Teddy and the Lamp

My name is Theodore Blackstone III, but I go by Teddy. I am 58 years old and came from a family of inventors and engineers. My great grandfather came to America and started from nothing. He had a 5th-grade education and had begun working in the steel industry at the ripe age of 17. By the time he was 21 he led a team of over 130 men who would work tirelessly to provide the steel needed for the ever-growing demand of the American industry of the time.

When he reached 30 years of age, he was inventing new types of equipment for steel production which led him to start his own manufacturing company. Theodore the 1st had 8 kids. 6 boys and 2 girls. The firstborn, my dad, was Theodore the 2nd, or TB as he was called by the family and friends.

Theodore eventually became too old to continue the work and travel required to run a large fast-growing company. He eventually made the difficult decision to retire.

Theodore had begun to groom TB to take over the business almost at birth.

Theodore would take his firstborn everywhere and to meet everyone. By the time TB was 23 he basically ran the business like a partner of my grandfather.

When TB was asked to run the business when grandpa retired everything went on as normal, it ran very successful in every way and continued to grow.

TB loved his brothers and sisters and made sure the other siblings were able to lead a life of luxury from his and his father's hard work.

One of the kids, Samuel or Sam as he was called, became an archeologist. He had chosen to travel the world looking to discover great things. All the kids lived under the limelight of TB. Except for Sam, he had wanted to create his own fame to show he too would be important to the family name.

By the time Sam was 30, he had not married and kind of disappeared from the family. When I was young, I didn't know much about Sam. My father had always told me he made a few discoveries, but would never say what he discovered. I always assumed at the time he was just being respectful to Uncle Sam.

One thing my dad would always include when talking about Uncle Sam was that he ended up being a lady's man who went off to a life of his own. I had always understood what my dad meant, so I did not press him on it. That was normal for the time.

I went to college for electronics and mechanical engineering. I eventually graduated from Stanford and MIT. As the only son, I was always told that one day I would need to take the place of my father and lead the family business the same as he did.

8 months after I graduated, my father died. This left me in charge of the family company. I had no idea how to run a company of that size and really all I wanted to do was invent and engineer.

Because I had gone to such great schools, this had given me access to real good young talent. I had made some great friends in college. Two of them were business geniuses, graduating at the top of their class.

One thing I realized very fast was that I would need help running the day-day business. I was a very creative engineer, but was never taught how the business ran.

I began thinking two of my friends from school would be perfect to help my run this business.

Lee was Chinese descent, super-smart at operations and Chad was a master of business. I hired them both and for a while, everything worked out perfectly.

I had taken an early interest in LED lights and realized pretty quickly they were going to become a household name. I dove into the technology and created a few patents that eventually ended up being used in today's LED lights.

During that time, Lee and Chad had convinced me to make them partners. They both had worked hard, genuinely wanted the company to be a success, and wanted to grow to be a worldwide name in manufacturing, development, and engineering.

Since at the time I was young, I didn't realize that things would have changed between us over time. I had just wanted to create. Looking back now, I should have made them unequal partners, with me the largest owner. After all, it was my family who created the company.

Not long after we had filed the patents, Chad came to Lee and me and told us we had an opportunity to sell the patents for a fortune. Chad told us the money would be used to grow the company in ways we could hardly imagine.

I didn't want to sell off anything. We were doing fine and growing.

Chad had eventually convinced Lee to sell and I was the third man out. I still considered the company was mine because my family started it and worked hard to grow it. When the two of them agreed to sell after I had already said no, I then realized the mistake I had made by making them equal partners.

Chad and Lee started to take the company in a whole new direction.

The company became a technology investment company instead of an engineering company. We no longer were doing the work. We were just investing in companies. I thought this was lazy and very risky.

That change in the business model had put me on the sidelines. I had a large office and a paycheck and that is about it.

Over time, Chad had tried to sell the company many times and hounded me for years. But the one thing that I had on my side was that I needed to agree to sell.

The other two could not override this. I wanted to keep my family's company and dreamed that one day I would be able have full control over it again.

Chad and Lee tried many things to get me to sell. They would set me up with sexual assault cases by paying women in the company to say they were assaulted by me. Forged the books to make it look like I was embezzling. They tried everything. I beat every single charge and eventually set up my office to record everything that I did to protect me.

Over time Chad had opened an office in New York and Lee and I worked at our building in Chicago. Chad and Lee had turned the entire company against me. Everyone hated me. I hadn't spoken to either of them in a long time.

When I went to the office, it was in total misery.

One day out of nowhere, my secretary informed me there was a call from a Sam Blackstone on line 3. This surprised me because at the time I didn't even think my uncle was still alive. No one had heard a single peep from him for decades.

Over the years I had been curious about Uncle Sam. My dad never said much about him, except he was a "lady's man" and I had always wondered exactly what that had meant.

I took the call. "Uncle Sam, how are you?", I said trying to put on excitement in my voice.

"Fine son. I know this call is coming out of nowhere, but would you have time to come visit? I am an old man at the end of my life and want to see my brother's brightest kid."

I remember thinking, why not! At the very least I might get to hear about why he left the family. "Yes, Uncle Sam, where are you living these days?"

"Out in California near the bay. Here, write down the address and I will see you at once."

After the call, I went to my secretary, a young beautiful brunette who hated me and told her to set up my travel. The next day I was off to California.

I arrived at my uncle's house the next day. It was an old Hollywood era mansion. One could call it huge. It looked like at one time it was a magnificent home designed for guests. Everything was overgrown and the paint and walls were long in need of being repaired.

I used the large lion head door knocker and "whack, whack" knocked on the door. After a few minutes, an old frail fat man opened the door, welcoming me in.

The fat man gene ran in the family. We were not all obese or anything but defiantly had the gene. Large bellies, chests, arms, and legs. I am 6 ft even, at 256 lbs to give you an idea.

"Hello, Uncle Sam!" I said trying to show my excitement of seeing him really for the first time.

Uncle Sam parts a smile and said "Come in son. I am so glad you came." He did actually look like he was happy to see me even though I could see he was old and in some kind of pain.

As we walked into the mansion, I could see what was once an incredible home. Giant paintings, murals, chandeliers, huge rooms, and a beautiful staircase leading up to what looked like many rooms.

"It is good to see you Theodore. Come into my study and let's get to know each other." As he said that, he began walking down the hall and grabbed my arm to balance himself.

As we were walking down the hallway, I had begun to take notice of the art. When I looked closer, all the paintings were either nudes or sex scenes. They were well done, beautiful works of art, but very sexual and explicit.

As I passed by each piece of art, it started to don on me who was in the paintings. It was Uncle Sam in different ages of his life. One thing I had noticed while admiring the paintings was Uncle Sam's huge dick. It was clearly painted in every painting.

When we had arrived in the study something had changed. At the time, I didn't realize what it was, but looking back I do now.

I seemed to smile at him. I had really become to like him, like he was someone I had to know. Someone I wanted to be friends with more than ever.

He led me to a table in the study and we both sat down. "Theodore..." he started to speak and I interrupted him, "Please call me Teddy Uncle Sam."

"Ok then. Teddy, I am an old man." As he is talking, he was adjusting himself in the chair trying to sit straight to show he is serious about what he was about to tell me.

"I was the third child born to your grandfather Theodore. TB was the firstborn and daddy groomed him to be the one who would take over the family business." As he said that, he seemed to have drifted off into a deep thought like he was reliving this time in his head.

"Things were different back then, the first-born son was the chosen one. That left me to become whatever I wanted to become.

Daddy didn't spend any time with us. TB was the only one daddy would pour into." As he is said this, he coughed a bit and softly put his fist up to his mouth. It seemed this was hard for him to talk about.

As he was talking, I could feel that I wanted to hear anything he said, there was so much love for him in my thoughts. I could have sat there for the rest of my life with him.

Uncle Sam continued, "But Teddy, that is not what I brought you here for." I hadn't noticed it at first, but there was a rather large lamp sitting on a stand about 6 feet from the table we were sitting at. It was large, ornate and rather beautiful in its own way. It matched the house and was definitely made during the same period.

"You see that lamp over there, Teddy?", he said while pointing, "That is why I brought you here."

"It is a very special lamp and needs to stay with the family".

I was listening to his every word, in kind of a trance. Whatever he said, I liked it.

"Teddy, I am going to tell you a story, a long story, and it will seem incredible, which it is, but more than anything I need you to listen.", Uncle Sam said in a pleasant but serious way. I nodded and listened intensely.

Uncle Sam began to tell me he got into archeology because he wanted his dad to see that he too could do something important.

After graduating college, he had joined up with a group of archeologists who were looking for an ancient extinct tribe known as the "Ivicates". They were once a thriving tribe located near the Yucatan in South America.

Uncle Sam had traveled with the group for three years before the funds were gone.

Once the funding was gone and there was no way to keep going, the group split and went back to America. It was not a total loss, a lot of small discoveries were made about the Ivicates, but not enough to peak financial interests. They could only prove they existed and not much more.

Everyone had decided to go back to America except for Uncle Sam. He was determined to keep searching. His dream was to once and for all make an incredible discovery so that the world and his dad could see that he too was an important person like TB.

One day, after another 8 months of searching had gone by, Uncle Sam had ended up staying in a familiar small village.

After a long day, he said he was in his bed trying to fall asleep in the hot and humid environment. It wasn't the humidity that was keeping him up. My uncle said he had become accustomed to living with no air conditioning and ruffing it, instead it was the thought of quitting the search that was keeping him up.

He told me he was in bed with his eyes closed and thoughts were rolling through his head when he heard knocking on his door. "Hello sir, may I have a word with you?", someone with a strong accent says through the door. Uncle Sam gets up and sees an old man at the door.

"Excuse me for interrupting you at this late hour. I have seen you and the others searching this area for the Ivicate for years. I may be able to help."

Uncle Sam then said he recognized the old man and asked, "You are the one who does the river tours of the old ruins about a mile from here, right?"

The old man nodded his head and said, "My family has been doing those tours for generations. It is how we provided for our families."

Uncle Sam said he responded, "I want to say, your tours are amazing, so detailed. The team I was working with took your tour a few times and we all learned something new about the area." Uncle Sam pointed to his laptop and said, "We all took notes and used the information you provided for our research. I looked up geographically at what you told us and it all checked out."

Uncle Sam said he asked the old man, "Please come in, what can I help you with?"

"Please come with me, I have something to show you.", said the old man taking a few steps back from the door and motioning his arms in the direction of the woods nearby.

"Why not?" Uncle Sam said he thought as the old man was starting to move.

Uncle Sam said he followed the man into the woods and the old man didn't say anything, he would just move his arms and point in the direction he wanted him to follow. The moon was the only light and he said he could barely see a few feet in front of him.

It surprised him when the old man had stopped in front of a large, natural rock wall so relatively close to the village, maybe it was only a quarter-mile away or less.

There was natural thick forest vegetation everywhere. The same forest my uncle had come accustom too from researching the area for years and he knew that walking through it was going to be tough.

Uncle Sam said he asked the old man, "Should we come back here in the morning light? I can't see anything."

Uncle Sam said he knew the forest well. It was so thick someone could walk the same path every day and never know that just a few feet over were a giant ancient temple waiting to be discovered. This area was no different.

He said he thought to himself the rock wall was completely out of sight, no one would have ever known it was there and that he would probably not be able to find it again. Even more so because it was nighttime.

The old man stopped and looked back at Uncle Sam and said, "Follow me. What I am about to show you is what you have been searching for, the last remains of the great Ivicate tribe." Uncle Sam said he could not believe this was happening. He had spent years of his life searching and had come up empty.

Uncle Sam told me he had different things running through his mind at the time. Maybe he was walking into a trap. Maybe the old man was going to try and sell him a hoax for some money or, as he hoped, there was really something real.

The old man turned and walked toward the rock wall and seemed to have disappeared into the dense forest.

Uncle Sam said he decided to take the chance and follow the old man. He said he took a deep breath and followed the same path as the old man and in just a few feet he was standing at an entrance to a cave. The old man reaches for a match and lights a torch hanging from the wall. He holds the torch up to his face and says, "We are almost there."

"Where are we, what is this cave?", Uncle Sam said he asked the old man.

"There was once a temple here. This cave was used for secret spiritual ceremonies for the kings many, many generations ago. You are the only person other than myself to enter in many years."

Uncle Sam described the cave to me. He said there were smooth walls covered in old ancient art and drawings. The floor seemed to be some kind of sand with little shiny crystals that sparkled with the light of the torch.

As he was slowly walking through the cave, he started to take notice of the art on the walls. They were old and fading, but something did catch his eye. He said he noticed the paintings were very erotic. They looked like groups of people having sex. In every picture he said there was one person wearing a huge headpiece who had a huge penis and other people seemingly worshiping him.

After about 200 feet. They reached a clearing in the cave. The old man began lighting up the cave with the torches that were all around the room. Uncle Sam tells me he began to feel like he was emotionally close to the old man. As he looked around the room, he could see that behind one of the torches was a bag of crystals. They give off a strange light as the fire of the torch flickered. He saw more murals of groups of people having sex.

The old man finally speaks and said "Once, there was a tribe known as the Ivicates. They were a small community of land dwellers who worshiped the sky."

The old man pointed up to the ceiling of the cave with the torch and said "One day, as the stories are told, a huge eye from the gods came from the sky and landed near this area."

Uncle Sam said he looked up at the ceiling and could see a painted scene that could only be described as a meteor falling from a large creature in the sky. He could also see 100's of little crystals that flickered and resembled stars. It was beautiful.

"The eye gave powers to my people that led to the rise of the Ivicates" the man said in a proud tone. "I am going to tell you the story you have been searching for. But sadly there is only this room and me that still exists from that time."

The old man began to tell the tale of the Ivicates. How they were once the strongest tribe in the region.

The old man picked up a stick and used it to draw out the region the Ivicate's once ruled on the ground which resembled a large map. He also drew circles of other tribes in the surrounding lands.

Uncle Sam said he began to realize why he and the team had found so many different artifacts in different areas that never linked to one single tribe. He told me that after all the time he had been searching, all the people in the surrounding areas were the ancestors to many different tribes with different historical stories all from the same time period.

He said he had been through the area the old man was describing a hundred times and it never donned on him there was a larger story with many small pieces.

Uncle Sam listened closely to the old man as he talked for hours. He learned that the eye that had fallen had magical properties. The Ivicates kept the crystals a secret from the other tribes. The Ivicates studied the crystals, learned of their powers, and then used them to grow exponentially.

The old man explained there were three different kinds of crystals pulled from the eye. Each had a different glow.

One kind of crystal was used for peace. When the crystals were lit with light, everyone in the room would feel an immense urge to make peace. The tribal kings would meet with all the other kings in the region and would make peace and trade deals with the other tribes. The deals would always favor the Ivicates.

Another one was for intelligence. When these crystals were lit, the king would be the wisest in the land. No one was smarter than him. It made the king a legend.