Athena's Daughter Read Free Page B

all of two days,
and up until being shot down on getting inside the Apple offices
she had been enjoying every second. Years of accumulated birthday
and Christmas checks were hoarded and saved with the goal of
spending a summer in the UK. Her parents patronized her when she
mentioned these plans, and were shocked and disbelieving when she
cashed out her savings just after high school graduation to buy her
plane ticket. But she prevailed, scoffing at their concern over her
plans to backpack through the United Kingdom and their downright
horror at her intention to stay at youth hostels while there. Only
her promise to return in the fall to attend Memphis State
University where they both taught Greek Mythology gained their
permission for the trip.
    But Athena had no intention of going to
college. She caught up to the group of girls she’d met at the
hostel, listening with half an ear to their conversation carried
out in a mixture of English, American and French accents. This was
what she wanted to do – travel, see the world, meet people from
different countries and experience everything life had to offer. No
way that was going to happen on a stuffy college campus in Memphis,
especially not one where her parents were both professors and her
twin siblings were undergrads. No matter what her parents said,
Athena wasn’t going to be sucked into that life, studying for years
to become a teacher like them, dying a little more each day while
stuck in classrooms inhaling the scent of chalk dust and
despair.
    Unbeknownst to her parents, Athena was
gathering information and applications to become an airline
stewardess, the most glamorous profession she could imagine. She
was aided in this quest by her older sister Andi who allowed Athena
to use her dorm room address for her correspondence with the
airlines. Though Andi was only a year away from obtaining her own
teaching degree, she had no intention of going into the profession,
declaring it made people crazy. Case in point, their parents who
were so into their subject that they named their three children
Adonis, Andromeda and Athena. No, Andromeda/Andi planned to get
married and start having babies as soon as she could and get no
closer to a classroom than parent-teacher conferences. She was in
complete sympathy with her little sister’s refusal to join the
ranks of academia.
    “Hey, you guys,” Athena interrupted her new
friends’ chatter. “Are we still going to the V & A today?”
    “Certainly,” declared one of the girls.
Vanessa was from Provence, and like Athena was traveling through
the UK on her own before heading to École Nationale Supérieure des
Beaux-Arts in the fall. “I’ve been looking forward to going there
for years.”
    Grumbling ensued among the other girls from
the hostel; the Victoria and Albert Museum wasn’t high on their
list of priorities. They were all itching to go to Portobello
Market instead of spending time wandering around stuffy artwork and
exhibits. After a bit of discussion, it was decided that only
Athena and Vanessa would visit the V & A and meet up with the
other girls that afternoon in Hyde Park.
    Going to the V & A with Vanessa was a
blast for Athena. Since Vanessa had studied art from a young age
and dreamed of becoming an important painter, she brought the works
of art displayed to life with her passion for them. Athena couldn’t
have chosen a better person to go with her, even though Vanessa
frequently got so excited over a painting she’d lapse into French.
Since Athena only knew a few words in that language, she missed the
details, but the paintings still took on a brighter meaning because
of Vanessa’s enthusiasm for them.
    Athena’s favorite part of the museum was the
exhibitions of clothes, and she dragged Vanessa to each display,
oohing and ahhing over every ruffle and bead, and wondering how
women managed to wear corsets every day without going crazy.
    As the appointed time to meet the other girls
grew near, they left the