Coming Out of Exile: The Strength of a Father's Love
By Moon Mistress

Chapter Five

Altair Ain

Since it was Friday and there was no school the next day after dinner and baths Calla brought all of the children into her room where she used her magick to ignite the hearth and make the kids go ‘ooo’.  They thought that was a wonderful trick, everyone but Athena who had a good command of fire but her Mother’s was better and even she was impressed when the hearth sprang to life.  “All right, everyone got their blankets and pillows?” She asked and the group of seven children nodded and held up their belongings to show their Mother and their Grandmother they were ready to snuggle in for the night.  “Good, now pick your places, go on.”  Aiden laid his blanket down on the floor by the fire along with Athena while Amy and Lilly made themselves comfortable on the sofa in Calla’s bedroom.  Colleen and Danny—Calla loved calling her Grandson Danny instead of Daniel!—paired up in the high back chairs that Calla put together for the night.  Colleen was only eight and Danny six so she would keep the scary stories to a G rating, more or less.  “What story do we want to hear tonight?” She asked as she took the coverlet from her bed and wrapped it around her to sit on the floor by Aiden where everyone could see her.

“Golden Arm.” Amy suggested with a devilish grin.

“Oh, that’s a good one.  Have you two heard that one yet?” She asked of her youngest Grandchildren and Colleen and Danny shook their heads.  “All right then, here we go. The Golden Arm,” she whispered in a spooky voice.  “I almost forgot the lights.”

“I got it!” Aiden called out and sprang from his seat to the light switch. “Ready?” He asked as his hand landed on it.

“Ready!” The others called back and he switched out the light before dashing back to his Mother and his blanket and pillow by the fire.

“Snuggle down now,” Calla advised and began the story holding the undivided attention of all the children around her. “Once upon a time, a long time ago, there was an elderly couple who’d been married for many years.  One day when the woman was younger she was in a terrible car accident that claimed her left arm. The doctors all agree that they only thing they could do for her was to replace the arm with one made of solid gold.” She paused for a moment as she watched the children lean in a little closer towards her.  “This was quite expensive as you can imagine but her husband loved her with all of his heart and only the best would do so he bought her the golden arm and she was quite proud of it often showing it off to those around her letting them touch the gold.  One night as they lie in bed on a chilly fall night she looked over to him and said; “If I should die before you I want you to promise me that you’ll bury me with my golden arm.”  Her husband that thought an odd request since, while it was true they were much older now, neither of them was sick and so he said that he would.  Every night after that as they lie in their bed huddled close today she would make him promise the very same thing.  One day after a long sleep she did not wake up. The man was heartbroken at the loss of his beloved wife and companion for so many years.  He cried and cried himself to sleep every night after as he fell into a depression so deep nothing could pull him out of it.  He stopped eating and going to work because all he could think about was his wife and that golden arm rotting in the ground.  No longer able to keep up with the bills of the house he sold off pieces of furniture and other things to make ends meet as he went about his lonely life but one day the bad news came that they were going to take his house away.”

“Poor old guy,” Brigid muttered.

“Yes, poor old guy indeed,” Calla agreed.  “He and his wife had lived in that very house for over fifty years.  The old man fretted and worried and didn’t know what to do.  Every night he thought about the shiny gold deep in the cold, cold ground.  If he had that he could pay all his bills and keep his house. Surely his wife who loved him so long and cared for him so deeply wouldn’t want him to lose their house.  On a cold, cold night when all the town was fast asleep instead of going to bed he went out, got in his car and drove to the cemetery where he…..dug….up….her…grave.”  At this point it was Calla who leaned forward and began to make sounds like a shovel in dirt. “Ch-aah, Ch-aah, Ch-aah, he dug and he dug until his shovel hit something solid….bang.  It was… the coffin.”  Now the children shivered and held their blankets a little closer.  “Creeeeeek, he opened it and inside was the skeletal remains of his long dead wife.  The golden arm shone under the light of the full moon.  The old man reached down and pried it away from her bones. Tucking it into his coat he ran back to the car leaving her grave uncovered and made his way home.  The gold was cold, oh it was so cold against him as he drove.” She shivered and they did too.  “Sneaking into his home in the dead of night he went up to his bedroom and put the arm under the pillow his wife once slept on. In the morning he would melt it down into bars and sell them all his troubles would be over.  He undressed and got into the bed but gold next to him didn’t warm in fact it chilled the whole bed and no matter how close he brought the covers around him he could not get warm.  After a while he fell into a light sleep only to wake to the sound of a voice on the wind. It was his wife’s voice and she was crying out; ‘Where is my golden arm?’  The old man got up and looked out his window to see a ghostly apparition floating down the street toward his house. ‘Oh, where is my golden arm?’ The familiar voice cried out with ghostly sorrow as she came nearer and nearer.  The old man looked toward the bed and saw the gold gleaming in the place she used to lay.  Downstairs he heard the back door open and then slam shut!  He began to shake.  ‘Where is my golden arm?’  Her lonely voice called out once more.  Then he heard it, foot steps on the stairs, thump, thump, thump, and they were coming closer and closer.  Terrified he shut his bedroom door and locked it!  He heard her footfalls in the hall. ‘Where is my golden arm?’  He crawled into the bed and hid there with the covers pulled up to his nose as his old heart raced and he thought he must be dreaming. She was dead, he’d seen her in her grave just tonight, it couldn’t possibly be her!  Thump, thump, thump until the footsteps stopped just outside the door.”  The children around her were wide eyed and enrapt in the tale she was spinning.  “Where is my golden arm?” She called out one more time and the door flew open with a great BANG!“ Calla used her magick to cause the balcony doors to swing open wide as if the wind had blown them open. The children jumped and she continued. “ ‘Where is my golden arm?’ She asked for the last time as she saw her husband in their bed and her blank ghostly stared at him. “Have YOU got it?!” With her last words she turned quickly and grabbed Amy by the shoulders making the little girl spring into the air and the other children let out a shriek that shook the windows in their panes.  Then Calla laughed. “That’s it, I’m afraid. That’s the story of the Golden Arm.”  Using her magick one more time Calla closed the doors shutting out the chilly night.

Their collective terror was quickly replaced by a grumbling groan. “Tell us another story, Grammy.” Colleen said.

“Yeah, another story.” Lilly agreed and the rest of them nodded.

It was still early.  “What story would you like to hear?” Calla asked them.

“A family story.” Aiden said. “We’re doing family trees in school.” He explained.

“Family tree? That’s a wonderful project.” Calla said and then thought about what an interesting tree her children and grandchildren had. Surely no one else in class could put the likes of Zeus on their list of relatives.  Amy looked sad.  “What’s wrong?”  Calla thought she already knew but it would be good for Amy to voice it especially here where everyone already knew and could understand her predicament.

“Do I have to put Nicky on the tree?” Amy asked as her eyes shifted around the room and her voice sounded dejected.

“Umm,” Calla said and thought about it.  “What about you?” She asked Brigid.  “And you?” She asked Athena.  “Is this bothering you as well?”

Brigid nodded but Athena sat still and shook her head.  “I want everyone to know Ares is my real Daddy.  I love him.”

“I love Nicky,” Amy protested, “it’s not that I don’t love him but…”

“You don’t really want everyone in class knowing your Father is your Brother.” Calla finished for her.  “You don’t have to it isn’t any of their business. It’s our business and ours alone.  You don’t want everyone to know that I’m not your real mother, is that it?” She asked of Brigid and watched her nod.  Amy and Brigid had been the best of friends since the beginning and they still were. This was one rather major issue which bound them together. While Calla didn’t like the idea of her children lying on a class project it was a private family matter. Most of all she didn’t want her children held up to public ridicule by a bunch of 12 year-olds. “It’s all right.  We have a very unique and colorful family but there’s nothing wrong with that because we also have a very strong and a very good family, don’t we?” She looked at Amy. “Daniel is your Father.” She looked at Brigid. “I am your Mother. Nothing will ever change those two facts so if you want to put that on your trees that’s fine and it’s what you should do.” No matter what they did the children were bound to have the most unique family trees in class. None of the other children could boast a lineage that included Zeus.

“When is my real Daddy going to come back?” Athena asked. “I miss him. When are you going to let our Daddy come home?”

Our Daddy.  The words, though spoken softly, boomed in Calla’s head as though a canon had gone off.  “I don’t know.” She said honestly.  “Who do you intend to list as your Mother, Athena?  Callestah?”

Athena’s dark eyes grew wide at the question. “No,” she mumbled.

“Why not?”

The young girl thought it over for a moment. “Because she was you and you were part of her,” she explained. “I grew in your tummy not hers, you’re my Mother.”

“And I always will be.” Calla said softly. “Just as Ares will always be your Natural Father and Daniel will always be your Daddy.”  Calla hated using the term real to describe parentage as she didn’t believe that biology had much to do with it. She could feel a headache coming on it had been a long time since she’s spoken Ares’ name and she didn’t want to think about him now. “I promise, Athena, one day Ares will join us again but I don’t know when that will be.  I know you miss him and you’re very proud of him, aren’t you?” Athena nodded.  “You should be.” Calla said honestly. “He loves you and in his heart he struggles to be a good man but it is his nature to cause chaos wherever he goes.  I can’t have this kingdom upset by him, do you understand?”

“Well, can I go visit him?” Athena asked clearly getting annoyed at not getting her own way.

A visit?  Calla took in a deep breath. “I’ll think about it.” Surely Ares would love that. Three years ago she started sending Athena to see Ares on his island. She was always accompanied by Nicholas who oversaw these little visits.  Athena loved Ares and Calla was sure he loved her as well.  Nicholas never said there was any trouble or anything nasty had been said.  At first these visits lasted no more than an hour or two but gradually Calla let Athena spend whole days with Ares so long as Nicholas was not far away.  Ares must hate having the overseer but he’d never bitched about it, in fact, in all the years he’d been in exile Calla hadn’t heard a peep out of him and none of the other Olympians ever came to plead his case.  “We’ll see what Daniel and Nicholas have to say when they return. You’ve already visited Ares twice this year.”

“We still need a story.” Aiden piped up and his Mother turned to look at him with a quizzical gaze. “For the tree…we need a story.” He clarified.

“And all of you want one about Ares?” Calla asked hoping that they would not be able to come to an agreement but she was outwitted.  Ares was the family member they knew best and why shouldn’t the story be about him?  Which story?

“Something you can’t find in the history books.” Athena suggested. “Nothing old and moldy.”

“Old and moldy?” Calla asked in a slightly sharp voice. Those were two words she’d never use to describe her Father. “Hump, I see. Well then…let’s see.”  She raised a hand to her pounding head as she searched her mind for a proper tale but there weren’t any.  There was one and Calla weaved a very abbreviated and clean tale of how Daniel and David once went to the Underworld to rescue what they thought was the soul of a little girl, a part of Calla but turned out to be Aphrodite in disguise. She told of Aphrodite captured her and of how Ares helped rescue her from Zeus’ dungeon and how Calla and Callestah came to be separated. That was one story no one would find in any history book.  Better than that, it made Ares look good and like the hero he always wanted to be but continually fell short.  She didn’t go on to tell them how Ares took Callestah away from the planet and how being without him caused her breakdown and be taken away to the Norwich Clinic for a long time. Calla also made sure to tell them, especially Amy, of how Nicholas nearly died in defense of his Mother that night in Zeus’ Dungeon.  “There now, there’s a story for your trees.” Calla said and with some effort she raised her body up of the floor she’d been sitting on so long.

“Geez, Grandma was a bitch.” Athena mumbled and then covered her mouth.  Calla had no intentions of correcting her or standing up for her own Mother, a woman who gave birth to her daughter in the woods leaving the newborn infant in a pile of leaves and dirt with her umbilical cord still attached. Aphrodite had turned into a bitch of the royalist caliber. “Sorry.” Athena said.

“Aphrodite had some troubles,” Calla explained. “She did bring much Love and Light into the world before all of that happened.” This was the only defense she would give her Mother.

“What happened after that?” Aiden asked quickly. “Did Ares and Callestah live happily?”

Someone might as well have planted a dagger in Calla’s back. “For a while, I’m sure they did.” She said without looking at anyone.  “Callestah’s body was weak and she soon withered and died.”

“That’s how I got in your tummy.” Athena said with something that sounded like pride.

“So it is.” Calla agreed without saying anything about how Amy came to reside in the same womb.

“See,” Athena said to Amy. “I told you Ares didn’t fuck her.”

“Athena!” Calla admonished at the sound of the ugly word and watched Amy’s cheerful face fall. “You are far too much like Ares for your own good!” If it was a story about Ares Athena wanted Calla could think of one or two which not show him in such a glorious light. In fact they would make Nicholas look like a white knight upon a silver steed.

“I’m sorry,” she mumbled, “really I am. It came out wrong.” She looked over at her Sister who was on the verge of tears. “Don’t cry Amy, its ok, Mommy loves you we all love you.” Athena put her arms around Amy. “I’m sorry I didn’t mean it like that. I didn’t, I swear.”

“That’s right,” Calla said settling down once more next to her tortured Daughter and taking her up close in her arms. “We all love you and are very happy you’re here. How you came to be here is no reflection on you and it is not your fault, you must never think that it is. In the Days of Old such things between a Mother and Son were considered proper and not at all,” she searched for the right word, “untoward,” was what she settled on. “In this world, in the Here and Now such things are no longer looked upon as kindly.” Calla never wanted Amy to know what Nicholas had done so many years ago and while Amy suspected Calla always allayed those fears but fell short of saying she’d once voluntarily slept with her own Son.  “If what happened between Nicholas and I so long ago was wrong then that is on us, it is our fault, not yours.  Understand?”  Amy wiped her eyes and fought back the remainder of the tears that wanted to fall.  The little girl loved her Mother so much she couldn’t stand the thought that she was the product of something so ugly.  “Good. You know you can always talk to me.” Again Amy nodded. “Now come on, it’s time for sleep.” She tucked each child into their makeshift beds with a hug and a kiss.  “Good night.”

“Night.” They chimed as Calla climbed into the bed alone.  Father, what am I to do with you? She thought to herself as she watched the children drift off to sleep one by one. Life in the kingdom had been peaceful without him but that didn’t stop her heart from longing for the presence of her Father in her life.  For the sake of the kingdom she hadn’t lifted his exile even though Daniel had told her on many occasions that this would be all right with him if Calla felt strong enough he would support her decision to bring Ares back into the fold.  Daniel was Daniel and he was only trying to bolster his wife, surely he didn’t want Ares back. How could he? The two of them never did anything but grab for each other’s throats.  Clutching Daniel’s pillows tightly Calla drifted off to sleep.  Her dreams were filled with the memories of happier times with Ares when she was much younger than she was today and he take the form of O’filos and let her ride on her back as they raced through the woods. In her sleep she smiled as she whispered to the darkness that she loved him.

Standing over her in the darkened room Morpheus smiled and sprinkled a little more of his sleeping dust upon her.  “Remember,” he whispered. “That’s right, remember it all.”  He looked around at the happy sleeping children and blew a handful of dust in their direction to bring them bright happy dreams of the people they would grow into one day and the things they would accomplish.  He floated through the balcony doors to blow handfuls of dust over the kingdom keeping his promise to watch over them all in their sleep.

There was something in the air tonight, something dark and heavy that reeked of death. “Hades?” Morpheus whispered. “Are you here? Show yourself.”  But Hades did not appear and Morpheus’ eyes scanned the sleeping kingdom looking for anything out place and saw nothing but the sleeping village of stone houses with their thatched roofs. Still not liking the feeling in his ethereal frame he disappeared from the balcony to find Ares.

End of Chapter Five
Coming Out of Exile: The Strength of a Father's Love
by Moon Mistress
a/k/a Lisa Beth Darling
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Chapter Six