The Life of Sally Jackson

Chapter Seven

"What? What do you mean you're the...the 'god of the seas'?" Sally asked. "I can prove it to you," Tri-Poseidon said. "Well you better," Sally demanded. He jumped out of bed and suddenly he was wearing a Greek chiton, the same one he was wearing when she first met him. Her eyes didn't catch the motion of him putting it on, it was just suddenly there.

He grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the bed. She moved her hands to cover herself and he looked hurt at that motion. Good, she thought, he deserves to feel betrayed. Poseidon handed her her robe and led her out of the cabin to the beach. She stood with her arms crossed feeling totally cheated. 

Poseidon held his hand out over the waves and the water jumped to him, wrapping itself around his closed fist and forming a trident. His earlier words rang in her head, "Is it weird that I almost said Trident?"

The water trident hardened to form a giant iron trident. Poseidon raised his arms and the waters followed suit, rising to unbelievable heights. Her mouth dropped open. "Do you believe me?" He asked. I nodded, "Yeah I believe you."

"So...tell me about...about yourself. Your real family," she asked, sitting in the sand. She pretended not to hear the sigh of relief from Poseidon. She figured she would have a tough time getting used to his real identity.

He sat down next to her and held her hand. Or at least he tried to. She pulled her hand away, not wanting the contact. "Well my brothers and I..." He started. "Zeus. Hades."

"Yeah, so my brothers and I are considered the 'Big Three' because we are the rulers of the three kingdoms. Sky, Sea, and Underworld. Zeus is the ruler of Olympus along with my sister Hera. Basically, my family is a big messed up...mess." I nodded along to his story. 

"And this is the part from the myths where the big and mighty gods come down to Earth to have sex with mortals and then leave." Sally summed up. Poseidon didn't say anything. Then, "I have three more days before I have to return to my kingdom and my wife, but I'd like to spend them with you," he looked at her hopefully but all he got was a slap to the face. Sally Jackson had slapped him.

"You have a wife?"  she screamed. "Yes, but-" "No buts, I'm going back to the cabin," she said, turning around to hide the tears that were starting to fall. Poseidon made to follow her. "And don't follow me," she growled. She staggered off to her cabin sobbing. 

She couldn't believe him. She thought maybe she loved him. She thought maybe he loved her. But it turned out she was just another of the unfortunate love affairs for the gods of fucking Olympus. Once in the cabin she tore the sheets off the bed. She would not sleep in them again without cleaning everything to do with him off of them. 

She opened the door to chuck the vase of once beautiful flowers as far as she could manage. Closing the door, she slid down the floor and cried. A mere five minutes she felt nauseous again. Now is not the time, she thought. She made it to the bathroom right on time as she emptied her stomach into the porcelain bowl. And a crazy thought occurred to her. She sat up and wiped her mouth on a towel and stood on shaking legs. She grabbed her car keys and fled to the car, still in her robe.

She drove ten minutes to the nearest convenience store in the middle of the night. She knew she looked a mess but she didn't care. She grabbed a pack of pregnancy tests off the shelf and a candy bar and brought it to the register. The man working the register gave her a strange look but she ignored it. 

Taking the bag, she hopped back in the car and drove back to Montauk. If she'd been paying more attention, maybe she would've seen Poseidon watching her from the place she'd left him, but she wasn't. 

She went straight to the bathroom to do one of the three tests. She left it and paced around the cabin for ten minutes, checking the clock every ten seconds. Once the allotted time was fulfilled, she rushed to the bathroom to check. Positive. She didn't remember falling, but suddenly she was on the floor. No. The test had to be wrong. She couldn't be pregnant.

She stumbled to the little kitchenette and poured herself a glass of water, chugged it, then another. The next text read Positive. So did the third. She sunk onto the couch. She was pregnant. She was pregnant. 

Millions of scenarios ran through her head. What was she supposed to do? She would be a single mother. Poseidon obviously wasn't going to stick around, baby or not. Could she even support herself and this baby on her salary? Would she even be a good mother? How could she have been so careless?

And that's how she fell asleep, on the couch, with all the ifs floating around in her mind.