Where?
She really doesn't know. . .
Walking out the alley, Aphrodite was faced with a bright-eyed beast running towards her on round, black legs. She loudly shouted for it to stop, but it resisted her beauty.
A man from within its metallic head shouted disrespect at her as he sped by.
Obviously, within this mortal entity, she was enable to call upon her full powers.
Touching her face (or rather, her portal's face), she found a strange, thick glass piece. An ugly accessory, she decided, so she tossed them to the side.
For a long while she wandered until she came upon two men standing in a dark alleyway. She called to them, demanding her whereabouts and the closest route to Olympus, but they disregarded her demands and approached with greasy smiles.
Being familiar with the inconveniences of the male mind, Aphrodite realized what they had in mind and also that she could not defend herself.
Running quickly through the forest of rectangular stone mountains, she came upon a bright, populated avenue lit by glowing bulbs (presumably captured nymphs).
"Boy!" she shouted to the first mortal she saw that she could overpower if need be.
"Me?" he turned around surprised.
"Of course you. Now tell me, child, how might I find a way to Olympus from here?"
"Uh, what?"
"Mount Olympus! Where is Mount Olympus from here?"
"Where? Uh-- listen, lady, I gotta be somewhere, and I don't have time for--"
As he turned away, she grabbed him by his jacket.
"Listen to me, insolent child! I may not appear it, but I am in fact the goddess Aphrodite! Daughter of the ocean! Lover of Ares! Empress of beauty! Light of passion for the world! Commander for the forces of love! Now, I demand that you give me instructions to Mount Olympus from this love-forsaken land or so help me Zeus--"
"Help! Help!! This lady's crazy!" He yanked out of Aphrodite's grasp, which weakened in her shock.
Could ignore a demand relating anything to the sacred castle of the gods? Any other would surely fall to his knees in praise on the off chance that she told the truth. What could such a thing mean?
The cogs in her mind spun ever so slowly until she came to a conclusion that pleased her, but in a very different way, displeased her greatly.
It could only be that in her absence, when there was no means of supplying love to the world, the reign of the gods fell?!
Without her essential guidance, the Mount Olympus had fallen!! Nothing else could explain such ignorance.
But then, what had become of her crowning glory, the power of love?
Her dilemma became cataclysmic.
Without a sex drive, how had mankind survived?!!
She began sprinting down the sidewalk, haphazardly knocking down civilians.
She looked through the clear walls. She saw nothing. Nothing but strange devices. New-age utensils, useless appliances.
At last she came to a gleaming display. She was unable to read to the inscriptions, and was unfamiliar with what she saw, but knew that it marked something. She still had that sense, and she knew that this place marked hope in her trek through a foreign world.
Grabbing the arm of a passer-by, she demanded, "What is this place?"
The expression of said passer-by turned to utter bafflement.
"Answer me!"
"It-- It looks like an antique shop or something. I don't know. Let go of me!"
Aphrodite complied and proceeded to press through the glass that looked least attached. A ringing noise sounded as she did, and she abruptly looked upward, only to see a small bell.
"Heathenous mortal traditions," she mumbled as she entered.
It was a narrow, brightly lit room with burning incense, stacks of books, unlit candles, wooden tables of trinkets, and many, many shelves.
A scrawny woman in glasses looked up at her with huge black eyes.
For more than a moment, they stared.
"How dare you look upon me with such insolence," regarded Aphrodite, as she promptly humph-ed and began examining the store's strange contents with a contemptuous eye.
Seeing an estranged idol of gold, Aphrodite spoke up to the store owner who was blatantly analyzing her.
"What is this little fat golden thing? Some kind of nymph figure?"
Aphrodite turned to the small woman whose jaw fell slightly ajar.
"Well?" She became impatient.
"He is the Buddha," the woman answered in a distinct but unidentifiable accent.
"Who is the Buddha?"
Again, the woman looked taken aback in her blank manner.
"Who is Buddha?! When I ask you a question, impudent woman, you answer me!"
The two other browsers in the store turned to the slight scene.
Making a disregarding expression, the woman replied cooly, "Buddha is god. And it seems to me that you are the impudent one."
"Me? Impudent?!! How dare you speak to me in such a manner! I ought to force you to bastardize fifty children until you have no sanity left in you! I ought to force all of your family into incest! I ought to curse you and every infidel of your native land into eternal solitude!!" Aphrodite's face shook with red anger.
Catching her breath, she stared into the woman's raised eyebrows.
"Wait. . . you mean to tell me that this Buddha is god?"
"Yes," she firmly nodded, still stunned into indignant silence.
"So I've found it. Now I see. This Buddha overthrew the gods." Aphrodite loudly gestured her words with her hands. "No, you. Take me to this Buddha, wherever he resides, for I require to speak with him."
"I cannot."
Aphrodite gave the woman an incredulous look, then resolved.
"Oh. I see. You are but mortal, and therefore cannot enter the realm of the gods. So be it then. Take me to a temple to Buddha, then, so that I might channel him."
"You think that you can channel Buddha?" The wide-eyed woman now wore a dubious smile.
"Of course I can. I'm a goddess, of course," she scoffed.
"You are, are you?"
"Of course I am! Why else would I say so?"
"Well, what kind of goddess are you?" The store keeper indulged the loon.
"I am Aphrodite, the goddess of love, beauty, desire, and man's passion--" Said goddess began a speech that sounded like it had been written down before by some great poet, but she was interrupted.
"But a goddess for whom?" the woman inquired.
"What do you mean to say?"
"A goddess of what religion? Of what belief system?"
"You are confused, silly woman. There is only what is. There is no way to disbelieve what is."
Aphrodite looked into the woman's dubiously wide eyes, and she became deeply offended.
"Well-- well! What would your Buddha think if he knew that you condoned other gods? This doubt is unacceptable! He will surely smite you."
The woman chuckled knowingly as she reached to something behind her in the rows of shelves, and Aphrodite slammed her hands down on the glass counter.
"Stop this facade! Speak to me what you mean, woman, or I will be the one that smites you!"
Turning back, the glass-ed woman laid down a thick, paper-bound book with frayed edges.
"Take a look at this," she enticed.
"What is it? I cannot--" Aphrodite looked for the most flattering word possible. "--interpret this pagan language."
"This book is called The Deep World. There are so many different relating beliefs and interpretations that no one earthly man can discern the nature of the Universe. This book was written by a wise man who saw all of the opposing religions, but also saw their similarities. It elaborates on this confusion of yours. You can't comprehend more than you've been taught, can you? This is truly a deep world. It isn't something that can be simplified."
The apparent goddess's expression displayed aggravated uncertainty, and the woman read it with a suppressed smile.
"Then. . . who are you?" Aphrodite wondered.
"Kohaku Aya. It is a pleasure to meet you. . . Aphrodite." She knew better than to offer her hand to shake.
"Well then, Kohaku Aya, you will read this book to me, I assume? I expect no less. If I must live in this estranged world then obviously I must understand it." Her taught, prideful face examined Aya with an upturned chin. "Don't underestimate me, mortal woman."
The chuckle of a world-weary woman. "That might take a while, don't you think?"
Aphrodite took in the breath for speaking but found nothing to say.
"How about this, Aphrodite. It seems to me that you have nowhere else to go, considering the. . . present state of Olympus. So would you like to come here, if ever you find yourself. . . existing? These conversations are very. . . interesting."
The only two other visitors left then, whispering something about insanity.
Thinking harder than she normally would, Aphrodite finally crossed her arms.
"Don't bother begging. I'll come, I'll come. But you will regard me as great goddess, do you understand?"
Chuckling, Aya walked down the thin counter side to the back of the store, expecting said great goddess to follow.
"Unn, never mind it! Stupid mortal witchling. . ."
Because the goddess didn't comply with the subtlety, Aya asked that she follow her to the back of the store.
After some immortal complaints, she complied.
"What is it, mortal woman?" For a moment the goddess paused. "Aya?"
"These are special smelling salts." Crudely labeled stacks of boxes were shoved into the corner of the room.
Squinting, Aya murmured to herself, "Jasmine, eucalyptus, ginseng. . ."
"Smelling salts? We are both awake, foolish woman."
"These are special kinds of salt. Crushed crystals, they are believed to have supernatural properties."
"What do you mean by 'they are believed'? They either do or don't."
"I've never before had a chance to try them."
Silence.
"Aniseed salt. Here it is." Aya took a fistful of the assorted herbs and salt.
She handed it to Aphrodite. They shared a look.
Realizing that there wasn't much more to be done, Aphrodite was ready to take a whiff of what very well might be her ticket home. (Never bothering to ask what the salt would do to her, of course. She was thinking enough as was.)
"But wait, Aya. Tell me, please, what has happened to love in the new world culture? Does love survive?"
Aya looked to the ground and then again at Aphrodite.
Almost reassuring herself, she replied, "You'll see."
Nodding, Aphrodite took a hesitant whiff, a second deeper whiff, and then a last attempted whiff before she fell to the ground. Aya caught her before she hit.
Blinking, Aglaia awoke with a hammered head, sitting the back seat of an unfamiliar car.
Where was she? She tried to wonder but couldn't. Her mind was too consumed in fatigue.
Maybe she forgot what she was doing. That must have been it.
Everything could wait 'til later. She felt like slept-walked ten miles. She needed sleep. . .
Kohaku Aya looked back at the sleeping teenager whose eyes fluttered ever so slightly, and then were again set still.
"It's a good thing that you had your student identification on you, Aglaia. . ."
Earlier that night, Kalliope went to check on her daughter, only to find that she was nowhere to be found.
Calling the police for the second time that month, she and her son worriedly tossed around possibilities as her husband Hiroto drove around in search.
Around three o'clock in the morning, she heard a knock on the door and ran to answer it with the feet of a mother bear.
The darkness only allowed the sight of a car being rushed into and driven away, along with her daughter laying unconscious.
"Aglaia," she asked the inert girl, "have you been drinking?"