The Gatekeeper's Daughter (24 page)

“I’ll tickle you if you tickle me.”

“Deal!”

Therese covered her mouth in horror as she watched the father molest the daughter in a way that made the daughter think it was fun, normal, and acceptable behavior. Five-year-old Jen enjoyed herself, laughing and smiling as though it were all a game. More tears fell from Therese’s eyes as she realized now why Jen blamed herself. She’d been taught to enjoy her father’s abuse and so felt responsible. Therese felt sorry for her friend, and helpless, too, until she had an idea.

“Figment, I command you to show yourself!” she said to the vision of Mr. Holt.

The eel-like creature whisked about the room, giggling before flying away.

Therese took on the form of Mr. Holt and approached Jen, whom Therese had transformed into her seventeen-year-old self wearing her favorite t-shirt and blue jeans. “Jen, I need to tell you something.”

“Dad?”

“None of this was your fault. You were just a baby girl, and I was a messed up man, and I’m so sorry for hurting you.”

Jen’s face contorted into an expression of pain and misery. “I, I…”

“You don’t have to say a thing, baby girl. You are a good girl. You’ve done nothing wrong. I’m entirely to blame. I can’t apologize enough.”

Therese could barely watch as Jen’s body shook, her mouth open and gasping for air, her face white, then red, then white again. She cried and cried.

Therese went to pat her on the arm, but Jen cringed beneath the touch. That’s when Therese decided to change back to her own form and comfort her friend.

“Therese?”

“It’s going to be okay, Jen.”

Jen threw her arms around Therese, and Therese held her for as long as it took.

At the same time Therese comforted Jen, she appeared before Carol, who had waited up on the couch in front of an old movie.

“I’m sorry I’m home so late.” Even though Therese was in mortal form, her presence made it difficult for Carol to fight sleep.

“I’m…” yawn, “just…glad…you’re…home.” Carol’s head fell back on the pillow tucked in the corner of the couch.

Therese pushed Carol’s legs up in a comfortable position and rearranged the quilt over her. Then she turned off the television and went to check on her pets. Jewels’s lamp had been turned off and Clifford’s water bowl was still full. She stroked her sleeping pets and returned to the Underworld, where Apollo had arrived and was busy concocting a liquid remedy on an elaborate structure recently erected on Than’s sideboard.

Apollo had already explained that he was using the venom from Python—a snake he defeated centuries ago and whose venom he preserved and has often used—to create an antidote that should work on Ladon’s poison, since the two serpent dragons shared the same mother. Steam boiled up from a purple liquid bubbling in a glass beaker. Apollo took a glass syringe the size of a turkey baster and siphoned some of the purple liquid into a test tube, which he then added in gradations to another beaker filled with dark red syrup. When the syrup turned orange, he handed the beaker to Than and told him to drink all of it.

Therese was momentarily startled from the scene in the Underworld by her aunt’s dream, which unexpectedly pulled her in. A big winding staircase made of solid oak floated from the floor of what appeared to be her home in Colorado, except each room was decorated slightly differently, and there were extra rooms, too, which Therese had never seen before. She knew the man and woman on either side of her aunt were figments, but they looked so much like her mom and dad that she hung in midair at the base of the hovering stairs and watched, dumbstruck, as they ascended with Carol to the next level.

Therese crept up the stairs and looked around. On every level, there were toddlers sitting on the wooden floors playing with toys and laughing. One grabbed a rope and swung through the air, over the staircase, and landed in a net, like the ones used at the circus for the trapeze artists and tight-rope performers. Then she saw Richard in the kitchen downstairs at the kitchen sink, his hands covered in raw meat and seasonings.

“Where’s the olive oil?” he asked.

“Second cabinet to the right of the sink!” Carol called from above.

Therese caught up to her aunt and the figments and watched silently from behind.

“This is the conservatory,” Carol was saying. “And over here is the library.”

“You’ve added quite a few books to our collection,” her father, or rather the figment, said.

“Here’s the gymnasium,” Carol said. “And across from it is the indoor pool where Therese practices her strokes.”

“Does she miss us?” her mother asked.

Therese stopped dead in her tracks, which somehow attracted Carol’s attention.

Carol turned to her. “Therese?”

“I do miss you, Mom,” Therese whispered, her voice caught in her throat. “I miss you, too, Dad.”

“I’m just showing them around,” Carol said. “The nursery for Lynn is right this way.”

Babies and toddlers swung by on the rope and bounced up in the air from the net below. Richard called up to locate other spices and household items, and Carol continued to point out one extravagant room after another—a game room, a sitting room, a sewing and craft room, a sculpture room—but Therese could only stare at the backs of the figments beside her, feeling the old familiar longing for her parents.

“Therese?”
Than said, taking her face in his hands. “Are you okay?”

Persephone stood beside her son with an arm draped over his shoulders.

“Can you see?” Therese asked, pulling her thoughts away from the dream.

“Yes! Well, it’s still a bit blurry.”

“It may take a few days for your vision to return to normal,” Apollo explained.

Therese turned to the god of light and gave him a beaming smile. “Thank you! I can’t thank you enough!”

“Perhaps some time when things settle down around here, you can play your flute with me while I play my lyre.”

“I’d like that very much,” Therese said.

“So would I,” Hades said. “We haven’t had music down here in many years. I look forward to having a musician living among us.”

Therese felt her cheeks get hot. She couldn’t wait to be with
Than, but her aunt’s dream pulled her away again.

“Mom and Dad?”
They turned briefly to look down at her from the steps of the staircase and to give her smiles, and then they continued toward the top with Carol.

“And this is the puzzle room, where we like to have tea…”

Hip appeared and took Therese’s hand. The dream vanished, and she was immediately integrated into one. She was no longer the goddess of sleep. And she was no longer the goddess of death. Hip and Than had resumed their respective offices.

Chapter Thirty-Nine: Halloween Night

Therese stayed with Than for a few more hours and then returned home where she slept for the first time since becoming a goddess. She tried to manipulate her dreams, searching for her mom and dad, but nothing went right, and she woke to the sun streaming through her windows.

Maybe she would visit them in the Underworld. The idea had occurred to her before, but she’d been afraid. She knew they wouldn’t recognize her, and she was afraid she wouldn’t be able to handle the blank look in their eyes. Even now, she wasn’t sure she could do it.

Over the next few weeks, while Hermes attempted to secure a safe and secret meeting for her with Ares, Therese took more tests online and groomed Stormy, pleased to find the Holts relatively back to normal. Therese also practiced driving with her uncle Richard. In fact, she fell into a comfortable routine: morning walks with Clifford, breakfast with Carol and Richard, and grooming Stormy and visits with the Holts until noon. Then it was lunch back home with Carol, online tests and papers in the afternoon, and driving with Richard until dinner. She spent dinner and evenings with Carol and Richard, and then nights in her room with Than. Since god travel made her vulnerable, Than preferred to come to her room rather than she to his just in case Ares had something else up his sleeve.

Throughout the day, Therese also continued to answer the prayers related to animal companions and to inspire people and animals as often as she could. She looked forward to a day when she could freely god travel so she could use her bow and arrow to help people and animals more fully love one another.

Carol’s most recent doctor’s appointment showed promising test results and healthy progress for the baby, which, though not wholly unexpected by Therese was nevertheless a surprise. The mood around the house was positive and hopeful, and Carol’s doctor even allowed her to get off bed rest. With her due date in early November—a few short weeks away—she kept herself busy shopping for the baby.

Hermes chose Halloween night for the meeting, because the other gods would be distracted by the festivities. According to Hermes, just about every god and goddess, from the most powerful Olympian to the smallest nymph, liked to dress up in costume and roam the cities in playful camaraderie with humans.

While it was still nighttime on Therese’s side of the world, the people on the eastern half of the globe were already well into the first day of November, so Hermes chose The Philippine Islands for the meeting place—specifically, Boracay, on a dinner boat not far from the island.

Hermes joined
Than and Therese at a round table covered in a white linen cloth and set for four. A bottle of wine had been brought and poured in glasses for all three by a beautiful sea nymph already familiar with Hermes. The nymph had radiant caramel skin, long black hair, and black eyes framed with lush lashes.

Therese took a sip of wine and waited, clutching Hera’s apple in a blue velvet pouch in her lap. Ares was late.

Than squeezed her free hand on his thigh beneath the table. He was trying to reassure her, but she could tell he was nervous, too. She gave him a smile. He smiled back. Hermes cleared his throat and tried to make small talk.

“The fishing off this island is supposed to be the best in the world.”

“I don’t doubt it,” Than said.

“Maybe you and I should go sometime,” Hermes said.

“Why, cousin!” Than said with surprise. “You’ve never invited me before. What’s changed?”

Hermes frowned and took a sip of wine. “You always kept to yourself. Therese has brought you out, so to speak.”

Than nodded and cleared his throat, unable to deny the truth in what his cousin said. He had kept to himself, but he had done so partly because he did not feel accepted by the other gods. He supposed he should have tried harder to help them get to know him, to show them that he wasn’t as gloomy as his office.

Than distracted himself from the anxiety he felt by gazing at Therese. She looked beautiful in her white sundress beneath the afternoon sun, her green eyes sparkling from the gleam off the sea. The gentle breeze lifted her hair around her face like bronze flames. He couldn’t resist reaching out and touching it. She met his eyes and gave him her nervous smile. He wished their meeting with Ares was behind them, and then they could enjoy the breathtaking scenery, the delicious food about to be served, the wine, and each other.

As the salad plates heaped with cold greens and tomatoes were brought out, Ares appeared in the empty seat at their table. The nymph, used to such things, did not flinch.

“I was beginning to think you wouldn’t show,” Hermes complained.

“You said you’d make it worth my while,” Ares replied. “I find that hard to believe, unless your plan is to betray these two and turn the girl over to me.”

“I’m not a girl,” Therese said with narrowed eyes. “I’m a god, and I won’t have you talk about me like I’m not here.”

Than’s throat tightened. He was proud of her, but he was also afraid. He squeezed her hand in his lap. She squeezed back.

Ares ignored Therese’s remark and took a bite of the salad. “Delicious. Good choice, Hermes. I like this boat, this view of the island, and its beach. I see beautiful women not far away. The pristine sky
stretches for miles. Maybe I’ll bring Aphrodite here some time. I think she’s grown tired of Paris.”

The others ate their salads, too. They were anxious to get the meeting over with, but were afraid to begin.

Plates of grilled fish smothered in white sauce and rice were brought out next. Therese found it difficult to enjoy her food. As good as it tasted, her stomach was churning with fear and dread. Would Ares accept the apple? Could they finally call a truce and live their lives in peace?

Hermes and Ares spoke of water sports and volcanos and other topics which seemed to put Ares in a good mood. Therese began to relax a little too. She managed to finish most of her plate just as the dessert was brought out.

She took another sip of wine, feeling as though she would not be able to eat another bite. She watched Ares scoop the chocolate covered strawberries and cream into his mouth. He occasionally ran a hand through his red hair. She realized then that his hair and hers were the same shade. She wondered if his blood ran through her from her father or mother. She had never thought to ask.