Excerpt from Vanessa's Reader - Happening Hades

Excerpt from Vanessa's Reader

Happening Hades

“Can you tell I was sick?” The agent asks.

Fanta and Aphrodite say they see nothing that would make them believe she suffered any disease.

“But what does it matter here?” Fanta asks.

“After Saturn, Hades is happening.  And you don’t want to look horrible.  The surgeons fix almost anything.”  The agent describes the number of pustules she had removed, how even though they didn’t hurt anymore, they oozed, which she says is like having a ghost limb but with skin.

“May I turn the stove on and boil water?” Fanta asks.

The agent nods her head.  “There’s a whole turkey in the refrigerator if you’d like to test out the oven.  It cooks in ten seconds.”

“We’re vegan,” Fanta says.

Aphrodite teases Fanta the kitchen is sophisticated enough.  “We won’t miss the food converter on your ship,” she says.

They stroll through the living room staged with simple, large leather furniture, but this leather has a distinctive, gamey smell.  Fanta wrinkles his nose.

“Many of our clients like it,” the agent says.  She brings out a bottle of room freshener, and in a few seconds, the place smells like a goddess’ house.

“A minotaur could gallop around with friends on the first floor,” Aphrodite says.  “We could host a ball here.”  She nudges Fanta, “it’s perfect for us.”

“This is a model,” the agent says.  “If you buy, you can choose the color of the carpet or whether to have carpet.  Some residents prefer basic floors, I have concrete, stamped with a buffalo pattern.  And if you buy before Thesmophoria, I’ll buy a fake turkey and pie, and whatever else it is you vegans eat for your first night here.”

Fanta considers if he should invite Aphrodite over to his father’s for the ancient Greek Thanksgiving.

“I’m meat-free one night a week.  I won’t eat her if you bring her on that night.”  Polyphemus said.

Polyphemus is more agreeable than the apartment with its views of dead plague sufferers as they light up the night and go to surgery in the morning.  Fanta has calculated no other distractions for Aphrodite.  And he’s worried.  What might happen if Aphrodite and his father get along?