"WAIT. YOU'RE TELLING ME THERE'S SUCH A THING AS... GOD?" Percy asks.
Percy and Grover sit at a pinochle table alongside Chiron and Mr D. Alex and Griffin reside near the rail. Griffin leans against the wood, his arms crossed. Alex sits a few feet away from him, her hands gripping the railing so she doesn't fall off. She knows this conversation is going to be hard but she knows Chiron is the best one to break the news.
"Well, now," Chiron says. "God— capital G, God. That's a different matter altogether. We shan't deal with the metaphysical."
"Metaphysical? But you were just talking about-" Percy trails off when Alex frowns and shakes her head, motioning her hand across her throat as if to say 'drop it'.
"Gods, plural, as in, great beings that control the forces of nature and human endeavours: the immortal gods of Olympus. That's a smaller matter."
"Smaller?" Percy scoffs.
"Yes, quite. The gods we discussed in Latin class."
"Zeus," He says. "Hera. Apollo. You mean them." Percy looks at his sister for confirmation. She just nods softly. Just as the twins' eyes meet, thunder bangs in the distance. Alex flinches. Percy tries not to ask if she's okay. He knows she would hate the way all of the eyes land on her.
"Young man," says Mr D. "I would really be less casual about throwing those names around, if I were you."
"But they're stories," Percy responds. "They're... myths, to explain lightning and the seasons and stuff. They're what people believed before there was science."
"Science!" Mr D yells. "And tell me, Perseus Jackson, what will people think of your 'science' two thousand years from now?" He throws his hands up in the air aggressively, "Hmm? They will call it primitive mumbo jumbo. That's what. Oh, I love mortals- they have absolutely no sense of perspective. They think they've come soooo far. And have they, Chiron? Look at this boy and tell me."
Percy turns his head towards Griffin and Alex, silently asking if he can punch Mr D right in the jaw. Both of them shake their heads.
"Percy," Chiron draws his attention away from the pair, "You may choose to believe or not, but the fact is that immortal means immortal. Can you imagine that for a moment, never dying? Never fading? Existing, just as you are, for all time?"
Alex grimances. In her mind, there's nothing worse than immortality. You can't change and evolve, you just have to stay the same. You have to watch everyone you love grow old and die and you can't do anything about it. The best part of life is that it ends eventually. Who would want to live forever?
"You mean, whether people believed in you or not." Percy says.
"Exactly," Chiron nods. "If you were a god, how would you like being called a myth, an old story to explain lightning? What if I told you, Perseus Jackson, that someday people would call you and your sister a myth, just created to explain how little kids can get over losing their mothers?"
Alex clenches her jaw, looking at the man who sits in his wheelchair. "Do you have no sympathy?"
Chiron looks at her out of the corner of his eye when Mr D scoffs. "Young lady, we lost sympathy many years ago." As he speaks, he waves his hand. Alex gets deja vu. She watches as the goblet fills with red wine. Mr D tries to reach for it but it slides away. Chiron mumbles a reminder about the restrictions and Mr D groans.
"Dear me," He rolls his eyes, looking up at the sky, "Old habits! Sorry." Thunder cracks in the distance. He waves his hand again and a Diet Coke can appears in front of him.
"Mr D offended his father a while back, took a fancy to a wood nymph who had been declared off-limits." Chiron explains, not looking up from his cards.
"A wood nymph," Percy repeats blankly, staring at the Diet Coke can like it came from outer space.
