by R. L. Naquin
I pictured myself carrying the huge thing all the way through the Underworld, up to Mt. Olympus, and through Topeka in my car. “It is a little large. Does it weight much?”
He shrugged. “Less than ten pounds, I’d guess.” He tapped it with his knuckles. “It’s pretty dense.”
Lita made a tsk-ing noise with her tongue. “I told you that was too much. You always go too far.”
Otis sighed and opened the refrigerator. “What about donuts? Cookies? Ice cream?”
I shook my head. “I don’t think I can get ice cream to her without it melting.” I took a bite of my sandwich and chewed while I thought. “She eats a lot of salads and drinks a lot of juice.”
“I suppose I could simply give you some pomegranate seeds.” Disappointment spread across his face. “I really wanted to bake something for her, though. It’s been so long.”
Lita patted his arm. “She’ll be home soon enough. You’ll see. Our Wynter is a smart girl.”
After I finished eating, Lita took my arm and led me up the stairs. “I know you need to leave in a minute, but I just want to show you something before you go.”
I wanted to be on my way so I could get to Mom. The more time passed, the twitchier I felt, as if Mom might be gone by the time I reached her. But I’d talked to her a few hours ago. She promised not to put the house on the market, and she was still mostly herself this morning. The situation was urgent, but I could give Lita a few minutes before I hopped back in my cart and tried to make it go faster than a crawl.
I hadn’t been all the way down the main hall on the third floor before, since the first room belonged to Hades. Lita took me to the last door and led me in.
The room was decorated in blues and greens and lavenders. A huge four-poster bed took up part of one wall, draped in gauzy material that matched the fabric around the window seat across to the room. Around the corner, brass fixtures sparkled from an en-suite bathroom.
“Do you like it?” Lita’s eyes shone brighter than the taps in the bathroom.
“It’s so beautiful.” My voice sounded breathless and wispy.
“It’s yours. We’ve been working on it for weeks”
I raised my eyebrows in surprise. “What?”
She grinned. “We can’t have you living in the dorm, especially now that you know the truth.”
My head spun. It was all so much to take in within such a short time period. I moved to an overstuffed chair near the window and sat. It was, of course, like sitting in a cloud. I couldn’t stay in this room. That was ridiculous.
I was the kind of person who left her clothes on the floor. I had a single houseplant. I could move everything I owned in one carload.
This room was bigger than my apartment.
Lita’s face was still, apparently waiting for me to tell her if I liked the room or not.
“It’s lovely,” I said. “Thank you for going to so much trouble.” The room was beyond gorgeous, and so much more than I could ever deserve. My instinct was to politely turn it down. With or without my mother there, I didn’t feel like I belonged. But there was a quiet, sensible voice in the back of my head reminding me that Scooter knew where my dorm room was. And somebody had left me a box of cupcakes in front of my door. I was betting I wouldn’t have these problems if I lived in Hades’ mansion. Who would dare intrude?
Lita frowned, probably sensing I wasn't entirely thrilled. “Are you sure you like it?”
I tried to give her a reassuring smile. “I love it.” I paused, trying to decide how to handle this. “But….” How could I tell her it was too much? That I was overwhelmed and feeling small and puny in all that opulence?
“But?” She looked alarmed. “We can make changes. You only need to tell me what you need.”
She looked so upset, I couldn’t turn down the room. It would break her heart. “No, it’s perfect. It’s just that…I should get going.”
She nodded. “Yes, you probably should.”
“Now that I know who I am, it’s time to remind my mother who she is.”
Chapter 17
In the end, Otis gave up on baking something tasty for me to give to Mom. He knew I was in a hurry to get to her and couldn’t wait for him to test multiple recipes. Instead, he presented me with a sealed plastic container with a small handful of pomegranate seeds rattling around inside.
“You’ll probably want to do something with them, like sprinkle them on a salad, so she doesn’t wonder why you brought her a handful of pomegranate seeds.” Otis smiled and handed me a packet wrapped in foil. “And that’s another sandwich, in case you get hungry on the way.”
Lita watched, wringing her hands with a worried expression on her face. “Tell her…tell her how much we all miss her. I mean, you know, once she remembers us. We want her to come home.” She put her arms around me and kissed my cheek. “We want both our girls home.”
I thanked them and made vague promises to try, then left them watching in the doorway as I drove away in my golf cart. They were such kind people. And they seemed to genuinely care about my mother. For that matter, Hades had been kind to me, too.
Still, I could understand Mom needing to leave, at least for a while. The fake sky, the forced small-town feeling, and the lack of real sunlight were all eerie. The Underworld was nice, as long as you didn’t have to live there forever. And I couldn’t imagine the goddess of spring wanting to raise a child there.
The moment I stepped inside the office, Hades appeared at his office door scratching his bearded chin and crooking his finger at me to follow. He disappeared into his room.
I glanced at Parker, and he shrugged.
In the office, Hades wasn’t at his desk, and he didn’t direct me to sit. “You’ve got the seeds?”
I shook the container. “Otis decided it was easier for me to slip them in her food than get her to eat a huge chunk of bread.”
“Good. They should bring her back to herself. As soon as her head is clear, you have to convince her to come home.”
“What if she doesn’t want to come home?” Getting my mother to do something she didn’t want to do would be impossible.
He took a step closer and fixed me with an intense stare. “She has to come home, Wynter. Just make it happen.”
The look on his face gave me chills. It was angry, powerful, and tragically sad at the same time.
“I’ll do everything I can.”
His expression relaxed, and the fire in his eyes lowered to a warm glow. “I know you will.” He reached across his desk and grabbed a small envelope. “Here.”
“What’s this?” I lifted the flap and peered inside. A small plastic card was nestled inside.
“It’s an elevator key. Now that you know who you are, you should be able to come and go without an escort.”
“Oh.” A smile tugged at my lips. “Thank you.”
“Just be safe, and bring Persephone home.”
~*~
Hades and Parker sent me off with assurances that the office would run fine without me. I returned to my dorm room, packed a quick bag, and grabbed Phyllis.
The elevator took forever to get to me. It was, after all, still office hours, so other people were using it.
When the doors finally opened, the compartment was empty.
“Now, just put the card in the slot and hit the button for the lobby,” Phyllis said with an air of authority.
I followed her instructions. “Should we go right to Mom’s or go home first?”
“I think we should go straight to see her. If we hurry, maybe we’ll catch the real estate agent.”
That seemed reasonable.
The doors opened, and the bustling lobby of the Mt. Olympus Employment Agency spread before me. I’d only been there for a few months before going to the Underworld, but the place felt like home.
Across the room, the gorgon receptionist, Patrice, glanced over at me and gave me a nearly imperceptible nod of greeting. I nodded back.
“She likes you,” Ph
yllis said.
“Lucky me.” I meant it. Patrice was seriously scary and controlled all the paperwork coming into the agency. If you wanted information or something done, you had to ask Patrice.
I wove through the crowd of nymphs, naga, and humans, and left through the portal door that took me to Topeka where my car remained safely parked on the street.
The homeless-looking guy who probably wasn’t homeless waved at me as I passed, and I waved back.
All the way to Mom’s, I worried over what I would say to her and how I would get her to eat the pomegranate seeds.
Phyllis sat wedged between the seats to keep her safe from tipping over. “You’ll be fine. Once her head clears, you can say anything you like.”
“Are we so sure giving the goddess of spring a handful of pomegranate seeds from the Underworld is such a good idea? I know this story. It’s what kept her down there—one seed for every month she had to stay, right? Maybe I’m doing something terrible.”
“No, honey. That was a long time ago. These seeds are symbolic of that time, but that’s all. You’re not compelling her to do anything except remember.”
“Okay.” My throat felt dry, and I regretted not grabbing a bottle of water from the cafeteria before I’d left Mt. Olympus. I tried to relax.
When we pulled up to Mom’s house, two cars had already taken up space in the driveway, forcing me to park on the street. I cast an annoyed glance at the green Prius and the white BMW as I strode past.
Phyllis stayed in the car in case I needed her.
This time, I didn’t hesitate at the front door. I swung it open and barged in.
“Mom?” I didn’t see her in the living room or the dining room. No afternoon tea party today. “Mom?”
I found her in the dining room with Terry and another woman. They were all huddled around a pile of paperwork.
Mom looked up when I entered the room, and her face lit with joy. “Wynter! What wonderful timing. We were just….” Her voice faded, and confusion washed over her face. “We were just talking about you and your young man. Did you get the promotion at the bank?”
My heart squeezed in my chest, hearing her talk about things I’d repeatedly told her weren’t true anymore. I gave her a hug and held it a little longer than usual. I still wasn’t entirely comfortable giving her the pomegranate seeds. But I also wasn’t comfortable watching her mind drift away in tiny pieces each time I saw her.
When I let go, Terry pushed in and gave me an awkward hug. I had to resist the urge to recoil when she kissed my cheek. There was no reason for me to be that uncomfortable, but I didn’t trust her. Something was up with her. She wasn’t telling me everything.
Hell, who was?
Out of the four people standing in the room, we had a disguised goddess, a mysterious, manipulative stranger, a saleswoman, and me—a person about to sneak food from the Underworld into her mother’s drink.
We were all a bunch of liars. The real estate agent was probably the most honest one there.
“I’m Shona Dawson with Capitol Midwest Real Estate.” The petite brunette stepped forward and held out her hand. “You must be Wynter. Your mother’s talked a lot about you.”
I shook her hand and glanced at Mom, wondering how long this woman had been there. Long enough to have pulled out paperwork, judging by the pile on the table. “Nice to meet you.” I grabbed my mother’s hand. “Can I speak with you alone in the kitchen for a minute?”
Mom smiled and squeezed my hand. “Sure, honey. I’ll make you some juice. Does anyone else want juice?”
Terry took a step toward us. “Maybe I’ll just come with you.”
I waved my free hand. “No, no. You chat with Shona. We’ll only be a few minutes.” I tugged my mom behind me into the kitchen and let go of her.
Immediately, she pulled out her juicer and put it next to her baskets of fresh fruits and vegetables from her garden.
“You don’t approve.” She rinsed a couple of apples. “I can see it in your eyes.”
I set my purse on the counter and felt around in it to be sure I could easily grab the plastic container. “I think you’re moving too fast. It looked like you were about to sign away the house when I came in.”
She shrugged and cut the apples in quarters. “I’ve been thinking about it for awhile. Besides, it takes awhile to sell a house. Shona was only showing us how it works.” She shoved a few apples into the juicer, and liquid came out the chute into a waiting pitcher in a steady stream. She added a handful of blueberries.
“I just wish you’d talked to me first.” I snagged a wedge of apple and bit off a piece.
“You’ve been really busy with your….” She frowned and looked up at me, trying to remember. “Agency job?”
“Yes. I work at the agency.” I popped a blueberry in my mouth. “Are you drinking some, too?”
“I never turn down juice. You know that.”
I did know that. In fact, I was counting on it.
I held my hand up. “Do my fingers look swollen to you? They feel swollen. I don’t know what’s wrong with me.” I flexed my leg. “My knees are kind of bothering me, too.”
She frowned. “You need some turmeric root. I think I have some in the fridge.”
She turned away, and I worked quickly, popping open the plastic container and pouring the pomegranate seeds into the juicer. I dropped apples into the machine right behind them to send the red juice from the pomegranate through faster. By the time Mom came back with the turmeric root, nothing but apple juice flowed out.
Mom chuckled. “You just couldn’t resist, could you? Why won’t you let me buy you a juicer?” She’d been trying to talk me into it for years.
“You know I’d never get it clean after I forgot about it for two days. It would be wasted on me.” I grinned. “Besides, I like it better when you do it.”
“You say that, but I’m about to put spinach and kale in it, so be warned.”
“I know. That’s why I put more apple in it.” I gave her a sweet smile and folded my hands on the counter, the picture of innocence.
She shook her head at me, grinning, and added more ingredients into the juicer. When it was done, she gave the contents of the pitcher a good stir and poured us each a glass.
I held mine aloft. “To the future.”
She clinked my glass. “To the future.”
I hoped it would be okay for me to drink the seeds, too. It was worth the risk, though, if it healed my mother’s mind. We both drank deeply, and I watched her eyes as she swallowed.
Mom had always had a light in her eyes, a love of life that no one could rival, even when she was at her most confused. Even so, I sort of expected some change to come over her, a veil lifting or a light-bulb look on her face.
Her expression didn’t change.
She drank half the juice, paused, looked at it, then drained it. After wiping her mouth on a paper towel, she rinsed her glass, sighed, and turned to face me.
Her expression had changed to disappointment. “Oh, Wynter. What did you do?”
Chapter 18
I nearly dropped my juice. Probably the only thing that kept it in my hand was how stiff my body had gone from seeing how upset my mother was.
Honestly, I should have prepared myself for it. She’d done all this to herself on purpose, and I’d just taken it away.
“I’m…I’m sorry, Mom. I was so scared. I was losing you.”
She sighed again and led me to the table to sit down. “You’re right. Don’t be sorry. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to frighten you.” She folded my hand in both of hers and gazed into my face with an earnest, worried expression. “How did you get food from the gods, honey? What don’t I know?”
My eyes filled with tears. I’d hated not being able to tell her about my life. It all came tumbling out. “I quit my job and dumped my boyfriend and Phyllis started talking. She made me go to Mt. Olympus, and orientation was really hard because I’m a loser—that’s why I was there. They mad
e me a Muse, but everybody hated me and I cheated and they were going to fire me and send me to the Underworld forever until they figured out it wasn’t all my fault and then I made all my clients finish by helping them without magic so personnel loaned me to Hades for six weeks to cover Kris’s maternity leave and Mom, he’s really nice and he misses you so much.” I stopped and took a deep breath.
Mom’s face had gone ashen. “You’ve been working for Hades?”
I nodded. “But he’s not mad. He only wanted to help because you were…well, sick.”
She covered her face with her hands. “I’m so ashamed. How can I face him, now?” She dropped her hands. “And you. My sweet girl. You’ve been trapped down there doing who knows what.”
“I’m covering for his junior personal assistant. I’m fine. It’s actually one of the better jobs I’ve had.”
“You can’t possibly like it there.”
I shrugged. “Well, it’s not perfect, but it’s not terrible. Pretty lonely in the dorms, since the only other people staying there are never around. If I didn’t have Phyllis, I’d probably go nuts.”
The stricken look on her face melted a little. “Phyllis found you.” She frowned. “You brought her here once, didn’t you?”
I nodded. “She’s waiting in the car if you want to talk to her.”
“I do. I’m so glad you have her. She was my safety net. I gave her to an acolyte when you were a baby with the instructions to watch you and give her to you if you ever looked…lost.”
“Well, that explains a lot.” Some strange guy had appeared at a crowded swap meet a couple years ago, thrust the puny potted plant in my arms and disappeared. “She’s pretty bossy, but I love her.”
“Good.” She dropped her hands in her lap. “You can’t go back there.”
“Mom, I still have three weeks left in the Underworld.”
She shook her head so hard her hair came loose from its bun. “No. You need sunlight and tall trees. You need to stay here with me.”