Chapter 11

At forty-two years of age, I became a grandfather, and the process of raising kids started all over. I began to work on photography books full-time and had a very willing publisher who bent over backward to help. I think Mary wanted to be wife number six. But to tell the truth, I was slowing down and could only please four wives a night at this age.

Life was pretty much on autopilot from then on. I visited the grandchildren and now have great-grandchildren—just the usual stuff at my age. Time gets away from you; before you know it, you’re at retirement age. Now, what do you do to occupy your time?

Why, boating and fishing, of course! I had more than enough fishing partners, and I never went alone. At least one of my wives was always along, not to mention my great-grandkids. This left a problem for us when we wanted private time on the boat. It was a yacht, but who wants to seem like a braggart?

Life was good; I was seventy-two years old and in the best shape ever. So were my wives, all five of them. I swore none of them looked a day over forty. We were on the family yacht, sailing across Saginaw Bay, heading up to the island for some fudge. We used that as an excuse to escape from the family without anyone but us on board. We pulled out of the marina just before dark. It was around two am when I looked up to see the ship where it had been all those years ago.

Sure enough, the alien craft stopped above us. Then, the blue light was on us, and all six stood naked before The Three Thieves.

They didn’t have anything to do with the nudity. We went around that way all the time.

And no, I didn’t have any beer this time. I was never bored enough, now, to take up that habit.

‘Are you scared yet? They thought into our minds.

Get real! We were all pretty sure they would stop by and see us. My wives all knew the story and were well prepared for the encounter. One could say that we were looking forward to it as a group.

‘Yes,’ I answered.

It shocked them because they talked amongst themselves for a bit before saying.

‘You’re lying.’

‘Yes and no.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Well ... no, we are not scared of you. Only what of you might do.’

‘Oh? You are worried that we have another experiment in mind?’

‘You guessed it in one.’

‘Well, we do!’

‘Great, do we get a choice this time?’

‘No’

‘Are we supposed to look out the window again?’

‘Please, feel free.’

We all looked out the window, only to see the earth disappearing behind us.

‘Hey, we are leaving the planet,’ I exclaimed.

‘Yes.’

‘Ok, give it up. What’s the deal this time?’

‘You passed the test.’

‘Hey! I thought it was an experiment!’

‘Yes, it started as that.’

‘So where in the world are you taking us?’

It was just an expression. I mean, we were leaving the planet at the moment.

‘Oh, there’s this little planet in a newer galaxy that has been terraformed to look just like the Garden of Eden used to look ... Or at least, as close as we could come.’

‘You got to be kidding.’

The six of us looked at them.

‘We thought with five Eves, maybe your kind would listen this time and not eat from that one tree.’

‘Hey, I thought Eve ate from the tree first?’

‘Shows what you know.’

‘Well! I never,’ I said.

‘Think of it this way: there are no lawyers, and unless you can’t follow one simple rule, you get to live forever.’

‘But... ‘

‘Now nighty night. We must make a few body modifications for you. After all, Adam was sixteen years old at the time. We were considering trying for thirteen this time, hoping you would be more docile about following the rule.’

None of us got a chance to object, as the six of us were asleep a moment later.

Foot Note:

Oh, and in case you were curious, the yacht was found floating in Lake Huron three days later, completely abandoned. No clue was found as to what happened to us. However, it would be 7 years before we were declared dead and our wills executed. Not that any of our children or grandchildren were left hard up. They all got a pretty penny from the corporate stocks until they were later divided.

As for the new planet? Well, they forgot to plant that tree, so we never had the chance to screw it up.