The Committee of the Wise Women met at the University Parks the following afternoon. I wasn't really thinking clearly when I called them like that in my mind. But I liked it. I hadn't had much sleep. For a change. It was as if I expected to turn into a vampire someday. Not sleeping seemed to be my subconscious' back-up plan, just in case the medical one didn't make me immortal.

The weather was unpredictable that day. White and grey clouds shut out the sun intermittently. Weaker and stronger threats.

Lindsay and Africa were already at the park when I arrived.

Lindsay was resting her back on a tree while she read a book about congenital diseases, but she didn't look concentrated. She was twitching, kicked the ground repeatedly with her right leg and bit the nails of the hand she wasn't using to hold her book.

Africa was lying on the grass as if somebody had dropped her there, and she plucked the few flowers that were left that close to the winter. She just couldn't be comfortable in that position. She looked out. She had been lost, stoned and meditating, since I had told her about my discovery that morning. She looked even more tired than me. Old. Worn out. And I needed her awake. Nonetheless, I knew she would have much to say when she woke up from her reverie, and I wasn't sure if I was really looking forward to that.

Alex showed up five minutes late, dressed in sporty clothes, jogging and singing out loud the songs that she listened to in her mp3 player. I still wasn't sure whether my decision of including her in the Committee had been right, but it didn't seem fair to leave her out of something that big after everything, superficial or not, that we had shared over the past four and a half years. Besides, I knew her astute mind would be an immeasurable asset, and we didn't dislike each other when we weren't competing, so I had thought this adventure could even bring us closer. I liked her even more when I saw she had brought a box full of Boost Juice Bar power juices from the Clarendon Center. I definitely needed a boost. Preferably with a strong anesthetic dissolved in it, seeing sleeping pills worked as excitants in my peculiar organism.

I was lost in my thoughts. I didn't feel victorious as I had thought I would. I felt paralyzed by time, even now that it didn't matter. I could stay transfixed for years and feel like I hadn't lost anything.

Time had been my closest friend and my deadliest enemy for twenty-two years. Now, I had defeated it. I didn't feel relieved, because, from now on, the past would be vast. It would keep accumulating till my memory overflew and had to eliminate details to let new ones in. Eventually, I wouldn't be able to know where I came from, because I would have forgotten it. That would make it even more difficult for me to figure out who I was. I had just defeated time in a way. But I hadn't found a way to stop it from blurring out blissful instants and sunny people. I could see it smirk and wink at me, letting me know it was invincible.

I had defeated death, not time. Was death the biggest fear of humanity, or was it death, and oblivion? And then I realized I should not be making myself that question, because I hadn't even managed to defeat death. People would still keep dying by gagging, or drowning, or in the hands of assassins. I hadn't cured humanity from cruelty. I hadn't cured humanity from anything.

Alex broke the silence and her voice propelled blood through my vessels again.

"Ladies, I don't see you very enthusiastic about your eternal lives. I am!" she proclaimed as she sat down, trying to lift the mood up.

We all were, at first, I said to myself. Lindsay didn't even bother to look at her. Africa did, and she shook her head in disapprove. Alex answered with a shrug. She was surprisingly laid back when school wasn't involved. I envied her relaxation even more than her cleverness. After a few seconds of silence and taking a sip from my Juice, I decided it was my turn to talk.

"I think I figured out how to administer the treatment. A healthy cell's DNA will be cloned, and macrophages will be taken from culture and modified so that they recognize that DNA. The cells whose DNA they don't recognize, because it's been mutated or changed in any way, will be erased. A daily injection of modified macrophages and telomerase will be enough."

Alex was the only one that was looking at me.

"This is the dose that I reckon would be appropriate..." I said, showing them a paper I had scribbled on. "On average." I added, just not to submerge in crushing silence again.

Nobody responded. Lindsay was about to throw the ground down. And the center of the Earth would engulf me and I would burn in hell, for taking the chance to reunite with God from many innocent people. I was raving again. I wished sleeping pills would at least doze off those eerie reflections of mine. I was going to go crazy if I didn't talk with anyone but my insane mind.

"Girls, please!" I shouted, as I stood up.

At last, they looked up.

"I called you because I trust you, and I trust your criterion. I need help. I thought this discovery would make me feel great and powerful, like a bulletproof goddess."

I sat down.

"But I'm falling. I'm falling down, I... I don't know what to do. This is a mess. Africa already warned me immortality would bring chaos. I don't know if it'll do that to the world, but my mind is definitely... tumultuous. Please help me decide what the next step should be." I begged.

Alex came beside me and started to talk in a supremely organized way, clear-minded. She didn't know how much I desired to be as awake and confirmed as she was.

"The first thing we should get clear is how we are going to make this public." she judged.

"I don't think we should make it public." my sister argued.

Alex had spread her vitality to the rest of us.

"And what are we going to do, keep it to ourselves? That wouldn't be fair." I said.

"I am not saying that. I am saying we shouldn't make it public just for now. The world would go crazy. And, besides, it's your idea... your creation. You should control it and decide everything about it. If you spill it out now that you still don't control it fully, the government would probably take over and snatch it from you. And, as it is a matter that affects everyone, you wouldn't have many chances to defend that you own it."

"I am not interested in owning it, Lindsay. I just want it to do well, and not turn the world into a damn madhouse."

"I think your sister is right." Alex told me. "That conference you're supposed to talk in just crossed my mind. What are you going to say?"

New York. I had forgotten everything about it in the last week.

"Oh crap... I completely forgot about it. That would be a good chance to announce it, don't you think?"

Alex nodded. I looked at my sister. She shrugged.

"Let's leave that for the end. What about money? I'm betting a lot of money is needed to give people the treatment." Lindsay opined.

"That's one of my biggest concerns. It makes me think you're right about what you said about the government. The idea is mine, but I don't have money to carry anything out. Others would have to finance it, definitely. And that would make it theirs."

"How much money are we talking about?" asked Alex.

"Many thousands." I answered, and Africa's face turned white.

It was the first time I saw her react since the conversation started. As a doctor and a medical student, Lindsay and Alex weren't surprised, but she was.

"Oh my God, Tessa!" Africa shouted. "I didn't think millionaires were the only ones that were going to be able to live forever! Gosh, are you going to sell life?"

"No, Africa, of course not. That's why I said Lindsay was right about someone having to pay for it. Gosh, I am not planning for each person to pay for their treatment. I am looking for public financing. This discovery means a huge change, a turning point, in the way life, and the world, is organized."

"Maybe the biggest in history." Alex intervened.

I nodded and continued talking.

"Among the many adjustments governments are going to have to make, I hope they finally think budgets over. A big lot must be destined to this."

"Maybe we would achieve that here in England. But what about third-world countries? We should think about them too, shouldn't we?" Africa asked.

"What about an international agreement?" Alex suggested.

"I don't think that's in our hands, girls." Lindsay said.

I looked at her and realized she was still looking down and tearing flowers from the ground.

"I know there's something else in your mind, Linds."

She looked at me and her eyes sent a wave of fear into my body. She always looked innocent and younger than she was, but, at that instant, she looked as vulnerable as the flowers she was plucking.

"I... I am confused. But I will tell you about my worries later, the things we are discussing are much more relevant."

"Come on, Lindsay, are you listening to yourself?" Alex said. "Don't be silly. Spill."

She acted as if she had known Lindsay forever, and, before that day, the interaction between them hadn't gone farther than greetings and small talk at the hospital.

"I was just thinking... what about offspring? I've always wanted to have children."

"Yeah, that's a good question. Me too." Africa agreed, in an infuriated tone.

Her red hair looked as fiery as ever.

"Yes, girls, me too, me too." Alex said. "But why don't we worry about us, the ones that are already here and have the possibility to, god damn it, live forever!; instead of thinking about the ones that don't exist?"

She was always so analytical, and cold as stone. Lindsay and I looked at each other and laughed lightly.

"Well, I think it's a very important point, Alex." Africa insisted. "Overpopulation would be" she stopped to correct herself, and started to talk about our scary dream as if it was real, because it was. "will be a very important problem in a hundred years, if people keep having children at the same rate."

"And what about eternal love?" Lindsay asked, as romantic as always. "Do you think it will be possible, now that it can actually be?"

"I don't." Alex answered, without hesitating.

"What about you, Tess?" my sister insisted, knowing that it was a tricky question for me now.

A month before, I would have answered just as rapidly and convinced as Alex had. Now, my head said it was irrational to consider two people could be happy together and evolve in compatible ways over centuries and millenniums, without ever meeting anyone they wanted more. However, my heart seemed to shout the contrary. I could love Luke forever.

"Would we actually get to meet the whole world?" I asked.

"Will, Tess, will we actually get to do it? It's real, remember?" Africa corrected me.

"We will just forget people and meet them again at some point. But no more final goodbyes; there will always be another time, another chance. That makes me happy." I confessed, and even Africa smiled a little.

But her peaceful expression hardly lasted a second, and she said:

"But doesn't it scare you as well? Having infinite second chances may make us not try as hard as we do now that we have a deadline. There are still some final goodbyes: I am still trying to get over having to part from my mantra. No more Carpe Diem, ladies."

"That does sound dramatic." Alex admitted. "We must work hard on motivating ourselves and other people about not losing motivation. Oh, that came out a bit like a tongue -twister."

We all laughed, and I started to feel much better. I needed things similar to euphoria, derived from it. I needed a sensation of victory to be able to handle that desirable mess.

"You still haven't answered my question, Tess." my sister reminded me.

I threw my empty juice-carton at her and she laughed some more. I thought about the night before, at the laboratory, about the ecstasy on the microscopy table, about his groan when he sent me over the moon. I wanted that to last forever. And he did too. I guessed we were still too young and too enthusiastic to understand what forever meant. But that enthusiasm, and the sizzle, and the simple perfection, and the overwhelming gratitude we felt when we looked at each other's eyes was exactly what assured me we could make it. I lay back on the grass and they laughed again. I ignored them, closed my eyes and pictured Luke and me lying like that, absorbing even more positivism than we already had in our enamored hearts from the sun that shone in the sky at that exact moment. That picture made me smile like a lovesick fool.

"I reckon it's possible." I answered, as I sat up.

"Oh my god!" my sister exclaimed. "So you're in love! You!"

"Yes, me, Lindsay. Why is it so hard to believe?" I said, between laughs. "It's a pity I don't have more empty cartons to throw at you!"

"I agree with your sister, Tess. It is hard to believe. And I warned you!" Africa added, and, to prevent me from getting serious recalling the fight we had had over that issue, she joked: "That boy must get you higher than my joints..."

"Oh, has he already gotten you that high, Tess?" Alex asked.

Suddenly, they were all very interested in the discussion.

"I think we have left the important topic a bit aside. Let's go back to it." I suggested.

Their complaints turned into a distant murmur when my phone started to ring. It was Luke.

"Hey!"

"Hey, Tess, how's it going? Are you still awake? You really do have endurance."

"I've been training for my whole life."

"Speaking of which... I have wonderful news."

"Speaking of which?" I asked, confused.

He laughed. His laughter sounded delicious.

"Speaking of training. But, look, I'd rather tell you about it in person. We should celebrate your discovery and my... news. I'm making plans for tomorrow night. You're still coming to the group, aren't you?"

"Of course I am. I don't want anyone to suspect I've already found what I was looking for. I am not ready to answer questions yet. Besides, I would go to your special plan even if I didn't go to research anymore. What's not to like about a homemade lasagna?"

I could almost hear him smile in London.

"Who told you my plan involves lasagna?"

"My insatiable Italian genes."

"Yes... I definitely like your insatiable genes."

I blushed and he sighed slowly when he heard my accelerated breathing. It felt like we were lovers from the 1920s. Wild, avid, real. Counterclockwise but infinite at the same time.

"See you tomorrow, rapacious gourmet."

When I hung up, Africa was the only one that remained there in the park with me. She had gone back into her depressive ruminating mode.

"You know what?" she said, and it caught me by surprise that she talked to me.

She was always pretty autistic when she was lost in her cogitations. After the murmurs of the wind set her free again, she informed me in detail about every image that had appeared before her. Africa thought in images. She said it was because she was an artist. I reckoned weed had a lot to do with it.

I didn't say anything. Africa didn't need interjections from her interlocutor to keep talking, like I did. Whenever she thought she had transcendental information to share with me, she shared it, without bothering to make sure I was following her. Maybe it was because she knew I always did. Her thoughts always made me feel even more disoriented, but I craved them even though.

"Fuck Carpe Diem. Let's try Carpe Aeternitas. I don't really understand why we've hurried into trying to discuss and analyze everything today. That means we haven't caught the essence of this whole damn thing: we have time now."

I looked at her perplexedly. She couldn't mean that. It was so unlike her to be okay with altering the laws of nature. But I wasn't in the mood to argue with her, so I went along with her fake, obliging opinion.

"I know. It's such a mess... but an exciting mess. Although, whenever I think about all the events that will follow today, I wish I could just spend eternity in your backyard. Stoned. Stopping the hurry in my head now that the world has stopped its."

The sun started to settle as Africa rolled a cigarette. We were alone in the park. Maybe we would be alone in the world someday. Maybe people would get tired of living forever and would commit suicide just to try something new.

I pushed that disturbing thought out of my mind. The reason it haunted me must be because my friends weren't very excited about my discovery. I supposed it was because they were being cautious, and preparing themselves to see their almost touchable dream crumble. That was what life had showed us up to that moment: that everything we treasure gets lost as we attempt to catch it.

The sun melted in the lake at the center of the park and we still stayed there. It felt as if all the peace we had conquered would melt away like the sun if we moved an inch. The orangey atmosphere we were caught in made me fly away from England, far away, to hotter places. Then I thought sizzle was just a hundred miles away from me, waiting for me, warming up. Craving forced me to cross my legs and hold them with my arms. But harmony prevailed over my abrupt movement.

We wouldn't lose anything forever anymore. I just wished I had also discovered how to go back in time.

Did you like this chapter? Do you agree with what the girls say? What are your opinions on living forever? Let me know in the comments! I am entering the Wattys2016, so, if you enjoyed it, please don't forget to vote :)

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