The Gunpowder Society

13. "The Path of Disobedience"

“Okay. They made it to Paris in one piece,” Mary said to the three young students before placing the phone back in the dock, “They met up with Fr. Cicero at a restaurant. It's midnight there and they're just about to sit down to eat.”

Once Mary turned around to face Gwen, Bruce, and Peter she was met with what she thought were guilty looks. She thought right, because while she was on the phone Peter had been talking to Bruce about some potential opportunities to sneak away from Mary as well as which places might have even more heavy stuff than their workout room so Bruce could actually max out. Both problems were equally difficult to figure out.

Before Mary could even think, Peter cut her off, “Why didn’t he call us when they landed like he said he would?”

Mary smiled, “He left his cell phone here. Or in the taxi or something. Either way he won’t be able to get a hold of us at any moment, but he’s still going to call at lunch our time every day.”

“More importantly we can’t get a hold of them at any moment in case we need to,” Gwen said emphatically and turned in her seat towards the boys whistleblowingly. Peter had been trying to keep the conversation secret from both Mary and Gwen. He was doing alright with Mary, but Gwen wasn’t tricked at all. It was obvious the boys were chatting secretly and this ticked her off. Peter looked up at her in reply with a hard ‘whose-side-are-you-on’ look.

“That’s not going to be necessary Gwen, because we’re going to stick to the plan that Father gave us. Including finishing up this lesson before we start dinner,” Mary grew serious and walked back to her tablet and unlocked it. She then said somewhat under her breath, “Hopefully before Margaret starts fussin'.”

“Speaking of,” Peter said, “Am I allowed to use my powers to help feed Margaret?”

Mary paused and wore a most dissatisfied frown on her face as she realized that Father most likely didn’t mean to prohibit this type of power use however his order to not use powers was so all-encompassing that Mary felt she shouldn’t even break the seal on power use.

“I’ll ask him next time he calls,” Mary said cynically. “Now, back to the book. Let’s review the story we heard,” Mary tapped the tablet again, “Question one: What well known tale can this story be compared to?”

“The Tree of Knowledge,” answered Bruce.

“In proper form,” Mary reminded in a gentle tone.

“It wasn’t even a proper question,” Peter said under his breath, annoyed by how bored he was.

Bruce retried, “The story of Pandora’s Box can be compared to the well known story of The Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden.”

“Yes, and what are some of the comparisons you see?” Mary asked the three.

Gwen answered first, “One comparison I see is in Pandora’s box Zeus warned the humans not to open the box…”

“Jar,” Peter tenaciously corrected in a gruff tone, now with his chin wresting on his folded hands atop the desk. Mary shot him a displeased look for his interruption and persistence.

“…and in Genesis God told humans not to eat from The Tree of Knowledge,” Gwen finished.

“Good Gwen. What else?”

“Another comparison I see is that in both stories the humans fall to temptation and go against their God’s wishes,” Bruce added.

“Very good. Peter, how about you grumpy face? Do you see any additional comparisons between The Tree of Knowledge and Padora’s Jar?” Mary asked playfully trying to lightening the boy up.