The Gatekeeper's Challenge by Eva Pohler Page B

sick. The air felt thick, her efforts at breathing stifled, but she held on. It felt so good to be against him, to feel his body with her own. It felt so wonderful to see him, to squeeze his hand, run fingers through his hair, to know he was real. There were a thousand things she had wanted to ask, but her head was spinning. She couldn’t think of what she had wanted to say, and she was frustrated, having longed for this moment for months. Not wanting the moment to end, she clung to him, tried to look into his eyes, and, as he forcefully pried her blue fingers from his neck, fell back into unconsciousness.
    When she came to, Than was gone and Puffy had stopped breathing.
    She replayed the few minutes Than had been in her room in slow motion. She at first felt the joy of seeing him and the pleasure of being in his presence. Her body felt aroused as she recalled the feel of him against her, her fingers in his hair. But the pleasure turned to pain, and the pain to anger.
    She touched Puffy’s stiff body without moving him from his plastic tower. Tears rushed from her eyes. “Say hi to Mom and Dad for me.” She decided at that moment she hated Than, the god of the dead, and she wished she had never met him. But she would tell him to his face. She would take the NDE drug with Vicki next weekend, she would march to the gates of hell, and she would tell the son of a you-know-what to his face that she never wanted to see him again. Even when she died, she wanted someone else to come for her!
    How hard could it be for a god to give her a better indication of what he was doing to try and get her back? Had he worked out a new agreement with his father? Or had he been doing his job with no time for anything but the dead?
    Than had said Therese would be unhappy spending eternity in the Underworld. Maybe he hoped she would gradually forget about him. Maybe he was staying away from her because he thought it was best for her.
    Then why had he showed himself to her today? Had it been a moment of weakness?
    The concept of time was different to the gods, so maybe to Than, ten months was like a snap of the fingers. But hadn’t he heard all her desperate prayers? If he had a heart, he’d tell her something more than “I’ve been busy. Be patient.”
    She moved to her bed and wept, and after a few moments, Carol knocked at her door.
    “Are you okay in there? Can I come in?” Carol opened the door.
    “Puffy died,” Therese said, sobbing.
    “Oh, sweetheart, I’m so sorry.” Carol leaned over and gave Therese a hug. The smell of Haiku perfume and Jergen’s lotion washed over Therese. It was the same smell of her mother. Carol sat on the bed beside her, and for a moment, Therese thought it was her mother. She almost said, “Mom.” Almost. She blinked.
    “I know you were expecting this,” Carol said, “but even then, it’s never easy. Maybe you should stay home tonight.”
    Therese nodded, still sobbing, all the forces of grief sweeping over her. She felt she might drown even though the rain outside had finally stopped.
    “You want me to call the Holts?”
    Therese nodded again and then buried her face in her pillow.
    Carol kissed the back of Therese’s head and closed the door behind her as she left the room.
    Therese lay there thinking how much she hated Than. She refused to pray her thoughts to him. She would keep them to herself until she could seek him out and tell him to his face what she thought of him. She knew she was the only one who ever prayed to him in a loving way. He had told her so himself. Except for the desperate pleas of those near death, or from the loved ones beside the deathbed, begging him to change a course he could not change, she was the only voice he heard. Hers was the cheer in his life, he had said. Well, forget that. If he couldn’t give her a better explanation, he could feel the same silence she had been feeling on her end.
    She finally understood the warning Artemis and Athena had given her about