The Weight of the World (15 page)

This
shot was taken outside of Jacobs' house earlier tonight. Jacobs has
been spotted spending a lot of time visiting Minnie where she works
at the small book store in the mall. The flirtation and romance have
been going on, coworkers say, since the beginning of the summer.

It
looks like the storybook romance is officially over for June Herald,
who broke it off with Jacobs because of his cheating heart. No word
yet on whether or not Rutherford has figured out that she needs to
put out to keep Jacobs' attention.

June
slammed her laptop. She should have known something was going on when
Zach sat with Minnie at the Pantheon meeting Sunday afternoon. She
let out a frustrated growl and grabbed a stuffed toy he had bought
her for Valentine's Day two years ago. She could handle the whorey
version of Zach. If Zach was seriously dating someone new now, after
so many years of June trying to make it work between them, then maybe
it wasn't a problem with Zach. What did Minnie have that June didn't?

June
hurled the toy into her wall with a shout of fury and then kicked the
side of her queen-sized bed. “That traitor!” she hissed. Here she
had thought Minnie was her friend. This new information colored every
memory June had of Minnie. The first time they had really spoken,
Minnie had tried to convince June to break up with Zach. Now she knew
why.

June
took a deep breath and started to walk about her room. She threw her
closet open and began to meticulously organize every article hanging
up by color and cut. Dressy tops went at one end, printed t-shirts at
the other. “I'll kill her,” she muttered. She began to form a
plan as she worked.

“
The
greatest griefs are those we cause ourselves.”

-Sophocles

x.

The
beautiful god sought passage to Naxos,

so
he hired a party of well-paid pirates.

When
they had Dionysus on board the ship,

they
veered towards Asia.

When
the god discovered their plan to sell him,

he
transformed the mast and oars to sea serpents.

The
deck was flooded with ivy, their ears with

the
sounds of shrill flutes.

Their
minds were overwhelmed with the blasting notes

and
the terror of their oars turned against them.

In
madness, the sailors dove into the sea

and
changed to dolphins.

“
I
count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his
enemies; for the hardest victory is over self.
”

-Aristotle

X.

Teddy
Wexler pulled up outside the Livingstone house at 8:32 P.M. He was
feeling pretty excited about this date. Penny was babysitting Dr.
Livingstone's kids. Teddy had a red Netflix envelope in his hand as
he knocked quietly on the front door.

Penny
came to the door carrying a rag doll. An assortment of Duplo blocks
lay scattered on the floor behind her. “Hey,” she said with a
bright smile. Between their drive-in date and now, they had been out
three other times. Their last date, a few days before, had been a day
trip to the beach. They had played in the surf during the morning and
spent the hottest hours of the afternoon in the arcade across the
street. Despite all of the sun and sand, Penny looked as pale as
ever.

“You
look nice,” he said, choosing to ignore the ketchup on her tank
top. Undoubtedly one of the twins had spilled it on her.

“Come
in,” she said. “I'm just picking up. Haley finally went to
sleep.”

Teddy
followed Penny into the house. He looked around the living room,
curious to see how Doc Livingstone lived. His house was decorated in
cool, desaturated colors and had a lot of packed bookshelves,
containing everything from
Grey's Anatomy
to
The Wolves in the Walls
. Teddy sat down on the sofa
while Penny cleaned up. He checked out the framed photos on the end
table. Teddy picked up a photograph of a blonde woman with large blue
eyes. “Was this his wife?” Teddy asked.

Penny
nodded. She came to sit down with him. “Yeah, she passed away right
after the twins were born.”

That
was a downer. Teddy set the photo down. “Well, she was beautiful.”

“Did
you bring a movie?” Penny asked.

Teddy
handed her the envelope. “Yeah. Wanna pop it in?”

Penny
took the movie and loaded it into the DVD player. “We'll have to
keep it down so they don't wake up.”

Teddy
smirked. He was hoping to have a lot of alone time with Penny
tonight.

Jason
pushed his cart around the store, browsing the back wall of the movie
section. He was dressed down in paint-stained jeans and a fitted grey
t-shirt. It was a lazy evening out, taking some time to unwind. He
froze when he saw a familiar face across the electronics department.
Candice Matthews. “Crap,” he muttered. Her frizzy red hair and
gawdy makeup were unmistakable. The moment he had arrived at Olympia
Heights Senior High, broken and recently widowed, she had been on the
prowl. He had been dodging her attempts to catch him for years.

Jason
ducked down, drawing confused looks from a woman down the end of the
aisle. Jason pushed his cart quickly out of the department and
straight across to sporting goods. He looked back over his shoulder
as he fled, checking to make sure that Candice hadn't spotted him.

“Jason?”
a voice asked. Jason leapt, terrified that she had somehow cut him
off. He looked ahead and saw Celene Davis standing just ahead of him,
holding a Water Bobble. “Everything alright?”

He
sighed in relief but responded quietly. “Oh, thank God, it's you. I
was just... dodging someone.”

Celene
raised an eyebrow.

“I
kind of have an admirer,” he admitted, blushing a little. Celene
had never seen him blush before.

“Candice?”
she ventured to guess. Jason nodded. Celene hid her laughter poorly.
“Sorry,” she said. “It's not that funny, but... well... it's a
little funny.”

“Thanks
a lot.”

“Oh,
come on. It's got to at least be flattering.”

“It
was flattering until it became painful. She acts like she's
fourteen.”

She
sighed. “I'm sorry. I'll try to be more supportive. Are you here
for something specific?”

Jason
shrugged. “Just unwinding. I was going to get some new music or a
movie, but I got spooked and took off.” He looked down in her cart.
Aside from the food in her cart and the filtered water bottle in her
hand, she had a pair of athletic shoe inserts and a few sports bras.
“Looking to start some physical activity?”

“I've
started running again. Something I haven't done in years. I'm
starting to realize how out of shape I am.”

“You're
not out of shape,” he said.

Celene
began to push the cart towards the check-lanes. “You flatter me.”

Jason
and Celene walked to the registers.

“So
was your trip a total bust?” she asked. His cart had a bottle of
shampoo and a pack of chocolate chip cookies.

Jason
laughed, “It looks like it.”

Jason
rang up his purchases first and waited with Celene while she scanned
her full cart. “I'm glad you're getting out of the house,” she
said. “Me-time is extra vital when you're a single parent. It's the
oxygen mask principle. You have to take care of yourself so that
you're at your best as a parent.”

“I
saw a movie earlier tonight,” he said. “But sitting alone in the
theater just made me feel like a loser. I think next time I have
Penny babysit I'll just take a book to a cafe. It's cheaper, too.”

“Depends
on which cafe.”

Jason
grabbed her bags while Celene took her receipt from the cashier. She
turned to take the bags from him, but he stepped back. “I'm trying
to be a gentleman here,” he said with a smile.

“Fair
enough.”

Jason
followed Celene to her car. When they were away from the crowds,
Pantheon business came to the surface. “Did you hear what happened
to Zach's car last night?” Jason asked.

“Zach's
car?”

“He
called me when he got home, having a meltdown about it. You know, we
both have classic cars, so I guess he knew I'd feel his pain. Someone
smashed it up. It's probably totaled.”

Celene
shook her head and clicked her tongue, wondering who would do that to
an antique car.

“Thing
is,” Jason lowered his voice. “He says when he found it, there
was a giant ladle-- a big dipper-- on top. When he brought a security
guard, the ladle was gone. Minnie advised him against sharing that
bit with the police.”

Celene
stopped. “A giant ladle?”

“Yeah.
The car was crushed like it had fallen out of the sky.”

“Do
you think there's another Titan?”

“The
thought has crossed my mind.”

“Then
we need to be more careful,” she said. She adjusted her glasses on
the bridge of her nose. “We have new abilities popping up. The last
thing we need is to call attention to ourselves if a Titan might be
hunting us again.”

“It's
silly to think the pyro brothers would be the only ones.”

Celene
walked to her car and popped the hatchback. She moved a stack of
books out of the way so that Jason could set her bags down.

“Woah,
there's a whole library back here,” he said.

“I
take books out of my purse when I finish reading them. If I'm not at
home at the time, they end up in my car. They were collecting in my
back seat, and I had Penny throw them back here when I had to drive
her and Teddy to the beach.

“So
she's dating Teddy?” Jason decided to keep quiet about his thoughts
on that one. Celene nodded silently. He could tell it made her
nervous, too. The boy was the god of drunken debauchery. He wasn't a
mother's dream. “That's a good book,” he said, instead, gesturing
to a copy of
Anansi
Boys
in the back of her car.

Celene
picked up a couple of the books. “I finished that one during
finals. This is a great one, too.” She showed him a copy of C.S.
Lewis'
Till
We Have Faces.

“Lewis?
Narnia Lewis?”

“The
same. This is a retelling of Cupid and Psyche. It's not a children's
book.”

“Sounds
good.”

“Do
you want to borrow it?”

“Sure,”
Jason figured, if nothing else, it gave him a chance to read
something not written for his daughter-- though to be perfectly
honest, he rather enjoyed
The
Wolves
in the Walls.

“Thanks
for carrying my bags,” she said. “Apparently chivalry isn't
dead.”

“Thanks
for keeping me away from Candice Matthews,” Jason replied. He
closed the hatch and tucked the borrowed book under his arm. Celene
went around to the driver's side door. “Be careful, Celene,”
Jason added. “You know, in case another old
friend
is looking for you.”