The dream started out familiar, a dream I had had a million times before. It was weird to describe, but right from the start, something was wrong. The perspective was wrong.
I'm running down the beach, in my swimsuit, a deep blue-green with a low cut back, and a Yin/Yan symbol on the front. Two dolphins, nose to tail around it. A big light sari, deep green, like my eyes, wrapped around my waist.
I pass myself, hidden in the shrubs, and run on. I see myself greet Katie and Mitch. There's something slightly off about him. He's in jeans, like always. He never wears anything shorter than baggy boot cuts. I cannot place the rift in normality
. "I have only just begun to figure her out sire; I am still far from what you wish for." I protest. "There is almost nothing to go on. She is good at shadowing her emotions from others. I do not know the difference between even anger and pain or shock. Give me more time sir. You are the lord of time, you must have plenty to spare."
I melted through the earth and found myself in a vaguely familiar cavern. The walls are black as well as the ceiling. Big stalactites hung from above. The floor was split across the length of the cavern. The hole was seemingly endless. A faint pull came from below.
"I want you to infiltrate their ranks and find out all you can about the children of my sons. Get to know them, make them trust you. And when you have enough information, save it in one of those things, what was it? A metal box that shows you things. You can talk to it. Do you know?"
"A computer sir?" I suggested weakly.
"A computer that is it. Save it on a computer, and send it to my followers in the Hespereds garden." The voice was a low growl that sounded almost inhuman. And powerful. Old and powerful.
"But sire? How will I infiltrate them?" I asked through another's mouth. "What if the goat-men sniff me out?"
"Deal with them however you need to. My concern is to clear a path for the timed "bomb" I have planted to follow in my footsteps. I will rise eventually, but I want him on a Titan worthy throne by the time I do."
"I shall do my best sir," I promised. "I shall make my master proud. I shall do as you ask of me with mind, body, and soul. I swear to you, that I shall help you destroy the girl."
"Good, good. Make arrangements for my little bomb to be dropped off within the month. Now be off!"
"Alex, wake up!" Connor was bouncing on the foot of my bed. "Who were you talking to?" he asked. "Who is your master?" he bounced a couple more times then he got down. I rolled over and rubbed my eyes.
"What time is it?" I asked. I picked up my alarm clock and checked the time. "Oh my god, I'm late!" I yelled. I jumped out of bed and pulled on a pair of pants. I ran out of my room in a pair of red jeans and my blue cotton nightshirt.
I stopped in the doorway, puzzled. Mom was pouring a thick liquid into a thermos. Mic was making two turkey sandwiches. "Hey, kid." He called. "You finally up?"
But, if I was late to school, mom would be at collage and Mic would be at Venisa's. They would not be in the kitchen making lunch.
"Hey, good morning Alex," mom smiled. "How are you?"
"Going insane." I answered. I looked down and realized I was still holding my alarm clock. I looked closer. Oh, I switched a number. I was two hours late. If my math was wrong, I was probably just on time. "Am I late?" I asked.
Mom and Mic laughed. Richard looked up from his PSD long enough to give them a questioning look, than he turned to glance at Connor. Connor sat down beside his twin and became engrossed in the game as well.
"No, you're not late. You are going to the Greek festival with your friends. And we are going to work at Venisa's." Mom said cheerfully. "We are making a picnic lunch for later. Family food can get old sometimes."
No, it can't. At least not easily.
"Do you want us to take you to school, or will you meet your class at the park?" mom asked.
"School." I said automatically. "It's at school, we meet in the cafeteria." No I wasn't late, there wasn't school anymore. And I still had some time before the festival. I really had to work on remembering holidays.
"Okay," she said. "I'll drive and we'll drop you off at school."
"Works for me!" I said. "I need to get my toga on anyway, so I'm glad I'm not late."
"Need my help?" mom asked. The toga I had for the festival had always given me a hard time trying to get it on. It was one of those two-person things. One person stands there feeling antsy while the other drapes and ties it so it's not ruined. I nodded and went to get it from the closet.
I walked into the cafeteria and immediately felt over dressed. Almost everyone in the place wore a plain toga. Whether it be plain canvas or an old sheet. The fanciest costumes aside from my own were made of a milky white fabric. It was a luxurious cloth, but the fancy came from the embroidery. One had a silver strip around the bottom and a big silver owl on the front. That was Tabatha's.
Seth wore one with a golden edge and the sun on the front. Grover and Mitch both wore ones with green and brown embroidery. Both had a brown Pan-flute on the front. Both wore jeans under their togas, and sneakers.
Percy's was of a slightly different fabric, almost like the inside of an abalone shell. It shimmered in the light and for some reason, I thought I wanted to go swimming in one just like it. Percy's toga had green waves on the edges and a big trident stitched on the front. His toga had a pocket on his thigh. Hooked over the stitched edge of the pocket, was a bronze pen.
I walked up to them with my hands behind my back, clasped tight. I went to sit on the window edge. The widow has a sill like, two feet deep. Kids like to sit on it or put their stuff there.
I felt like a walking wonder in my fancy toga. Especially the way it showed off my skin in ways, I had never really done before, and I did not feel very good about it.
I pulled my long sea green cloak around me. See, the cloak is velvet and lined in satin. It was a gift to my mother when she was still with my father. It doesn't fit her anymore, so she gave it to me. It has a pearl clasp with silver inlay. And it smelled like the salt-water sea.
They inlay depicted a boat. Supposedly, the one that my father owned before he left her, it was huge.
The toga I wore was one I had had custom made to be comfortable, practical and easy to move in. It was long and silky smooth. It had been made of thin yet strong smooth linen, and it was dyed in the colors of the sea. Teal, blues, greens and whites. The color faded as it got closer to the bottom edge.
The dress was frilled in a fine lace of silk my ya-Ya from Greece had sent to me. The lace was thick, like foam on the surface of the sea, and layered just right it actually looked like foam.
I felt like a big green bear in the middle of a crowd.
"Hi Alex!" Seth said cheerfully. "You look great!"
"That's an understatement!" Katie exclaimed. "You look fabulous! Where did you get that?"
"I don't really know." I answered. "Mom says it was a gift from my father before he went away." I smiled. "The sash was a present from Uncle J.D. a few years back."
"It's beautiful."
"Hate to interrupt your cloths gossip," Grover jutted in. "But I think it's about time to go." He pointed to the teachers up front.
They were reading names off a list and assigning teams. Katie Mitch and I were in the same team, due to some serious finagling.
We were assigned to the same group as Edward Jacobs. The ruling senior king of the school and all-around badass pervert. He had a habit of getting a girlfriend, making out with her a couple times, and then move on to another girl he has been eyeing for a while. He is huge and burly, and his hair short and black and carefully gelled into a mess.
There wasn't a girl in school that hasn't liked him. No girl says no to Edward Jacobs. Ever. Except me. And he's been eyeing my all year.
Truthfully, he's disgusting. He's a jerk, a pervert and he smokes like a maniac. He is mean and nasty, and he has broken half the female hearts in school.
He has a thing for Goth and punk though. And younger girls. Most of his exes had been freshmen and sophomores when he dated them. I was so glad for the summer. I was so hopeful that I would never have to see his big ugly face again. Though rumor had it that he was being held back a second time. I certainly hoped not.
There were forty-eight people, and ten of them were chaperones. There were about five people per counselor. In our group there was one other girl, Miya. Miya had long blond hair and big brown eyes. She was mousy and small. She had little red glasses and a notebook in her arms. A red pencil behind her ear.
We all loaded onto the busses. Twenty four on one, twenty four on the other and two of them on each bus were teachers.
The way to the park was short but noisy. Edward had insisted on sitting next to me, but that spot was quickly filled by someone else. I was grateful until I saw who.
"Mind If I sit here?" He'd asked.
"A lot." I answered, but I hadn't pushed it.
When we got there, kids poured out the door and ran screaming for fresh air. The bus driver hadn't let us open any windows. Seth had waited for me at the door, but so had Edward, and both offered their hands to me as I started to get out. Edward shoved Seth and muttered, "Move aside looser, she's taken." I took Seth's hand as I got out. Edwards face got red, but he never stopped trying. Rent a clue, jerk.
Seth smirked at me, looking quite pleased with himself.
"Don't get any ideas." I'd warned him.
For most of the day, we browsed through the stalls of things. There were booths that sold clothing, booths that sold food, drinks, and booths that sold trinkets of all sorts. There was one, my favorite that sold tiny figurines that looked like the Greek gods and monsters.
Oops, I forgot something. At the front booth, we had traded in all our spending money for drachmas. The class had gotten two hundred copper, one fifty silver, and a hundred gold ones. Each group got an equal amount of each metal.
Edward divided them into five equal groups. Then he inconspicuously made one slightly bigger than the other four. He slid that one toward me and gave the rest to Mitch, Katie and Miya.
"Very smooth." I whispered to Katie and she giggled.
We all traded in our spending money for our own drachmas, which we didn't have to share. I had enough to get ten golden drachmas, twenty silver, and forty coppers.
Mitch's friends already had a load of gold drachmas in small pouches on their belts, though they didn't tell my why no matter how much I begged to know.
Once we got out of the change booth, a man with salt and pepper hair walked up to us. He wore a red jogging suit and messenger bag on his shoulder. He had the kind of face a teacher or HR person would peg as a troublemaker.
"Hello, kids." He said with a grin. "How are all of you doing today?"
"Well thank you." Kitty nodded at him. She had a look that suggested that she liked the guy.
"You know this guy?" I demanded, getting their attention. The strange man looked at me in surprise, and then looked at Mitch. His face was questioning. Mitch nodded.
"My name's Hermes, nice to meet you. I assume this is the Alex I've been hearing about?"
"What brings you here, Hermes?" Mitch asked.
"A friend." He said. He looked back and forth between us a couple of times as he spoke. "He wanted me to give this to you." He held out a large green bag that jingled as it moved. "Drachmas for today. He says get something nice for your cabin, it may need cheering up." He grinned as he held the bag out to me.
"Um, thanks. But I've been told to never take things from strangers." I said, slightly sarcastic. "So no thanks."
"Oh come on, it's just a little spending money, nothing special. And you don't even need to pay anyone back, it's a gift."
"Right."
"It won't bite, I promise. Just buy something nice and possibly colorful." He took my hand and placed the bag on my palm. And then he grinned so wide I thought his face would split in two before walking away and disappearing into the crowd of people surrounding us.
"That was weird." I said.
"Wait, wasn't the Greek god of messengers named Hermes?" Katie asked.
"Yeah," Kitty piped up. "Hermes. The Greek god of messengers, doctors, and thieves. All those who use the roads. And he's a great guy for the job." Ulysses elbowed him. "Oh, oops." She smiled.
"Care to explain now?" I asked of Mitch.
"No." he replied. "Not here. Not now."
"Okay, then I'll just go back to mom." I said. And headed for the pavilion my grandfather's restaurant was under. "Coming?" I asked.
We all went to the pavilion and got something to eat for two silver drachmas each,
After we were all full, I went to say hi to mom. I opened the door to the trailer they were serving out of.
"Wait," said Edward. "Where are you going? You're not supposed to be in there. That's illegal!"
"No it's not, not when my grandfather owns the place. And my mom's in there. I'm going to say hi." I explained. His face turned red and he apologized. I went into the busy trailer.
"Hi Alex, how are you?" asked Mic from the stove. He was pulling flat bread out of the oven and pouring olive oil over it. He handed it to mom. She sprinkled it with olives and feta, and gave it to a customer along with a soda and took three silver drachmas in return.
"Hey baby," she called. "Our shift is almost up so we can talk in a moment."
When they got out, we went to sit at an empty eight-person bench. Mom, Mic, Miya, Connor and Richard, and Mitch were all on the bench. Connor Richard each had a Nintendo and they were playing some joint-game against each other.
Tabatha and Kitty were looking at a Greek book on architecture and were talking about it in low voices. Mitch and Katie were messing with a pair of little plastic Greek statues. He had a satyr with a pan-flute around his neck. She had a small Aphrodite in her hand and was pretending to woo Mitch's satyr doll into kissing her. She succeeded and laughed at Mitch's blush.
Edward and Seth had both wanted to make it seem to my parents that they were my boyfriend and that I was with them for a reason other than coincidence. So when I started to get up, they both offered their hands to help me up. I ignored them both and got up on my own. But as we left the pavilion to look at other stuff, I was closer to Seth than Edward. Accidentally, I touched Seth's arm. He grabbed my hand.
We went back to the place with the small statues of the Greek characters Katie and Mitch had been holding. I bought a set of the twelve Olympians plus Hestia and Hades. I spent fourteen silver drachmas on them, and had a little left over.
With two golds and a silver drachma, I got six charms. Three silver conch shells and three tiny green and blue enamel mermaids with long dark hair. I was planning to send four of them away to Jade and J.D, but that would have to wait for a while.
I was about ready to leave the festival and head home, when something caught my eye.
It was a big, beautiful blue and green silk blanket, with silver embroidery around the edges. The blanket was large, and seemed to be filled with the softest material known to man. It was beautiful, and I wanted it, and it was seven gold coins, but I seemed to be broke.
"Darn, it's beautiful, but I don't have nearly enough!" Katie said sadly. 'I'd love to help you out."
"Why don't you use what Hermes gave you?" Seth suggested. "It can't hurt to check."
I thought about it, but I didn't like the idea.
But I really wanted that blanket, it was exactly what I'd been looking for for years, something soft, beautiful, warm, and not irritatingly itchy. Yeah, I'm a little picky when it comes to bedding, so what?
So I pulled out the small green bag and looked inside.
At least forty gold coins jingled against each other inside the pack.
I bought the blanket, and wrapped my previous spoils in it.
A large, colorful pavilion with a big sign on the front was just sitting there, next to the change pavilion as we were heading back. I didn't remember noticing it before.
The sign looked to me like total gibberish because of my dyslexia, so I pointed it out to Seth. He just stared at me like I was crazy. Then I pulled Mitch out of a fascinating conversation with Katie to read it for me.
"EDDIE'S LIFE-LIKE STATUES FROM AROUND THE WORLD?" he asked. "You want to go in there?" he looked incredulous. I just nodded and walked inside.
"Come back when you're done at the other place, I forget what it's called." I called to him. I let the flap fall over the entrance behind me.
I gasped as the contents of the pavilion registered. There were statues of people and… things. I have no other way to describe them. There were satyrs and monsters and, well, fairies or something. All sorts of magical creatures, and all sorts of people from every time period in western civilization. Greeks, Romans, English, etc. There was a beautiful piece in the middle of the place. A man and a woman, arms locked around each other for eternity. Their eyes were wide though, with fear. Not love or even adoration. The piece held a certain kind of terrifying beauty, and it put me on edge as I realized most of the things in the pavilion held the same expression.
A huge piece in the corner depicted four ugly men, playing poker. I went closer and read the tag. I could not read it worth a darn. The writing was in cursive, so it was twice as hard. I turned it over and gasped. The writing was familiar and beautifully printed. It was in Greek. I don't know why, but Greek always seems to make sense to me.
The tag read: The Poker player, By Sally Jackson. Sally Jackson, created this Piece simply for recreation, yet it was so realistically detailed, that it quickly sold. The buyer, waited eagerly for another specimen of her fine "Super ugly non- realism." But she has decided to do something else with her life. This piece has been estimated at around $10, 700 on June…" blah blah blah. The rest was boring old stuff. I dropped the tag.
I glanced at one of the men, and then looked again. Hadn't I seen him on TV somewhere? He looked familiar. Maybe she had modeled him off some movie star. Figures.
I moved around the table and looked at it from that perspective for a while. When I looked up, I started. There was a tall man with a briefcase and an expensive looking silk Italian suit. He was staring at me. It almost looked like his eyes were black.
"Oh, you scared me." I said. "You snuck up on me. I didn't hear the flap swing closed." I smiled and focused on trying to identify the stone man.
After a while, I gave up and stood. The lawyer dude was still staring at me. Like he'd just been handed a winning lottery ticket. "I have found you." He announced. He sounded pleased at this fact. "We had heard talk of your existence, but we thought it was lies. We thought you're the other one was the only one. Now two. I shall bring you before the master and see how he decides to punish you for your existence. He shall be upset to find you have betrayed his trust, after so long."
As he walked towards me, my eyes almost bulged out of their sockets. His body shriveled into a weird bird like one, with giant leather wings. His arms and legs got longer, and bent backward. His suit disappeared. In its place, was a few grimy rags and, rope? His fingers and toes lengthened into talons that looked as if they hadn't been clipped in four thousand years at least. His face morphed into that of a hag. It looked about as ugly as anything I had ever seen.
I couldn't help it. I screamed. I have a very shrill scream; it can do a lot of damage to anyone's ears. It can also get a lot of attention.
In through the door, burst Tabatha, with Kitty at her heels. Mitch and Seth followed close behind. Edward ran in soon as well as Miya and a handful of nearby people. Seth looked at the thing and his eyes widened. He whispered something to Tabatha and she shrugged. Kitty pulled out a cell phone and hit a speed dial number, putting it to her ear. She left the pavilion quickly and took with her at least four confused bystanders.
"Hey, Ugly!" Mitch shouted. The leather bird-hag turned around. It shrieked a painful shriek and swung a handful of talons at him. He sidestepped. "You're going to have to do better that that! Did you know we've got Percy with us? Yeah, remember him? You get dusted every time!"
"I remember, all too well." The thing hissed. "So my plan was to rough up the little one and take her to my master, just to mess with him." And then it turned its wrinkled, grimy head to me, it sunken eyes seemed to radiate hatred.
The whole time this was going on, Tabatha and Mitch were pushing people out of the Pavilion and keeping them out there.
"Careful, don't swing that thing around in here. You might destroy some of auntie M's precious statues. She'd never forgive you." Came a taunting voice from the entrance to the pavilion.
The creature shrieked, and turned toward the voice. "You!" it screamed.
"Me." A tall young man stood in the doorway, I don't know how old he was but he looked about thirty. I watched in confusion at the apparent unfriendly familiarity displayed on both of their faces. As I watched, I was vaguely aware of Mitch pulling me towards the back exit of the tent, but my legs refused to work so I was no help.
It screamed in anger, lashing out with it's talons and, if possible, sending even more hatred towards the tall man.
"Do I have to dust you again, Electo? Haven't I done that enough times?"
"Twice, and that's more than enough." The thing growled. "Few warriors have ever bested me once, you have done it twice. This time I shall have my revenge."
"You sure it was two? I could have sworn there was one more time… You sure you remember correctly?" He winked at me, a small signal, which let me and Mitch know he was only trying to buy us the time to get away.
Whatever it was snarled at him. "I remember, Perseus Jackson. But this time, I shall win!" it pulled out a long, fiery whip, and lashed it at him. It missed by inches. He didn't seem fazed at all. He seemed almost smug about it.
"Don't you remember you stupid old bird? I'm invincible. You remember the Styx?" Percy shouted. The leather bird screamed. "Ha! You do remember! Now remember this," he swung the sword and the monster backed up a step. "This time will be different! But it's not your turn to win." He sliced at the thing and got a good-sized chunk of flesh. "It won't be me that kills you," he tossed the sword to me, bringing me into the glare of the things fury once again. "It will be her!"
"What?" I protested. "What do you mean?" but I caught the sword mid-air. It felt good in my hands. Well balanced and cool to the touch. It was made of bronze, or something remarkably like it. As soon as it was in my hand, I knew what to do.
I don't remember exactly what happened next, just that I attacked. I cut through the monster with ease and she turned to yellow dust. It smelled like sulfur. As she dissipated, she left behind a metallic screech, and a stinging pain in my arm. The screech echoed in the pavilion for a few seconds until it faded, along with the last of the dust. All that was left behind was a big, black marble eye. It looked like it was still staring at me. It gave me the wigs. I soo didn't want to touch it. He did instead.
"Wow!" Percy said. "That was amazing! Almost as good as my first time. And the same one two!" he praised me. "Good work." He walked over to me, and pulled a pen cap from his pocket. He touched it to the tip of the sword he'd tossed me, and it shrank into a pen. He slipped it into his pocket.
I stared at him. "That was soo not funny." I complained. "How did you get that monster to look so real? And how did you make it disappear so fast? And who are you?"
"That, was not fake." He said. He looked like he meant it. "That was a Fury. Or a kindly one. One of Hades' torturers. Not a pleasant breed of monster. Anyway, it helps to be invincible." He straightened his toga and looked over my shoulder. He made a face. "Never expected that to be here." He mumbled.
I turned. He was looking at The Poker player, and he looked pleased at something.
I was confused. "You know this piece?" I asked. "How?"
He grinned. "My mom made it. With one of my monster trophies. That used to be my stepdad, Gabe Ugliano. She turned him and his ugly buddies into this statue at the table about five years ago."
So that's why he looked familiar. Gabe Ugliano had been on TV for the disappearance of his stepson. The kid that had gone across the county wreaking havoc and doing all sorts of things, trying to get away from his kidnapper. "So the cross country-maniac was you?" I asked in disbelief. "Percy Jackson, the infamous freak-streak across America all those years ago?"
"In the flesh." He said. "And the kidnapper part, that's a stretch. He wasn't a kidnapper. We met in the diner near the water park in Denver. He was harassing us though. Aries has never been my favorite. And Hermes, the man you met near the change pavilion, was in fact the god of messengers etc. You catch my drift?"
I just stared at him as he explained all this to me. I mean, when Seth had said he was the son of Apollo, I thought he was crazy. Now here was Percy, telling me a whole lot more than Seth had, and I believed him. I mean, how weird can you get?
"Are you okay?" he asked. "You don't look so good. Did I overload you?"
"Yes, you did." I sat down on the nearest statue. It depicted a big scary wolf-like creature. It was lying down, and its haunch made a nice place to sit. I contemplated everything I had learned about this and berated myself for not thinking it through before.
Percy took a few steps toward me and helped me up. When he pulled his hand away, his hand had blood on it. "Oh, no." he whispered. "She got you. That's not good."
He was right. My arm was stinging and starting to go numb. The blood felt warm on my arm, and the color made me dizzy. I faltered, but he caught me. "Seth!" he called, "Get in here!"
"Ow." I muttered. "Just get me to the water fountain outside. Help me clean it out."
He looked surprised at this, and then a calculating look spread across his face. "That just might work." He mused. He pulled me out into the light. Many people gasped at the amount of blood coming out of my arm. Seth came running up with what looked like a first-aid kit in hand, and an opaque canteen in the other.
"I'm here!" Seth said as he knelt beside me on the grass near the fountain. "I have some nectar. Just in case." He opened the canteen and offered it to me, but before I could take it, Percy picked me up and stuck my feet in the water. Instantly, I felt better.
"What are you doing?" demanded Seth. "You shouldn't pick her up! It might hurt her even more! I-" he broke off.
"Proving my suspicion." Percy said.
The water seemed to move up my legs, giving me strength. I felt better, my head cleared, and I watched as the water moved up my thigh and side, covering my body in a second skin of water. It crawled down my arm and the gash began to heal. The blood seemed to hurry to get back into the wound. The gash stitched itself together and turned into a scar, which was quickly fading. As soon as the wound was healed, the water fell off me, back into the fountain, leaving me completely dry.
"Interesting," Percy murmured. "He wasn't kidding."
"That was not normal, what happened?" I turned to Percy. "Did you do that?"
"No, I think you did that." He frowned. "I was right. That's not good. Worse than me."
"No, it's not. How are we going to explain this to your father? Let alone your uncles! Or even the whole family? How much trouble are we in now?" Tabatha complained.
"And you are right, worse than even you. Did your father even know?" Kitty asked.
My only response to the situation that I could say was: "Can I have something to drink?"
Seth obliged with a kind smile, but it was tight. He was thinking, hard. I took a sip from the canteen he handed me and listened to the fountain splashing. Whatever it was it tasted like Chai tea, made just the way I like it with extra cinnamon and a hint of red chili. I tried to drown out the conversation going on behind me without much luck.
Edward came running up with Miya on his heels. She may be frail looking, but she can run.
"Oh, my gosh Alex!" Edward said. "How are you? Are you okay? Why are you in the water?"
I looked at him and I felt strong. I decided to get him off my backside once and for all. I splashed him in the face with a column of water. I didn't even have to move my hand or anything. I just felt a tug in my gut and up it came. "You are nothing to me, not even a friend. So back, off. It's none of your business."
He looked astounded. His face was dripping wet. "How did you do that?" he wiped at his face, spluttering.
"I said, none of your business!" I yelled. The fountain cracked, and the water, all of it, came rushing at him. It pushed him away and left him sprawled on the now muddy grass. His face was a totally confused one. I got up, a little shocked but he sure deserved it. "Let's go. I want to get out of here." I said to Mitch and Seth. I walked away from the fountain, the festival, Edward, and the crowd of gawking bystanders. I had never felt more satisfied.
As we walked away, I turned to Percy and asked "Where to?"
"Our summer camp." He announced. "I think we need to talk to Chiron."
I nodded and walked with him and the others. I didn't even know what he was talking about, but I never looked back. Not even once.