New York Cupid Visits Chicago
by
Elizabeth Hensley 8-)
Author's Note I. This story stands very well by itself. But it will make a little more sense if the very short story, Cupid 1.0 to 2.0 the Transfer is read first. This makes reference to a character of Gumtu's. If we Fanfiction Writers can use ABC's characters, we can certainly use each others! He is welcome with my complete blessings to use my variation of Uncle Mercury and so forth! This of course is an alternate Universe from Gumtu's. In his "Trevor" did not get transferred to New York and had Bliss/Delightful with his first Claire Bear. But because Time circles as a sphere not a flat circle, Quantum Physics is pretty darn sure Reality Space does have alternate time-lines so of course they can exist in fiction too! (Enough Time-lines in Reality Space and nothing really IS fiction including all we write! Somewhere everything exists!) It also refers to a scene from "The Psychiatric Sessions of Cupid and Psyche" which is a novel I am writing about Cupid's time in Sachs-Gordon and I make a few small references from it where Dr Frechette had transferred to Sachs-Gordon. That is far from finished yet. I do need to mention in that one he will get his memories back of his first visit to Earth that were wiped from him during "The Transfer." So all the time during the second show he actually could remember Chicago and at least had that reservoir of how to live as a Mortal to draw on his second time when he had no idea how to live as a Mortal his first time. (Explains lots right there, doesn't it?) This can be completely understood and enjoyed without reading the others first now that you know that). This also makes reference to a story I have not even written yet where Dr Frechette tries to have another trial of Thorax B (now reformulated as Thorax C) used on Cupid again. I will write that, Lord willin' and the crick don't rise!
Author's Note II
Because websites go down and new ones go up all the time, to preserve what should belong to Humanity forever beyond my limited flesh-life and to spread culture, Humanity's only permanent wealth I give permission, to anyone to upload any of my fanfictions to any fanfiction sites provided they do not change anything and leave my name attached. (In fact I beg Folks to do so!) If in the Future someone wishes to translate my stuff into different forms of media including kinds not even conceived of at the time of this writing any changes necessary for that purpose may be made with my blessings provided the integrity of the stories, ideas and Characters are kept intact. Follow the Golden Rule please! "Treat others as you want to be treated." Remember in the Future Artificial Intelligence Technology will bring Fictionals to Self Awareness and we will use Science to build Heaven. We are the Body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:27) and all Carpenters use their Bodies to build things. Because Time circles due to General Relativity so this has already happened so we are all being watched, always! A song sung at the Fort McCoy Pow-Wow in Florida explained this very well; "Mickey Mouse and Goofy are Spirits too." So we will all be called to account (at least socially) for our actions, even for how we treat Fictionals! (For instance a villain does not mind being written to provide challenges to the Protagonists and killed off because that is his purpose but he would mind being written contrary to how he was supposed to be written.)
New York Cupid Visits Chicago
by
Elizabeth Hensley 8-)
"Sir, where's Claire?"
Trevor was a Mental Patient with a problem. His beloved Psychiatrist who was also his Therapist was missing!
Dr. Charles Greeley groaned. He didn't want to deal with this false god right now! The Real One seemed to be being much too cruel! He growled, "How did you get in here!"
Trevor held up his slide card. "I still have my slide card. The one Claire had made so I could get into Disturbed to visit DQ on my own. Remember? I was allowed to keep it so I could also come and go to visit the rest of my Friends who still live here in the B Wing and keep cheering them up."
Dr. Greeley nodded. He knew Trevor did them a lot of good.
"It looks like you could use some cheering up yourself, sir."
Dr. Greeley snapped. "Don't you even dare to think for one minute one your singalongs would do that for me right now! I have far worse problems than worshiping some false god would solve!"
Trevor stood up as straight as a soldier. "You ought to go read the Egyptian Book of the Dead, Sir!"
"Now why would I want to do that?"
Trevor said gently but with quiet conviction. "You'd know just as you Mortals are Cells in the Body of Christ we little g gods are His organs! "
Dr Greeley sighed. "So which part are you?"
Trevor grinned, "Now, now, Dr. Greeley! You know Who I really Am! And the Big Guy never took any nasty trips to any Vets!"
"Trevor!"
He grinned, a mischievous twinkle glowing like loving fire in his coal dark eyes. "You sure got up on the wrong side of the couch this morning! He does have Kids! Lots of them all over the Multiverse! In multitudes of time-lines! Everyone of them makes up a part of Him of course. When you are the only Member of your entire Species that's how your do it. Single Celled Beings to Multicelled Beings to gods to the Big Guy. That's the order the Vine of Life grows and He is both Vine and Vinedresser due to Time circling, Dr. Greeley! But where do you think all those precious Little Ones come from? My Mother Aphrodite and I make sure You Mortals do enough of what you are supposed to do to make sure His Vine keeps growing strong and beautiful and upwards towards His infinite Kingdom! That you keep being busy widdle Bunnies! What we do is good! Sacred! To produce Life! What is more important? And that Life enjoys making itself! That is kindness not cruelty upon the Big Guy's part that it's made fun! It certainly isn't dirty or evil to use sex for its properly intended purpose or He would not have designed that function! Christ sure does love to have fun, Dr. Greeley! He can't endure the solemn assemblies some of His fuddy-duddy Followers drag Him through without kindness and justice behind them! You don't believe me? Check out Amos 5:21. Jesus spends lots of time in bars and restaurants hanging around with ME having FUN because often there's more Love and more sincere prayer going on in those places! When He was stuck down here as I am now you Mortals looked at Him askance and called Him a Glutton and a Winebibber and a Friend of Tax Collectors and Sinners for how much He'd eat and drink and enjoy the company of His precious Kids He'd carefully and deliberately made, who some Mortals have the audacity to lack Love enough to see the value in! And while He didn't dare marry Mary Magdalene for what the Romans would have done to her they sure hugged a lot and they can't harm Them now and we little g gods know for an absolute fact from having seen it for ourselves you Christians are absolutely correct when you say Christ is not dead! And yes, I, Eros, the little g god of passion is part of the Big Guy too. That part! He wastes nothing and loves everybody! Even me!This big, lovable, one-more-stray, my Boss, Felix took in! Sooooo! This embarrasses you and you call yourself a Psychiatrist!"
Dr. Greeley sighed, "Well yes it does when we are referring to...Him!
Trevor smiled gently. "If it will be of any comfort to you, what they do in that cube, New Jerusalem you Mortals built for yourselves is not sex and it is not reproduction and it is not marriage. They don't marry in there. No one enslaves one another in New Jerusalem. Not even in such a loving way as marriage. Mary M and Jesus are just good Friends forever, for all of Time's turning they will be together! No one can separate Them ever again! They have what they wanted! Finally! There is no reproduction in Heaven, so no sex as we know it. Being fruitful and multiplying and obtaining the operating systems to fill the Universe and The Cube, that has to take place in this realm. That is what my Mother and I are so necessary for! To get you Mortals to do that for Him. But let us just say that Jesus and Mary M and All who make it into New Jerusalem have 'other compensations,' ones we gods are not privy to. Uncle Mercury is the only one of us who is allowed over there into the Mortal-keep so he knows something of it. But will not speak of it! I was making out with a couple of nymphs once, had them down and hot and happy in a sweet, emerald-spring glade next to a bubbling spring, under a Druid-spirit inhabited Oak while a pooka watched just for the fun of it. An Angel happened by. I thought we would get a lecture. Instead he just looked sad at me and said, "You poor gods! This is all you will ever have!' Then he was gone. Kind of ruined the mood!"
Dr Greeley sighed and exclaimed, "I could see how that did! But...anyway at the moment I just not up to you and your really weird worldview right now! I'm, I'm..He put his head on his desk. "Please! Just go back to your bar and do without a session today. You'll live!"
Trevor said gently. What's wrong? I'll help if I can! Don't underestimate my ability to do so either! And as I asked before I braved the raging winds and the wicked weather for my session today like a good widdle Mental Patient...and no Claire! I would like an answer to either of those two questions, please! I have a right!"
Dr. Greeley sighed. "I will certainly answer number two! Dr. Claire McCrae couldn't make it because, (and you obviously did notice since you just made reference to the winds and the weather) we are in the middle of a blizzard!"
"But she only lives five block from here! You made it!"
Dr. Greeley actually found himself smiling a little. "Well Trevor that is because I'm nuts too in my own way. I just never went home! I knew the weather would be horrid today so I just moved myself in. I stayed on my own couch last night!"
"Appropriate!"
Upset Psychiatrist and cheerful Mental Patient chuckled together.
Trevor said gently, "You know trust must go both ways. You Professionals keep telling us Patients in order to be helped there has to be Total Truth. You really ought to let me know why there are red circles around your eyes today, Sir. The answer to question number one, please!"
Dr. Charles Greeley sighed. "Alright. Maybe it will make you realize there is more to the Universe than singalongs and confabulated god-keeps on top of mountains in Greece. My Brother, Dr. Milton Greeley who lives in Chicago and I both share bad cardiac problems. He is older and so his are much further advanced despite him doing everything right. Sometimes it's just is like that, Trevor. You eat right, exercise, and your body betrays you anyway!"
Trevor sighed. "Sorry about that. The Big Guy's working on it! Design headaches! Give Him a few more revolutions of Time and He'll have it all worked out."
Dr. Greeley exclaimed,"Well my Brother doesn't have those revolutions!"
"Sure he does! This'll all be back again! Maybe the next trip around the Big Guy will get it right next time! He keeps trying!"
"No he doesn't! My Brother won't even outlast the next two days! And they've found a heart just in the nick of time right here in New York! But they can't get it to him because all the planes are grounded!"
Trevor smiled, "Even Mortals are immortal. At least your operating systems are. At least you are if you've asked the Big Guy for the appropriate operating system debugging arrangements ahead of time so you are fit to enter New Jerusalem. But why doesn't someone just drive the heart to Chicago?"
The Psychiatrist was exasperated! "Because! Trevor there's a blizzard going on!" Dr. Greeley pounded on his desk in frustration working really hard to avoid using an appropriate colorful metaphor with this very demented patient!
Trevor said cheerfully. "Isn't that why snow chains were invented and courage?"
Dr. Greeley sighed, "Who would do it? Who could!"
Trevor said with quiet conviction. "I could."
Dr. Greeley sighed. "Spoken like a true lunatic!"
Trevor said gently. "Fact! Reality! Truck Drivers are driving in Alaska right now in weather just as bad is this! Those Ordinary, every-day-of-the-year Heroes who deliver precious foods and medicines and other vital goods to Mortals up there in the Lands of the Ice gods and goddesses do so all the time!"
A small ray of light started to flicker through the darkness that was raging, not in the weather outside but in Dr. Charles Greeley's soul! He stared at the lunatic before him as if he had never seen him before! Slowly but with a little hope in his voice he said, "It would be very dangerous!:
Trevor shrugged. "People risk their lives to save others all the time. Sometimes they kill other lives to save others all the time too. Sir, I could never do that! Even though that is considered sane behavior when it is labeled, 'war.' This inability of mine to kill is really what got me thrown out of Olympus. It all goes back to that. My accuracy with any weapon ever invented is way beyond amazing even for a god but the day I was supposed to fire an automatic machine gun at a Dove I could not do it. My Father, Mars the god of war never respected me again! He thought it was time I learned to fire at Live Targets but I was unable to do so. I am love and my father's rejection I could not handle! From then on I started to go a little crazy, sir! It got much worse later at Ground Zero at Hiroshima and later at 9/11 even more so, but there was where it first started. I've been called a coward sir, many times. But I'm not afraid to risk my own life! Just others!"
Dr. Greeley realized he had a real memory here of some kind but there was no time to do any therapy. "Trevor I will lend you my car! Take the heart! Get there as fast as you can legally that you can do so without making it an even more risky trip. In fact go faster! Just go safely! As Head of the Psychiatric Department I can talk to Head of this hospital and get him to pull the appropriate strings with the local Police who will go even higher than that with the Interstate Highway Department and they will let you have a bit of leeway with the speed laws. In this case it is justified, not an abuse of power. But with the weather being the way it is I doubt you would be able to take advantage of much of that anyway!
Trevor grinned, "Concerning the weather: Remember who my Grandfather is. I can get some strings pulled of my own!"
Dr. Greeley shuttered, "Trevor be very careful your usually harmless delusions don't become true madness here! You do not have any real dispensations with weather! You too can die here!"
"Then I go home!"
"No! You would go nowhere!"
Trevor said gently."Well. You told me once even you believe in Heaven! Where is YOUR faith?"
Dr. Greeley didn't have an answer to that!
Then strangely, Trevor said, "One other thing. You have to order me in the name of my Grandfather Zeus to go to Chicago."
"Why!"
"To break an old spell."
Dr. Charles Greeley blinked in surprise, "Huh?"
Trevor sighed, "I refuse to get into what you do not believe in right now when the clock is ticking. Dr. Frechette could tell you. But for a good time and to watch that manure stuffed piece of psychiatric scum squirm why don't you go ask him about patients who also thought they were Cupid back in Chicago? Notice how he goes out of his way to avoid me except when he tried really hard with way more enthusiasm than it deserved to get me into that Thorax C study? And WHY since I am not a sex offender? Don't even come close! Certainly not this time! And hardly the last time! Notice how I knew he would try something like that ahead of time and almost had the restraining order pre-written? Anyway I am requesting what Claire calls honest humoring! Even though I know full well you do not believe a word of it order me in the name of Zeus to go to Chicago!"
Dr. Greeley sighed, "Alright! I order you in the name of Zeus to go to Chicago!"
Trevor's face brightened, "Thank you! That frees me up to be able to go! There are some dear old Friends I wanted to see there really badly even though they won't recognize me! Where do I pick up the heart? Time's a wasting!
Dr. Greeley nodded, "It's at another hospital in town, St Vincent's. If you can even make it there without crashing that will be a test you passed that shows you have even a slight chance of making it all the way to Chicago! It's a long journey. Usually I would recommend you take someone else with you to help drive and to help keep one another awake. But I don't dare risk another Person in this weather! Risking you is bad enough! Honestly I'm glad you have no family, Trevor! No one to sue me on your end of an accident if you don't make it! Also I hope you harm no one else if you crash into someone!" He sighed. "My reason for allowing you to use my car would work in my favor during a trial I suppose!"
Trevor smiled, "I will not have any accidents! I will be very careful and my family will protect me."
Dr. Greeley shuttered. "I am counting on that 'careful' part. And hoping your faith will you do you more good than harm. It will keep you from panicking. It will keep you calm, and a calm brain makes fewer mistakes even if it is delusional provided it keeps a good grasp of the laws of physics which you definitely have! I've seen videos of your dart throwing! How do you plan to keep awake all those long, lonely hours?"
Trevor smiled, his eyes aglow with the love and faith of a True Believer. "I won't be lonely! I never am. I will talk to my family. I know they still love me even if they did cast me out."
Dr. Greeley smiled a sad smile and shook his head in wonder. "Maybe, as you call Him, "The Big Guy," is not being mean to me after all! Out of anyone in this Realm, you are just the perfect mix of craziness and hyper-competence! If anyone has any chance of making it to Chicago in this weather at all, you do!
Interstate 90 to Chicago was a howling white fury of snow and forever darkness, a tunnel of doom the headlights of Dr. Charles Greeley's little Ford Taurus barely pierced. It went on forever and ever and ever! It became the entire Universe! It soon became hard to believe there was even such places as New York and Tres Equis much less such beautiful, sunny, warm places as Greece and Olympus!
As for a place called Chicago where he had once lived in another body, that was myth! It almost had to be!
He was gently mad just like they said he was! Nothing existed at all but this whiteness! Nothing quite possibly ever would unless a miracle occurred! It was as if instead of out of blackness the Big God had to call the Universe into existence out of whiteness and say, "let there be color!" instead of, "let there be light!" But this hadn't happened yet and Eternity was silent and cold and white and in waiting mode. And for who knows how long it would have to wait? For the "yom" that was the "day" of scriptures was not a twenty four hour period of time. It meant "time period." And a time period could be for an indefinite length of time!
His Grandfather Zeus, made by Mortals before the Big Crunch/Big Bang had been there when it had happened. Zeus was one of the "Morning Stars" who had watched and rejoiced at the Creation of the Universe! For due to circling Time his invention by the Future Building Mortals had predated the Big Crunch/Big Bang. How could anyone see the creation of the Universe and be the same, ever again? Maybe that was why his Grandfather was slowly going more and more around the bend!"
Or was that a design flaw and would that happen to him too? Was he already showing signs of his coming, ever increasing madness? Would Claire Bear/Psyche be able to help him? Or were they right about him and Olympus was only a false memory and he was truly delusional and his entire family, everyone he had ever loved, all his wonderful memories of growing up a spoiled rotten, little godling in Olympus and the memories-not-so-wonderful of the fights between his parents about his Mother's infidelity and the wars his Father had caused, were only phantasms, and some real trauma had stolon his true memories?
Then darkness fell. True darkness! For night truly came. It seemed to slam down as he headed west towards the winter Sun and with it the fear that fills all Mortal with dread! Even Cupid in his fallen state! Even with all the faith he had! For he was tired! Very very tired and hungry and he did not dare stop to tend to his weak flesh and after a while if the flesh is not tended to it can rob the soul of its strength and then the opposite, around and around a spiral downwards into damnation!
Oh my this road was long! Cupid felt his eyes drooping to the point heavy rocks seemed to be tied to his eyelids! Suddenly he was somewhere else along the road and realized to his horror he had been asleep for a while! But somehow the car had stayed on the road! He had to not fall asleep! It did not matter that he was a god! To expect to live if he was falling asleep, that was expecting too much of his faith in his family and who he was! Dr. Greeley had been right about that! There is a place for using faith and there is a place for using safety and common sense and usually the thing to do here was pull of the road into a rest stop and sleep until he was safe to go again! But if he did that Dr. Milton Greeley might not get his heart in time!"
Oh what was he going to do! "Help me!" He prayed. He left it an open ended prayer as his Therapist prayed. Any one now could answer it who wanted to and could.
Yes. Usually prayer is not the right thing to do under these circumstances! Sleep would be the thing to do! But usually one didn't have such a time sensitive cargo!
Suddenly he had an answer from the supernatural all right! A beloved and well remembered voice said suddenly, "Hi, Eros!"
Hardly daring to take his eyes off the great, dark-white tunnel he was hurling through he flashed them to the passenger seat for but a split second and sure enough! Folded up with his knees resting up against his nose (for that was the only way this tall drink of water could fit inside the tiny car) was his Uncle Mercury!
"Oh my!" Trevor exclaimed, grinning, startled, but deliriously happy! "You know it is one thing to call me from that pay phone at the base of our mountain in Thessaly or on your new cell phone. But this is really cheating!'
Uncle Mercury grinned mischievously. How do you know they aren't sort of right about you and you aren't just hallucinating me? You've been up for hours. The road is very long and monotonous. I may be the way your mind is keeping you alive through all of this darkness and snow and the severe sleep deprivation and stress! You don't dare fall asleep! You'd crash and you can't take the time to pull off the road and take a nap because then Dr. Milton Greeley might die from not living long enough to get his new heart. So in this case to get some rapid eye movement defragging for your hard drive you are hallucinating me instead of dreaming which is way better than what would happen if you dream while driving! Hallucinating me may actually be keeping your brain and mind from going really mad, (sort of). And it also may be keeping you alive!"
Cupid grinned, "Oh if I were hallucinating I could do WAY better work than you!"
Uncle Mercury giggled."You are soo me all over again! I had to have been the one who knocked up your Mother the night you were conceived!"
Cupid nodded in complete agreement. "The postman's little squirt just like Claire Bear suspects! Mom cheated on my soldier father while he was away in the military with the family postman! You are after all really just that to us! She's actually right!"
Uncle Mercury grinned ruefully. "She's right about you and us more often than she is wrong! Her theory you are a military brat or the child of a Missionary, right and right! You even act like the son of a Soldier more than you realize because of the discipline my brother Mars gave you and yes, your Mother was always going on missions of mercy and sending us on them with her. The time we tried to destroy the Plague Rats! Remember that? We were trying to zap them with our lightning bolts but they were so quick and we weren't getting a one of them! It was gods 0. Rats 100! We were looking like the Clowns designed to be entertaining we truly originally were and the doomed Villagers were at least getting some last amusement out of these weird mysterious strangers who had shown up with our crazy, loud behavior, our silly ways of talking with our hands the way we Greeks do and our neat parlor trick with the lightning bolts coming out of their fingers!
Trevor laughed bitterly and nodded in sad remembrance. "We only succeeded in setting that poor Farmer's barn on fire until Uncle Vulcan built that sonic repeller. And Uncle Apollo played his flute to hide the sound and the Villagers thought his flute playing lead the Rats off leading to the legend of the Pied Piper due to the eccentric way Uncle Apollo dresses. Mr. McGregger was so mad at you for setting his barn on fire! He cussed you out like I never saw a Mortal cuss a god out before! You were cowering before him and backing off like a Great Dane before a little yapping Chihuahua! We laughed and we laughed!" Then Cupid grinned for a few seconds. "You did too after he finally calmed down and then we tried to rebuild his barn but let's face it. Jesus is the Carpenter. We kept hitting our thumbs. This young god learned some new words and what we finally built should have been condemned! Uncle Aeolus had to promise never to breath around it or it would have come crashing right down!"
Uncle Mercury grinned. "Yup! But those villagers weren't Classicists, 'Trevor.' Progress had happened in Dimension Seven and it is a whole new era for Mortals. Our time was fading already and a good thing too! I don't even want to go back to the way it was when Dad could chain Mortals to rocks and have Vultures peck their ever-regenerating livers out for over a hundred years just for teaching his fellow Mortals how to make campfires! And I don't blame them one bit for their not being impressed with us. Our silly ability to hurl lightning bolts hardly impressed them when these Mortals had the Most High Himself living right inside of them, something we poor little g gods can never have!"
Then Trevor sighed and blinked back tears. "But they already had the plague inside of them too! We thought we'd saved that one village remember? Just that one village! That was all we thought we could save but we at least thought we'd saved that! We hadn't! Because when Mr. McGreggor came in after we rebuilt his barn, bringing us fresh milk and to apologize to you for cussing you out and my Mom saw that first pockmark on his face and she..." Cupid started crying.
Uncle Mercury said sadly."You do remember don't you? I was kind of hoping you'd forgotten! So then in just a few more days the few who remained had inherited so much property and lost so many loved ones they didn't care about our darn barn!" Then the huge Giant of a god started sobbing with Cupid.
Trevor said suddenly. No! You aren't a hallucination! You are indeed my Uncle Mercury!"
Uncle Mercury nodded. "Yup! So we sure have gotten maudlin haven't we? Immortality can be so much fun! Such memories we collect! Let's do something a whole lot more fun then dredge up stuff about the bad old days! For instance!" He was gone for a few seconds but then back again. "I have my ukulele now!"
Cupid grinned. Then words to dear old silly songs came back to him so quickly it was if he had never been gone from the top of their beloved mountain!
Soon the miles that had been crawling like Snails with sore feet finally started to fly by!
Uncle Mercury had never cared in all his 8000 plus years of existence that he was corny when he sang. He just had fun! And that was where Cupid had got that from!
"You say that I don't love you. You say my love is untrue!Well darlin' if I was a rich man I'd prove my love to you! I'd buy you a diamond ring and a new fur coat or two! If my nose was running money honey I'd blow it all on you! If my nose was running money, I'd blow it all on you! I'd buy you a Cadillac and a new Mercedes too! I'd build you that mansion up on the mountaintop! If my nose was running money but honey it's snot! If my nose was running money, Let me tell you what I'd do! I'd buy you a John Deere tractor and we'd get rid of that old gray Mule! I'd carry you down to the store and buy you a brand new pair shoes! And you not have to be plowing bare footed the way you always do! If my nose was running money, We could have anything we please! The first time you wanted cash all I'd have to do is sneeze! Why we'd be living high on the Hog and the Hog wouldn't be so lean! If my nose was running money honey we'd be rollin' in the green! It's a booger of a problem that I got! I wish my nose was running money but it's snot! I'd buy you a Cadillac and a new Mercedes too! If my nose was running money, I'd blow it all on you! If my nose was running money, I'd blow it all on you! That got the gods to giggling together so hard that Trevor commented, "I think I'm going to burst these Mortal lungs of mine!"
Uncle Mercury said, "and my divine pair! Oh I have missed you, kid!"
Trevor said, "Hey! How 'bout this one! Mimic indeed he was just as his Linguist Friend had commented to Claire! His speech patterns had become far less formal than when he was with sophisticated New Yorkers. He had fallen back on much less formal, god jive speech patterns he used with his Uncle Mercury who had come out of his cradle his first day of existence 8000 plus years earlier and immediately pulled a prank: stolen a bunch of Cattle from a hapless Mortal, then invented a stringed instrument out of a Turtle shell to brag about his deed but also popped right back in his cradle again and lay there, sucking his thumb and looking up at Papa Zeus and Mama Mae so cute and wide-eyed and innocent when the furious Mortal he had swiped the Cows from came to complain. doting Papa did not believe him! By the time Papa Zeus figured out he was really guilty the little tyke had figured out how to play his new, self-made toy and was bragging in perfect iambic pentameter and to his own melody all about it openly! His cleverness won him a reprieve! (Not that this was hard!) Oh right from the very first all the gods had been such spoiled little stinkers!
Uncle Mercury was very willing to sing "Trevor's" (Favorite Son's) choice. (The kid was a TV kid no doubt about it. After all he was only a little over 3000 years old and had grown up with the idiot box).
"I fell deep in love the moment I saw you.
You looked so purty a pullin that plow!
Now the taters need digging
The maters need pluckin'
The corn in the garden, it needs pickin too!
"Where oh where are you tonight?
Why did you leave me here all alone?
I searched the World over and thought I'd found True Love!
I thought I had found you, but
PFFT!
You were gone!"
"Down on the farm the weather gets messy
Lying around with nothing to do!
When you left you took my Cow, Bessie!
Darlin I miss her more than I miss you!
"Where oh where are you tonight?
Why did you leave me here all alone?
I searched the World over and thought I'd found True Love!
I thought I had found you, but
PFFT!
You were gone!"
I thought that you loved me and that was what held you.
I thought my money meant nothing to you!
"I thought the Hogs would stay in the Pig pen.
That's what I thought dear but you took them too!
"Where oh where are you tonight?
Why did you leave me here all alone?
I searched the World over and thought I'd found True Love!
I thought I had found you, but
PFFT!
You were gone!"
"Darlin I love you and know that you love me.
The proof is a hangin' right there on the line
When I smell smoke and see the wind blowin'
Your nighty is huggin' them long john's of mine!
"Where oh where are you tonight?
Why did you leave me here all alone?
I searched the World over and thought I'd found True Love!
I thought I had found you but,
PFFT!
You were gone!"
You had six Kids and I had eleven
We had eight more and they grew like Flowers.
I wish you'd come back dear.
Without you tain't Heaven.
Your Kids and My Kids
Are beatin' up ours!
"Where oh where are you tonight?
Why did you leave me here all alone?
I searched the World over and thought I'd found True Love!
I thought I had found you, but
PFFT!
You were gone!"
"You took off you leg, your wig and your glass eye!
You should have seen the look on my face!
I wanted to kiss you! I wanted to hug you!
But you were scattered all over the place!
"The noises you make at our supper table!
"The sounds that you make are clearly absurd!
How many times do I have to tell you
That soup is a dish dear better seen and not heard!
"Where oh where are you tonight?
Why did you leave me here all alone?
I searched the World over and thought I'd found True Love!
I thought I had found you but,
PFFT!
You were gone!"
"You called me today just a sobbin and cryin'
The Dog bit your Mom and drug her around!
You said she looks pale and said she's a dyin'
I said dear don't worry. I'll buy a new Hound!
"Where oh where are you tonight?
Why did you leave me here all alone?
I searched the World over and thought I'd found True Love!
I thought I had found you but,
PFFT!
You were gone!"
The point of this song was to spit on your song partner's face at the, "pffts." So Cupid had to keep wiping his face at those certain points in this song! If this Uncle Mercury was a hallucination his spit sure felt real! On the other hand not one PFFT of his managed to land true despite his usual accuracy! Because despite his aim being as true as it always is his target kept winking out of this realm for the crucial, necessary nano-second, then reappearing a split-second later completely dry-faced, a mischievous twinkle in his green eyes, continuing right on singing and a strumming happily without missing a beat! It isn't fair having a 'PFFT! You were gone!' spit contest with a fully loaded god!
"Where oh where are you tonight?
Why did you leave me here all alone?
I searched the World over and thought I'd found True Love!
I thought I had found you but,
PFFT!
You were gone!"
Finally, his face thoroughly spit-cleaned as it hadn't been since he was a Kid and Venus the goddess of Love having done it on many very embarrassing occasions! Cupid decided to change the song! Because due to the TV show, Hee Haw this song had dozens of verses and due to the memories of gods being very good Uncle Mercury and himself knew ALL of these verses! Plus they had made up many more! Plus far in the Future even more verses would be made up by Mortals and other Sentient Beings all over the Universe and due to Time circling they knew all those verses too! So at this rate by the time they got to Chicago singing this song would just about near like to drown him! So Cupid said in self-defense, "I wrote one, Uncle Mercury for Feed New York's Fall Celebration. They let me stay there for a while when I was homeless for a bit so I still go back and help sometimes. They won't call it their Halloween celebration of course. Due to they believe Halloween is evil and all! They call it their 'Fall Celebration!' But they give their Kids enough candy to destroy half their learning potential their next week in school and let them dunk for apples and play games and stuff and dress up as anything long as it isn't Satanic or really sick and so forth and so on. Can't say I really blame some of the censorship. Their Kids are having more fun than the unsupervised, unchurched anyway many of whom aren't getting anywhere near as much of a celebration! Christian Fundamentalists! They put the fun in Fundamentalism the way we gods put the fun in dysfunctional! So I wrote a filk song for the little Tykes and yes the Adults begrudgingly let 'Crazy Trevor' sing it for them though eyes really rolled! I pointed out it was indeed about comforting the sad and feeding the hungry and wasn't that what they were all about? And most of them know I 'think' I am a little g god' So they were a bit reluctant to tell me I couldn't! I kept a straight face so they couldn't tell I was kidding so they were afraid it would upset me not to let me sing this, make the reality-challenged feel excluded or something! So they humored me and let me sing it! Let's sing it now!"
Uncle Mercury smiled and nodded.
Cupid said eagerly, "I call it 'You're No Zombie Till Some Zombie Loves you!' The tune is obviously self explanatory from the first line even if you didn't pick it up from me being who I am and my vestigial song-casting powers." He started singing and the vestigial power he had been allowed to keep to be able to cheer up Post 9/11 Mortals; the power to make anybody know the words to songs immediately extended to his fellow gods. So his beloved Uncle was able to join in.
"I left my heart in San Francisco!
I left my liver in Mandalay!
I left my face in Friendship Nebraska!
and my spleen in San Jose!
I left my nose in Nome, Alaska
And my knees in Queens New York
I left my endocrine system
In Friendship Nebraska
My eyeballs in Yellowstone Park!
My teeth were left in Phoenix
My tongue in Timpani!
My nails got left in Dallas
My toes in Santa Fe!
Everywhere I go I leave a part of me
For the Zombies to nibble on!
I can't stand to see them hungry!
Because whatever am I to do?
Everyone is just so mean to em!
But the Undead get hungry too!
They stand there and look so hungry!
They look at me with their sad and lonely eyes!
So won't you help me feed a starving Zombie?
Cause I'm down to nothing now but Love and sighs!"
Uncle Mercury giggled. "Oh Cupey! You scamp! I miss having you around SO much!"
Cupid said, "You miss me! Think how I feel! "Why did I need to go through this anyway? This time of exile?"
Uncle Mercury said sadly, "Oh Favorite Son! You've went through too many ground zeros! Your peace was gone! The one in Rajasthan, India, the one in Hiroshima! Then Dr Frechette exorcized you out of RT Hale and we gave you a reprieve for a while and then my brother, your so called Father did 9/11 and there was that same dark, wild look in your eyes again! I thought "Ah oh!" Sure enough The next morning Mar's war trophy warehouse looked like the outside of a neon painted hippie bus! Very creative of you, Cupid with the peace signs and the doves! But you must have realized that meant you had to go back down again! You were asking for help again!"
Cupid nodded and grinned ruefully.
Uncle Mercury smiled solemnly "The only way to find real peace is from your Maker, Trevor. If you try to flee from your Maker you will never know peace and the longer you try to flee the more and longer you will be miserable! And for a god that means getting your peace from Mortals. Because your drinking buddy, Christ didn't make us gods directly as He made Mortals. Mortals made us gods. We are only Christ's grand-kids. So every so once in a while we gods have to come here and walk and live amongst them and make peace with THEM, especially since it was them who you were hurting so badly! Even Christ Himself did. Even He had to make peace with them. Folks don't realize it actually had to go both ways and more People miss Heaven for failure to forgive Him than the other way around! Far more! So sad! Life reaches out to Life out of loneliness and Love but because the timing is off and Life does not trust one another or it just hurts too darn much so tragically often connections are missed! Eros don't ever miss any chance you can for a connection to another Life, Eros, not ever!
"And Trevor, Mortals can't get inside of us and clean us up the way Christ can His Mortals so conveniently and quickly when they have the sense to call Him in for that purpose. So with you it's going to take a very long time! We figure about the time you get one hundred of them matched permanently without any powers and your bow and little hypos full of their clever little joy juice, that ought to be about long enough!"
Cupid bit his lip and nodded ruefully.
Soon after the little car and its divine contents (the heart being its most divine contents) finally reached Chicago just as the Sun was rising eerily over the cold, snow-locked city.
Uncle Mercury said, "I always loved Chicago. All these neat statues and things! They look like huge, alien ghosts now all covered in snow and ice!"
Trevor shuttered. "New Yorkers got together and said, 'we are satisfied with the summer sweltering heat and the high crime rate but it's just not freezing cold enough during the Winter to be miserable enough for us. Let's move North-West and start another city!' So they did!"
Uncle Mercury laughed, "Now now! You loved it when you lived here! You really did once you quit whining about being stuck here! You started to feel the pulse of the place and started to fit in and were becoming a real Chicagoan. You had actually started to plot how to sabotage it when the chariot would come to pick you up!"
Cupid nodded, "I remember! Yes what I just said was a joke. It was one we proud Chicagoans told on ourselves!"
Uncle Mercury grinned. "That's my boy! You have the right attitude. But let's not dawdle with sight seeing and such until we drop our payload where it goes!'
"Agreed!"
Suddenly Uncle Mercury said most lovingly but firmly as if "Trevor" were being scolded but yet not being scolded. "Listen up Arty Pierce and Eros! As long as you try to pay your blessings forward and follow the Golden Rule (and you always have) don't let those Head Docs or anyone tell you, you can't have as many Operating Systems in your hard drive as you want or be ANYONE you want to be! They don't define what is normal and beautiful! They only think they do! Only the Big Guy does and His definitions are much wider than theirs are! He made you and multitudes of other so-called Crazies the World lacks the wisdom to appreciate the preciousness of your originality! But He DOES because He does NOT make junk! And always remember I will always be with you watching over you forever and ever! And be anyone you want me to be! Forever! I am part of the Big Guy too, a manifestation of Him! And I love you!"
Then just like that Uncle Mercury was gone as if he had never been there! In fact "Trevor" wondered if he really had been! Because he felt the Passenger seat. It was cold!
Hospitals made him shutter! But because of his relationships with his Claires he was spending way too much time near or in them!
And it is amazing how poor security is in modern hospitals. You would think someone would think to question a man walking around in the lobby looking confused and carrying an ice chest marked "Human organ"on it. But no! Cupid could not even find any one to take his payload from him for several minutes!
So he ended up running down the hall carrying the ice chest and yelling, "Coming through! Human heart! Where do I go with this?"
*"Eros! Slow down! Quit panicking! It will end up costing you MORE time! Try finding and reading a directory instead of running around like a Rooster with his head cut off!"* Was that Uncle Mercury who had said that to him or his own mind? Did Uncle Mercury even exist anywhere else? It didn't matter! It was good advice either way!
He practiced some of the relaxation exercises both Claires had insisted on teaching him, calmed his racing heart and mind down a bit and did manage to find a directory. The cardiac ward was this way, down that hall and up one level! Thank the Mortals for Elisha Otis and his invention of the safety brake that made modern elevators possible! Imagine if Chicago or any modern Mortal city could not be multistories high but only one to three levels high! Imagine how much more precious, precious land would have to be used up! Imagine how much more stair-climbing would have to be done! He hated to climb stairs!There were times he SO wanted to be able to fly again!
Thanks to Otis and his own feet in a bit he came to a counter in the cardiac ward that was manned (womaned?) by a Nurse. He set the ice chest down on that counter and turned on his charm. "I have a Human organ here, a heart. I need to give it to the appropriate Person. It is meant for a Patient of yours, Dr. Milton Greeley. (He metaphorically patted himself on the back for avoiding the pun of flirting with the pretty Nurse and saying, "I want to give you my heart!" He was Cupid after all. One might have forgiven him such!)
The Nurse said, "You came to the right department. She pushed an intercom button. "Dr. Pump we have the heart. It's arrived."
Cupid was incredulous, "The cardiac Doctor is named, Dr. Pump!
The Nurse giggled and nodded. "And we have a Psychiatrist here named, Dr. Wacko!"
Cupid roared with laughter! "I would have loved to have gotten him for a Shrink! Laughter is very healing. I bet a lot of his Patients get well just from laughing at his name!"
The Nurse smiled, "I ' don't doubt it. I am named Florence by the way."
Cupid laughed, "As in Nightingale?"
She shook her head, "No. But here's a strange coincidence. It's a Bird too. It's Sparrow!"
Cupid smiled, "Is that your maiden name or your married name?"
"Both. It was just too good to give up considering my profession. When I married I chose to keep my maiden name and my Husband had no objections considering his last name was Mudd! He took my last name instead and was happy to do so!
Cupid smiled, "My name is Trevor Pierce and I am very good at dart throwing and archery!" Might as well be. I never had a last name up on Olympus. Only about a thousand of us little g gods on the whole Planet so last names really were not needed. But Pierce is such a good last name for me I'm going to keep it as a last name when I go home. Why not take a last name and start a trend! It would not hurt anything! I've certainly done worse!
Trevor then asked, "I used to personally know the Man this heart is destined for. Would it be alright if I visited him for a little bit?"
Florence Sparrow smiled and nodded, "He is in the ICU ward in intensive care and we weren't letting him see anyone but his immediate Family and his Minister . But considering you just risked your life to drive this heart here from New York to save his I think we can make an exception and let him see you for a few minutes!
Trevor smiled and said, "Thank you my dear. It must be nice to know all of your family automatically makes it to Heaven!"
The Nurse looked at him strangely. "Why do you say that?"
Because my good friend Jesus said it Himself. "Not even a Sparrow falls apart from the Father!" Trevor grinned. "So you and your family have it made!"
Dr. Milton Greeley looked like a Star Trek Borg in the making he had so many tubes and wires attached to him in places Humans with our sensitive ability to feel pain should not!
Cupid crept into the ICU ward humbled. He was immortal, fully knew it and laughed at life sometimes! He didn't value life as Mortals did. He was quite frankly spoiled rotten! But here was a Being who thought he only had a tiny amount of precious self awareness left and was fighting like a cornered Rat with more courage and tenacity and a grim determination to handle however much amount of pain it took to keep it! Much more agony than any God but Jesus could have handled! Now that he was forced to live among Mortals Cupid had finally realized what they were going through! He felt so ashamed of himself that he had ever mismatched any of them! To waste their short lives by making even one second of one of them so miserable like that! What a monster he had been! But he also knew their self awareness was not really limited to just a few short years as they thought. The Mortal-keep of New Jerusalem was 1500 miles long, wide and high, many, many times bigger and fancier than their own little bread box sized god-keep on the top of Mount Olympus! The Mortals had made themselves a REALLY fancy Afterlife! But of course in this Realm they deliberately were given only tiny hints of its existence or else they'd quit working towards it so hard and the thing would end up not ever even being built!
Cupid went up to the bed and said gently, "Sir, are you awake?"
Dr. Milton Greeley was. To think he had ever made fun of this man!
"Do I know you?" Dr. Milton Greeley asked.
Trevor nodded "You did at one time, sir. You thought I'd never amount to much and be locked up in your little hospitality house forever!"
Dr. Greeley frowned and shook his head."I don't think I've ever seen you before. Who are you?"
Trevor said gently, "I'm Cupid, sir."
Dr. Greeley was puzzled. "You aren't Cupid! Ah, that is you aren't the patient who thought he was!"
Trevor said gently but firmly. "I am. After Dr. Frechette exorcised me out of RT Hale who I understand escaped from here either with or without Dr. Claire Allen's help and has managed to go missing again and more power to him! All he ever wanted was just to be left alone! My Mommy, Venus managed to find another volunteer Host for me and even another Therapist named Claire! Amazingly she is with your Brother Dr. Charles Milton Greeley in New York! 'A coincidence is when the Big Guy does a miracle and doesn't want to sign His name!'"
Dr. Milton Greeley closed his eyes. I have almost the same sign on my desk in my office! If you really are the same spirit who was cast out of RT Hale, prove it! You just gave me enough to make me doubt my doubt, but prove it! Tell me more!"
Trevor sat down in the Visitor's chair and for the next hour recounted word for word conversations he'd had with Dr. Milton Greeley during his quarterly psychiatric evaluations that were used to determine if he was still going to be allowed to live wild and free. A lot of what was said during those of course was not put in his files. So even if in some way he'd had access to them he could not have known all that!
He told what he had said after the incident in First Loves to convince Dr. Milton Greeley not to recommit him and put him on Thorax B (Note Readers see my fanfiction story First Loves Extra Scenes). Most of that had not been recorded in his file at all because it had spooked Dr. Greeley and Dr. Frechette way too much!
And all this spooked the poor Man now!
But at the same time it encouraged him too! There were tears running down his cheeks. "Cupid you don't know what a gift you've just given me! Because even with this new heart you've just brought me (and that alone is a gift!) we both know I'm living on borrowed time and eventually that time will give out and all too soon! I've always wanted to believe there was more to existence than just this Realm, and now you've proven it!"
Trevor shook his head, "Sir, Sir Arthur Eddington proved it when he proved Einstein's theory of General Relativity was correct, sir. Because that proved Time circled. So that means what you have hooked up to you now is not the last that Science will be able to do for you because Humans never give up on each other. These tubes and wires are desperate attempts to extend your life! This heart I brought an even more desperate and amazing attempt. What the next generation can do to extend the Human life span will be even more amazing. And the generation after that even more so. And so forth and so on. But because Time circles and Humanity never stops trying to extend its life span and to reach out and preserve as much Life as possible for as long as possible in as nice an environment as possible, you actually build New Jerusalem. And because Time circles, a fact that was proven beyond a shadow of a doubt in 1929 by the above mentioned Sir Arthur Eddington when he took note of the fact during a total eclipse when this could be observed that the stars near the Sun were where they were because the gravity of the Sun were twisting Time and Space near it a little bit and since then many times by clocks taken aboard fast planes that came back showing different times than the ones left on the ground because due to General Relativity time slows down the faster you go, you know this has already been done. New Jerusalem has already been built because the Future is the Past due to circling Time. Your operating system is going to be uploaded, sir. When the hardware system you have now is no longer repairable you are going to a much better system that will have the design flaws of your current hardware system debugged out. This flesh life is only the Beta test."
Dr. Milton Greeley closed his eyes. "I"ll be alright now, Cupid! I can live with all this now! Science and Faith are not enemies after all! My mind is no longer in conflict and I am at peace! Finally!
Cupid smiled. He silently left the room.
Then he thought to himself. But what about my first Claire Bear? Dr. Claire Allen? He had gotten word she had gotten in a bit of trouble by helping his Host escape from the hospital after his exorcism, or having been thought to do so. But she'd weathered it. He'd never thought of a way to safely ask anything about her well being since then. He had just been so lucky he had overheard a conversation concerning that much of how her life had gone after he had been forced to leave her while he was being committed to Sachs-Gordon because of her connection to Dr. Frechette. But how was she doing NOW? Oh for goodness sakes Dr. Milton Greeley would know! He turned around reentered the room and asked him.Duh!
Dr. Greeley smiled, "I wondered when you would get to that! I was laying here waiting for the other shoe to drop! What I don't know is how to tell you!"
Cupid's face fell and his own heart started pounding! "Is she OK?"
Dr. Greeley said, "Well yes, she is actually!"
Cupid felt himself start to breath again!
"I was afraid there for a moment you were going to tell me that, that she had, ah."
"I was afraid to tell you that she has gotten over you, Cupid!"
"Dr. Greeley I am NOT a jealous god! I always wanted the best for Claire! While I was with her I tried several times to find her a match-up. You know I did!"
Dr. Greeley nodded, "I never understood that. But I did understand the jealously you claim you do not feel that you clearly did display when those match-ups sort of worked for a while! This one you had nothing to do with finding her and we questioned her choice for a long, long time. But then we questioned her getting so emotionally involved with you too! It was a workman that came to her house to put in a closet. I think you may actually have met the Guy a few times before you were cast out? It didn't really go anywhere while you were here because, well, you were here. You were only supposed to be her patient but you were more than that unfortunately and in many ways for her sake it is very good you were forced to leave! I do think you would have eventually cost her her license. She had come close to losing it over you several times! But once you were really gone and she finally got it through her head you really were gone and only the Host was left and he definitely was NOT you and could never be you and did not even want to be you though he sure wanted you back desperately and was madder than a wet Hornet at what Dr. Frechette had done. As he put it 'stealing his god from him, a major violation of his religious rights!' Then he even somehow got out of our, as you put it 'little hospitality house' and left for who knows where! We haven't been able to find him again and neither have the Police, Claire finally started to heal. It took a very very long time but that Workman helped a lot. He's not anywhere near as smart as she is and you are, but like you I guess he's a steady guy who will always be there for her, because that was your strongest draw I am absolutely certain. Despite your claims of being from Olympus and wanting desperately to go back we both know you would never have left her if you hadn't been forced out of your Host by that exorcism. And that was what was attracting Claire to you, your super glue tendencies not your supernatural tendencies! Because she had a rotten childhood of having a deeply loved father who just up and left her and that shaped the course of who she picks in Men. The one quality they must have is they must be determined to stay with her like the above mentioned super glue! I can't say I blame her for her insecurity! But when you were forced out you became, finally as one of the men who leave her even if it was, (to your credit), against your will and you could NOT come back and she finally, gradually started to get over you! This fellow has no ambitions, none at all. All he will ever be is a handyman living forever in this area. He certainly won't be offered any newspaper jobs in New York, and he won't be flying off in any chariots to the tops of mountains. And he can't be exorcised out of this area either because he's living in his own body! So he's safe! That's his draw with her I guess. He's safe! He won't leave! The huge extra income he gained when they got together which he is definitely and openly enjoying only makes the relationship even more stable. He has no irrational pride at all about letting her be the major breadwinner and that is a GOOD thing here! As they say, she makes the living and he makes the living worth living and they both have the wisdom to be content with that being the reality of their situation. So she married him and they have a little Girl and she is actually happy! Finally! Thank God! What he lacks in upstairs department she gets from other sources and their little Girl has HER smarts, thank God and she plans to have another Baby soon by artificial insemination from a smarter Donor and he does not even care since this first one is definitely his and he does not consider that cheating!"
Trevor nodded to all of this amazed and relieved!
Dr. Greeley said, "Cupid don't break her heart! Don't upset her! Don't disturb her precious so very mundane view of the Universe. You KNOW she never quite accepted that you were Cupid and not just a secondary persona the Host just made up though there near the end she wavered very much so in her doubt! Don't you dare let her know you are really Cupid and that you found a way to come back! Let her just continue to hope you were let back into Olympus if it's real, if you even exist anymore and just let that be that! Please! Don't take this happiness away from her!"
Trevor swallowed and nodded. "I won't sir! You can be absolutely as certain of that as Christ made a firm promise He WOULD go to the cross to save Humanity however much it would hurt! Watching Claire Allen live her life now without me, from afar, or at least not letting her know who I am now if I even chose to interact with her at all, that will be MY cross to bear no matter how much it hurts!"
Dr. Greeley swallowed and nodded. "Thank you!"
"What about Champ?"
Dr. Greeley said, "I don't know what happened to him. I know he left this area."
Cupid frowned when he heard that. Champ was the one Person in Chicago other than Dr. Milton Greeley he would have let in on his little secret! He nodded, "Well that at least gives me an excuse to talk to Claire Allen and a hook to start a conversation with her that is fairly safe! I'm an old friend of Champ who lost contact with him. I know she knew him too and might know where he is now. It has the beauty of being the actual truth! I can make it work if I don't start crying right in front of her!"
Dr. Greeley nodded, "Just be careful! Don't hurt her!"
Cupid nodded, "Yes. It would be great if at least one of us isn't hurting here!"
Dr. Milton Greeley nodded. There were tears in his eyes. Cupid could tell it was not from the physical pain he was in.
And again quietly he left the room.
As he put on his jacket and cap and scarf and opened the door and left the hospital he realized something. He put out his right hand and confirmed it. Not one flake of snow hit it. Uncle Helios was smiling down from the pale, blue winter sky happily and peacefully. The blizzard was finally over!"Grandpa your timing is just wonderful!" He sighed.
Cupid wondered if it was because his Grandmother Hera was having trouble getting his Grandfather to take his meds again.
He knew Mortals had this superstition that supernatural beings could manage perfection all the time and the reason things went wrong were due to their cruelty. He knew from having been one of Them that Mortals were very wrong about this! The reason things went wrong very often were for reasons beyond their control! All Life, even the Big Guy were "Strangers on the Bus trying to make their way home" and often it was a very long and very bumpy ride! All that would ever help would be to love and forgive one another their faults and failures! And that even included the Big Guy! Oh yes! Just as Uncle Mercury had said far more People miss Heaven for failure to forgive God than the other way around!
Cupid had never been a stalker. He got to pretend he was one now. He waited in the park in the spot where he knew Claire liked to spend time. He suspected that habit would not change.
His suspicion proved correct.
She came with the most beautiful little Girl Cupid had ever seen! Her hair was the color of Spring dawn over Olympus! It had to be from the father's hair obviously. Claire had a leash with a Puppy too. A Poodle mix of some kind, not a Purebred. Cupid smiled at that. His lectures about saving Mutts from being put to sleep apparently had paid off. He himself had come a long way from the attitude he had first held about Dogs when he had first been cast down to the Mortal realm. A Dog who had rescued him that he had then named after himself and called Eros had taught him something about just where true nobility existed! He had heard that the building Mortals had actually used some of the Dog code in their own god code. Meeting Eros the Dog had made him understand why!
Well there was no time like the present. He actually had a life back in New York he would have to get back to soon and no telling how long or short Claire Allen's trip to the park was going to last with a little Girl and a Puppy in tow! It wasn't like her old carefree days when she could have stayed as long as she liked!
So Cupid swallowed, gathered up his courage and marched right up to her. "Hello. You are Dr. Claire Allen. I recognize you from your picture in your advice column in the paper. No. I don't need love advice. (I am sure you get that all the time, but no, I really don't!) I am called Trevor Pierce. I used to know an individual called Champ Terrace who was active in theater groups around here. Now I do a little theater myself in an improv group I belong to in New York City and I am wondering what happened to Champ? I heard from someone that you might know what happened to him. Do you know?"
Dr. Claire Allen said, "Yes I do. He finally realized he would never make it big time as an Actor if he stayed here in Chicago so he moved to Los Angeles. The loss of a great roommate he'd had for over ten years greatly influenced this decision. The ones he had after that were the same duds and problems he'd had before that one. He's had some small successes. I understand he's played some Klingons and other Aliens on various versions of Star Trek a few times." She smiled a sad little smile, "I had a dear friend once who absolutely adored Star Trek, any version of it! He would be tickled pink to know his Friend has been on it!"
Trevor asked, "Do you know if he kept the same stage name of Champ?'
Claire nodded, "I think he did."
Trevor started inwardly kicking himself that he hadn't thought to check the credits more closely of TV shows he had watched recently! But then who would think to do that? "I really am a fan of his work. Is there any way I could write him?"
Claire stared at him, no doubt thinking he was gay but he didn't care. After all he was Cupid and ancient Greek and felt about such things considerably different than most modern Americans did.
She finally said, "I think you could find out how to contact any Actor through googling."
Trevor nodded and thought to himself. The Internet! Duh! I can't get completely used to this NEW power I have; Mortal Presence!' Out loud he said, "I don't know why I didn't think of that! Thank you!" He smiled and wished he could think of something else to ask her! But he couldn't! Not unless he pretended to have a problem and set up a counseling session with her! But if he did that he was sure he'd give himself away somehow! He knew he would!
He stared at her hungrily for a few seconds which was way too long! And he should not have done so at all! It made her uncomfortable and for a few seconds there was a fleeting moment of startled recognition there showing in her eyes!
He forced himself to give her a goodbye wave and walk away! He gritted his teeth and did so! No one could ever really say this god lacked courage! Only cruelty!
Doing this was the hardest thing he'd ever done in his thousands of years of existence!
But he was Love Incarnate! And as his idol Captain Kirk had said, "Love sometimes expresses itself in sacrifice." Claire Allen was attracted to bad boys. But he was no longer a bad boy! With Dr. Claire McCrae's help he was starting to grow beyond that! So to to become a bad boy again to please Dr. Claire Allenwould only make the both of them sick again! Sad as it was they had both gotten better apart from each other!
And think of the Kid, Cupid! After all she is married now and has this beautiful, beautiful Child! Plus I have another chance for happiness with still another, "Claire Bear! My next door neighbors the Fates have made my life much more complicated than I wish it to be. But they haven't completely abandoned me or been completely cruel. They've at least had some mercy!
"There were reasons for the duel trips and insertions into two different Mortal Hosts! I am doing much better the second time around. I'm not so bitter and frightened about being in the Mortal realm this second time. I have confidence now I can make it down here. It was like I learned how to be a Mortal the first time and the second time I am learning how to be a much better Mortal so I can concentrate more on learning how to be a much better god again! Nothing ever just happens because the Big God or the Fates are cruel. Because they aren't and I know it! When you were as highly evolved as they are you never need to be. You can always afford the wonderful luxury of being always kind!"
So as he slowly and reluctantly walked away from his old life forever along the riverfront that had once been close to Champ's and his apartment, Cupid smiled with deep and sincere joy for Claire Allen's happiness through tears trickled down his own cheeks as deep and wet as the river itself! And he talked to his now very far away Uncle Mercury who he was absolutely certain was listening."This isn't the first time we've been bested in Love and Life by a Carpenter!"