A New Life in Lawrenceville

Chapter 36

I made my way back to the offices of the Lawrenceville Herald so that I could put the finishing touches on my article about the new little league for golfing. While I worked on typing up the article, I couldn't help but think back to my new status as Carla's personal servant. I would have to find some way to get the pictures and videos she obtained from Josh so that she couldn't blackmail me anymore.

I also thought back to the dream I had, with Phil eating the apples and seemingly becoming possessed. Is such a thing possible? Misty and I had been hearing a voice on occasion since we had eaten from that apple tree. Perhaps the more apples one eats, the more it possesses the person until it takes control of them. Furthermore, those apples are highly addictive, and Phil was a regular substance abuser. It's not unbelievable to think he would be tempted to go back to that island and experiment with the intoxicating effects of the apples.

If I slept again, would I be able to see more of what happened?

I finished typing up my article and emailed it to Miller. I then grabbed some melatonin and took it in the hopes that it would help me doze off. I laid my head down and, after a little while, my eyes got heavy. Eventually they closed. When I opened them, I found myself standing on that beach again.

The sun appeared to be setting. I looked around and saw Phil standing over a hole in the ground. I walked over to where he was, but remained unnoticed, even when standing right beside him. It was just like my dream from before. I was like an invisible specter in the affair.

Josh was down in the hole digging with his bare hands. "What are you having me dig for anyway?" he asked. His voice had an ethereal quality to it.

Phil responded in that strange voice. "You will get your answer soon enough," he replied, "I told you that I will allow you to leave this island once you complete this task."

Josh continued to pull back the sand and dirt with his hands, as if trying to pull the covers off a bed. Eventually, he came to two white conical shapes in the dirt.

Phil's eyes widened. "He is here! I knew I sensed him!" He exclaimed and jumped into the hole. He pushed Josh aside and yanked on the two white bumps. As they rose, the two bumps were revealed to be two of the ribs of a rib cage. They had unearthed a skeleton.

Josh stared in horror. "What would you want with that thing?" He asked.

Phil cackled in that malevolent voice. "Do you not know the bones of thine father?" he asked.

Josh crawled nearer to get a closer look. "This thing is my father?" he asked.

"Indeed," Phil said, "His ship went down in the storm, but he managed to wash ashore. He was so close to becoming my new vessel, but he had not the strength to keep going. The waves and the sand buried him alive before he could taste more of the forbidden fruit and be overshadowed by me."

Josh reached forward and touched the skull. A dull blue glow began to appear around it, causing Josh to recoil in fear. "Why does it glow?" he asked.

"It glows for me," Phil explained, "Long ago, I discovered a secret. I found a way to change the nature of my very soul. To transfer it from one material form into another. When I ended up on this island with nothing around, I placed my soul inside the tree so that I could not die."

Phil placed the skeleton on his back and crawled up out of the hole. Josh followed behind. I continued to watch in amazement.

Phil continued, "My methods were unnatural, so nature itself rejected me. The ground would not let the tree take root, and a cave formed around the tree to keep people away. Nonetheless, my will to live was too strong. I sustained my existence until you and your father found me. Nature tried to stop him from coming to me and giving me a new human body. Even creating that storm to destroy his ship and leave him dead and buried on this very beach. Despite it all, much of my soul clings to these bones, like a parasite becoming one with its host."

He set the bones on the ground as Josh and I watched. He began chanting something. Words I had never heard before. The wind seemed to pick up and the waves climbed further up the shore. It was as if the earth itself was trying to stop what he was doing. Like the wind and waves were trying to pull the glowing bones away from him.

As he chanted, the glowing of the bones seemed to be seeping into his hands. All at once, Phil's body seemed to be changing. His hair became lighter and lighter until it was white. His facial hair started to grow, rapidly as first, and then stopping when a white goatee formed around his mouth. His skin became tanned and his eye color faded from brown to a milky blue. His arm muscles seemed to expand, and his stomach seemed to sink into his body revealing toned abdominal muscles.

Josh fell back speechless. Phil seemed to have transformed into a totally different man. Was this what the man in the tree originally looked like? Perhaps when a body takes on another soul, it changes the body to be more like that soul.

The skeleton crumbled into dust instantly. It could no longer be distinguished from the sand.

He moved closer to Josh, who looked up at him dumbstruck. "Fear not," the man said, "I still have use for you, though you be the progeny of dust."

"How so?" Josh asked shakily.

"You can get me off the island using the boat that brought you and your ill-fated companion here," he said.

"What do I call you?" Josh asked.

"No words can define me, for I am no longer a man, or even a part of the natural world," he said, "While all other raindrops fall down, I fall up to the sky. While all other stars shine and shimmer like jewels in the sky, I alone am dark and hard. Invisible in the night. While all other plants grow and wither with the seasons, I spite the seasons and remain forever constant."

Josh replied, "I'm just looking for a name to call you."

The man paused, as if offended by the lack of gravitas that Josh was now regarding him. "Ptolemy," he said, "Now. Let us find the remaining pieces of my soul, so that my full power and life can be restored."

"Where would that be?" Josh asked.

"One of them is watching us right now," Ptolemy said. He then turned and looked, as if straight at me.

Josh stared. "I don't see anything," he said.

"You look with your eyes," Ptolemy said, "I look with my soul." He seemed to be staring directly into my being.

I woke up all at once in a panicked fright. I looked around to see I was still in my office. It seemed Ptolemy was going to come looking for me and Misty. I had to warn her and see if she was okay.