"Well, now…" The elderly man said, futzing around with his work. "Let me see. Yes... Yes, that may do it." he cackled into his vials. "Eureka!" he exclaimed. "I have found it, at last." His eyes almost watered from excitement and he started to do kind of a jig.

  "Easy there, Uncle... you'll crack your head again." The young lad by the window laughed at his charge. He had been calling him "uncle" for years; He never really knew why. He had come to live with him as a home aid and "research assistant", but had really grown to like the old codger and his antics.

  The man had been a certifiable genius back in his day, but one day that taut line between genius and madness slipped and his associates caught him professing the woes of life to a teapot. When asked what he was doing, he tried to introduce his friend Charlie who had been dead for 47 years. "Sad to see him go in that explosion..." he said slowly. His eyes glossed over in pained memory. "His... his leg even landed on... my lap. I still have the scar from his boot." He seemed to perk up in a moment as if dropping that persona on the ground. "At least, he's back now..." he said merrily. He and the teapot were recommended to go home and stay there.

  "The last time you thought you had found something, you got coffee all over your new tie," he said.

  "That was just a model and it worked too! Or would have… if they hadn't stopped my funding." Shaking his head a bit and coughing into a handkerchief, he pointed a finger at his associate. "I'm not completely cracked yet, bucko. I still know Science like the back of my… wait, that's new... hmph." He began to inspect his hand, then fingers and nailbeds. "No matter..."

  "Alright, Uncle. What have you found?"

  "I'm going to restore her!" he said determinedly getting that mad scientist look in his eyes.

  "Uh-huh... Well, it smells like pickle juice and varnish."

  "You don't understand..." the old man said tapping his assistant's hand. His eyes, once more, filled with emotion. "This... has been my life's work for the past 30 years or so. It had to be kept secret; A home project."

  "Well, with such a brilliant discovery, maybe we should consult with Dr. Schlitzkin on this?" He said motioning to the grey Maine Coon in the corner.

  "Leave the cat out of this. She doesn't understand this. She's still trying to figure out how to be a cat, most of the time." he bellowed. The cat mewed lowly in indignation and flicked her tail at him... "No, I'm going to resurrect The Sisters." he chortled with purposeful glee, and his eyes had a shine to them that said, "Thank you".

  "And did Charlie tell you how to do this?" he scoffed.

  "Never talk about Charlie like that. He was a good egg... not his fault his spirit was locked into a teapot." The old man darkened. "What kind of an assistant are you, Joshua?"

  "The home kind."

  He deflated a bit trying to remember the previous conversation. "Do me a favor and bring me to her then."

  "Alright… to the living room."

  The old professor and his concoction were brought to a large stone structure in an even larger room with a cherry oak wood finish and large windows. It was eerily life-like and finely chiseled. Whoever had crafted this was clearly a master of some renown.

  "I've always felt uncomfortable looking at this. It's like it's actually a trapped person… possibly more."

  "I'm not sure if you can remember, but there was an outbreak of magick around 2027. It was mostly kept secret and concealed by the old government, but eventually, parts of it slipped out as these things tend to do."

  "C'mon, Uncle... a joke's a joke, but if you really believe this statue is magically enchanted, well, we'll have to see about calling the real doctor and having her consider your case of dementia."

  "Her name, Joshua, was 'Alyssa'" the old man said kindly as he gently caressed the figure's shoulder then was slowly lowered onto a couch. "...well, she had others, but I'm told that was her birth name. I've known her for many years."

  "Uncle..." Joshua started a note of concern and uncertainty in his voice.

  This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

  "Indulge an old man's stories, lad. Not many know the truth of this... You can call the doctor, if you'd like, afterward."

  "Alright... Sure. Why not? This is different from your usual rants."

  "Her name, as I said, was Alyssa," he said memorably. "She was a lovely person, well when she chose to be... She always wanted to be stronger than she thought she was and she tortured herself over it. Unfortunately, she was afflicted with what was known at the time as Dissociative Identity Disorder, or DID for short. You would’ve marked it as F44.81 – though we now believe we know these cases to either be one of three things: In the initial, protective matrices the mind creates to prevent one from a traumatic happening usually in early childhood often referred to as a Mind-Wall, MW; A merger of different spirits into the same body with different levels of consciousness for each, Discordant Spiritual Complex; or the last..."

  "Yes, Uncle, I went to school I've read the ICD-16," interjected Joshua feeling like the elderly man was vamping. "Can we reach a point please?"

  "Fine, you want the cliff notes version?" the man exploded. "When the magick got loose we were having tea. Something flew in through the windows and into her eyes full force, she started having an episode. Her sisters, or that's how we referred to them, broke their bonds and they all took over the body at once. Have you ever heard a person erupt into multiple voices and languages at the same time, Joshua? What about different facial expressions? Has a Monet ever spoken to you? Has... wheeze... cough."

  "Calm yourself, Uncle. I've never seen you get this overexcited."

  "(continuing to wheeze) don't interrupt me. I haven’t asked you details about your life and then demanded that you get on with it, have I?"

  "Alright, old man... You'll be fine. Sorry to hurt your feelings. Please continue..."

  "Well, I might as well. Uh, where was I?"

  "Having a fit?"

  "Not that, you ass, do you want to hear this or not?"

  "She was turning into a Monet..."

  "Oh, yes... that..." his eyes seemed to recall the truth of his story and the emotional levy he had built for himself burst. Deep heaving sobs racked his body as he tried to finish his story. "Her body started losing all its color... It was like... like a beautiful day turned into the worst storm you'd ever seen minus the colors that come with wind or lightning." He stopped to wipe his eyes. "Do you even remember beautiful days before all this weather technology?"

  Joshua slowly shook his head, deep concern now coloring his eyes.

  "They were a gift," the man said still softly moaning. "Now they're just there... Like her." He had to right himself. Surely, this is not how a scientific mind behaves he thought. "Anyway, she started to lose all color... then she started choking. The light wasn't just leaving her eyes, it faded away from her body and she slowly petrified all the while screaming in a multitude of voices." His voice was now so soft, it was almost a whisper and he had difficulty moving his hand away from pointing at the stony edifice of his former friend. "I had her brought here in secret and I vowed one day, I'd free her. Even if it was just her body... She didn't deserve to be trapped like this."

  "Alright, Uncle. If you think it will help, pour your potion onto the statue and we'll see."

  "This has to be it... It has to be... It's my last chance."

  Joshua slowly lifted him, and he hobbled over to pour the liquid onto his friend's statue... and then there was nothing.

  "Oh, well, that's anti-climatic... You almost had me believing it, Unc..." BANG!

  The room shook with the force of it... Bright colors emerged from the statue, and then a sizzling sound emerged that Joshua could've sworn was a gasp, but then there was nothing.

  The old man collapsed in pain. "I'm sorry, my dear... I tried."

  * * * *

  "Sorry, Joshua, I got here as soon as possible, but whatever happened it looks like it took everything out of him. He's gone." a woman in medical scrubs told the grieving man as the professor's body lay in bed.

  "I know... thanks..." Joshua said sadly. Losing patients was always hard, but he had felt a connection with this one and it hit him that much harder. "Goodbye, Uncle. Thanks for the stories. Sorry that your potion didn't work out."

  "What potion?" The woman said.

  "Nothing. He had some horrible concoction he was sure was going to cure his friend locked into a statue. You know how he was."

  "Did it work?" the doctor asked somewhat hopeful.

  "What do you mean 'Did it work'? He was demented. Of course, it didn't work… Did you see a beautiful woman standing next to us when you came in?"

  "Only my mother…" the woman said softly.

  Joshua turned around quickly. "Wha… huh?"

  The doctor kissed the elderly gentleman's forehead. "Thanks, Old Man. Thanks for taking care of Mom; I always knew you could… Goodbye." She turned to leave, but not before looking down to the scared man looking up at her. "You need to believe in something, Joshua… even if it's crazy."