The story of the mad man was once told to me by my good friend Clarence Bloomingdale.
In the old barn we kept spare parts that we would use to service the motor. It was also a handy place to hide secrets.
I crawled along the floor to get through the tiny opening that had rusted shut from many harsh winters and lodged my head up above the thick bracing beams.
The place smelled like fuel and stale buns. I covered my mouth in case of bacterial infections and slithered fully in.
Damn this place was dank. I could barely make out the shapes of rusted cogs and empty oil cans. The light was hard to attain.
I fumbled around in my pocket and found a lighter. Judging by the smell though I wasn't sure it was a good idea. I decided against it and kept scanning the small room slowly allowing my eyes to adjust. In one corner I could just make out an old bucket with a collection of walking sticks stacked up inside it.
Seemed as good a place as any to start my search. Careful to avoid any accidents I made my way over. I could just about see now. An old chest of drawers stood to my right and the bucket was in front of me. I checked the drawers. They were heavy to pull open. The top one contained some old newspapers with a paint sodden screw driver wrapped inside and a few nuts and bolts. I made my way meticulously down, most of them contained rusted old tools and a few boxes of nails here and there. In the bottom one I found a broken oil lamp with a note stuffed inside. I pulled it out and put it in my pocket. Next I checked the walking sticks, a very random collection. Various carvings on the handles what looked like a ducks bill. Another looked like a golf ball. I pulled them out of the bucket and at the bottom found an old brass key.
I examined it carefully, it was one of those long ones with an upside down "T" shape on the end. I knew what it was for. Feeling my way back to the beam my leg crashed into a chest. This was it. I pushed the key into the lock and tried to lift the lid but the hinges had long seized mobility. I pulled up hard but couldn't get it open.
Clarence had warned me what may be inside the trunk. You see my history is one chequered with bloody secrets. I come from a family of dark creatures. On the outside we appear human but we are in fact something else more remarkable. One of the many qualities that we don't share with our look a like humans is mortality. However one we do share is forgetfulness. We live forever but our memories only last a hundred or more years. This leads to the dreadful situation of having to find out that you had done some horrific things that seemed acceptable a hundred years ago but seem truly revolting in our modern era. I have done things I am not proud of and the story of the madman was a fabel told about one of my previous lifetimes. In case your wondering. We do not die, we merely come to an end and have to start again. To give you an idea I will relate to you my last memory lapse. Thirty or so years ago I was with my companion and watcher Clarence in the middle east, Syria, Iraq, Jordan etc.
We had made our way to a place known as Madaba in the Yoshimite kingdom of Jordan. I was investigating a clients missing weapons and found myself in a violent confontation with a member of a local militia..
Clarence tried his best to persuade the fellow to calm down and answer the questions but the more the scene went on the more violent he became. Finally enough was enough. I broke his neck and checked his pockets for anything I could decipher. Clarence wasn't pleased because this was our only lead. I told him to meet me back at the hotel and I would remain behind in this militia hideout in case any more rebels returned. Off he went. I stayed for another 4 hours before I heard the sound of engines approaching.
Next thing I know I'm back in England on a farm and Clarence is debriefing me my last 6 weeks.
I can vaguely recollect being in the middle east and I have no memory of anything before the middle east. It's almost as if I remember some moments before my mind is wiped and then I am blank for a period and suddenly everything comes full colour and I start again for another hundred years or so. Clarence is of the same race, the reason we are so close in our friendship is we overlap in the centre. A lot of us are like that; we pair up with watchers and thus become watchers. Clarence has another 20 years or so before his lapse, then I have another 50 or so. In the times of his memory switch he seems totally normal and the only way I can detect he is having a memory change is when he wakes up confused and asks how did we get wherever it is we happen to be.
Which is what happened with me this morning.
I looked around and seemed suprised I was on a farm, I could tell from the tree's and hedgerows I was in England.
Clarence was there and knew by my puzzled look it was time. He asked me the usual questions and began to retell the last few years. I was astounded by my thirty year lapse. Being immortal comes with many perks and one of those is you get to amass a fortune. The trouble is you can very easily become bored. I used my time to chase human adventure. I have climbed mountains for many many years and sailed the oceans countless times. I am skilled in many martial arts and have read most of the worlds greatest literature. Interestingly skills and knowledge do not fade with my memory which is lucky for me. My passions are many and I can play almost any musical instrument to a high level of technical competence. These skills are very in demand in the human world that knows and understands us and often I spend my time working for shall we say the "elites" of the global world. Clarence proceeded to tell me of our work in the middle east and told me that at one point I had gone crazy and began killing small militia groups and drawing unwanted attention to our very secret organisation. This had alarmed him at the time and at some point during those thirty years he had gathered up as much information about my madness and put it in the trunk I was now trying to open. My kills had alarmed some world governments and they had tried to terminate me which only ensued more carnage. We do not die. I was calm and understood that I may have some explaining to do but first I need to get in that trunk and see what exactly I had been upto...........
To be continued.