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DIFFICULTIES AT THE GUEST HOUSE
The next morning was chaotic. The cramped room was overly full with four people and a house worth of belongings in it. Everyone was grumpy from lack of sleep and displacement. Even Mr Fluffbum seemed out of sorts, with no regular cat food to start his morning. Freya managed to improve her cat’s mood by salvaging some boiled egg from breakfast. Her Mum and Dad hardly spoke, passing salt and pepper fiercely to each other. Freya was amazed at how much anger could be expressed with a polite gesture. Tammy slept through the breakfast hour, then woke up late, hungry and demanding food.
“And where were you last night, young lady?” Dion frowned at Tammy, hands on hips as he watched her fumbling through her bag in search of something.
“None of your business, Dad. Maybe if you spent more time paying attention to us instead of to your wine magazines, I’d want to tell you.”
“None of your lip, young lady. I asked a reasonable question, and you can give a reasonable answer,” said Dion.
“Why should I? You never do,” countered Tammy.
Danae interrupted.
“That is quite enough. Did you even think about what you were doing, leaving your sister by herself in a strange place? Anything could have happened to her. You’re grounded for the next week, do you understand? And the next time you’re left in charge of your sister, you stay with her.”
Tammy opened her mouth to argue.
I don’t want to be stuck in the middle of this, thought Freya. She avoided the rest of the argument by sneaking back into the breakfast room to procure cereal for her sister, where she was caught by the proprietor as she came in to set out the crockery for the next day.
“No breakfast outside the hours of seven and eight, thank you. And no coming into this room unless you’re with your parents.” The short, plump proprietor had grey-tinged skin that looked unhealthy in the morning light, and a steely voice. Her hair stuck up in tufts wound around with what were probably meant to be jaunty ribbons. Freya was terrified of her. After that, Freya refused to do anything else for her older sister.
“Go yourself if you want milk. I don’t want to be yelled at by that gnome.”
“Freya, don’t call people gnomes unless you’ve asked them their heritage. She could just be one of Hera’s clan. Though she’s not house-proud enough.” Danae frowned at the musty walls. Freya grinned to herself. Her mother was so easily distracted by trying to diagnose people’s demi-heritage.
After breakfast, her Dad was on the phone, arguing with his boss from the snatches of conversation that Freya overheard.
“But I can’t just head off on a buying trip now. I don’t even have a house for my family.” There was an angry pause.
“Yes, yes, I know you depend on me, but so do they.”
An even longer pause.
“Well, if you put it like that, I suppose I have to,” said Dion gloomily.
That didn’t sound promising. Her Dad worked with wine companies, and often visited the large vineyards of the south. Sometimes Freya wondered why they didn’t all just move south too. But her Mum had always vetoed such suggestions.
“It’s too expensive, for one. And your father’s bacchanalian tendencies would overwhelm us, for two.”
Freya had never quite dared to ask what bacchanalian tendencies were. She suspected it was better not to know. When she was smaller, her Mum had explained that her Dad was a demi descended from Dionysus, god of wine. That made perfect sense to Freya, given her Dad’s job, not to mention the amount of time he spent in the pub. But as she grew older, she was beginning to realise that an affinity for grapes was probably not all he’d inherited. She didn’t want her golden world view to be clouded by dark hints, so she ignored them when she could.
Her Mum pulled out her ancient laptop, and started searching rental adverts. As she often did, she kept up a monologue as she searched.
“It’s such a shame we can’t get back the deposit for our house. That would make it so much easier to find somewhere new. After all, it’s not our fault the goddess was angry.”
“Isn’t it?” Tammy was lying on their shared bed, giving herself a manicure.
“No, Tammy, it’s not. Even if my father was a fishing magnate.”
“What’s a mag- what, Mum?” asked Freya.
“A big boss. Your grandfather ran the biggest fishing company in the southern hemisphere, before it went bust.”
“Is that why we don’t eat fish?”
“It’s part of the reason. The issue was more that when my Dad’s company did go broke, it wasn’t for any mundane reasons. Rather, the local sea goddess took offence, and expressed that in a very real and direct way. At least the plague didn’t get him, I guess. Anyway, my mother figured all this out after his ships went down, and she taught me. So now, we’re watchers. Messengers, if we could get someone to listen. I’ve pretty much given up on that. I’m not cut out to be a journalist. We’re not responsible for what happens, but we are supposed to keep an eye on it. There was another oil spill last month, I expect that didn’t help. And cod stocks have never been so low, despite the fishing bans.”
Overwhelmed by this flood of information on a subject her mother usually avoided, Freya focused on the easiest-to-target part of her Mum’s speech.
“You always talk about cod. As though we cared about some fish or rather. We don’t even eat the things.”
Tammy made horrible fish-mouths at Freya, who flapped her hands back.
“You should know enough to care, that’s why I tell you. Anyway, as I was saying, someone could have killed a dolphin with a trawler, that often brings on deity-driven storms. And if we’re the only deity-descendants in the area, we get the blame. Or possibly it’s more personal, thanks to your grandfather. His ships did come this far, so I suppose it could well be the same goddess. Be that as it may, what we need now is somewhere to live. Oh, what about this one... seaside apartment... no, I guess that wouldn’t work. Let’s give that sea goddess some space for a bit. We do need to keep an eye on things near the sea though.”
“Why do we, Mum? Surely we’ve just seen that seaside dwellings are a bad idea?” Freya was indignant.
Tammy chimed in.
“Yeah, and haven’t we known that for like, my whole life?” She blew fiercely on her freshly painted nails.
“Tammy, don’t blow that stuff my way, it stinks!” Freya protested.
Their mother ignored the minor squabble and continued with her exposition.
“In that the sea has been encroaching your whole life, yes. But the situation has been going from bad to worse, and the sea gods and goddesses need to be placated, if this whole sea-rise issue is going to be resolved.”
“I thought that was due to climate change? That people made?”
“Yes, but climate change isn’t just some human waste issue. The gods and goddesses don’t like what humans have done to the world. Don’t you listen to the lessons I give you?”
“We can’t avoid your lessons, Mum. You go on and on.” Tammy waved her arms around to indicate how long their Mum went on for.
“It sounds like I need to go on more, if you haven’t got the basics right yet,” said Danae.
“I’m just telling you what we learn at school,” said Tammy.
Freya nodded. She was also confused by the difference between what her Mum said and what school told them.
“School doesn’t teach you everything. It’s too human-centric. Now, I have a house to find. Ah, how about this. It’s another row-house, I hate that, being so close to others, but it’s a bit inland. Not too far from the sea, but inland. Plenty of countryside around it.”
Tammy made a face. Freya made one back.
“Stop grimacing, girls. It’s cheap, so there’s a chance we could afford it. Dion, are you off the phone yet? Look at this place, shall we see if we can get it?”
“Sorry, Danae. I’ve been called away by work. You’ll have to manage the next move. Choose something in our budget.”
“You’re going away now?” Danae’s face was somewhere between disbelieving and furious.
Dion shrugged.
“I have to if I want to keep my job. It’s not for long, just a couple of weeks.”
“I know we need the money, but that’s just the worst timing. Can’t they wait? It’s only wine.”
“Danae, there is nothing only about wine.”
Freya tuned out. This was an old argument, with no ending in sight.
An hour later, their Mum had narrowed her search to a small selection.
“This one I found earlier looks best. But we’d have to move north.”
Tammy was less than pleased.
“You mean I’d have to change schools? Seriously? I have just got a good group of friends here.”
Freya wondered if it was the school friends Tammy was worried about, or the mysterious Dan. Their mother was not sympathetic.
“You can take a bus, I expect. Or get used to a new school. Oh! Cursed Fafnir. It’s got a huge up-front deposit requirement. We’ll never manage that. I suppose we can try to find somewhere else cheap, locally. Come on, Dion. You must have some opinion?”
Their Dad looked up from his perusal of a wine trader magazine he’d picked up somehow. It seemed like an odd thing to have rescued from their now-destroyed cottage.
“Yes, yes, local would be good. Close to the station.”
Freya was sure her Mum rolled her eyes at that unhelpful response.
“Well, we’ll see what we can do, but I expect you’ll have to bus to the station. Hmm. What do you think of staying in a beachfront holiday park over winter, girls?”
“Sounds chilly.” Freya pulled a blanket over herself to demonstrate. The cat who had been sitting on the blanket stalked away indignantly. “Sorry, Mr Fluffbum. I didn’t see you there.”
“I’ve had enough of the beach, Mum. Isn’t the loss of a house a huge sign that we shouldn’t be so close?” Tammy was always more to-the-point than Freya.
“Yes, yes, but surely a cabin with separate rooms is better than trying to live on top of each other in this one room, don’t you think? And it’s not actually on the beach. That’s just marketing.”
“I guess.”
Tammy’s response was lukewarm, but Freya had to nod her head in agreement. She wanted more space after just one night. Though she wasn’t keen on being near the beach, either.
“Well, I’ll make the call now. It would mean we wouldn’t have to leave this town right away; you could keep going to the same school for a bit, girls. Would that make you happier, Tammy?” said Danae.
“I suppose. I still don’t see why we don’t move further from the sea, but anything is better than more time in the same room with my entire family.”
“That’s unkind, Tammy. I know it’s difficult to share such a crowded space, but please don’t make it worse with your attitude.”
Tammy flounced out of the room, but returned a few moments later in a completely different mood.
“I can’t believe it, Freya, she must be a gnome!” she giggled.
From outside their cramped room, the voice of the proprietor could be heard, a flat, grumpy intonation.
“No breakfasting after hours, young lady. I know you can hear me. Breakfast is between 7 and 8am, no excuses.”
Tammy had covered her mouth and was letting forth small, explosive gasps as she tried not to laugh. Freya caught her eye and indicated the pillows on the bed. Tammy buried her face in them, her shrieks of laughter still audible despite her attempts to muffle them. At last, she subsided.
“Sorry. It was just so funny.”
Freya rolled her eyes.
“Sure, Tammy, get us chucked out of this place, why don’t you?”
“I’m not trying to, but I was just nipping into the breakfast room to get something else to eat, and she emerged from under a rug! I mean, really under it! I don’t know what she was doing there. It was like some horror movie. Except that her crazy hairdo got caught in those stringy bits along the edge of the rug, and she just stood there fighting with it, before she saw me. I just ran, but oh, it was so good.” She buried her face in the pillow again.
“Seriously, Tammy, she came out from under a rug? That’s not gnomish behaviour. More like... oh, I don’t know. Mum, what lives under rugs?”
Their mother, who was holding a phone to her ear, threw a harried glance their way and shrugged.
“Dust mites? Hush now, I’m on hold.”
Tammy collapsed in giggles again, and even Freya couldn’t resist a chuckle.
“A bit bigger than that, Mum. More supernatural,” said Tammy when she’d recovered.
“Oh, probably a kobold, then. You girls will have to be polite, or we’ll all suffer.”
“But aren’t all kobolds short hairy men, Mum?” Freya was curious. They’d only covered kobolds briefly as homework.
Danae covered the phone with her hand for a moment.
“And what species continues to exist if it’s all made up of hairy men? I thought you’d done more biology than that, Freya.”
“I thought they could be like aphids, with virgin births. Look, Mum, no need to go into more details. We don’t get sex ed until next year at school.”
Tammy and Freya exchanged looks - Freya embarrassed, Tammy still barely holding in hysterical laughter. Trust Mum to go straight to unnecessarily gritty detail. Their Mum had always had a bit of a thing about equality in mythology. Usually, it made Freya laugh. Today was no exception. She lost her embarrassment in a gale of giggles. Finally, when Danae appeared ready to throw her phone in exasperation, the sisters settled down.
“Alright, Mum, we’ll be polite. Won’t we, Tammy?”
“Sure, sure.” Tammy’s casual hand wave didn’t bode well for her politeness, but it was the most assurance she was likely to give.
***
