CBC - Origins

Jack Corbett  (by: Sue ©07/2005)

It was hard to believe I was now 84 and still working a couple of days a week. Just a bit of pro bono to keep my mind active and to keep me busy. What with that and one or two games of golf a week it made sure I didn’t miss my wife so much. She’d been dead a year or so now but I still missed her. It made me think of all the things we should have done when we were younger, but never got around to. I tried not to dwell on the past because inevitably my mind drifted back to Ambon Island and the horrors we saw there, things like that are never really forgotten.

I was lost in my thoughts so it was a surprise when my assistant paged me saying I had a visitor. I quickly checked my diary. I wasn’t expecting anyone. I asked Emma to find out who it was and what was wanted.

Her reply surprised me even more. “He says he’s your brother and it’s important that he speaks to you.” I was dumbfounded, I am an only child. However, I was also intrigued, especially when Emma said he looked like she would imagine I did at his age. I waited impatiently as she showed him into my office.

“Good morning, Mr?”

“Thorne, Terry Thorne.”

“You say you’re my brother, Mr Thorne and although I can see a resemblance between us, I feel you’ve made a mistake. I am an only child.”

“I have a lot to explain, sir. We are brothers, but not in the sense you think.”

He began his explanation and eventually we adjourned and had lunch while he satisfied all my questions. His tale was an impossible dream but he insisted it was true. He asked me to go with him there and then. I refused and told him to return the following day for my final answer. I gave him my home address and he said he would be there at 9 a.m. the following morning. That afternoon I searched for as much information as possible on Mr Thorne, what I found impressed me; he’d had a distinguished army career and then left for the private sector.

I was awake most of the night analyzing everything he told me. It had to be a trick but what could he hope to gain from it?

In the cold light of day I made my decision. I decided to go with my instinct and trust him. Before he arrived, I contacted my office and told them I would be taking some leave, for an indefinite period.

I don’t understand why, but as we traveled closer and closer to our destination I felt lighter, as though all the weight of life I’d been carrying had been lifted from my shoulders. I was introduced to Darrin, a very sweet young woman. Thorne had insisted that eventually a number of young women would live here to be with the Brothers. I’d thought him a fool, what beautiful young woman would want to spend time with an old man?

I said as much to Darrin. She giggled and replied, “I think I’d be happy to look so good at your age.” She turned me to a mirror giggling more at my shocked expression as I stared at my new countenance. The years had rolled away. I was a young man again.

I looked at Thorne and Darrin needing to understand. It was Thorne who answered.

“We return to the age we were when we were created,” he smiled a little wryly, “So no matter how old you are; technically I’ll always be much older than you.”

It was in a state of bemusement that I was escorted to my new billet. It didn’t take me long to settle in and meet the brothers already in residence. I think, long before I sent the letter to my firm and dealt with all my affairs, I knew I would never leave. It was a chance to live again and maybe do the things I’d never had a chance to do the first time around.