a light flashed so brightly, it blinded us three and we were
falling
fast and furious
plummeting
into
a
pit
of
pure
darkness!
TWO
T he journey downward could have been more exciting. Sure, it was scary, with quick turns and vertical drops, but frankly, I was just too excited about arriving on earth and exploring the altars in Sparta and hitting this perfumery in Pompeii that’s run by an old gypsy woman to be all that scared. After the first hour or two I got really bored, so as we rushed through the darkness I started making a mental list of all the things I wanted to do on earth. We couldn’t speak at all to one another. The force with which we were careening just made it impossible. But both my sisters were in view the whole journey. The thing of it was, the trip really did seem way too long. A whole day’s worth of hours just wasted. If I’d had time to expect anything, I would have expected a quick ride that tookmy breath away. The only thing that did that was the hard landing, which not only took my breath but part of my chiffon nightie, too.
After we’d hit the ground, we all just lay there for a minute, stunned. The ground was hard underneath us.
“He didn’t even let us grab our clothes.” I turned toward Era’s voice—she was under a tree, slowly sitting up and rubbing her head.
“Or sneak Pegasus into a bag,” said Polly, who was still lying flat out on the dirt.
“Hey, but we have each other,” I said a little sarcastically. They both just glared at me. But then I saw Polly crack a smile. Albeit a very, very small one.
With a jolt I realized that we were actually on earth. I think Polly and Era realized it at the same time, for suddenly they started looking around us, their eyes wide with curiosity.
It was dark out, but we could see.
What we saw, we did not know.
All around us nothing looked familiar.
By the light of the moon we could see many small buildings, each one neat and tidy and strange looking. A sort of street ran along the grass where we now sat, and it appeared to be hard and wide. Every street I’d ever seen had been made of dirt. That was a little weird.
Era was the first to stand up. She circled a littlebit and stopped in front of a structure of some sort. “This is one odd building, huh, Polly? This must be a part of Greece we’ve never seen. Not even in picture books.”
Polly just stood there, stunned. I knew something was wrong by the look on her pale, moon-shaped face. And not only that; I knew it in my bones. Everything just seemed a little… off .
“Look, there is a message,” Polly said, walking toward the door of the structure. She grabbed a crusty, yellowed paper scroll off the door and shook it. It rolled out, longer than Polly’s glorious hair, longer than my longest gown. Down it fell, hitting the ground and rolling halfway down the walk.
“Oh, there is too much there to read,” Era said absently, watching some small animal hop off into the woods. “What is that pretty little creature?” Era promptly chased after the animal.
Polly shot an annoyed glance in Era’s direction. “This is just great—I’m stuck on earth with my laziest sister and my silliest sister. Such luck.”
I guessed that I was the silly one. But that’s not such a bad -est to be given. I could think of worse…stupid est, boring est, scaredy est. I looked over Polly’s shoulder. Really, the letter on it wasn’t all that long—certainly not long enough to warrant such a long scroll. It was probably just a way of making the letterlook bigger and more important than it really was. The gods are pretty melodramatic about stuff like that.
Polly read from the scroll: “‘Hear ye, hear ye.’ Oh, it’s from Hermes. * It says, ‘Welcome, girls. This is your new home. Your father, the great and powerful Zeus, was not exactly up to snuff, um, today. He has accidentally sent you three girls to Athens…Georgia.’”
“Georgia! Where is that? In the Balkans? Near
falling
fast and furious
plummeting
into
a
pit
of
pure
darkness!
TWO
T he journey downward could have been more exciting. Sure, it was scary, with quick turns and vertical drops, but frankly, I was just too excited about arriving on earth and exploring the altars in Sparta and hitting this perfumery in Pompeii that’s run by an old gypsy woman to be all that scared. After the first hour or two I got really bored, so as we rushed through the darkness I started making a mental list of all the things I wanted to do on earth. We couldn’t speak at all to one another. The force with which we were careening just made it impossible. But both my sisters were in view the whole journey. The thing of it was, the trip really did seem way too long. A whole day’s worth of hours just wasted. If I’d had time to expect anything, I would have expected a quick ride that tookmy breath away. The only thing that did that was the hard landing, which not only took my breath but part of my chiffon nightie, too.
After we’d hit the ground, we all just lay there for a minute, stunned. The ground was hard underneath us.
“He didn’t even let us grab our clothes.” I turned toward Era’s voice—she was under a tree, slowly sitting up and rubbing her head.
“Or sneak Pegasus into a bag,” said Polly, who was still lying flat out on the dirt.
“Hey, but we have each other,” I said a little sarcastically. They both just glared at me. But then I saw Polly crack a smile. Albeit a very, very small one.
With a jolt I realized that we were actually on earth. I think Polly and Era realized it at the same time, for suddenly they started looking around us, their eyes wide with curiosity.
It was dark out, but we could see.
What we saw, we did not know.
All around us nothing looked familiar.
By the light of the moon we could see many small buildings, each one neat and tidy and strange looking. A sort of street ran along the grass where we now sat, and it appeared to be hard and wide. Every street I’d ever seen had been made of dirt. That was a little weird.
Era was the first to stand up. She circled a littlebit and stopped in front of a structure of some sort. “This is one odd building, huh, Polly? This must be a part of Greece we’ve never seen. Not even in picture books.”
Polly just stood there, stunned. I knew something was wrong by the look on her pale, moon-shaped face. And not only that; I knew it in my bones. Everything just seemed a little… off .
“Look, there is a message,” Polly said, walking toward the door of the structure. She grabbed a crusty, yellowed paper scroll off the door and shook it. It rolled out, longer than Polly’s glorious hair, longer than my longest gown. Down it fell, hitting the ground and rolling halfway down the walk.
“Oh, there is too much there to read,” Era said absently, watching some small animal hop off into the woods. “What is that pretty little creature?” Era promptly chased after the animal.
Polly shot an annoyed glance in Era’s direction. “This is just great—I’m stuck on earth with my laziest sister and my silliest sister. Such luck.”
I guessed that I was the silly one. But that’s not such a bad -est to be given. I could think of worse…stupid est, boring est, scaredy est. I looked over Polly’s shoulder. Really, the letter on it wasn’t all that long—certainly not long enough to warrant such a long scroll. It was probably just a way of making the letterlook bigger and more important than it really was. The gods are pretty melodramatic about stuff like that.
Polly read from the scroll: “‘Hear ye, hear ye.’ Oh, it’s from Hermes. * It says, ‘Welcome, girls. This is your new home. Your father, the great and powerful Zeus, was not exactly up to snuff, um, today. He has accidentally sent you three girls to Athens…Georgia.’”
“Georgia! Where is that? In the Balkans? Near