Myth Gods Tech - Omnibus Edition: Science Fiction Meets Greek Mythology In The God Complex Universe (2 page)

I never
jog, it ruins my image.

She was
plenty distracted while waiting for me to walk at the metro
station, so I did not feel bad for taking my time. It did feel
weird not having a phone on me though.

“
I remembered just now that dad said these phones are for
market testing purposes,” I told her as soon as I got close, “so
don’t do anything weird with it, I think it takes statistics and
stuff automatically.”

“
No nudes, got it,” she said casually and carried on
eavesdropping on random people’s digital personas.

Sitting
on the train we learnt that the lady beside us had an unhealthy
love for cats, that the man standing behind her was constantly
commenting on professional stripper’s photographs and that the kid
running up and down the wagon was 5 years old and had a knack for
vandalising wikis. The distraction made the whole six minute
commute bearable.

There
were some shop windows in our path but I tried to keep the delay to
a minimum, or else poor Billy would be left with no fingernails to
chew on.

The
coffee shop was nice and gray, modern, catering to a bit of an
older generation. Billy was slouching over a chessboard.

Not a digital one. A
wooden
one.

What a
freak.

“
Oh hi Billy, nice to see you here. Come sit with us!” I said
a bit too theatrically.

“
Sure, why not?” he said and followed.

Deppy
and I took a selfie so we could check-in at the coffee shop and
after a couple of tries we were both satisfied.

I dumped
both of them unceremoniously with an excuse and sat at the next
table with my laptop. Billy was delighted to have Deppy there,
trying to initiate conversation. She kept looking at her phone,
idly glancing at him and nodding at times.

I surfed
some sites I liked for a while. Deppy IMed me, “Oh bummer, it
doesn’t take good pictures. Look at all the smudges. Remember to
tell your dad to fix it.”

Indeed I
opened up some of the pictures I took since I got the phone and on
the larger screen of the laptop I could see some white washed
lights or something.

One of
the white washed lights was almost something like a face. I paid no
attention at the time.

Chapter
4

86 likes
later I was bored. We might as well had posted a cocktail pic. The
only one still excited was Billy. I was so bored I actually took
the time to read the messages unknown people send me. They are
usually just greasy comments from guys, sometimes disturbing or
provoking. One of the messages was different. It was actually a tag
on my selfie from my bedroom. It was “#erinyes”, coming from a guy
named Prodromos, with a Greek π as his profile.

“
Who are you? What is this you tagged on me?” I
IM’d.

It
didn’t take long for him to reply, “Change your path, it’s not too
late. They smell regret before it even happens.”

What was
this guy talking about? Why would I have regrets? “What are you
talking about? Why would I have regrets?” I said as if I had thunk
it.

This
time it took longer for the reply, which did not help the crazy
guy’s case in my mind. “You will have them soon. Don’t let them
take shape,” he said, and logged off. Fine, I wasn’t planning
anyway on talking to the wacko any more.

Then I
noticed that the face recognition had drawn one more square next to
my face on my selfie. That face was the one Prodromos had tagged as
Erinyes, not mine.

I’m not
sure if Billy had any luck getting to Deppy, I guess there was some
rapport but I wasn’t paying attention. Coffee time was over and we
split up.

Chapter
5

Back at my
house, mom was yelling at me for sneaking out and not
studying.

“
I needed to take dad’s gift out for a ride, isn’t that the
point?” I said unconvincingly. I don’t remember the rest of the
conversation but I am sure it doesn’t matter anyway. I went to my
room and puffed my pillow. Face down and looking tired like only a
teenager can.

Like
clockwork, it took a mere two minutes for my need to check my phone
to kick in. Scroll, scroll, nothing, nothing.

I opened
the pictures I took. Yup, smudges.

I sent a
message to Deppy, “How do I add the printer on this
thing?”

She
replied, “Just hook it up to the laptop and run the…”

“
WIRELESSLY. NOW. IM NOT GETTING UP,” I said.

“
Kala! Here, click this and accept the install,” she said a
few seconds later.

I
clicked and the printer was connected. I tapped print and the
photos started whirring out of dad’s printer.

How did
she do those things? I’ll never get technology.

I went
to the living room, and raised a big photo of my face up to my
face. Yup, just like staring into the lake.

Not big
enough. I downloaded an app for photo manipulation and zoomed a bit
the part with the smudge. Print.

Are
those eyes? And that weird looking hole a mouth? It can’t be, can
it? Nah it’s just a glitch. What about the rest of the pictures?
Print. Print.

What did
that guy call it again?

Chapter
6

Agamemnon
looked into the vault of heaven and prayed saying, "I call Jove the
first and mightiest of all gods to witness, I call also Earth and
Sun and the Erinyes who dwell below and take vengeance on him who
shall swear falsely, that I have laid no hand upon the girl
Briseis, neither to take her to my bed nor otherwise, but that she
has remained in my tents inviolate.

Then he
cut the boar's throat.

I formed the words with my mouth in silence.
The Erinyes who dwell below and take
vengeance
. I closed the book of Iliad.
Heavy stuff.

I played
with my lips for a while.

I took
my new phone and went to the bathroom. After a touch up I started
taking selfies on the mirror, the light is excellent there, I’m
getting tons of likes.

Click.
Nope, another pose.

Click.
Nah.

Click.
Click.

Oh man,
it’s smudgy again. Zoom it and print, dad should really get this
feedback so they can fix it.

Wait, is
that a face?

Is
that…

Is that
thing behind me?

Purple Time

She reached
her hand to touch my face and I ducked instinctively. Smashing the
mirror behind me, the shards piercing my back I ran as fast as I
could out of the bathroom, running through thick time.

On the hallway I could hear mom’s Turkish TV blasting at full
volume, the sounds distorted by my adrenaline and the Doppler
effect.

I turned around for a second to see, the Erinyes was chasing
me like a feline predator, her movements slow but steady. She was
smiling, the kariola was smiling.

The door smashed into splinters at my left and a rather big
piece pierced my cheek. I spat blood and ran to the
balcony.

The sun was blinding and I was disoriented for a couple of
seconds too long. She came closer and opened her arms as if to
embrace me, her nails scratching the bookcase at her right with
impossibly bright mauve sparks, as if she was welding the books to
reality.

The automatic sprinkler had watered the plants and I could
smell the lovely moist dirt and the fresh flowery
fragrance.

“
What a lovely place to die,” I thought and realised I got
myself trapped in the balcony, no exit but down. No, not down, it
is too high. Next balcony, yeah, I can reach it.

Mrs Toula would not be happy to see me crashing her place
uninvited but she’ll get over it.

I started climbing the mid-wall that separates the balconies
from the neighbours and grabbed a hold of the aluminium thing and
stepped on a big potted plant and then I slipped and fell and hit
my head.

Chapter
7

I woke up
from a splash of water on my face, shaking in my mother’s
arms.

“
Oh darling what happened?” my mom asked as she was cradling
me and checking my temperature. She was still wearing her kitchen
apron and her hands smelled of cut vegetables.

I looked
around groggily. “I’m not sure. When did I get here?” I propped
myself up, stabilised for a second and looked back at the bookcase.
Everything was fine. In its place, undisturbed.

Huh.

I could
have sworn I would wake up to a path of destruction.

Mom was
checking into my eyes like doctors do, as if she knew what to do.
Which she didn’t. “Mahi, did you faint?” Her eyes opened with
realisation and she whispered, “Are you pregnant? If you are, it’s
OK, but you need to tell me.”

I swiped
her hand away and stood up properly. “Ohi. No mom, I’m not
pregnant.”

“
Are you sure?”

“
Yes, I’m pretty sure.”

She bit
her lip. “Did they teach you at school? About
contraception?”

“
Yes mama…” I exhaled and went back to my room.

I shut
the door and sat down. I could feel her worry radiating
through.

I
thought about the chase. I could remember everything
perfectly.

Was I on
drugs or something?

Chapter
8

It took me
a minute or so to tell everything to Deppy, but Billy was a whole
other thing. I had to
call him on the
phone
like a
Neanderthal
.

“
So, are you?” he asked.

“
What?”

“
Pregnant.”

“
No!”

“
Interesting…” he said and I could just picture him taking the
Spock pose.

“
I sent you the pictures on your email.”

“
OK, but I can’t see them yet. I’ll call you when I get
home.”

What. A.
Freak.

Who
doesn’t check his emails on his phone in this day and
age?

I
checked my profile. A few more likes here and there, two more
sleazy comments, deleted, reported, thank you… Huh. Seven check-ins
at the coffee shop I just came from.

Copycats. Bunch o’ copycats. I let them know with an
appropriately punny cat pic.

Anyway,
I was late for frontistirio. Frontistirio is a private cram school,
where they teach you the things school ought to teach you but
doesn’t, so everybody needs to spend more time and money to pass
the exams. I thought it was the norm, but I learned much later that
it is solely a Greek thing.

I picked
up my bag and hit the road.

It was
like a three minute walk from my house, so took my time and
window-shopped a bit.

Eventually, I got myself there, but I was late even when I
started, then I was a bit late again with my detour, and most of
the class-hour was gone anyway so I just sat outside at the bench
and waited for the next one.

It’s not
like I had studied for either one.

Chapter
9

The bell
rang (yes, we have a bell cause this is still the 20th century for
some reason) and the other kids stormed out.

I was on
the bench, which was covered in writings and quotes and little
drawings that made it a work of art in itself.

Most of
my class came and surrounded me.

“
What’s that, the new phone?”

“
What’s it called?”

“
Oh, nai, veil or something.”

“
It’s awesome. Not the pink one of course, don’t want the pink
one,” a classmate said, defending his manliness.

I
decided to act smart and show them what Deppy figured out. She was
around the corner. She could easily hear me talking about the
phone’s features that she taught me about a few hours before. If
she was offended about that, she didn’t show. My class was
“Ooh-ing” and “Ahh-ing” as I demonstrated.

“
Let’s say I don’t know who you are Christos, and I see you
here on the street. I look at you through the phone’s screen, and
there’s your public profile! You’re online, so I can see your
profile pic, your status, whatever. Nothing private though, nothing
like that.”

That got
another round of interest, and people turned to their own phones
and googled for the minisite Hermes had made for showcasing the
Veil.

Yes,
this was going to be a hit. I felt proud for my dad. It’s not like
he was the only one making the thing, but it was nice that his
company was looking forward to a mass-market success.

The bell
rang again, this time telling us to get our asses
inside.

We all
ignored it of course. Except the nerd. Deppy went inside for
class.