Jesus has softened to
popular demand and now there's a bus service around the asteroid.
It runs Monday to Saturday then on Sundays there's no traffic, it's
a day for biking. The cycle clubs get out early and travel in great
packs, taking over cafes as they make a tour of the island.
Families head out later, usually for a ride to the beach or the
next town.
Zwingly’s
Sunday afternoon jam session has moved
to Azziz’s and there's a shuttle service that brings
the Zwinglians across and gets then back again at the end of the
evening. Posters appear around the island on Fridays to say who'll
be playing. Surprisingly it's Beethoven and his composer mates who
pull the biggest crowds.
The great thing with the
buses is that the kids can get to the other villages to play
soccer. Mum goes with Lilly and River to cheer them on in Kastela
and Dad and me go on the bus with Nelly and her team. Danny, Julie
and Toby stay home playing computer games; old habits die
hard!
As we wind our way along the
narrow roads and climb the hill to Deia, I point things out to Dad
and tell him about some of my adventures around Camillo, of
climbing to the top of Mt Ijju and sailing across the ocean with
Zeus in our boat.
'Who's Zeus?' he asks.
'Zeus is God,' I say. 'I
haven't seen him in a while.'
'Young lady,' says Dad smiling,
'you've got some explaining to do.'
'I spoze I do, but I'm not
telling you now,' I say, poking him in the ribs to head the
conversation into less tricky waters.
The match is wonderful, we
scream and yell and cheer Nelly's team on.
There's a nasty moment
just before half time when a slimeball crashes to ground in the
middle of the pitch. The kids are well drilled and run their
fastest in different directions weaving and ducking as they go,
then dive into bunkers and drain pipes. The slimeball comes
straight at Dad and me. The look of horror on his face is
priceless. I grab his hand and take a deep breath ready to teleport
out.
Plumph! Blam!
A laser roasts the slimeball,
quickly followed by a small torpedo that blasts it apart. Bits of
smouldering slimeball go in all directions, plastering all over us.
It gives me the creeps and an involuntary shudder goes through my
body.
Dad picks a still flaming piece
off my jacket, blows out the flames and takes a bite. 'Delicious!'
he says.
I'm glad he likes them. I don't
want to start reliving my encounters with slimeballs, so just say.
'They're good aren't they?'
Play stops
while everyone feasts on slimeball, then the players get back on
the field and with a
peep
on the referee's
whistle the match starts again. Nelly's team get absolutely trashed
by the sporty Africans but it's such fun they don't mind losing,
not too much anyway.
Mum's complaining. It didn't
take her long to start.
'The tea, it just doesn't taste
right. We need a decent teapot.'
'I've got one,' I say. 'We just
have to find it.'
It's a bit far for the
little ones, so Annie and her mum look after Vinny and Izzy. Nelly
and Lilly take the day off school and come with us. I call Trigger
and he arrives dragging his feet and grumbling, thinking it's for
more pony rides. Mum jumps up onto him and off he goes at a canter
up the beach. I don't think Mum has ever ridden a horse before and
bounces around and screams a lot. Trigger is kind to her and
somehow manages to keep her on board, despite her best attempts to
fall off. Tat and Negrita come along as well. Negrita chases ahead
then lies in wait and tries to ambush him by surprise. She's quick
and gets the better of him most of the time. I'd love to let Enzo
out too.
We stop at Azziz's for an
organic bacon and egg breakfast. I see Jesus out surfing and
realise that they haven't met him yet. I give him a cat whistle and
he rides the next wave into the beach. They haven't met any anodes
before and back away from the lizard like alien.
'It's Jesus,' I say. 'Don't be
scared. He's my friend.'
Mum looks like she's going to
pee herself. I give Jesus a wink and he turns into human form,
flowing robe, halo and all.
Mum and Dad fall to their
knees, Danny, Julie and Toby sneer, pretending not to be impressed.
They do it so well that I make a note that I must take them to
Kojiki, just to see their expressions when we meet some
raptors.
'Mum, Dad,' I shout. 'It's only
Jesus. Show a bit of respect and give him a hug.'
They get up and nervously
embrace him. His good vibes rub off immediately and soon they're
having a brandy in the bar. Jesus comes with us, fascinated to meet
my parents and treating them with a reverence that's almost
embarrassing.
As we splash up the stream, Mum
pulls Trigger to a halt and whispers, 'Is he the Dad?'
'Is he black?'
'No.'
'Their dad is someone really
special,' I say, as my heart gives a bit of a pang. 'Well to me
anyway.'
'He'd better come out of hiding
soon,' says Mum.
There's a national park that
covers the mountains and the prairie then follows the stream down
to the ocean. Its luminous water is kept pure and clear and lives
up to its reputation as the best water in the Galaxy.
'It's like drinking pure
velvet,' says Mum. 'You ought to bottle it.'
'We do,' I say proudly.
'Where did this asteroid come
from?' asks Dad.
'God created it,' I say. 'He
did a good job, didn't he? He says it's his best.'
'When will we meet him? asks
Mum, peering down from Trigger.
'He's
off his...er...um-' I stammer. 'I
mean, he's off the asteroid at the moment. You'll have to
wait.'
We follow the stream up through
the lemon and orange groves and the forest until we reach the
prairie then head off through the long grass. Trigger can't help
himself and gallops off ahead with Mum, who for all the screeches
she makes, appears to be getting the hang of it. We walk for about
half an hour until we're in the middle of the prairie.
'Whoa,' I shout. 'This is the
spot.'
We stop.
'The teapot is here,' I
declare. Not quite as sure of myself as I sound.
'Where?' asks Toby.
'It’s buried in the grass. Look
around.'
We look, we rummage through the
grass, we stomp around with our bare feet and close our eyes and
think teapot.
If anyone can find it, it's
Tat. 'Any ideas, Tat,' I ask.
'No, I'm beaten,' he says.
'Do you give up?' asks Pollux
using God's voice.
My family start and look to the
heavens.
'We give up,' I say. 'Where is
it?'
There's a rustling in the grass
at my feet and a teapot rises up slowly. I catch it, and give it to
Mum, 'There's your teapot Mum.'
She lifts the lid and looks in.
'Yuck,' she screams dropping it. 'It's full of slugs.'
Tat cartwheels across and
gently catches the teapot before it hits the ground.
'Mum,' I say. 'Be careful what
you say about slugs around here.'
'Emily, this is too
much,' she says, then adds sarcastically, 'What is it with slugs?
Is a giant slug going to attack me?'
'Well, yes!' I say laughing.
For some reason, I don't think she takes me seriously.
We lay out a picnic blanket and
have a delicious lunch of freshly baked bread and lots of yummy
things I picked up in Kastela this morning. I carefully slip the
lettuce leaves out of my sandwich and give them to the slugs as I
shoo them out of the teapot and into a new home under a rock. I try
not to touch them, they're so yuck!
With Mum and Dad here, my
kids have grandparents. They can babysit and I can go out on the
town with the girls. I don't feel like it though, not with all
those people dying on Earth. I need to do my job and look after
Earth. That's what Zeus saved me to do.
I don't know what to do. I go
up to the moons and look at the latest disasters and watch the
population tumble. It's plummeting. While I've been poncing about
looking for my teapot, it's dropped to half a billion. I need to do
something and I don't know what.
36
In the morning I'm awaken by a
firm and familiar knock on the door. I jump out of bed, pull my
clothes on and open the door. Zeus is there. He's in human form and
is looking fantastic. He's standing tall and proud, and positively
glowing with strength.
'Emily,' he says, giving me the
biggest hug.
I hold him for a long moment
then say, 'Breakfast.'
'Is the Pope a Catholic?' he
says.
'I take that that's a yes.' I
say, nipping inside and putting the kettle on.
We sit out on the sofa and soak
up the morning sunshine. Izzy comes out and jumps up on Zeus's
knee, and tries her best to charm him into playing. He's having
none of it; he's got things on his mind. We eat breakfast in
silence.
'Earth,' says Zeus, sipping on
his tea, 'is in trouble. Hades is there.'
'Shade?' I ask. 'Smooth
talking, dark glasses, designer suit.'
'Sounds like him.'
'He's missing.'
'We need to find him.'
'It's him,' says Castor, a few
minutes later. 'That rat Renard left a trail of false information.
He's led us up the garden path, changing information and blocking
data. We're just going back over everything with his signature on
it. Here's something. Petra's husband Angelo is back home on
Salina, he's been there for over a year.'
Zeus clicks his fingers and a
rather startled looking Italian balancing a young boy on his
shoulders appears in front of us. He looks at us in disbelief.
'
Angelo, io sono
Dio
,' says Zeus in Italian.
'
Abbiamo bisogno del vostro aiuto. Volete
un caffè
?' Then turning to me,
says, 'Em, two espressos please. Use the strongest
capsules.'
I nip inside to get the
espressos. While the machine's warming up I wake up Janice and
Annie with, 'Can you hold fort for me; I've got work to do?'
Janice mutters something that I
take as a yes and snuggles back under her covers.
Annie says, 'No probs, do take
care Em.'
When I take out the
espressos, Zeus says, 'Angelo says that Shade arrived on Mulo
fifteen months ago. He seduced Petra. Angelo says she sent him and
their boy off in the lighthouse's sailing cutter in the dead of
night, saying, 'Angelo, you must go, take Stephano and take good
care of him. I will love you always'.'
'How sweet,' I say.
Zeus has no time for my
pleasantries. 'Sweet? Hades has somehow got the power of The Book
and is using it to destroy the teroids.'
I
click my fingers and are up with
Pollux.
He's got the more
powerful moon.
'Hi Em,' he says. 'I'm working
on it.'
Half a minute later he mutters,
'Piffle,' under his breath.
'What was that?' I ask.
'There's slimeballs down in the
Amazon Basin. We've deployed Hither and Thither in their fighters.
They're mopping up now.'
The moon swerves sharply to the
left and picks off a couple of slimeballs. 'Slimeballs,' he mutters
angrily. 'One of these days I'm going to go to Tartarus and blast
their factory to kingdom come!'
'I wish you would,' I say.
'Mulo,' says Pollux. 'We need
to know what's happening but we can't see.'
'Can't we just go and look,
like knock on the door and walk in?' I ask.
'It would be a suicide
mission,' we need information.
'There must be someone who's
seen what's happening on the island,' I say. 'What about the bugs
and the bees?'
'Good idea; bats and swallows,'
says Pollux. 'We're onto it.'
Five minutes later, he
brightens up, 'Yes, we're getting data. They are sending memory
bytes. We're piecing the jigsaw together, slotting the pieces in.
We'll be there soon.'
Zeus arrives with Izzy hanging
around his ankle. He tries to shake her off but she giggles and
hangs on.
'I can't get rid of her,' he
says.
I laugh, 'She's a bit a
clingon.'
'Here we go,' says Pollux.
'I'll just show the main bits.' The view of Camillo disappears and
his screen shows images from Mulo. The picture is 3-D but jumps
around with a constantly changing viewpoint.
'Brilliant,' says Zeus.
The first image shows Petra and
Shade standing up on the lighthouse. They're holding hands but she
appears scared, very scared and very pregnant. The next scene is
her giving birth, out in the courtyard with Mario and Jasmina
helping. I come over all funny just watching, reliving the pain.
But that's nothing compared with what comes next.
It's about a week later and
they're having a special dinner in the garden to celebrate the new
baby. Mario and Jasmina are sitting holding hands; their twins who
must be about ten years old are sitting next to them, then Petra
and Shade, who is, as always, wearing his sunglasses. Shade takes
the young baby from Petra and stands up to make a speech. The
footage is a bit broken with bits missing but we get a clear enough
image to see what happens.
'The arrival of this new baby
is a very special occasion in more than one way,' he says lifting
his glasses and looking at the baby. His eyes glow red.
'It is Hades,' shouts
Zeus.