Disenchantment 19

The first thing she noticed in the off-white foyer was a photograph hung on the wall. A couple in their thirties smiled out through the glass frame, both of them attractive. They seemed a little older, maybe late thirties or early forties. The woman was stunning and could have probably gotten work as a model in her youth, or yet still. The man was good looking, even though he had long, slightly wavy hair, a feature that Nannette usually didn’t look for in members of the opposite sex, but it seemed to just fit him and even though it was the first time she saw even an image of the man, she couldn’t picture him without the hair.

 

Malbourne walked her further into the house, into the living room. She noticed a man sitting on the couch. He was small and wiry, with a gut. While Malbourne’s belly was probably bigger, the man himself was stocky and seemed to belong with his belly. The smaller man on the couch looked almost ludicrous. Thin arms and legs protruded from his very roundish torso, almost defying human biology. He had an unkempt, even dirty, look about him. What little hair he had left on his balding head was thin and fine, and seemed to be quite oily as well.

Another man stood up against the wall, as if sitting on one of the comfortable sofas was   not a thing that he would not lower himself to do. He was quite tall and wore a baseball cap that read: “Iron Maiden, No Prayer on the Road Tour 90-91.” While not classically handsome, he had rugged good looks and seemed to be built like a truck, quite a big guy without an ounce of fat on him. If he didn’t look to be in his fifties, he would ordinarily be the sort of man that she would be interested in.

 

When Malbourne noticed her looking at the standing man, he said, “That’s Mark, a friend of mine and Mr. Phileus’s”

 

Mark seemed a little taken aback when Malbourne suggested that they were friends. He didn’t say anything, but nodded at her after the introduction.

 

Disdain, seemed to creep into his voice when he introduced the seated man, “And this is our resident expert on mythology, Floyd.” He sneered as he said the word, expert.

 

“Hello,” said the awkward little, man. “I don’t have any formal degrees like you, but I am what you might call, self-educated on the matter.”

 

Malbourne seemed to flash him a look which immediately intimidated the man into silence.

 

“Oh, I don’t have any—“

 

Malbourne cut her off, “And here is our host, Oren.” The man walked into the room and she recognized him from the picture in the foyer.

 

“It’s great you’re here. Thank you so much for coming.” After handing Mark a mug of what she thought was coffee that he had seemingly been preparing when she arrived, he walked up and shook her hand.

 

“Everyone, this is Dr. Chan from UCLA,” Malbourne introduced her as a doctor.

 

Before she could say anything, Oren chimed in, “Our resident astronomer,” and smiled while glancing at the other two men.

 

“Actually, I’m not a doctor and I study—“

 

Again she was cut off by Malbourne, “She’ll be a doctor come June, always the honest person, she is.” She got her undergrad degree top of her class, and I assure you that she can answer any of your questions, Oren.”

 

Nannette opened her mouth to speak, to disagree the with the weasel attorney, but then suddenly closed it. Malbourne was glaring at her with the iciest of looks. His eyes seemed to bore into her soul. He actually scared her. She could tell by the vantage points that others had in the room, they were not able to see this non-verbal cue. It was only for her and it was a warning. In addition to being physically scared of what the man might do, she also really needed to get paid for her trip to this place, and his spiel about hiring and firing her came to mind.

 

Nannette gave a sweet and nervous smile instead of speaking.

 

“It’s great that you’re here,” said Oren, “thanks again, so very much, for coming.” With that he said, “Okay, everyone please sit down. Blake, Dr. Chan, would you like anything to drink?”

 

“Nannette,” was all she said.

 

“My apologies, I’m also not very formal, Miss Nannette. Would you like anything to drink?” He was quite a charming and likable guy, a direct contrast to Malbourne. She asked for a water and Malbourne ordered a brandy.

 

Once everyone had their drinks, Oren took center stage and told a crazy tale. It was unbelievable. As he explained how his wife was kidnapped by what basically amounted to supernatural forces, she observed the others. Malbourne sat with polite indifference, showing little emotion. The strange guy, Floyd, listened with eager anticipation, eyes wide and smiling the entire time. When she looked at Mark, they made eye contact. He was also looking around the room, gauging reactions.

 

Mark smiled. She smiled back. Why are you smiling at him? She asked herself, then immediately blushed. Maybe he wasn’t too old for her.

 

After Oren had finished relaying his tale, he looked around the room, making eye contact with each individual present. “I’ve gathered you all here tonight, to shoot ideas around. Floyd and Nannette, you are both here for us to use your expertise in understanding what is going on. Blake and Mark, you are here for your ideas on what we can do to resolve this. I will move fucking mountains to get my wife back. I will break any law, spend any amount of money, fucking kill someone, and do absolutely...anything, to get Persephone back.”

 

Nannette then spoke, repeating the very thing she had told Malbourne earlier, “I don’t know why I’m here.”

 

“What’s a moon, or what’s a moon’s time?” asked Oren. Thanatos specifically said “Two moon’s time. I need your opinion on that. I’m guessing a moon is a month, because I was out there almost every night. It’s not two days. I don’t see how it can be two weeks.”

 

Before Nannette could respond, Floyd began speaking, seemingly so visibly excited that he could hardly contain himself, “A moon is most likely a month. But, keep in mind that older cultures wouldn’t have our calendar, our current calendar, right?” His question was most likely rhetorical, either that or he just couldn’t contain himself in his eagerness to continue speaking. “These names, these gods, they are ancient Greek. How did the ancient Greeks keep track of time?”

 

“I gathered that they are ancient Greek,” said Oren. “I did do some research online after Mark told me you said that. Can we figure out exactly how the ancient Greeks kept track of time? Particularly months?”

 

It was then that Mark decided to add to the discussion for the first time: “Oren, you believe that they are gods, right?”

 

“Well...yes.”

 

“Okay, well maybe they don’t give a shit how the ancient Greeks kept track of time, yes? How did the gods keep track of time?” Mark looked at Nannette and gave her a brief smile.

 

She smiled back. “Okay, maybe I can help you here. If they are gods, not that I’m saying gods exist, but then they would probably be advanced, right? They would probably know the physical workings of the universe. So, they would probably pay attention to the lunar cycle, and the moon’s orbit around the Earth.”

 

“That stands to reason,” said Floyd and both Mark and Oren nodded.

 

“Well then,” she began, I can help you with that. This is simple stuff and you can probably look it up online instead of asking me to come over.”

 

Oren didn’t speak for a few moments, then said, ”I am aware of that, but I thought it would be better to brainstorm this whole thing in a group. You’re getting paid, and don’t worry about it. I want all bases covered. This is my wife that we’re talking about. I’m happy to pay you five hundred dollars an hour for your time, but you don’t need to worry about why I hired you so much, just do your best, okay?”

 

“Five hundred dollars an hour?“ she asked.

 

Malbourne was glaring at her with his eyes only, as everyone could see his face. “I think the price is quite fair.”

 

“Hey, look, you want more?” asked Oren.

 

“Five hundred is fair,” she said, meeting Malbourne’s gaze. She had felt the urge to rebel against Malbourne’s arrogance, but hoped that she hadn’t shot herself in the foot. As the conversation continued, she would think on how to handle the situation. More money would be great, but she also had her integrity, and wondered how she would be able to both get paid perhaps even more than she thought, while at the same time, not shedding her morals. Oren had just offered her more without having a clue what was actually going on between herself and Malbourne.

 

Oren and Floyd seemed clueless that there was an untold element to the conversation at hand, but Mark...his face seemed like he was picking up on it. “Okay, glad you are getting paid an insanely large amount of money, so let’s get to it, please. How long exactly is two moon’s time?”

 

That was fair enough, Nannette thought. He was Oren’s friend, and five hundred dollars was a significant amount of money for what she was doing, basically giving information that could easily be looked up online. “Okay, the Earth rotates around the sun, and the moon rotates around the Earth. You all know this right?”

 

Three of them nodded while Malbourne just stared at her.

 

“It takes the Earth roughly 365 days to complete its course. While the moon’s rotation is different. Earth is much smaller than the moon and its gravity is what causes the Moon to circle it. This is all stuff you know.” She wondered if she should just keep it simple or give a thoroughly in depth explanation. After several seconds of internal deliberation, she opted for something in the middle.

 

“We can divide the moon’s movement into eight phases or four cycles. Keep in mind these are from our, us humans, perspective. Some others can divide this into five phases, or seven or even twelve. Let’s briefly look at the eight. We have the new moon, which we normally consider the beginning. During this phase the moon is there but we can’t see it. It rises and sets with the sun, so we can’t see it. Then we have the waxing crescent, where we can see a thin fraction or sliver, like a crescent shape of the moon’s day side. This happens—“

 

She noticed that Mark and Oren were started to look a little confused while Floyd was smiling and nodding. Malbourne was blatantly glaring at her, so she decided that his attention no longer mattered. “Look, then we have the first quarter, waxing gibbous, full moon, waning gibbous, last quarter, waning crescent, and then it starts over with another new moon. These phases are all just from the perspective of a vantage point on Earth. Um...the four cycles are new moon, first quarter, full moon, and last quarter.” She was getting nervous, realizing that it was much easier for her to learn than to teach.

 

“That’s great, but how much time is a moon’s time?” asked Oren.

 

“It depends...” she started.

 

“On what?”

 

“On the type of calendar, on how people perceive the passing.” What a mess, she thought to herself. “It can be based on the moon’s rotation around the Earth, or the Earth’s rotation around the sun.”

“She’s right,” said Floyd. “Different cultures have different calendars. Some ancient calendars were thoroughly about the lunar cycles, not about Earth’s cycle, while others had their own Earth calendar, different than ours.”

 

“Yes,” she said, gaining more confidence, ”It depends on the culture. Some current cultures use lunar calendars as well, like China.”

 

“China doesn’t use our calendar?” asked Oren.

 

“Yes, and no. Globally, yes. For business, yes. But there are many cultural things, like Chinese New Year, our Spring Festival, other holidays, based on lunar cycles, not the Earth calendar. My parents are Chinese. I have a regular calendar birthday, also a lunar calendar birthday, and they are rarely on the same day.”

 

“Two moon’s time?” Oren asked again.

 

“If it were Earth Calendar, then it would be in in two months. Two months from February first would be April first. That is also only if it is our current Earth calendar. Like Floyd said, different cultures have had different calendars in the past.”

 

“Okay,” said Oren. “What’s your opinion on which calendar we should use?

 

“Humans would use our regular calendar, I guess.”

 

“So, a normal two month’s time? What I think of as two month’s time? From June to August? Yeah?”

 

“I would say, no.” Nannette briefly smiled at Mark. “If I were a god, I would use the lunar calendar.”