6
Black t-shirt, dark sunglasses and blue jeans, would-be mercenary Marshall Reason, formerly Ares, the god of war, carried a can of beer out to the backyard veranda of the family home near Olympia, Washington. His sister, Eris Discordia Reason, former goddess of strife and mischief, was clad in a black bathing suit and lying stretched out in a patio chair trying to tan. It was a bright sunny day. Hermes was frying an egg on the concrete, Calypso and Thetis were enjoying the swimming pool with two of the Muses and Daphne and Nyyrikki came from their stroll through the local woods from collecting seeds and acorns. Ares looked at his sister with her pale unfreckled white skin and wondered why she never tanned. She looked as if she was a goddess of the underworld; a shorter bustier version of Eriskegal or a brunette version of Tuonetar. A sip of the mortal ale in his hand and he tipped the can over her, a long drop of the cold air pouring through her cleavage and making her jump from the chair.
"Keep it in the can!" She tried pushing him into the pool.
"Awwww…" Calming drinking his beer, he was amused by her strained pushing and shoving. "Is that the best you can do… can't even knock me over…"
"Wait…" Discord stopped and stepped back pulling hair long dark locks back. "Did you feel a breeze?" She felt a cold chill. It was sunny and warm, but the wind suddenly gusted from the south and tossed the treetops. The bright blue sky was turning gray as clouds washed over the area and blocked out the sun. His face furrowed out of confusion, Ares looked toward the meadow then toward the stables. Something did not feel right. If there was a feeling of apprehension for gods, this was it. It felt as if he was boxed in from all sides with no way out… even while standing in the open patio. Discord looked round in her bathing suit.
"It feels as if one of the Titans have been freed…" She looked up and around the estate. Euterpe and Melpomene dashed from the poolside to head inside. The sky cracked with thunder and more clouds were rolling in as Ploutus and Calypso hastened round to the side entrance from the garden. Ares looked round one more time sneering and furling and unfurling his left hand as he anticipated an attack.
"Someone's just become a god…" He remarked as lightning cracked. It struck him to the chest and propelled him off the patio with a hard crash. Discord veered round with spheres of energy from her hands. Clad in green robes and gold armor, Samantha repelled one on her silver staff and came running. She had mastered her godly powers. She turned her staff into a vaulting pole and propelled herself up on to the pool area, landing a few feet from the conniving goddess. Discord pelted her with balls of force and Samantha conjured lightning bolts powerful enough to knock down Thor. The wily goddess clenched her teeth to teach the newfound immortal a few tricks, blasting her opponent's weapon to melt into drops of liquid steel. Angry and violated, Samantha gestured at the patio furniture, flinging them to the goddess of mischief who blasted them into their singular parts. Ares leapt up to contend with her as well. He fired lightning bolt after lightning bolt after Samantha as Discord raced around the pool for cover, but Samantha blasted the foundation under her and dropped her concrete and bricks into the pool. Turning to the war-god, her five feet of blonde hair waved and swung from her head as she avoided his blasts. All the time, she was generating her own blast and fired it from both her hands at once, knocking the war-god off his feet, through the window of the parlor, across the kitchen and fifteen feet through the house to the staircase to the game room where he tumbled, rolled and fell head over heels into his father's presence. Trying to finally read a bit of Hemingway, the thunder god took his cup of tea off the serving table seconds before his son crashed through it, ht the wall to loosen and get hit by the mounted heard of the Erymanthian Boar.
"What did you do this time?" Father looked to son.
"What? This is my fault?!"
Gasping upon realizing what she had done, Samantha looked at her hands stunned. She had just bested not one but two powerful gods, two former deities older than her husband. This power, her body, her… senses…. She could feel and sense everything. The birds around her building nests, the wing singing as it whipped her hair, the sun's rays permeating her powerful stamina, she felt it all. The birds flew around her and seemingly cheered her. The clouds parted with her gaiety. All of creation was at her command… Her senses told her where everything was around her but the gods themselves. Ares was beyond her senses, but Discord had eluded her. As she searched out her enemies, she heard something else. Her now godly senses were tingling to warn her of a shadow of power close to her. She spun round ready to strike, the palm of her hand landing straight on the mallet head of a Norse hammer. Beneath that horned Viking helmet, two familiar brown eyes looked back upon her.
"Samantha…" Jimmy had shed his mortal guise and became Jason Donner Odinson once more. Seven feet tall with long dark hair and a full beard, he was clad in Viking battle armor and wielding Thunderstriker, a near duplicate of his father's hammer, Mjolnir. He befitted more a character from a realm of fantasy. He walked in leather sandals shielded by gold adamantine from Olympus and carried a sword and bow and arrow on his back from Asgard. He was the son of the Greek and German gods… of the Roman and Norse gods… Samantha released her emotions and the sun started shining again as she held her husband. Their hearts beat together in love…
"Jimmy…" She tried to catch her breath. "I can't believe what I did! I… I… I just fought two gods!"
"I know…" He removed his helmet and guided her off the back steps for a walk through the woods on the property. "I was so worried about you. You know, sometimes mortals can't handle godhood and it corrupts them. Hercules, Dionysus, Helen, Osiris, Gilgamesh… They were all mortal at first or gods who were raised mortal, and sometimes… they lose what humanity that had when they are given a taste of power."
"Jimmy…" Samantha hesitated on the path near a bush bursting with flowers for her. "I don't want this. Your cousin, Asclepius… He can change me back, right."
"Samantha," Jimmy was oddly hesitant. "Godhood… isn't that far different than witchcraft except…" He led her by the hand. "You don't need incantations, spells or invocations. Your soul, your life force… you're linked with the universe and everything in it from the weather, the earth and everything on it. Anything you want… if your mind can create it, you can summon it."
"Jimmy," Samantha looked to him. "I don't want this. These…" She looked down upon her robes and armor and chain mail. "…aren't my clothes. This isn't even my body! I liked being a witch."
"But…" Jimmy looked at her. "As gods, we could be together forever. We could live side by side and have many children… We would know their children and their children…"
"I had that as a witch…" Samantha tried to convince him. "Jimmy, I know this means a lot to you, but… I'd never ask you to be something you weren't. Don't make me something I'm not."
"You have all you had as a witch… " He implored her. "And a lot more…"
"A lot more!" Samantha gestured to her height and stamina. "Jimmy, please don't ask me to stay like this. You didn't see how terrified my mother and father were of me."
"Samantha…" Her caressed her face between her cheek and her mane of hair. "I couldn't turn you back even if I wanted to..."
They heard another noise. Down on the bank of the duck pond, someone had skipped a rock across the water's surface. They noticed someone with red curly hair and a beard wearing blue jeans, boots and a dark shirt with a light jacket. His long hair trussed into a small ponytail only two inches long, the former Titan-killer looked up smugly and enigmatically.
"I recall having almost the exact same conversation with Perseus several… several generations ago." Zeus spoke. "After he established peace with Thessaly and Thrace, the Fates told me that his life was nearing its end, and I offered him a chance to be a god alongside his siblings. Unlike the rest,…" He skipped another stone. "He said he would much rather go down in history as a great man than as a god with greatness thrust upon him." The wise thunder-god god revealed he was meant for so much more. He had much wisdom over just tossing thunderbolts and charming young females.
"Grandfather," Jimmy turned to him. "I love her. Please convince her not to give this up…"
"I'll do no such thing." He responded grandfatherly to his grandson and stood between the two of them with his hands on their shoulders. "Samantha…" He turned to her. "Would you love Jimmy if he were a warlock or a mortal? Would you place his happiness before your own?"
"Yes." She lightly gasped.
"Jimmy, would you do the same for Samantha and give up your godhood for her? Would you live as a mortal for her?"
"What?" Jimmy looked to him and back to Samantha. "Yes… yes, of course!"
"Then…" The Olympian patriarch emanated glowing energy from his hands he churned in the air. "I peel back the pages of time, back to when you met, back to when destiny placed you together…" The churning light expanded into clouds rising off the lake, a foggy surface that immersed the young couple and surrounded their senses. What was once sunny was a sky of gray and smoky mist.
"I return your spirits to your former selves." Zeus's voice came from the thick smoke he had churned. "Jason, you are a mere demigod in mortal attire. Samantha, a remarkable sorceress with the blood of your ancestors… What has conspired has not happened and you are free to relive your love once more…."
It was September 23, 1963 once again and Samantha was a young beautiful woman… not as voluptuously or endowed as she had become but still a beautiful woman. She was outside the Clark Building on Thirty-Fourth Street, and she had her body back. She was garbed in a familiar white dress and looking around for Jimmy. She looked around once along the street and past the dispersing smoke and then to the revolving doors of the office building. Thinking he was inside, she rushed to join him, bumping into another man in the doorway.
"Excuse me…" They shared brief eye contact. A brief look, she paced forward a few feet and looked round. He wasn't here either.
"Jimmy?" She looked round. There were people coming and going, entering the elevator and ascending the stairs to the top landing. Disconcernly looking around, she reacted confused, bewildered… where was he?
"Excuse me, ma'am?" The gentleman she had bumped into her spoke softly to her. "Are you okay? It looks as if you were looking for someone?"
"I am…" Samantha reacted alarmed. "I'm looking for…." She hesitated as her memories adjusted from the passage in time. "I'm looking…" She looked at her hand, but for what reason? She wasn't married. She wasn't even seeing anyone.
"Are you sure you're okay?" Her host looked concernly over her. "You know, I work upstairs for McMann And Tate. I'm Darren Stephens; I'm in advertising. I know everyone in the building. Is there someone I can get for you?"
"I don't know…" Samantha confessed. "But… thank you very much, Mr. Stephens."
"I hope you find whoever you're looking for." He smiled to her compassionately and turned with a strong hold on his briefcase to the elevator. Looking back, he noticed Samantha looking round again then hastening out of the building alone. Confused, alone, why did she feel she had lost something? What did she lose? And why was she looking at her left hand? Upstairs on the second floor landing, Jimmy Reason felt her heart breaking to be doing this to her with his grandfather by his side.
"I lied…" He gasped. "I wouldn't have given up my immortality for her. I mean…" He shrunk back ashamed from view. "I love her, but… I much would rather have her immortal by my side than any other way." His eyes filled with emotion. "I married her as a mortal girl, I loved her as a witch and I thought she'd be more happy as a god, but… I can't make the same commitment for her."
"I figured as much." Zeus Thunderstriker looked over the top landing and out the window to the outside sidewalk. Samantha paced round confused one more time then gave up and continued on her way.
"I love you, Samantha…" Jimmy's voice quaked with emotion. "But you're better off with someone who will love you as you are…"
Twilight Zone voice-over: "Romeo and Juliet, Act Five, Scene Three, Go hence to have more talk of these sad things; some shall be pardoned, and some punished. For never was a story of more woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo. End scene… If you truly love something, let it go. Lesson learned… in The Twilight Zone."
END