A/N: A short follow-up to the 2007 film "The Man from Earth" in which a college professor reveals at a going away party just how old he really is. We continue the story three years after the events of the film. Ignores any sequels since I haven't seen them.
Time Enough for Love
John Murphy looked up from the paper he was grading and rubbed his eyes. Fifteen already graded, and after this one he still had five to go. The students may have already gone for the semester, but grades needed to be submitted in two days and he wasn't going to wait for the last minute.
"If you keep straining your eyes grading papers you'll need glasses in a few more thousand years," a deep voice said from the door.
John looked up and saw the tall form of Dan Khurn leaning against the frame and smiling. He looked the same as he did the last time they talked, three years ago. There might have been a bit more beard, but it certainly was the anthropology professor he had taught alongside during his ten years at the school the staff referred to as 'We Teach U'. "I don't hear you volunteering to help," he said while finishing the paper he was working on and setting it in the finished pile.
"We finished ours last week," Dan said as he entered and approached John, his hand extended. After the two men shook, Dan settled into a chair beside John. "But we started our semester one week before you did, so it's only fair. All things in their time, eh?"
"All things," John agreed. He was surprised to see someone from his recent past, and his normal reaction would probably have been to flee and assume a new identity elsewhere. It hadn't happened before, but he had come up with the plan if it ever should occur. But he didn't sense danger or malice, so he calmed his initial reaction and kept his options open. "I'm a little surprised to see you, Dan."
"You promised to drop me a line sometime to let me know how you're doing."
"And I will - I just haven't done it yet. Honestly, I thought I'd wait until I was ready to move on from this position and then give you an update as a kind of goodbye. Sorry, I lose track of the years sometimes."
"Life is short but the years are long. Reversed in your case."
"When Heinlein wrote that line, it was meant as an ironic code phrase. But you knew that," John added.
"Yeah. Still the resident sci-fi nerd on the staff. And the duly voted representative of the John O society to come see how you were doing. Anything to drink around here?"
"Not on campus. There's a drinking fountain outside - I hear water comes out of it."
"I'll pass,"
"Suit yourself. I've lived in some places where the stuff was more precious than gold. What's the John O society?" John asked. "Or maybe I shouldn't ask. I don't want some cult started in my name."
"Oh, don't worry, it's a harmless thing really. Just a small group of professors and a student that gather together occasionally and discuss interesting topics, like the effects of longevity on an individual and society."
"And - apart from you - would I know anybody from this esteemed scholarly body?"
"You might at that," Dan admitted. "It's an informal group. There's Harry Goldberg, a biologist. We've got an Art Jenkins, and he's an archeologist. Let's see, Edith Prill is an art historian. And there's Sandy Berry, who thought she was going to be an archeologist but broke up with Art and now has switched to anthropology too; going to be the next Margaret Mead if you can believe that. We don't keep minutes and the discussions remain only with the group. It's all hypothetical, of course. No real interest for the general public, I'd imagine."
John looked at Dan and made a guess. "I take it my guests that night didn't believe me when I said at the end that it was all just a story."
"Oh, it depends on who you asked. I think I thought you were real even before I got into my car. Harry thought about it for a few weeks before convincing himself you were who you said you were. Edith thinks that you're wrong about being the inspiration for Jesus but that the rest is a possibility. Art - well, he's more prone to playing devil's advocate in the discussion than anything. He wants to believe you, but fights it."
"I'm not surprised. On a personal level, he's fighting his own aging. Rides a motorcycle, dates much younger women - the thought of a 14,000 year old man rails against his own mortality fears. That's why I don't tell people how old I am; people hate me for what I am regardless of me having no control over my birth. I don't blame them, but I took a chance with your group because I thought their shared knowledge base might provide some temperance." John sighed. "I should have kept my secret."
"John, don't say that. Your truth has given us all a gift of a lifetime, no pun intended. Why, just the thought of what you've seen and experienced and felt has powered discussions for untold hours among us. The academic stimulation has given us all a shot in the arm."
"Maybe. But if I hadn't said anything, Will Gruber would still be alive." John shook his head. "He wouldn't have come over, and the strain wouldn't have caused that heart attack." Art had called Gruber, a psychologist, to come over and confront John about his story of being fourteen millennia old. When threatened with being put on a psychiatric hold for his claims, John had given in and said that it was all made up as a hypothetical example to test their reactions.
"John, you don't know that he wouldn't have died anyway. He had a heart condition, and his wife had died the day before. The man was under a great deal of stress. At least he didn't die alone somewhere."
"No," John said reluctantly. Will had died in John's arms after the others had left - and after hearing John reveal information proving that John was in fact Will's father who had abandoned the family when he moved on like he did every ten years to establish a new identity and hide his lack of aging. Only Linda knew that part of the story. If he had just been more careful when Will was within earshot; maybe he WAS getting a little senile after so many millennia.
"We didn't find out about Will until the next day when the police called us all. By then you and Linda were gone. When semester started in the fall EVERYONE knew, of course. Oh, by the way, they picked Trimball for the History department chair."
"He's good."
"Yes, but he didn't LIVE it like you did."
"I didn't live everywhere..."
"...to experience everything, I know. You're just one person weaving his way through history. But you have to admit, it does give you a unique experience that Trimball could never hope to achieve," Ron pointed out.
John shrugged. "Experience is only part of it. Insight, passion, knowledge and a whole lot of other things go into it too. I can truthfully tell people that I've forgotten more than they'll ever know. There's no way I can store it all up here," he said as he tapped his head.
"Like getting too many shirts and not enough hangers. Things get piled on top of things and next before you know it you forget you even had a particular shirt; or experience, to complete the metaphor. Being old doesn't make you a perfect repository for all knowledge."
"Just the opposite," John admitted with a laugh. "Everyone doing okay? I didn't mean to upset anyone, but it's just that after so long I really wanted to share my story. It really hurt that I had to lie and tell everyone it was just a story, but I couldn't take the chance to get locked up; I was ready to move on, and that would have just complicated the process. If it's one thing I've learned over my life, it's that being too different usually causes trouble in one form or another."
"Conformity equals safety. The chief blessing and curse of most societies. Only those with adequate power, position or wealth can afford to be different and even then they have to watch their backs."
"Et tu, Brute."
"Exactly. You can be injured or fall ill - it follows that you have to watch out for being killed too. At some point your luck will probably run out no matter how careful you are. Let's change subjects - how's Linda?"
"She's fine. I almost left without her that night, but I've been alone long enough that I thought I might try again. None of my previous partners knew my secret, so she's the first. She was really happy at first that we'd be together, then reality sunk in a few weeks later when she had time to think hard about it; just how long was I going to stick around before leaving this time? I've made a deal with her, though. Ten years to begin with, with an option for another ten if we start new lives elsewhere. After that...well, I just can't subject her to what will happen when she continues to get much older while I stay the same. And if we ever have children..."
"You haven't been able to have any children, have you?" Dan asked.
"Ah, no. She's seeing a doctor."
"No, I mean ever. Will was your son, but he was adopted. You've had children in the past, but it was always cases where they had been born before you met their mother."
"How..." John started to ask, then stopped. He was SURE that he hadn't told anyone about Will being his adopted son. Everyone had left the goodbye party before even Will found out. Linda wouldn't have told anyone. "How did you know that?"
"John, let me give you a hypothetical. Suppose - just suppose - a man in the future was a pilot of a small exploration spacecraft. Let's say he was an anthropologist. He wanted to observe how his people lived and developed in prehistory."
"Time travel? He couldn't go back in time."
"No, that's true. But what he COULD do was find a planet where life was developing at a level similar to what he wanted to study. Are societal phases a universal truth or an isolated event limited to his own planet? Give the dominant life form three legs and no eyes and how does it differ? So, this scientist checks out a few planets and makes his observations until he comes across one where the life there is so much like his own that it makes him homesick. He amasses an amazing amount of information, but while leaving his spaceship has a malfunction and he crashes back on the surface. He survives the crash, but sustains some type of trauma that causes him to have amnesia. In order to survive, he has to adopt to the ways of primitive life at that time. After a while, he loses his own sense of being different as he becomes one of the tribe."
Dan went on. "But he is different in one important aspect - his lifespan. He soon devises a method of leaving behind his life every decade or so in order to hide this one crucial difference."
"That's a good one. What about his ship? Where is it?" John asked.
"Excellent question. No one knows. Buried under a lava flow or at the bottom of the ocean, it really doesn't matter except that it hasn't been found. After that much time who knows what is left of it, or if anything is still recognizable. You said so yourself - things change over time."
"And this scientist is just left and presumed dead by his people. The universe's longest sabbatical."
Dan shook his head. "No. They send out searchers, of course. A lot at first, then fewer as more give up hope. All but one, a relative. He continues the search, and with no other clues to go by he surmises that - if you are still alive - you'd have...what's the phrase...'gone native' wherever you were, if nothing else simply due to the time."
"Sort of like a chameleon," John added. "But the world is a big place to look for one person."
"That is so true; finding your car keys in living room is hard enough as it is. But keep in mind that this scientist's people are also long-lived, so that instills a little more patience than he sees around him. One day, untold years later, he meets someone he thinks might be the scientist he's looking for. But the scientist looks a lot like other natives in this part of the world, so he approaches carefully and feels him out with conversation without tipping his hand too much - he could face the same kind of scorn and envious hatred that anyone with his natural lifespan would have. He fabricates a story of being a native but with that incredibly long life span, and the person says the same. It might be real, or it could be a lie. He agrees to stay in touch, but loses contact with the scientist."
"If that's true, why did they lose contact? And wouldn't he still look the same as when he left his own planet?"
"Why do even the closest of friends drift apart? Things happen, the flows and eddies of history and time moving us along different paths. Melatonin levels react depending on your exposure to the sun, adoption of current grooming and fashion trends, and looks can change to some degree - ask anyone who has had his hair color changed by too much sun. He keeps searching, convinced he has found the scientist. After a few centuries he leaves to get more help but can only convince two others to join him. Together they return and continue the quest until finally they find him. But the scientist must be evaluated to see how much memory he has lost and his desire to return. This time they take years to develop trust with the scientist while observing his behavior, looking for clues only they can detect. Before they can fully act, the scientist leaves again."
"Okay, I see where this is going. So our little group that night were really aliens from another world, just like I am supposed to be. Is that it?"
Dan laughed. "Not exactly. There were only two of us - the rest are just friends we've made since coming here who have no idea what we really are. Your relative isn't even among the group - he left to go back home to let others know we finally found you."
John finally put down the pencil he had been holding the whole time. "If that's the case, how did you find me again so quickly?"
"Linda. When you left, she went with you. When Harry had a friend ask him some strange questions about DNA and genetics, we were pointed this direction. I guess you've been trying to have children and consulted a doctor."
"Yeah," John said. "She had to take some tests but I never gave them a sample of my blood or anything."
"Maybe they got it from a water glass or something - the main point is that they got some naturally strange results from yours. Don't worry, Harry was able to convince them that the abnormal results were due to sample contamination. But it explains why you haven't had any natural children of your own here; you're genetically incompatible."
John looked down and picked up the pencil again and toyed with it. It explained a lot of things. It sounded too good to be true. "So what am I supposed to do? Just pick up and come home, or do I even have a home anymore? And am I just supposed to suddenly get my memory back when I see this hypothetical home planet again?"
"I'm sorry John, we just don't know. You may get some memories back and there are certain therapies that can be used to help. Some of it may be lost forever."
"And what about Linda? What do I do with her?"
"It's your choice. You can stay here and continue living like you have for millennia, finding it harder and harder to uproot and start over anonymously. Or you can come home and see if you remember your parents or any of the other people that love you; they certainly know by now that we found you again. If you want, you can stay here with Linda for as long as you wish and then come home when you're...finished. Ten years, twenty year, fifty years - by now you know that's just a handful of sand on a beach to us. You can even ask if she wants to see another world." Dan looked around. "It's really a nice place, when it comes down to it. I could see spending a few more decades here myself before I go back. The insight into early civilizations is fascinating. And Harry and I are still part of the John O society, where the topic of alien DNA will definitely NOT come up."
"I'll have to talk it over with Linda."
"You BETTER talk it over with her. Need Harry and I to be there?"
John gave it some thought. "It would probably be best. I'm not sure I fully believe it, and I have no idea how she'll feel."
Dan smiled. "If she truly feels for you like I think she does, she'll take every year you can give her. You may not be from Earth, but you definitely are OF Earth. And you're barely middle-aged where you come from. Whatever you decide, you have people back home who love you. Love is just as important whether it has only a hundred years or ten thousand. Either way there's time enough for love."
The End
A/N: An interesting "one room" movie in which the bulk of the story is dialogue. The group dynamic is a bit more varied than "My Dinner with Andre" but it still kicked around some interesting ideas. I just thought I'd spin it a little different for a continuation. I'd rather not see John having to start over every ten years for who knows how long.
Thanks to writer fan-xover for bringing this movie to my attention.
