The Weight of the World by Amy Leigh Strickland Page B

her
for a few more weeks and then let things fizzle out. Saturday's date
had gone even better than he could have planned. Nick was feeling
pretty good about himself.
    He
climbed out of bed and hopped into the shower. Nick got dressed in
his standard shorts and crocs and checked out his shirtless physique
in the mirror. He made sure to restock the spare condom in his wallet
before picking up his phone again to make an important call.
    The
phone rang twice before Valerie Hess picked up.
    “Nick?”
she asked. She was confused by his call. They had a Pantheon meeting
in a few hours. What couldn't wait until then?
    “Heya
Hess. Just wanted to share the good news.”
    “What
good news?” her voice was tense. She could tell he was up to
something.
    “Well,
good for me. Bad for you. See, I've got a new girlfriend and you've
lost a member of your little V-card club.”
    “Nick,”
she snapped. “What did you do?”
    “You
mean who?”
    “Nick!”
    Nick
was pretty sure that he had never seen or heard Angry Valerie before.
It was an anomaly. It was rather like watching a cat use a fork.
    “I'll
see you at the meeting today, yeah? Drive safe.” Nick hung up as
Valerie screamed his name at her phone in fury.

“ They
stood where they stood by the power of the sword.”
    -Thucydides

    ix.

    The
creature saw with a hundred dragon heads
    and
consumed prey with a hundred dragon mouths.
    It
slithered on enormous serpent bodies
    as
high as the sky.

    Those
serpent coils tightened around its victims
    as
it flapped its many massive feathered wings.
    Even
the gods of Olympus fled the beast.
    All,
except for one.

    The
goddess stood at the top of Olympus,
    armed
with her Aegis, helmet, and javelin.
    As
a hundred dragon heads roared in fury,
    Athena
roared back.

“ Do
you see how the god always hurls his bolts at the greatest houses and
the tallest trees? For he is wont to thwart whatever is greater than
the rest. ”
    -Herodotus

    IX.

    The
1963 Thunderbird was a gift from Zach’s father. On the rare
occasions that Mr. Jacobs thought of his son, he went all-out to make
up for the guilt of forgetting him for the rest of the year. At
least, Zach hoped that he felt guilty. Really, Mr. Jacobs went
all-out so that he would have something to throw in his mom's face
during their annual argument.
    The
T-bird had been repossessed by the bank to pay for the debts of a
gambling addict. The car enthusiast who had purchased it for a steal
at an auction had used its restoration as a tool to avoid his failing
marriage. When the work was complete, he had painted it lime green
and sold it for a hefty profit to pay a divorce attorney. Zach’s
father had paid that price for a great, last-minute birthday present
when Zach turned sixteen.
    Zach
loved that car. He loved it more than his father loved him. It was
the first model to feature an alternator instead of a generator and
the last model from the third generation. As an extra precaution to
keep his baby safe, Zach always parked at the back of the lot and
walked, even on a rainy day.
    On
that Monday, the hot sun beat down on the hard top of the Thunderbird
as it sat, nearly alone, in the mall parking lot. After days of
torrential downpours, everyone was out enjoying the sunshine, except
for Zach.
    A
distant whistling went unnoticed. It grew louder, as if approaching,
tearing through the air at tremendous speed. The whistling, now
closer, grew deeper and culminated in a mighty whump and a crash. For an instant,
the parking lot was filled with the sound of groaning metal and
breaking glass as an enormous spoon fell from the heavens and landed
directly on the hard top of Zach’s beloved Thunderbird.
    Across
the lot, a hundred yards away, the car alarm on a beige sedan
sounded. Nobody passing by cared to look for the source of the
commotion.

    Miranda
Rutherford stood on a step-ladder, placing paperbacks back on the
shelves of the book store at the mall. She had spent the previous
half-hour going around