Eight Days of Hanukah with Percy Jackson

First Night of Hanukkah

Percy watered the moonlace flower on his fire escape and headed towards the kitchen. The sun was finally setting, and it was almost time to light the candles. Lighting the menorah had become a yearly tradition ever since Paul had married his mom. For a stepdad, he wasn't so bad, Percy thought to himself as he reflected about previous holiday seasons with smelly Gabe. Paul Blofis was actually pretty great.

He left the window open for some fresh air and headed to the kitchen. In the kitchen, his Mom, Estelle and Paul were gathered around the table with four menorahs on aluminum foil and the table set for four. The lights had been turned out and the glow from the setting sun lit the room. Estelle was in front of her menorah, it was a simple one with a flat green base and nine flowers, each blooming and ready to hold a candle. Paul stood in front of a metal tree menorah with a thick gnarled trunk and nine branches facing up to hold the candles. Sally stood in front of a menorah shaped to look like a typewriter, with candle holders where the keys should be. Percy's was a simple blue glass, that reminded him of sea glass he would always find on the beach. He thought about when he had picked it out a few years ago. Paul took him to a special store, Percy didn't even know stores like this existed, but it was full of menorahs of every shape, color and theme. It didn't take long for Percy to find the simple blue one. At first, he was hesitant as it was glass, and he didn't want to accidentally break it. But Paul reminded him, "just enjoy it, if it breaks, that is an opportunity to discover something new." So Percy picked it out. All these years later and he hadn't broken it yet. Standing in the kitchen, he hoped it wouldn't be this year he accidentally dropped it.

As it was the first night, only two candles would be lit, the one representing the first night and the shamash, the helper candle, Percy remembered. Paul walked up with a box of matches and asked, "Estelle do you remember how to start the prayer?" Percy could not remember so he was glad Paul asked her.

"Baruk atah Adonai..." Estelle said. She started strong but stopped after the first part giving Paul a sheepish look that Percy recognized from experience.

"That's a good start honey!" Paul said and put the box of candles on the table. Percy of course picked two blue candles. Estelle picked red and orange and Sally picked two yellow candles and Paul picked randomly and ended up with a yellow and blue candle. They were all quiet as they placed their candles on their menorahs. As it was the first night, only the rightmost branch would be lit. With everyone's candles placed, they all picked up their shamash and Paul lit a match. He lit everyone's candle as they held it aloft and he began to recite the blessings. Percy's mind wandered, he liked the ceremony but he didn't want to accidentally pray to another God who might need another favor from him. He was tired of running errands for different gods.

With the blessings complete Percy lit his candle and then placed his shamash candle in the menorah. With the eight candles lit, the room had a soft glow even as the sun finished setting.

"Time for dinner!" Sally said and Estelle rushed to sit down, almost knocking over her menorah. Percy watched the candles wobble until one tipped over, the base hitting the aluminum foil and the flame hitting the tablecloth. With a quick thought and a raised eyebrow there was suddenly a wet spot on the table and puff of smoke as the candle went out. Paul had left to get the latkes from the oven and glanced at the table, raising an eyebrow at the damp table and merely relighting the candle and nodding at Percy.

This was Percy's favorite part of the holiday, latkes, he wondered why they couldn't eat them all year, but he had not mastered the skill of making them and was at the whim of Paul's cooking. Percy was ready to pounce as soon as the dish was set down on the table, thankful for his battle reflexes so he could get them first. Before everyone else could move, he had eight latkes on his plate and a side of applesauce. While Percy thought of himself as an accepting person, he knew there was a right and wrong answer to the whether latkes were to be eaten with apple sauce or sour cream. There was a reason Annabeth was not invited to dinner tonight.

Percy dug in, reminiscing on the merits of potatoes. He thought how the next time he had to drink nectar, it would probably taste like a crispy latke. Looking around, Percy reflected on how nice it was to be home and to feel safe, patting his pocket to feel riptide for good measure. Ever since Smelly Gabe had "vanished" the holiday season had slowly grown into a celebration of the year instead of dread at having to spend time at home.

Percy had dish duty tonight. At camp-half blood he had been forced to do dishes with hot lava as a punishment, but in his apartment just plane soap and water was used, and Percy was quite proud of his system. It probably wasn't as fast as Leo's fancy dishwasher, but Percy could wash and dry at the same time, controlling the water to gently scrub each plate and then place it in his dry hand so he could dry it. Ever since his fall into Tartarus and the following battle against Gaea he had been working on fine tuning his control. With everything being bigger and stronger than him, it felt good to feel in control of the things he could. He started small, with single drops of water and he was slowly able to move them through the air above his palm in patterns. The limit away from his palm was about six inches. They weren't complicated patterns yet, but he could spell stuff out to Annabeth across the room in class sometimes. Of course, half the time she had no idea what he wrote because the spelling was no where near close to the actual word. But it grounded him and made him feel in control when he would suddenly start shaking or couldn't stop his heart from racing for no reason.

Looking up from a stack of clean dishes he saw his mom in the doorway gently smiling at him, "You know, one day you are going to have to learn to do them the old fashion way." Percy shrugged, "It works doesn't it?"

"Come on, we want to give you your presents."

In the living room Estelle sat on the floor and Paul was in his armchair. Sally sat on the couch and Percy joined her, his leg bouncing as always. He looked down at his socks and realized that there was at least one hole in each. "Maybe they got me new socks?" He thought to himself. First Paul handed Estelle a box wrapped in blue paper with silver menorahs on it. She quickly tore it open and squealed with delight, it was a purple octopus doll. She had been so interested in sea creatures lately. When he came home from school he was always greeted with a new fact about a different sea creature, he kept meaning to take her to the aquarium but splitting his time between school and Camp Half-Blood had been keeping him busy.

After Estelle moved from excited to quietly thinking of names for her new octopus Paul handed Percy a green bag with blue tissue paper.

"I hope you like it," Paul said.

Percy removed the tissue paper and saw white and black fuzz. "Could it be?" He thought to himself. Pulling it out, it was perfectly soft and just like he remembered it, a panda pillow pet! "How did you know?" Percy asked. "I had a hint from an old friend the last time the Hunters stopped by the apartment."

"Wait, when were the hunters here?" he asked.

Sally merely smiled and ignored the question, "I thought you could use a fresh start and maybe have a faithful friend to help you sleep." Referencing the dark circles that were always under his eyes.

"Thank you" was all Percy could say as he gently stroked the head of his new pillow pet, the repetitive motion soothing him.