Teri gave a brief account of her accident. She mentioned the strange speckled pigeons at the end.
“That’s weird,” said Phil. “I was attacked by spotted birds today, too.”
“Are we going to play this game or not?” asked Lucky. “This murder isn’t going to solve itself. Didn’t a great mortal once remark that justice delayed is justice denied?”
“I got it.” Phil snapped his fingers and pointed to his god. “This is all because of you.”
“These things happen,” said Lucky. “I don’t think there’s anything to be gained by overanalyzing random events like this.”
Quick grunted.”-Says the luck god.”
Lucky’s smile faded. “Well, now, I can explain-”
“It’s more of that entropic rebalancing, isn’t it?” Phil said. “The pressure valve to keep the really bad stuff from happening.”
“Yes! Karmic necessity. No big thing. A little inconvenient, sure, but not really a problem.”
“Getting run over by a truck is not an inconvenience,” said Quick.
“Hey, I’m thirsty,” said Lucky. “Anybody else thirsty?”
“I could use a soda,” said Phil.
“One soda, coming up!” Lucky grabbed Quick by the wing. “Want to help me with this one, buddy?”
“Help you grab a soda? Does that really require two gods?”
“Excuse us.” Lucky pulled Quick into the kitchen.
“Will you cut it out?” whispered Lucky as he grabbed a beverage.
“They need to know,” said Quick.
“They’re my followers. That’s for me to decide. So why don’t you mind your own business?”
Quick flapped his wings in exasperation.
Lucky poked the serpent god in the chest. “If you find it too hard to shut up, you’re always free to find another place to crash.”
Quick snarled. “You’re an asshole.”
Lucky’s ears fluttered. “All part of my charm.”
They returned to the living room.
“One soda for my newest follower,” announced Lucky boisterously. He tossed the can to Phil.
“I was just explaining how it works,” said Phil. “The way that weird things have to happen to keep chaos in check. It’s not going to always be like this, is it?”
“Oh no,” said Lucky. “It’ll balance itself out eventually, and you can trust that while you’re under my influence even vicious squirrels and nasty birds are little more than an inconvenience.”
Quick bit his lip hard enough that his fangs drew blood.
“So are we going to play or not?” asked Lucky. “If I recall correctly, I’m first. And I think I will try to solve the crime.”
“You haven’t even eliminated any suspects yet,” said Phil.
“Can’t hurt to take a guess, can it? I think it was Professor Plum in the conservatory with the lead pipe.” Lucky opened the envelope and spread out the cards for everyone to see. “Must be my lucky day.”
Quick sighed. “This is why I only play checkers with gods of fortune.”
13
“Are you sure this is the right place?” asked Bonnie.
“I’m sure,” said Syph.
Bonnie studied the house across the street. It was nice but unremarkable. difficult to imagine that a god called it home.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, I’m sure.”
“How do you know he’s in there?” asked Bonnie.
“I just know.”
“Okay then. Do you want me to go in with you or do you think you can handle it on your own?”
Syph slouched in her seat.
“I can go in with you if you want,” said Bonnie.
Syph sighed, and the rearview mirror fell off. Bonnie had long since moved past commenting on things like this. She’d almost stopped noticing them. She waited for Syph to say or do anything, but the goddess just sat there.
“What’s wrong?” asked Bonnie.
“I can’t do it.”
“What?”
“I’ve changed my mind. I can’t go in there.”
Bonnie tightened her grip on the steering wheel.
“Do you want to stay a goddess of heartbreak forever?”
“No.”
“Well, the first step to changing that is to confront the lousy bastard whose rejection turned you into… this.”
“I guess that makes sense,” said Syph quietly.
“You’re damn right it makes sense. This guy rejected you. He treated you like crap. You, the goddess of love!”
“He wasn’t as bad as all that. Really, it was more my fault than his.”
Overwhelming gloom filled the car. Even knowing it was a foreign despair forcing itself upon her didn’t help Bonnie resist entirely. She rolled down her windows in hopes of letting the negativity escape.
“You have to stop doing this to yourself. And to me. And to people like me. Being divine doesn’t give you the right to go around destroying people’s lives.”
Syph raised her eyebrows questioningly.
“So maybe it does,” admitted Bonnie. “You can keep doing this until the end of time, jumping from mortal to mortal, crushing hopes and joy one victim at a time. We can’t stop you. I know I certainly can’t. But you keep saying you’re sorry about this. That doesn’t mean anything. Not unless you try to prevent it.”
Syph said nothing. Bonnie wrung the wheel, trying to read the inscrutable goddess.
“What if he doesn’t like me?” asked Syph softly.
“Do you care if he likes you?”
“I don’t know. Should I? Is it wrong that I care what he thinks?”
“You were dumped. It’s not weird to have mixed feelings. You resent him for rejecting you, but you also want him back because you weren’t ready for it. And maybe underneath that, you feel like because he rejected you that you have something to prove by showing him he made a mistake. And if you can get him to take you back it’ll be vindication, show that you are worth something.”
“You seem to be an expert on this,” said Syph.
“No more than anyone else,” replied Bonnie. “We mortals have to deal with this a lot. Most of us anyway.”
“How sad for you. To have your short lives burdened by such complications.”
“Yeah, it sucks,” agreed Bonnie.
She surrendered to the ennui and just slumped in defeat. She didn’t even cry. Not because she wasn’t terminally depressed. But it was such an overwhelming hopelessness that she just felt numb.
“So if I go in there and talk to him, it’ll make me feel better?” asked Syph.
“Yes, it will.” Bonnie half-smiled. “Absolutely, it will. Maybe.” She tried looking Syph in the face and lying to her, but she couldn’t. Whether this was due to her honest nature or the draining effects of the goddess wasn’t clear. It took energy to lie. Energy Bonnie didn’t have.
“Probably not,” said Bonnie. “Some people will tell you that it’s good for closure, but I think they’re fooling themselves. It’s not like you’re going to knock on that door and have a twenty-minute discussion that’ll fix all your problems. Usually, the conversation is either ugly or awkward or both and you walk away feeling worse about yourself or just pissed off at the whole world.”
“Then why do it?” asked Syph.
Bonnie thought about it a moment.
“Because you have two choices. Choice number one: get over it and move on with your life. That’s the healthy thing to do, the best way to handle it. Considering that you’ve been nursing this depression for a few thousand years, I don’t think that’s an option.”
Syph lowered her head as ice formed on the dashboard.
“Odin’s missing eye,” grumbled Bonnie. It was hard enough keeping herself from giving up, but the goddess of tragedy was even more easily discouraged. And when Syph felt down, that negativity transferred to Bonnie. It was a vicious cycle.
“Oh, for Olympus ’s sake, snap out of it.” She smacked Syph on the shoulder. “Go up and knock on that door and confront this guy. It probably won’t make you feel better, but it’s just something you have to do. Don’t you think two thousand years of misery are enough? This isn’t unrequited love anymore. It’s not even unhealthy obsession. It’s just pathetic.”