Kate stretched out luxuriously in the king-sized bed. Adam was beside her, still sound asleep and snoring softly. She lay awake and peeked over at him shyly. He lay on his back, one arm over his eyes and the other on his chest, his hand grasping something – his phone? She squinted closer, then reached over to turn his hand over. It was a rock, encrusted with opalescent crystals. What the hell?
The night came suddenly streaming back into her head. The pool, the laundry room, then the bedroom, then – the kitchen for a snack and then – the jacuzzi. They had poured glasses of wine and gotten in for a soak. They had experimented with the jet streams and the elaborate array of massage options. Adam had spotted a button to the side reading 'Grotto' and been curious.
"Wonder what this does" – he had pushed as Kate took a sip of her rosé. As she tilted her glass back, the pink liquid swirled into her mouth and then floated right out into the sky, to blend with a sunset surging upward. They were in a pristine pool of water enclosed on one side by a cavern, where rocks glittered in opalescent flashes and on the other a peaceful glade, where the beginnings of a sunset hung overhead and purple clouds drifted by.
"Um, Kate," Adam had gulped. "Where are we?"
Kate circled in the pool, holding her glass up. "The – jacuzzi??"
"I pushed the button for the grotto setting. Am I hallucinating?"
"Can... we be hallucinating together?" Suddenly she remembered her waterfall shower experience. Maybe it hadn't been a dream...
"Maybe... did we drink absinthe by mistake?"
"Or eat psychedelic mushroom or something? The pâté...?" Kate was trying to remember what exactly they had snacked on.
"Exactly how well do you know this new roommate?" Adam frowned.
"She does have some pretty weird things here. There's coffee in the coffee station from Indonesia that has charcoal in it. Oh, and the kind that's been pooped out by civets."
"What is that?"
"It's like a cat. They roam wild there. It's a delicacy."
"Ok, well I think I'd rather be hallucinating." Adam gagged a bit in exaggeration.
Kate moved to Adam's side and finished her wine. "Well, if we're hallucinating, we might as well enjoy ourselves."
He smiled and kissed her, and they started all over again. Afterward, they settled on the edge of the grotto to watch the end of the sunset. When its last rays were fading and the twilight was descending upon them, the waters in the grotto started to lower, and before they knew it their knees were exposed to the night air. The sky suddenly lit up with dozens of tiny points of light, creating a dome that formed into a ceiling and the bathroom was back around them, the jacuzzi tub drained of water. Groggy, they made their way to bed, toweled each other dry and collapsed exhausted into the sheets.
***
It was the day of Summer Solstice. In the meadow, the goddesses gathered in their usual spot, beside the stream with a low table bridging the span of water. An array of delectables was piled high for their feast, with goblets of champagne and drifts of ambrosia. The sisters chatted easily as they snacked and drank, Maeve telling of her latest hunt and Dona describing her latest discovery in the tombs. Gaia and Nandi sat a bit apart from the group, discussing the details of the solstice ceremony to come. White lights were strung in the surrounding trees and gaily colored streamers draped from the tree limbs to the ground. A labyrinth had been constructed in the meadow out of stones, with flowers and candles interspersed along the path. The flower-antlered gazelle grazed at the edge of the meadow just at the outset of the forest.
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An Unearthing of Goddesses
الخيال (فانتازيا)There is a goddess within each of us - she just needs to be unearthed. And Kate McKinnon is about to discover hers... Overworked, underpaid, overlooked, slightly too curvy, slightly too introverted - Kate certainly never thought she was a goddess. B...
