There was another frantic call from Anders on my voice mail.  I debated calling him back.  It's not that Anders was a bad person.  He was just obsessive.  He'd get focused on his latest project and would forget that anything else existed--for him or anyone else.  In fact he was probably the closest thing to a mad scientist that I'd found in real life.

Last month he had been talking about portals through space and time or some crazy thing.  Apparently he'd moved on to something else.

I had been Anders' friend for sixteen years now and I tried to give him a call about once a month.  Mostly I called because Anders was the kind of guy who didn't make or maintain friends well.  If I let him, I have a feeling he'd stop connecting with the outside world at all.

But, frankly it was one of those relationships that required a lot of work with very little return.  Still, I also had a company meeting today that I'd rather skip.  Once a quarter the company I work for likes to have these meetings where everyone gets together and pats each other on the back.  Paid, but it was very tedious.

I juggled the bottle of aspirin I kept in my desk for such occasions.  I could claim my friend had an emergency--with Anders everything was an emergency.

Yeah, I thought shoving the aspirin bottle back in my desk, I'll skip the meeting and go see what Anders is into now.

"Oh, good, you've come."  Anders pulled me through the front door into what should have been the living room.  Instead there were tables and shelves filling the space, each littered with gadgets and test tubes and various other scientific looking paraphernalia.

"You've always wanted a tattoo right?"

"What?" I asked still trying to get my bearings as Anders grabbed my arm and pushed up my sleeve.

He grabbed something off the table.  It looked vaguely like a rose.

"What are you doing?"  Had he decided to experiment with botany now?

"Just a moment."  He slapped the rose against my arm.  I jerked back, but the rose seemed to dissolve.  I felt a moment's heat--more tingly than painful.  When he removed his hand I had what looked like the outline of a rose tattooed on my arm.

"That's your big discovery?  A painless, needle-free tattoo method?"  I was surprised.  Usually Anders' ideas weren't very marketable.

"This is more than a tattoo."

"What do you mean?"  I was starting to get a little nervous now.  What exactly had Anders done to me?

"Now you can do magic."

"What?"  Okay, so Anders had finally cracked up.  How do you have somebody committed these days?

"The portal I discovered.  I found these creatures when I went through."

"Creatures?!"  Forget about Anders' problems, what exactly had he done to me?

"There seemed to be a variety of them."  He starred into space for a moment.

"The portal was never very stable.  It collapsed when I brought back the two samples I'd collected.  Melted my good hiking boots too."  He shook his head with regret.

"As far as I can tell they create a symbiotic relationship with the host."

I started to panic.  "Wait.  You just put some kind of parasite on me?"

"Symbiotic--mutually beneficial."

"At least I know it's beneficial to us.  I assume it is for these organisms too because before they attached they seemed to be dying."

"That's why I called you.  I needed someone to be the host for the other organism."

Oh, this is great, I thought.  Anders is babbling about portals and magic, meanwhile he's probably infected me with some rare disease.

"Look this all seems great," I said, "but I've really got to go."  I started backing toward the door.

"But we've got to test them.  What exactly are their abilities?  What are their limits?  I wonder if I can create another portal and collect more samples?" he muttered.

Feeling behind me for the door handle I said, "Anders, I think you've been under to much strain lately.  Maybe I could hook you up with a good psychiatrist."

He wasn't listening and I needed to get out of there.  My head had started to pound and I was really wishing I'd taken the money and gone to the company meeting.

"See you later, Anders."  I flung open the door and started for my car.

"Wait you can't go yet."

"Sorry, gotta run."

I wish I'd brought that aspirin with me.  My head is killing me.  My arm tingled with warmth again reminding me that I should probably schedule a physical as soon as possible.  Who knows what Anders did to me?

I slid into the car and noticed an aspirin bottle on the seat next to me.  That's weird.  I was sure I'd left that in my desk at work.