Rural Arcadia

Chapter 4 Et Ego in Arcadia

(Author's note: the title is a Latin catchphrase meaning "I am also in Arcadia". I'm not sure what it meant in the original context, but I couldn't resist using it as the title for this chapter. You'll see why)

The vacation continued. Aunt Jean was confined to the farmhouse bed for a time, but with five other people to divide up the chores, they never got as onerous as on the day of her swoon.

On the very last day, late in the morning, Luke got an idea. He confronted Grace on the path outside the back door.

"Grace, I think I've figured it all out. Let's go to the storage shed -- I don't want anybody to overhear."

"I've got a better idea. See that grove of trees? She pointed across the Cavalo's fields at a distant patch of woods. "Brian says it's a wonderful place for a picnic, and nobody will bother us out there."

Luke looked. "It's too far to walk there and back, in the summer heat."

"I know. I thought I'd ask Diana to loan us Pegasus. He's strong enough to carry both of us. Fix us a lunch, and we'll meet in half an hour."

Twenty-five minutes later Luke was back, carrying two lunch bags, and feeling nervous. During all that teasing of Grace, the day of her first riding lesson, Luke had sort of forgotten to mention that he had never been on a horse himself.

A sound of hoofbeats, and Grace rode up. She was normally a bit intimidating, and the effect was vastly increased seeing her atop a powerful steed.

"Good, you've gotten the lunches. Put them in the saddlebags, and hop on."

The saddlebags part was easy. Grace wiggled her foot free of the left stirrup, and Luke swung himself up behind his girlfriend, without mishap. Since he was behind her, she couldn't see his expression of combined relief and apprehension. To make sure that he stayed on properly, he put his arms around Grace's waist, something that he enjoyed doing anyway.

Grace started off slowly, apparently making sure that Pegasus could handle their combined weight properly. Then she urged their horse into a gallop. Luke desperately held onto Grace. In some of his favorite science-fiction stories people had ridden rockets at thousands of kilometers per second, but somehow that never seemed as fast as the ride he was on now.

Finally they reached the grove, and Grace reined in Pegasus. Luke suddenly realized that he was unsure how to get off. He reached his foot toward the stirrups, lost his balance, and found himself sliding off the horse to the side. In a panic he tried to anchor himself by grabbing the only object in reach -- Grace. He ended up getting the wind knocked out of him twice: first, when he hit the grass; secondly, when Grace landed on top of him.

She rolled away and burst out laughing. "Oooooh, wait 'til Joan hears about this!"

"Do you have to tell her?"

"Tit for tat. You told her about my little accident during my first lesson."

"Hey! Our horse is wandering away! With our lunch."

"Let it. He probably just wants to graze a bit. I don't think he'll wander too far away from me. We have a sort of bond."

"Yeah. That sort of fits my theory."

"So what's the theory?" She was still lying on the ground, but she propped her head up and regarded him with some amusement. "If you sound impressive enough, I may forget that little tumble."

"OK. God didn't send us down here to help our cousins, though we chipped in when we were needed. We were sent to help us."

"We need help? Aside from your equestrian skills?"

"I think God made it clear that he wanted me to use my mind and do research, but the field of research was wrong. I've always been drawn to physics, which focuses on the fundamental problems of the universe. But I realize now that the problems important to the human race are in other fields, like biology and chemistry. Pollution. Growing enough food to feed the world. Fuel. Getting medical treatment. Now if he had just told me in Arcadia to drop physics and take up chemistry, I might have resisted. But now that I've gotten closer to nature, I've seen what's needed for myself."

"It sounds great. But it doesn't explain why I was sent here."

"Yeah, that's a separate idea, and -- um -- I don't think you're going to like it."

"Try me."

Luke regarded the girl lying in front of him. Her normally short hair had grown during the summer, and the wind had mussed it during her swift ride. Most girls might find that dismaying, but to Luke it made her more Grace-like. The surrounding grove of trees enhanced the image. Luke had loved Grace for a year, but never had she looked more beautiful. And was he about to throw all that away by being too frank?

"All right. A few days ago, you said that you weren't used to being touched. I think that's a symptom of a more extensive problem -- you have trouble relating to people. There are a few people that you love and care for -- me, Joan, Adam. Otherwise you usually don't care what people think, and push them away. I understand how it started -- your awkward relationship with your mother. But how to end it?"

Grace's face got stony. But it was too late to back down now.

"I think that's why you were sent here. First, so that you could meet people like my cousins who are hospitable to strangers to whom they owe nothing, and learn to respond in kind. That's on a social level. On a more emotional level, you temporarily acquired a pet that you could bond with -- Pegasus."

She didn't blow up. But she got defensive.

"That wasn't God's doing. It was Diana who dragooned me into horseback riding and talked about empathizing with the animal's reactions. How would Diana know the significance all this touching business?"

"Because I know everything."

The two turned in surprise to see Diana standing there, leaning against a tree. She could not possibly have walked or ridden here; they would have seen her approach. But Luke wasn't surprised.

"You're Him." Luke said.

"Or Her, at the moment," said Diana. "Apparently my name didn't give me away."

"Name?" repeated Grace.

"Diana was the Roman goddess of the moon," said Luke, who had read enough astronomy to pick up that fact.

"More to the point," said Diana, "She was Diana the Huntress, a virgin goddess, the symbol of strong young woman who want to assert themselves instead of being dependent on some man. You ought to be interested in that, Grace."

"Doesn't all that pagan stuff bother you?" asked Grace, characteristically deflecting a personal remark with an aggressive question..

"No, mythological symbolism is a wonderful way of expressing difficult concepts. Even the medieval Church realized that, and exempted Greek myths from the usual warnings about "false" gods. Did you know that Pope Julius II hired Raphael to paint a picture of the Greek gods and goddesses, and it's still hanging in the Pope's office today?"

"Could we discuss something a little closer to home?" asked Luke. "My cousins say that you've worked for them for a couple of months, long before Grace and I got here. So either you tampered with their memories, or you had some purpose here other than to meet us."

"Your cousins deserved some divine aid. Their generosity in donating their food overseas instead of selling it for more income was hurting their farm on their long run. So I presented myself to them as a drifter in need in work, and fixed things up for them. As for altering memories, I never do that. It would interfere with free will. I could have figuratively waved a magic wand and turned you into a chemist, Luke, or tampered with your emotions, Grace, but no. I preferred that you learned the lessons on your own, and you have." She walked off into the trees.

"Cowgirl God. Now we've seen everything," said Grace.

Luke scanned the trees for Diana, but could not see any more. Perhaps She had simply decided to stop manifesting herself here. "No, I don't think so--"

(THE END)