Mam and I survived because we stayed together.
It was a strange life, indeed, but we had each other. Neither of us would leave the other alone in the world. You see, there was only one livperler left. If either of us took it, we would be able to live and die as normal—we would restart the aging process. But by doing so, we would abandon the other. That was our dreadful reality.
Mam would not take it and let me watch her grow old and die. Nor would I do that to her. Neither of us would make the other live on without the other.
Yet we each knew that we were not immortal. Ageless and immortal are different things, so we lived with the understanding that one day an accident might befall one of us and leave the other still living.
Neither of us liked the idea of being alone, and each of us thought that suicide was both terrifying and repellent.
Instead whoever was left would immediately enact the plan:
-
Locate the sole remaining life-pearl.
-
Administer it straightaway, and thereby…
-
Restart the process of aging, and…
-
Begin again to grow up.
It sounds simple. It is not. For one thing, I have to get to the life-pearl, and that is not an easy thing, because Mam and I hid it, long ago, in a secret, hard-to-reach place. But I am going to have to do it.
I long to grow up, to be a man. I long to be in a hurry to do something, before time runs out. I long for the feeling that life is precious, that I have to cram as much as I can into every sun-drenched day and every frost-filled night; to know that childhood is special because it does not last forever; to have friends, like Aidan and Roxy, who will not look at me strangely, and then turn away from me when I fail to age like them.
In short, I long to grow older, and if that means that one day I will die, then I will make sure that I do not waste any more of my life.
That is what my plan is.
As soon as I can get the life-pearl.
Although, for that, I am going to need a boat.