Megan shifted her weight. “Actually it was Gino and me. We had to find his crock pot. Remember, I’d asked you if I could put it in a company garbage bin? That was before I knew—”
Elliot’s laughter cut her off. “Why am I wasting my time? If you want help, come see me.” He started toward the door.
Megan gathered the invoices in her hand. “Don’t you think someone should know?”
He stopped at the door. “What are you talking about?”
She gestured with the bills tight in her fist. “Isn’t illegal dumping a federal offense?”
“What’re you saying?” Elliot asked, his back still turned to her.
“If the new company finds out about the contamination, they might back out of the deal.” Megan’s voice became excited. “Crelco could stay open.”
Elliot turned around. “Not after they dished out the millions of dollars for cleanup costs, not to mention the fines. The EPA doesn’t fool around anymore. They’re putting people in jail for illegal dumping. Do you really think anyone would take that kind of risk?”
The excitement withdrew from Megan’s expression. The determination stayed. “Whether Crelco stays open or not, somebody should know.”
Elliot stepped toward her. “Yes, you could call the new owners’ CEO and board of directors. And call Crelco’s board, too. Maybe the newspapers, maybe Sixty Minutes. Tell them all how you were looking for your genie’s crock pot and stumbled onto a hazardous waste area. Better yet, why don’t you and your genie just wave a wand. The new owners will disappear, and everything’ll be back to normal. Wouldn’t that be easier?”
“That was my original plan,” Megan murmured as she riffled through the stacks of invoices, looking for other ACK disposal bills.
Elliot threw his arms up in the air. “What happened to the rational, reasonable woman I proposed to?” he asked.
Megan smiled. She knew exactly what had happened to her: Gino.
“Do you want to go out to the dump site with me?” she asked.
Mouth open, Elliot looked at her. “You’re serious.”
“I know these papers here say ACK is being shipped to Canada for legal disposal, but I also know Sunday afternoon, Gino and I watched tankers dump the same material not half a mile from where you’re standing right now. The new owners aren’t going to want that liability. Crelco will have to stay open to pay cleanup costs.
“It makes perfect sense,” Elliot agreed.
“You think so?” The excited tone came back into Megan’s voice.
“Absolutely. The DEC has even recently begun giving polluters a break. They’re finding if the company closes down because of huge fines and cleanup costs, there’s still the problem of the contamination site. It’s a lose-lose situation.”
“Do you think Crelco would be eligible for assistance?”
“Why not? All you have to do is explain to the Federal government how you and the genie who lives in your crock pot are trying to save the company and protect the community from a miniature Love Canal in their backyard.”
The hope that had illuminated Megan’s features switched off.
“Now,” Elliot said as if talking to a child, “let me have those papers, please. Thank you.”
He stacked the bills neatly before inserting them into a folder. “I want you to forget all this nonsense. Why don’t you let me call Kimberly right now? You could talk to her on the phone, maybe make plans to meet her after work.”
Megan watched Elliot even up another pile of papers. Gino had been right. Elliot was never going to believe in something that didn’t make sense. She couldn’t blame him. As a matter of fact, not more than four days ago, she probably would have reacted the same way.
“Thanks, Elliot, but I’ve got something to do after work today.”
IT WAS PAST DINNERTIME before Megan finally burst through the back door of the house. There was no need to call for Gino. He was already there, his arms crushing her to his body.
“Where were you?” he demanded, his mouth making a quick slide over her forehead, her hair, her cheek. “Why didn’t you call?”
“I didn’t know the crock pot had a cellular,” she teased before his mouth covered hers, and her body went heavy with desire.
He’d been in her thoughts all day, but her thoughts were mere mental alms compared to the touch of him, the smell of him, the tremble of his body as it met hers once more. How would she ever say goodbye to him?
She clung to him tighter, her mouth opened in welcome, moaning with desire, her legs wrapping around his waist when he lifted her and carried her toward the bedroom.
They made it as far as the couch. There was lust and hunger and passion and love, most of all, love. There was love in the way his hand found hers, their fingers interlacing, love in the reverent murmur of her name, the support of the pillow he propped behind her head. There was love as he watched her, matching his body’s movements to her expressions until together, they rode as one to realms Megan had before denied in her dreams.
Afterward, they rested in each other’s arms, the clock on the mantel counting the passing seconds out loud. Megan sought solace in the information she’d discovered today, knowing she’d bargained them extra time. But how long? Ten minutes? Ten days? Ten thousand years? And still, she’d feel cheated.
“You were gone when I woke this morning,” Gino said pointedly. He pulled her up, draping her across him, bringing her mouth to his.
“You were sleeping so soundly, I didn’t want to wake you.” Her kisses along his jawline were lighter than the flutter of fairies’ wings.
“Then, you were late coming home.”
She lingered on the muscled length of his neck, the brittle strength of his collarbone, impressing it on her memory. “I had to run an errand.”
“I don’t know why you left at all.” His hands played along her back, passing across the hollow where the muscles softened and spread to the fullness of her buttocks.
“I’m a coward.” She caught his earlobe in her teeth and tugged on it gently before whispering into the opening above, “Make love to me again.”
They did, with a desperate tangling of limbs and a fierce, aching passion. They called out to each other as if Fate had already separated them. Then, their cries became one voice celebrating ecstasy, damning sorrow, daring to even challenge Fate.
Afterward, they lay content and too heavy to move. Gino lazily stroked her hair. “Megan?”
“Mmm?” she murmured.
“The third wish?”
She lifted her head, meeting the depths of his black eyes. There, she saw the same fear, the same sadness she’d struggled with all day.
“Are you sure it’s what you want?” he asked.
“What I want,” she said, her expression openly pained, “is time. Time for us to be together.”
Gino smiled, then kissed her lightly on the lips. “That is yours without wishing.”
“But once I make my last wish, you’re gone… forever.”
He studied her, the relief in his face once more giving way to worry. “You want time, but you must wish for something else?”
“They’re closing down Crelco,” she said.
Comprehension came into his expression, turning it sober. “You want to save the company.”
Megan nodded.
He sat up. “Then, time, a capricious creature at best, is no longer ours.” He stood and circled the room.
“Not necessarily,” Megan suggested.
He stopped, midstep. “Attempt to outwit the very force that brought me here? No, Ishtar herself would snatch me from your arms, then work her own wrath upon your world.”
“What if we don’t use the third wish to save Crelco?”
Gino looked at her, puzzled. “Use ordinary means?”
Megan jumped up from the couch. “Wait here. I’ve got something to show you.”
When she came back into the room, she was holding a long, clear cylinder sealed in a plastic bag. She told
Gino about meeting with Elliot, the waste-hauling company, the dangers of ACK contamination.
She held up the oblong canister. “The Cooperative Extension agent showed me how to use this to take a soil sample. If we can prove the land behind Crelco is contaminated, the sale will be off. The Co-op agent also told me, state funding has been made available to help with environmental clean-ups in an effort to encourage new businesses or keep current businesses from going under.”
Gino looked at the plastic tube in Megan’s hand.
She went to him. “I know we can’t have forever. I don’t even know if we’ll have tomorrow. We might only get an hour, a minute. Still it’s one minute less I’ll have to live without you.”
He smiled as he reached for her hand. “What’ve we got to lose? Let’s go.”
THERE WAS NO MOON in the sky. Only darkness altering the strange shapes of the dump. There were no sounds, only an unnatural stillness, amplifying the rhythmic breath of the intruders.
“Should I go ahead and check for rats?” Megan teased, her voice sounding too loud in the quiet. She arced the flashlight beam across the uneven landscape of trash.
“Snakes, too,” Gino, at her side, suggested.
“Snakes?” She turned the light, catching Gino’s smile.
“Don’t worry. I doubt they’re poisonous.”
“Okay,” Megan conceded. “I deserve that.” She stepped toward the dump. The night air was warm and close. Still she shivered. “Let’s get the soil sample, and get out of here.”
The air seemed suddenly heavy, weighted with an acrid smell that clung to her skin and made her breaths shallow.
“Do you smell that?” she asked Gino.
He nodded. “Eau de ACK?”
Megan reached her hand out for the container Gino was carrying. She gave him the flashlight.
“It hasn’t rained so we can take the sample from just below the surface,” she said, ripping open the plastic bag.
She knelt down. “If they’re dumping those chemicals out here,” she said, “I’d like to know why a waste-hauling company in Canada is being paid thousands of dollars.”
“Who’s paying them?” Gino asked.
Megan twisted off the container’s cover. “Crelco, of course.”
“Who specifically hired the waste-hauling company?”
Megan stopped, midscoop. “What?”
“Who’s submitting the bills to Crelco’s accounts department to be paid?”
Megan looked up at Gino, seeing only the glare of the flashlight full on her face. He moved the beam out of her eyes. She blinked several times. Slowly her pupils dilated, restoring her vision. She saw Gino’s face above her. In her mind’s eye, she saw something else: Elliot’s initials at the bottom of each of the billing invoices.
“Gino?” Out of her peripheral vision, she saw a bright light, dismissing it as an aftereffect of her momentary blindness. Then, the light was full on Gino, illuminating his face, his body. She saw the lips she should have never kissed, yet had welcomed hers so tenderly. She saw the proud, solid stance that she’d learned could soften and curl around another like a cocoon. In that flash of brilliant light, she saw and remembered everything of the man she loved. She couldn’t breathe, so complete was her awe.
There was a tremendous explosion. She was hurling through the air, not carefully like when Gino had carried her to the clouds above. No, she was being thrown without care or reason as if she was no more than the trash piled not far from where she just stood.
She landed hard on the ground, heard several snaps like slim sticks being broken in two. Pain careened through her body like a runaway roller coaster. Everything was black. Her only awareness was pain. She could smell the sickeningly sweet scent of blood and realized it was her own. It came wet and sticky down her face until she could taste it.
Inside her, she screamed, “Gino!”
But when she spoke out loud, the sound did not even reach a whisper.
“Gino.” It was no more than a breath.
Yet, her heart still beat, calling to him, crying his name. Each throb of blood pumped it through her veins, spilled it out onto her flesh. With his name pulsing in her ears, she wiped the blood from her eyes with her left hand. Her right arm wouldn’t move. She wiped again, through the smoke, seeing small fires scattered around her, feeling their heat sear her skin, the smoke choking her.
Not far, ten feet, she saw him, a lifeless outline flattened against the ground, his limbs twisted unnaturally around him.
“Gino,” she barely whispered, crawling toward him, her right side dragging beneath her, her vision now clouded with tears. She no longer felt pain or the rough unyielding ground beneath her as she. went inch by inch to the man she loved.
She had no idea how long it took. One foot closer seemed an eternity Time slowed, matching the crippled movement of her body. Halfway there, she collapsed, panting heavily. Her head fell to the dirt, the gritty taste of soil mixing with the sweetness of blood.
She heard a soft, anguished moan. She lifted her head to see Gino stir, his left hand stretching out, reaching toward her.
He was alive. Strength flowed back into her bones, broken or whole. She began her lopsided sidle once more, her own hand leading, grasping fistfuls of dirt and debris, extending full-length toward Gino.
Their fingers touched first. She felt the false resilience of his human flesh, and a sob left her body like the wind leaving a sail. She began to cry harder.
“Megan?”
“I’m here.” She brought her body closer to his, mindful of the strange setting of his legs and arms, fearful of causing him more pain. She stretched alongside him, the image of them lying like this first as lovers flashing into her mind. Now, his body was so cold.
“The wish,” he not more than mouthed to her.
The wish. Joy filled her as if her body had already been healed. The wish.
“I wish,” she said before Gino was forced to feel another millisecond of pain, “for our lives.”
She waited, serene in the knowledge her wish would be granted.
She saw Gino close his eyes. One minute, two minutes.
Nothing happened.
Gino opened his eyes. He opened his mouth as if to speak, but, only a tiny bubble of blood appeared, then popped.
“What’s wrong? Why didn’t it work?”
She moved up closer to him to lessen the strain of speech.
“I’m too weak. I’ve lost too much of my power. I can’t save both of us.”
He paused, the words he spoke taking their toll.
He closed his eyes, gathering strength. His eyes opened. “I can only save one of us.” Even as weak as he was, she could feel the strength in his words: “Save yourself, Megan.”
She looked into his eyes. Her voice was low, but empowered with a sudden calm. “You’ve already given me more than I dared wish for.”
He tried to shake his head. She saw the stab of pain stopping his movement.
“Shh.” She stroked his hair. The blood was already beginning to dry. “Don’t try to move. Don’t try to talk.”
He looked at her, and she saw love—the love he’d never spoken of, but she sensed was there.
He raised a hand, its pointed finger trembling. He pointed to her, then he pointed to his heart.
“You told me genies couldn’t give love.” She was smiling. “I told you I didn’t need love. We were wrong, weren’t we?”
“Wish for life, Megan.” His whisper was willed with the fleeting remnants of his strength.
He kissed the quieting finger she placed against his lips.
“You’ve given me my happiness, Gino.”
She leaned down and kissed his lips, which were moist with blood.
“Now it’s time I give you yours.”
His hand on hers suddenly tightened with a surprising force of strength, causing her to open her eyes and meet the light of command not yet taken from his dark pupils.
“Wish for life, M
egan,” his whisper demanded.
She closed her eyes once more, kissing one last time his lips.
“I wish for life.” A final kiss before she whispered against his open mouth, “Your life.”
Chapter Thirteen
“No-o-o-o-o!”
The scream started inside him as all turned blackness. He felt himself lifted, flying through dimensions. The scream gained strength until it was a loud wail echoing through time and space.
The darkness parted as if sliced neatly down the middle by his scream. He was in the Great Forest. His form was restored to its original health. All physical pain and weakness was gone.
He stopped his cries, silenced by the eerie quiet. He waited.
“Gilgamesh, you were so close,” said the voice that had cursed him two thousand years ago.
He spun around, meeting Ishtar, who was resplendent in golden robes, her beauty otherworldly. Time hadn’t touched her.
“Tell me.” She leaned forward, the force of her handsome features mesmerizing. “How does it feel to be so close to the thing you desire most…” She measured with her hands. “And have it slip through your fingers?” She rubbed her hands together as if scattering ashes.
He looked into those feline eyes and knew she wasn’t talking about the throne.
“Why am I alive?” he demanded.
“Isn’t that what your last master wished for?”
“I didn’t grant that wish.”
“Yes, I know.” Ishtar clucked her tongue. The sound lifted and echoed among the trees like a tolling bell. “You didn’t fulfill the terms of the curse.” She traced the slant of his cheekbone with a pointed crimson fingernail. “Pity.”
He grabbed her hand, twisting it at the wrist. “Is she alive?”
Ishtar’s hand slipped from his, and she was gone.
“That’s not what she wished for, is it?” The taunt came from behind him.
He spun around. The goddess floated before him.
“Did she live?” His demand was anguished.
Ishtar rose, her hair billowing in light waves. “You failed, Gilgamesh,” she sentenced him.
“Let her live, Ishtar.”
He struggled to rise. Nothing happened.
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