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Authors: Sarah Cate Anstey
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one night stand, including the prerogative of the dumped - to replay every detail of the night before, to find a clue.
What had I said?
What hadn’t I said?
What had he said?
What hadn’t he said?
Had I laughed at all his jokes too loudly or not enough?
Had I eaten too much?
All the questions led to one word - why?
It took me a few days and half of Bris’s herb pouch to realise that I wasn’t going to get all the answers I wanted. The truth is, you can’t make somebody want you. And if you could, why would you want to? That’s not to say that in those first few days I wouldn’t have busted Theo’s balls, but even those feelings evaporated when I heard about his father. I had bigger troubles on my mind. I had escaped from Crete, only to be marooned on another island.
After a while, the stars began to lose their appeal and I needed to get some money. Five days after Theo left me, I found myself waking up with someone else. The beach was full of revellers waking up to dazzling sunshine which made them regret the night before. My companion, Nyx, woke with a start and with a moan of “Oh Apollo!” fell back on the sand again.
“Good night?” I asked her.
“Yes, but boy do you pay for them in the morning!” I nodded back wisely, although I had no idea. I rifled around in Bris’s herb pouch until I found the dried berries I was looking for and made an infusion from them.
“Here,” I said, passing it to Nyx.
“No, I’m sworn off juice until tonight.” I made her drink it. She fell back to sleep again and woke an hour later, a new woman.
“What was that stuff?” she asked me brightly. I was about to explain when she put her hand up.
“No, don’t bother, I make it a rule not to know what I’ve drunk.”
“Don’t you think that’s what got you into trouble in the first place?”
“Yes,” she replied with a cheeky grin.
We swapped stories. Nyx loyally interjected “bastard” at the appropriate moments, during mine.
“You know there’s an easy way to get some money,” she said when I’d finished. She downed the dregs of her cup and handed it to me.
“This stuff is gold dust,” she continued and gestured around the beach where the other revellers were beginning to crawl back home.
“See you same time tomorrow.” She smiled as she left, “I’ll spread the word”. She jumped up and ran along the beach, laughing and shouting to the disbelief of her nightly companions who were too weak to tell her to “shut the Hades up!”
So my entrepreneurial skills came about purely by accident. But then, isn‘t that how all, who have succumbed to dubious and desperate measures in order to survive, rationalise their antics? All I had was the knowledge of plants Bris had given me. The only gift anyone had ever given me.
By the same time the next day, I had made enough to move off the beach. My customers were from all over Greece and as coins exchanged, so did the news. It was from these interchanges that I learnt about Theseus’s father , news closer to home and the tragic ending for another father and son.
When my father discovered I had run away with Theo and that his Minotaur myth had gone up in smoke, he looked around for someone to punish and found Daedalus. He locked the craftsman and his son up in a tower, until he could decide the best way to make an exhibition of his old servant and try to regain some face. However, the inventor was full of resources. Daedalus attracted birds to the tiny windows with crumbs. He then collected their feathers and set about making two sets of wings for his son and himself. He stuck them together with the wax from the few candles my charitable father allowed.
When the wings were finished, father and son attached them to each other and practised. Daedalus made a flight plan. By the position of the sun, he determined which direction his prison was facing and decided it would be
What had I said?
What hadn’t I said?
What had he said?
What hadn’t he said?
Had I laughed at all his jokes too loudly or not enough?
Had I eaten too much?
All the questions led to one word - why?
It took me a few days and half of Bris’s herb pouch to realise that I wasn’t going to get all the answers I wanted. The truth is, you can’t make somebody want you. And if you could, why would you want to? That’s not to say that in those first few days I wouldn’t have busted Theo’s balls, but even those feelings evaporated when I heard about his father. I had bigger troubles on my mind. I had escaped from Crete, only to be marooned on another island.
After a while, the stars began to lose their appeal and I needed to get some money. Five days after Theo left me, I found myself waking up with someone else. The beach was full of revellers waking up to dazzling sunshine which made them regret the night before. My companion, Nyx, woke with a start and with a moan of “Oh Apollo!” fell back on the sand again.
“Good night?” I asked her.
“Yes, but boy do you pay for them in the morning!” I nodded back wisely, although I had no idea. I rifled around in Bris’s herb pouch until I found the dried berries I was looking for and made an infusion from them.
“Here,” I said, passing it to Nyx.
“No, I’m sworn off juice until tonight.” I made her drink it. She fell back to sleep again and woke an hour later, a new woman.
“What was that stuff?” she asked me brightly. I was about to explain when she put her hand up.
“No, don’t bother, I make it a rule not to know what I’ve drunk.”
“Don’t you think that’s what got you into trouble in the first place?”
“Yes,” she replied with a cheeky grin.
We swapped stories. Nyx loyally interjected “bastard” at the appropriate moments, during mine.
“You know there’s an easy way to get some money,” she said when I’d finished. She downed the dregs of her cup and handed it to me.
“This stuff is gold dust,” she continued and gestured around the beach where the other revellers were beginning to crawl back home.
“See you same time tomorrow.” She smiled as she left, “I’ll spread the word”. She jumped up and ran along the beach, laughing and shouting to the disbelief of her nightly companions who were too weak to tell her to “shut the Hades up!”
So my entrepreneurial skills came about purely by accident. But then, isn‘t that how all, who have succumbed to dubious and desperate measures in order to survive, rationalise their antics? All I had was the knowledge of plants Bris had given me. The only gift anyone had ever given me.
By the same time the next day, I had made enough to move off the beach. My customers were from all over Greece and as coins exchanged, so did the news. It was from these interchanges that I learnt about Theseus’s father , news closer to home and the tragic ending for another father and son.
When my father discovered I had run away with Theo and that his Minotaur myth had gone up in smoke, he looked around for someone to punish and found Daedalus. He locked the craftsman and his son up in a tower, until he could decide the best way to make an exhibition of his old servant and try to regain some face. However, the inventor was full of resources. Daedalus attracted birds to the tiny windows with crumbs. He then collected their feathers and set about making two sets of wings for his son and himself. He stuck them together with the wax from the few candles my charitable father allowed.
When the wings were finished, father and son attached them to each other and practised. Daedalus made a flight plan. By the position of the sun, he determined which direction his prison was facing and decided it would be
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