Passeggiata (complete 2016)

Today, Penelope's father was sitting out on the rocks, watching, and waiting...

Paul and his granddaughter picked their way slowly through the rocks and sat down beside Tom Goodwin.

"Hey, Dad," he said, when he saw them sitting there: "How-ya doing, Muppet?" He put his arm around her and gave her a gentle squeeze.

"What are you doing out here, son? Little early for you to be in, isn't it?"

"Hm-m, oh, no. They're doing some work on the electrical system in the O.R.; no surgery this afternoon. I get to play hooky."

"Lucky you."

"Si, papa, you're lucky! I had to go to school!"

"Yeah, Muppet, you've got it rough! Better let me give you a kiss!" He smiled and she leaned over, and he kissed her on the top of her head.

"Anything wrong?" Paul said.

"Hm-m, oh, no. Just felt like a beautiful day. Too nice to sit in the office and do paperwork."

"I hear that."

"Dad? What is it about this place? Something so...I don't know...?"

They looked out at the sea and the racing clouds for a long time.

"Tom, there's so much more here than we can see. You recall...?"

"Yeah," Penelope interrupted. "Last week we saw a lady with no clothes on swimming, didn't we, grampa!"

"That we did, Muppet. Hell of a sight, too."

"Who did you say she looked like? Moby..."

"Moby Dick, Muppet," Paul said as he chuckled. "The great white whale."

"Musta been a real looker, dad."

"At my age, Ace, the fu -- uh, well -- Queen Elizabeth still looks pretty hot to me..."

"Papa, did grampa say the 'F-word'?"

"Nope."

"The Hell I didn't!"

The two men laughed. The Muppet frowned.

"You know, Tom, sometimes I see the color of our skin, and the color of theirs," he said as he pointed at the sea, "and in the imagining I find a new color, something unique, and maybe it's not even of this world, but it's here, and it's ours -- whether we like it or not. Hell, I don't know, maybe it's just the color of life. Maybe in the coming together of lives we were destined to create something new, but this new creation holds the essence of the old in its heart. I guess maybe it's that way with all life."

"The circle of life," Tom said. "I..."

"The Lion King!" the Muppet yelled, clapping her hands. "Yippee!"

"That's right, Muppet. The Lion King." Tom squeezed her again.

"Yeah, and not that Sundiata Keita fella. Never could stand that guy. His eyes gave me the willies."

"What?" Tom and the Muppet said as they looked at the old man.

"Oh, nothin', Muppet. Nothing at all."

c. 1200 BCE +

On the island of Ithaca, in the Ionian Sea

Penelope and Anticleia walked along the edge of the cliff, the restless sea not far below tossed gentle waves recklessly on the shore. Telemachus played along the shore, hopping from rock to rock with the careless abandon any seven year old would recognize and call his own. Penelope watched her son without a care in the world; he was a strong swimmer, and already loved the sea. A slave stood near the beach, charged with looking out for the boy. Penelope turned to her mother-in-law and took her hand, then they walked up the trail to the house.

"It's so lovely to see you again," she said, though in truth that was the last thing on her mind. She was burning inside, as the news from Athens was not good.

"And Odysseus? How is he?"

"Oh, he is fine."

"What has he to say about Anatolia?"

"The Teucrians? He says there will be war."

"Will he fight?"

"Menelaus may compel him."

"But the oracle!"

"Yes. I know."

"This is madness! He is too old!"

"It would be best if my husband did not hear you say that."

He stood by the house talking to a stonemason about repairs he wanted made to the wall, but he heard them walking, heard their voices over the wind and the sea; he turned to them as they drew near, and he waved at them . . .

The ground rumbled, the earth heaved, Penelope and Anticleia were hurled to the ground; Odysseus knelt and reached out to steady the mason before the old man fell, then he scuttled to his wife and sheltered her with his body.

Soon the ground grew still and Odysseus helped the women stand.

A sudden wind came, dust and sand filled the sky.

A scream. Far off, from the sea.

"Telemachus!" Penelope cried. "He was on the beach!"

Odysseus understood; he ran down the trail as the wind died; he could see the water receding even as he made for the path that led through the rocks to the beach. He came to the edge of the cliff and looked out to sea.

The wave was monstrous, at least half the height of the cliff. Odysseus could see exposed beach now far out from the rocks, that the land now possessed earth that belonged to the sea. A dark omen!

Odysseus groaned. The wave was coming ashore with frightening speed, roaring like a lion as it advanced. He saw the slave running out among sea-urchins and starfish; Odysseus looked out to sea and could just make out his son's head before the roaring wall, saw he was waving his arms.

"Too far," he said, feeling the trap spring on his heart. He started down the trail but stopped; the wave was almost ashore. Just a few more moments . . .

He stood, paralyzed, as the wave rose behind his son -- Telemachus simply disappeared under the sea as it passed. The slave saw his position clearly now, the danger he was in, and he turned and ran back towards the beach -- but he was not fast enough. No one was...

The wave rose higher; as the water rushed in it pulled the slave into its maw -- Odysseus leaned over the edge and watched as the man was dashed against the rocks below his feet. A wall of white thunder rose into the air before him; Odysseus fell back from the hissing water but was drenched nonetheless. He heard Penelope and Anticleia not far away, and he turned to protect them from the falling wall of water.

Soon they heard the water receding. Odysseus rushed to the edge again and saw the slave's shattered body as it washed out to sea.

Telemachus was nowhere to be seen.

Penelope cried out in sodden anguish; she fell to her knees and beat the earth with her fists until they started to bleed. Her mother-in-law knelt beside her, trying to comfort her despite the dread that filled her own heart. Odysseus ran down the trail; when he reached the beach the sea had reclaimed her holdings. Odysseus could see the slave's pulpy body lifting beyond the surf and he knew it would not be long before the sharks came. He made his way through the rocks and dove into deep water; he began to swim out to sea -- but he stopped.

Telemachus was flying through the sea, riding on the back of a -- a dolphin!

+++++

It was seven years later when Odysseus marched into battle at Troy. He carried a shield, and on that bronze disk there was engraved a dolphin. Whether deliberately made or the result of battle, no one could say, but there were two scars below the dolphin's eye.

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