Son of a Witch

"I'm sure they do," I said, laughing as though it wasn't at least partly the truth. But I was still trying to equate what he was saying with what I knew we had all been doing last night.

"We've been closing up the cottage and getting packed," said Seth, "We have to leave after lunch; we were just coming for a walk first."

"My daughter was the first to defend you. You must know she has quite a crush on you, Seth. She wasn't sure if she should be jealous of you, Miriam. I assured her you were neighbors and just good buddies. I'd seen nothing to suggest otherwise, but you know how sensitive girls can be."

"Of course!" said Seth.

We left the clearing and continued on our walk reversing the way we had gone yesterday. Questions kept leaping into my mind, but I did not have the nerve to ask them. Seth kept up a rather one-sided conversation telling me about himself and eventually got on to how much he had enjoyed our time in bed this morning. He confessed he was a virgin just like me. It really was his first time, and he was sorry he had had not recovered quickly enough for a rematch, as he could tell I was not fully satisfied. Perhaps he said it was because he was also feeling very guilty. Apparently, he had assured my mother nothing of the sort was contemplated in this trip to the cottage.

I stayed silent getting more and more confused. Had he really no recollection of all that went on last night? Was I in some parallel universe where none of that had happened? My confusion continued through lunch, although I did manage to make some small talk, so that I did not come off like a complete idiot.

I went back to the bedroom to finish my fairly minimalist packing. I put my bag next to Seth's by the front door and waited in the living room, while Seth turned things off and checked everything was locked up. I went over to the bookcase. All the books were there exactly as I remembered them.

During the drive home I kept processing events in my brain. It couldn't all have been a dream. I had never had a dream that vivid or that complete. I had had occasional dreams about sex, occasionally reaching orgasm but more often waking with an urgent need to finish it myself or even more frequently ending at some quite inconclusive point; certainly not walking home and cleaning my teeth and getting into bed at five in the morning.

We were most of the way home when I decided there was one question that I could ask that might not resolve anything, but I still wanted to know.

"Seth, are you Jewish?" I asked.

"No, I know you are. Does it matter? Why do you ask?"

"Well, Seth is a Jewish name. He was the third son of Adam and Eve."

"It's also an ancient Egyptian name. You know my parents are Egyptologists."

"I thought that was Set."

"It can be spelled Set, Seth or Suetekh. I'm glad my parents settled on Seth. A lot less problems for me than if they'd chosen either of the other spellings." He laughed; unlike me he seemed completely relaxed."

"Who is he?"

"Seth...he is the brother of Isis, Osiris and the elder Horus. He is the god of storms and war and especially chaos."

I thought, "Chaos, indeed!" I remembered it was the word that everyone had said to everyone else last night just as though they were saying 'peace' in church. And knowing that resolved absolutely nothing.

THE END

Copyright: © Dawn Ramble 2023