Assassin by D.A.Sanford - HTML preview

An interesting development

The neighbors are talking or should I say the women of the street are talking with each other. I know enough to start my worrying but I may not want to know so I will not investigate. All I feel is some man is in danger. I will be available to console that one.

On the better side, my teacher is accompanying me on my trips. I must now say that I suspect that the woman is involved. When my teacher and I first met, I was just sixteen and she seemed mid thirties. When I joined the neighborhood, the woman changed me to my mid twenties. That was five years between that date and I rescued my teacher.

She however still looks like she is mid thirties. This has to be the woman but I still need to keep to my original vow. Not until I retire from my line of hidden work. This is very hard though, to keep professional.

What I was worried about has creeped in. I have to sit down with her.

“I am worried about you going out on my assignments. I find my mind being distracted for your safety. Know this, I do not doubt your talent, your skills, it is just that I don’t want you hurt or worse. I have been dancing around just this subject.”

I take a deep breath and say it.

“It is obvious that the woman is monkeying around with our ages. You and I are almost the same age now. I had a crush on you when you taught me but there was at least fifteen years between us. Now we are only a few years different. My crush is now love. The biggest reason I am worried is I don’t want to lose you. We cannot go out together but I don’t want you to go out at all. I’m being selfish.”

Before she could comment, the woman Is here.

“I knew this would come up and that you would figure it out at a certain point. I have been manipulating both of your ages. You both are soon going to replace me. I have lived now for five hundred years and I am now tired. You see, the reason I am manipulating the both of you, the reason I can, is because both of you are now immortal. You never will get hurt.”

We are stunned but she goes on “From this time until you retire I am changing how we address you two. You are Charles and now you are Susan. You both will move from your neighborhood and live in my house. A mortal man will replace you. Everyone will know them as the one that has always lived there. He will be married with a normal job. He will still take care of the people as you have.”

My teacher, no, now Susan is actually getting to the border between frustrated and mad. “Don’t we even get a say in this? You just pop in here and drop this load on us. When did we become immortal?”

We are told that we were from birth. “That is why I have been able to manipulate your appearance.”

I grab hold of something that the woman may not have realized. “You say that we have been immortal from birth and that you have been manipulating first her appearance and then mine. Actually our age is still what they are but the outward appearance is changed.”

She says yes.

“Then we will live in our neighborhood. We will change our appearance as if we are aging as normal. You have changed us so we can do that. You will give us that power. We will go on special assignments but you will show us starting now on how to do your job. First how do you just appear and disappear?”

Susan interrupts me. “No, Charles, that is not the first. Isn’t there something you were intimating before she showed up?”

I realize what she is saying and yes , I could have only dreamed about but since we are immortal, the slight difference does not matter. My worries are now moot. I do say in the way I wanted. “Ever since you taught me back when I was young, I thought I had a crush but you were out of reach for that young boy. When I heard that you had been abducted, the woman had to restrain me but your words from training had me plan. The love I have for you is nothing that can be put back in the bottle. My teacher, will you marry me and live forever with me as my wife?”

She says, “As my student, I was interested in your talent and felt a bond. Not in the same way that you had but I remembered you. When you rescued me, I saw a man where that boy once stood. My love bloomed and it is now the biggest flower ever. When you worried about my safety, I was both mad and sad but I also was elated. I will marry you and spend eternity with you.”

The woman agrees with our terms. It was acceptable for us to live where we were until such time that we will tell them that we want to move to a senior living community in another community far away. Then we will live in the command home. She touches both of our heads and now we do have the ability to instantly travel, we could adjust our appearance.

Now she is gone. We are alone. For the first time since she appeared in my life, I grabbed hold of her and kissed her. When we broke, we transported to a local jewelry store. We picked out a ring and then transported back.

I held her hand and we went outside. She was swarmed by the women of the street. They must have a diamond sensor. They were excited and had to hear every detail of how It happened.

“Before you drag me off, I want to tell you all that we will be married on our lawn and the reception will be here. This street is invited. Talk to my future husband about the timing. We will need to work around his schedule. After the honeymoon, I will be joining him permanently with his company. Just to answer the question you may have, we will still live here until we retire. Then we will move to a senior living community.”

Now the women drag her off. I bring out the barbeque, the cooler of beer and say, “Now is a good time to celebrate.

While the women were getting all the edited details of my proposal, I had the men watch the grill and I went into town. I bought out the market deli of all the salads they had. Sodas, bottled water and wine coolers. At the bakery, I gave them twice the amount for a large two layer sheet cake with our names inside a heart with an arrow and todays date.

I know, hokey, but I am a man after all. It needed to be delivered today, ASAP.

I come back. The men had gathered tables and helped me set the food and drinks up. All before the women release their hostage. At least they were surprised but they were coming out with food. There is no way to describe their look.

Each took one of the store duplicate bought items off the table, replaced them with theirs. We men just shrugged as I got the look. Those items were taken inside my house. That look said that I was going to have a lot of salads to eat.

What they did not know is I went inside with the stated intention to put them in the basement refrigerator. I transported is all to my warehouse and drove it to a local food kitchen. They were thankful and said that their people would eat well for a while.

As a side note, when Susan found out, she made it a point to make sure that the food kitchen always had deliveries from an anonymous source, of meats and vegetables.

I come out of the house and see that everyone is eating. The bakery delivery van is here. The cake is in a box and I had them put it on a small table I brought out.

“May I have your attention.” I loudly say. “Susan please come forward and open the box.”

She did and thankfully the baker did not put what I asked for on the cake. I had told them that it was for our engagement announcement. On the elaborately decorated surface of the cake was “Congratulations to Charles and Susan on their engagement. May they live a long and happy life together.”

I tell the crowd that I had asked for something else but this is so much better. “The women working at the bakery must have seen that I am a true male. I won’t tell you what I actually wanted.”

One woman had to do it. “What any male would ask to be on a cake is a heart with an arrow through it with the names and date.” All the women laughed. I did give her a standing invitation.

It did not matter, Susan and the others loved the cake. The impromptu party was a hit.

After things wound down, everyone took plates of the leftovers back to their homes. Everything was either taken home or put away in our garage. Susan and I go inside but as we go through our door.

"Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore."