****
Her mother’s hands were hot and clammy as they slid between Amelia’s fingers, the sweat hanging off of them like beaded tears.
“It’ll be all right,” Amelia whispered as Dr. Franklin approached.
The doctor was carrying a large manila envelope marked “personal effects”. As she drew closer Amelia saw that she had been crying; her eyes were bloodshot and puffy. Amelia knew she had been grieving for her idol, Gerard. She touched the white sleeve of the doctor’s coat.
“I’m so sorry,” Dr. Franklin said quietly as she extended the envelope. “I promise you I had absolutely no idea this would happen. You do understand?”
Amelia glanced at Stella, who was looking at the manila envelope as though it was radioactive.
“We know you gave my father excellent care and we appreciate all that you’ve done. We also understand that, as my father would say, we humans are animals, driven by instinct. My father obviously believed this was the time to leave us. That’s why he chose to go.”
Dr. Franklin looked at Amelia and said, “Thank you.”
She looked down and cleared her throat.
“Unfortunately in light of Dr. Coillard’s legal situation and the numerous conspiracy theories that have been bantered about the county medical examiner is insisting on an autopsy.”
“They’re going to cut my Gerard?” Stella screamed.
Amelia turned to her mother.
“Don’t worry Mom,” She said, slipping her arm around her mother’s thin waist. “They won’t hurt him.”
Dr. Franklin sighed.
“When the body is returned for burial I assure you it will be in impeccable condition.”
Dr. Franklin took a step backward.
“Thank you for being so understanding. Again, I’m so sorry for your loss.”
“Oh Amelia, what have I done? I loved your father and I never told him and now it’s too late.”
Amelia pivoted around so she was eye to eye with her mother.
“Listen! Dad knew how much you loved him. That’s why he decided he could go. He told me how happy he was to know he’d been right all along, that you had been hit by Cupid’s arrow after all’. That’s exactly what he said to me that last day I was here.”
Amelia locked her knees so she wouldn’t collapse onto the buckled linoleum floor as she spoke. Her chest burned, like it had the time she and Jennie entered a hot dog eating contest at the Ventura County fair. If only she and Cupid had been able to feel the way Gerard had. But that was impossible, since they both believed Venus’s matches were random occurrences. They both wanted more.
Stella squeezed Amelia’s hand.
“I love you, you know. I’m telling you that right now. I don’t ever want you to forget that being your mother was the most important role in my life. I’m only sorry I failed to show up for opening night for all these years.”
****
“You need to have a talk with Aphrodite,” Jupiter said as Venus sat across from him at the gelateria he’d taken her to as a little girl. “We have to know what went wrong.”
“You already know,” she replied as she licked a spoonful of pistachio ice cream. “Besides, I thought you worked it out with Zeus.”
“I did. We’ve signed a new treaty giving the Greeks a lot more authority over their affairs in exchange for a promise they’ll never do this again.”
Venus scoffed.
“And you actually think that will work?”
“Of course not. That’s why you’re going to visit Aphrodite. And then,” Jupiter lowered his voice and fixed Venus with a cold stare, “You’re going to go see Amelia. We can’t be bringing our own flesh and blood into such a fractured family.”
“But….”
Jupiter pounded the table.
“I am your father, Venus. You will do as I say.”
Venus ordered a carton of spumoni, which she took with her to the visiting room of the ancient Roman prison where Aphrodite was being held. The Greek goddess looked smaller in her orange prison toga, its numbers running crookedly across her sunken chest. She had deep wrinkles at the sides of her eyes and her nails were chipped and broken.
“Come to gloat did you?”
Venus pushed the container of ice cream across the table. Aphrodite swatted the container to the floor. Bright pink and green spumoni ran into the rough planks.
“You fool!” She hissed. “You fool! You never knew! Those months when the seas began to dry up and new blood failed to run through mortal veins. It was all thanks to me. Do you hear me? It was my handiwork!”
Venus gasped.
Aphrodite smiled with pleasure and leaned forward on her spindly chair.
“I subbed out your arrows for blanks. Do you hear me Venus?” Aphrodite stood on the chair and thumped her chest.
“I tricked you! All that spring season, Cupid was shooting blanks!”
Aphrodite cackled as a guard motioned for her to climb down from the chair.
“I got into your camp,” she said, her voice rising.
“And I’m not telling you how! I got in! And I’ll do it again!”
Aphrodite began laughing hysterically. Two guards in dark blue togas embossed with gold stripes on the arm appeared from the shadows, bearing a thick white canvas jacket they bundled Aphrodite into as she continued cackling. As they tied her arms Aphrodite began screaming. Venus willed herself not to look up.
Instead she focused her gaze on the floor where Aphrodite had thrown the spumoni. A piece of dried fruit had embedded itself between two fat slats on the filthy floor, surrounded by a river of green ice cream.
****
After the conversation with her father, Venus knew she’d have to visit the mortal matchmaker. If she didn’t, she knew Jupiter would somehow find out from one of the members of his network of supporters. There would be a heavy price for her disobedience – there always was. Venus shuddered as she recalled how adamant Jupiter had been about the need for her to reconcile with the mother of her grandchild. He’d even enlisted Mercury to help persuade her of the benefits of family unity. For his part, Mercury was gracious enough not to bring it up too often on their now frequent dinners together, and never when he was spending the night at the villa. But Venus knew how he felt, especially when he spoke of the guilt he carried for breaking up their family.
“I suppose I’ll go see her,” she said off-handedly one evening as Renaldo cleared away the coffee tray he always served in her cream colored living room after dinner.
Venus stood up from the couch and walked over to her telescope. She turned it in the direction where she’d always found Happily Ever After By Amelia. She adjusted the lens then frowned. The storefront was shuttered, and the sign above the door was gone. Surely, given the success of her methods, which Jupiter had gone into in great detail after he’d learned about the intricacies of her plan, Amelia’s business must be thriving. She sighed. She’d have to figure out a way to find the matchmaker before she and Mercury had dinner with Jupiter.
“Concordia? CONCORDIA!”
Concordia popped a miniature cherry biscotti into her mouth and strode into her mother’s living room. As usual, Venus looked as though she was ready to sit for a portrait suitable to hang in the Louvre, with her lithe body and slinky golden robes. She looked down at her own toga. Cookie crumbs rested in its ample folds, and her elbow was somehow covered in orange juice.
Venus watched her daughter. Although she would have liked to reach out and clean Concordia up the way she used to when she was small, she refrained from stretching toward her sleeve. Instead, she forced herself to smile.
“I hope you can help me. Since I haven’t seen your brother lately, I need you to please help me find his...” Venus bit her lip as she searched for an appropriate word, “...Lady friend.”
“I assume you mean the mother of your grandchild? Whose name I know you know?”
“There’s no need to get smart with me.”
Concordia rolle
d her eyes.
“She lives down on one of those streets out there,” Concordia said as she nodded in the direction of Amelia’s house.
Concordia looked at Venus, who stared at her with that hangdog expression she’d always used whenever she wanted her children to offer to do something without her having to say anything.
“Do you want me to take you there?” Concordia asked.
Concordia smiled slightly to herself. Venus would think Concordia was merely being nice. The reality, however, was that Concordia had missed Amelia terribly and was thrilled to have an excuse to call on her. Plus, she would never just spring her mother on any mortal.
“If it wouldn’t be too much trouble, yes.”
“All right. I assume you’re going to bring her a gift? You can’t just show up there with your hands hanging.”
“Very well,” Venus replied. “Wait here, I’ll be down in a moment and we’ll go.”
Venus headed up to her room, where Renaldo was airing out her wardrobe. He held a large bristle brush in his hand along with a sachet of lavender from her farm in Provence.
“I cannot believe you will be a grandmother! It must bring back the memories of Cupid as a bambino. So beautiful he was. Do you think the new baby will favor him?”
Venus shrugged her shoulders.
“I’ve no idea what to expect.”
“But the chance to welcome young blood into the family. How lucky you are!”
Renaldo reached for a large box at the top of the closet.
“I wish that I would have someday the opportunity to use something like this. But I will not, as you know. I am fortunate, though, that I have finally someone for whom it does not matter.”
Venus looked at Renaldo. She smiled slightly then held out her arms.
****
Downstairs, Concordia looked through the telescope while she waited for her mother. She panned the streets, hoping for a glimpse of Jennie and Justin. She’d had such high hopes that night on the bluff in Malibu. She’d envisioned all of them, Cupid, Amelia, Jennie, Justin, and Inuus, sitting around campfires after long lazy days swimming in the surf. But that was no longer possible, now that Cupid and Amelia weren’t together. She rubbed her palms together. At least she had this excuse to check in on Amelia.
“Ready?”
Venus stood in the doorway holding a large pink and blue bag. Concordia tried to peek inside but it was held firmly closed by an elaborate set of white ribbons.
“You really went all out,” she said to her mother, who pretended not to hear.
“So, shall we ask Enrique to take us?” Venus asked as they stood at the top of the steps that led down from the villa. “I have no idea how people get around out here, although from what I’ve observed it’s the complete opposite of Rome, no pedestrians. Though they do seem to have some Vespas.”
Concordia scanned the empty sidewalk. She too had no idea whether taxi, horse, or chariot would be the most appropriate mode of transportation, though she suspected, given what she saw every time she looked through her mother’s telescope, that one could never go wrong with a limousine in Los Angeles. She turned to Venus.
“Let’s walk. It’s not far, and I think I’d like to shift a few of these kilos. Even I have to admit I’m putting on weight.”
Venus smiled approvingly.
****
To her surprise, Venus found she enjoyed strolling the streets of West Hollywood. Bright bougainvillea bushes spilled over white stucco walls. The scent of jasmine and hyacinth popped out from odd corners. And there seemed to be the smell of cinnamon everywhere; no doubt it was coming from the churros being sold from food trucks parked along the sidewalk at odd intervals. She also enjoyed the ability to walk along the pavement in anonymity. The few people they did pass on the small streets had decorated their bodies with so many tattoos and piercings and dressed themselves and their dogs in such unusual outfits that two women in togas and robes hardly warranted a second look.
“This is it,” Concordia said as they stopped in front of a tidy bungalow with brilliant blooms bursting from potted planters.
Venus had to admit that it was quaint. Although Amelia’s taste was far simpler than her own, the little house had that relaxed, laid back southern California feel that made her want to kick off her golden sling backs and pop her feet up on the overstuffed couch she was certain would be on the other side of the thick wooden door. To the side was a wall behind which Venus was certain would be an inviting courtyard.
Concordia rang the doorbell. She heard the sound of muffled barking came from the other side of the door. She looked over at Venus and willed her mother not to say or do anything to destroy what little was left of Amelia after all of her losses.
Chapter Forty
Amelia’s belly was the first thing they noticed. It seemed to lunge out of her pink t-shirt, inviting them to touch its hard surface. Concordia remembered how Amelia had let her rest her hand on her stomach that night on the bluff in Malibu, when the baby had first announced itself.
“Amelia.” Concordia reached out and awkwardly embraced Amelia.
Concordia pulled Amelia’s hair from her face, just as Cupid used to do. Amelia flinched at the memory of Cupid’s touch.
“I’m very sorry about your father.”
“Thank you. Would you like to come in?”
Amelia stepped back and stood aside for the two women to enter. The older woman carried herself with the same perfect posture as Cupid. As she passed, Amelia noticed that she smelled of lavender. Cupid had once told her that his mother spent so much time on her farm in Provence that the scent of its fields clung to her year round.
“Look at you. You’re…”
“Huge,” Amelia said wistfully. “I look like I’m carrying a watermelon.”
Concordia laughed.
“I wouldn’t say that.”
Venus stifled a gasp then took a deep breath and extended her beautiful hand.
“I’m Venus. Cupid’s mother,” she said, as she glanced at Concordia. “I’ve come to congratulate you.”
She looked at Amelia’s stomach, then up at her drawn face. “And to thank you for everything you did for us. The Romans are forever in your debt.”
“You’re welcome,” Amelia replied in a flat tone, her eyes narrowed.
Amelia began to feel dizzy. She knew she needed to sit down so she made her way over to the couch.
“Tell us,” Concordia said, “How are you feeling?”
Amelia bit her lip. Should she tell them how she really felt, or just give in to her usual impulse to avoid confrontation? She closed her eyes. If she didn’t speak up, all of the gains she’d made over the past months, the knowledge that she should lead with her heart not her head, would be for naught.
“Well now. Let’s see shall we? My father passed away before he got to see his name cleared, the object of ridicule and scorn after a lifetime’s work. Most importantly, he died before he had the chance to hold his grandchild. My mother’s in the midst of what is actually a genuine breakdown, not just one of those hissy fits she used to put on whenever she wanted something changed in her contract. I’m barely going to be able to afford anything for my baby because my business has collapsed. The father of my baby asked me to marry him, then left me hours later when we learned we did not actually have a love match, but rather had been drawn together by the random chemical implosion that caused my father a lifetime of heartache. So overall, I guess you could say I’ve been better.”
Venus looked at Concordia.
“Please go into the kitchen and make Amelia some tea. You do drink tea, don’t you?”
Amelia looked at her and nodded faintly.
“She and I must have a word together.”
Amelia folded her arms as Venus sat down on the cushion next to her. The older woman placed the large pink and blue bag she’d had slung over her shoulder at her feet.
“Amelia I owe you an apology. I am truly sorry. For everything. You did nothi
ng to deserve any of this. Do you understand me? It was wrong of me to try to destroy your business. It was the act of a desperate woman, which I was. I looked at you and I saw who I used to be. I was angry and I couldn’t cope with my powers waning. As you mortals say I decided I wasn’t going to take it anymore. Please, accept my apologies. I’ve come today to seek your forgiveness.”
Amelia thought of the night, years ago, when her mother left. She’d been trying not to cry, as had Gerard. They had been eating spaghetti, with sauce made from tomatoes Gerard grew in pots beneath a small arbor in the backyard. Her mother had stood over them, silently, watching them lift their forks.
Matching Wits with Venus Page 29
