Chapter 11

Tuesday evening

Ben’s house

Harborton Washington

“Dammit!” Ben yelled as he smacked his thumb yet again. Putting in Tom’s cat door was proving way harder than it should have. He had worked as a carpenter for a time to put himself through school after all.

“I have an idea laddie. Aim for yer thumb and mayhap ye’ll tag the nail instead.” said Tom with a smirk.”

“Haha. Not helping Tom!. And I’m still a little ticked at you. Your rude remark to Sarah was uncalled for.”

“Aye. Boot in ma defense I dinna know she could hear me. And the lassie does have a fine arse”

“Ahhhh ... so true” Ben said with a sigh ... thinking of her amazing derriere. He just couldn’t concentrate and he hadn’t had time to process all that had happened in the last few days. Thoughts of Sarah and Kelly and occasionally Lizzy kept drifting in and out of his mind without warning. It was probably for the best that he and Sarah wouldn’t be able to meet until the weekend. They had met again briefly after school to touch bases. She had explained about her evening classes and her weekly ‘date’ night with her dad. She had also been adamant about giving Ben some space to sort his feelings out and to try and connect with Kelly. Ben was continually being surprised by her and it generally felt like she was the more mature one between the two of them.

He had also had a few minutes to connect with Lizzy and drop off an extra shirt she had requested. She had explained that she had enlisted her ‘Aunt’ Carol in helping to find out what was happening to him and that they were going to need another t shirt (the sweatier the better) for ‘scientific’ reasons. What the hell was it with his shirts?

“Wake oop yah eejit” Tom yelled at him. “ I was talking at yah, yah big maroon”.

“Oh sorry Tom, I’m a bit distracted today. What were you saying?”

“I wuz saying that the bonny lassie was a real keeper. And if ye were daft enough to let her go, that I’d go live wit her.”

“Hah, I wouldn’t blame you either, I certainly don’t deserve her,” Ben said with a wry smile.

“Well as Sar’nt McMichaels woud sey, tis a good thing that the gods sometime give us what we need and noot what we desarve.”

“I think he might have been more right about that than we know Tom.”

Later Tuesday Evening

Ben’s house

Harborton Washington

Ben was dreaming about that odd man who played the funny looking pipes. Or sometimes it was a flute. One moment he was in a toga, the next it was buckskins. This time though he wasn’t playful. In fact he looked concerned, almost fatherly

“Ben we need to have a word” said the odd man. Ben startled, looked down in his dream and found they were sitting side by side on an ancient stone bench on the side of a mountain overlooking a sea of unbelievable green.

“Okay, first who are you and what the heck are you doing in my dream?”

“I have many names but I’m often called Pan, or sometimes by your people I’m called Kokopelli. I’m here because I’m afraid that I have inadvertently caused you some problems and I need to warn you.”

“Wait a minute.Are you responsible for the ‘horny ray’ that seems to be hitting every woman around me? Not that I’m complaining exactly. I have 2 beautiful women interested in me who are so far out of my league we aren’t even playing the same sport. Problem is I don’t know what to do with them, how they are going to deal with each other and how I’m going to deal with it when the effect wears off and I’m alone again,” said an exasperated Ben.

“Um. About that. There are actually going to be more than 2.” said an abashed Pan.

“Ah great. Why me? How did this all start anyhow?” Ben threw up his dream hands.

“Well, I saw what you did up on the mountain and I thought your feat was not only courageous but unselfish and caring at a level I haven’t seen very often in my time. I thought a bit of an award was merited.”

“If by courageous you mean bone headed, I totally agree. And you must not get out much, I think that most people would have done something similar, and maybe done it with a little more common sense.” Ben replied with a self deprecating grin.”

“I beg to disagree Ben. I don’t think you really understand who I am. I was old when the pyramids were built. I walked out from the ice with your ancestors. I have seen many great feats of courage that I admired but few really compare to the compassion you showed for a small animal.”

“Oh, you’re THAT Pan!” Ben’s face paled a little and he began taking this dream conversation a bit more seriously. “Sorry, I’ve never met a god before.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’m not really a god like you might think of one. In another time I’d probably enjoy having a beer with you and chasing girls,” Pan said with a chuckle.

“Well these days it’s more like running away before they jump on me! It’s entertaining and thanks to you I’ve had a pretty amazing experience that I never would have had, but dang it’s exhausting as well, and I really don’t want to hurt anyone.”

“Yeah that was not my intent. I’m afraid I really still don’t understand this modern era’s fixation on one man and one woman. In my prime days it was always the more the merrier so to speak. I probably should have taken that into account. I saw that you had wished for some female attention and company and so I made a few small changes that I thought could help.”

“Small changes? Dang I’d hate to see what you could do with a ‘major’ change!”

“Here’s the thing. My specialty or skill set as you might say involves sex and fertility. Tweaking the smallest pieces of matter in your body to allow your own body to produce what you need to be attractive to younger females of peak reproductive age was pretty easy. Adding some of what your science calls quantum effects in your brain and certain of your glands was harder but not really a stretch. While I was at it I spruced up your cells to make you stronger, give you a better immune system and help you heal faster. Oh and you will probably live a lot longer now.” Pan paused for emphasis, “But much of what you are experiencing is not due to me.”