Promise Me Eternity (14 page)

Again she looked at her watch. Her date still
had not come.

Helen thought of their bank account, which
was always in the red, and angrily ground her teeth. She remembered
her co-worker bragging about how her husband had bought her an
expensive gold ring. She got even more tense. Then she thought
about that dinner at Carlo Vucci’s and felt sick to the stomach.
It can’t go on like this. I’ve got to think of the
future.

A plump man with gray hair hurried toward her
table. When he sat down, he said, “I’m Robert. I’m so glad you
called me. I’m sorry I got held up.”

She immediately regretted making that call.
His face looked older than she remembered.
And he dares to be
late.
She took hold of her purse and was ready to get up.

“Let me give you something by way of
apology.”

She put down her purse and looked with
interest at the small jewelry box in his hand.

“It took me more than two hours to find it. I
think it will really suit you.” Robert opened the box.

Her breath caught when she saw the small
brooch in the shape of a leaf, made out of white gold. “Oh, you
really shouldn’t have.”

“Your time is extremely valuable and I was
late. Allow me to give you this brooch as an apology.” His thick
fingers could barely extract it from the jewelry box.

Unconsciously, she reached out and took the
brooch. She could not believe that he would give her such a
valuable present on the first date. She checked to see if there was
a hallmark. When she saw that there was, she smiled.

“Say something, then. Do you like it or not?
If not, I’ll exchange it.”

Robert was a sly old fox who knew how to
handle women. When he had seen her in that salon, it was as if he
were looking at his wife. He had to get to know her at all
costs.

“Of course I like it,” she said. “How could I
not?”

The waiter who had earlier served Helen
greeted him respectfully, saying, “Hello, Dr. Miner. How nice to
see you again. What can I get you?”

Doctor? Obviously they know him well
,
she thought.
The waiter wasn’t so friendly with me
. She
decided to stay.

They ordered.

“I’m so glad you called me,” Robert told
Helen. “You were so kind to me in the salon and to someone who is
lonely, you know … my wife …”

She remembered that he had told her about his
wife’s death. She nodded compassionately.

“It’s five years since my wife died. You
know, if someone isn’t used to being alone ….”

“Of course. It’s not easy if you lose someone
who’s very dear to you.”

“And you, Helen? I imagine you have a
wonderful family.”

She lowered the glass that she had been about
to bring to her mouth and waved her finger. “No, I’ve no family. I
have a husband, though.”

“He must be a very happy man.”

“I wouldn’t say so. You know, we don’t get
along too well.”

“Aha,” Robert said, satisfied with her
reply.

She couldn’t help asking: “What about you?
Are you a GP or a specialist?”

In a friendly way he answered, “I trained as
a surgeon.”

Helen gripped the table with both hands. “A
surgeon?”

He became serious. “Yes, does that bother
you?”

“No, no,” she apologized. “You carry on.
Everything’s fine.” She could not believe it.

“I own a small clinic that deals with
cosmetic surgery.”

Helen nodded with relief. “Interesting. I’d
never have guessed you were a cosmetic surgeon.”

“Oh, you know how it is, I’ve let myself go.
I’m overweight. My wife and I always used to eat in restaurants.
She never cooked. Then, when she died ….”

“Please, I didn’t mean it like that. I was
thinking of your face.” Dr. Robert Miner reminded her more of a
comedian than a surgeon. She had the feeling he was probably never
completely serious, as he kept smiling all the time.

“Others have said that. Maybe I should get
some glasses, to look more serious.”

Over the next two hours he did most of the
talking, and Helen listened to him with pleasure. Robert told her
he’d like to stop working in the hospital and that he’d do so as
soon as he married again. “My wife and I traveled a lot,” he told
Helen, “but I didn’t have all that much time then. If I stopped
working at the hospital now, I could travel the world …”

As she listened, her mind drifted to a
tropical beach where she could spend the whole day lying around.
That would really be the life.

Then he showed her a picture of his house,
which was surrounded by a spacious garden. “It only has eight
rooms, but they’re all very big. I hope that you’ll visit me
sometime.” He looked at her in a friendly way.

Helen returned his smile and admired the
modern house on the photograph.

He also told her he still had all his wife’s
clothes. “It’s a real warehouse up there. I can’t just throw them
in the trash. Just shoes alone, she had more than fifty pairs.”

Helen’s eyebrows shot up at that remark.

He hadn’t noticed, adding: “Maybe I’ll give
them to some charity.”

The more they talked, the more she liked this
doctor. Suddenly she realized it was well past eleven.

“Oh, I’m sorry. We were so busy talking that
I forgot the time. I must go. My husband, you know.”

Robert Miner took his cell phone out. “Let me
call you a taxi. At my expense, of course.”

When they said good-bye, Robert gave her hand
an affectionate squeeze and said, “Do call me.”

On the way home her thoughts were of Dr.
Miner. When he had given her his card in the salon, she had thought
he was some old pervert. She had seen something in his eyes. But
now she had a completely different opinion. He was a friendly and
cultivated man, exactly the kind she was looking for.

Chapter 24

_______________________

After many years of research, Simon had
discovered two basic causes of aging. The first was free radicals,
which reduce cells’ immunity and thus accelerate the aging process.
They may also lead to various illnesses. We cannot avoid free
radicals since we’re constantly exposed to them because of
pesticides, sunlight, bad diet, cigarettes. But they can be
successfully reduced. Tomatoes and green tea, for instance, contain
a lot of antioxidants.

The other cause of aging is our genes.
Because of them we are destined to die after a particular period of
time. In fact, because of our genetic code we are even at birth
sentenced to death.

He had given a great deal of thought to this
issue. He couldn’t understand what the sense was of a whole body
developing from a cell which would, after a specific time, die
.
What if a mistake had been made at the very start?

According to some theories, there came into
being millions of years ago single-celled creatures. Later, these
changed into multicelled organisms from which plants and animals
developed.
What if these single-celled creatures already
contained faulty genetic code? And through the whole evolutionary
process, this defect had been passed on to man?

Before, neither the knowledge nor the
technical capabilities were available to put this right. Now it was
possible and Simon Patterson was convinced that he was on the verge
of being able to correct this mistake. For years he had been
researching and carrying out experiments on animals, and had
managed to discover a way of changing a cell’s genetic code. He had
finally corrected the mistake that had lingered for millions and
millions of years.

When he thought about this he felt like a god
who would give mankind eternal life. He knew that this would lead
to fame, that there would be no one who did not know his name. But
fame didn’t attract him. Nor was he all that interested in money,
which he wanted more for Helen’s sake. All he wanted was for people
to stop dying the way they did.
Every time someone we love dies,
it causes so much pain and this will stop it once and for
all.

He thought of his mother, who had taken
months to die from breast cancer. He was eleven years old at the
time and extremely attached to her. He prayed every day, asking God
not to take her from him, but God didn’t heed his prayers. Even
though his father explained that his mother was going to a better
place where she’d be happier, this didn’t comfort him. He cried
every day and every night, tormented by the pain in his heart. It
was so bad that he wanted to die himself. His father eventually
became so concerned that he took him to a child psychologist, who
prescribed some pills. After four months he stopped crying. The
pain in his heart gradually faded, but the memory of his suffering
stayed with him.

He put down the scientific journal in which
there was an article about Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome,
which caused children to age about ten times faster than normal and
to die around the age of thirteen. It was a very rare condition
occurring once in about every four million people and for which no
cure had been found. It had only been established that it was
caused by a genetic defect. He was deep in thought.
If, due to a
genetic defect, aging had been speeded up, then it could also be
stopped, or at least slowed down.
A shiver ran along his
spine.

Most cells in the human body regenerate
themselves. In other words, over a specific period cells die off
and new ones grow in their place. Everything would be OK if cells
didn’t contain code that dictated that certain faults appear over
the years, leading to the aging of tissue and different
illnesses.

After many years of research he had arrived
at a vaccine that instructed cells to renew themselves exactly as
they were before. In this way, he thought, the aging process would
be halted. At least he hoped it would be.

He opened Dorothy’s cage and took her out. As
he held her, she kicked her hind legs. He offered her a small
vitamin tablet, which she happily ate. This was vitamin C, designed
to reduce the level of free radicals in her cells. If his method
was working, the aging process should already have stopped, but
there still remained the problem of the free radicals that caused
different illnesses. He had to ensure that they stayed at a low
level in order to maintain the rabbit’s health. She had to take the
small vitamin C tablet at least three times a day.

Dorothy turned her head as if she’d heard
something. Simon had also been roused from his reverie by someone
banging around upstairs. Evidently Helen had finally come home. He
looked at his watch, which showed midnight. His wife had never come
home so late before. He decided to go up and talk to her. For more
than three weeks there had been discord between them. A number of
times, Simon had tried to talk to her, but she always avoided any
attempt at conversation.
We can’t go on like this,
he
thought.
We are man and wife, after all.

During their time together they had gone
through many difficult periods. They had argued and said some ugly
things to each other, but in the end they always got over it. With
years, they had got to know each other better and acceptance
settled in. But they had never stopped talking for more than a few
days. Simon felt he had to do something. Sometimes he wondered how
it would be if Helen left him, and then he became scared. He could
never imagine living on his own. He was forty-two years old and if
Helen left him he would probably not find another wife.
Of
course she’s angry that I didn’t take that money. But she’s sure to
forget about it.

He gently placed Dorothy back in her cage.
His attention was attracted by the rats, which had been lethargic
recently. Something was not as it should be. He decided that he’d
talk to Helen first and come back to the basement later.

Helen had been looking at herself in the
bathroom mirror. She held the small gold brooch in her right hand
and smiled. She couldn’t remember when Simon had last given her an
expensive present. She wondered how much the brooch was worth.
Maybe I’ll pop into a jeweler’s tomorrow and ask.

First she had a shower. Then she washed her
hair and wrapped it in a towel. She wrapped another towel around
her and headed for the kitchen. She was sure she’d be able to sit
and drink a cup of tea in peace before bed. When she saw Simon
sitting there waiting for her, she spoke first.

“Oh, it’s you,” she said briefly and without
a trace of welcome in her voice.

Simon looked at her for some time, before
greeting her with a forced smile. “Hi.”

She did not reply, but pretended to be
looking for something.

“I think we should talk,” he said.

Her eyes sought the wall clock. “At this
time? I don’t know what can be so important that we have to talk
about it at midnight.”

“When there’s a problem the time isn’t
important. I really think we need to talk.”

She laughed stupidly. “I’ve got no
problem.”

“Where were you?” he asked.

She laughed again. “What do you mean, where
was I?”

“Just what I said. It’s midnight and you’ve
never come home so late before. I want to know where you were.”

Her face became serious for a moment. The
corners of her lips turned down and she hissed back like a snake.
“What business is it of yours where I go? I’ll come home when I
want and with whoever I want! No one’s ever again going to tell me
what to do. Least of all you, whose fault it is that I’m condemned
to poverty and emptiness.” She said this last with disgust, her
face distorted.

“Helen, what are you saying? I’m your
husband, or have you forgotten?”

She laughed again. “I thought that I had a
husband, too. I thought he was intelligent and something special.
That’s what I thought, I really did. But now I know there’s nothing
in your head even remotely resembling intelligence.”