Twenty Thousand Years of Memory 20091126

I was intentionally a bit obtuse about the number of years of my life, because it is easy to lose count.  I do remember when it started to get a bit warmer, and my people stated to be born with less hair, but before that I can tell you that it was bitterly cold, and without our own hair, in addition to the garments that we could fashion, death by hypothermia would have happened.

Our people were very well adapted for the cold.  We were “chunky”, in that we did not have as much surface to volume area as you moderns have.  But that “chunkness” only expressed itself if we were subjected to extreme cold.

I guess that I should be more clear.  Our people developed language, adapted to changing climates, and, just a few of us, learnt how to survive for eons.  You Cro-Mangon   folks did it sort it in spite of us, and you seem to be the victors.  In numbers, you are.  But in longevity, you are not.

Our people are few, but important.  Why can I still be in a “modern” place without some identifying records?  Well, our people have some influence with the way that the records are written.  I have had several hundreds of Bible records written, and as the technology has changed, our people have influence in writing the electronic ones as well.  I have a very legal Social Security Card, with a unique number, and a Driver’s License that agrees with the SSN.

But you are not interested in that.  You must wonder if you have some of this blood in you, and I can understand that.  Everyone living is of the blood, but few of us are of the infection.  Being immortal sounds wonderful, at first, but it is horrible if you live like I have.

First, my People are not vampires.  We do not feed from the “life force” of our brothers and sisters.  We are actually human.  We do require much more iron in our diets than those of you not infected, or better, blessed, with the microbe that we have.

Second, we are quite visible in mirrors.  The idea that we are not is just silly.  We are not magic, nor curses, we just have a different outlook on things, and can live for thousands of years without aging.  That is not magic, it is biology.

Third, we do not drink blood.  Our kind has been accused of that for centuries.  With modern biochemistry insights, it is possible to see why that legend exists.  Because of the infection, we can not absorb iron very well, and obviously we need it to keep up our hemoglobin content.  But that is far from saying that “I vant to bite vor neck.”  As much as I love Bela, his Dracula persona put us back centuries.

Forth, we are not any different from the kind folks that you are.  Certainly, there are some aberrent folks of our kind, and we do our best to stop them from being ugly.  I know that you do do the same.

Well, I should go.  My friend is just now getting better.  I hope that you do not curse me for infecting her so that she could live.  If she only had had proper medical coverage it would have not been necessary, but she lives now and understands as I do.  One thing that I did not elaborate on is that the memories are also injected into the bloodstream of our chosen ones.  Those who do not understand would call them victims.

Warmest regards,

Jenniffer