Hebe walks down the street of Omphalos, finding her footing upon the cobblestones.
Christopher follows her, squinting in the sunlight. Every stumble, every squint makes him feel a little more real.
Hebe: (glancing over her shoulder) You’re still here.
Christopher: (wincing) I’m not sure why.
Oh, the temptation to let go, to drift, but there’s no escape from the sunlight. He’s solid and here, unable to do anything but walk.
Hebe: Well, well, I’ve got you. Or someone else does.
Christopher: Does someone else need to speak to me?
Hebe: Let’s find out.
She stops to turn up a rose-lined path to a small cottage along the road. Vines wrap themselves around its roof and walls. A lemon tree grew in front of a window, watching the way to the cottage door. Spider webs clung to its branches, glistening in the harsh light.
Hebe walks straight up the path, paying the spiders no mind. She opens the door into the dimmer, softer light of the cottage interior, the light of a burning hearth.
Christopher follows her inside, wondering if he needs an invitation. Perhaps an open door is enough.
A bent old man with a graying beard sits in a comfortable chair with velvet cushions next to a fire, scowling at it.
Christopher: (recognizing the man, unable to be sure when and where he met him) Jupitre?
Hebe: My father never leaves.
The old man turns his scowl in their direction.
Jupitre: Where have you been, girl?
Hebe: The Navel.
Jupitre: What kind of an answer is that?
Christopher: A weird one. The Navel is a shop which claims to be the center of all things bizarre, but it’s there for customers who need it.
Jupitre: (glowering at him) Who are you?
Hebe: This is Christopher. Gabrielle’s son. I’ve mentioned Gabrielle.
Jupitre: You think I bothered to remember her or any other so-called Heavenly Direction? I once ruled the heavens. I was the greatest of all the gods!
Hebe: Well, I never was the greatest of all gods or anything else for that matter. I don’t mind a little heavenly direction. Not that I’ve ever gone to the Navel lookig for it.
Jupitre: Pah. (He makes a spitting noise.) Lost her power, did she? Serves her right.
Christopher: What do you mean?
Hebe: Don’t get him started.
Jupitre: Shut up, girl. Heavenly Directions think they’re the only divinity that matter. They told my worshippers I was nothing but a bully and a pervert. By offering me sacrifices, they were only encouraging me.
Hebe: They got that right!
Jupitre: What do you know of right, girl? I did right by the women I took, siring heroes upon them. I even made the boy I took immortal. I bluster, I storm, but I give my worshippers something far more solid than direction. Did they appreciate it? No.
Christopher: What happened?
Hebe: (groaning) Here we go again. (She walks out of the room, disappear through an archway.)
Jupitre: (slumping into a sulky posture) They stopped worshipping me. Stopped making sacrifices in my name. Stopped praying to me. Eventually they stopped believing in me. Eventually they forgot me, leaving nothing but this. (He raises leather-spotted hands.)
Christopher: You are the measure of your worshippers or perhaps your worship?
Jupitre: Don’t talk nonsense. You dare to suggest that it’s the fickle, shallow nature of those who sacrificed me which make me who and what I am? That’s I’m no better than the mortals who worship me?!
Christopher: What do you think?
Jupitre: I was the greatest of all gods! I commanded the lightning and the thunder. Now it thunders without me!
Christopher: Maybe the storms stopped believing in you as well or somehow freed themselves from you?
Jupitre: How could they do such a thing? My true form was a lightning bolt! Why, I struck down my woman with it when she demanded that I reveal it to her. It was all Juno’s fault.
Juno appears from another roof in a gauzing gown, carrying a tea tray.
Juno: That’s what you get for playing around, dear. Hello, Christopher.
Christopher: Hello, Juno.
Jupitre: Confound it, woman. I’m a man among man, the man, a god among gods. Playing around is my nature.
Juno: Sometimes nature needs a firm hand, dear. (She sets down the tray in front of him, pours Jupitre a cup.) I’m sorry I don’t have any tea for you, Christopher, dear.
Christopher: Quite all right. I seldom drink or eat.
Jupitre: Everyone eats or drinks. One thing or another.
Christopher: That’s true. For me, it’s seldom food.
Jupitre: Heh, just a shadow of your former self, eh? Feeding on the words and feelings of others?
Christopher: Something like that.
Juno: Don’t you worry, dear. I’m not eating or drinking anything either. This tea is for Jupitre.
Christopher: The same tea you get at the Navel.
Juno: That’s right, dear. (She beams at him.) Now you drink it, love.
Jupitre: (glowering at Juno) Woman, you don’t command me. I will not drink where I’m bade to do so.
Juno: (smiling sweetly at Jupitre) Of course not, dear. You can sit here and stew, tormented by all the things you no longer are if you wish. Or you can drink your tea, enjoying a state of relaxation you seldom allow yourself to.
Jupitre: (mutters under his breath and picks up the cup) I took her, you know. (He takes a swallow.) My own twin. After I pulled her from our father’s belly.
Juno: (smile crumpling around the edges as her gray eyes harden, turning frosty) That was a long time ago, dear. I’m your wife now.
Jupitre: You might never have been if I hadn’t changed things. If I hadn’t come to you as a wounded bird. I could have rained lightning down upon the temple you were in. Demanded that you give yourself to me, but I didn’t.
Juno: I suppose you see that as a weakness, dear. The desire to cradle something wounded to my bosom rather than crush it.
Jupitre: How different things would have been if you’d crushed me! You could have ruled the heavens!
Juno: The heavens aren’t the same without you at my side, dear.
Jupitre: You might have been the mistress of the earth and all other goddesses.
Juno: I’ve never craved such domination the way you did, dear.
Jupitre: Ever think about what might have happened? If you hadn’t cradled that wounded bird to your breast?
Juno: Drink the rest of your tea, Jupitre.
Jupitre: (winking at Christopher) She hates me, pretty one, yet she loves me with all her heart. She would be nothing without me.
Juno: As you would be nothing without me. We became the married couple who set the tone for many a married couple.
Jupitre: You became the patron deity of marriage. Why?
Juno: You made me happy, even though you made me miserable. Marriage has tamed you, dear, even if you’re too proud to admit it. It’s made you think twice about many things. It’s made me accomplish things I might never have tried, If I hadn’t accepted it.
Jupitre: I was never faithful to you and you alone the way you wished me to. (His eyes become blurry.) I never will be.
Juno: (patting his cheek) And I’ll see to it you suffer for it, dear. If not you, whatever trollop I catch you with.
Jupitre: Wench. (His eyes close, his lips soften into a smile.) What would I do without you?
Juno: (gazing at him in tender possessiveness) You never have to worry about that, dear.
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