Delta stopped rubbing her neck and held her hand. It was uncharacteristically cold. “Cross that one when you get there, babe. Right now, keep the focus on finding Gina and the rest will follow.”
“I know. But this fear threatens to incapacitate me, Del. Only the anger and determination to see him dead move me forward.”
“I understand.”
“Do you? Do you understand that it feels like the hate and anger are controlling the rest of me, like a boa squeezing the life out of its victim.”
Now, for the first time, Delta picked up on a different sort of fear in Connie’s voice. It was a fear that said she knew how much Elson had poisoned her spirit and eroded her gentle nature. It was a fear that admitted he had won on an emotional level because Consuela Rivera would never truly be the same. It was a fear shared by both women in the room.
“I won’t let that happen to you, Con. I promise, I won’t.”
Connie nodded, but her gaze was miles away. “That’s good to know because once in awhile I feel like I’ve moved away from me and gone deep inside the fiery heart of this anger. I don’t trust what I would do or how I would act if I ever see him again.”
A cool chill ran up Delta’s arms. “Hey, we’re going to bring Gina home, and we’re going to catch this crazy bastard and get our lives back.”
Slowly, Connie looked up and blinked two large tears down her cheeks. “That’s what I’m afraid of, Del. That he’s tainted us for good, that we’ll never be what we once were. I’m scared to death that no matter how this turns out, he will have destroyed a part of me and my life anyway.”
Holding Connie as tightly as she could, Delta rocked her.
“Del, I didn’t get the chance to tell you before all of this insanity broke loose, but—Gina and I were talking about having a baby.”
Delta’s stomach dropped. “No kidding? I’m going to be an aunt?”
Connie pulled away and tried to grin. “A baby, Delta. We had just started talking about Gina getting pregnant and moving to a bigger house . . . and now . . . God, I don’t know what I’ll do if I lose her.”
“You won’t lose her.” Delta’s voice was commanding and hard. “And you’ve got to stop thinking that way. Damn it, Connie, you’re going to get Gina back and have a baby, and our lives are going to move forward after this.”
“I hope so,” Connie said quietly. “Because if they don’t, I’m going to jail for murder.”
“Odysseus and his men were successful at defeating the Laestrygonians, and I’m quite sure we will as well.” Dr. Rosenbaum spent the last two hours expounding on portions of the
Odyssey
and other interesting tales. He seemed very aware of the need to pass time and did his best to keep the three women occupied. In the middle of the third hour, Connie jumped up.
“There’s movement on the screen!”
In a second, the other three were at the computer.
“Look!”
Delta stared at the monitor and saw that, ever so slowly, Poseidon was disappearing from the screen. “It worked! Mort, you were right!” Watching the screen, Delta thought about the Cheshire cat and how he faded away and left his smile. Poseidon faded and left only his shadow.
“He’s leaving!”
Cheers and hugs all the way around, as Poseidon disappeared completely from the screen. Dr. Rosenbaum’s smile went from ear to ear. “Okay, Professor, now what?” Connie asked excitedly, grabbing the joystick and moving Dori.
Delta glanced over at Dr. Rosenbaum and saw elation on his face. He really relished his success. He enjoyed it even more when Dori used the trident to part the water and was whisked to the next level.
“Here we go.” Connie announced. “You might as well relax for a few hours while I fight my way through the next level.”
“And then what?” asked Dr. Rosenbaum, stretching.
“Then we meet and kill the Laestrygonians, right, Mort?”
Dr. Rosenbaum nodded. “Just let me know when you need me. I am curious about the notes you made and would wish to peruse them further.”
“Peruse away, Mort.” Turning to Delta, Connie grinned. “Two outs, bottom of the seventh, and we’re still alive. Put a pot of java on, would you?”
Walking into the kitchen, Delta peered back into the living room and watched Connie move Dori through the next level. “Con?”
“Yeah?” Connie did not look up.
“When we find him, I mean, when we meet up with him, we have to bring him in. We have to find out where Gina is. You know that, don’t you?”
Connie did not reply.
“I mean, I know what you would like to do to him, and frankly so would I.”
“But?”
“But you don’t need that hanging over your life. I know what it feels like to kill a man. Trust me. You don’t want to feel that forever.”
Connie shrugged. “We’ll see. Right now, let’s just worry about finding him.”
Right now, Delta thought to herself, let’s just worry about not losing you.
Five hours later, Connie had just finished killing off a little Fury when she entered what was known to computer adventure enthusiasts as the “Dragon Room.” It was the final destination of each level, and this one held the notorious Laestrygonians.
Depressing the pause button, Connie turned to find Delta with her head on the table, Megan asleep on the couch, and Dr. Rosenbaum quietly reading one of the two large volumes of mythology that Megan checked out from school.
“Well, Mort, we’re here.”
Delta slowly raised her head from the table and glanced up at the large watch hanging in the kitchen.
“Seven-thirty? Shit.” Rising gingerly, Delta rubbed her bad leg. It was stiff and sore and itched like crazy. “Whatcha got, Con?”
“We’re there. I’ve got the trident, and the Laestrygonians are advancing toward Dori licking their lips.”
Dr. Rosenbaum laid his volume down and took his reading glasses off. “Do they appear as giants?” he asked, rising from the recliner.
Connie nodded.
Dr. Rosenbaum clearly suppressed a grin. “The Laestrygonians were known to spear men in the same fashion as we would spear fish. Then, they would pick them up and eat them whole. I would imagine— ”
“Wait!” Connie interrupted, pointing to the screen, which was turning white. “It’s him. He’s leaving us another message.”
Connie read the message out loud. “ ‘Congratulations, Consuela. I am indeed impressed. Perhaps you are brighter than I gave you credit for. We’ll soon see. Thus far, you have been allowed to use the old trialand-error technique that got you through college. But no longer. From here on out, once Dori gets killed, your part in the game is over. That’s o-v-e-r. That means if she dies, so does your lover. Surprised? don’t be. By now, you know that I am playing for keeps.
“ ‘And make no mistake about it, I am. So, try all you want, but when Dori is eliminated from the game, that’s the end. And how will I know? The game has a microchip which will signal me when Dori dies. don’t bother wasting precious moments trying to remove the chip. Removing or tampering of any sort will emit the same signal. In both cases, I’ll carve your little sweety up like Helen Keller trying to slice the Thanksgiving turkey. So, be careful—one wrong move and . . .’ ”
For a moment, all eyes were on Connie, who closed her eyes and did not move. As the screen appeared, and Dori and the Laestrygonians faded back into the picture, Delta lightly touched Connie’s shoulder.
“Con?” Delta said, barely above a whisper.
“I’m all right.”
Dr. Rosenbaum shook his head. “I’m afraid I wasn’t prepared for the enormity of this situation.”
For two silent, unmoving minutes, the red-eyed group stood staring at the screen, as if waiting for the characters to move themselves. Finally, Connie reached down and took the controls in her hand. Turning to Megan, Connie’s glare was icy, almost maniacal. “Okay, here’s what we need to do. Megan, you watch Dori’s backside for me to make sure we don’t get snuck up on. Put your finger on the pause button in case we get into any trouble; we can pause before anything terrible happens.”
“You’re really going to play this out?” Dr. Rosenbaum asked.
“We have no choice. I’m not going to waste time trying to remove the chip.”
Delta agreed. “We’ve gotten this far.”
“What can I do?”
“Mort, you can hang out until we need some answers. Do you mind?”
“Of course not. It’s just . . .”
“Scary?” Megan finished for him.
Mort Rosenbaum nodded. “It’s frightening.”
“Well, hang on, Mort, because we’re going for broke.”
For three hours, Connie worked to both kill the Laestrygonians and keep Dori alive. Nothing she tried worked; no data Dr. Rosenbaum gave her seemed to make a difference. She tried harpooning them with the trident, but it only bounced off. She tried throwing things, giving them poison, setting them on fire, bargaining, poking them in the eyes, and even bribery, but nothing worked. Her only consolation after three grueling hours was that Dori was still alive.
“Eight hours, Connie. We have a little over eight hours left.”
Connie nodded to Megan, who pressed the pause. “Unless we missed something back at the ranch, we’ve done everything we can, and still no results.”
Dr. Rosenbaum approached the computer and rubbed his chin. “At the risk of sounding chancy, there is one more thing we might try.”
“And that is?”
“Well, to be quite frank, it would put Dori in a great deal of danger.”
“Go for it, Mort. we’re running out of time.”
Mort Rosenbaum nodded wearily. “I’ve been thinking. Poseidon was also called the `Earth Shaker’because striking the ground with the trident caused earthquakes. There is, of course, the uncertainty that if you cause one, little Dori might be in as much danger as the Laestrygonians. There are no guarantees she’ll survive the falling rocks and opened craters.”
Delta glanced over at Connie and shrugged. “It’s your call.”
Turning back to the computer, Connie rubbed her eyes and fiddled with the joystick. “I think we’re out of choices. We have to take a shot.” Cracking her knuckles, Connie inhaled deeply and slowly. “Okay, Mort, how do we start this earthquake?”
“Strike the trident on the ground.”
Delta reached out and took Connie’s hand. “Wait!”
“What is it?”
“Do we still have the winged sandals?”
Connie nodded.
“That’s it, Con. Strike the trident on the ground—”
“And get the hell off of the earth!” Connie finished for her.
“Yes!” Dr. Rosenbaum added for emphasis. “That’s perfect! What a wonderful idea.”
“Get as high as possible, Connie,” Megan said, her finger still on the pause button.
Connie nodded vigorously. “Got it.” Taking the joystick in her right hand, Connie rolled her head from side to side until her neck cracked. Then, she wiped her left hand on her pants. Tiny beads of perspiration dotted her forehead and upper lip. “Okay, baby, here we go.”
As Megan released the pause button, Connie moved Dori around to avoid the spears being thrown at her. Twice, she was almost stepped on before reaching the clearing between the forest and Olympus.
“Okay, everyone, here she goes.”
Striking the ground and immediately taking to the air, Dori hovered inches above the large rocks tumbling off Mount Olympus and crashing to the earth below, smashing into the huge Laestrygonians. One by one, they fell prey to the falling boulders, until finally, there were no Laestrygonians standing.
“We did it! We did it! We did it!” Delta cried, hugging Megan tightly. “We killed them! We killed those damn things!”
“Look!” Dr. Rosenbaum said, pointing to the screen. At the foot of the forest was a box.
“What in the hell is that?”
“Don’t open it,” Mort stated calmly. “I’ll bet a year’s salary that that’s Pandora’s box.”
“So?” Delta’s nose was inches from the screen. She had heard the phrase about opening a Pandora’s box, but she wasn’t sure of the origin.
“Pandora was the first woman created by Zeus and Athena and the other deities. They named her Pandora, which means `all gifts,’because everyone living on Olympus at the time gave her a gift. What they did-n’t know at the time was that Zeus had made her as a trap to ensnare mortal men.” Dr. Rosenbaum paused, as if lecturing at the university.
“So, what happened?”
“Epimetheus, one of Pandora’s lovers, warned her to stay away from the chest.”
Megan pulled away from Delta and nodded. “I remember. Pandora was told not to open it, but she did, and out flew lust, old age, sickness, et cetera.”
Mort smiled proudly at Megan. “Quite right. But when Pandora was finally able to close the box, she sealed in one gift. That gift was hope. Thus, no matter how futile things may seem, man always has hope. It’s a rather uplifting myth, if you ask me.”
“What do we do with the chest?” came Megan’s logical question.
“The box is Elson’s idea of a final trap.”
“Or a clue.”
“Or both.”