Read Online Pandora Gets Angry by Carolyn Hennesy - Free Book Online

large carts full of papers or small, white rounded stones. And, she observed, each monkey had a collar around his neck with the same fat, milky white stone at the center.
    From under her hood, Hera nodded graciously to everyone as if she were bestowing a great gift simply by being in the room. Then she caught two women giggling by an urn of cooled water as she strode by. Glaring at them, she heard another man snicker as he sat hunched over sheets of papyrus, copying information from one page to another.
    â€œGuess I’ll be checking over a lot of forms with this one,” he called out to the official who was now leading Hera down a darkened hallway.
    â€œSorry about it,” the official yelled over his shoulder. “Hope you didn’t have any wine-and-hummus plans after work.”
    He led Hera into what was, comparatively, a plain room, large and windowless except for a row of tiny, ruby-bordered windows along the very top of one wall, letting in only a small amount of light. In the center of the room was a long table on which were placed several stacks of paper, each a few centimeters high.
    â€œAnd here we are,” said the official.
    Hera looked down at the piles with disdain.
    â€œDeclaration of All Powers Outside Persian Borders,” she read aloud from the heading on one page. “Purpose of Visit to Persia, Agreement of Non-Malicious Intent.”
    She picked up a pile, thumbed through it, and roughly tossed it down again.
    â€œI have to sign all of these?” she asked.
    â€œThere’s that attitude again,” said the official. “And no, of course you don’t have to sign all of these.”
    â€œI should hope not.”
    â€œYou have to sign all of these and all of these,” said the official, pointing across the room to two monkeys moving toward them, pushing a cart twice their size, full to the brim with piles and piles of papyrus sheets, most in small bundles.
    Hera opened her mouth, but the official cut her off.
    â€œIt’s so simple. You either sign all of these forms, in triplicate, which means three—count ’em, three—times, or you will be denied access into the country and all rights and privileges granted therein. You won’t get an egg, and for you there’s no way out of this building without one except a one-way express back to your country of origin. Where, I can only imagine, they miss you terribly. Moudi and Houdi …”
    He pointed at the monkeys, who jumped up and down and clapped their hands.
    â€œâ€¦ will be watching just to make certain you don’t miss anything. And if you leave, that’s it. At a later time, if you decide you do want to behave, you’d have to go back and wait in that long line again. No cuts.”
    The man’s tone was almost more than Hera could bear. She desperately wanted to be furious, and for a moment she was until she was distracted by something the man had only glossed over.
    â€œEgg?” Hera said, glancing at the collar around one monkey’s neck.
    The official looked at her as if she were crazy.
    â€œOf course,” he said, then he paused. “Didn’t you see all of the others walking away with shiny white objects when they left? Didn’t you pay any attention when you were standing in line? Oh, that’s right. You were so excited to be here that you fell asleep .”
    â€œYes,” Hera said slowly, her teeth clenched. If only she had this man in her clutches back in Greece. “Yes, I am sorry about that, I feel as if I have been waiting in line such a very long time.”
    â€œTime is irrelevant here,” the official cut in. “Very much, I believe, like your underworld. You may have been here only several ticks of a sundial. Or you might have been here for weeks. You were sleeping, you know.”
    â€œYes, and again, I do so apologize, but what does an egg have to do with—?”
    â€œ An egg?” he said loudly.