I apologize for leaving this portion of the interview blank in a prior post. Following this brief message is the missing interview portion. Interview with an Invisible Man
Part 4
By John Pirillo
"Anchor your thoughts in love and you shall never deceive...yourself or anyone else!" --- Merlin the Wise
As you know we had to stop this interview for numerous reasons, the major one being that Professor Langdon, the Invisible Man, was becoming more and more distraught. Now in this next portion of the interview, you will see why that it is so important for him not to do so, as well as to how he has learned to cope with the death of a close friend and colleague over the years.
The Interview begins after this:
"Okay, we're ready to go again." I told Professor Langdon.
He came from the simple bathroom of my hotel room, a smile on his face. "I must admit." He told me. "I've never seen such a large choice of bowls to drink from."
I got this sickening feeling in my stomach. I almost didn't want to ask the next question, but I did, knowing I had better or regret it the rest of my life. "Uh, did you use the bowl on the floor, or the one that thrust from the wall?"
He gave me a curious look. "Why, the higher one, of course. It was easier to reach the knobs. I couldn't for the world of me figure out why the larger bowl kept spurting water out and washing away when I would bend to drink it."
I was both relieved and horrified. "Maybe keep using the higher one. The lower one is for, uh...other things."
"Such as what?" He asked, a sudden suspicious look on his face.
I trembled inside. I knew men of his age when insulted would resort to a duel at times, if not a form of violence. "The lower one is meant to..."
I looked down at my pants.
He blanched, and then sat down like a rock in the chair opposite me. "Oh bloody hell!" He uttered, crossing himself. "Speak to no one of my blasphemy!"
I crossed myself as well. He nodded, evidently happy with my non-verbal agreement.
"Now, shall we continue?" I asked. "That is, if..."
He waved a hand at me. "No, no. I'm fine. Please do, though I could do with a spot of something to eat."
I made another mistake. I went into the kitchen and brought out a jar of peanut butter and bread. He set aside the bread and used the butter knife I supplied him with to jab into the peanut butter. He examined it quite closely a moment, eyeing me thoughtfully. "This is for consumption, is it not?"
Crossed myself again.
He nodded, and then swiped some of the peanut butter onto a small plate I had provided. He took a fork and the knife and began dividing it up into smaller portions. I watched with amusement, which I quickly hid, until he was finished. He finally stabbed one of the segments and stuck it into his mouth. He got a startled look on his face when he began chewing on it, then a look of utter delight. He hurriedly began eating the rest, making rather loud smacking sounds, which I am sure if he were aware of, he would have been horrified to have learned he was doing so.
Finished, he dabbed at his lips with a napkin on the table, and then sat back. He eyed the bread. "I've never seen bread like that before. What is it?"
"Organic, whole wheat bread with seventeen kinds of seeds and nuts added for protein."
He eyed me with a renewed look of respect. "You are evidently quite a learned man."
I laughed. "Me and millions of others."
"Humility. I like that in a man." He said, and then leaned forward. I am ready."
"After the distressing incident, how long did it take you to stabilize the potion so that it had no harmful side effects?"
"After my friend was dutifully buried with great respect and regret, I spent about half a year in remorse, refusing to even consider another experiment."
"What brought you back to it then?"
He sighed. "Loneliness. You see, I wasn't the kind of person who easily attracted a woman. I had no wealth like many of my fellow class mates had. I worked hard to maintain my scholarly studies...oftentimes working as many as two or more jobs a day. Fortunately, for me that is, I met a very kind man who took me under his wing and provided a meager endowment."
"I see. Was that before or after...?"
"After. You see my friend and I shared everything. Including expenses. Once he was..." His eyes began to mist again. I waited until he regained composure and he gave me a grateful look. "Once I realized I would not be able to go on without that friendship and partnership, I sold all my equipment and moved into the country. I took on mere labor jobs to help me subsist."
It was on one such job that I met a very dear soul, an older man, a Professor of Archaeology. Challenger. You know him, of course."
"Yes. I do. Extraordinary man."
"Anyway, he noticed that his flowers always bloomed, all year round, and curious as to why, he demanded an audience with me. In those days masters of their houses hardly ever spoke to laborers such as me. But as you know, he was different. More humble. He pulled me aside at the end of one day, forced me against all protestations to eat a formal dinner with him..." He pointed to his clothing. "Not even dressed well I should remark."
"That must have been difficult." I knew appearance was important to such gentlemen as he.
"Yes. Extremely. I almost fled the home, the job and never returned."
"What kept you?"
"He showed me a dinosaur egg."
My eyes went wide with awe. "A real dinosaur egg. Like the one he brought back from..."
"Exactly so. One he had kept hidden from the society that had sponsored his expedition and from the police who had to take down that terrible creature who hatched from the other egg."
"Remarkable." I said.
"You better bloody well believe it!" He told me with a grin.
"So how did that relate to the flowers?"
"He took me outside after dinner, and after we had remarked for a time upon the egg and its importance to modern science. He showed me the flowers."
"You probably thought he was getting ready to hammer you for bad work?"
"I beg your pardon, sir!" He said rising angrily. "He was no sort of man to hammer a poor worker as I!"
I started to laugh, and then thought better of it. "I meant, that you probably thought he was going to fire you."
"Oh. I am so sorry. I am not used to all the colloquialisms of your language yet. I beg your forgiveness for my brash assumption."
"Forgiven." I said and meant it, my heart just beginning to settle down after the fear of a violent confrontation. But that was when I noticed that half his neck had vanished and a portion of his face. He must have sensed what I saw, but being the gentleman he was he said nothing, evidently understanding my reluctance to bring up the subject, which later he does.
"Sensing that, he didn't wait for me to ask more. Professor Challenger asked me gruffly, but with a touch of warmth, 'How in God's Name have you managed to get daisies to bloom in this blasted weather?' "
"Why, with a simple chemical additive I mixed up with some of the food ingredients you leave for the servants."
"Show me!" He demanded.
"I took him to the back building where the servants lived and laborers dressed and undressed for work. Into the tiny kitchen there. I indicated what I had used. He fondled the items thoughtfully a long time, and then turned to me. You should be a Doctor of Chemistry, young man!' "
"I then told him about my prior studies and my lack of funding. I left out mention of my friend, not wanting to go there with my heart, which still hurts to this day from that horrid mistake."
I nodded.
"So Professor Challenger, who is also now part of the Baker Street Team of adventurers, helped launch your career?"
"Yes." He answered with a bright smile. "And I owe him everything for that."
I understood. When times are tough financially, a friend can be a great anchor of hope. We all need friends in times of need and as well as in times of comfort.
"So how did you come about to meet your wife?"
That was the right direction to go, but he took it in an unexpected direction.
"You have not asked me when I finally succeeded in my experiments."
"Please?" I asked.
He leaned forward. "Two years from that day. You see I graduated with honors. Part of my doctoral thesis was the theoretical proof of chemicals that could assist a human being to become chameleon like."
"Not invisible?"
"They would have shunned me and thrown me out of their sacred halls had I done so!" He replied.
He gathered his hands in a ball, and then nodded. "Yes. Learned men all, but narrow of vision." He looked up. "It seems to be so no matter what world we live on, is that not so, Mister Pirillo?"
"Yes. On our world the church at one time was going to burn a very famous astronomer for claiming our world was round and not the center of the universe as had been taught."
He burst into laughter. "What fools we mortals be."
"Shakespeare."
"Yes. It was a line he wrote for me on my last birthday."
I felt a rush of adrenaline in my system. "He's alive where..."
"Yes. He is and so many others."
He leaned closer. "I have had little time to scour the literature and science of your world yet, but I have found it most curious that so many you claim to be dead, are yet alive in our realms."
And at that point my phone died once more.
In part 4 I will reveal further information about why he loses his visibility during moments of stress, how that came about, what he has done to cope with it, and introduce you a bit more to some of the denizens of the Baker Street Universe that are not yet known to most of you, except my closest of friends.
I'm sure you can understand why I put these interviews in the form of a fantasy, or a work of science fiction, for fear of our world judging me mad. It hasn't been that many years ago that men were found insane for much less...believing we could travel to the moon, break the sound barrier.
Until the next portion of the interview.
Sincerely and with love
The Author and Interviewer
John Pirillo
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