Chapter 3

Jen was quite correct when she said I would need their help to get Jimmy up and running. My muscle tone was poor and my body was flabby from lack of exercise. Gradually we strengthened my muscles and regained a trimmer shape, I was finding that balance was a problem, but when everything else strengthened I soon regained that skill.

Jen used Sally's car to go to uni, she was completing her final modules for a business degree. Sally continued to take care of me, we were soon taking small walks, gradually stretching them out until I could walk at a steady pace for an hour or more. As we walked we talked about ourselves.

Jen was born out of wedlock, Sally's choice; she met Jimmy's father five years later. Bert had lost his wife and was bringing up Jimmy with the help of his sister. They met and soon married, Jen and Jimmy were both the same age and were instant friends. Bert worked in a factory and met with a fatal accident several years later, leaving Sally to rear the two kids on her own.

Jimmy was nineteen when he contacted a virus, he went into a deep coma for a week, when he came out of the coma he was in a vegetative state; that was two years ago.

During the initial stage of the transfer they both kept referring to me a 'Harry' to which I would reply "Harry who?" We needed to establish the fact that I was now Jimmy. I asked them to tell me all about Jimmy's personality and guide me into his persona, this would make it easier for them to accept me as Jimmy. I wanted to know his little jokes and sayings, the way he walked and sat, what were his interests. We gradually 'rebuilt' Jimmy.

We were sitting in the kitchen having the morning 'cuppa when Jen asked me about my past. "Just how may lives have you lived Jimmy?"

"If I told you millions I would be understating the amount Jen."

"Seriously Jimmy."

"Seriously Jen, the human race a mere fly speck on the face of the clock of time. My time on this plane goes back to the beginning of life, when the first life forms, single celled creatures, grew out of the warm ooze, that's when my journey started."

"You are serious aren't you? it must have been exciting living all that time, seeing the world develop."

'Frightening would better describe it love. When I told you I wasn't a violent person but had been through necessity, you must understand that for most of this planets history, life was that of survival. From the most basic life form to that of the most complex it's been survival of the fittest or the smartest, dog eat dog.

"I've seen life through the eyes of dinosaurs, and seen their demise as a species, before that even, the progress of evolution in the sea and moving on to the land. Life has been one of continual evolution and will continue to be so."

"I understand that humans evolved from apes Jimmy but what about other creatures, did they evolve the same way?" Asked Sally.

"The idea that we evolved from the ape is a misconception. Anthropologists theorised that because we share a similar shape and genetic pattern we evolved from the ape, the fact is we both evolved from an earlier life form, millions of years earlier. One day perhaps they might find some fossilised evidence of this being, although it's doubtful. Our DNA string is close to that of the pig, why don't they theorise the swine was our ancestors? Perhaps that's too distasteful.

"Why do you say doubtful, surely with the way they're discovering dinosaur fossils it's only a matter of time before one's discovered."

"The population of our human predecessors was relatively smaller at that time, keep in mind how today's population is expanding year by year. At that time there would have been less than a million beings on earth, so the chance of finding their fossilised remains would be very remote.

Other species also evolved in a similar fashion, The horse and that group of animals evolved from a creature about the size of a dog, which itself evolved from a small animal that lived in burrows. You would notice that the different branches of the equine family follow the same pattern as the human / ape pattern, similar but different. In other words they evolved in parallel not from each other."

As I assimilated into Jimmy's form, Jen became more comfortable in my presence. Soon she was hinting that maybe we should go forwards to a romantic relationship. "I would like to sleep with you tonight Jimmy, not to do anything but just to hold you close. If I can feel comfortable with you perhaps we can go further ... that's of course if you want to."

"Yes Jen, I would like that very much. As I said before, the thought of making love to you had crossed my mind. I think you are a very lovely person, not hard on the eye and as Jimmy I would love to take up where 'we' left off."

"It will be a bit strange for a start, you are Jimmy but at the same time you aren't."

"Perhaps we should take the approach that I am Jimmy, period. Let's assume that you didn't know that I had entered his form and that Jimmy was just recovering on his own but with a different personality. Would you accept him as your old Jimmy?"

"Why didn't you do just that then? Maybe it would have made thing a lot easier."

"To answer a question with a question, if I did that and then later on you found out the truth, would you respect me?"

"No, I suppose you're right, it's better this way."

Later that evening Jen slipped into my bed, for a while we just lay there quietly talking; after a while we started to cuddle. Jen let out a sigh, "I really missed this Jimmy, thanks for being patient with me, I needed to be sure in my mind I was doing the right thing."