The Weight of The Moon

Chapter Eleven

“Seleeeeenaaaa!” A voice from behind me sang, but I didn’t turn to greet it, wary of the tears tumbling down my cheeks. And anyway, I knew exactly who it was, for who else would visit me 384,400 km above Earth?

“Ah come on, tell uncle Hermes what is wrong.” He sighed, planting himself in the passenger’s seat, clearly sensing that something wasn’t quite right. 

I didn’t want to tell him, because I know that if I did, Poseidon would let out the seas in my eyes and there would be no end to the continuous tidal wave of tears that followed. 

But I’m a girl. 

I’m a girl, who, like most other females, likes chocolate, romantic movies, and sometimes just has to let it all out.

There are many positives to being friends with a major God, because, to list but a few, he can produce seriously unhealthy foods at the click of his fingers, he can listen all day, for he’s never in a rush, and he has plenty of life experience.

“Same guy?” 

I nodded, nibbling on a piece of chocolate that hadn’t been there a few seconds earlier. 

“Is it Brandi again?” 

My brows furrowed, wondering how he knew her name, for I felt certain that I hadn’t mentioned it antecedently. I put it down to his godly powers, and replied. “Not this time. It’s the moon.”

“You keep forgetting Selene’s warnings, don’t you?” He didn’t appear disappointed in me, but for me. “She’s trying to protect you, you know. She’s not doing it just to be mean”

“I know, I know. It’s just... Oh, I don’t know. I’m not forgetting her warnings at all, but…”

For once, I was happy to be interrupted. “You can’t help but fall for him?” A grim expression has overcome his usual mischievous smirk.

I nodded, and stared down at the earth. 

“I wouldn’t worry about it. This happened to Selene and she turned out alright.” Hermes tried to cheer me up unsuccessfully.

But Endymion didn’t turn out alright.

I thought back to the man my great-great-et cetera- great-grandmother had introduced me to. The man laid in the coffin, not dead, but hardly living. The painless smile he wore, imagining his one true love. Over. And over. And over again. 

I then made the mistake of imagining Marlie in that state. Shuddering, I realised that my teenage romance was putting his life in moral danger. And I couldn’t do that to him.

Zeus had always had a soft spot for the romance of Endymion and his close friend, Selene, and the outcome was, to put it simply, calamitous. But Zeus and myself, have a hostile relationship. I didn’t even want to conceptualize what would occur should Zeus discover my relationship with Marlie. 

I voiced this to Hermes, who just laughed.

“Ah Selena, Zeus may have anger issues, be overly mean all the time, and have more powers than he actually knows what to do with, but, believe it or not, he’s been in love before. Multiple times, actually. For starters, he’s married to Hera, so he’s done pretty well for himself, but Zeus is no stranger to the fact that love makes you do stupid things. Let’s start with Io. He turned her into a white cow, just to hide her from Hera, flattering eh? And then there’s Europa. He disguised himself as a white bull, and she ended up falling in love with him, but that one’s still kept a secret from Hera, so keep that one to yourself. And who’s next? Ah, Alcmene! He disguised himself as her husband, just so that he could be with her. Then she gave birth to Heracles, who just so happened to be Zeus’s son. Yes, the Heracles. Oh, and he also became a swan, so that Leda would fall in love with him. A beautiful woman, Leda, if only I’d had the ability to become a swan. Aphrodite may be the goddess of love, but there’s no doubt about it; Zeus is the king of falling in love.”

I knew that what Hermes was telling me was the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, because my bedtime stories weren’t about stuffed animals falling asleep, but instead, the Greek gods. That changed nothing, however. The pit of nerves in my stomach was still dancing away, and I contemplated my options;

1.Continue being with Marlie, risking my job, and his life

2. Forget about Marlie

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Just a little note, for those of you who are not mythology geeks like me - Heracles is still the same person as Hercules, but Heracles is the Greek name, where Hercules is the Roman name.

Thanks for reading :)