"So you never did tell me about your parents?" Dave asked Aaron when they had a few minutes alone, as the females had gone out shopping. The question had been on his mind, ever since the subject had come up at the Garcias.
"Why ask now after all this time?" Aaron asked after he had gotten over his surprise.
"The subject came up when we were visiting the Garcias," Dave explained. "I told Penelope's father, Juan, that they were dead and they would be now of course, since it's been centuries, so I didn't lie. I don't see you agreeing to travel with me so long ago, if they were still alive or at least if you were close to them. I never brought it up before, because I didn't want to hurt you, because I didn't know anything about your situation with them."
"I suppose I should've told you the basics," Aaron said pensively.
"You don't have to if you don't want to, but I've wondered for a long time," Dave said gently.
"I grew up with my aunt and uncle, or at least that's who they said they were. I have my doubts," Aaron explained slowly. "I ran away from there at 14 or at least I believe I was that old. I figured I'd do better on my own. There was never enough food, though I'm pretty sure that there was plenty of that in the pantry, as my aunt and uncle seemed well enough off to afford decent food at least. I think they just weren't giving me very much. I was always hungry growing up."
"You think they were deliberately denying you decent food," Dave said trying not to growl angrily, as there was nothing he could do about it.
"It has more to do with the amount then the quality," Aaron said. "Most the time what they gave me was barely 3 or 4 decent bites. It was barely enough to keep a bird alive much less me, even if my body was a lot smaller back in those days."
"You could've raided the pantry," Dave suggested smiling.
"My supposed uncle would've beaten me to a pulp if I had," Aaron said quite seriously. "My uncle in particular, hated to be disobeyed and the pantry was off limits. I'm surprised they didn't put a lock on it, but maybe they both wanted to see if I would disobey their restriction. I can see my uncle wanting a reason just to beat me black and blue. I suspect, I know, the reason it was off limits, but it's not proof or anything, because back then, I wouldn't have dared disobey an authority figure. By the time I was 14, I'd had enough and I simply ran away. I never heard of my supposed aunt and uncle even trying to find me, which ought to show that they didn't care about me at all. There were many young boys like me on the streets that they could just take one of them in, once I had run off. I wouldn't be surprised if that's exactly what they did. If I was going to starve I'd rather do it on the streets, then with people who obviously didn't care about me. I think they just wanted a servant that they didn't have to pay, other then with a little food and clothing. Hell, I didn't even get servant wages, which I could've used to buy more food at least. I was basically a slave."
"So you don't believe they were really your aunt and uncle," Dave suggested knowing how Aaron thought.
"I don't know for sure, but I really didn't look anything like them," Aaron said. "I suppose it's possible that one of them was related to my real parents and just didn't look much like them. I might look more like my father for instance and either my aunt or uncle might have been related to my mother. All I know was they were a lot like Emily's mother heartless and barely fed me enough to keep my body going, especially that of a child. At least Emily always had plenty of food in her belly, as her mother or father never starved her or her brothers and believe me, that would've made a huge difference to me when I was growing up."
"Yes, it would have," Dave agreed soberly. "I'm sorry you were treated so cruelly by your aunt and uncle, even if you're not sure they really are related to you."
"We'll never know now and it doesn't matter anyway," Aaron shrugged nonchalantly. "It's one of the reasons I'm so fond of your parents, as they are so genuinely loving, understanding and compassionate. My aunt and uncle were none of those things. I'm sorry I didn't tell you a long time ago."
"It doesn't matter," Dave promised him. "I understood that it was probably a painful memory for you."
"Not so painful now, but back then, definitely," Aaron agreed. "I suspect that I'm probably a young child off the streets that my parents threw out or maybe my mother just got pregnant, but wasn't married, so wanted to get rid of me, to get rid of her sin so to speak. Out of sight, out of mind and all that."
"It's possible she raised you long enough that you had a chance of surviving on your own," Dave said. "If you were only five or six when she left you or died for some reason you wouldn't necessarily remember her."
"And maybe the adults that claimed they were my aunt and uncle found me, decided that they needed someone around the house to do chores and this way they didn't have to pay a servant," Aaron speculated. "All they had to do was feed me the bare minimum and make sure I had at least some clothes, even if that was two pairs of pants and two shirts, that I could switch off every other day. I even had a decent pair of shoes for the day, which I'm surprised that they provided. I'm surprised they didn't just allow me to go barefoot, even in winter, as they really were that cruel, but maybe they thought it would look wrong."
"It doesn't matter now, as those people are long dead and it's a good thing," Dave said his expression, as mad as Aaron had ever seen it.
"It's over and done with Dave," Aaron said finally. "You can't dig up their bodies and return them to life just to kill them again. Not only do we have no idea where those bodies are buried they'd be nothing but skeletons now."
"Too bad," Dave said empathically. "I would torture them for the next 10 years for what they did to a child. Even mom would agree with me and you know how softhearted she is. I know it was a different time back then, there weren't as many laws in place about protecting children, but still, what happened to you was in no way right."
"No it wasn't," Aaron agreed. "But a lot of children died of various diseases in those days. There was no early version of the cops or at least of the authority figures were few far between, even if you could've located one you would have to be very rich and important for them to look for a child that ran away. Bribery was even more prevalent in those days, and I don't see the people that I thought were my aunt and uncle being willing to waste their money to get someone to try to find me. Hell! All they had to do was feed me decently and I probably would've stuck around for the food and been willing to do just about anything, so I could keep eating regularly. I mean, they basically, shot themselves in the foot and lost out on my help to do all their chores. How much would it cost to feed me decently, really? Food was so much cheaper in those days, though I know certain types of items were more expensive, because they had to be imported from farther away. Even pease porridge would've been okay, as it was cheap and filling. I just would've been happy to have a full stomach on a regular basis, you know? Even if eating the same thing every day can get a little tiring."
"I can understand that," Dave agreed soberly. "Just think you might never have met Berenice if you hadn't run away from them."
"That's true and for that bit of luck I would do almost anything, though I wouldn't kill anyone unless they deserved it," Aaron said. "Berenice and my children were my life and now Emily and this child to come are."
"Believe me, I'm well aware of it," Dave told Aaron in a gentle tone. "When the two of you sat on the love seat in Emily's apartment right after you had called me that first time, I thought that I didn't need another example of how close you were. Emily was practically sitting on your lap and I'm sure she would have been if the two of you had been alone."
"Yeah, I remember that," Aaron grinned cheering up immediately. "That's right after I called you so you could help me explain about immortality. Emily had just remembered her past life and thought that I had been reincarnated to, as it was the only explanation she could conceive of that the time. I'm sorry, if we made you uncomfortable, neither one of us realized."
"I wasn't uncomfortable I promise," Dave said. "I just thought at the time that I didn't need another example of how close you were, as it was something I had already known. You were like a body with two heads."
"I suppose," Aaron chuckled at the image that produced in his head. "That was back before Emily introduced you to Penny and now you're getting married."
"Something I'm really looking forward too," Dave admitted with a smile, as he thought about the woman he had come to love so deeply. "I had no incentive to really find a woman that I could spend eternity with until you met Emily. I knew then, that I needed to get my rear in gear. I didn't want to feel like the third wheel with you and Emily being so close and of course, the two of you spending a great deal of time together. That's only right, considering you're newlyweds, but I'm sure I would've felt left out, even if those feelings had no basis in fact, as its human nature after all, but now, that I have Penny..."
"You have someone to spend time with when I'm busy with Emily or my family," Aaron said and Dave nodded. "You're my family too and I promise I'm never going to forget that. We've been best friends and brothers for far to long."
"I know that," Dave promised. "But you and Emily will still be spending a lot of time together and I won't ever resent you for that, because it's the natural way of things, especially during the first year or two of marriage. All I have to do is look at my parents example, as they're just in love with each other as they have always been and will continue to be so for the rest of their eternity. If humans only knew about immortals and how they get along with their spouses then that example would do a great deal of good for the human race."
"It would also cause chaos and you know it," Aaron said. "A lot of people would like to be immortal for the wrong reasons."
"Yeah, I know, I was just thinking that if mortals had an example of how a harmonious marriage should be, then maybe, they would get along better with their own spouses," Dave sighed. "I know it's not possible, but I'm sure, it would help mortals understand that compromising with your spouse is really the way to go and also not getting angry and frustrated at every little thing."
"That might help some husband and wives, but you have to remember that humans are far too selfish and want what they want. There are nice, generous ones out there, like Taro and his wife, but that's only a small percentage," Aaron said. "Most people would never believe in immortality, even with the demonstration and you know it. They would think they were hallucinating or that it was some kind of trick and those that did believe would want immortality for all the wrong reason. It's a rare person that actually deserves to be turned immortal, that want it for the right reasons and not out of a selfish desire to become as rich as Midas, even if that means cheating people out of their life savings, or by selling drugs to kids."
"Yeah, I know," Dave agreed soberly. "I'm not suddenly advocating telling mortals I promise. I just meant it would be nice if spouses did not shout at each other all the time or hit them. That there'd be no such thing as spousal or child abuse or at least there wouldn't be so much of it. I know very well that humans can be selfish and greedy, as both negative emotions have been around for as long as the human race has and always will be. We're just not wired for a perfect utopia. Still, it would be nice."
"Yes, it would be," Aaron agreed easily knowing that this was a dream of Dave's, one that would never come true and they both knew it. It was probably the dream of most immortals who lived many centuries or forever if they didn't get tired of living like some did. While Dave may dream of a human race that were less selfish and greedy he was also realistic and knew that such a dream would never come to fruition. That didn't mean that Dave wouldn't help out people that needed it, just like he had him so long ago. Of course, he likely wouldn't offer them immortality unless the circumstances were very unusual, but Aaron knew that it was also a possibility for the future, though the situation and person would have to be very unusual for Dave to even consider it to seriously.
~~~Dave and Penelope~~~