by Dr. Pelham Mead

I am at the end of my novel/ movie script called, “Aero Long-Shapeshifter.” The story starts in the 1600’s in Salem, Mass. during the witch trials. Aero Long is caught up with the hysteria and thrown in jail along with other suspected witches. He escapes by changing into a fox and running away.

Fast forward to the 1770’s, Aero reappears in the for Edward Bancroft, Scientist and medical doctor in London, England. Edward was born in the American colonies but ran away at age 16 to Barbadoes where he posed as a physician for the plantation slaves. Aero is a rare form of Japanese shapeshifter who is a eight tailed fox who can assume the body of a human. Edward Bancroft is really Aero Long in disguise.

After two years in Barbadoes, Edward returns to London, England to write his memoirs. Benjamin Franklin who was also in London, England at the time, has the opportunity to read Dr. Bancroft’s descriptions of diseases in Barbados and the plants and animals. Later on in 1775, Dr. Franklin invites Dr. Bancroft aka Aero Long to join him in France to help with the negotiations between the American Colonies and the French. Congress gave Franklin the power to borrow money from the French and the Spanish to buy cannons, guns, and uniforms for the Colonial army. Dr. Franklin succeeds in borrowing three million dollars from France and ships the goods he bought back to the Caribbean to avoid British ships capturing the cargo. From the Caribbean the canons, guns, and uniforms are shipped via another boat to the Carolinas and unloaded. Dr. Bancroft was both a spy for the British and a spy for the Americans. It was all about money for Dr. Bancroft who gambled with the stock market and often lost money. Dr. Franklin paid Bancroft for his services in writing documents and translating French to English. Dr. Franklin never suspected the Bancroft was leaking all of the colonial secrets to the English in a little glass jar left in a hollow tree in the French gardens.

When war with the Colonies and Britain finally breaks out all the British spies and diplomats are forced to leave Paris, France and return to England, except Dr. Bancroft. Once when Bancroft needed to leave a message in the glass bottle in the French gardens, he turned into a fox and ran along the river Seine all the way to the French gardens and put the note in the jar and returned to his apartment.

In desperation, Aero tried to take over Dr. Franklin’s body and mind but Franklin’s mind was too strong for Aero to convert. Finally, the Treaty with France was signed in Paris and despite Dr. Bancroft’s efforts the colonies went to war against England backed by France and Spain financially. Few people realize that Dr. Bancroft was a double spy that was born in America, but considered himself a citizen of the British Empire.