The Weight of the World (9 page)

“
When
did this start?”

“
Before
finals. Actually, a couple of weeks before that. May 3rd was when I
first noticed it.”

Zach
picked up a graphic novel with a shattered picture frame on the
cover. He flipped through the pages while deciding if he should tell
Minnie. In the end he decided that Lewis was always ready to brag, so
there could be no harm in sharing his new gift.

“
Lewis
discovered a second power today,” Zach said. “He can whisper at
you, like he’s right there, but from far away.”

“
Today?”
Minnie asked. “Did you get Evan’s email?”

“
Yeah.
The metal thing. I think we’re all getting an upgrade,” he said.

Minnie
leaned on the shelf next to him and pulled a comic off the rack.
Graphic novels still held a challenge for her. She could absorb the
written word, but images still had to be seen. “You heard Devon’s
pregnant,” she said.

“
It’s
all over Facebook.”

“
How
could they be so stupid?” she asked. “As if we don’t get enough
Miracle
of Life
warnings from biology class, and then, with our circumstances, they
should be twice as careful.”

“
Well,”
Zach laughed, “So long as the baby doesn’t get Frank’s strength
and punch a whole in her uterus--”

“
That’s
not funny,” Minnie said. “I mean, that’s a real possibility. I
came out of your skull, after all.”

Zach
shuddered. “You think it’ll be a god?”

Minnie
peeked around the shelf to make sure that the other patrons and
employees were at the other end of the store. “Don’t know. Dr.
Davis has one kid and she’s one of us, so maybe. But mythologically
speaking, not all of our offspring were gods.” She put the graphic
novel away and picked up a discarded coffee cup that some woman had
imprinted with her lipstick and left half-full on the shelf. “How
are you doing, Zach?” she asked sincerely. “You seem sad.”

“
Do
I?” he asked. Maybe Lewis was right. “I feel fine.”

“
Do
you?”

“
Yeah,
just bored.”

Minnie
nodded as if she had heard a different answer than the words coming
from his mouth. “Okay,” she said.

“
I
should be going,” Zach said. “I’m sure Mom’s cooking by now.”

Zach
took the comic book to the register. Minnie followed him and gave him
her discount when she rang it up.

“
We
should have a meeting, soon,” she said.

“
I’ll
call for one.” Zach took the bag from her.

She
flashed a friendly smile and jokingly chimed in with her standard
parting line, “Have a nice day, sir.”

He
chuckled. “Hey, Minnie. The new look, it works for you,” he said.
Zach left the store and took the escalator down to the North entrance
of the mall.

Minnie,
Lewis, and Evan had second powers. Those were just the ones they knew
of. How many members of The Pantheon hadn’t he heard from? A
meeting was definitely in order. Zach wondered, as he pushed open the
glass doors, what his second power would be.

The
storm had broken while he had been talking to Minnie. Outside the sun
shone brightly, drying up the puddles in the parking lot.

Zach
realized that what he had told Minnie was more true than he had
known. He had been bored. Pursuing girls had gotten old and he had
let himself foolishly think that things would settle into tedium
after surviving Prometheus’ plot. Now the gods were awakening new
powers. Zach realized that things would never be truly boring for him
again.

And
then there was Minnie. For the first time, Zach had realized that
she, the brainy Pantheon member, the girl he had gone to school with
since they were kids, was a woman.

“
Bacchus
opens the gate of the heart
.
”

-Homer

vi.

Arms
laden with grapes, Dionysus wandered.

He
stopped when he came to a tablet of stone.

Picking
up a rock, he began his carving.

Patiently,
he worked.

When
the basin was complete, he continued

and
carved out a trench to the edge of the stone.

Then
he laid the vines of grapes in the basin

and
danced on the fruit.

The
sweet juices of the grapes flooded the pan

and
traveled the trench to the edge of the slab.

He
collected the product in a barrel

to
make the first wine.

“
Wine
is a peephole in a man.”

-Alcaeus

VI.

Theodore
Wexler had no reason to wake up before one in the afternoon any day
that summer. He opened his eyes at quarter-of-two and decided that he
couldn’t roll over and go back to sleep any more. Teddy got dressed
and started down the stairs to make some toaster waffles when he
heard the garage door open. His adoptive mother, who was actually his
step mother, (who not-so-secretly despised him) was home from a
shopping excursion.

Teddy
turned around on the stairs and ran back to his room. He shut and
locked the door and cranked up a mix of french rap so high that there
would be no way she could get him to carry her bags from the car for
her.

Teddy
slipped into his large, white, leather computer chair and decided to
kill time checking his mail. That shrew of a woman could carry her
own Gucci handbags if she wanted to waste his father’s money.

As
soon as his computer booted up and signed on Instant Messenger, a
message with a pale pink background popped up on the screen. It was
Penelope Davis.

Penny
didn’t usually IM Teddy. He was pretty sure they had talked once
when she had gotten her new screen name and usually he just saw her
name on his buddy list and ignored it. She told him that she bought a
webcam, and she wanted to try it out. Teddy checked his hair once
more in the mirror over his dresser and then clicked the video chat
button.

“
You
got a new webcam?” he asked when her face appeared on screen. It
was an interesting peek into the life of Penny Davis. She had pastel
pink walls, likely painted that way when she was a little girl, but
they were covered with posters of supernatural teen romances and some
wild-looking girl with pink hair and a violin. His own room featured
dark wood panelling, almost completely obscured by posters of high
performance sports cars and Victoria’s Secret models. The single
poster of Lupe Fiasco over his computer desk looked out of place
among a sea of glossy lingerie pinups and chrome wheels.

“
Yeah.
I’ve been babysitting for Livingstone and my laptop didn’t come
with one. So I figured, why not?”

“
Have
you seen Lewis’ email? He’s got another power,” Teddy said,
“and Minnie.”

“
Yeah,
Lewis, Minnie, Evan, my Mom.”

“
Your
Mom has one?”

Penny
nodded. Celene hadn’t broadcast it to the Pantheon yet, but she had
told Penny in the car on that last day of school. “She was the one
who figured out Devon is pregnant. Apparently she can just tell,
now.”

“
Yeah,
why is nobody talking about that?”

“
It’s
none of our business?”

“
Well,
it is,” Teddy said. “I mean, what if the baby pops out with god
powers?”

“
You
saw the gossip blog, right?”

“
Discordia,
yeah. Surprised it’s not savvy to the rumors about the good doctor
and your mom.”

Penny
wrinkled her nose. “That’s old news, right? Lewis said that to
get heat off of us in February. Nobody cares anymore.”

Teddy
supposed that was true. Gossip died fast if nothing was fueling it.
He shrugged, “Could happen. Your mom’s hot. Livingstone would
have to be gay not to notice.”

“
Ew,
ew, ew. No.”

“
Well,”
he said, “anyway, I think Ms. Matthews would be ready to fight your
Mom for the Doc if that were true. Have you seen how she’s always
hanging around his office?”

“
And
shooting my mom death glares,” Penny added.

“
Did
you hear about Alex and Seth getting into a fight at the Y? Discordia
says they were fighting over Jenny M--”

“
I
don't really know who any of those people are,” Penny interrupted.

Teddy
shrugged. He kept a miniature refrigerator under his desk and he
opened it up and pulled out a bottle of soda. “Want one?” he
asked, holding it up to the camera with a smile.

Penny
laughed. “Your attempt to buy me drinks is flawed,” she joked.

“
I
suppose dinner and a movie can’t move through webcam, either.”

“
Well,
the movie can.”

“
Right,”
Teddy said, “But my best moves would fall flat.” As he spoke he
faked a yawn and mimed stretching his arm around the shoulder of an
imaginary girl next to him. Penny giggled. Teddy liked it when girls
laughed at his jokes.

“
At
least I wouldn’t have to worry about you eating all the popcorn.”

“
What
are you doing tonight?” he asked.

Penny
stopped giggling. Her cheeks flushed a very noticeable pink, even
with the poor lighting in her room.

“
Nothing.”

“
Wanna
go see that new Marvel movie? Get some ice cream after?”

“
Sure,”
she said. “Well, wait, let me ask my Mom.”

Penny
vanished from behind her desk. Teddy looked up the show times online
while he waited. He thought about what he could wear on a first date.

Penny
came back a minute later. “Alright,” she said. “What time
should I be ready?”

“
I’ll
pick you up at six-fifteen. We should make it for the six-fifty with
time to get popcorn and then ice-cream will still be open after.”

“
Okay,
well, I gotta help Mom with some chores this afternoon. See you at
six fifteen.” The screen went black. Teddy got up from his chair
and went to his closet to look at what he had to wear. Maybe he’d
go shopping and get something new. It was a good excuse to not be in
the house at the same time as his mother.

Penny
had never been on a date before. She was fifteen and she hadn’t
been one of those girls who held hands with boys in middle school so
that she could call them her boyfriend. It took her some time to pick
out an outfit. Her wardrobe had once been very girly and pink.
Everything new that she bought for herself was the opposite. It
wasn’t conducive to composing a cohesive ensemble.

Celene
knocked on her daughter’s door at six. “You got your cell phone?”
She called through two inches of pine.

“
Yeah,
Mom.” Penny tied her blonde hair back, then changed her mind and
let it down.

“
And
you’ll call and tell me where you are every step of the way?”
Celene leaned her head on the door.