The Heir of Olympus and the Forest Realm (13 page)

“What do you think this means, Dad?” She almost sounded like a scared little girl.

“I don’t know, Ellie, but something is definitely going on.”

Then Ellie said something that Gordie was dreading, but wholeheartedly expecting, “Maybe we should go back.”

“No,” Gordie said so firmly that it startled his mom. “We came this far already, we are not going back.”

“Well, what do you expect to do?” Her voice was rising. “If you think I am going to let my son walk into an active—”

“Wait a second!” Atalo interjected. “We don’t even know that it’s the same volcano.”

“Save it, Dad! You know as well as I do which volcano it is, and that is enough of a sign for me to come to my senses and recognize it is time to go home!”

“No,” Gordie said again. Ellie’s wide-eyes were trained on him with a mixture of anger and fear, but he kept his voice calm. “We knew going into this that there would be danger. I can’t go home now.” Gordie prepared himself for what he had to say next with a deep breath. “But maybe you should.”

Ellie’s eyes narrowed into one of the most dangerous looks Gordie had ever seen. “First of all,
Son,
” she growled, “you do not tell me what to do. Secondly, there is no way in
hell
that I am leaving you. Now what exactly do you think we can do on this little excursion if our destination blew up?”

“We change the plan. We adapt. Stick-to-itiveness. Isn’t that what you always preached to me. Focus? Motivation? Where did all that go?” Gordie was very pleased with this argument, which used her own words against her, but she was not amused.

“First of all,” she repeated herself, apparently too incensed to care about sounding like a broken record, “I didn’t know you ever listened to me.” If she hadn’t been so angry at the moment Gordie would have laughed, but he thought that might have horrifying ramifications at present. “Secondly, this is different. This isn’t about doing homework or going to practice. This is life and death. It is time for you to appreciate the magnitude of the situation.”

Suddenly, Gordie was no longer amused. Her suggestion that he did not appreciate the severity of the situation, when she knew full well that he had been the first to find his dad’s lifeless body, pushed him over the edge.

“
I
don’t appreciate the magnitude?
Me?!
Because it seems that you are the only one delusional enough to think we can just go home and carry on with our lives. Do I need to remind you that we don’t have a home anymore? It’s
gone!
Along with Dad!”

Without realizing it, Gordie had jumped to his feet and was yelling. His eyes were bulging as he looked upon his wounded mother, whose anguished face began to infect his conscience with remorse, but before he had time to backtrack, he was hoisted into the air.

“You ungrateful little—”

“Put him down, Dad!” Ellie said, because her father had grabbed Gordie by the collar with two powerful hands and lifted him up to his eye level, leaving his feet to dangle above the ground. Atalo ignored his daughter as he peered into Gordie’s soul like the sun incinerating an ice cube unfortunate enough to gravitate towards it.

“If you ever speak to your mother like that again, I will knock every last tooth out of your mouth,” he said. Gordie was dumbfounded and terrified. He just gaped, open-mouthed, as Atalo’s eyes darted back and forth between his own. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw his mom’s hand grasp her father’s shoulder.

“It’s okay, Dad.” Ellie’s voice had returned to a soothing hush. “Just put him down. I’m all right.”

With one last threatening look, Atalo set his grandson back on his feet. The minute he was released, Gordie turned and ran to the nearest bathroom. He heard his mom shouting for him to come back, but he ignored her as he sprinted into the lavatory.

He walked over to the nearest sink and looked at himself in the mirror before he burst into tears. The enormity of everything had finally come crashing down on him and he realized that his mom was right: he
didn’t
appreciate the magnitude of the situation, but he thought he was starting to. He was now recognizing the tremendous sacrifice his family was making to accompany him here, and the shame of his behavior swelled into a fresh wave of tears. Images of his dead father returned to haunt him again, along with those faces of his dead classmates. The weight of it all was so much that it forced him into the fetal position, and he lay crying under the sink in the empty airport bathroom.

When the shudders began to dissipate and Gordie came to his senses, the fact that he was curled up on a bathroom floor started to seep into his consciousness. On the bottom of the porcelain sink he had been hiding beneath, he saw a red and green smear. He wondered if the smell accosting his nose was emanating from that, and decided it was likely wafting from one of the stalls. He unraveled himself and crawled out of his nook to face his reflection in the mirror again. He rinsed his face and took steadying breaths. When he looked back up from the sink, the mirror reflected two Leonharts.

“Mom, this is a men’s bathroom!” Gordie screeched as he wheeled around.

“Oh relax, there’s no one in here.” Ellie walked over to her son and grabbed him by the shoulders. Still raw from his violent encounter with his grandfather, Gordie flinched at her touch, causing deep sadness to well in her eyes.

“I-I’m sorry, Mom.”

“No, sweetheart, I’m sorry. It wasn’t fair of me to say what I did. I’m just . . . well, I’m scared,” she said, as if she were confessing a terrible secret.

“I know. I am too,” he said. Ellie pulled Gordie into a hug and stroked his hair.

“Grandpa’s sorry about what he did,” she said as she pulled away from him after a few minutes of silent embrace. “I think we’re all just a little on edge with this whole business.” A little twinge of anger towards his grandpa flared inside Gordie, but he tried to staunch it for his mom’s sake.

“Yeah, I think so.”

“Why don’t we go back out there—there’s only about an hour left before we start boarding.” Gordie nodded and allowed his mother to lead him out with her arm around his shoulders. The skirtless stick-figure waved them goodbye from his place near the exit.

When they returned they were no longer the only ones at the gate. There were a couple people scattered around. Gordie and Ellie weaved their way toward Atalo. They sat down on the black leather seats and he asked, “You all right, Gordo?”

“I’m fine.”

“Okay,” Atalo said, before turning his attention back to the news.

They sat in silence while the gate filled with more travelers. There was an attractive girl with her family around Gordie’s age, but it didn’t quite pique his interest as much as usual. He even caught her sneaking glances at him every once in a while, but he ignored it. It seemed she liked the broody,
I-don’t-give-a-shit
look, but Gordie really didn’t give a shit at that moment.

After an extended period of actively not watching the news in silence, a chipper English voice came over the PA system. “Attention: all passengers flying Aegean Airlines flight 605, we will now begin boarding groups one and two. Groups one and two please prepare for boarding.” Ellie handed Gordie his ticket and he looked down to see group five printed on it, row 29, seat F.

“Looks like I’m alone this time,” Ellie said with a glance at her son. “Unless you wanna trade seats, Dad.”

Gordie bit his lip, hoping Atalo would take the bait because, after their confrontation, he didn’t think he was ready to be alone with his grandpa. Unfortunately, Atalo didn’t feel the same way.

“No, that’s fine, Ellie,” he said, his old joviality returned. “Me and Gordo can chat.”

Crap
.

“Okay, that’s fine with me,” Ellie said, and she gave Gordie an apologetic look.

Gordie returned to moody silence until their group was called. Ellie was two rows ahead of them; he hoped that was close enough to rescue him if need be. As they funneled through another jet-way and onto the plane, Gordie and Atalo separated from Ellie, who took her allotted seat ahead of them. At least F was a window seat so Gordie could ignore his grandpa with the pretense that he was watching the landscape roll by. They took their seats. Atalo’s broad shoulders seemed to fill the entire row, his long arms resting on both armrests. A smallish, Greek-looking man showed up at their row and checked his ticket a couple times to make sure he indeed had to sit down next to this aged giant. After a couple of double takes, he decided it was true, and he sidled into his spot with a look of resignation. Gordie laughed to himself.

A couple minutes of silence ensued where Gordie watched the grounds people scuttle around, preparing the plane in the dark—little wisps of steam escaping from beneath their hoods through the light drizzle—until he felt a tap on his shoulder. He sighed as he knew this was eventually coming, and turned to face his grandpa whose features were far less ferocious than the last time they had held eye contact. In fact, he looked downright pained.

“I just wanted to apologize, Gordo,” he paused, “for what I did earlier.”

“It’s okay, Grandpa. I understand.”

“No, you don’t, kiddo. You might think you do, but you won’t ‘til you have kids of your own someday. She may be your mom, but never forget, she’s also my daughter. I shouldn’t have acted that way, but it’s a father’s job to protect his children,” he said, rather sadly.

“All right,” Gordie conceded. “I’m sorry, too.”

“One more thing,” Atalo said, and Gordie strained not to roll his eyes. “I know it’s a crappy excuse, but I’ve always had a bad temper.”

“You’re right—that is a crappy excuse.”

“I know!” Atalo chuckled. “But listen, I got my temper from my dad who got it from his dad. Sure enough, I passed it down to your mom, and let’s not kid ourselves—you’ve got it in spades. It’s just in our blood, I guess. I never made an effort to overcome it in my life, and now, sometimes it just takes hold of me.” He sighed deeply. “Don’t be like me. Don’t let it rule you.”

Gordie considered this for a moment. He
did
have a temper. He remembered breaking his grandfather’s table just after the incident. Then again, it was hours after his father had been killed: who wouldn’t be mad? He felt the anger rush back to him and closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. It really did run in the family.

“I’ll try to control it, Grandpa. Now can we just move on please?”

“Sounds good to me, Gordo!” Atalo slapped him on the shoulder, all of his old gaiety returned. With that, Gordie sat back in his seat and smiled, feeling relieved as they pulled away from the gate and prepared for takeoff.

“So, what do you think of that news, Gordo?” Atalo asked.

Gordie shot him a questioning look meaning, ‘Should we really be talking about this here?’

“You worry too much,” Atalo said. “Nobody knows what we’re talking about.” His careless attitude made Gordie nervous, but he
was
curious.

“I don’t know. What do you think we should do now?”

Atalo shrugged and said, “I don’t see why our plans need to change.”

“Are you kidding?” Gordie asked. “Maybe because the volcano erupted?”

“Oh, whatever. I’m sure it’ll be fine. We’ll figure it out when we get there.”

Again, Gordie questioned his shoot-first-ask-questions-later approach, but he did not want to start another argument.

“If you say so,” he said, before looking back out the window. The plane had just started to hurtle down the runway before it shot off into the lightening sky. Gordie watched the asphalt melt away as they raced over it, and then watched the buildings and trees conform into meaningless congregations as they ascended, leaving the safety of earth behind. After ten minutes or so, they were rumbling through the clouds and bursting out triumphantly above them, where the dawn was far more brilliant. The sun was visible up above the white sea, illuminating the top of the floating pillows that marked the border between this world and the one below. The captain made a garbled announcement about cruising altitude and the seatbelt light, which dinged into extinction after the PA cut out.

Despite the glowing sun, Gordie began to realize that it was now close to midnight from where he hailed, and that he had been awake for nearly seventeen hours. His eyelids began to droop with the weight of this knowledge, and before long, he was fast asleep.

He had scattered dreams that were too disjointed to be intelligible, but some returning actors were recognizable, as well as some new faces in the forms of the deformed Fates. His dream closed with a winged messenger hurtling towards him until his eyes were stung with a blinding flash of light, and he awoke with a start.

“You all right, Gordo?” Atalo asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Gordie said, and he meant it, because today was one of those days where he woke up feeling rejuvenated, like he could do anything. It was different this time, though. This time he recognized it, and excitement flared inside him. “In fact, I’m great!” Gordie bestowed his grandpa with a winning smile, which he returned in kind.

“Well, that’s good news!” Atalo said. “We just flew over the Alps and we’re somewhere over Italy now. Little over an hour left I’d say. I gotta take a leak. I’ll be back in a few.”