All characters are 18 years of age or older. Unlike most of the pieces I write, this one was done in one sitting. I usually write one piece and see if it is liked or not. This time I decided for continuity sake to just write until I reached some sort of end. It is nearly eighty pages long in total so I broke it up into four parts for your consumption. I hope you enjoy it. As always tip your server, dim the lights and let the story take you away.
*****
I started to see double and sat up from my work. I set down the lighted magnifying glass, stood up and stretched my back. My back popped from the base all the way up to my shoulder blades. I moved my head from side to side and it popped too. The sigh of relief escaped my lips and echoed in the vaulted space. I needed a fucking break. I pushed the chair back and away from me which set off a cacophony of squeals and echoes. I grabbed my jacket and slung it on as I walked towards the library exit. My footsteps became a chaotic demoniacal choir as I crossed the way to the side door. I opened the door, placed the encyclopedia in the doorway to keep it from closing and locking behind me.
The cool air felt amazing and I reached into my jacket pocket and took out the metal cough drop case. I opened it, took out one of the joints within and put it to my lips. I lit it between cupped hands and took a deep draw into my lungs. Damn I needed that! I look up at the cloudy sky and saw the stars disappear behind a line of storm clouds creeping across the horizon. Great, just fucking great, I cursed knowing that by the time I finished this translation it would be raining cats and dogs out here. You could smell it in the air. Even the temperature was dropping while I stood outside. I finished off my treat and returned to the desk I was chained to for the next six months. My doctoral thesis was riding on this work.
I bent over and retrieved the thick heavy tome and returned it to its place by the side wall. I returned to my desk and the scrolls. Since I had been accepted into the doctorate program I had been given access to the libraries vast quantity of scrolls, tablets and scraps that had yet to be fully translated. Most of it, like the one I was working on, was boring lists that were the equivalent of tax returns from the rich of ancient Egypt. I took a break and lifted up one of the boxes I had yet to look at. I gingerly picked up one scroll after the other and opened them. It was by sheer accident that I found the undocumented scroll. It had been hidden behind a larger scroll. It was as if someone had taken the two and placed the larger scroll on top of the other and rolled them up together.
I carefully removed the smaller scroll and my jaw dropped open. I had to take out my reference book to be sure but there could be no doubt. The hieroglyphics were second dynasty! That made this scroll almost five thousand years old. I looked on the list within the box but there was no mention of a second dynasty scroll. I flew to my feet and checked the master list in Professor Loveless' office. I checked the box number and there again was no mention to the scroll. I checked all the other boxes and there was no listing for my discovery. What the hell was I going to do? The right thing to do would be to call the professor and tell him. But my curiosity got the better of me.
"It could be a laundry list for all we know," I said as I returned to my desk and began translating it.
It wasn't a laundry list though it did contain a list of ingredients. There were two lists actually and a block of text that described how to prepare and combine those ingredients. I jotted it all down in my notebook but there was no reference to what the recipes did. The last line of the first concoction told that it was given to the person using a wooden tube and blown in their face. The last line of the second told the reader to drink the potion only once and to be very sure for its effects were permanent and unalterable.
"What the hell," I gasped even as the first flashes of lightning lit the library.
I decided it was time to take a break from my work and clear my head. I returned the scrolls to their boxes. I walked the boxes back to the vault and stopped. I looked over my shoulder at the singular piece of papyrus left on the table. I knew it was wrong but if anyone else happened to stumble upon it my shot at my doctorate would be ruined. I was just borrowing it I told myself. I placed the boxes in the vault and closed the heavy steel door. The deafening clang blended with the first peel of thunder. The two blended in my ears and I squeezed my eyes shut. Put it back a voice screamed in my head. Put it back and walk away. The heat in my chest made it difficult to breathe as I walked back and carefully rolled up the priceless scroll. I hid it inside my backpack and took up my notebook and pulled the reference material that would tell me the modern name for the ingredients on the scroll. I was surprised at how common the plants and roots were. I could find them in any New Age store or gardening greenhouse.
I raced to my car to reach it before the rain hit. I carefully placed the backpack on the passenger's side floor mat. I started the car and drove off campus to my parent's house. They were expecting me this weekend. I had barely driven half a block when the heavens opened and the downpour began. My windshield wipers were working at top speed and I had to lean forward to see the road ahead of me. My heart was pounding in my chest and it was a horrid combination of fear from stealing the scroll and the road conditions.
"I am just borrowing it damn it," I cried out in the deafening conditions within my car.
The pounding of the rain or was it my heart, I couldn't really tell the difference anymore. I drove home in a borderline panic. Turn around damn it, it's not too late! I could just make out my parent's house and I was parking. I took surgical care as I slid the backpack under the passenger's seat. I had my keys in hand and opened the door. The wind nearly snatched the door out of my grasp. I got out and used my body to shove the door shut. I heard something or someone above the din of the storm. I looked and saw the front door open and my sister Briana standing there waving me in.
"Hurry up," she was saying.
I raced and did a little slip slide up the brick steps of the walkway to the front steps. I grabbed the iron wrought rail and pulled myself up and in. Sis closed the door behind me and handed me a towel. I placed it on my head as I stripped down to my underwear as I had been taught to do since I was a child. I dried my hair and then worked on the rest of my body. Briana picked up my clothes, fished out my keys, phone and wallet before tossing them down the basement stairs to be laundered.
"Here's a robe," she said keeping her eyes away from my tidy whitey covered junk.
"Thanks," I told her as I slipped it on. "Are they asleep?"
"They just went to bed," she informed me as she gestured for me to follow her to the kitchen.
I smelled chocolate and saw that she had made some hot cocoa. At the moment it was better than sex. We sat opposite each other at the kitchen table. Briana had just graduated from high school and was looking forward to heading off to college. Like me she was going to a two year college for the basics and then a four year once she figured out what she wanted to major in.
"You look like hell David," she commented between sips of hot chocolate.
"Thanks, you look as cute as a button," I replied and watched her blush.
"You always say that," she stammered. "How goes the research?"
"I think I found a diamond in the rough," I admitted. "I still have to follow it through though. What do you know about alchemy?"
"Not much... ooh wait, I did see something on cable that said Isaac Newton might have been a closet alchemist, I think. I was sort of distracted. Kevin was nibbling my neck while I was trying to watch. Then one thing led to another and I missed the rest of that show and the one after that. If you know what I mean."
