The Story of Paul Cooper: Book Two

Calypso's Fountain

“Son of Ares? If that weren’t obvious enough,” Jack murmured.

                “Watch it, Med Express,” Sam snapped, raising a fist. So Sam thought that was a good nickname just like I did. “Yeah, son of Hermes. I don’t care if you’re a normal mortal or a Son of Olympus, I’ll beat you up no matter what. Anyway, you guys all have to look in the water.”

                This was like in ‘Lord of the Rings’ when they look into the Mirror of Galadriel, but  didn’t think this was weird. Again, I read and watch movies a lot.

                 We followed Sam up to the gazebo and all filed around the fountain alongside Calypso and the other boy. Since I was standing next to Sam, he turned to me and muttered.

                “This is Nick MacDowell,” Sam said. “He knows a lot about the fountain, but we’ll all leave when you look in.” I nodded, figuring there was nothing else to say.

                “Paul,” Zach whispered to me, since he was on my other side. “Why is she staring at me?” He gestured to Calypso, who immediately looked away. I shrugged.

                “How would I know?” I said.                      

                “I don’t know,” he replied. “You’re the son of the god of knowledge and prophecy.”

                “Yeah, I didn’t get that gene,” I sighed. Jack snorted.

                “To continue, Nick,” Calypso said, putting a hand on Nick’s shoulder. “Everyone here needs to look, and we were told to leave.”

                Nick nodded slowly and peeled his eyes away from the water’s surface. He set the gold pitcher on the ground near the base of the pedestal. With a sigh, he glanced at all of us, his eyes a weird silver. Sam followed him off to a path. Calypso stepped forward, and placed a hand on the edge of the stone basin.

                “It’s very simple: all you do is look one at a time, and keep your visions to yourselves. Until the right time, you can’t tell each other,” Calypso said. “I’ll come back once you’re all finished.”

                With that, she walked away on the same path Nick and Sam had gone on. For a minute, Arlia, Zoë, Zach, Kate, Jack, Emily, and I all stood silently, but then Zoë walked slowly up to the pedestal and bent over.  Everything was silently, but then there was a cool silvery gold light that rose from the surface, and Zoë blinked a few times. It seemed like she stood there for a few minutes, and eventually blinked again, and stepped away.

                “Who’s next?” she said. Since nobody moved, and I’m only guessing that they were nervous, I nodded,

                “I’ll go,” I said. Zoë looked like she was about to object, but she didn’t say anything, and stepped back a few paces so I’d have room to stand. I did the same as Zoë, I walked up to the water basin and leaned over. I could tell that the silvery gold light was there again, and then the water rippled. I could see things moving, like on a television or a movie screen.

                Then, it became clearer, and I realized that I was looking at a wide, grassy field, almost like the kind you see on the African savannahs, but this wasn’t in Africa. It had tall, knee-high brown grasses, with no trees, and every so often, there was a fire ablaze. I saw two huge groups of people, armies, I guess, since they were facing each other. Then, the view seemed to zoom in, and I saw a few people in armor and something knocked them down, and they didn’t get up.

                The view changed to a lush place, a forest, by the looks of it. No one was there, except for one person, standing in shadows, with a sword in their hands. With another silvery gold light, the visions were gone, and I stepped back. It was like I saw my friends for the first time in years, and I understood why Zoë had looked the way she had.

                I went and sat on a stone bench near the gazebo, so everyone could still see me. I watched as Jack, Kate, Arlia, Emily, and finally Zach all walked up to the podium and gazed into the water. I, of course, had no idea of what I saw meant. I’d have to think about it. But each time a vision was done, each of my friends had a weird expression on their faces. Kate and Emily looked slightly happy, and Jack looked surprised. Zach and Arlia looked utterly shocked.

                We mulled around for a few minutes, and then Calypso was standing in the gazebo by herself, since all of us wanted to get as far away from the water as possible. She wasn’t alone, though. There was a guy with her, who looked kind of like Jim Sturgess from that movie ‘Across the Universe’; again, a movie I’ve seen. Plus, it’s all Beatles songs, and since I’m the son of the god of music, naturally, I liked it. Really ‘groovy’ as Apollo would say.

                “You’ve all looked in the water?” Calypso asked, a sort of…bemused expression on her face. We all nodded in synchronization.  “Good. I’m told to take you back to your rooms. Tomorrow, we’ll talk about what you all saw.” Her eyes flickered to Arlia, and then Zach, and then Kate and Emily. She ignored Jack, myself, and Zoë, this time.

                “By the way,” she continued, her green eyes with a flicker of something I couldn’t put a name to. “This is John Blackbird.”

                What a name.

                “He’s staying here on Olympus like the rest of us,” Calypso continued. “He’s a good friend of mine, and he’s going to…help you with a majority of things.”