my shoulders, kissing me firmly on the lips endearingly.

‘I’m not going to lose you,’ she insisted as though her life depended on it. ‘If necessary I’ll follow you wherever you go... even if its outside the village!’

She knew in her heart that I would never take her away, I had a good idea what would happen if I ever decided to do so and she failed to take her tablets. Her husband, Richard, had died because he desisted in taking them. It was certain that she would suffer the same fate.

‘Now that you’re here,’ she continued confidently, ‘why don’t you come to bed with me? I found a book in the library that had photographs of many different sexual positions. Why don’t we try some of them?’

She stared at me with her lovely blue eyes and I could not resist her. Without hesitation, we climbed the stairs and entered the bedroom, stripping down quickly until we had no clothes on at all. She lay on the bed and I had to admit that she had a remarkable body. She opened the book and turned over some pages until she came to a photograph of a particularly provocative position.

‘Let’s try this one,’ she suggested calmly showing me the picture in the book.

‘That’s going to take a bit of practice to get it right,’ I retorted.

We lay sideways to each other on the bed but after a while we failed to relate to the position, so we returned to conventionality. Following ten minutes of foreplay, I lay on my back with Bridget on top of me. By this time, we were both primed, ready to copulate fully, and she moved up and down with a regular movement on my rigid penis, increasing the stroke until the force felt like a steam-roller pumping up and down on my body. For an eighty-seven year old woman she really had some pent up energy! I began to wonder about the power of P13 on the human body. The effects were fantastic! She never seemed to become tired of her movement for some considerable time until she came to a climax, shuddering suddenly to a halt and falling in a heap on top of me. I had already experienced the ecstasy of our love-making and now she joined me in Nirvana.

I still could not get it into my head that a woman of eight-seven could produce such energy. However it was necessary to cast it from my mind as I had done in the forces in Basra when two negroes joined the unit. At first I resented them for their black skins, having never seen the like in Cornwall. It was sheer ignorance and prejudice even though I felt nothing evil against them. My resentment was solely related to the fact that they were different. However, as time went on, and my mind adjusted to the difference, their skins became the same to me as any of the white soldiers serving with us. It was merely a matter of adapting the mind to reality, understand people, and changing bias to friendship. It was the same way with Bridget. She could have been any age for all I cared as I consistently saw her as a young beautiful woman and, now that my mind had adjusted to the situation, nothing would deter me from it.