Ravens & Robins
an excerpt

I am immortal.

Queen says it better. A bit more of an epic description than what I’m used to, but it’s got style. It’s even got a sword. Unfortunately it didn’t get much else right.

Genie says it best: ‘phenomenal cosmic powers, itty bitty living space’. When you get dealt the immortal card, your druthers do a swan dive from the top of the Space Needle. Me and Genie, we’ve got no freedom in choosing what we are, and what we are defines us. I try not to let it get me down though. At least I don’t live in a lamp.

In time, an immortal either goes completely mad, or entirely too sane. I’ve always been a bit indecisive about that. If I had my druthers, I’d have just ended it two hundred years ago back in Eire, where this all started. But I hadn’t.

Crazy or sane, dead or alive, I want to remain human above all else. This is harder to do for me than it is for you. All you’ve got to do to be human is wake up, brush your teeth, and get on with things. You don’t have to work at it, it comes natural to you. For me, it’s a challenge.

There is a reason immortals go nuts and follow their druthers over the edge. Being immortal is not a natural state of affairs. It does wonders for the body, but it’s no hell on the mind. Seeing everyone and everything you love wither away and die is part of it. It’s the little details, though, that get to you.

Like coffee. I can’t remember when I started keeping tabs, but since somewhere in the seventeen hundreds, I’ve had around eight hundred and ninety three thousand six hundred and forty-two cups of the stuff. Isn’t that mind-blowing? And yes, I’ve been counting.
Now, what does that tell you about me?