Ten

He returned the following day. Life seemed to be returning to normal. In just minutes, Joseph healed Elsa's foot wound. She stared at his hands in astonishment.

"Do you have all the ointments in your hands?" she asked, bewildered. Joseph responded with his usual smile.

"Think what you want." She watched silently as the wound disappeared under his touch. When he lifted his hand, no trace of it remained.

"Oh my God, Joseph... is this magic?" she asked, utterly amazed.

"No... it's a gift. A talent from God. You humans have hearts; we have... what do you call it? Yes, magic." He spoke with the flair of a movie hero, making Elsa laugh.

"Oh God, you're so dramatic."

"Not dramatic, just realistic," he replied, feeling slightly hurt. Elsa stopped laughing. They were back in their old apartment, and with Joseph’s return, Elsa felt lighter, the weight of grief and sadness lifted. Her savior had come.

"Oh my God..." Joseph was gazing at the disabled people in front of him with awe.

"You call yourselves special, but we call them special," Elsa said, turning to look at him.

He was watching those who, despite their physical limitations, carried out their tasks with incredible skill. As he walked, he approached a young boy missing both arms, yet skillfully painting with his toes. Further ahead, a man with a full body was drawing a sunset. The man's face was identical to the young boy’s, as if his painting symbolized that in his mind, he was whole, never feeling incomplete. He knelt beside him, captivated. Elsa watched for a moment and quietly left. Joseph didn’t need her here. The people around them were like open books, ready to teach him a lesson. Morning and evening, Joseph interviewed everyone. Elsa, feeling weary and defeated, sat to the side. When Joseph finished speaking to the last person, he came to sit with her.

"These are the most incredible people I’ve ever met on your planet," he said, clearly impressed. "Why did you bring me here so late?"

"You wouldn’t have appreciated them as much if you hadn’t met ‘normal’ people first." She leaned back on the bench, rolling her eyes at him.

"Can you heal them?" she asked hopefully, the thought sparked by his earlier act of healing her wound.

"No, I can’t use my planet’s technology here on Earth. We have rules. And these people can’t come to my planet." Her face fell in disappointment.

"Anna, these people might seem incomplete to you, but they’re whole. It’s you 'normal' people who are incomplete. I’ve seen that they don’t complain. Despite all their hardships, they’re happy, content. You pity them unnecessarily. They’re the luckiest ones." Elsa closed her eyes, feeling them burn from glancing at him out of the corner of her eye.

This alien was the most beautiful and wisest person in the world.

"Their lives are hard. All their relationships have abandoned them—mother, father, sister, brother. No one loves them," she whispered, her eyes still closed.

"So what? Are bloody relationships everything? They love each other, and that’s enough for them." She was silent, knowing she couldn’t win this argument with him.

"Look at that," he said after a moment, shaking her shoulder. She had almost dozed off. Groggily, she opened her eyes. A young man, missing his arms but with intact legs, was carrying an elderly, crippled man on his shoulders, taking him to bed.

"If this were a 'normal' person, he wouldn’t have stayed up until 2 a.m. just because the old man couldn’t sleep. Do you know, Elsa, this boy hasn’t slept in three hours, but he stayed awake to help these elders." Elsa was astonished by how closely Joseph had been observing everything. He paused before adding, "I’ve always wished my people cared for each other like this."

Elsa didn’t offer any reply this time. She simply wanted to listen.

"Do you still think they need someone else’s love?" he asked.

"No." Her head instinctively shook in the negative.

"Then let’s go. Today hasn’t been wasted. This has been my most beautiful day." He stood, and Elsa followed. As they left, she realized that while she had felt pity and sympathy for the people earlier, now she felt envy. Today, she learned from them, not the other way around.

"You know, Anna, it was strange when I returned to my world," Joseph remarked as they sat by the lake. They had been visiting Elsa's favorite spots lately, which Joseph had grown fond of as well.

"What was strange?" Elsa asked, playing with the water, splashing droplets onto the nearby plants. Her eyes lit up mischievously as she cupped some water and poured it over Joseph and herself. Joseph looked up, feeling the droplets on his face. He didn’t bother wiping them off. Elsa smiled at him.

"You were saying something?" she reminded him.

"Yeah... I don’t feel well in my world. I get nervous, my heartbeat isn’t normal. The conditions there aren’t good for the heart. The low temperature could be dangerous," he admitted, his voice tinged with sadness. Elsa felt for him—she knew the pain of being away from one’s own people.

"So, you won’t go back?" she asked gently.

"I can’t, even if I wanted to. I can’t survive there with this heart. I’m only twelve hundred years old... I don’t want to die in my youth," he replied, his words sorrowful. Elsa, however, was stuck on something else.

"Twelve hundred years? Youth?" Tears of laughter welled up in her eyes.

"Oh God, twelve hundred years and you're calling it youth!" She clutched her stomach, laughing. Joseph glanced at his wrist; despite being on Earth, his energy levels were increasing.

"Her laughter powers me up, no matter where I am," he thought to himself with a faint smile.

"Why are you laughing like a maniac?" he asked.

"So that I can figure out how to make you laugh every day." Elsa looked at him, wide-eyed.

"You won’t understand... I’ll figure it out myself."

"Don’t change the subject, alien. You’re really twelve hundred years old? Oh God..." she broke into laughter again.

Joseph didn’t understand why she was laughing so much. He shrugged it off. Whatever.

"Yes, I am. Life is long for us. Eventually, our minds shut down, and we go into a cave to sleep forever. That’s our grave," he explained seriously.

"Wow, interesting. Will you live that long?"

"No. My heart won’t last that long. I’ll live and die like humans do on Earth. I can’t go back."

"I’m sorry, Joseph. I told you there’d be a price to pay, but I didn’t know it’d be this high," Elsa said, her tone softening.

Joseph smiled. "And I’m sorry for you, Anna."

"Why me?"

"We have rules. When someone from our world comes to Earth, they must take a human clone with them for research. We don’t harm living humans, but now... since I’m staying on Earth, someone has to go back in my place."

"But that’s not fair! What did this person do?" Elsa protested.

"We’ve chosen you." Joseph's voice was calm, but his words sent a chill through Elsa.

Her heart sank. He had said 'we'.

"You know too much about us. We can’t leave you here. I’m sorry, Anna." Elsa looked at him with tear-filled eyes. What did it matter if he had a heart? He was still an alien.

"When do I leave?" A tear rolled down her cheek.

"Whenever you say."

"I want to see my father," she said, her voice trembling.

"That’s impossible." He stood up and walked away, leaving her alone with her thoughts.