Chapter 2

“We can’t have you going back through the portal whence you came,” the very beautiful goddess said.

“Why?”

“Because,” she said, “The place housing that portal collapsed when the cave it was in fell in the lake. We have to move it.” She looked motherly at me. “You’re not the first Hero from Earth to use that portal ... but you Are the first one we can’t use.”

She handed me a bunch of books; Rules for Heroes; Rules for Caretakers; Rules for Crossroads; The Chivalrous Male; Chaos, Cassandra and Earth and Medieval Weapons from A to Z.

“We’ve had a look at your past,” she said.

“What?”

“You’re supposed to be dead ... so ... we sent a ‘reporter’ to Earth to write an obituary,” she grinned. “Your friends don’t keep secrets very well.”

“AARRGGHH!” I gnashed my teeth ... thought about it for a second and blushed. She laughed.

“Yes,” she grinned, “Once they get over the tongue-tied reaction teenage boys get when being interviewed by ‘a genuine babe, ‘ I believe was the term your best friend used, they ‘spilled the beans’ and told all.”

She looked in a file on her desk, chuckled, looked up and said, “Did you actually throw Earl Anderson far enough to break his arm?”

“Not exactly,” I said. “The tree did it.”

She looked expectantly.

Across the street from the hospital there was a line of Poplar trees planted by the city arborist when the neighborhood complained about the rerouted drive to the Emergency entrance. The trees were meant to be a sound break or barrier to keep the ambulance sirens from waking the neighborhood. The people who owned the home next to the street objected to the loss of view and trimmed the lower branches ... up to about ten feet or so. Poplar grows fast and has a reasonable ‘spine, ‘ it bends well and is springy.

“There were several of us rambling the streets and we ended up at Ricky Anderson’s house. We spent some time playing American Bricks and Lincoln Logs. We were pretty noisy and Rick’s mom finally ran us off,” I explained. “She’d fed us toasted cheese sandwiches and tomato soup before we left ... and Kool-aid ... highly sugared Kool-aid. We were pretty wound up.”

Elizabeth nodded.

“Well, we were pretty rambunctious as we headed out and we ran past the poplar trees and Earl said... ‘Dare you to climb that tree.’ Magic words, ‘Dare you to... ‘ So I was up in the top quick as a blink. I started swinging it but I couldn’t swing it very far. ‘Earl, ‘ I said. ‘Get up here.’ I mean ... it was his idea in the first place so he should experience it, too.”