Chapter 1 – Euterpe
My name's Craig. Craig Elson. I'm write for the Starlight Shores Times, Outdoors Living column. And this is a scary lady who says that she's got a Sing-A-Gram for my wife, Emily. Em, unfortunately, doesn't come back until late with her job at the lab.
Okay, that singer's not that scary, really. In fact, she passed out waiting for Emily...guess she had a long day.
Thankfully Emily came and she could go and finish her job already. Sheesh, I felt her hawk eyes when she saw me, alone, with this younger girl. I only have eyes for you honey!
I thought finally this singer would go home already, but then they had to talk. Artsy types. Once they meet each other, it's almost like love at first sight!
Em even let the girl stay. I'll just be in the kitchen, making tomorrow's lunch.
She left afterward. But the singer came back soon enough, around when Emily came back from work. She must've told her.
And that's when it happened:
“Craig, you've got to hear this! Euterpe wants us to live with her!”
“She wants to what?”
Euterpe – that singer's name, apparently – had to leave (work, again). Em and I had to talk for a while. I thought she was nuts. But she explained a little more about her.
“Euterpe is just a stage name, Craig. Her real name's Ariadne. She's the Barefoot Nymph the Times wrote about, but apparently Carl from Mick's helped her get on her feet and stuff, so she looks more civilized and stuff. And more importantly, Craig, she's an amnesiac. A real, bonafide, amnesiac. You know I wrote my master's thesis on amnesia, but I could never get proper access to a primary source!”
“I get it, hon. You want to live with her because you want to monitor her condition. You're my little genius, but even this is too mu--”
“She needs help to make this 'food of the gods', which requires lots and lots of skills, like cooking, and garden--”
“Honey, we have to start a family soon, we don't have time to help someone el--”
“She apparently lives near Buckshot Lake too--”
“Deal.”
What? The main reason why I came to Starlight Shores (besides the fame, glamour, etc) was because Buckshot Lake is probably one of the most famous fishing places in Simifornia! And the ocean's not so far either. I wanted a house in this area originally, but it was expensive (and far from our work). But with the three of us...
We'll manage, I think.
=====
The next time I saw Ariadne – or Euterpe, now, I guess –
I might've dropped my jaw a couple of times.
“How do you like this, Carl? I met a girl named Emily yesterday, and she told me that I could get this 'makeover' from a 'salon'.”
“Uh...um...it's nice, Ari. Very...nice.”
She couldn't stay long, though. She does have to work, and so do I.
We became friendly enough to where she was comfortable asking me to move in. But I was skeptical. Move in to what, exactly? Wasn't she just roaming around?
Soon enough, though, I found out where exactly she lived – in that huge empty plot at the edge of the city. Except it was actually furnished – due to her other live-ins, the Elsons. Unfortunately, Ari and I have to resort to sleeping beds so that the Elsons can sleep together.
But she also bought a sculpting station and two easels. I've always wanted to sculpt! Emily is also an artistic type, but she's quite smart – a little too smart, if you ask me. That's fine. She's Craig's wife after all. And they're not afraid of showing off their love.
My eyes are reserved for my muse, anyway.
Though it's pretty fun and games now, we don't anything about that 'food of the gods'. But with Ari busy and the four of us having full time jobs (including me, working at the military base), do we really have time to find out? Well, good luck to us, I guess. We're gonna need it.
Signing off,
Craig,
Em,
and Carl.
