Chapter 15

“Something to drink?” Barb asked as she pulled a bottle of water from her mini-fridge.

“Um, no, thanks. I’m good.”

She got comfortable sitting cross-legged on her queen-size bed. “I’ll start by saying that, even with Laura’s glowing recommendation, you exceeded my highest hopes. Don’t get a big head, though, because you still have an awful lot of learning ahead of you. I couldn’t let you in on the plan until you had successfully completed this initial assignment. Well, you’ve come through with flying colors, so get comfortable and listen while I explain how you’ll fit into our program.”

Kenny interrupted. “You say our program. Just exactly who are you, and how does Laura fit into all of this?”

“Patience, child, you’re about to get it all. As for who we are, you may find the truth hard to believe. I’m going to ask you to hold your questions until I’m done, because I’ll probably answer most of them along the way.

“I know that Laura gave you a bit of a classical education about ancient Greek, Roman and Norse gods and goddesses, especially the ones known by the names, Aphrodite, Venus and Freya. Different cultures had different names for them, but they were in reality, one and the same. Now, here’s the big credibility hurdle: Some of those gods and goddesses were, and are, real.

Kenny’s forehead wrinkled at that, but he held his tongue.

“For now, I’m just going to talk about the goddess of love, and let’s use the name Venus, since it’s probably the most familiar to you. Venus never appears as the beautiful, buxom deity like she’s depicted in Roman paintings and statues, but she does exist as a spiritual entity. She doesn’t have a physical form. I’m sure it’ll take you some time to wrap your brain around that, so for the time being, just accept it as true.

“Now, this entity we call Venus is charged with engendering love between we mortal humans. That’s love, not sex. Sex is automatic in that the drive to procreate exists in even the most primitive brain. Love, on the other hand, is something different and distinct, and the kind of love I’m referring to exists only in humans. Yes, yes, I know; dogs and a good many other animals are capable of demonstrating what appears to be the same emotion, but you’ll have to take my word that it’s not the same.

“Anyhow, as you can well imagine, as the world’s population continues to expand exponentially, the task of promoting this special human brand of love is beyond even a goddess’s capabilities, so here’s what she’s done: She’s designated a group of hand-picked people to be her agents. There are currently six of these spiritual leaders in the world today, and they are all but immortal. Now, that’s not nearly enough to do the job, so those six have, in turn, picked several agents who report directly to them. They’re not immortal, but they have been blessed with very long lives. Our mutual friend, Laura, is one of them, and she has probably been around for two or three hundred years. She’s never said, and I never asked.

“Close your mouth, Kenny! There’s more to come.”

“So, that’s the third rank of sub-goddesses and sub-gods, and that’s the rank Laura belongs to. It’s the duty of the third rank to train up those of us who have direct access to the young people, the pubescent set, and try our best to mold their volatile minds in the right direction, and that effort can involve any number of disciplines.

“You may be asking yourself why Laura picked you to be one of her special deputies. By the way, you and I are both her people. She took me under her wing just like she did you. Well, here, it gets really interesting. Each level, or echelon, is endowed with certain, let’s call them, powers to ensure they can carry out their duties. I’ll give you an example of that.

“The other day, your friend, Jimmy Jeong, came to me with a little extortion on his mind. He had a video recording of the entire boathouse event, and he figured it was probably worth a few bucks to keep it quiet. Personally, I thought he was rather enterprising, but of course, we couldn’t allow such evidence to exist. Well, much to poor Jimmy’s dismay, I was able to concentrate a bit of electrostatic energy into the USB thumb drive and his laptop to eliminate that evidence. And then I was able to wipe all memory of the entire issue from his brain. Don’t worry, there will be no permanent damage.

“And don’t ask me how it works, because I can’t tell you. I just know does. Our gift of being able to deflect threats is the reason we can get by with training minors in the art of sexual love without constant interference from the legal eagles. Oh, FYI, now that you’ve successfully passed your trial by fire, you have access to those same powers. More about that later.

“So, you and I and Josh and a few hundred others are essentially the worker bees. We go out and do what we can to focus Venus’s blessings on young minds so that they’re something above automatons in the love department. And those efforts can take many forms. For instance, Josh and I are academics, so we’re good at organizing training programs like this one. What, you may ask, do we accomplish with a formalized class? Two things. First, by teaching the basics in considerable depth, we take the mystery out of sex so the kids aren’t cowed by it. Then, at the end of the course, we put the mystery back into the idea of sex so those same kids can sense and appreciate its transcendent nature. We add love back to sex by way of creating a mutual desire to impart pleasure to their lover. You may have already guessed from Josh that these blessings aren’t gender specific.

“Now, you, on the other hand, have a very special gift that Josh and I don’t. It’s a quality in you that Laura sensed the first time she saw you. It’s the reason you were taken into her home and into her heart. What you have, the quality that Laura wants you to develop, is an amazingly empathic connection to these kids. Believe me, Josh and I are in awe of your ability to bore directly into the core of their needs. You see instantly what it might take Josh or me several sessions with a child to work out. Essentially, Kenny, you’re an apprentice Cupid without the god status. I so envy the young people you’re going to be working with.”

Barb took a sip of her water. “So, Cupid, Eros, Bringer of Erotic Love, Beloved Child of Venus, all of the above, there it is in one big dose. Believe me, I know all of the hundred and one questions rattling around in your brain right now, because I’ve been there, done that, and look,” she laughed as she thrust out her boobs, distorting Chief Joseph’s image, “I’ve even got the T-shirt! What I recommend now is that you hold on to those questions, give them a day or two to ferment, then sit down with Josh and me after the camp has emptied out. We’ll take as much time as you need to get you comfortable with your role in this unbelievably important mission.