Clotho the Fate

by Joan Holub

  The mortal girl stopped in front of a shop across from the carousel. The sign over its door read: ORACLE-O BAKERY AND SCROLLBOOKS. A smaller sign hanging from the doorknob read: CLOSED.

  “Would you mind opening this door for me too?” called the girl.

  Still gripping the flour sacks and shouldering her travel bag, Clotho dashed over and did as asked.

  The girl darted into the shop, smiling back at her. “I’m Cassandra, by the way. I suppose you’re here for the grand opening of Game On!—that new gaming store opening up here in the IM today?”

  “Oh, um, no. I heard about it, though,” said Clotho, recalling what Hermes had said. Ack! What was she doing talking to this mortal girl? She was trying to follow the rules and hadn’t meant to chat with any mortals, but what was she supposed to do? Not help? Not answer? Just throw the girl’s stuff through the door and run away? No! Surely Zeus wouldn’t want her to purposely not respond when spoken to. Besides, the thrill of hanging out with a girl her own age even for a few minutes was hard to resist. She rarely got the chance to talk with anyone but her sisters.

  She dropped her travel bag just inside the door, then followed Cassandra over to the counter, where they set everything else down. Clotho spun around and headed straight back for the door. She intended to leave right away. She really did. But then she got a whiff of the air around her. This was the best-smelling room she’d ever been in! She sniffed at the air greedily, then breathed out a happy sigh. “What smells so good?”

  “Everything!” said Cassandra, laughing merrily. “This is my family’s bakery. My mom’s, brother’s, sister’s, and mine, I mean. We made all the refreshments for the Game On! event today. You really should go. The party snacks will be dee-licious, if I do say so myself. Sweets, little sandwiches, all kinds of stuff.”

  Moving past Clotho, Cassandra flipped the sign on the bakery door from CLOSED to OPEN. Then she moved back to the counter and began pulling things from the boxes and sacks they’d brought in. In addition to the flour, there were things like sugar, butter, eggs, and papyrus bags.

  Clotho stood glancing around, unable to resist a peek at the scrumptious goodies attractively displayed on shelves and small tables throughout the shop. Doughnuts, tarts, cookies of all kinds, chocolates, and more. She saw the ovens where everything was baked too, and an opening on one wall that led to a bookscroll store. Finally, remembering that she shouldn’t be here, she moved in the direction of the door.

  Again Cassandra’s voice stopped her. “Would you mind?” The girl held a stack of papyrus bags with the store logo on them out to Clotho. “These go on that shelf over there. They’re for customers to fill with random goodies.”

  Clotho knew she should leave. Right now. But her feet seemed to have other ideas. They turned and moved her back toward the counter. Taking the stack, she set the bags neatly on the shelf Cassandra had indicated. Before she knew it, she was busily helping to stow more items in bins or on shelves.

  “So anyway, we used up all our supplies making snacks for the Game On! grand opening I was telling you about,” Cassandra went on. “I’m minding the shop alone this morning while the rest of my family is all out shopping for even more supplies to restock. Today we’re going to be baking the goodies for Zeus’s birthday party tomorrow here in the IM. We’ll need plenty because that big guy has a huge sweet tooth!”

  Clotho smiled. She loved how organized everything was in here. She drew in another deep breath of delicious smells. Cinnamon. Lemon. Chocolate. Mmm. Time to go.

  “Hey, why don’t you fill one of those bags with some goodies for yourself? Pick out anything you like,” Cassandra offered, ducking down behind the shop’s long counter to stow a bag of sugar away. “For free. A thank-you gift for helping me.”

  Just as the Fates did not need to sleep, the only foods they really needed to eat or drink were nectar and ambrosia. Those kept them immortal, though they didn’t cause their skin to shimmer as they did with other goddesses and gods.

  However, like Zeus, Clotho had a sweet tooth for sure, so Cassandra didn’t have to offer twice. “Okay, thanks,” she replied, picking up one of the shop’s papyrus bags. Immediately her eyes went to some baskets of cookies on the main counter.

  Popping back up from behind the counter just then, Cassandra noticed the direction of her gaze. “Those are Oracle-O cookies. There’s a prophecy or fortune tucked inside each of them. My brother, Helenus, puts them in. Sometimes he writes the prophecies on slips of papyrus. Other times he just whispers them into the cookie, which gives the cookie the ability to speak that prophecy later to whoever eats it.”

  “Why is one of the baskets labeled Opposite Oracle-Os?” Clotho asked, curious.

  Cassandra grinned. “Long story short, I tell prophecies too. But no one believes them, even though they actually will come true. So to trick everyone into believing them, I write the opposite of what I know to be a true prophecy in my fortunes.”

  “Oh, I get it,” said Clotho, unable to cut short this forbidden conversation. “So you write a lie. And then whoever gets the fortune believes the opposite of that lie. And that opposite is actually the truth.” Erg! What was she doing? Carrying on a conversation with a mortal, that’s what! Breaking Zeus’s rule!

  “Exactly!” said Cassandra, looking pleased that Clotho had caught on to her explanation.

  Quickly Clotho nabbed one of each kind of Oracle-O cookie. Cassandra smiled at her choices. If only she could tell this mortal girl something about herself. Would Cassandra feel the same way about the Fates as those complaint-letterscroll-writing mortals felt, though? Would she look at Clotho in fear or yell at her? She wasn’t sure. So confiding her identity to this mortal was probably not a good idea. Too bad, because she and Cassandra had fortune-telling in common. It would have been fun to talk about prophecies and their pitfalls.

  With a sigh, Clotho turned and took a step toward the exit. At the same time, the little bell on the store’s front door tinkled, and a girl holding several large papyrus scrolls came in. She had blue eyes and long golden hair and wore a shimmery pink chiton.

  Clotho stopped in her tracks. She couldn’t help staring. The girl was that beautiful! She had seen enough statues and painted friezes around Mount Olympus to recognize this famous goddessgirl right away.

  “Hi, Aphrodite. Whatcha got there?” Cassandra greeted the girl, confirming what Clotho had already guessed. That this was the goddessgirl of love and beauty, a student at Mount Olympus Academy. She looked about twelve years old, and way more amazing in real life than as a statue or painting!

  “Posters advertising the Game On! grand opening today. Mind if I hang one in your shop window?” Aphrodite asked. “Ares is spreading them around the IM and I offered to help. He’s pretty gung ho about the new gaming shop, as you can imagine.”

  “The godboy of war? Excited about what’s rumored to be some kind of indoor war game? What a surprise!” said Cassandra. The two girls laughed. “And yes, you can put up the poster,” Cassandra added.

  Aphrodite began affixing the poster to the inside of the shop’s glass door so it faced out toward the atrium. Momentarily blocked from leaving, Clotho watched her out of the corner of her eye. As Aphrodite worked, she also glanced at Clotho, but Clotho pretended not to notice. Instead, she busily checked out the bakery goods on various shelves and cutely decorated tables. Now and then she added more goodies to her bag. As soon as Aphrodite left, she would go too, she promised herself.

  Minutes later, Aphrodite finished her task and moved to the counter to chat with Cassandra. Clotho picked up her travel bag and headed for the door. Immediately, its bell tinkled again and a mortal girl entered, blocking the exit once more. She started asking questions the minute she saw Cassandra putting away supplies. “Hey, what’s with all the new ingredients? Did you use up what you already had on hand baking stuff for the Game On! grand opening? So you went and got more? Because Zeus’s birthday is coming up? Is your shop going to cater his party?”r />
  “Yes to all,” Cassandra replied, her eyes twinkling.

  Just then, the question-asking girl noticed Clotho. “Hey, I’m Pandora. What’s your name?”

  “Clotho,” she replied before she could think better of it. Argh! She hunched her shoulders. Why hadn’t she made up a fake name? She shouldn’t get chummy with these girls, she reminded herself. But the curious Pandora’s rapid-fire questions had set her head spinning. Fittingly, the curious girl’s bangs were curled in the shape of question marks.

  When none of the girls in the bakery reacted to her big reveal, Clotho straightened. They hadn’t recognized her name! She probably shouldn’t be surprised. Although most everyone on Earth and Mount Olympus knew of the three Fates, they usually considered them a group, not individuals with names (and personalities) of their own. This thought was kind of depressing, actually. She and her sisters were each quite different.

  If these girls found out who she really was, however, there could be trouble. Her secret identity as a Fate was best kept just that—secret. Unfortunately, Pandora opened her mouth to ask another nosy question. “Who?”

  Panicking, Clotho murmured, “Sorry. Lots to do. Gotta get a move on.” She ducked her head, darted away, and grabbed a star-shaped cookie from one of the bins. Just in case Pandora decided to follow her, she stuffed the whole thing in her mouth so she’d be unable to respond to any further questions the girl might ask. Crunch!

  Jingle-jangle! Saved by the cookie and the bell! Well, not quite, since the door was still blocked. Pandora moved away from it as three more goddessgirls trooped into the shop. Still chewing, Clotho studied the new arrivals, recognizing them right off.

  First came Persephone, the goddessgirl of growing things, whose long wavy red hair had flowers twined in it. Next was Artemis, the black-haired goddessgirl of the hunt, who carried a quiver of arrows and a bow slung over one shoulder. And finally the brown-haired, superbrainy Athena—Zeus’s daughter. Not only was her dad the King of the Gods and Ruler of the Heavens, he was also the principal of Mount Olympus Academy. And as everybody knew, these three girls, along with Aphrodite, were BFFs and the most popular goddessgirls at that school!

  Immediately, Pandora turned her questions on them, thank godness! “Hey! What are you doing here, Persephone? Weren’t you going home with your mom this weekend?”

  At the word “home,” Clotho’s ears perked up. She had thought all these goddessgirls lived in dorms at MOA. (How she envied them having places to call their own where they could keep their stuff organized!) What would she say if they asked her where she lived? she wondered. She wouldn’t want to lie, but she also wouldn’t want to admit the truth. That she was homeless. If she told them that, it might lead to other questions she couldn’t answer without revealing the fact that she was one of the unpopular Fates.

  Pandora didn’t even give Persephone a chance to respond before she began asking Athena questions about her dad’s forthcoming birthday party. Meanwhile, everyone else began to chat with one another. Clotho shifted the straps of her bag higher on her shoulder and eyed the door. As stealthily as possible, she edged toward it. Now that everyone was so busy chatting, maybe she could finally slip out of the shop unnoticed. Halfway there, however, her eye fell on a display of animal-shaped cookies and she paused. Hmm.

  No one was looking her way. So, just for fun, she randomly plucked out some of her knitted animal finger puppets—a fuzzy black-footed lamb, a pink round-belly corkscrew-tail pig, and a half dozen more. Darting glances at the other girls to be sure they weren’t looking her way, she quickly set the little puppets on the display, scattered attractively among the cookies. They added a nice, quirky, cute touch. Perfect!

  “So, are you going home?” Pandora asked Persephone once more.

  “Yeah, but just to sleep. I’ll be, um, hanging here at the IM a lot during the daytime,” Persephone told her.

  “But I thought you said you were going to be doing some work in the Underworld,” Aphrodite put in.

  “Hades asked Persephone to help him on a project,” Athena informed Pandora, waggling her eyebrows. “But she’s being all mysterious and won’t say what kind of project exactly.”

  “Huh?” Pandora began, looking more curious than ever.

  Clotho was curious as well. Her ears had perked up at the mention of the Underworld, which was ruled by the godboy Hades. It was where mortals went after they’d died and crossed the River Styx. She and her sisters knew a lot about it because of their work with the Destiny List. Lachesis especially, since she was in charge of measuring out the lengths of mortal lives.

  Persephone grinned at them all, definitely looking mysterious. “Sorry. For now, it’s a secret.”

  Jingle-jangle! Another girl’s head poked in through the doorway. “Secret?” she echoed. “Did someone say ‘secret’?” This new girl had apparently been listening at the bakery door, and now she pushed it open and stepped inside. She had short, spiky orange hair and a pair of small orange wings that flapped gently at her back. With her entry there were now eight girls total in the shop. The place was getting crowded!

  Persephone smiled good-naturedly at the orange-haired girl. “Leave it to you to sniff out breaking news, Pheme.”

  So this was Pheme, the goddessgirl of gossip. Made sense that she’d keep her ears open for interesting tidbits of information she could pass around. Especially info about immortals, since mortals avidly read Teen Scrollazine for news of what they were up to.

  Pheme licked her orange-glossed lips as if actually hungry for whatever news Persephone was willing to share. With a grin, she said, “Hey, my column in Teen Scrollazine doesn’t write itself, you know. I need scoop. C’mon. Spill.” The words puffed in the air in cloud letters that rose above her for everyone to read before later fading away.

  Now Persephone looked a little nervous, likely wary of Pheme’s famed ability to trick people into giving out information they’d vowed to keep to themselves. “Uh…”

  Luckily Artemis butted in, to Persephone’s obvious relief. “You want secrets? I’ve got one. I helped design the first game in Game On! The one they’re going to play today for the grand opening.”

  The other goddessgirls, including her BFFs, looked at her in surprise. Pheme had seemed ready to push for more on Hades’ and Persephone’s secret project. However, now she fixed her gaze on Artemis. “Ooh. Tell me more.”

  Pandora nodded. “Yeah, like how can I win?”

  The others laughed. Artemis adjusted the quiver of arrows that hung over her shoulder and shook her head. “Can’t tell you anything more. All details are top secret.”

  “C’mon,” Pheme wheedled. “Just a teeny-weeny clue hinting at what the game’s about? I’ll die if you don’t tell me.”

  “You’re an immortal. You can’t die,” teased Artemis. “Besides, you’ll see for yourself when the game opens an hour from now.”

  “But—” Pheme continued, looking determined.

  Artemis held up a hand. “Okay, okay. I’ll give you one clue: Today’s game might turn out to be a bit boring.”

  “Oh no, really?” said Athena, frowning a little. “Heracles will be so disappointed.”

  Clotho recalled reading in Pheme’s column that that superstrong mortal boy had become her crush after she helped him complete a series of tasks called labors. Mortals weren’t the only ones fascinated with the lives of immortals. The Fates kept up with news of them too!

  Artemis grinned big at Athena. “Don’t worry, you’ll both still love the game, promise.”

  Pandora drew her head back in confusion. “Even though it’s boring? How can that be?” Seemed this girl couldn’t say anything unless it was in the form of a question.

  Artemis pinched the tips of her thumb and index finger together and drew them across her mouth. “My lips are sealed. Come to the grand opening if you want to know more.”

  If only I could! thought Clotho. But that was impossible. She’d already broken Zeus’s rule enough fo
r one day. She edged closer to the door again. It was past time to get going. She had only been at the IM for half an hour and already had spoken to two mortals. That was two more than Zeus or her sisters would consider okay!

  “Oh, look how cute!” Aphrodite said suddenly. On her way out, Clotho glanced over her shoulder to see her and Persephone standing by the animal cookie display.

  “I love this little knitted cat finger puppet!” Persephone enthused. She stuck it on her index finger. “Meow. Meow. I’d like some milk, please,” she made the cat say.

  The other girls gathered around, oohing and aahing at the puppets and trying them on their fingers too. “Who made these?” “Is there a pattern to make more?” “Are they for sale?” the girls wanted to know.

  Cassandra looked baffled. “I don’t know where they came from. They are cute, though. Really cute.”

  A warm, happy feeling spread through Clotho. It was a thrill to hear these girls compliment her creative knitting projects.

  When a group of mortal customers entered the store, she quickly stuffed her papyrus sack of treats into her travel bag, then swung the bag over her shoulder and slipped out the door.

  4 Arachne’s Sewing Supplies

  ONCE OUTSIDE THE BAKERY, CLOTHO took off walking toward the Immortal Marketplace exit. But her feet faltered as a thought came to her. Maybe she could just take a quick look at that shop Hermes had mentioned as long as she was here. If she kept to herself from now on, speaking to no one, she wouldn’t be breaking Zeus’s no-mingling-with-mortals rule again.

  She might as well get the wool and yarn she needed, right? That would be easier than finding sheep to shear. Plus, she could probably find ready-made green yarn at the shop, so she wouldn’t have to do any dyeing in order to knit a serpent family. A win-win!