Scene 14
Sophia and Thales relaxed in her privacy house readying for bed. The mood sat somber like a murder of crows were on the top of the stone walls looking down and waiting for a feast of positive soul attraction as well as negative.
“I need some comfort tonight,” said Sophia. “It is hard to know what to do. I never dreamed we would be up in arms over Mother’s primary decision to go with this protest.”
Thales remarked, “It is more than a protest. In our hearts, it is more and I do not know why? It is like we are fighting ourselves.”
Somewhat flippantly Sophia asked, “Civil war of the heart or mind? What do you think?”
“It feels like love is the theme of battle but I don’t know whose.” He paused in thought and floundered with, “It seems that whatever it is, it is riding the great white horse of Free Will.”
She smiled, “I always picture that great horse a thundering black.”
Thales laid down with the slight smile comfortably, and emotionally exhausted quickly fell into a hug-an-smile; into a waveless water deeper than either suspected. Undisturbed and quiet they lay molding into an effigy of stone seemingly dead to the tirelessly sleeping underworld. Slowly, just before the bewitched hour of another day Thales awoke. He stroked Sophia’s hair until she stirred.
He said softly, “You need to know something,” as he glanced up and out the roofless top half expecting to find a dark predatory audience awaiting a further unraveling of his mind.
“What’s the matter?”
“I am afraid the goddess I saw on the path the other day was Hecate. She was an old croan with a cane, but when she came closer passed me her face shown with such beauty I was stunned, then she was gone when I turned to follow her path. I could not imagine what goddess she was, but the more I have thought about it I am sure that is who she was.”
Sophia studied his eyes. “Why is this important? You seem upset. Hecate is a good goddess and our cause is about helping the youth to live better lives, just as well help the youth that come to this Place far too young.”
He noted, “Hecate can allow good or evil spirits into Elysium.”
She replied, “Why would Hecate allow evil in?”
“I have been thinking that Apollo is on our side in this but his sister, Artemis may not be. People say Hecate takes to a similar dressed state as Artemis, both with long skirts and hunting boots. They may be twin-minded.”
“We have too many stories, Thales,” said Sophia sympathetically. “We have too many answers. They can’t all be correct, and we know for a fact that they are not.” She rolled on her side and massaged Thales for a few moments. They returned to holding hands as he stared out into the starry night that he knew was not real.
Just before returning to sleep he quietly said, “Hecate is the goddess of the crossroad. For good or ill, I think it is a sign.”
Sophia squeezed his hand gently but said nothing and she soon returned to sleep.
Thales lay in bed staring through the invisible ceiling that covered his mind. I see the stars out there, he thought. I know they are not real. We Dead who are Here are real only to ourselves. Hecate is the goddess of the crossroad. Do we cross ourselves at that place when we find it? Do we double back? The more I stare into this sky above, the more I see the center of my own heart, and these twinkling stars out there become nothing but the shrapnel left from what is left of my most personal of armor. How can I remain honest and true to myself if I cannot discover the seed of what a dead human being is?
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