The Curse of Dr. Zola

Chapter 15

He rested his head in his hands. His muffled words came thru splayed fingers. "I have a headache."

She sighed. She sympathized at his plight, and went to fetch two aspirins. She came back with them and a glass of water.

He looked up at her, despair on his face. He just found out he'd lost everything, and he wasn't taking it too well.

She sat down on the sofa next to him. "I wish I could make things all right for you."

He sighed softly, and reached for the aspirins and water. He swallowed them quickly and washed them down. He put the glass down on the small coffee table. For once, all the bravado, all the swagger that was James Buchanan Barnes, left. He felt vulnerable, uncertain and anxious. He looked over at her. "What am I supposed to do? Where do I go?"

"You aren't going anywhere, for starters. You will stay here. Apparently, my mother set this house up for that reason. All the clothes in the second bedroom fit you, so she had to have known you'd be found. She left me a letter to tell me what I needed to know. I found you, you're here, you're alive, you survived that capsule thing, and I will help you with whatever you need. My mother was a pretty wealthy woman and she left everything to me. I don't even have to work if I don't want to."

He drew back a bit. "I can't let you support me! That's not right. I need to find a job!"

"Well, there are some jobs out there that'll let you work off the books, but you'd probably be better off if you worked for yourself."

"Doing what?"

"I don't know. Some guys do landscaping, lawn maintenance, tree trimming that sort of stuff. Some do junk hauling, clean out apartments, refurbishing them for the next tenant. You'll have to knock on a lot of doors, but if you tell them you'll give them a discount if they pay in cash, you'll get a few takers. Word of mouth goes a long way too, once they see that you do a good job, provided you're not afraid of hard work. It looks like I'm going to need some work done around here too. We can finish the basement, make it nice and cozy, maybe put in a second bathroom. I'll get some books from the local supply store and we can figure it out together."

He nodded. "I can do that."

"You can start out once you feel up to it. I don't know the area that well myself, but we can drive around, get to know our way around. Winter is coming, so people might need snow shoveling, or Christmas lights put up. We'll see if there is a printer in town and make you up some business cards, get you a cell phone…"

"What's a cell phone?"

Over the course of the next 5 months, he did odd jobs by day, and she tutored him at night, but it didn't take that long to discover Bucky's new talent.

It seemed the generator downstairs, plus the solar panels powered the house completely. The house was using its own water table underground, drawn up by the windmill, so all she had to pay was the phone, cable and computer and the taxes.

She asked Bucky to chop the wood for the delivery they were hired to make, and he went out with the axe. She wanted to get a head start on it while they could. When he came back in, she asked him how much he'd gotten done.

"All of it."

She looked at him over her glasses. "What?"

He gestured towards the window. She couldn't believe it. He had just chopped and stacked two cords of wood, and he was barely even sweaty!

So she asked him to try some other things…..bigger and bigger things.

Finally, she asked him to push her truck. She put it in neutral, and he was able to push her 4000 pound truck around the yard!

"How can this be?"

"I don't know. One of the last things I remember was them hooking me up to an IV, and it burned me from the inside. I felt like I was on fire, every inch of my body. Eventually, it stopped burning me, but I felt miserable and sick. I think I passed out or slept a lot. But one time when I woke up, I think I remember being in the capsule. They were sealing it up and then a cold blast hit me. There's nothing else until I woke up on the bed."

"What was in the IV?"

"I don't know, but I remember her telling me something about me playing a critical role in the war. But if the war has been over in Europe since 1945, what was my role….wait. I remember her telling me she was training me to make the world a better place, for her daughter. You said your mother was dead. So, now what do I do?"

"I don't know. I know very little of gram's and mom's escape from Nazi Germany. I was told they came thru Canada, but how true it is, is anybody's guess."

"Did they mention how old your mother was then?"

"She was four years old."

"I think I remember her telling me she had a 4 year old daughter."

"So, how old are you James?"

"I keep telling you to please call me Bucky. Not even my own mother called me James. In fact, the only person that ever called me James was…." He stopped, a breath catching in his chest, as a memory caught up with him. Tears welled up in his eyes, but he willed them not to fall. He sniffled. "The only person that ever called me James was Sarah Rogers, the mother of my best friend, Steve."

She put her hands on his hands. "I'm so sorry, Bucky. I'll do everything I can to help you make a new life for yourself. Any time you need to talk, need a friend, I'll be there for you."

"When Mrs. Rogers died, and Steve was left all alone, I told him, 'I'm with ya til the end of the line, pal.' When I got the call to report to duty, Steve had already been rejected 5 times. I saw his papers; 4F each time. I don't know how he got in the Army, or how he got selected for the Captain America program. How did this stuff turn him into a Six-footer? When I knew Steve he was asthmatic, 90 pounds and 5'4". So….?"

"I can only assume he had some variation of the formula you received. If you are able to do the things he did…."

"Maybe."

"Anyway, let's calculate how old you are. You were born in 1917, and it is 2008…"

"That makes me 91."

"Technically, on paper, but if we calculate from 1917 to 1944, it makes you 27, if you didn't age in the tube."

"Great."

"You're the best looking 91 year old I've ever seen."

"You're funny. How old are you, if I may ask, or are you gonna slap my face for asking?"

"I'm 37, and no, I am not going to slap your face. I don't mind if you know."

"Apparently, I've got a lot to learn."

"You do, so let's get to it."