She straightened up quickly and spotted him. “What?”
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you.” George smiled and nodded over the edge of the rail. “For a second there it looked like you were going to jump.”
Amanda wiped the errant strands of hair from her face. “It’s just been a long day.” She didn’t smile, though George noted that she didn’t appear rude. Simply tired.
“Do you cater all of Vale’s parties?”
Amanda offered a mild shrug of her shoulders. “Everyone in town has a job.” Her eyes flicked back toward the mansion. “Mine is managing the food services… among other duties. I make sure there’s enough for everybody to eat.”
“And how long have you been here?”
Amanda let out a sad sort of chuckle and gazed over the cliff as a breeze brushed her hair back. “Too long. Most of my life.”
George moved closer. “So… are you happy here?”
“Happy?” She frowned. “I don’t remember actually being happy in a long time.”
“Why not?”
“Because sometimes this place feels like a prison,” she said.
“How did you end up here?”
“When I was young, I had cancer. I was dying. My father was an investment banker in Philadelphia and was very wealthy. My parents tried everything, but all their money couldn’t save my life. The doctors couldn’t do anything for me. Then one day Mr. Vale contacted them and told them about this miracle drug. He said it would cure me. He guaranteed it.”
George nodded. He’d been right—Vale had built his little empire by offering his perilium only to the very wealthy. “He
“It cost my father his entire fortune,” Amanda said. “Vale had asked him what he would pay to save his only daughter’s life. What it was worth to him.”
The question hung in the air for a moment, and then George sighed. “Everything.”
“The only condition was that I had to come live here in Beckon. Become a part of his community, as he called it.”
“And what about your parents?”
“They stayed in Philadelphia at first so my father could keep working. They came to visit as much as they could. But they were struggling financially. My father died a few years after I came out here. And my mother died not long after.”
“So now you’re… what? You’re stuck here? Working for Vale?”
Amanda sighed. “Don’t get me wrong. I’m grateful to be alive, I guess. And Beckon’s a beautiful place; I… I love the mountains…”
She looked out into the night.
“But I can never leave.”
Chapter 26
George awoke the next morning to find that Miriam was up already. The light in the bathroom was on, but the door was closed and he could hear water running inside. George got up and opened the curtains. The morning sun wrapped the rolling countryside below in a warm amber hue.
It had been nearly midnight by the time they got back to their room last night. George had been contemplating how to explain their circumstances to Miriam, but he wasn’t ready to do that just yet. Perilium was truly a miraculous substance, even if the effect was only temporary. But still, there were a thousand unanswered questions. George’s background was engineering, not biomedical research, but he knew enough to know that you couldn’t just bypass the system like Vale was attempting to do. Maybe what Vale wanted was for George to help facilitate the process of herding this project through the proper government channels.
Or maybe he had other ideas.
Over the sound of the water in the bathroom George heard a gentle sobbing.
He knocked on the door. “Sweetheart? Are you okay?”
“I… I don’t know….”
Miriam opened the door, and George gasped. “Miriam?”
He grabbed her shoulders and moved her into the light. She looked like a different woman altogether. Her skin was smooth and the crow’s-feet at the corners of her eyes had practically disappeared. The creases around her mouth were nearly gone as well. And her hair…
Most of her glistening black hair color had returned, leaving only vague traces of gray. She looked twenty years younger—or more. George turned her toward the mirror and stared at the two of them side by side.
“You… you look like you could be my daughter.”
Miriam touched her cheeks and laughed as tears continued to stream down. “I don’t believe this is happening.” She looked up at George. “How do I know I’m not still senile and just imagining all of this?”
George shook his head in disbelief. “Then I must be too.” He held up her hand in his and inspected them both. All the telltale signs of her arthritis had vanished, most of her liver spots had faded, and the skin around her knuckles and wrists was smooth. His hands were gnarled and leathery, creased and mottled with years of work and stress.
“How can this be happening?” Miriam said.
George was almost too stunned to think. “I’m guessing there’s more to this perilium than they told us about.”
They dressed and went downstairs, where they found Thomas Vale sitting alone at the table in the dining room, eating breakfast. He stood when he saw them come in and smiled at Miriam as they sat down.
“I see the full effects of the perilium have begun to manifest themselves.”
“The
Vale shrugged. “Of course. Aging is merely caused by the body’s inability to keep up with overall cellular deterioration. Perilium increases this ability.”
“So why didn’t you mention this before?”
Vale chuckled and sipped his juice. “There are some things people need to see for themselves. We felt that claiming a cure for Alzheimer’s had already stretched your credulity far enough. You never would have agreed to participate in the treatment if we explained all the benefits.”
George leaned back in his chair. “You’re right. I would’ve thought you were crazy.”
“What exactly is this perilium doing to me?” Miriam said. “I look… I
Vale lifted the corner of his mouth in a smile. “You’ve met Sam and Eleanor Huxley?”
“Yes.”
“Eleanor was dying of cancer when they first arrived. She was seventy-nine and Sam had just turned eighty.”
George’s head was spinning. “But… they don’t look a day over thirty. Neither one of them.”
“No, they don’t. Not since they began taking perilium.”
“How long ago was that?”
“Oh… I think it was 1972. Thereabouts.”
Miriam gasped. “That would make them around 120 years old.”
George couldn’t believe what he was hearing. The whole thing was just too bizarre to be true. These people had stumbled on an actual fountain of youth? No wonder Vale went to such lengths to keep it a secret.
He found himself stammering, “Well… I mean, that… that’s amazing. You’ve actually discovered a legitimate antiaging compound. I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes.”
