GODDESSES INC

12

"You're like a drug. I'm addicted," purred Senator Miguel Flores through the phone.

"How cliché." Mnem lifted her eyes to the ceiling. Mortals! So predictable.

"You don't like my metaphor?" Miguel chuckled. "I'll do better. You, Mnem, are like a field of corn."

"Corn. Mmm...I'm intrigued." Mnem set the phone down on the table, tapped the SPEAKER mode.

"A field of corn is beautiful and bountiful. It is sustenance. It nourishes heart, mind, and soul. I want to walk through the rows of your waving golden stalks. I hunger for your sweet taste."

Mnem cleared her throat to cover her laugh. "Oh my. Stick with politics, Miguel, not poetry." She was too old to fall for flattery, especially the kind wrapped in such a cringe-worthy metaphor. And yet her body warmed.

"I wanted to hear your voice."

"Mm-mm." Mnem tapped her pen on the table and stared at the abysmal list in front of her. She had stared at it all morning. "That's nice."

"You sound distracted."

"Sorry, just working on my résumé."

"Those are always tricky. Experience and education are a good place to start."

Education. Oh dear...

Mnem grit her teeth. Thales of Miletus, Democritus, Anaxagoras of Clazomenae. The early great philosophers. Not to mention the Parthenon of gods and goddesses. The wisdom of the ages. Life schooled her. "I was educated by the world's greatest thinkers." And I tutored them as well.

"MIT or Harvard?"

Mnem set down the pen and rubbed her forehead. Three cups of strong coffee, a handful of green olives, and a chunk of feta cheese stopped her throbbing headache but not the pain in her soul. "Neither. I went to a small private college in Greece."

"I have to go—another infernal meeting—but I want to see you tonight."

"Not tonight." Mnem's daughters were arriving shortly.

There was a heartbeat of silence. "Oh." Evidently, no woman ever turned down a date with the hunky senator. "I'm not a gameplayer, Mnemosyne."

"Oh please, you're a politician." He has no idea how many I've known. "It's the most game playing profession in the world."

"I'm talking about—be there in a moment—sorry, I'm talking about relationships." Miguel's voice was low, as though he cupped his hand around his mouth.

Mnem bristled. "I'm not playing hard to get, if that's what you mean. I have a life." A new mortal one that's getting more complicated by the hour. "I do not appreciate your insinuation that I am toying with you." Although I did plenty of times in the past. "Goodbye, Miguel." Mnem tapped END and pushed away the phone.

Another complication she did not need. Especially a high-profile one that came with dating a senator.

Mnem returned to her list. It was too short. A tarantula's knee short. This list was supposed to help spin a resume. Instead it was a venomous reminder of her failings.

Mnem was the ex-goddess of remembrance. She was able to recall with minute detail everything she ever learned. Except there was one huge problem. It was all ancient. Dusty laws and worn philosophies that were no longer relevant. She understood truths, that over time, became twisted and distorted.

Education was simple back then. Reading, thinking, and discourse was the cornerstone of a great mind. Timeless wisdom once reigned supreme. Now entertainment ruled mortal lives. The eternal meanings behind words and ideas were polluted. Fouled in the name of niceness. The world was not nice. It was never nice. The goddesses were not nice. But that did not mean the world was not beautiful and miraculous, and filled with euphoria and wonder.