SL Huang - Up and Coming - Stories by the 2016 Campbell-Eligible Authors

Osiris laughed. It was loud, filling the entire chamber with echoes upon echoes of deep roars and howls that somehow came from the being in front of me. The men on either side of me shook with fear. For whatever reason, I was unafraid. The laughter somehow reached inside of me and touched something. I felt…peace. While the other men were a hair away from cowering, I stood tall, proud that Osiris had chosen to address me. I had pleased him, somehow, and who was I to question a god?

Suddenly, I was alone in the room with Osiris. Gone were the vizier and the other men I had shared the chamber with. In fact, the room was different somehow. Like it was the same room, just in a different location. It took me centuries, but I eventually learned it was Osiris’ ship, occupying space above the earth and designed to look just like a royal chamber room in ancient Egypt. That day, however, I was awestruck by everything surrounding me.

“Bek, I have chosen you to be favored among all men. As the god of resurrection, I wish for all men to witness my miraculous rebirth in the body of a man,” Osiris said. He put his hood back over his head, so the light receded, but kept his face visible. He locked eyes with me and at that moment, I felt greater than any man who had ever lived. “Your life will be a beacon throughout the ages, endless and steady. You are blessed among men, for you are no longer a mortal man, but are immortal, a step closer to the gods themselves.”

I don’t remember weeping, but I wouldn’t have been surprised had I spontaneously burst into tears. A favor from the gods was truly magnificent. That I would be chosen was the pinnacle of my life.

Little did I know that my life up until that point was miniscule compared to what was to come.

What happened next was so minor, I didn’t give it much thought for years, but I came to understand that what Osiris did to me was what gave me eternal life. As I stood there, looking into his eyes, I felt a sharp but brief pain in my neck. I don’t even remember his hand moving there, but Osiris had a gauntlet of sorts, made of gold and shining jewels. Knowing what I know now, I came to understand that it concealed some sort of handheld syringe.

He left his hand there for a moment, then pulled it away and took a step back, as if he was admiring his creation.

“Bek, you are now perfect. Man will no longer have dominion over you. I will guide you through the ages of earth still to come. You will be my constant as the tides of humanity rise and fall. I will see you again soon.”

Before I could even open my mouth, the world disappeared around me, and I found myself standing in my home. The bed was next to me, and I lay down, desperate to sleep. And sleep I did. It was the first time I’d slept as an immortal man.

In my life, I’ve experienced many things. The birth of my first son. The birth of my one hundredth son. The rise of Rome. The fall of Rome. The creation of sliced bread and the advent of television. I’ve been privileged enough to shake hands with Charlemagne, Napoleon Bonaparte, and Winston Churchill. I fought at the Battle of Hastings, the Battle of the Alamo, and the Battle of the Bulge. I have lived more than any man before and surely more than any man after me.

As I said, I have died many times, but each time I reawaken in another body. Every time, a perfect body given to me by Osiris.

That first body, though…that one was mine. Given to me by parents whose names I have long since forgotten. The only memory I have of when I was a small boy is of playing along the Nile River. Every year the river would flood, bringing life to the once dormant riverbed. One day I was playing among the reeds along the riverbank with a few of my friends when my mother called to me.

“Bek, make sure when the sun is just over the big pyramid that you head home for dinner. Do you understand?”

I nodded, desperate to resume my playtime with my friends.

“Are you sure you understand?”

“Yes, Mother. I understand,” I said, my eyes on a ball that my friends had brought with them to the river that day. “Can I go play now?”

She smiled, the love from mother to son clear in that one small gesture. “Yes, my son. Go play. Enjoy the day, but come when I asked, all right?”

“Okay!” I shouted back, barely registering the words she’d spoken. Years later I would regret not heeding those words the first time. Instead, I went to play, not ever looking back at the pyramids off in the distance. The sun began to set over the Great Pyramid and I kept running and kicking the ball with my friends. Before I knew it, my mother was out calling to me again.

“Bek, it’s time to come to dinner.”

“Coming, Mother!” I shouted back, but I continued to play among the papyrus. I ran and laughed, my friends and me enjoying the last rays of sun on a bright spring day in Egypt. At the time I thought it was a precious thing, the sun on my back and the wind in my face. Before I realized it, much time had passed and when I turned to run towards my friends, I found my mother standing before me.

“Bek.”

I hung my head. I knew I had disappointed her.

She walked towards me and took my head in her hands. I heard my friends scatter and for a few moments, only my mother and I were alive. The world could have faded away; I wouldn’t have noticed. She was my entire world and I had let her down. She crouched down to look me in the eye. I couldn’t avoid the tears welling up as she spoke to me. Never will I forget her words.

“Bek, my dear son. Life is a wonderful thing. I love to see you enjoying the time you have and friends that you can play with each day,” she said, capturing my attention with her soft eyes. I can still remember that look to this day, along with the slight brush of her hand across my cheek as she wiped my tears. “If you ever remember anything, please remember this: your word is your bond. It makes you who you are. When you grow up to be a man, a promise kept or unkept shows everyone the type of person you really are. For good or bad, for better or for worse, if you promise something to someone, you must follow through on that promise. The words you say will not matter, unless you back them up with your actions.”

As a small boy, I didn’t comprehend what she had said to me that day as twilight came to the Nile River. The words went into my mind and stayed there, but I didn’t think about them until much later. It was one of the few things I could remember about my mother. Her words that day formed the basis for the man I would be…again…and again…and again…and again.

I awoke with a start, my head pounding like a fist hammering on the door.

Except it was literally a fist hammering on my door.

“Bek! You get your sorry behind out of bed and to the work site! The foreman says all hands are needed today, and that means you,” growled the voice on the other side. It was a friend at the time, another whose name has escaped the confines of my mental storage over the years.

I dragged myself off the stiff bed and prepared for the day. A few times, my head felt like it was about to explode, but that was no excuse. The foreman would have me whipped if I didn’t show. Better to suffer a headache than deal with pain on my backside as well.

Within the hour I was hauling bricks for the new monument—me, and hundreds of my closest friends. We’d all heard stories about how the Great Pyramid had been constructed, and the pharaoh wanted this one to be as close to that one in quality as he could get. A few hours in and I had already soaked through the few articles of clothing I had worn to the work site.

As I was getting another stone ready to transport, I caught a shape out of the corner of my eye. My breath caught for an instant when I saw Osiris talking to the foreman. Perhaps he was here to take me with him. Perhaps he would stop the work for the day. Perhaps…