The wizened old man lay barely conscious, listening to the nurses in the hospice unit of an expensive, almost luxurious nursing home. Damn, he hurt. His old body felt every one of his one hundred and twelve years. Even with the pain relievers, his body ached, and he wanted to cry out, whimper, and end it all. He knew from experience how impossible that was. He died the first time during the Revolutionary War at Yorktown.

The young nurse looked at her older, gray-haired superior and asked, “Isn’t there anything we can do? I don’t know how much longer I can listen to his moaning and whimpering in pain. The pain from his arthritis and spinal stenosis is more than he can bear.”

Her supervisor sighed and replied, “I’m afraid not. He’s on the strongest available pain medication and is likely already addicted. Any stronger dose would kill him. I’m surprised he’s still with us. He looks every year of his age.”

“He does that. I wish he could talk. He’s the oldest person I’ve ever seen. Is his chart correct? Is his birthday really June 13, 1911?”

“That’s what his paperwork says. We have no way to verify it. He has no known family. A trust fund covers his care, and that’s the birthday listed.”

“What he may have seen and done in his life. Imagine the technological advancements and societal changes he’s witnessed.”

Dan tried to ignore the two gossiping women and lose himself in the fuzzy embrace of the Codine, but their conversation made him think about his life. If they only knew ... to the best of his memory, this was his fourth century. The first life he could remember was in the seventeen hundreds. Now, he couldn’t remember his date of birth. He was a precocious youngster, born into a prosperous family and, for the time, well-educated. He became intrigued by the idea of Ponce de Leon’s fountain of youth and set out to find it as soon as he was old enough to leave home in the early 1700s.

In those years, many boys and some girls were on their own by their early to mid-teens, and he was one of them. He convinced his father to give him his inheritance early, promising he would not ask for more. As a younger son, he would not inherit the family business and fortune, which would pass to his oldest brother. His father thought his departure would reduce the risk of familial strife, so he was relatively generous in his endowment.

Dan outfitted himself with the best available equipment of the time and made his way down the East Coast toward Florida and the elusive Fountain of Youth. His journey took almost a year because he frequently stopped to work and to do what he called research. During his trip to Florida, he worked in stores and taverns and frequented waterfront bars, always asking about the Fountain of Youth wherever he went.

While he had what, to many in those times, was a veritable fortune, he kept it hidden, wearing old, threadbare clothing and taking poorly paid jobs in disreputable establishments so he could ask his questions. Occasionally, when he entered a new town, he would wear his better clothes and hobnob with the local upper class to gather information, but he found the lower classes were more willing to talk about his dream fountain.

He even detoured from the coast several times and lived with local Native Americans, questioning them about the elusive fountain. This is where he finally struck pay dirt. He had crossed into Florida a month earlier, when he wandered into a Seminole camp and convinced them to let him live with them. During his travels, he had adopted Native American dress and many of their social conventions, so he was accepted as, if not one of them, at least as a friend. His 25% Spanish heritage helped. He had darker skin and black hair. After learning the language, he could pass as Seminole.

This was where he met and married his first wife, the sweetest, most hardworking woman he’d ever been privileged to know. She was the local Shaman’s favorite daughter. Over the years of their marriage, he discovered that the Shaman knew about the fountain and was one of its beneficiaries.

Dan ingratiated himself with the Shaman and ultimately convinced him to make him his apprentice and successor, except there was no need, as he found out later. The Shaman had partaken of the Fountain’s bounty and would be forever young, or at least, he would live forever.

It took Dan ten years to convince the Shaman to reveal the fountain’s location and how to harness its power. Before the old Shaman gave him the fountain’s location and instructions on how to treat himself, he tried one last time to talk Dan out of using it. He said, “Seeks Forever (His Seminole name), what you insist on obtaining is a curse more than a benefit. Have you considered the future you will face if you attain eternal life? I wish I had never partaken of the fountain, and I am now cursed with its bounty until the moon is no longer in the heavens.”

“Yes, Shaman, I have,” he replied, without considering the potential ramifications. All he thought about was living and being healthy forever. He did not consider how awful it would be to outlive his woman, children, and friends. He did not understand that he would have to leave all he held dear behind regularly to hide his longevity. Living forever became a hell for him over the centuries. Not even the technological and social advances compensated for the horror he faced. Now, in these modern times, it was worse. It became almost impossible to hide his impending regeneration. Record-keeping was so accurate and intrusive in the 21st century that he had trouble arranging the start of his next life. He finally found a way, but it took years of work to get everything in place; then he was found before his body began its metamorphosis and was brought to this facility.

Dan could feel the changes beginning and was desperate to find a way to escape. It wouldn’t do for the authorities to watch him regain his youth as he was. Almost all his lucid moments were now spent trying to escape what he perceived as his captivity at the Hospice. He again thought about his misunderstanding of the fountain’s power. He should have known how the fountain worked by seeing and talking to the Shaman. The Shaman aged before his eyes, yet Dan neither saw nor understood. All he considered was his desire to be a young man for eternity.

Dan’s first regeneration at Yorktown didn’t even alert him to the Fountain’s workings. His body looked older, but he still felt young and believed in the Fountain’s power. He knew he’d been hit hard when shot and crawled away to hide in the brush so the British troops wouldn’t find him. Three days of excruciating agony later, he was regenerated and crawled out of the bushes as a man the same age he’d been when he drank from the Fountain. He was skin and bones and so weak he could hardly walk. It took another day to cover the distance he’d walked to reach the British troops for the battle.

Thankfully, Dan found a unit of Regulars who believed his story and fed him. He’d told them he had been captured by the British and had almost starved before escaping. After resting for several days, he told his benefactors he would search for his unit, then disappeared, returning to Florida in hopes of seeing his family again. However, he never arrived at his destination. He met another Seminole party and was told that his entire village had been killed by a disease, so he turned west and headed for the mountains.

Dan drifted off to sleep, still thinking about his first life. He awakened in the middle of the night, whimpering in pain. After his medication dulled the pain, he again thought about his dilemma and came up with a brilliant idea. He had a lot of money and would use some of it to fund his escape. He drifted off to sleep, wrapped in the arms of the Codine, with a smile.

After his small breakfast, Dan drew on his remaining strength to demand that he be allowed to speak with his attorney. When the attorney arrived, Dan used what little strength he had left to explain his wishes. “I know I’m on the way out,” he said. That’s why those do-gooders threw me into this hellhole. I have money, and I’ll be damn if I want to die in a place like this. I want to die in my cabin, listening to the birds and the wind blowing through the trees. Can you make that happen, or must I find another attorney?”

“You know that will probably shorten your life, don’t you, Dan?”

Dan gave the man what passed for a stern glare before responding, “So? What kind of life do I have here? Now, will you spring me from this place or not?”

The attorney sighed and said, “I’ll see what I can do. It may take a day or two. I’ll need to rent hospital equipment for the cabin and arrange for nurses and home hospice care.”

“No, you will not. All I need is someone to fetch and carry. I’ll sleep in my bed and be alone. I’ll settle for someone checking on me every other day.”

Dan hoped he hadn’t waited too long to demand they get him out of the facility. After his first three regenerations, he realized the fountain’s ‘magic’ only worked when his body began to fail and drift toward death. When that point was reached, he returned to the age and fitness he’d had when he partook of the fountain’s properties. He felt that point approaching and had to get out of there immediately. It usually took three days from the time he first noticed the changes until he was fully rejuvenated.

The day after their conversation, Dan was certain the regeneration was beginning. He felt much better, and the pain eased by the hour. Luckily, his attorney came through for him, and in the late morning, he was loaded into a van and driven into the mountains, where his cabin overlooked a canyon with a river boiling through it. He had to be carried onto the porch because he couldn’t make the steps, but he demanded they let him sit in the glider to look over the valley and listen to the small stream chuckle down the mountainside. After everyone except his caregiver left, Dan called her to him and said, “I’ll be fine here, young lady. I have a hankering for one of Guisseppi’s Pizzas. Please take some money from the drawer and get us a couple.”

“I can’t, sir. I’m not supposed to leave you alone.”

“Listen, I’m your boss, and I want pizza. Now, off you go.”

After more discussion, Amy agreed to go. She brought Dan water, blankets, and snacks, gave him his pain meds, and left on her errand, though reluctantly. Dan planned to escape while she was gone, but he decided against it. He didn’t want to get her in trouble, so he adjusted his plan slightly.

Almost two hours later, Amy returned with the barely warm pizza. By then, Dan’s regeneration was well underway, and Amy noticed the change in his body. She stopped, her foot on the lower porch step, and stared at Dan before asking, “Dan? Is that you?”

Dan winced internally and replied weakly, “Of course, Amy. Who else would it be? Why did you even ask?”

“You look so young, and you seem, I don’t know, more alert and energetic.”

Dan laughed and replied, “Well, thanks, but we both know I’m old and not much longer for this world. That pizza smells good. Could I eat mine out here in the moonlight? I want to enjoy the night, listen to nature, and smell it. I think I’ll sleep here on the glider, too. I may not have many more nights, and I’ve always loved being outside in the mountains.”

“Uh, sure. Are you sure you’ll be okay out here all night?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?” Dan laughed, then added, “It’s not like I’ll run away or anything will steal me.”

They each ate their fill of pizza, and Amy started to take the mostly full boxes inside when Dan said, “Leave them, please. I want to try eating more later. I’ve missed Guisseppi’s pizza.”

“Why don’t I just leave another piece or two of each? I can put the rest in the refrigerator so they don’t spoil.”

“I’d rather you left it all. It should be cool enough tonight that it won’t spoil, and you can come out later if you wake up in the night. I know you’ll be out a time or two to check on me, won’t you?”

Amy laughed, then said, “Busted. Let me grab your blankets and a pillow. If there’s nothing else, I’ll head to bed.”

“OK, Thanks.”

Dan waited an hour after Amy’s light went out before he silently rose from his bed on the glider and began planning his escape, setting up what he hoped would convince the authorities he’d died. While waiting, he ate almost half of the remaining pizza and wrapped the rest in a stack of napkins to take with him.

His strength was rapidly returning, but he knew he would still be weak and emaciated for several days as his body continued to draw on stored fat and muscle to regenerate. The weakness, however, helped him execute his escape plan. Before he left the porch, he pulled the bedding off the glider and used some old bear paws to shred the boxes; then he began his deceptive exit. He crawled, dragging his body across the ground, occasionally leaving paw prints from the old bear’s paws.

He was headed for the bluff overlooking the river, planning to use a narrow, rough trail down the cliff. He would then walk downstream to the nearest small town, where a bicycle was stored. He would ride the bike to the nearby large city and take a bus to his new home, where he planned to live most of his life anyway. Years ago, he’d placed everything he owned, including bank accounts, into a family trust with himself and his new persona as beneficiaries and administrators. Before he became too old, he established a new identity. He didn’t know what he’d have to do to establish his successor identity this time. He’d almost failed twenty years ago because of all the regulations and data cross-matching.

It took him a week to get into a large hospital’s office and complete the paperwork for a birth certificate and Social Security card under his new identity. He was surprised when the documents arrived in the mail, since there was no guarantee the hospital wouldn’t discover the falsification of its records. At least he had an ironclad identity for this life. His new identity was 23 years old, so he had a long time before he needed to establish his successor identity.

His next major hurdle was getting a driver’s license. He was sure he’d have to think creatively to explain why a 23-year-old man didn’t have one. Dan was musing about his upcoming tasks when he encountered a danger he wasn’t sure he could escape. In a way, it was fortunate; in another, it could be the end of his many years of life. Dan dragged himself toward a blackberry thicket and found a bear feeding. The bear took exception to Dan’s perceived threat to steal his food and began moving toward him. Dan was pretty sure he couldn’t regenerate if he was eaten by a bear.