Chapter 3

"Look at you, Henry. Goosebumps all over your body."

Jo sat next to Henry and drowned him in blankets. Blankets and jackets and a cup of tea.

"Thank you, Jo, but do you mind letting me stand up for a bit? Allow myself to get situated?" He was looking really desperate.

"Wait, wait, Henry-"

And just when Henry thought he could get away from explaining a phenomenon, Jo caught his arm and made him sit down again.

"You need to tell me what happened out there because obviously I'm not understanding how one can get killed and just come back like magic. Do you see stuff like that every day? No. I'm your friend, Henry. Please just try to trust me with whatever you've to say." Jo spoke softly.

He looked at the floor and then to the kitchen where Abe was making coffee for himself. He needed to distract himself and try to conjure up a plausible explanation, but was lying to Jo again going to do him any good?

"So let me just put it simply, Jo." His eyes tried to look at hers but guilt kept coming back. Hopefully, he didn't have to lie this time.

"I'm immortal. I've been alive for quite a while." He smiled quickly but knew she was beyond shocked. Jo looked a lot more closely at him. She was looking right at him, but her eyes looked totally distant.

"So the reason you always come out of the river naked is because you're…immortal?" She gave him a dubious look. "You know, it's not hard for me to believe but, it's just, rare. It feels like something out of a fairy tale. I'm a person of logic, but your reasoning seems to be the only logical thing for me at this point." Jo stood up from the sofa and looked down at Henry. She could have sworn all of this was a joke.

"Please don't tell me this is a joke, Henry. This must be a dream of some sort? Right? I'm sorry, it's a lot to take in you'd have to agree." Now Jo was feeling frantic and her mind came up with all sorts of crazy conclusions to compensate for what Henry just told her. She can't really believe any of this.

"Jo listen," Dr. Morgan quickly grabbed her hands and stopped her from running up the walls.

"Yes?"

"I'm immortal. I cannot die. You've heard of and even seen me emerge from the waters multiple times. Whenever I do 'die', that is where I return. Think of it as my safe haven."

"Why the water?" She asked.

Henry saw Abe sitting in the kitchen reading the newspaper. Abe adjusted his glasses and without even looking at him said "Just tell her Henry. Oh, and mention that I'm your son. I am your only family after all." Abe took a sip of his coffee and smirked.

"He's your SON?"

"Adoptive son, Jo."

"But he looks old enough to be your father, Henry." She was about to give out a laugh.

"I'm old, yeah, but not as old as Gramps over here." Abe pointed at Henry.

The apartment was quiet for many moments. In the back, Abe had conveniently set some jazz music on the record player and proceeded back to his coffee. After those moments, all three of them agreed to a dinner so that Henry could give every single detail of his life. Jo was his friend and Henry was hers. He had issues with trust and could never find himself to reveal anything about him. But not being able to trust anyone would only cause him pain and he didn't want to feel isolated any longer. It was finally Henry's chance to tell his story from beginning to now.