Earth Bound © Elliot Richard Dorfman
Regina Rosen compulsively eloped at eighteen. Six months later, she caught her husband cheating with another woman. With no sort of resolve, a divorce followed and the devastated young woman returned home to live with her widowed father, Seymour, a world renowned scientist. This pretty, sensitive brunette had no trouble in finding new suitors, but after being so hurt, her romantic interests waned, and most of her energy was diverted into studies and becoming a school teacher. By the time she was twenty-four, most of her friends and family felt she would never remarry. When completing her fourth year as a New York City public school teacher, Regina decided to take a South American cruise during her summer vacation. With a couple of weeks left before returning to school, she decided to visit her aunt's large estate in the Adirondack region. It was a warm August afternoon when she drove up to the beautiful, sprawling mansion. This refurbished structure of one hundred and eighteen years old had originally been the country residence of a prominent New York banker.
After her long trip, Regina had a refreshing swim in the Olympic sized pool. At four, dinner was served on the patio. Her usually vivacious aunt kept silence and had a worried look on her face as she glanced at her niece throughout the meal. “Is
something wrong?” A Regina finally asked her, breaking the silence.
It's time to try and find someone again. You're older and wiser now. I'm sure there is someone out there who is right for you. ” “Perhaps,
but I must be cautious. I don't want to be hurt again.” Regina shrugged. “Perhaps I will, someday.” “But you're all ready twenty-four and established. What are you waiting for?” “I don't want to talk about it anymore, Regina stubbornly answered, and left the table.” Matilda had made plans to have some of her friends come over to play cards after dinner. Her niece, who wasn't interested in joining the older group, decided to take a ride around the scenic area. After driving half a mile, she turned onto a rarely used road where her car shortly stalled. Knowing nothing about automobiles, Regina called a road service on her cell phone. The dispatcher said it would take twenty minutes before help would arrive. The evening was warm, and there was a full moon in the heavens. “What a beautiful night,” she thought. Restless, she got out of her car. On the left side of the road was a small graveyard located on top of the mound. Curious, she decided to take a look at it. There were about twenty tombstones of various sizes there. All were very old, and the etchings on them were beginning to wear away. A large tombstone near the edge, immediately caught her interest. On its top was a statue of an eagle holding in its claws an American flag. She read the epitaph with great interest.
“Too bad” the school teacher thought. “The soldier was only in his early twenties. I wonder where he died.” “On the eastern outskirts of Petersburg, Virginia, Miss,” a sad, low voice said behind her. Turning around, a handsome, medium sized man with straggly light brown hair looked at her with the most expressive hazel colored eyes she had ever seen. He wore blue pants and a jacket with gold colored buttons. His white cotton shirt was opened at the collar.
“Excused me?” she said to him.
“Of course I can see you, I'm not blind,” she replied. “That's very unusual since not too many people can see me.” “And why not?” “I'm a ghost.” At first she thought he was joking, but his expression was quite serious. “Permit me to introduce myself. I'm the spirit of Eaton Stanford Timberline.” Regina wasn't yet convinced. “But aren't ghosts supposed to be transparent? You look solid.” The ghost laughed out loud. “I may look solid, but I assure you that I'm not at all.” To prove his point, He vanished reappeared, then walked right through her. “Now, have I convinced you?” Regina felt a little weak in her knees, but she kept her composure. “ After such an exhibition, absolutely. But just why are you communicating with me?” The spirit of Eaton sighed. “You are the first living person to think about me in a very long time. No one comes to visit me anymore. It has been very lonely for me. My relatives are long dead, and their descendants have moved far away. My soul is earth bound because I can't find inner peace and move onto another plain like the others who are buried besides me. I am full of anger because I was never got the chance to enjoy a fulfilled life. How naive and gullible I was to let my friends influence me to volunteer for the war. Foolishly, when you are still so young, you think you are invisible.” He looked at her with intense yearning. “ My biggest regret is that I never met and romanced a woman, especially a woman as beautiful and charming as you." Regina blushed. “My, you certainly must have been a flatterer.” Despite the fact he was a ghost, a pleasant sensation that she hadn't felt for years went through her body as she looked at him. “I wish I were mortal right now,” he lamented. “Even with my limited experience on earth, I'm sure I would be able to satisfy you.”
And at that moment, Regina earnestly wished he was a mortal, too. A vehicle was approaching. "That must be the service truck coming to get my car started,” she said to Eaton. But the spirit then immediately vanished. Back at the mansion, Regina said nothing to Aunt Matilda about her supernatural encounter. Unable to sleep, Regina kept tossing in her bed, thinking about Eaton over and over. “Oh, Yes,” she thought, “I'm finally in love again. But why does it have to be with a ghost?” Early the next morning, Regina drove back to the small graveyard yearning to see Eaton again. She called out to him but he did not appear. Perhaps the ghost was never real after all, only a figment of her imagination. The whole thing now seemed so bizarre! How stupid it was to allow herself to fall in love again with someone so intangible. After waiting a few minutes, the frustrated teacher walked to her car, ready to burst out crying. Suddenly, there was Eaton. “I'm terribly sorry to have upset you so much,” the specter softly said. “And what makes you so confident to think you upset me?” Regina asked, drying her eyes. “Because I've invisibly been with you ever since you left the graveyard yesterday.” “Even at night when I went to bed?” He nodded with a bit of a smile. “But I slept in a scanty nightgown.” “Ah, yes. It certainly was a pleasant sight." “And I thought you were a gentleman, Eaton. ” “I am, but what difference does that really make now? I'm dead!” *** Regina stayed by herself the rest of the time she was in the Adirondacks. Her aunt couldn't understand her solitary behavior. How could she know her niece was with an amorous ghost? During that interim, Regina learned about Eaton's background. He described his family that had lived a hundred and fifty-five years ago. His father was a successful lawyer of the entire region, and his mother a school teacher before she married. There were three younger sisters and an older brother who survived the Civil War. Eaton had intended to follow his father's profession before deciding to enlist with his best friends when the Civil War broke out. With his intelligence, good looks, and dynamic personality, Eaton probably would have had a successful life had he survived the war.
“I could, but I won't” he sadly replied. “You won't? But why not?” “My dear Regina, isn't it obvious? You are physical, and I am something from a twilight world. I could never be able to give you a family and the kind of physical attention you desire. In time, you might even get to resent me. How unfair of me it would be to let our relationship continue. I now first realize that I was wrong to have gotten involved with you. Believe me, somewhere in your living world you will eventually find the right man. I won't let you give up on account of meeting me, a ghost with no future. Goodbye, Regina. I will always remember you with fondness.”
He sighed and disappeared. Regina futilely tried calling him back. A few hours later, she went back to the city with a heavy heart. *** Regina became increasingly depressed, for it was impossible to forget Eaton, no matter how hard she tried. Then one night, Regina overheard her dad telling one of his confidants on the phone that he was ready to try a secret experiment. It was a new type of cloning, where a healthy adult could be reproduced from the bone cell of someone long dead. “After all,” the scientist recalled, “didn't the old testament mention that God gave Nathan a dream where the dry bones of the dead would one day be given back their flesh and breath? Well, I may soon make it become a reality.” This
couldn't all be a coincidence. Was fate taking pity on her? She excitedly
ran into her father's room. “Dad, I need you to do me a favor. Please,
hear me out. You just can't refuse me!” Regina tried to convince Sid how wrong he was, but the scientist remained adamant. After about an hour, the heartbroken woman gave up and ran to her room, falling onto her bed and bitterly sobbing until the dawn.
*** Around four-thirty in the morning, Dr. Rosen and his daughter arrived at the small Adirondack graveyard. “I hope no one drives up on this road and sees what we're doing,” he said taking out a shovel from the trunk of his car.
“Don't worry, Dad, people rarely use this road anymore. Come on, let's get it over with.” Turning on the flashlight, she took Seymour to Eaton's grave where he began digging as quickly as possible. Regina had hoped that the spirit might return when he saw what was being done to his grave, but that didn't happen. Eaton's wooden coffin had disintegrated a long time ago, so it was easy for the scientist to extract the bone specimen he needed. The soil was placed back and the grave made to look undisturbed. Regina and her father then returned to New York City, just as the sun begun to rise in the eastern sky. *** Dr. Rosen's townhouse in Gramercy Park had in its basement a fully equipped laboratory where the brilliant scientist worked with three selected assistants. Once the cloning process began, Seymour noticed how anxious his became. “Calm down and go about your business as usual. You must remain patient because it will take a long time. I promise to immediately let you know when it's all over.” But soon the weeks started turned into months, and still her father said nothing. Regina began suspecting that something had gone horribly wrong. After all, this type of cloning wasn't being done in the conventual way. Could it be that Seymour wasn't saying anything to avoid upsetting her? After all, he had said there was no guarantee. “No, no, things are going according to schedule, “ he reassured her when she approached him over and over again. “This thing can't be rushed if you want it to turn out successfully. ” There were many nights when Regina romantically dreamed of Eaton. The air around them was filled with the fragrance of spring flowers. He gently lay her on the moonlit ground and passionately embraced her. Despite it being only a dream, she could feel his physical touch. However, there was also that one terrible nightmare of seeing a confederate bullet rip through Eaton's chest, ending his life. Finally, on a snowy Saturday morning in December, Regina was called into her father's study. “The cloning process has been completed. Physically, the body is exactly like Eaton's before he died. I've given him all the essential injections to prevent any diseases that were prevalent in his time. He is still unconscious, but will be waking up in a short time.”
“I'll give you a kiss in a moment, Regina. But first, can you get me something decent to cover myself with? ”
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