The Man from Earth Page #2

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effectively in warmer climates.

And as for neanderthals,

I mean, we've all seen apish people.

That strain's still with us.

But he'd be a caveman.

No, he wouldn't.

John's hypothetical man

Would have lived

through 140 centuries...

yeah, roughly.

...and changed with every one of them.

I mean, assuming normal intelligence.

Well, we think men of

the upper paleolithic

Were as intelligent as we are.

They just didn't know as much.

John's man would have

learned as the race learned.

In fact, if he had an inquiring mind,

His knowledge might be astonishing.

If you do write that,

let me have a look at it.

I'm sure you'll make some

anthropological boners.

It's a deal.

What would keep him alive?

What does the biologist say?

Cigarettes.

And ice cream. ( Laughs )

All right, all right, I'll play.

All right, um, in science fiction terms,

I would say...

perfect regeneration

of the body's cells,

Especially in the vital organs.

Actually, the human

body appears designed

To live about 190 years.

Most of us just die of slow poisoning.

Maybe he did something right,

Something everybody else

in history had done wrong.

What, like eat the food,

Drink the water, and breathe the air?

Prior to modern times,

Those were pristine.

We've extended our lifespan

in a world that's, uh...

not fit to live in.

You know, it could happen.

The pancreas turns over

cells every 24 hours,

The stomach lining in three days,

The entire body in seven years,

But the process falters.

Waste accumulates, eventually

proves fatal to function.

Now if a quirk in his immune system

Led to perfect detox,

Perfect renewal, then yeah.

He could duck decay.

Mm, that's a secret

we'd all love to have.

Would you really want to do that?

Live 14,000 years?

Well, if I could stay

healthy and I didn't age,

I mean, why not?

Yeah. What a chance to learn.

Is anyone hungry?

You know, the more I think

about it, yeah, it's possible.

Anything is possible, right?

After all, one century's magic,

another century's science.

They thought Columbus

was a nut job, right?

Pasteur, Copernicus?

Aristarchus long before that.

Right.

I had a chance to sail with columbus,

Only I'm not the adventurous type.

I was pretty sure the earth was round,

But at that point, I still thought

He might fall off an edge someplace...

look around, John.

We just did.

I suppose there's a

joke in there somewhere,

But I don't get it.

There's nothing to get.

What are we talking about?

We were just talking about a caveman

Who survives until the present time.

As you said, what a chance to learn,

Once I learned to learn.

Did you start the whiskey

before we got here?

Pretend it's science fiction.

Figure it out.

Okay, a--( Laughs )--

Very old Cro-magnon

Living until the present.

( Grunts loudly )

Oh!

( Laughing )

What?

John just confided that

he's 14,000 years old.

Oh, John, you don't look a day over 900.

Okay, okay.

All right, spock, I'll

play your little game.

What do you want? What's the punch line?

Every ten years or so, when people start

To notice I don't age, I move on.

That's very good,

that's very quick, John.

I wanna read that

story when you're done.

You want more?

By all means. This is great.

All right, now...

( laughs )

So you think that you are a...

a, uh, Cro-magnon.

Well, I didn't learn it in school.

That's my best guess,

Based on archaeological data,

maps, anthropological research.

Since mesopotamia,

I've got the last...

You're ahead of most

people, so please, go on.

Well, you know the background stuff,

So I'll make it brief.

In what I call my first lifetime,

I aged to about 35...

what you see.

I ended up leading my group.

They saw me as magical.

I didn't even have to fight for it.

Then fear came, and they chased me away.

They thought that I was

Stealing their lives away to stay young.

The prehistoric origin

of the vampire myth.

That is good!

First thousand years,

I didn't know up from sideways.

How do you know the

first thousand years?

An informed guess, based on what

I've learned in my memories.

Most people can scarcely

remember their childhood,

But you have memories of that time?

Like yours, selective.

You know, the high points,

the low points, traumas.

They stick in the mind forever.

Put down at 3 or 35,

you still feel a twinge.

Go on.

I kept getting chased

because I wouldn't die,

So I got the hang of

joining new groups I found.

I also got the idea of

periodically moving on.

We were semi-Nomadic, of course,

Following the weather

and the game we hunted.

The first 2,000 years were cold.

We learned it was warmer

at lower elevations.

Late glacial period, I assume.

What was the terrain like?

Mountainous.

Vast plains to the west.

West--Something you

learned in school.

Towards the setting sun.

I suspect I saw the british isles

From what is now the french coast.

Huge mountains...

on the other side of

an enormous deep valley

That was shadowed by the setting sun.

This is before they were separated

From the continent by rising

seas, as glaciers melted.

That happened?

Yes, the end of the pleistocene.

So far, what he says fits.

Oh, yeah, into any textbook.

And that's where I found it.

How can I have knowledgeable recall

If I didn't have knowledge?

It's all retrospective.

All I can do is

integrate my recollections

With modern findings.

Caveman, you gonna hit me

over the head with a club

And drag me into the bedroom?

You'd be more fun conscious.

Oh, John.

Let me get this straight.

We're not talking about reincarnation.

You're not saying that you remember

Whatever the hell it would be,

And being born again and yada yada?

One lifetime.

Some lifetime.

Wow.

Maybe there is something

to this reincarnation thing.

You're supposed to come back

Again and again, learn and learn,

And somehow, John, you just managed

To bypass all the other bodies.

Well, what's the point?

What about oceans?

Didn't see them till much later.

So how would you know

an ocean from a lake?

Big waves--

Something else

I can only surmise in retrospect.

Were you curious about

where it all came from?

We would look up at the sky and wonder.

"There's gotta be

some big guys up there.

What else made all this down here?"

At first I thought

There was something

wrong with me--

Maybe I was a bad guy for not dying.

Then I began to wonder if I was cursed

Or perhaps blessed.

Then I thought maybe I had a mission.

Do you still think you do?

God works in mysterious ways.

I think I just happened.

( Phone ringing )

( Laughs )

Wow.

Hello?

Yes, ellie?

What's wrong?

Sandy?

Coming.

Yeah?

Do we have ellie's midterm here?

Yeah, sorry.

I picked it up with the periodicals.

Got it.

No, you're worried about your parents?

Don't--Don't

worry.

You passed, c+.

Take care of yourself.

Good kid.

What does pre-Med need with history?

Got it.

Thank you.

Sorry, guys.

John, please continue.

Come on, I thought we

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