I wasted no time. Right there in the reception hall, I chanted the astro-traveling spell. ZIP! I landed on Mount Parnassus, at the entrance to the oracle of Delphi.

Back then, the sibyl was an immortal being. And only immortals consulted her. Since just about all the immortals were at Epi and Pandora’s wedding, there was no line, so I walked right into the oracle’s cave. I stumbled through the thick yellow smoke, taking care not to step too close to the deep chasm inside the cave. At last I made out the sibyl. She sat perched on a tall three-legged stool balanced at the edge of the chasm. Her eyes were closed.

“Hello?” I whispered, not wanting to startle her. “Sibyl?”

She opened her eyes. They were light blue. She stared at me without any expression on her face. “Speak, pilgrim!” she said in a raspy voice. “What is your question for the oracle?”

“I’m looking for a friend of mine,” I told her.

The sibyl closed her eyes again. “Go on,” she said.

“Prometheus,” I said. “He’s a Titan. A big fellow.”

“I am aware of the size of Titans,” she said.

Oh, great. I’d insulted the sibyl’s intelligence. I hoped she wouldn’t refuse to give me a prophecy.

“I believe Force and Violence have carried him off,” I told the sibyl. “If that’s true, then he is in terrible danger. Can you tell me how I can find him? I want to help him.”

“You want to find him,” said the sibyl.

Now the chasm below the sibyl’s stool belched up a huge cloud of yellow smoke. It was so thick, I lost sight of the sibyl. I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face. Even breathing was a challenge. Just when I thought I might pass out for lack of air, the smoke began to clear.

“Pilgrim!” the sibyl cried through the smoke. “The oracle has spoken to me. Hear what it has to say: ‘To sail over the turquoise sea, a ship needs what you must seek.’”

“Uh-huh,” I said. “Go on.”

“I have spoken, pilgrim,” said the sibyl. “Be gone!”

I hurried through the smoke out of the cave. I took great big gulps of fresh air. Ahhh! When my head cleared, I sat down on a rock and tried to puzzle out they sibyl’s meaning. Was I to get in a ship and sail off to find Prometheus? I said the words over to myself. I asked myself, what does a ship need to sail over a turquoise sea? At once the meaning became clear as . . . the wind.

I chanted the astro-traveling spell again. ZIP! This time I landed on the top of Mount Olympus. I figured a high spot must be a good place to call the wind.

“Zephyr!” I called. “I need the help of the wind! Come to me, please!”

I kept calling, and before too long I felt a puff of warm air hit my face.

“Well, well, well,” said Zephyr. “A god calls on me for help. What else is new? But at least this one knows the magic word. You think Zeus ever says ‘please’? Not in his vocabulary.”

“Zephyr,” I said. “Thanks for coming.”

“Ooooo! Says ‘thank you’ too! Charming!” Zephyr blew circles around me. “Now what can I do for you, King of the Underworld?”

“It’s Prometheus, the Titan,” I said. “He’s missing.”

“Awfully big to go missing,” Zephyr said. “But then the world’s a big place. I ought to know. I blow around most of it.”

“Could you search for Prometheus, Zephyr?” I asked. “As you blow around the world, could you be on the lookout for him? Zeus vowed to punish Prometheus for stealing fire from the gods. I think Zeus’s henchmen, Force and Violence, may have kidnapped him.”

“Those big bald bruisers?” said Zephyr. “No wonder you’re worried. They are bad actors, those two. If I had an eye, I’d keep it open for Prometheus. But we winds have other ways. I’ll tell my brothers to search for him, too. If we find him, I’ll bring you word.”

“I’ll be in the Underworld,” I told the West Wind. “Can you blow down there to find me?”

“Can a duck quack?” she said. “Can a lobster pinch? Of course I can. I’ll find you, Hades, wherever you are.”

“Thank you, Zephyr,” I said.

“Don’t thank me,” said Zephyr, as she blew away. “I might get used to it.”

I didn’t know what else I could do to find Prometheus, so it was ZIP! back to my chariot in the Guytown parking lot. The reception hall was dark now, the wedding long over. I drove back to the Underworld. Charon ferried me across the River Styx. Cerbie was waiting on the far bank to greet me. He hopped into my chariot, and off we galloped for Villa Pluto. It was good to be home.

For a time after that, I had no pressing reason to travel, so I stayed home. Hermes brought the ghosts of dead mortals down to me in his rickety old bus. Every week or so, I met him when he arrived, and he told me the news from earth and Olympus. I always asked if anyone had heard from Prometheus. And he always shook his head. It seemed as if the Titan had vanished from the face of the earth.

One day Hermes brought me wonderful news. Pandora had given birth to triplets! Three baby girls. I asked my Cyclopes uncles to make each baby a silver rattle set with little rubies from my kingdom’s gem caves. I asked Hermes to take them to the little girls.

Time passed. Hermes brought me the news that Pandora and Epi now had a new set of triplets.

“Girls?” I said.

“Girls,” said Hermes.

I sent them silver rattles set with little emeralds.

As the years went by, Pandora and Epi had many sets of triplets. I kept the Cyclopes busy making rattles set with diamonds, sapphires, and every precious stone you can think of. After a while, I lost count of how many girls Epi and Pandora had.

Often I tossed and turned at night with strange, anxious dreams about the Titan. One morning, after a particularly restless night, I decided to go up to earth and look for him myself.

I threw my Helmet of Darkness into the chariot and hitched up Harley and Davidson. I let Cerbie ride with me as far as the bank of the Styx. Then he jumped out and took his place guarding the gates to my kingdom.

I hadn’t been to Guytown in years. I thought it would have changed dramatically. So I was surprised to see that it hadn’t changed at all. In fact, fewer guys were on the streets now than before. And lots of them were old guys. Then it hit me. Prometheus wasn’t around to make any new guys.

As I drove through town to Epi’s house, I saw that the School for Guys was still going. It looked better than the last time I’d seen it. There were curtains in the windows. And the grass and bushes around it were neat and trimmed. The sign above its entry had been changed. Now it read:

SCHOOL FOR GUYS AND GIRLS

I drove until I came to Epi and Pandora’s house. Flowers bloomed everywhere, attesting to Pandora’s green thumb. There were girls playing in the yard—dozens of them. They were digging in the dirt and hanging by their knees from tree branches. Older girls stood at the edge of the yard, talking to guys. Girls were everywhere! As I walked up to the front door, I saw that two big wings had been added onto the house to accommodate all those girls. I knocked at the front door.

Pandora opened it. She held a baby in her arms. When she saw me, her face lit up. “Hades, is it really you?”

Pandora’s hair was still hot pink and wrapped oddly around her head. She looked a bit older now. And she’d put on weight. Either that or she was expecting more triplets. She looked very beautiful. And very happy.

“Epi?” called Pandora. “Can you come see who’s here?”

Epi came in from the rear of the house. He held a baby in each arm. “Hades!” he said. “How great to see you! Come in! Come in!” He led me into their large kitchen. It was clearly the center of their home.

One side of the room had a worn, comfortable looking couch and easy chairs. Several baby girls were crawling around on the floor. And several teenaged girls were looking after them. A clay jar crashed to the floor and broke. When one of the older girls opened a closet to get a broom to sweep it up, a box on a high shelf caught my eye.

“Pandora, is that the box Zeus gave you?” I asked, pointing.

Pandora looked up and seemed half surprised to see it there. “Is it?” she said.

“Yep, that’s the box from Zeus,” said Epi. “We keep meaning to tie a stone to it and sink it in the sea. But we never seem to get around to it.” He shrugged. “When we were first married, Zeus used to show up all the time, trying to coax Pandora to open the box. Do you remember, Pandy?”

“How could I forget?” said Pandora..

“He wore all these crazy disguises,” Epi went on. “Once he said he was a chimney sweep. Another time, a window washer.”

“Didn’t he once pretend to be an exterminator?” asked Pandora.

“Right,” said Epi. He shook his head. “He still comes by sometimes. Last time he was dressed as a plumber. Said he’d come to fix the leak. He was messing around in the kitchen for around an hour before we realized that we didn’t have a leak, and no one had called a plumber.”

Why does he want me to open the box so much, Hades?” asked Pandora.

“I know one reason,” I said. “He made a bet with me. A big bet. If you open the box, Zeus will win the bet, and I’ll have to pay. As you can see, he’ll do anything to win.”

“What do you think is inside the box, Hades?” asked Pandora.

I shrugged. “It’s nothing good, that’s for sure. Keep a lid on it, Pandora. Don’t open it.”

A group of girls ran by, yelling loudly. One touched another girl on the head and cried, “You’re it!” Then they began running the other way.

“Why don’t we sit out on the porch?” said Pandora.

We went back outside. Epi and Pandy sat on the porch swing with their three newest babies. I sat across from them. I could see they were very happy together.

“Did you bring us any news of Prometheus?” asked Pandora.

No, I was hoping you’d heard something.” I shook my head. “I’m going to try to find him, Epi. That’s why I’ve come up to earth.”

Two of the older girls brought us lemonade and cookies. Then the babies fell asleep, and the three of us talked about old times. And about all the things that had happened since we’d last seen each other.

“Do you know that I am a teacher now, Hades?” said Pandora.

“I didn’t know,” I said. “At the School for Guys and Girls?”

Pandora nodded.

“Pandy wasn’t all that thrilled when our older girls started hanging out with the guys,” Epi told me. “And someday our girls will marry guys. So Pandora took action. She opened the school to girls. And she’s added classes for both guys and girls. Classes like ‘Expressing Your Feelings’ and ‘If You Don’t Know Where You’re Going, It’s Okay to Ask for Directions’.”

“Don’t you think the classes will help make the guys better husbands for our girls?” asked Pandora.

And I told her, “Absolutely.”

I felt a gentle breeze blow by. It grew stronger, and stronger and turned into a wind.

“Hades!” said a raspy voice. “I blew all the way down to the Underworld, looking for you. And here you are, on earth.”

“Zephyr!” I exclaimed, jumping up. “Have you found Prometheus?”

“Does a chicken cluck?” said the West Wind. “Does a frog croak? Of course I found him!”